A New Chapter

I officially resigned from Select Comfort a couple of weeks ago and have been taking it easy for a few days. Tomorrow I start a new chapter in my career. I am now a consultant with SafeNet Consulting and  my first client is Best Buy...Funny how I've come full circle and will be back there again.

I'm excited for this opportunity, albeit a little nervous. My employment is dependent on clients and projects that come my way. Not having something "permanent" is a little unnerving, but this could be really great! It provides me with more flexibility and variety in my work. Working with SafeNet makes the transition easier than becoming an independent consultant. I have a team behind me looking for jobs that are perfect for me and I don't have to worry about benefit coverage either.

The only downside so far is that I wasn't able to take more time off between jobs. My time off has flown by so quickly. I'm already looking forward to having next Thu-Fri off for Thanksgiving! While I don't think I could ever stay home full-time, I do think part-time would be nice...Does anyone know of a part-time gig that would pay a full-time salary?! Mark took last Friday off and we were able to join Keira for lunch at school and then we went and saw Skyfall. It was a wonderful day off...

Fabulous Fall!

Here we are in the month of October. Keira is an old  pro in Kindergarten now. I took a day off from work today to get things done around the house. I was fortunate enough to squeeze in lunch with Keira at school. She was so excited to have me join her and her friends. It was really cute and I'm happy to report that school lunch wasn't as bad as I was expecting. I was very pleased to find that in addition to the cheese pizza, the kids had to choose from fresh baby carrots, fresh-cut apple and whole bananas. It's an improvement to the hot lunches I remember from my youth.

Below are a couple of photos from Keira's time at school. Her teacher is awesome. She often posts photos on a website for parents to view. She takes video of the kids learning in the classroom. It's great to see what the students are up to. 

Keira's 1st field trip was to a local apple orchard

Keira's and some of her friends

Mark and I have been staying busy this fall. We were invited to THREE weddings over the course of a month. All three of them were Friday weddings too. Unfortunately we had to decline one wedding because it was in Brainerd and we couldn't find anyone to watch Keira for the weekend. We did get to the other two and they were fantastic. The following photo was taken at the most recent wedding and was held at the Millenium Hotel. The ceremony was held in the "dome" where this photo was taken. Imagine an entire ceiling shaped like a dome and made of all glass. That was this room. It was beautiful. You could see the entire city spread out before us. It was beautiful. 

The hubby and me

Other than weddings, we've been busy with work, juggling Keira's activities, keeping up with life, etc. We're having fun, but we're also looking forward to finding a weekend to slow down and do nothing. That doesn't happen very often for us these days. But, we can't complain. Life is pretty darn good.

School's Definitely In

After just 2+ weeks of school Keira is an old pro. I'm so pleased to report that she is a happy, well-adjusted kindergartener. She's making new friends, learning new things, having fun, etc. It's great knowing she's going to have a wonderful day every time we drop her off and to have that validated when we pick her up.

Keira is fortunate to be in Ms. Franzen's class AND be able to join Ms. Bauer's class for math and reading as a joint teaching effort. She sees it as an opportunity to meet that many more friends.

Ms. Franzen and Ms. Bauer's classes combined

Keira's classmates in Ms. Franzen's class

We continue to struggle with breakfast, lunch and snacks...Keira has a very limited palate, so I've had to become comfortable with letting her eat the same things over and over again. While I occasionally get the reprieve from packing lunches when she agrees to eat school lunch, on the whole, it's kind of a pain to figure out what to pack for her day after day. So, for any of my blog readers out there, let me know what suggestions you have. Or, feel free to tell me it's okay to let her eat the same stuff all the time. For now, I'm just going with that to make things easier - for Mark and me, anyway.

Since the start of school our household has really had to buckle down and stick to a new routine. It's tough! With my 1+ hour commute from work each way and Mark's long days a work, it's a constant circus juggling our schedules, but we're slowly finding our rhythm. The good news is that when Keira goes to bed, it doesn't take long for her to completely pass out and fall asleep leaving her energized and ready for another start to the school day!