It's amazing what all can happen over a couple of days...

Jacob turned 18 months old yesterday. Where's my baby going?? I told Michael that Jacob's halfway to 3. What's even more of a sad thought is that Travis is halfway to 7!!!!!!! When I told Michael that last night on our way home from eating at Seafood Junction in Byhalia (you have GOT to try that place....totally awesome!), he said "We're losing him!!!!"

My Dad's retirement ceremony is today. I need to pack tissues in my purse. I talked to my Dad on the phone yesterday, getting details about when and where, and he was telling me that this is supposedly the first retirement ceremony they've ever done "this way", whatever that means, and that there will be some sort of "surprise". Anyway, it's this afternoon at 3 p.m., and I'm supposed to follow my Mom out there and meet her at her house at 2. It'll be interesting to see if my grandparents that disowned me will be there. I'll be shocked if they're there, because usually if they find out I'm going to be there, they won't come.

In other news, I have a job interview on Monday. Now before everyone freaks out, gasps for air, starts hounding me with "what kind of mother are you?" questions, it's a PART-TIME job. It's working for an attorney, downtown, in the same building I used to work in. I talked to him on the phone Thursday, and he said it'd more than likely be in the afternoons, half days, and he probably won't need me every day. He said he's extremely flexible and laid back. If there's ever a time I need to sneak out early because of the kids, or they're sick, or doctor visits or whatever, he said he's cool with that. I don't know any details yet about how much the pay per hour will be. I just know that it has to be enough so I can pay a sitter, have plenty of extra gas money, and still have a substantial amount of money left over. Now for the "who will watch the kids" part, I have a dear friend, Angie, who is currently babysitting one little boy and she has 2 young kids of her own. She lives basically right up the road from me, and on the way to work (assuming I even get the job), and Travis LOVES playing with her son (they are about 2 months apart in age). We've been to her house plenty, they've been here, and she said she knows I have very well-behaved kids, and I told her that I know that she and I both have the same standards in raising our kids and disciplining them, that sort of thing. She said for both kids, she'd charge me $22/day, which adds up to $110/week if I work every day. And truthfully, that's probably the cheapest I'd find anywhere PLUS I love Angie to death and I trust her. The only thing I'm nervous about is leaving Jacob. He's only stayed with me or other family members, and of course the church nursery, which he's been staying there all his life, so he's grown accustomed to it. I'm just nervous about how he'll do at someone else's house once he realizes I'm not coming back to get him for a few hours. The other thing that concerns me is if I'm going to be working the afternoons, it's going to feel like I'm spending my mornings at home getting ready to go to work, making sure the kids have their lunch, dropping them off, and driving to work. I almost wish that he'd either say A) I could work the mornings instead, or B) Let me do a lot of the work at home. If I work mornings, I don't mind getting up at 6 a.m. to get ready, drop off the kids at 7:30 a.m., be at work by 8, work 'til Noon, then have the rest of the day off to play with my kids and have time to tidy up the house and make supper when Michael gets home. If I work in the afternoons, not only will I spend the first half of the day getting everyone ready to go and fed, I'll have to hope I can beat the rush hour traffic home, pick up the kids, and then not even feel like making dinner and the house will be upside down from trying to get ready to go in the mornings. And that'd be practically like working a full-time job for part-time pay and I'll be going against all the things I want to be as a stay-at-home mom. BUT I'm going to go Monday to the interview to find out all the details, and if it doesn't work for me, well I don't NEED the job and I'll let him know up front that I've got to put my family FIRST. It'd be nice to have the extra money to get some bills paid down, but we aren't going to starve or go homeless if I don't take the job. We shall see come Monday.

We rented "Stepford Wives" last night. It was hilarious/depressing/true all at the same time. It's basically about this family that moves to Stepford, Connecticut...they are getting away from the city for a "change" after Joanna is fired from her job running a major television network and has a mental breakdown. Well, Joanna (played by Nicole Kidman), almost immediately figures out something isn't right with the women in this town. They are all ROBOTS, programmed by the men, to be perfect. So she spends the whole movie trying to resist being transformed, and she thinks the whole town is just crazy. She finally gets to the bottom of everything at the end of the movie, but I won't tell you how it ends. Parts of the movie are kinda corny, but it's still one you need to rent. It kind of makes you think about how far women have come since like the 1950's. Oh yeah, and Faith Hill made a great robot wife, lol.

Well I'm outta here for now! Have a great rest of the weekend! :-)