That was nice....

My little man was happy for a semi-vacation.  The conference went well so it was nice to see my two co-workers who I miss dearly.  Funny how it doesn't seem like two years has passed.  You know you have good friends when things just flow like you haven't missed a beat.  I didn't cry too much with my friends.  Only when I saw my one friend on the first day, I burst out into happy tears because it had been two years since I have seen her.  I went from seeing her daily to not seeing her so it's been hard.  She's a great friend because she was real and kept me in check.

It was a much needed relaxing couple of days.  We camped the night before going up north. Originally we were supposed to stay at the camp ground until Sunday but we decided that it was going to be too much.  Plus, it was our first non state park campground and it left much to be desired because when we camp, we want to be away from the masses.  The straw that broke the camels back was when the camp ground had a "petting zoo" where they placed small animals into way too cramped quarters then 200 kids swarming the poor little things.  We looked at each other and asked, "do you want to leave" and we both nodded "hell yes"  so we got the hell out of there.  We will never go to a camp ground like that ever again...never ever...

I have some interesting things happening at work.  Was was verbally given a promotion but who knows if that is going to actually come into fruition.  The other director who is not in charge of me asked if I was interested in a team leader position so that I could help her out by supervising some staff.  We had breakfast with each other a few days earlier and she asked "what do you need here" and I noted "more money" because when I moved down here, I took a little over a 20% pay cut.  I know social workers down here have horrible wages but come on...I've seen the pay scales.  Since I was a grant position and I wanted out of my "transitional job" I jumped at my current position.  I was "supposed" to get a raise in January but I was told after they promised me a raise that "oh, we forgot, grant positions don't get a raise"   I've just had to be patient.  Funny thing is that she heard that I wasn't "interested" in taking a leadership position she heard so needless to say, I'm glad she asked.   Chris and I are on the two year plan down here.  We are giving it until the summer of 2016 to re-evaluate if we should move back to GR.  That will give me some time to see how it flows at work and then see where things stand for him.  He's loving his job.  He's moved over to the right division so he's in heaven.  He's starting school tomorrow at Penn State so things are really lining up to him.  With his recent acquisition of skills, he is really soaring in his current department which is awesome to see.  He loves his job, which is the reason why we came down here in the first place.  I just need to remind myself, two years....if it's not better, we are packing up.  It still was a smart move as we are much better off financially but in the areas of feeling accumulated we are not there.  I swear it feels one day that I will wake up and we will be back home.  There's nothing about here that feels like home.  It's just a place to store our stuff.

I'm wearing my Karen Kane dress from Gwynnie Bee.  It was a really comfy dress.  I have never worn a dress like this before so I paired it with a cardigan for work.  Plus, I wore these earrings from Rocksbox.  They were adorable so I just had to put them on.  Not too shabby :)

Is it better to know or not to know...?

So, is it better to know or not to know behind the scene things?  I had a chance to debrief with a friend and found out that I didn't bomb so horribly, in fact, things were looking super good until the last person came in.  In this instance, there was no competition...she was bound to shine, and that's okay because I've multiple times to shine in my life....and multiple times to bomb :)  Lately, I've been bombing more than shinning but that's kind of where life is at right now.  To find out that I actually did decent was surprising.  Then the other part to this, is knowing that I was this close...this close to something huge. Which in itself does suck to know I was this close...So is life...so is life, right now.

It's been a long week and I'm looking forward to the weekend and next week.  We are spending part of the weekend camping with some friends where we are taking over a Jellystone Park, no lie...there's going to be a massive party (but in a good way).  We were joking with friends that we need the T-shirts that note "2014 Jellystone Take Over".  Then the other part of the weekend is that we are headed off to Traverse City on the company dime.  I have a four day conference next week where I get to be surrounded by greatness.  I get to spend some quality time with some of my closest former co-workers so I'm super excited.  I just have to tell myself "Don't cry Kellie".  It's bad because every time I see someone from Grand Rapids, I just start to cry.  I can't help it but I miss their daily presence in life.  Heck, I'm even crying right now writing this post.  I just have this swirling emotion of missing my friends.  To spend 12 years with people in the trenches, only to move on is kind of hard for me.  I just miss them...and I can't wait to see them.  I just keep on telling myself, I can do this...I can do this...which I can but it's just not fun.

I'm wearing the 3 Dots Dress from Gwynnie Bee.  I am so expanding my tastes right now.  I have to say that this has been one of my favorite dresses ever.  I usually avoid anything with stripes but all I can say is "oh yes!!!"  It's made in the USA and it's super comfy :)

Maybe...?

Chris was at a trial for two weeks so I was a single mom for a bit.  All I have to say is kudos to the single mom's out there because that was hard.  He was home on the weekend but he was doing some major prepping so he was around but technically not available.  Luckily, the trial ended Friday so he is back but whosh!  In the middle of that, I was socked with oncall where I was out from 6pm -  3am in the morning.  All I can say is "I'm getting too old for this"...bouncing back after 3 hours of sleep and putting in a whole day's worth of work is not good.  I'm finally feeling semi-normal again but it throws me for a loop.

Here's me in this cutie.  It's something that I would normally not wear but sometimes it's nice to go outside of my comfort zone.  The day I wore it, I paired it with this killer statement necklace.  Back in the day, I would have stayed away from this dress but the new me is like "bring it on".  I almost bought the dress but it was $45 dollars off of Gwynnie Bee but I'm trying to be good this money and I'm not allowing myself to buy anything...which can be really hard.

Chris is applying time work from the home on Monday.  I'm hoping that he will get it because if he does, we can move back home eventually.  We're done with Kalamazoo.  We've given it two years and it's still doesn't feel like home to us.  Our house is gorgeous but there is no attachment to it.  Luckily, we chose well when we came down because it's looking at this point we would nearly enough money to put down about 60- 75% of what a one income home in Grand Rapids.  Then I could decide what I want to do.  A Costco cashier job is looking pretty good at this point.  I have a couple of options so it would be nice to spend time with the kid before he goes off to school.  Maybe it's a pipe dream but I'm ready to go :)  A house down the road in the older subdivision went in one day so there is no question about our home.  It's pretty unique for the subdivision and we have all the little fancies that someone would want.  I know I'm semi-dreaming but in our case, it's nice to dream :)