Wednesday, August 31, 2011

What's in the Queue

I always feel that there is a lot to do.  Maybe it's just my nature to always have a lot of projects queued up in my mind, or maybe reality is that being a mother, new homeowner and professional adds up to a lot to do.  Join me on this journey as I work through my never ending project queue.  Here are just a few examples of what's in the queue:

Discovering Des Moines

After nearly 11 years on the west coast my family recently relocated  (hopefully for the last time) to Des Moines, Iowa.  My husband and I are originally from mid-Missouri, so we're thrilled to be within driving distance of our families.  Even though we feel like we've come back home by returning to the midwest, Des Moines is completely new to us, so we're looking forward to getting to know and love our new city.

Completing our New House

All those years on the west coast were in high-priced housing markets on graduate student/postdoc salaries, so after years of paying exorbitant rent, we're finally home owners!   When we found we were moving to Iowa, we flew out for a few days of house hunting and immediately bought this lovely 1915 house near downtown Des Moines. We chose the house for it's location, style and it's great condition.  The previous owners had done fantastic work sprucing the place up, but I quickly realized there are a million little projects to do before we'll  really make the house our own. 



Finding a job

Our relocation to Des Moines was due to my husband finding an academic faculty position after 10 years of grad school and a post doc.  However, moving put my career in limbo.  While my husband was working on his PhD in Oregon, I got a Master's in Library Science and started working in libraries.  Our move to California for his post-doc resulted in me being recruited by a grad school classmate to work at a library software company as a training and documentation coordinator.  To my surprise, I loved my job and after almost six years with the company, I'm very sad to leave it. The outlook for library jobs in the Des Moines area is bleak, so for the moment, I'm piecing together work by consulting at my former company and possibly doing some adjunct teaching in the area, but ultimately, I would like to find a permanent position as a librarian and/or instructor.


Raising my boys

Now for my favorite project -- raising my boys!  I have two adorable and sweet (and sometimes crazy and frustrating) little boys.  Henry is almost 4 years old and George is almost 6 months old. I thought I knew everything about parenting and kids until I became a parent.  Then I learned that parenting is a skill that is always in development and that no parent is perfect.  The books can't tell you how to raise your child, so you just have to trust yourself and do the best you can.  I just hope this project is also my most successful.

So that's me and everything I have in my queue at the moment.  I'm looking forward to sharing my progress.