Huntsville vs. Nashville = The Same Thing

Well, we've moved! We're now in our new apartment, and our beautiful townhouse is empty and ready for new residents.

The weeks leading up to the actual move weren't too stressful, in hindsight, mostly because we kept listening to each other's nonsense that there wasn't as much to pack as it looked and it wouldn't take much time, so we didn't do nearly enough packing.

The two weekends of moving were nightmares: stressful and hectic. But we got everything here. (Actually, that's not entirely true. There's a hanging storage rack, a workbench, scrap wood, and cans of paint in the townhouse garage. The cans of paint we were planning on leaving behind (they go with the house), but the other stuff we had hoped to get rid off.)

Then we had a few short days to try to unpack. They weren't quite as comfortable as those pre-moving weeks, nor as stressful as the actual move itself. We got things accomplished, but, of course, not nearly as much as would have been nice.

Now C has started work and it's just Z and me here. We're in a different place, our stuff is all in boxes (and therefore impossible to find), but it's the same as it was before all this "adventure": we're bored to tears, stuck in the houseapartment with nowhere to go, and I hate making lunch. Sure, I get work done. I've organized our bathroom and the laundry room, the kitchen's coming along, we can eat at the table and sit on the couch, and most of C's clothes are unpacked, but I don't look forward to doing that stuff. I don't wake up and think "Yay! Another day of figuring out where to stick all the stuff that was previously neatly hidden away in closets!" Have I mentioned that this apartment doesn't have enough closets? It's only 200 square feet smaller than our townhouse, and it was all closet space.

This post is sounding really negative. I don't mean it to be. I'm trying to set up what I really wanted to blog about. The point is that although I LOVE being home with Z, I don't really like being home. I'm tired of not having anywhere to go. There's a little playground near the mailboxes that we've visited a couple times, but it's been raining and the ground is soaked, so that was out today, along with even walking to the mailbox. C's work is really close, so I could drop him off on some days and get the car, but then the question is, where would we GO? I need to join a Meetup group and get involved with MOPS again. But even with those activities, it'll be just like it was in Nashville, and I wasn't entirely happy. Not that being happy is everything! I realize that. But maybe I need to shake things up... Another thing that's been in the back of my mind stems from a post I read on The Happiest Mom.

Have I mentioned my RSS reader before? I'm sure I have. It's how I keep up with all the blogs I read. I think I have around 20 now. They get downloaded to my phone and I read them when I have a moment to myself. I don't have to turn the computer on, and I can even read them when I'm out and about with Z. One of the blogs I read is The Happiest Mom. A recent post was titled "the type of mom you thought you were -vs- the type of mom you are" In the post, the author talks about discovering that she was happier as a mom when she had a job. I recommend you read the post, because it was an excellent post (as they all are) and it will help explain where I'm coming from with this post.

I sent an email this morning to just about every person in my address book with our new mailing address. One of the replies I got was from SR who is an AuPair Director (AD). She said they're looking for an AD in my area, and would I be interested? I know she's at home with her kids, which means it's a compatible position, so I told her I was interested and then asked about 5 million questions about it. I don't know if she's replied yet because my Blogger login is a different Google account than my gmail login because Good Grief you don't want to know! So after I post this, I'll log back into gmail and see what she's sent me.

But am I crazy for even thinking about it? We've just moved to a brand new area, don't know anyone here. We're still living out of boxes (and will be for the next month at the rate we're going) and have a baby due in November. How can I think of taking on the responsibilities of a JOB???

We (C and I) have learned that I'm not very good at the "self-employed" thing. I've always said that I work best under pressure. What that means is that I'm a procrastinator. I don't get things done until someone else is breathing down my neck. Occasionally that someone else is me, but only rarely (like when company's coming and I finally vacuum the cobwebs in the corners, or we're moving and I finally scrub the paint drips out of the bathroom sink). That's why I thrived at Kroll (where I worked full time for about a year and part time for another year) and floundered with Flair (the home business C and I tried to make a go of; the reason I was part time at Kroll).

So, what I want is something to look forward to doing, that I can do from home, around nap schedules (mine included!), yet has some structure, someone to report to, someone looking over my shoulder once in a while. Cutco didn't work for me, but maybe this AuPairCare opportunity will. I don't know. I'm intrigued. I want to do something. I'd love to bring in just a little extra income and relieve some pressure on the budget. I just hope I'm not getting ahead of myself and biting off more than I can chew. Well, all I've done at this point is ask for more information. We'll see what SR says, I'll talk to C, I'll probably talk to my mom about it too. But I tell ya, I'm excited at the prospect!