Zach and Swimming

Z is now a Sea Lion in his swim class. It's amazing to see how quickly a kid can go from not wanting to get his face wet to really being able to swim!

So here's his pic:

EVO Swim School is pleased to announce that Zachery Raehl, age 4, has graduated from the Seal class level. He is now considered a proficient back yard swimmer with the ability to swim three widths of our pool (30 yards total) with a strong kick and great breath control. Zachery can also jump from the side, get a breath on his back, and return to the side of the pool as a habit of safety. He will be moving to the Sea Lion class to receive an introduction to the freestyle stroke with an emphasis placed on “big arms”. On behalf of Zachery’s instructor, Jennifer, and the entire EVO Swim School staff, we say…CONGRATULATIONS Zachery!

Furloughed

So I’ve been furloughed. In an attempt to expand your recession vocabulary, I’ll just tell you that means I have forced time off without pay. For the next twenty weeks, I will take one day off every two weeks. That’s equivalent to a 10% cut in pay.

It’s kind of interesting to me how ok I am with it. I mean, really deep down, I’m panicking and if I get to thinking about the possibilities of what might happen next, I can get myself pretty worked up. But altogether, I think I’m a lot better with dealing with things in my professional life than in my personal life. I think it’s because I never had any expectations about having a career so nothing that happens is really, well, hurting my expectations. What happens, happens. I know it’s not personal, it’s business. It’s scary because it still affects me personally but I know it’s not because I like to have blue hair or eat string cheese for snacks. It’s just the most efficient way to run things right now. And it helps that every other employee that works for ASU is facing the same thing.

Anyway. All that aside, I’m nervous to admit it but I’m kinda looking forward to my furlough days. I have long thought about trying to find ways to cut my hours to get more time in with my sweet baby boy and now I am. It’s still going to be a challenge to fit 10 days worth of work into 9 and I may start working extra at home and stuff… but I’m looking forward to my every other Monday when we’ll be going to the zoo or hanging out with friends/family, checking out the Life Sciences Bldg at ASU that has the snakes in cages all over the first floor… and anything else that we can find to do (that’s free/nearly free of course!!)

I get to experience a little bit extra of being a stay at home mom. I’m really excited! We’ve had to make cuts in our budget and we’re not eating out as much or splurging on other things. But I really think this is going to be fun!! So yea for furloughs.

(as a side note – we still gotta vote those peeps out of state government that have no understanding of economics. Cuts = shrinking economy. Seriously.)

Oh and as soon as I stop being lazy, I'll post these great pics of Z in his Cardinals t-shirt. He's so fun! Too bad the Cards lost. Oh well it was an awesome game!!!!