Big Changes

Been a little while since I have updated and have lots to share! But in terms of big changes, the biggest is that I have decided to switch jobs. It has been an agonizing decision and definitely one of the hardest that I have ever had to make but at the end of the day, I am excited about the new opportunity and feel like it was the right choice.

I am leaving my job at General Dynamics to join the Booz Allen Hamilton team at their headquarters in McLean, VA. My first project will be to lead their firm-wide implementation of Microsoft CRM and develop a metrics reporting and analysis procedure to track the health and vitality of the firm. After that, I will have a wide range of project and task management opportunities. Ultimately, this was the professional direction that I wanted to go in and Booz is an outstanding company to work for; they are very much in support of flexible schedules, work arrangements, and telecommuting. My decision boiled down to the fact that I didn't want to look back on this a year or two from now and regret not exploring the opportunity. Leaving General Dynamics has been very hard and sad. I have had an extremely supportive and accomodating manager for the last three years and I have made a lot of friends in the last 7 years of working there. Tomorrow is my last day and I am starting with Booz on the 17th.

In conjunction with my new job, Paul and I seriously discussed our day care situation and options. We LOVE LOVE LOVE where the boys go to day care now in a part-time in-home day care environment. Jake has been going there since he was 9 months old and Josh just started there today. However, we had to really think about what made the most sense to us to alleviate any and all stress in our daily routines. The commute to my new job will be a little longer (only about 7 miles further but traffic in that area can get pretty nasty) and I didn't want to have to stress about leaving at 3:30pm or stress sitting in traffic worrying about making it to day care by 5pm to pick them up on time. Also, starting a new job and being involved in a very time-sensitive project made me question working from home for a half day on Mondays. While Booz was willing to accomodate my work arrangements, I felt that it would be more ideal for me to do 8 hours Mon-Fri and not stress about only being able to get a couple hours in on Mondays and do the rest of the work Tues-Fri and didn't want to be caught scrambling for day care on Mondays if an important meeting were to come up. So the bottom line was that it made more sense for us to switch the boys to full-time day care so we at least had 6:30am - 6:30pm Mon-Fri coverage if we need the care. Of course that still gives us the option to not take them and gives me the option to work from home if I want to or if one of the boys is sick. Of course I can't help but feel guilty about taking them to full-time day care (NOT an easy choice for a mom) but I know it is only temporary and I think both boys will thrive there. Jake is at the age where he can start a preschool program and I think that will be very beneficial to him. He will also interact with a lot more kids who are his age which I think will help stimulate his speech and get him going with potty training :-) We decided on the Minnieland Private Day School and their new center which opens on August 24th right up the street from us in Haymarket. We checked out quite a few centers in the area and were really pleased with the way that this day care/ school is run, its cleanliness, their structure and activities, and their playground (I add that in there because Paul will tell you that we picked the day care based on the playground!). It's also very nice that they are able to start at a brand NEW center RIGHT up the street from us. So while I start my new job on the 17th, the boys will be starting at their new day care on the 24th.

Never a dull moment for our family, I know. I guess we can't go very long without something new, exciting, or challenging going on! But we're very much looking forward to the changes and the new opportunities. Now if we could just get Paul a new job.... :-)