Happy Friday!

It's the last day of March, and it's been a busy month! It's been my first full month of being self employed, and I managed to work just as much as I had hoped I would. I've started submitting my scrapbooking work for contests/publications. I'm on track with my weight loss, and it's 70 degrees outside today!

Today I submitted my application for the 3 Bugs in a Rug Design Team. I just love their paper, Cabana is just perfect for scrapping my son Perrin. I need to break out all his Hawaiian shirts for the summer, he is so darn cute when he wears them.

The Handel Challenge

I've decided what I want to do for Nikki's challenge . I have the unique opportunity to create and organize my own craft/scrap/office area. We are finishing our attic into a beautiful living space, and I will have a lot of room. I will spend 25 days planning what I will do with this space, selecting items for storage and decoration, and have a complete picture in mind when the room is ready, so as I move my items up there, they will go right into their proper places. I am not a very good planner, so this will be a great exercise for me, and in the end I will have a great space to do my creating, both crafty creating and engineering creating. I'll start my challenge on April 1, which is this Saturday.

Construction wise, we have abou 1/3 of the flooring installed. Once that is done, the trim can go up, and I think we will be complete enough to start moving things up there. I can't wait to put all our stuff back in the storage area up there. The contents of our attic have been in our bedroom and office for the last 8 months or so. The construction is slow going because we're doing all the work ourselves, but we're saving a ton of money and the space is GORGEOUS!

I'm down, he's up.

• 1.2 lb weight loss this week, for a total of 15.4 lb! And to think I ate three pieces of cake in the last three days. Or was it 4 pieces? It was good cake (funfetti, from Hayden's baptism).
• Hayden had his 4 month appointment today, he's up to 16 lb 4 oz! Poor guy had three shots in his legs though, wasn't happy. We decided to go shopping afterwards for some retail therapy.
  
• My pledge to not buy any more scrapbooking stuff for a while was broken again. Maybe if I put it in print....I WILL NOT BUY ANY MORE SCRAPBOOKING STUFF UNTIL I GET MY FIRST NEW PAYCHECK!
• Working from home is logistically difficult. I need to seperate my work material and my craft material. It's all on the same desk right now, and one distracts me from the other.
• I haven't been working as many hours as I'd like. Must really put the nose to the grindstone this week, if I want to make money.
  

Wicked Awesome

Congrats to the three wicked awesome ladies who were selected for the Scrapbooker Online Design Team. It's really cool that the three who were picked were established Sistas! Congrats to Amy Workman, Kristy Huddle and Janet Covington!

If you haven't noticed lately, I am Wicked Awesome too. It took me a long time to realize that.
I took Julie-Ann's suggestion and submitted this to the International Scrap Yourself Challenge. What a great idea, most of us scrappers are usually focusing on others, and not ourselves.

Fingers crossed

Today is the day for the Design Team announcement at SBO! I am really happy with my entry, it can be seen here. There are so many talented people that I know entered, and I know the team will be benefited by whoever is chosen. I just love all the sistas there! It's my online sorority. :D

What can I do in 25 days?

My friend Nikki has proposed an interesting challenge. Handel composed The Messiah in 25 days. What can I do in 25 days? She is recording her own challenge here, where we can all follow along. I am thinking of potential challenges for myself, but I'm having trouble deciding whether do to a material challenge or a personal one. A material challenge would be something like organizing all of the photos in my house, or designing and implimenting my new craft space in the attic. A personal challenge would be something like becoming more active, or working on my relationships. Maybe I'll pick one of each if I'm feeling ambitious.

Random Stuff for 21 March 2006

• Today is my little sister Emily's birthday. She's 23......dang that makes me seem old. But I don't feel old, so BLEAH to all of the people that think that age is a number and not a feeling.
• Yesterday was the first day of spring, why is it so #@^&%%$ cold?
• Yesterday I submitted my first scrapbooking layout to a magazine publication call. I love the layout, but I'm pretty sure the quality isn't up to snuff for publication.
• I can't wait for our attic to be done so I can organize my office properly. My desk is a mix of engineering notes, scrapbooking stuff, photos, bills and potty training reward trackers.

I'll add more later as I think of things.....it is only 9AM anyways....

Sunday Journaling 3/12/06

A journaling prompt from Nikki

Talk about your first job. What did you do? How much money did you get paid?

I was 14 when I got my first job. It was my freshman year of high school, and after earning a varsity letter in soccer that fall, I wanted to get a letter jacket. I don't remember how much they cost (wool jacket with custom embroidery), but they were fairly expensive, and my parents didn't have the money to spend on that.

There aren't a whole lot of job opportunities for a 14 year old. So, I went with what I knew. I had been taking ceramics classes at the local girls club for several years, and I asked the instructor if I could work there, helping out with the classes for the younger kids. She agreed, and I started with the next session of classes.

My job was basically setup and cleanup for each class. I would cut out cubes of clay using a wire, slicing out slabs then dividing them up. I'd put scrap clay in the scrap bucket at the end of the class, making sure there was enough water in the bucket to keep the clay moist. I'd also tent up in plastic any thrown items, so that they'd still be a bit moist the following week, so the students could trim the base on the wheel and give their bowls a foot.

The best part about these classes was near the end, when everyone got to glaze their pieces. I always loved seeing the glazes transform from milky coatings to deep shiny colors after firing. I still have several of my own pieces around, although I haven't thrown any pieces since about that time.

I don't remember how much money I made. It wasn't much, but I did earn enough to buy my own letter jacket. I took great care of it, it was the most expensive thing I had ever bought with my own money. In fact, it's still hanging in my closet.

Note to self...

If I am to go into Michael's to buy one thing, I am to bring cash for said item only, and leave all other forms of currency payment in the car. Sheesh, $10 in adhesives and $40 in other goodies.

My business is officially open for business. Federal ID #, registered with the state, bank account established. Bought QuickBooks last week and set things up. Tracking my working time so I can properly invoice. Now just need to find time between potty training, train playing and food making to actually work.

Movin' on up....

I am no longer Sue Kristoff, Project Engineer, I am now Sue Kristoff, President and Operating Manager of The Kristoff Group LLC, an engineering consulting firm. And I've got the paper work to prove it!

Of course, I'm also cook, maid, dishwasher, laundress, accountant, activity director and lots of other titles to two adorable little bosses.

Now, I REALLY need to clean off my desk. Currently it's a mix of business materials, scrapbooking materials, fitness books, crayons, artwork from a resident 2.5 year old and potty training charts and prizes.

A little pain in a little spot

This is one of the reasons I am happy not to be working full time any more.

Today I had to go into a client meeting. I had to bring the kids to my mom's house. I forgot to bring the swing so that the baby would have some place to sit and watch the kids. I forgot to bring a baby bottle for the milk. Luckily my mom had some ones left over from my nephew. I find out that the client meeting is starting two hours earlier than I expected (luckily I had gone in early because I wanted to work on another project). We had a meeting with our client for several hours, then I sit around waiting for people to give me parts of the proposal I'm working on. I then drive back to my mom's, pick up the kids, and drive home. If I had to do that every day, I'd go insane.

I now have a pain in my back, above my left shoulderblade. I almost forgot about it, I used to get it all the time. I hadn't had it once since I was home on maternity leave. As my stress worsens, the pain extends upward. If it gets bad, it goes into my neck. If it gets to my head, things are really bad, and I need to disengage from whatever I'm doing. So, it's just in my shoulder blade, which is good. It's bad because it hurts, but it's good because it's not expanding. I don't have to go anywhere tomorrow, so I'll just relax and hang out with my boys.

Working hard or hardly working?

Today is my first day of gainful self employment. Although technically it was yesterday, because I did 2.5 hours of work to finish up a presentation draft. Such is the life of the independent contractor.

I'm in the process of setting up my own company. I am using a third party company to facilitate the setup process, and my paperwork is being processed by the state right now. Within the next week or so, I should be an official business owner!

I need to start referring to my ex-boss and company as my "client". It's weird, since I was an employee there for ten years. They are letting me keep my laptop for the time being (i.e. indefinitely borrow), since it has all of my files, etc. That is nice, one business expense I can put off until a later date. I am going to pick up a copy of QuickBooks to keep track of everything, print invoices, quotes, etc.

Holding my breath and jumping feet first

I am making a HUGE change in my life. For the last ten years, I've been working full time as a mechanical engineer. I now have two small children, and the toll of working full time, commuting, and being too exhausted to spend quality time with my children was too much.

Last week, I submitted my resignation to my boss.

This week, I am in the process of starting my own engineering consulting company. My goal is to have about 16 hours of work per week. My boss from my current job is willing to contract me work for about that amount, and I already have a project lined up. My first official day of being self-employed is Monday February 27th.

I'm not very good at accepting change, and this was a tough, but I believe worthwhile decision. I will now be able to be home raising my kids, but still have some technical work in my life.

Self portrait

I have no good pictures of me. I'm usually the one taking pictures, so there are very few pictures of me as there is. I'm going to work on creating a self portrait, a picture that I'd be happy to share, and not be all embarrased about how my hair looks, etc.

What does heaven mean to you?

From 52 Figments for 2/5/06

This is a tough question for me. I've always had issues with my spirituality, and I don't have a firm vision of heaven. When I was little I didn't believe in god, or any other religious dogma. I do believe in something now, but I'm sure it's not the mainstream belief. Heaven could be a place or a state of mind. The Buddhists consider achieving Nirvana to be a form of heaven. I watched that Barbara Walters special a while back on heaven, and that really didn't help my thinking either. Some people have such a rigid idea of what religion and heaven is, and that bothers me.

Heaven is a state of perpetual bliss, I don't know if it's a mental place or a physical place.

Money is no object and your safety is guaranteed....Where do you want to go?

From 52 Figments...

I'd like to go on a grand historical tour of the Mediterranean. I'd love to visit Egypt and sail down the Nile River, see ancient sites in Turkey, Greece, Italy, the Middle East, etc. These are the places that our civilization came from, and I am facinated by these sights. I've always had an interest in religious historical places, although I'm not particularly religious myself.

Another part of me would like to build an ocean front home in Kauai, Hawaii, and live in paradise.

2006 - The Year of the Change

I've made an agreement with myself to make some changes in my life this year. Most of the changes have to do with having "too much" in my life, usually bad things, like stress and clutter. The biggest change for this year is that I am leaving my job as a mechanical engineer to be a stay-at-home mom. I am hoping to continue doing some consulting work for my company on a limited basis to retain some income and keep my skills up, but the most important thing for me is to be home raising my kids.

I was spending up to 3 hours a day in my car. I realized that I was spending more time in the car with my son than I was spending time at home with him during the week. With the birth of my second boy, I knew things had to change, or I would be horribly stressed out just trying to get out of the house in the morning, never mind trying to get a full day of work in.

Here's a short list of the changes that I intend to work on this year:

Spend more time raising my children
Reduce work stress in my life
Pare down the clutter in my life
Be more creative

This blog is where I'll document my experiences, progress and results.