Welcome to my new blog!

Okay, after posting a 5 paragraph response to Kim's blog last night that actually ended up being about what was going on in our household, I finally decided to get off my lazy backside and start an actual blog myself. Cherylle's probably actually better at telling these stories than I am (God knows she has a better memory!) but she's usually too busy playing Word Twist and Blocky on Facebook to write anything so I guess it's up to me :-)

Anyway, after some minor personal drama with my work situation, starting with getting laid off two months ago, which came as a complete surprise considering they'd just given me a 25% raise on my base salary, I've finally been hired as the new Master Electrician for the Theater program at CalArts. For those of you who don't know what any of that means, a master electrician is the person who takes a light plot (sort of a blueprint for lighting) from a designer and turns in into reality in the theater. CalArts (also known as California Institute for the Arts) is a world renowned training college for people who want to be professionals in all disciplines of the arts. It was actually founded by Walt Disney, who wanted a place where artists would train artists, which is still the way it's run today. If you check the bios of many of the faculty, they either are or have been major players in the professional world. The theater lighting design program, with whom I will be working, is headed by Don Holder, the Tony award winning lighting designer of The Lion King on Broadway, among many other amazing credits!

Along with this big change, Evan, who is now 5, starts Kindergarten next Wednesday! He'll be going to Newhall Elementary for Kindergarten, then getting picked up by Sunshine Day Care for their afterschool program. We really wanted him to not have to deal with transportation at this age, but unfortunately Newhall Elementary does not have any after school care onsite, and we already missed the date for "open enrollment" when we could have applied to transfer him to Valencia Valley Elementary, where the Sunshine site is located. The one good thing is that he'll get to meet back up with one of his friends from Pre-K, Ryan, who will be going both to Valencia Valley for Kindergarten, and to Sunshine onsite for after school care as well.

Caitlin, however, we're not quite sure what to do with yet. We're really happy with the care at her current daycare, at least in the baby room. The two teachers in there, Miss Victoria and Miss Jennean, balance each other really well. Miss Victoria is more the loving grandmother type, and Miss Jennean is the strict one, and between the two of them they're perfect! Caitlin's really done well there, getting bigger and more adventurous, and the low windowsill they have on the windows that look out onto the playground have been exactly the right height for her to practice pulling herself up with, which she's now gotten very good at! We also love the fact that at a child care center like this, they keep track of all her "vital stats" throughout the day and give us a "report card" at the end of the day so we can see how she did. They track naps, meal/snacktimes, and diaper changes, all of which really help us know at home what is really going on with her.

The problems here are twofold, tho. While the $250 a week (yep, a week!) that we pay there is in line with most of the other large child care centers, it's still a whole lot of money. The home day care where Caitlin was before was only $150 a week, although there was no report card and she spent most of the day in a bouncy chair so she wouldn't get run over by all the older kids in the house. I just don't know how to justify that, but I know that saving $400 a month roughly would be really useful now with my new, lower paying job! Eesh...

The other problem is continuity. We would really like to be able to have the kids go to a place that they can grow up in, not moving them around all the time. On the other hand, Evan went to Caitlin's day care center for summer camp this summer, and we were really unhappy with the organization and supervision of the older kids. I know this was a summer camp, which is traditionally run looser, but it was at a major day care center, and where we had been considering sending him to Kindergarten. Honestly, there's no way I'd put my 5 year old in with that group for school - he spends as much time with them as he does with us, and I want the influences on him to be much better behaved! Plus, we've been getting to know some of the other parents at this school, including the parents of some little ones who have moved out of the baby room and into the toddler room, and they're not happy with their new situations either. We've heard stories of kids coming home filthy and obviously not cleaned up over the course of the day, of teachers yelling at the kids, etc... Eesh again! Obviously Caitlin won't be attending past the baby room, which means we have 6 months at most to make a decision about that...

Anyway, I wanna end this on a more positive note, so I'm just gonna out myself as an 80's hair metal fan, and tell you how much I freakin' love Whitesnake. While I was browsing Facebook and attempting to set up this blog site earlier, Fool For Your Loving came on my iTunes library and I just had to sit back and crank the tunes and fade out for a while... man, that was cool!