SAHM

Today, Hadley turns 6 weeks old - which means if I weren't already on summer vacay, I'd be heading back to work this morning. Thankfully, I am not. Can you imagine? Going back to work after only 42 days with this sweet one! 

Seems almost criminal that mothers are forced to leave their babies at home (or worse... at day care) at such a young age. Sadly, many must make that tough decision and often have no choice in the matter. As a teacher, I would not even be paid during my maternity leave except for the fact that I had planned ahead and saved up enough days (over a period of 5 years) to cover my leave so that I could still receive my full paycheck. Still... it seems that mothers are being penalized for starting their families. You would think Education, of all professions, would be the most family-friendly. Obviously the State of Texas feels otherwise. 

Anyway.... as soon as friends and family members found out that we were pregnant, there were two questions on everyone's mind. 

1.) Boy or Girl?
           and 
2.) Are you going to work next year or stay at home? 

For starters, we are beyond fortunate that my staying at home with Hadley was even an option on the table. I think part of me has always wanted to be a Stay At Home Mom (or SAHM if you're into abbreviations ;). If you had asked me 3 or 4 years ago, it wouldn't have even been up for debate. Quit my job!?!? Woohoo! Where do I sign!? But somewhere along the way... I really started liking my job and I got really good at it. I was even offered a pretty great promotion at the end of this year, making my decision even harder. 

But then this happened.

And her Daddy and I just couldn't bare to leave her with anyone else during her first year. So the decision, although hard to make, was pretty much made for me. I sent my letter of resignation to my Principal and last week I headed to A.C. New Middle School on the last day of school to pack up my room and leave a place where I had many laughter-filled lunches in the teacher's lounge (because if you don't laugh...you might cry), taught hundreds, if not thousands of math lessons, and perfected my "teacher look". 

I'm sure I'll go back some day. But leaving the place where I learned how to be a teacher and where I made so many friendships was extremely bittersweet. I know, however, that even though my class size has dropped down to just one and I'll have far fewer shocking and funny stories to tell Mason at the end of the day, the rewards will be even sweeter. 

Last night, I received the following message in my fortune cookie.

I'm a big believer in fortune cookie messages... If the cookie says it's so then it MUST be true! ;) And though I'll be sad to kiss my paycheck goodbye come September (farewell, NorthPark mall...) I'm beyond excited to be on this adventure with the cutest little girl I know and even prouder to change my job title from "Mrs. Guinn" to "Mommy".  

 Schooool's out for summer! Schooooool's out FOREVER! :)