Early Retirement

Well, tomorrow is a very big day.  My last day with Oracle, and the beginning of my stay-at-home adventure with two of the cutest girls that ever walked this earth.  I am so excited to have this opportunity, and I've been looking forward to it for a while.  It honestly feels a bit frivolous to be giving up my salary in order to play more with my babies, but I also know I would regret it with my whole heart if I didn't do it.

Growing up, being a stay-at-home-mom was not on my list of things to do.  I didn't think I'd like it one bit.  When I had Lyla all that changed, and I have a distinct memory from right after I had her.  We were still in our pajamas and I was just staring at her, and I thought I could do this.  I could do only this every day and be happy forever.  It's hard to believe that it's been almost exactly four years since that moment, but in those four years our family has worked hard to get where we are.  We've made goals and decisions carefully, and I'm so grateful that we've been able to get to this place.

As with every chapter that closes in my life, the decision is bittersweet.  As this day has approached I've had flashbacks to every part of my working life.  I've basically worked since I was 12 years old - from babysitting to life-guarding to retail to banking.  I've been involved with Oracle in one way or another since 2006.  An entire decade.  That blows my mind a little bit.  I look back at my career and I can't help but feel that I was so fortunate all along the way.  I encountered some very amazing people and had even more amazing leadership (mostly :).  I was given freedom and room to grow and opportunities that I probably didn't even deserve.  I got to travel to insanely beautiful locations and attend the funnest events, and when the babies came I was given the chance to slow down and be home more.  I had the most wonderful coworkers and it's hard to believe this entire group of people that were part of my daily existence will not be any longer.

Mostly I have so much appreciation for my husband that is so willing and honored to work hard for our family, to support all of us on his own.  He's put up with countless tears from me - sad tears that our babies are growing too fast and I can't make it slow down.  Angry tears when I have work calling and babies screaming and no one to help.  And every other kind of tear in between.  He's so supportive of this decision and I couldn't love him more for it.

I'm so very excited to grasp onto these extra hours of my babies' lives.  I'm not naive enough to think the transition will be easy, but I can't say I'm dreading all those princess dress-up, nail painting tea parties in my near future.  ;)

- K

Here's how I imagine my days will surely look from here on out...  :)

there's bound to be plenty of helping out around the house ;)

and feeding the dog entire boxes of bones

dressing up might happen occasionally

and just as many snuggles as I can fit in

and as many snuggles as Kev can fit in

the house will always be perfectly tidy

i definitely won't be doing anything completely stupid just for a hearty sis laugh

there will be plenty of hugging it out

and silly little girl stories

and probably too much fabulous for anyone to handle

not to mention plenty of "moo boots"

I'm sure we'll be doing plenty of this

and probably very little of this ;)