the new normal

Hi everyone.

So I've finally started my new job, and I think it's going to be good. I have had nothing but positive interactions with the people there, and although the actual tasks that I'll be doing aren't that exciting, I think it'll be the kind of thing that is a bit of challenge but also have an opportunity to show that I can do it well. Best of all: I'm free from Tom!! I'm still simmering down - it makes me so angry to think about him - but there's nothing to do now except be happy I escaped. You might be interested to know that his action of adding the responsibility for another production line to my job actually violated federal law. FMLA says you can't significantly change a person's job while she's on medical leave, and that's exactly what he did. He only got away with it because I am not still in that job (I guess the law only protects you if you can't escape by other means, which I did), but if I had wanted to come back to that job full-time I could be suing Deere now. Interesting, huh??

Emily is doing pretty well with daycare. She's a little crankier for a while after she comes home, but she isn't totally stressed or unmanageable, either here or at daycare. She's eating my pre-pumped meals from a bottle just fine, and starting to be a little more comfortable with all the noise, according to Amanda. I've gotta say that I feel really good about Emily being there. We are going to be just fine in that respect. In fact, while Travis was gone in Madison all last week, it was kinda nice to have a break from Emily for a couple of hours, since I was on full-duty at home.

We had a crazy day yesterday, being social, but it was lots of fun. I got to see people that I hadn't seen for a long time, and it was really fun. Also stopped in and saw my grandparents in Ames, and Travis's parents were in town too. I hit a wall at about 10:00 and just couldn't be social any more, so we came home from a gathering a bit early. It was weird, I wasn't mad about anything, really, but when Emily had trouble unwinding I realized I was just completely out of gas and couldn't stop sobbing. But it was easier letting it go, knowing that Travis was totally supportive and there wasn't anything really wrong, I was just exhausted. Emily has been asleep for 2 hours this afternoon already, and I slept for almost an hour and a half of that. I feel human again!

I updated her picasa pictures again. There are pictures from her 3-month sitting at Sears. The pictures are pretty good, although they would've been better if Emily would've taken a nap beforehand like she should have!! I thought she did pretty well to get the smiles out, considering how tired she was. Anyway - enjoy!