Freelance Writing--a success!

As many of you know, I have delved into the world of freelance writing. This journey started out by chance. I thought about freelance writing for a while. Over the summer, I started doing quite a bit of writing on various topics. I guess Joely got my creative juices flowing. I started searching for freelance jobs and had no luck. I just happened to search on Craigslist one day and found a start up company looking for freelance writers. The company provides webinars and coaching for women. The articles I write vary from parenting to finances and everything in between.

I really like the company's mission, and since they hired a bunch of writers, we are kind of in competition with each other to get our articles chosen. I took the job with the intention of building my portfolio and learning a thing or two. I did not expect my first article to be chosen for the company website. Like I said, this is a start up company, so the website isn't up yet and we only get paid if our articles are chosen for webinars. So, I wasn't planning on making any money for a while. I was pleasantly surprised to learn that my article was chosen! My article.

I guess the best part about my article being chosen is that it has given me the confidence to pursue freelance writing. With my growing dissatisfaction with working in public education and desire to have a more flexible schedule, I'm really trying to put things in place so that one day I can work part-time and hopefully write part-time (and make money off of the writing; that is important!). That would be ideal because I want to be a working mommy, but I want the flexibility of a stay-at-home mom (like not having to use my days to take Joel to the doctor or to volunteer in his classroom when he's older). If that doesn't work out, I'm totally content with this small opportunity.

I hope this summer to expand my writing portfolio a little more. Right now, I'm focusing on non-fiction (obviously), but I would like to compose some short stories. I have lots of ideas in my little head. I have thought of writing children's stories too, but I think I may not be good at that. Murad has been helping me write my articles by giving me feedback and helping me with the structure of my writing. He has been asked to do some motivational speaking and thinks that if he had a biography, it would help. Guess who he wants to write it?

So right now I am very thankful for this opportunity. If you would like to read some of my work, please visit my other blog: Ashlea Campbell Writing.
Happy Reading!

Because the Jayhawks stink

and I'm already up late watching the game. Ugh. I love the start of basketball season! Everything good in life revolves around college basketball, especially my Jayhawks! Tonight though....we're not looking good against Kentucky. Since I'm up and can't take my eyes off the game even though I want to, I'll post about my 30th birthday! Yes. In two months I will be 30 years old!
I've been stressing about what to do for my birthday! I've already sown my wild oats (not in the slutty way, but the drinking way...in fact, I really didn't date much before I got married, but now is not the time to go on a kissing binge), but I know my friends and family really want me to have a big birthday bash. Originally, I planned to go to Lawrence and KC for an old fashioned college pub crawl, but let's face it, I'd need 50 naps just to survive. Plus, I'm just not ready to leave Joely yet. I'm so used to hearing him on the monitor at night, waking up to his cooing in the morning and seeing his smiling face once he realizes I'm there. Not to mention I'd have to majorly pump and dump all that alcohol out of my boobs. That's like throwing away gold! I just can't do that!
Anyways, I'm planning a girls' trip in March and if we can afford it, a 3rd honeymoon next summer. I think by March I should be ready, right? Eh. Another reason I cannot go to Kansas for my birthday is because I've had to use so many sick days and we have a trip planned for Memorial weekend and I'll need to take a couple of days then. Yes. This is what happens when you have a child!
Okay, so for my birthday, I know my best friend is flying in to town. I think we'll rent out a room at Family Karaoke Place and order lots of good sushi and large amounts of alcohol.
What I'm most excited for though is my birthday present! We are finally going to update our kitchen and family room. I know! We're old, right? Lame, right? I don't care. I'm super excited. Murad and I picked out a new sofa that we both love! I think it will be durable and last while raising a growing boy. Right now the sofa is about $200 out of our price range. Hoping it goes down in 2012! We finally agreed on a paint color for the ugly wood paneling in our family room. So, yes. no changes. This is it! We are getting an update! The family room will stay white/cream except for the wood paneling accent wall which we will paint "teal lake." We will then carry that color into our kitchen as well. I think it will look nice against our dark cabinets as well as the white woodwork and white kitchen table. It will really help tie the family room and kitchen together, especially since it is a semi-open lay-out. Plus, it matches the plates I already have! So yeah! I'm so excited about this relatively inexpensive update. I realize now that the next update will be pretty expensive: master bedroom/bath remodel...not for a few years though!

Things I love

besides Joely. I need to take some time to write a non-mommy blog post. I also need to reflect on all the good things in my life besides my job. How do I do that without mentioning Joely? I will mention him first and then go into the others. Joely is so great! You know why? He has two cute little teeth! Yep! Two teeth! I didn't even feel them. Abuela pointed them out to me yesterday and we both started jumping up and down in excitement. I immediately called Murad. He was at the gym, but he called back immediately. He was sooo excited! Who would've thought we would be excited by two little teeth. We are also very excited about Joel eating. He loves his rice cereal, apple pumpkin, green beans, and sweet potatoes. He loves eating baby food so much that he grabs the spoon from our hands and feeds himself. He's just a growing, growing boy. We love him so much! Okay, so on to non-mommy stuff that I love! *I love the new Philadelphia Eagles blanket Murad bought. It's warm and fuzzy. Perfect for cuddling up and writing articles, grading papers or blogging *I love leftover Halloween candy *I love reaching my goal weight and getting closer to wedding day weight *I love teaching at the community college and moments when I really get to know my students *I love the community college service learning project I have planned for next semester *I love my new freelance writing gig *I love all the new cozy, comfort food recipes I've discovered or created *I love that Murad loves the food and keeps encouraging me to try new ones *I love when Murad holds me at night *I love that October is over *I love that November is here! *I love that we get to jet to NJ this month for almost a week! *I love that my dad will get to celebrate his 65th birthday with his grandson *I love our house and all the things that make it unique and ours *I love that my straight hair is almost gone and my curly hair is in! I'm almost completely natural and I didn't have to do a big chop! I think so many times I focus on all the negative things in my life. I think so many times I focus so much on my little boy that I forget about myself. This is a blog just for me (and a small tribute to Joely).

yep

that just happened...

so much respect...

As the weather changes, I'm reminded of just how fast time flies. My baby boy will be five months tomorrow! I've learned so much about myself, my husband, our marriage and of course, our little boy. I think I now have the utmost respect for anyone who dons the title of "mommy!" It's a tiring job, but it comes with the greatest rewards and perks. When I was pregnant I didn't want to hear advice from anyone. In fact, I told people that I didn't want any advice. However, after I hit week 25, I was more open to listening. That is when I started asking any and every mom for advice. One of the cool things I learned as that while we all approach mothering differently we all strive to be the best mom we can be. This really hit home as I read my friend Lara's blog. I realize that we all have certain values that we want to impart to our children, and while they may be different, why not help each other out along the way? I asked myself, do I judge other moms? Do I come across as knowing everything about mothering (because I certainly do not!). I think this is especially poignant as many of my friends are starting to have children and are addressing the formula vs. breastfeeding challenge. Breastfeeding was/is the hardest thing about mothering Joel. I'll admit, I'm pretty lucky. Joel is a relatively easy baby. He laughs, explores, eats, and sleeps. He rarely cries even now when he is teething. My struggles with breastfeeding are pretty minute compared to others' breastfeeding struggles. While I was pregnant, I made sure to talk to both breastfeeding and formula-feeding mothers. This was the best thing I could do. I think it helped prepare me for the challenges ahead and when I faced the possibility of having to exclusively formula feed Joel, I felt a little more comfortable if that were to happen. I visit so many new mom blogs,chat rooms, message boards and I'm part of a few in-real-life new mom groups. I hate, hate, hate the breast-feeding bullying that goes on. We're supposed to support and uplift each other, not tear each other down. Sometimes I feel a little guilty because Joel gets 6oz of formula a day. I then slap myself for feeding in to the bullying. While some of the challenges of breastfeeding have dissipated, they are now replaced with other challenges: pumping. I pump as much as I can at work, but my milk supply sometimes is low. I deal with a lot of stress at my job, so that affects my ability to pump well. Now that Joel is sleeping through the night, I pump at home quite a bit because I'm more relaxed. Pumping takes up a good 40 minutes of my work day which makes it difficult to complete administrative tasks. I find myself asking, "is it worth it to pump?" Then I remind myself that for our family it is. I refuse to let the employment devils win! But I digress... I remember when I first got pregnant I told myself that I would never co-sleep. Who would do that? The child will probably breastfeed for years? I bet that couple never has sex...yeah. I was so wrong. While I was scared for Joel's safety (I don't care what anyone tells you, when you are surviving on sleep fumes as I like to call them, you're not aware of the baby in your bed), the benefits I saw while we tried co-sleeping outweighed the safety risks. Joel's breathing was regulated, he was able to bond with not only me, but his father as he would snuggle to him too, we could place him back on his back if he rolled to his side, etc. We quickly transitioned to the pack n' play in our room. He now sleeps for 10-12 hours at night in his crib in his own room. So yeah, I judged myself before I knew what I would become. A breast-feeding/pumping/sometimes formula-ing, former co-sleeping mama. I am the happiest I've been in so long, but I'm still on the journey and enjoying it. I'll leave you with a picture of Joely and me. Don't we look cute? We kind of have the sporty look going on with my Nike shirt and his windpants. Yeah. Even though I don't have a daughter, I try to match our outfits...at least in themes. I'm definitely not going to take the twinning further than that. I absolutely love Joel in fall clothes. I take that back, I love him in all clothes. He's so adorable (I'm seriously considering getting him into modeling. I am researching agencies right now) Life is pretty easy when you have a cute son!

Strange Boy....

Okay, so Joel and I have been home together since last Wednesday. On Wednesday afternoon Christy called me to tell me that Joel had lots of boogies, was fussy and just not his usual self. I left work to pick him up and Mr. Soup got on the phone to his pediatrician. The next morning, I planned to go to work and Murad was going to work from home and take Joel to the doctor, but guess what....I was sick too! Joel went to the doctor and she confirmed that he has a double ear infection and Bronchiolitis (think another form of Bronchitis). I am pretty sure I have the flu, but I haven't been to the doctor. So, Joely and I have been home the past few days. I missed going to a surprise party for my friend, but there will be other parties. While I hate being sick and hate seeing him sick, it has been wonderful spending uninterrupted QT together. I love cuddling and playing with him. He's still all about playing even when sick. It's also given me the opportunity to see all of his strange habits. They're quite funny, scary, and unique! Nipple Confusion All through my pregnancy, everyone kept saying don't introduce a bottle to him for a long time because of nipple confusion. Of course, my son is the one who ended up with jaundice and had to take formula from a bottle for a week. Did it mess him up? No. Now he hates taking bottles. Well, he'll take bottles from Murad, Christy, Abuela, grandparents, anyone but me! Even though the bottle may be filled with breast milk or a breast milk/formula combo, he gets this weird look on his face. "Don't come with this weak shit, mom! I want it from the spout." Yeah, so I have the opposite problem of nipple confusion. I wonder what will happen in May when I have to wean him off... No Pacifier Joely used a pacifier when he was a newborn, but once he hit about three months he refused to take one. At first we thought maybe he wouldn't take it at home, but Abuela and Christy both noted that he refuses to take one at daycare. Not complaining because I hear weaning a kid off of a pacifier is a bitch. There are some days when I wish he would take one though! Cheap Toys So, last week Joely and I went to Babies R Us to pick out some developmentally appropriate toys. Yeah, so does he play with them? Not so much. His favorite toy is this block thing that my friend gave us. He'll play with it for about 30 minutes...which is like hours in Joel time S&M much? Murad and I discovered that the only way to get Joel to go to sleep is to put a blanket over his head. That sounds horrible, right? What kind of parents would do that? Desperate parents like us. Joel likes for us to throw the blanket over his head and then he pulls it down to his chest. He falls asleep with the blanket in his hand. Joel also likes to turn and sleep on his side. So, we have to stand there and wait for him to fall asleep so that we can remove the blanket and place him back on his back. It's pretty intense, but that's our guy! Fortunately, we do have the Angel Care monitor which alerts us if he stops breathing, but that's not a sure thing. I know it's supposed to be hospital quality, but the ones in the hospital are like $2000 not $200. That's my weird little Joel wrapped up in a nutshell. He's such an individual and I love it. Some days I marvel at how much my life has changed in the last five months. Nothing gets me through the day like picturing his smile and nothing motivates me more than his happiness. I find myself longing for the sleepless nights when he was a newborn. I find myself trying to relive the best day of my life: his birth. I find myself getting jealous of the fact that he is comfortable with people other than me. I try to keep it in perspective though. The grass is always greener, right? I have a healthy baby boy who is growing, thriving, and exploring! He's picked up a few strange habits along the way, but they're what makes him our son!

19 weeks

Well today Joel is 19 weeks. That is almost five months week-wise. Yesterday he and I ventured to Babies R Us to pick up some toys for him. Of course there are no toys that are labeled "five months," so my choices were three months and six months. We went with six months because he's pretty active, and the challenge associated with toys for that age may be good for him. Plus, most of the six month toys were good for up to 36 months of age. So, we got this toy with balls that fly everywhere. The baby on the box looked really happy. Fisher-Price does a good job of labeling their toys with information concerning the developmental tasks the babies will reach when playing with the toy. With this particular one, he'll increase his gross motor skills, learn cause and effect, and one other skill. The teacher in me is really excited to watch how this toy works to teach these skills and then what we can do to mimic that for a cheaper cost (these toys are expensive...thank goodness we have a ton of gift cards still)
Joely reaches and grabs things, but up until today I didn't see him do it often. Sometimes when I rattle things in front of him, he doesn't really try to grab them. Of course, all babies are different so I wasn't really concerned. Today, Joel and I woke up and we played with one of his block toys. It is a large block that has different things on it that he can move around. He really focused on the items on the block and loved grabbing them and moving them. He got so excited that he knocked it off the table. Mr. Soup was really happy about that. Don't ask why! I guess he likes that his son likes destruction.
After we played we read Trick or Treat with Elmo. The book is pretty busy, but Joely had fun pushing the buttons. He then had some tummy-time and after his time was up, I put on Spongebob and he stayed on his tummy with his head up to watch. So cute! He also grabbed the little music-maker on his tummmy time mat and pulled it to his face.
We tried having Joel sleep in his nursery this week. He slept in there two nights this week (woo-hoo!). We're really trying to be organic about the whole thing, so if we put him in there and he cries for twenty minutes then we take him out and bring him into our room and put him in his pack n' play. I think Mr. Soup and I aren't quite ready to have him sleep in his own room, but we realize that we don't want him sleeping in our room still this time next year.
So, work for Mr. Soup is going really well, but work me is blah still. I'm trying not to get too down about it. I just need to not take my job too seriously. My main concern, as always, is my students. I have to remember to always put their interest first and not worry about all the other stuff that complicates things. I think I'm probably too sensitive in some ways and I want to do the best job all around and not make mistakes. I think I'm probably way too critical on myself as well. I know I feel as though I'm not doing my best as a teacher, but when I look around I see a bunch of people doing even less than me. Not that I compare myself to anyone else...well...yeah..I do..which is why I've been feeling down in the dumps. While another career choice might be ideal for me, I just can't imagine doing anything else. I really do love teaching and I really love teaching middle school students. I just know that the environment in which I'm in is not allowing me to be the teacher I want to be. I hate the current educational climate--high stakes testing, but it's the same everywhere. What can I do? Luckily, I do have an opportunity to be the teacher I want to be every week when I teach at the community college.
So, to add even more drama to my life, my stepdaughter's mother is acting really strange. She successfully turned my stepdaughter against not only us, but also Abby's maternal grandparents; however, now her mother is trying to push Abby onto us more. I can tell my stepdaughter doesn't want to talk to us and we've kind of respected that. When she wants to call we let her talk, but we don't force her to call us. Now her mom calls us and has my stepdaughter call us and kind of coaches her in the background. The other day she called Mr. Soup and told him that she not only wanted Abby to spend Christmas with us, but she also wanted Abby's little sister too. Yeah. Obviously, we felt conflicted. I know that's probably hard on Abby's sister to see her go spend time with her dad and now that Abby has a little brother, her sister is jealous. Our time is valuable though too and we don't want Abby to have to share us with her sister. So, we kind of put our foot down and said no about the little sister and that Abby could spend Christmas with us only if she wanted to. I just wish I could figure out what her mom is up to and how we should act in the best interest of Abby. On top of that, Abby hates school and is being bullied by kids because of her weight and hygiene. I'm trying to see what anti-bullying program they have at her school, but I fear that they may not have one at all. School is Abby's one outlet from her home-life. She excels and always performs above her classmates. An avid reader, she retains and applies so much of what she reads. I'm afraid she'll grow to hate school and drop-out once she reaches high school.
Yeah, so I hate to end this post on a sad note. I have a knack for that right. You can always scroll back up and re-read the section on my little Joely. He's pretty amazing, right?