Introductions

  Hi! My name is Stephanie.

 

  Where do I start? OK - basics. I am 34 years old. I have two kids.

My 15 year old son, Jared:

 And my 9 year old daughter, Leah:

 My husband Jimmy and I have been married for 10 years.

Up until 2 days ago, I was a 911 dispatcher.

Now I am a housewife in training.

   I started working at the 911 center in 2001. At that time I was a single mom and every move I made professionally was always and only to make more money to support us. When Jared was born, I was an unemployed 19 year old. He was 5 weeks old when I got a job as a temp worker selling Alhambra water door to door. It sucked, but it helped me get us our own apartment before he was 3 months old. Shortly after that, our whole 'sales group' was laid off. I delivered pizzas until the temp company hooked me up with a full time job as a janitor in a laboratory facility. It was $10 an hour and full benefits! I had to commute an hour each way and it was swing shift hours, but I didn't care. It was steady income for my son and I. I then applied and got the job as a security dispatcher in the same facility making $4 more an hour. DUDE!!! I was ROLLING in the dough! About 18 months later, rumors were going around of a 911 center that was planning a huge expansion and was looking to hire about 12 people. I had always been interested in emergency services, and yes...it was more $. So I applied. I started the week after 9/11. And wow....what a time to start into a field like that, right? It was an exciting job and one that I was extremely proud of. The money, benefits, and pride for that position kept me from looking anywhere else. It provided everything we needed and most of what we wanted.

  Until....it didn't.

 It basically got to a point where I realized that it was actually taking away more than it was providing. I was constantly faced with the choice to be a good employee OR a good mother. My kids were suffering because of it. Even though it was really good money, I didn't have the time to enjoy anything. We decided that a simple life with less was better than no life at all. It was a very tough decision. But I couldn't risk the regret I knew I'd have later on down the road and not have a better relationship with my husband and kids.

  So here I am. My last day of work was 2 days ago. Let's see how this goes.....