Feb

21

Finally…

February 21, 2005 |

I finally made a little time for my blog. I know it’s been a very long time since I posted and I didn’t mean to worry anyone. I sort of had a melt down after I found out my biopsy results. It was like I had so much stress and anxiety built up in me for so long that when I was finally able to release it all in relief, I crashed.

I am feeling better and have made a lot of changes in my life in the last few weeks. First and foremost the daycare doors have closed. And what a relief it’s been for all of us. Everyone is more relaxed, happier and the girls are getting along with each SO much better it’s amazing. Jeff commented how the whole tone and feel of the house has changed dramatically for the better. He says that he comes home to a quieter, more relaxed atmosphere whereas when he used to come home, even though daycare was already closed, it was as though everyone was melting down. Daycare was good to us. It allowed me to stay home with my children. But the time has come to move on and I only wish I’d done it sooner.

My new job rocks!! I love it. I am now a full time Mystery Shop Scheduler. This basically means I spend all of my time trying to recruit people all over the country, and sometimes North America, to complete secret audits of different stores and restaurants. An example of the type of job I might hire people for would be at a fast food restaurant. That person would have to go to that establishment on a certain day during a certain time frame and order certain menu items and then fill out a survey form online from their home when they return. This is all done covertly to evaluate products and service. The shopper is to act like any other shopper giving no indication as to their true mission for being there.

The company I work for is a part of The Mystery Shopping Providers Association. Another great resource for Mystery Shopping information is a great site called Volition. This site has tons of information on free products, frugal living and a large forum section where Mystery Shop Schedulers from all over the country post their open assignments. It’s a fascinating industry - if you’re interested in marketing.

Any free time I have has been spent playing and creating with my children. That cancer scare really put things in perspective for me. The things that have the greatest priority in my life now? My family, and here’s a new one - me. I’ve been working hard with my kids to make them feel valued and not feel like they have to fight for my attention. I have also been working to take better care of myself. If any of you watched the interview with Melissa Etheridge last night on Dateline, she said she had removed all the poison from her life since being diagnosed with breast cancer. While I was fortunate enough not to have cancer I have still made steps to remove the poisons from my life too. Those poisons were just as much in my mind as in the way I treated my body with bad food and lack of exercise. I am trying hard to retrain my brain in terms of my reactions to situations and am trying hard to eliminate stress. I believe stress comes as much from our reaction to situations as from the situations themselves. I can’t control the situations nearly as much as I can control my reaction so that’s where the work is being done.

I have also made a greater commitment to working on my relationship with my best friend. I let our time together slip to non-existent and while she said she understood and that the best part of our relationship was that we were always there for each other no matter how long it had been since the last time. I still felt guilt about not making her feel as valued as she really is by me. So I went with her to a snow shoe demo and then lunch afterwards and had so much fun. I came home happy and rejuvenated, my batteries recharged after some one-on-one adult time. We’re going ice skating next weekend and then on to try a new little restaurant in town that we’ve been dying to go to for months. It’s run by folks from a commune here in our area and everything is fresh, organic and home made and from what we hear, absolutely delicious.

So that’s what’s been going on with me. I don’t know when I’ll post again but I’ll come by and visit you, my friends whenever I can. Drop me a comment and let me know what you’ve been up to these last few weeks or just tell me to get off my duff and come visit you :) Take care!!


Comments

1 Comment so far

  1. mrs. diamond on February 21, 2005 3:41 pm

    Hi Julie, Sounds like you have and are making some very positive life changes. You sound much happier and relaxed and I am so glad!!
    The job sounds really cool.
    God is so good!
    Now get off your duff and come visit me!

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