Jobs

My parents always raised me to be a good hard working. Through my life I have had several jobs to help pay for things. I can remember going to work for my Dad during the summer and babysitting on the weekends to pay for going out with friends and clothing that I wanted. I always enjoyed working and enjoyed the feeling I would get when I would get paid knowing I worked hard.

Dairy Queen was the first REAL job I had. I think I was only 14, I needed a job to help pay for 1/2 of cheer leading. Dairy Queen was the only place that would hire me that young. I had a good friend that worked with me that summer and we had a blast eating as much ice cream as we wanted and making way more blizzards then I can count. I will never forget the time we had to to make 100 ice cream sandwiches for a day camp--twice cause we did it wrong the first time!

The next job I had was at Hallmark, it was close to home and gave me great hours. I got off at 8 PM, same as by boyfriend who was a life guard and the pool which also closed at 8. It was perfect. I had almost every Hallmark card memorized--and where it belonged, learned to fluff tissue paper like no one else and it was right up my alley with organizing all the cards in the correct place.

Big Bear Grill, a local burger restaurant. I worked here for a short while during the school year. I was a hostess on only Monday evenings. This was my first job in a sit down restaurant. It was nice and also easy because I just had to sit people down and occasionally help clear a table or two. I only worked until they slowed way down enough to where a server could just seat people.

Kinder Care--I started this I am pretty sure my senior year of High School. I started as soon as we finished holding Cheer leading tryouts in the spring for the next year and worked a couple days after school and then full time during the summer. I worked here with a couple of friends. I loved it, it was great. I got to play with kids all day long, and then go home without them. I was in the 3 year old room where I made a good friend Kellen. He told me every day that he saw me at the park the evening before. I would spend a long time explaining to him that I was not at the park with my dog and it must have been someone else. I was also in the 1 year old room for a while and the new born room--I seriously hope I never have triplets because the new born room was hard!

I am sure somewhere in between those jobs there were other odd jobs I had for short periods of time, like receptionist at Super Cuts for about a month, cleaning people's homes, but those were the main jobs I had.

I then moved to UT, I went to Dental Assisting school and worked at Ross with my older sister. We were on the mark down crew. Which meant every week we had a whole section that we had to scan every single item and if it was to be marked on clearance we put a new price tag on it and moved it to clearance. This was an awful job--not to mention all the random stuff we ended up buying because it went on clearance.

After Dental assisting school I moved back home and completed my externship at my family dentist office. That was great. I then got a job at a local Dentist office which I loved. I loved loved loved working there and it was so great to be done with school and working with people I enjoyed. I was able to go to classes in the morning to continue my education to hopefully become a Dental Hygienist. Things were perfect, then I meet JJ during a summer job he had in St. Louis. He was about to move back to UT to finish his schooling at BYU. I decided to move back out to UT and hopefully things would work out between us. --They did!

I got another dental assisting job there in Provo, Here is a picture of me with my boss. This job was a little more challenging for me. We did more complex procedures then my office in St. Louis and my boss was not as easy to work with. I also had way more responsibilities with ordering supplies that was stressful. I left work most days very stressed out and feeling like a horrible employee. I knew I knew what I was doing and he sure did not make anyone feel that way. Another down to this job was early mornings. We started 2 days of the week at 6:45 AM. I am not a early bird and this was a struggle for me to be up and peppy at work. My boss also required us to be looking nice each day, so I could not pull off a wet pony tail to work. Also while working there I took a server job at Happy Sumo. I would leave straight from the dentist office and go to work at Happy Sumo a couple nights a week. This was hard and I don't really know why I decided it was a good idea. I think it was because JJ worked those evenings and I figured I might as well work too? I didn't stick around and keep up that busy life for very long, the nights were to late and the mornings were to early. Luckily I was able to finally decide to quit both jobs, not at the same time--but I left Happy Sumo and The Dental office. I then decided to go back to school, I went to UVSC and studied photography for a year while working at Kaplan. I was a receptionist there, mainly proctored tests, signed people up for programs we offered, answered the phone and made copies. It was great because I could work on my homework there. It was also very nice because I was preparing for my next job--that I started on August 5th 2006. I quit my job at Kaplan to become a mom. I was very excited to start this job and JJ and I looked forward to this time in our life with great excitement. We were able to take some "training" classes before this job started but nothing really prepared us for all of the responsibilities this job would require. Like my Dental office in Provo, this job had some early hours and at the end of many days I would be left thinking how stressed I was and how I might not be the best employee for this position. I seemed to receive plenty of on the job training here and we seemed to figure things out as they came up. The job seemed to grow quickly and time passed fast! It also brought us lots of love and laughter. I soon started to realized that I WAS the best employee for the job and we were having a lot of success--most of the time. I loved how I was able to be my own boss , I got to pick what our days would hold. Which sometimes seemed to be difficult to think of things to help Lucy grow and develop in the ways she needed. I soon developed training and knowledge in child development and growth. As she ate I also because a nutritionist, when she was hurt I was a Dr. when she needed to do crafts I was an art teacher. I was everything--which I then started to realize how much I was growing and developing. I was starting to see myself learn new things and develop interest in new areas.

Not long after I seemed to be just getting the hang of this job title I was promoted--I would be getting more responsibilities added to my job title. The new title of "mother of 2"

May of 2009 I did receive that promotion, along with it came more responsibilities and therefore more learning and growth on my part. I also noticed I had a great increase in LOVE for my little jobs--Lucy and Garrett! Although I was nervous as to how it would all play out things seemed to be easier then I thought and we fell into our little grove quickly.

Through the almost 5 years I have been at my job I have learned so many things about myself. I am everything to them--the Dr, the nutritionist, the comforter, the art teacher, the one who decides what we will do during the day and how I will help them grow and learn. I have also learned that at times I end my days stressed and feeling like I know I am doing the best I can but am I really the right employee for this job? There are other days that I go to bed with a smile on my face thinking of all the fun things that we did that day and how I helped them grow a little. This job by far has the worst pay and sometimes the hours are not all that great. It is by far the most rewarding job, watching them grow and learn and become such fun little people. I know that my little "jobs" are meant for me and for my life right now and I am so lucky to be their MOM! Of all the jobs I have had this one if by far the best!