Shocked

The last 48 hours have been...what's the word...oh that's right...

LIFE CHANGING.

Three major things happened to me in the last 48 hours.  I'll go in the order of life changing-ness. :-)

The first thing that happened was that the Sprint store on Olive Blvd. in Creve Couer, MO made my night Monday by giving me an upgrade 8 months early.  So, in the best interest of my night job, I upgraded to this:

There is a lot that I could say about this phone, but I know a lot of you are waiting to hear about my day job update so I will move on, after saying that I LOVE my new phone!  Props to that particular location for  finally FIXING my phone, then after listening to me complain about all my problems with it, upgrading it early!  Oh, that is the Motorola Photon 4G.  It's (as my 10 year old would say) EPIC!

Then, last night, I got a makeover.  At least, that's how it felt.  

Last week I took the kids to get their hair cut before school started.  I was looking for a Kiddie Cut Ups.  The GPS took me to where it was SUPPOSED to be.  Surprise, surprise...it wasn't there.  We'd already been to a way-too-crowded Fantastic Sams.  At this point, I just wanted to get their hair cut!  So I drove past this place called The Cutting Edge ("like" them on Facebook by clicking that link!), saw scissors and assumed that this place "would do".  

The Cutting Edge Studio far exceeded my expectations!  Sondra Koenig did an AWESOME job on the kids' hair.  I was so pleased with how ALL four haircuts turned out.  I got home that night and called to see when I could get in to get MY hair done.  The grays were well past peeking through again, and it was OVERDUE.

The time that Sondra and her crew (which mostly consisted of her family, and added a very down-to-earth feel to the entire place) spent perfecting my hair and the attention to detail were impressive, to say the least.  It was very clear, just after watching Sondra cut the kids' hair, that I could trust her completely with my hair.  Which I did.  I told her to do whatever she thought would look best on me.  Both for the cut and the color.  With all said and done, I have to say that was the BEST salon experience I have ever had.  And Jesse Koenig's mad hair washing skill was *almost* as relaxing as two Xanax.  If you don't know how relaxing that it, just trust me.  It was awesome!  I'd compare it to something else...but well, let's just keep this family-friendly, shall we?  What?  I was talking about a foot massage.  What were YOU thinking???

After hearing Jesse and Sondra converse about hair and color and clearly seeing their passion for what they do, I would feel 100% comfortable trusting Jesse completely with my hair as well.  Words can't do justice to the talent bursting at the seams from The Cutting Edge Studio!  If you are in the St. Louis/Florissant area, go see Sondra or Jesse!!  Here is a before and after, just to prove to you what an awesome job they did.

I tried to find one of the most recent pictures of me so the comparison would be "real time" - so this is from vacation at the beginning of the month.

Oddly enough, I happened to be wearing the same shirt last night!  And necklace! Check out the difference:

Now, are you ready for the most life-altering change?

I got fired yesterday.  

From my day job.

No, I got laid off.

Wait.  Let me back up.

Over a month or so ago, Kris and I discussed me quitting (for the sake of saving the company money) and trying to supplement my income with my night job.  I'd really have to step it up about 10 notches, but I was confident that I could, since my goal has been to quit working at ICS to begin with.  Then a coworker was put on bed rest, and Kris told me that I was needed and would likely be working until at least January.  So while I was disappointed that I'd still be working 28-40 hours (depending on how our business grew) through the end of the year, I mentally prepared myself to stay at ICS.

So I've been working at ICS.  And working my night job, which has been really slow this month.  I resigned myself to this and all was well.

Until about 10:30am yesterday.  Kris and I had to discuss a title.  I asked him if he had the time and he said yes.  Then he told me we were going to meet in the conference room, because there was something else he wanted to talk to me about.  I didn't think anything of it, because we go to the conference room all the time to discuss titles or other aspects of the company.

We sit down.  We talk about what needs to be done with the title, mentioned above.  And then he says "And the second thing is, do you think you can find a part-time job?"

My immediate response was "I HAVE a part-time job!"

He was in his very professional "work mode" and told me that he had decided that it was time for the company to let me go.  He didn't give many details.  I knew why.  With the state of our company, from a business standpoint, it was a smart move.  I asked him when this was taking place.  September?  No.  Apparently it was effective immediately.  IMMEDIATELY as in as soon as you finish all your work.  I would never have left them with unfinished titles or a buried desk anyway, because it's not who I am...but usually when you get laid off, you aren't asked to continue working, are you?

Kris went on to tell me how much money my part-time job would need to net.  It will essentially require me working 12-15 nights per month, which I would actually LOVE, or getting a job at a retail shop or fast food joint, which I would HATE.  

And because Kris was so stressed out in general and really busy at work yesterday, he had absolutely NO CLUE how this had impacted me.  I was physically sick!  You see, I don't handle change well.  I didn't have time to process this. Not to mention the fact that I had forgotten my Xanax in the morning!

Unlike our conversation over a month ago, this came completely from left field.  In Kris' mind, we just talked about this and he knew I would be happy if I could quit working at ICS.  In my mind, I heard "you're fired and you also now need to bring in $1500 a month to feed our family".  He was back and forth between work and family life, but kept this professional tone the whole time.  It was a very bizarre scenario to be in.

And I was gone all night having my ultimate sexy hair makeover so we didn't really have a chance to talk.  I asked him today if he had ANY idea how that conversation came across to me.  In retrospect, he could see how it came across and we spent the lunch hour talking through it and trying to plan for the next few months and how we would work things out financially, while I work on getting more consistent business for my night job.  So overall, I feel a LOT better now than I did yesterday.  Not sure how it will all come together, but I know it will!

Oh and when Kris and I were discussing things over lunch, this is what he said, when I was joking around about being "fired".  I asked him if I could quote him on my blog and he agreed.

"You didn't get fired.  You didn't get laid off.  We just reduced your hours to zero." - KB

So...I am "officially" a work-at-home mom!