My "Job"

As you may know, I am a stay at home mom, which means I don't have a job outside of our home. I don't have to get up at a certain hour and get ready and drive to work and sit at my desk or teach a classroom of children and then drive home at the end of the day. My real job is as a wife and mother and I get to do it in my own home. Usually, I wake up between 6 and 7 am when Peter comes into our room. He says "wake up mommy," or "breakfast," or "covers." If he asks for the covers, that means he wants to get under the covers, so I lift him up into our bed, which I love because it gives me a few more minutes of laying there or maybe even dozing in and out of sleep. Peter might have a car in his hand that he drives over us making the vroom noises, or he picked up the travel alarm clock from the nightstand and pushes the indiglo button over and over. Eventually it's time to get up and get to "work." My "job" as a wife and mother consists of performing the duties of accountant, cook, housekeeper, teacher, and many other things that come up during the day.

The closest I come to a job, in the traditional sense is serving as the Resident Assistant of the 800 court, for which we receive a rent deduction. Each court has it's own RA, and I am responsible for one court, the 800 court with 69 apartments, out of 15 courts and over 1000 apartments. You can see why University Student Apartments is called the "Village." It is a great community of married student and family housing. We live in the West Village which is it's own married student stake. The East Village is in a second married student stake that also includes some other married student housing. Anyway, for my RA "job" I do a weekly check of my court and make sure lights are working and rules are being followed (like no storing items in the stairwells for example). If I find problems I report them to the proper person or talk directly to resdients about it. I submit a weekly report to my supervisor and inspect vacant apartments before residents move in. When new residents move in, I get to meet them and do an orientation about living in the Village. I also deliver flyers to all 69 doors (504 stairs) every week about events and Village business from the main office. I also write a monthly newsletter for the 800 court and hold a monthly court activity. This month we're having a huge international neighborhood dinner. About 1/3 of the residents in our court are from countries other than the US. We have some from Korea, China, Bangladesh, Colombia, Mexico, Georgia, Egypt, and some that I can't remember. Anyway, the residents are making dishes to bring and share, and I am really looking forward to a great spread of food from all over the world.

So, this is my life, and aside from RA stuff, my primary calling, and neighborly duties, I fill my time with the family stuff that makes it all worthwhile!

Pete's Sentence of the week: "I love you mommy (or daddy)." He says this while giving us a hug. You can't beat that!