Saying bye for now......

Every mom dreams of that perfect job, right? For some it is staying home with the kids full time while for others it might be working in an office job regular hours. Or it could fall somewhere in between those two. For every mother, that perfect job has a different description. For me, that description was a reality for the past two years. As moderator of SpartanburgMoms.com, I have been able to work from home part time doing something I love while staying home with my children. It has been a dream. But now I have to wake up. Ah, sigh.....

When SpartanburgMoms.com launched almost two years ago, my older son Nathan had just turned a year old. Life was getting easier. I had done a little freelance writing here and there in his babyhood, but I began wondering what to do after he turned one. I loved staying home with him. I didn't really want the typical office 8-5 job. But I wanted something. We were managing on my husband's salary by applying frugal living practices. We could have used a little more money. Who couldn't, especially when the economy tanked right about well, two years ago. Then, low and behold my dream job landed in my lap....or rather, my email inbox. My pre-mommy life included work in PR, website management, writing, and event planning. My post-mommy life included me blogging about mommyhood, visiting parenting message boards, and attending playdates and other events to find some new mommy friends. Put all that together and what do you get - spartanburgmoms.com site moderator. It was heaven.

For 23 months, I have spent hours on this pink website posting discussions, organizing playdates and events, launching contests, uploading pictures, writing blogs, emailing our wonderful members, working with great people at the Spartanburg Herald-Journal, sending out weekly mom mails, going through our major site re-design, etc, etc. During that time my older son Nathan grew from a 15-month-old toddler to a 3-year-old pre-schooler. His little brother Luke was talked about on the site from the moment that plus sign showed up on a pregnancy test a little over a year ago. You all helped me welcome him to the world Memorial Day this year and advised me on balancing two children.

Unfortunately, I have to say goodbye to spartanburgmoms.com. I was a part-time contract employee and well, this economy is just not too kind to us. Being the glass half full person I am, I've already found the positive in the situation. Since having my second bouncing baby boy five months ago, life has been a bit overwhelming. Any mom of two young children can tell you that. I've wished I could clone myself more times than I can count recently. Balancing life with a newborn, a 3-year-old needing more attention than ever, a part-time job, managing the house all on little to no sleep has been tiring. So one less thing might be just what I need to catch my breath for a while.

But I will miss my job. Not only was it a job, but well, the site was a passion. Its nice to love a job and I do worry I will never find anything like it again. And I'll miss you members. I've met some great new mommy friends thanks to this site. Of course I'll still be around on the message boards and at playdates. You can't keep me away!

And, I feel good turning the site over to your new site moderator, Ashley Dill. She's been eager to learn all about the site and has been busy welcoming all new members and attending events since she learned she'd be taking over. She works in the newsroom at the Spartanburg Herald-Journal and is mom to an adorable 14-month-old daughter named McKennon. Good luck, Ashley! Hope you have as much fun as moderator as I have.

As for me, well, when one door closes, another one opens, right? Although I think I might just hang out in the hallway and catch my breath for a bit.