A promotion for me!

We had our annual performance reviews last month and I am being promoted to a full-fledged Project Manager. I was doing some PM work before my mat leave and then when I returned from mat leave, I didn’t do any PM work. I think they were a little hesitant to give me any projects to manage until they saw how my return to work 3 days a week (and now 4 days a week) was going to work. Well, I have obviously proved myself because my boss wants to make me a PM again only this time they are making it official by giving me that title (my job title has never been PM before).

So, naturally, I was expecting a huge raise. Well, turns out my raise is decent, but not nearly what I was expecting. It is higher than the company average raise, but I was honestly expecting maybe twice what I got. Our company does raises once per year each April (our reviews were late this year, but the raises were retroactive to April). So, as soon as I got the letter with my salary adjustment, I went to talk to my boss and told him I was expecting more given my increase in responsibility. The raise I got was more what I would have expected if I was staying in the same job, not with the promotion. He gave me lots of manager-speak and what we negotiated to is that in early October, we’ll do an informal appraisal to see how I’m doing with my projects and I’ll get another raise then if merited. So, I’m okay with that. Better than having to wait a whole other year for another raise! And at least he knows I am being proactive with my career, so it didn’t hurt to ask. And if I get another raise in October and then another one next April, that would be awesome.

On to other things…

For those who are curious, the law suit is still on going. We have come to the realization that it will likely take YEARS before it's over. No fun. The next steps are mandatory mediation and then our lawyer gets to examine my uncle and his lawyer gets to examine my mom and I. Both lawyers also get to examine Oma's 2 lawyers (the one she 'fired' because she thought he was working with my uncle and her most recent lawyer), her medical professionals, and the capacity assessor. All that will be completed within the next 9 months, so that takes us to early 2012. Then, if things are not settled by mediation, it will go to trial before a judge, which could take a very long time depending on the schedule of the Court. So, it's going to be a long and expensive road, but we're not giving up - we have to fight for what Oma wanted.

We’ve been in our house for over a month now and we LOVE it! We are in the planning stages of building a deck, so hopefully we’ll have that installed within the next month or so. Still have more unpacking to do (our garage is maybe half full of boxes still).

This weekend I’m going to a ladies retreat. I went for the first time a year and a half ago and I took Julie with me since she was still nursing. Well, she’s not nursing anymore, so I am going without her this time (they only let you bring your child if they are a nursing baby – which makes sense – the whole point of the retreat is to have a little getaway!). This is my first time being away from Julie for more than 1 night. It’s a little ‘trial run’ for Vegas next month when I’ll be away from her for 5 nights! We’ll see how I do! I will of course miss Carlos too ;)