Monday, December 31, 2012

Good News to Start the New Year

I know I am soooo behind and have hardly posted at all in the last few months. No great excuse for that, but I can definitely say the drop off in my posts coincides with when I started teaching pre-school. It takes quite a bit more time planning for activities than I thought....and 8 two year olds three times a day (not to mention my own 2 year old 24/7) really wears me out!! I'm disappointed in myself that my goal of 100 posts this year isn't going to quite happen. This next year I plan to do MUCH better. I know I have to catch up from back when we went to Disney in September....so clearly I have a ton of posts to at least start out with in the coming months!!
So on the last day of 2012, I am posting to share some awesome news from the Santoro household......
Michael will be starting a new job mid-January!! I am very proud to announce him as the VP (yup, as in vice-president!!!!) of Asset Liability Management and Investments at Gwinnett Federal Credit Union (which as of Jan 1 will be called Peach State Credit Union).
Several months ago Michael was actually promoted at his current job at Associated Credit Union...to Supervisor of Audit. So he wasn't specifically looking for a new job, this opportunity just happened to come to him recently. While he definitely wasn't unhappy at ACU, several things made the new position just too good to pass up. For one, the VP title. I have no doubt that someday Michael could've easily been in upper management at ACU...but they already have a fairly young group of people currently taking those positions...so it could be quite a while before any opened up for Michael. Not a bad thing, but when faced with career advancement sooner....usually that can only lead to more positive things. Another thing is that he will really be working on things he enjoys...numbers and stats and all those other nerdy things I can't remotely understand!!! Again, not that he didn't enjoy Audit, but this will be what he went to grad school for and has a real passion for. And yet another plus (for our whole family, not just him) is that his commute will be a LOT less each day. Even if he works late, he will still end up home at a decent hour because the new office is that much closer. That will save us on gas money...and morning and evening stress from fighting ridiculous traffic. As with any change, there are things that aren't so great...for example, we will totally have to change insurance and it will cost us quite a bit more than what we are used to. But we found out that we can keep several of the same doctors we are attached to (like Sophia's pediatrician and neurologist) so we are ok with that. There are always things you have adjust to with a big change like this occurs and I know we will adjust just fine.
Michael and I are both very excited for this new opportunity. I am SO proud of how hard he works...it has definitely paid off thus far, he's a VP at age 30!! I can only imagine how he'll grow his career from here but I have no doubt that he'll work hard and show dedication to wherever this new career path leads him!