On a personal note...

Some of my readers may have noticed I have rarely been posting anything lately.  Unfortunately this has been a result of lack of time, not lack of ideas.  Let me give you a glimpse into what I have been up to lately.

Let me start at the beginning.  2 years ago my husband got a new job.  I decided to quit my job at a local software company and leave my steady income and great health insurance to stay home with my little girl.  Best decision ever - but also a decision that made things very hard.  We went from 2 pretty stable incomes to 1 income (the type of income people start out in hopes of getting something better, not the type of income you use to support a family of 3, a cat, and a mortgage.)

I was torn.  I wanted to help support my family in a way that made a difference, but it was very important to me to be able to stay home with Lily.

I looked into a few options, including making crafts and selling them, which I ultimately decided would be too time consuming with not enough payoff.  I wasn't willing to do anything to make money that involved selling things to my friends or family, or "take a gamble" on a paycheck each month based off of how much of something I had sold.

As I was thinking about this one day I remembered someone I used to know who supported her family doing Medical Transcripting from home.  I won't go into the details of how it all happened, but I will tell you I was definitely prompted and guided to eventually choose to go back to school to become a medical transcriptionist.

I chose Career Step because I had heard that they were one of the best schools out there, so often times a company that needed to hire would go directly to Career Step and ask for recommendations from their recent graduates, making it much easier to find a job after graduation.  It felt right, so I went for it.  I am so glad I did.

School was completely self-paced and online, so I ended up putting it off for a while due to some other priorities in my life and picked up again seriously just this summer when I finally finished.

I found out I had graduated with honors, and then just 10 days later I had an offer for a job.  I had applied and tested for a lot of companies on my own, but Career Step was actually the one who found me the job I took doing just what I had heard about, recommending me to a company who had come straight to Career Step looking to hire.

I got my dream job - the one I worked so hard through school to get.  The job I got lets me choose my own hours - and even how many hours I want to work which can vary week to week.  They just pay me for what I do.  It is the perfect home-based job for a stay-at-home mom looking to earn some extra money.

So that is why I haven't been on much lately.  I really do have intentions of posting how-to's for the list of projects I still have to post about .  I am still planning on making that happen.  Posts just may be inconsistent.

**After graduating and getting a job I have had many friends ask me how to get into this.  I really do totally recommend it.  Please email me at jessica@utahcountymom.com for more details - I have a lot of useful information to share if you are interested!!  I know it may sound "too good to be true" but I promise you it is not.**