Thank God for the Working Mothers at Lockheed

Throughout the year, I talk with other mothers like me...we IM each other talking about our other lives...sometimes the only connection I have with these amazing women is IM. Yes, we talk about getting together face to face. We know it will probably never happen. When will we find the time? Sometimes we see each other in the gym. We all have kids about the same age. We talk about getting the kids together. Games, overtime, music practice, busy lives... it all gets in the way. We talk about taking time out from our busy lives for just us....just women who have so much in common... who want to take time and have a drink and toast our busy lives and celebrate. Leave the kids at home and talk - without a keyboard or without having to rush (like we do when we are in the locker room or see each other on the way to a meeting).

These women get me. They get me all the way down to my core. They know about the conflicts I have. They may not know my boss but they have one like him. We vent to each other over a keyboard... we hear about sicknesses of the babies with a blinking orange light (IM engaging in a conversation). We vent about our jobs. We wish for something bigger. We daydream together.

We will im our sadness and our fears. We will im our children's achievements.

I almost know Trenton, Holly, Kara, Jaclyen (sp?), Cole, Jonah, and Jessie like they were family. But I may never see them. I haven't even met Jonah and Jessie. But I know them. His mommy told me all them.

We have words of wisdom for each other and then we go weeks without talking.. That is ok. We are busy.

I have learned so much from these women. I have a village - they just don't live near me and we talk electronically.

I appreciate you girls. Heather, thanks for the talk today. I need sometimes to remember that I do like engineering...I just like being mom better and engineering is really cutting out on my mom time!

This was from my IM message today. I was telling Heather how I am learning to have confidence in my engineering and my work... and I liked what I said to my boss and told her about it.. Cocky, huh? Wish I could get more of that!

I now know that I can handle anything...my boss asked me "did I want to be lead engineer on the project i am doing now?" and I said "no but I can do it" (I am actually not lead because he had someone who was a level higher than me that had nothing to do... unfortunately, I am still doing at lot of the lead stuff.. just not getting the credit)

He said "why do you think you can do it?"

"I don't always step up to the plate until I am asked to do it.. but when I do, I swing hard and usually hit out of the park. It is just getting to the plate that is hard."