Looking for part time work? These family friendly businesses offer a great way to connect with other parents and have some extra cash.  Here are some local businesses looking for a little extra help.
All Fired Up
Want to get in touch with your creative side?
All Fired Up has a relaxed, fun atmosphere where our customers feel comfortable creating not only beautiful art pieces but also wonderful memories with family and friends.
If you enjoy helping children and adults reach their full creative potential, All Fired Up might be the place for you.  Click this link to learn more and download the application for yourself!

College Nannies and Tutors
Richmond | Glen Allen is currently accepting applications from responsible, outgoing individuals for a variety of childcare and tutor positions. We offer flexible scheduling and a wide selection of jobs to fit your skills and preferences. Find out more here.

Dream Dinners
Satisfy your inner foodie.
Dream Dinners in Midlothian has openings for day, evening and weekend shifts. Marketing and Special Events Coordinator positions also available.  Please send email to Midlothianva@dreamdinners.com for more information.

Hip to be Round
Love meeting other moms and have great style?
Hip to be Round is searching for energetic and conscientious Sales Associates / Key Holders, working 10 – 20 hours per week. The right individual will become part of an exciting company offering both a challenging and rewarding work environment. More information here.

Richmondmom
Want to work from home?
As Richmondmom continues to grow, we’re seeking motivated moms or dads who love to make friends and meet new people.  If you have a strong sales or marketing background and desire something that offers lots of flexibility for busy parents, this commission based position might be just what you’re looking for. More information here.

Romp n Roll
Seeking part-time instructors, birthday hosts and membership desk associates at our Midlothian, West End, and Mechanicsville locations.  Apply at rompnroll.com/application.

Image courtesy of Bob Jagendorf / Flickr Creative Commons

I am a working woman and mom.  The news this week that two giant tech companies, Facebook and soon Apple, will be offering female employees paid coverage for freezing eggs (yep, the ones from their ovaries) as a “perk” struck me as very concerning.  Is it sending the right message?

What if, when I applied for my state job, it listed among the perks:  “As an added bonus, if you are an employee, we will pay for you to freeze eggs taken from your ovaries so you can delay childbearing!”

Ummmm….  is this good news?

Now I love employee perks and extra benefits.  Like, because I am a state employee, I did not have to pay a fee to join the YMCA! Perks are nice extra benefits that make your life a little easier and convenient., and often relate to the company’s message and vision.  Like, my YMCA perk reinforces that the State values the health and fitness of employees.

I work in the health field and am a vocal advocate of reproductive health and rights.  I personally believe men and women should have the right and opportunity to decide if and when to have a child and they should have access to affordable tools to help them accomplish their reproductive goals.

But……this new perk raises some serious questions that require examination.

Is there really a growing demand for this type of procedure, or is industry trying to create one?

And if there is a growing demand for this… why?  Are more women truly wanting to delay childbearing?  Or are they responding to a workplace or societal expectation?

And who wins from this deal?  Companies, or women and families?

I am not sure this “perk” truly has the intent of promoting reproductive health or sending the message that these companies value women’s choice. Are they also covering all costs related to birth control?  To fertility treatments?  To abortions?  To pregnancy, labor and delivery, and related health complications?  To paid maternity and paternity leave?  To in-house, affordable or free daycare?

To me, what these companies are really saying is, “Even though you are at the height of your reproductive life cycle right now, we want you to focus on your work with us, so we are offering this perk to encourage you to delay childbearing! We’ll even help you do that by freezing your eggs which costs a lot of money, so we’re really invested in this idea! Trust us, it’s best for you AND the company!”

or

“We promote work-life balance by helping you continue to delay your ‘life’ goals and focus more on the ‘work’ part.”

Also, let’s face it, they are not offering this ‘perk’ to teenagers. These are professional women who likely have been through lots of education and are in their mid-twenties to early thirties, which is coincidentally the safest time in a woman’s life to have a baby.  This is the part you knew was coming where I bring up that reproductive risk increases with a woman’s age, especially past age 35.  The science does not lie.  People were not designed to have children later in life, especially if they have other health risks.  The risk increases for prematurity, chromosomal abnormality, and miscarriage.

Should companies, and us as a society, be encouraging women to delay and delay and delay childbearing until the “perfect moment”? There is no perfect moment. Or should companies and society meet women and men and families where they are and provide “perks” that truly promote a work-life balance?

Freezing eggs is very expensive, but so is daycare, maternity leave, and everything else that comes with raising kids.  How about offering $15,000+ worth of assistance to whatever a woman or man needs to reach their reproductive goals?  That way, if a woman wants to use her money to freeze eggs, great! Or if a couple needs fertility treatment, use it for that! Or if a woman who is pregnant has to go on bed rest, great!  She can use the money to support her family during that stressful time.

After all, when each one of us is on our deathbed, none of us will say we wish we had worked harder.  But almost all of us will say “I wish I had more time with my family/children.”

Think about all the times you’ve said, “Please stop splashing/dripping outside the tub,” as kids play with sopping wet toys on that irresistible, yet slim, tub ledge.

Joy Jones, a local mom of two came up with a solution: Shelfie. 

Shelfie attaches to the side of the tub to make that narrow tub ledge into a safe area for kids to play and contains the water from dripping over the edge.
We got a chance to chat with Joy about Shelfie, being a momtrepreneur and an inventor, and what the journey has been like for her creating the Shelfie.

What inspired you to create the Shelfie? Did you have a eureka moment?

Yes!  One night my youngest daughter, who was about 15 months old at the time, slipped on a wet floor after her bath and got a nasty bump on the head.  I thought to myself, ‘If only the tub ledge had a lip on it to contain the water…’ and that is when the idea for Shelfie was born!  I built the first one out of cardboard and duct tape, and eventually took it to a local product design firm to help me build a prototype.

What is one lesson you’ve learned about starting your own business?

That as much as it helps to have a business plan, you have to expect that there will be speed bumps and road blocks you don’t see coming ahead of time.  As much as you plan, you will still learn as you go.  There is always a pathway to possible; sometimes you just have to ask different questions in order to find it.  If you’re anticipating some speed bumps along the path, they won’t be as jarring when they inevitably occur.

Joy Jones: Business Owner, Inventor, and Mom

How have you been able to balance being an entrepreneur and a mother? 


I’m not sure how well I balance it…being an entrepreneur can drain you of energy in the same way that being a parent can.  But it’s that special brand of ‘tired’ that also feeds you; you draw your inspiration and energy from the source of your labor.  Just like raising children, your pour your heart and soul into your business and feel both challenged and rewarded with each little step.

Logistically, ‘balancing’ it can sometimes be a challenge.  I’m not at a point where I’m going to an office for set business hours. I accomplish what I can while the girls are in preschool in the morning, and then go back to work after they’re in bed.  At some point if the demands of the business increase I will need to build in some additional support.

Have your daughters been involved in the business?

Yes and no.  They were Shelfie’s first testers and have been playing with it since we developed the first prototype two years ago.  So they know that it is mommy’s project.  They were home when the big truck came to deliver them to our garage.  So they know that I’m trying to start a business.  I try not to talk to them about it too much.  Like any other adult concern, I don’t want it to preoccupy them.  And yet, they are excited about it, and I want to embrace that.  It’s a bit of an unusual adventure that we’ve undertaken.  I just hope that whatever the outcome, that the lessons for my girls are positive lessons about work and risk, and success and failure.



What’s the best piece or parenting advice you’ve ever received?

That your children won’t do as you say—they will do as you do.  I try to be cognizant of this as I make commitments with my time, deal with disciplinary issues, use my iPhone…….  I know that someday they will model my behavior, and if I’m a stressed out train-wreck who can’t say no to work obligations or is always looking at my phone, then they are likely to someday also spread themselves too thin.  I think it’s something that is universal to parents—not just entrepreneurs.  It’s a struggle to be present for our children the way we want to be, and still handle the obligations of daily life as an adult.  ‘Balance’ is a moving target;  I just try to be aware of being present with them.

Do you plan on expanding the Shelfie line?

Yes!  We are focused on proving sales with the initial run of the product.  If we can do this, we do have “future embodiments” (fancy inventor words for different versions) of Shelfie that we will hustle to patent and produce!

Where can we find the Shelfie?

Right now, Shelfie is available at The Toy Center on Patterson Avenue, and at Pigtails & Crewcuts at both their West End and Midlothian locations.  We’ll also be available soon via Bumblebean—an online boutique packed with inspiring products for moms and kids.  And you can purchase them from us directly online!

This article is sponsored by Shelfie.

Afterwards, I perused the comments (oops) and multiple moms stated, “This is true for ALL moms.” Really? Because I don’t think my life is the same as a 60 hour-a-week working mom. Do we have feelings in common? Of course, we are both human parents. Do we have very different challenges some days? Yes, we haven’t structured our lives the same. Is one life easier than the other? It depends whether our lives are a choice we made rather than having to work or stay at home.

Obviously, every choice has its give and take whether we are choosing to stay at home or choosing to work. Even those, in the best careers for them, can’t have everything at every moment, but they are happy most of the time. The same is true for my friends who opt to stay at home. It’s not perfect or easy, but it’s good because it was their choice.

However, a growing group of women don’t chose whether to stay at home or work. Some women must at stay home due to their job prospects, which don’t allow them to afford daycare or don’t offer enough flexibility to be a parent. There are also women who must work because of the cost of living in the area, school loans, or medical expenses. There are women who can’t work because of the medical needs to their child and women who must work because their spouse can’t or won’t or don’t exist and someone has to provide the basic needs for the family.

Now we can argue people’s choices — choosing to send a child to an expensive private school or choosing to have multiple children — as bad or good or ones which the take away the right to complain, but the idea that women, who work or stay at home by choice, are somehow at odds with each other is a reflection of not feeling comfortable or valued within the choice. But if we listed out details from each life, they would look merely different — some things are easier for working moms and some things are easier for stay-at-home moms. In the end, it’s not an either/or proposition.

Those of us who pay attention to what we can control and what brings out the best in us an individuals and in our family and can make decisions accordingly, should honor the differences and support each other whether it’s through offering to drive the WOH mom’s child to a school activity or offering to watch the SAH mom’s kids so she can get to the doctor’s office. And those of us who have little to no choice in whether we work or stay at home need all of the parents to come together to offer better policies in daycare, healthcare and education. We shouldn’t be worrying about whether we are getting noticed for our hard work, we should be making sure everyone can make good choices and have a community to count on.

I got a chance to chat with Shannon about how she finds the time to work, care for her twins AND give back to the community.

RM: When we bought our house a few years ago, we were on the phone with our agent quite a bit, sometimes at odd hours and often on weekends. You’ve even gotten your sneakers on and helped move a seller out of their house so your clients could close on time!  How do you balance that “on call” quality with raising your twins?

SM: It all starts with a great foundation at home – no pun intended! I have been blessed with a very supportive husband, John, who not only understands the demands of my business but also encourages me to reach higher.  I also have a community of friends and neighbors who are willing to help out in those moments when the best laid plans are thrown to the wind.  Although I do work long hours, I work equally as hard to make sure I time block “appointments” with the family.  We all have the same hours in a day and I am mindful of how I use them.  My calendar is my friend!

RM: What about working has made you a better parent?

 SM: I will never forget the time I took the kids for a check-up and the doctor told me I needed to get some coping skills.  I just laughed, but secretly I knew she was right.   I wasn’t happy being a stay at home mom and a lot of that was due to not having a choice.  Daycare was too expensive for infant twins so it was cheaper for me to quit work.  So, I went back to work when the kids were 2 1/2 – just breaking even in the cash department- and, as it turned out, I was a much better mom for paying attention to my needs.  There is no right or wrong choice for mothers out there, it is about being true to yourself.  We are all on the same team and both positions are HARD!

RM: What’s the best parenting advice you’ve ever been given?

 SM: “It doesn’t get easier, it gets different.” I love someone who just tells it like it is.  With each new stage my kids enter I find this to be true.  Sure, we don’t need to pack a diaper bag to leave the house but undoubtedly someone needs to find their coat, or shoes, or stuffed animal!

RM: We all have rough days, on those days where you really feel pulled in all directions, what is your inspiration to keep moving?

SM: I love my age, which is 37.  It is an age where I have lived long enough to have learned some lessons and young enough to still be hungry for more answers.  I understand now, more than ever, that the breakthrough is just one more step, just one more knock on the door.  I don’t quit because I know the minute I want to give up, the goal or answer lies in the next minute to come.  My kids witness this and I hope I am setting a good example for them to never, ever give up.  Nemo said it best, “Just Keep Swimming!”

RM: Thanksgiving is the season for giving back to the community, but you give back all year ’round, helping us raise money for CJ’s Thumbs Up Foundation and UNOS (thank you for that by the way), why is it important to you to give back to the community?  Are there any causes particularly close to your heart?

Photo by: James Lee, 88 Loves Stories

SM: I want to contribute, I want to make a difference, and I know change is a domino effect. It starts with one. I give to all sorts of local charities and they are all equally important.  I love knowing a family won’t go hungry that day, a child with cancer gets some much needed financial assistance, and an abused dog finds shelter and ultimately a loving home.  The Richmond community allows me to have a successful business and I want to see it succeed as well.

RM: Not only are you an expert Realtor, but you are kind of an expert mover too! In fact, you’ve bought or sold 10 times in a 12 year period (this would motivate me to get rid of everything I own). So aside from getting a fantastic Realtor, what is your best piece of moving / home buying advice?

SM: For moving: clean out your clutter!  This is a time for a clean slate and there is no point in paying to move things you don’t use or want.  For buying: don’t bite off more than you can chew! Just because you are pre-qualified for a certain amount doesn’t mean you should.  Write down a budget you are comfortable with and work with a Realtor who will look out for your best interests.

RM: Plan on moving again any time soon?

SM: HA!  Call it a hazard of the job – we are under contract to sell our current property and are moving into a new home at the end of December!  It is a local move, of course, as the RVA is our permanent home!

RM: What’s your guilty pleasure?

SM: My guilty pleasure is Adam’s Peanut Butter Cheesecake from The Cheesecake Factory and it is starting to show!  I once had a reward system where for every home I sold I would have a slice…well, I had to stop that as my pants were no longer fitting!  I also like Costco cookies and will often hide the last one and tell the family they are gone – BAD MOMMY!

Psh, we think she looks pretty great!!
(And now I need to get my hands on some of that cheesecake!)

You can reach Shannon at the
RVA Home Team with Long & Foster Realtors
3428 Pump Road, Richmond, VA 23233.
Feel free to call or email me at 804-248-8207 ,
shannon@rvahometeam.com

Shannon Milligan is a sponsor of Richmondmom.com.

Mary Henry of Henry Bros. Circus, 1940s

I told my husband before we got married that I wanted it all.  However, 10 years later, I still struggle with balance.

My personal experience with motherhood is this: It is the toughest job I have ever done and I was totally shocked to learn this, despite other parents passing on this gem that seemed more like a cliché than reality.  Motherhood has also made me have more compassion, organization, patience, tolerance, and an overall expanded perspective on life.

We all know that becoming a mom affects us.  I have had the same job pre- and post-mom, and I can tell you I am much more efficient now at work, out of necessity.  And no matter which way you slice it, whether you are a stay at home mom, a trying to enter-into-working-outside-the-home mom, or working outside the home mom, it is a challenging job.

It seems that I am always on a quest to find balance.  Many have researched the phenomenon of having it all and keeping those plates spinning.  And Richmondmom’s own Rebecca Suder offers, “…while I can’t have it all at one time, I see no reason why I can’t have it all in one lifetime”.  I think perhaps she is on to something.  All I know is that for me, it comes down to the lollipop principle, which has become my anchor.

One day as I got dressed for work, I chose to wear my favorite jacket — a black brocade print, with tiny multi-colored flowers in my favorite hues.  I remembered that my jacket was in the car and I grabbed it to complete my ensemble as I ran off to give a presentation with an important follow-up meeting.  About 10 minutes into the presentation, I noticed something was uncomfortable.  As I moved in front of the screen, I could feel something sticking to my side and back.  I reached around and felt something sticky.  As I opened my jacket, reminiscent of an old fashioned salesman exhibiting his wares, I revealed a half-eaten green lollypop, stick and all, adhered to the inside of my jacket.   I was mortified.  But I kept going through my presentation without missing a beat, despite having the tacky confection adhered to me.  Now that is a new mommy-enhanced skill-set for me.

Photo Credit: Kyle Slattery

Inevitably, there are some little things that get left by the wayside.  Lollipops are small.  The big stuff at home gets taken care of and I try very hard (sometimes unsuccessfully) not to sweat the small stuff.   A form might get turned into school late or the dry cleaning may wait just a bit too long.  And it still turns out alright, lollipops and all.

What is your most embarrassing moment that you have experienced from trying to balance your different life roles?  Do you feel more efficient as a parent?

Two things struck me about my own life as I watched this adorable cast of characters in motion:

1) People say this to me all the time (as in How do you do it all?)

2) People cannot be more wrong in that I have it all together.

While it’s super-sweet and almost embarrassing that folks think I have parenting, being a full-time working mom-of-three, blogger and all-around human being worked out, the truth is: I don’t know how to do it. At all.

I just get up every morning and do my damndest to do it. In between things, I pray a lot, because my real life goes something like this:

-Walk into my house and open a closet and you’ll likely be hit with an avalanche.

-Ask my kids’ teachers and I’ll bet you that I’m the one who sent the permission slip in late, came in for the class party out of breath and with the wrong snack, and apologizing to the school office for not sending in a note for the recent sick days.

-Ask my husband and he’ll say I’m the most likely to go to the grocery store with the list still sitting on the kitchen island.

-Ask my boss and she’ll say I probably forgot to send our status report in on time.

-Ask my mom and she’ll tell you my kitchen is a mess of cluttered papers and I am hopelessly disorganized, as she runs circles around me, designing the next drapery design she wants to try out on my kitchen window.

-Ask my running shoes and they’ll whisper is she still alive?

My mom, pictured here with my youngest. I inherited neither of her genes for order nor sewing talent.

I think stay-at-home moms probably feel exactly the same way. In this particular movie the stay-at-home moms were represented by the “Momsters” who were interviewed either working out or carrying armfuls of baked goods into the school (because I’m sure all stay at home moms have loads of time to do both.)

A momster would note defensively “I want to raise my own kids” perfectly stereotyping the mom who is at home yet wondering if she’s missing out, all the while doing an incredibly important job of being a full-time mom. See also: Nicole Unice’s Letter to Stay At Home Moms, one of our all-time most-read posts.

This must-see movie featured the fabulous, beautiful and ridiculously fashionable Sarah Jessica Parker, the worldly, competitive, corporate woman who fiercely forged a career even though it means her incredibly-hunky husband Greg Kinnear was the dad-in-charge. Sarah Jessica, note: I’ll take your figure, fashion, and sex appeal advice anytime, regardless of who you portray on-screen.

My friend Betsy and I at a work function, looking tough. Sometimes I just act like I know what I’m doing . . .and it helps :-)

In short (oops sorry, this is not short at all) this film was highly entertaining and validating to me personally.

As I sit examining my flaws as I approach forty and admiring my blog readers, friends and coworkers on how well-put-together they are as I run from my car without eye makeup, breathless into my first meeting of the day I realize that none of us really does it.

This is Nicole. You should read her stuff–she’s the bomb (my opinion but also a verifiable fact.)

Richmondmom.com called Letter to Stay at Home Moms.

When she sent us the post it immediately resonated with me although I had no idea how many thousands of moms all over the country would read it, many of them commenting as well. As of today, 300 folks shared it on Facebook, which is like being given a gigantic gold star from the internets.

Although a couple of commenters wondered if she was being truthful and/or condenscending, most were thrilled at the sheer appreciation Nicole expressed at what is often a job with few extrinsic rewards.

Being a gal who truly tries to keep a fair and balanced viewpoint, I didn’t want to leave out all the working moms who may have been reading Nicole’s post feeling a little put out that they weren’t recognized in her eloquent thank you note to the at-home mama contingent.

So, here goes:

If you’re reading this and you’re a working mom (full-time, part-time, sometime), I appreciate you. I appreciate the fact that you have to deal with cranky customers, demanding managers, and annoying “reply all” emails, many of them including requests to be “removed from this email list.”

I appreciate that you may get dolled up to hang out with people all week in order to bring home the bacon when you may just feel like cuddling with your cuties in front of cartoons or playing in the park. (And by “dolled up” I mean in a really nice dress with spit-up and/or snot on one or more sleeves.)

It may not be uncommon for you to emerge from your workplace after eight hours realizing that the large orb in the sky is actually the sun and not the fluorescent light bulbs that have surrounded you as you work.

You have to switch gears quickly, going from being slave to the workplace to slave to your family often without catching a breath in-between, in high heels and while typing emails on your iPhone.

You beg, borrow, and steal time when you can to attend school functions and dutifully send in treasure-box treats, notes of thanks to the teacher, and order forms for crap the PTO swindled encouraged your kids into selling. I realize that the latter resulted in you taking said solicitation into the workplace, perhaps resulting further in annoyed sighs of passers-by because, they too hate having to sell stuff at work.

A lady once told me that “Working Mother Magazine was the worst thing that ever happened to the American Family” and I don’t know about that, but having two parents working outside the home has it’s own set of challenges as does living on one income in many cases.

I get that you are often the cheerleader for overwhelmed, overworked colleagues when you often need your own support group, and I’m happy to be a member of this group to get you through. Warning: Our meetings may require as much wine as they do whine.

*All moms are working moms, some just work for folks other than their bosses, and for paychecks instead of kisses.

All moms are moms. All the time.

So if you haven’t heard, a democratic strategist – Hilary Rosen – got in hot water, with the media at least, because she said that Ann Romney (Mitt Romney’s wife) “hasn’t worked a day in her life.”  Here’s the actual quote:

“What you have is Mitt Romney running around the country, saying, ‘Well, you know, my wife tells me that what women really care about are economic issues, and when I listen to my wife, that’s what I’m hearing.’ Guess what? His wife has actually never worked a day in her life,” Rosen said on CNN.

What this is really about are our dear political parties trying to harness this incident for their own benefit.  The Republican Party is trying to win the favor of moms who stay at home, trying to say the Democratic Party thinks they are out-of-touch.  The Democratic Party is trying to win the favor of moms who work, alleging that the Republicans just don’t understand their plight of finding appropriate affordable daycare, ensuring adequate leave and healthcare, etc.

Of course, the media is playing into this firestorm, keeping it in headlines and putting Romney’s kids in the spotlight.  Josh Romney was interviewed, defending his mom.  Here’s an excerpt from a CNN article about it:

Romney said his parents didn’t take the easy way out by hiring someone to take care of him and his brothers growing up. “My parents really did try and do things the hard way and taught us the value of hard work and being at home.”

It’s very sweet that he’s defending his mom.  However, in grand fashion of fueling this moms-who-stay-at-home vs. moms-who-work debate, he defends his mom’s choice by essentially insulting others who do things differently.  He implies that hiring somebody to care for children is the “easy way out” and that “being at home” has greater value than not being at home during the day.

Is this so-called debate ever going to away?  When are we going to stop pitting moms against each other based on how they spend their days and how much time they do or do not spend with their children, either by choice or by force?

This mom thing is hard.  Regardless of how we spend our days, all moms are moms, all the time.  Let’s all agree to not let media firestorms affect neither how we feel towards other moms nor our choice of candidate come November.  All moms are smart and capable enough to make decisions about other people on their words and actions, not their politics.

These last few weeks have brought about a ton of changes in my world, and I’ve decided to share them with you.

After two years of running Richmondmom.com solely as my business, I’ve gone back to work full-time.

For the first time in nine years (that’s approximately 3,285 days, many of which I had with them) since my first child was born, I’m working a full forty hours per week.

For the first time in my children’s lives, they are in full-time daycare and/or afterschool care five days a week.

This decision to go back is multi-faceted and I won’t belabor that here, but suffice it to say that the time had come and the opportunity was ripe, so I jumped back onto the corporate mothership.

It’s hard. I mean, really hard. Not so much the work, as my coworkers are wonderful, I’ve run into lots of my super-smart and fun friends from the company we were displaced from when it went bankrupt (LandAmerica Financial Group), and I can actually hear my head think some afternoons as I hum away on my laptop, unlike when I was working at home with kids.

But I miss them. I miss doing their homework with them. I miss seeing them running towards me, stuffed backpacks flapping as they chug towards me as they get off the big cheese.

I miss mornings with my sweet little girl, who would light up like a flashlight when I picked her up at preschool, and who asks me every morning: do I have to go to school again today? Why can’t you stay with me, mama?

I miss throwing in a load of laundry in-between blog posts and reading stories before naptime.  I miss being able to clean up the kitchen so it didn’t all have to get done at night when I’m too pooped to wipe down the counters and empty the dishwasher.

But most of all, I miss the time with my three little crumbsnatchers. It’s a precious gift, and one that I’ll always be thankful for. I’ve given up thousands of dollars reducing my schedule the last nine years to be with them as much as I could, and I don’t miss a single cent of it.