the girl who is unemployed

Technically that is.

My last day on paper was Friday. But I'm going in tomorrow to make sure payroll goes off without a hitch, because I have good work ethic like that(and it's my pay that's being affected too!)

My "assistant came to work with me one last time and got smothered with kisses from everyone. I think that they will miss him more than me. He;s been a little mascot for them. They've seen him grow from the little not-quite-five-pounder that he was when I first started bringing him to work, to a robust, chubby little not-quite-fifteen-pounder. Plus he's adorable, how can you not get attached?

My babysitter is quite heartbroken over the possibility of losing the boys. She loves them and I love her for loving them. I can't exactly ask her to hold their spaces though. She's one woman running her own daycare and can only take a limited number of kids. Well, I'm taking up three spots. I can't ask her to do without that income. But, she's given me some tips on some things, and hopefully we can make it work.

She loves Eli, especially (who doesn't?) and has this thing about wanting him to be in real little boy clothes. I'm happy to let him stay in sleepers all day, but Miss Mitzi likes him looking like a little man. So much so that she started looking for clothes for him. This outfit is courtesy of her. He DOES look like a little man. He has just grown so much!

And he's Mr. Personality too. I'm sure he'll be just as much trouble as Matthew, because he is very much "look at me! play with me! pay attention to me!" But as a baby it's adorable.

Speaking of Matthew, I'm trying to figure out if its him or Ian who did this.


Yes, that's a Happy Face drawn right where Mr. Happy hides.

I'm leaning towards Ian, since he's the resident artist. But I was baffled as to why he would be drawing on his undies.

Then it hit me.

These are plain white undies. No decoration. No cartoon characters. Naturally he had to iven them up!

I have strange children, lol.

In other news...I was asked to be a guest designer for the Color Challenge on 2Peas. I had fun with it.

This was the Color Combo I was given:


And this is what I did with it.


I'm running out of stash, so my layouts are becoming more streamlined. I can only hope that I become employed soon, or else I won't be able to take advantage of all the yummy BOY goodies (finally) from CHA. I'm in love with several items and simply want to go crazy.

So this is kind of a rambling, pointless post, but I wanted to show off the pictures, lol.

Will post any job hunt successes as they happen!

the girl who needs an umbrella (ella, ella)

No pics again, but an update.

Washer is fixed. I did it myself actually. The first repair guy that came out diagnosed it with a broken transmission.

Landlord wanted a second opinion.

Second repair guy (from different company) said same thing so eventually she consented to order parts.

Third repair guy missed the Saturday appointment for the day I was home and forced me to take a day off of work to wait for him so I could have a working washer. This was the day I got called in to go to a meeting which was useless. The next day I found out they were eliminating HR.

However on that day I thought I had a working washer because they replaced the transmission. So the washer finally spun again, but wait...nope, not working. Won't agitate now.

Fourth repair guy came out and looked it over and ordered parts.

Fifth repair guy came out to install said parts, but they were UNNECESSARY as the only thing wrong with the washer at that point was that repair guy #3 (coincidentally also repair guy #4) didn't put the machine back together correctly and left off (and left with) the part that actually makes the agitator grab on to the thingie that makes it agitate. (For the record, the part is called a "spline" don't know what the agitator thingie is called.) So repair guy#5 asked me if *my husband* was mechanically inclined and told me how to tell *my husband* how to fix it. I'm surprised he didn't call me "Little Lady" and ask me why I was wearing shoes in my kitchen. (For the record, it's to stomp on the roaches).

So the part arrives before I go into work last Tuesday and in five seconds I have the whole thing running smoothly and washing clothes.

Repair Guy #6 shows up on Saturday (you think I'm going to cancel? Hmph, they better come out just for the hassle they've put me through) and I explain I fixed it, but could he please put the housing back together correctly (something repair guys 1-5 haven't done yet) so it will open properly. He did, clothes are clean again and the love seat is now sporting the layer that needs to be hung.

So that's some good news at least. I thought I'd lead with that.

But here is where the umbrella comes in since when it rains it pours.

Florida Dad had a heart attack Monday.

He's as fine as he can be right now and I've been doing my best to help out. Scared the bejeezus out of me, but I'd never let him know it. He's too ornery to die. Besides, then he'd have to give up his post as president of the DOMC (Dirty Old Man Club) and I don't think he's ready for that yet.

But I did request that he have pretty nurses during his convalescence.

More rain on the way.

DH got some bad news about his job too. Going into Pop culture speak here, the Bobs are at his work and the TPS reports aren't being stapled correctly.

So in a couple weeks he will be joining me in looking for new employment.

Sigh!

My last day at work is Monday.

No nibbles yet, but at least I got the benefits pushed through before my exit.

I gotta take my victories where I can.

At least I'll have clean clothes to wear for my interviews.

the girl who sees you

I see that visitor count keep going up (even though the comments remain the same, hint, hint, a girl needs a little PVM ya know) but don't really have anything new to post.

I'm in a crappy mood and don't really want to bring the whole world into my black hole.

Still looking for a job and still going into work every day until the final day. The resentment and "why bother" attitude is starting to pervade and becoming very difficult to fight. I keep reminding myself I'm staying for the employees so I can get through open enrollment and they can have their benefits and so I can finalize training of the person responsible for their pay.

I remind myself this was my idea to stay long enough to accomplish this and that I really fought for it, and even though the extra paycheck is definitely a motivating factor, it's really because I hate leaving things undone.

But it's hard to go in and remain positive and professional.

It's hard to try to finish up projects that may, ultimately mean nothing to anyone but myself.

It's hard to hear another person come up and say "you're leaving? why?" or knowing why and telling me why its so unfair.

It's even harder to put a smile on my face and say, "I'm sure it will be a positive move and things will work out, don't worry." instead of agreeing with them and ranting and raving about the injustice of it all.

I had an employee in my office for 20 min the other day actually crying because she had heard the news.

It's hard, and just add to that a washer that STILL isn't fixed and a cold that WILL NOT GO AWAY and I am just drained.

So I'll try to post when I am in a better mood or have good news.

Thanks for lurking.

the girl who survived another birthday

So, Matthew turned four (I can't believe he has survived this long sometimes!) and we had the usual festivities. Unfortunately, I had to work on his special day and you just don't tell a kid who is counting the days to his birthday that you'll do it on the weekend. Every time he spoke of his birthday it was "Cas, cars, RACEcars!" so I figured I was pretty safe in being able to pick out something he's like.

As you can see from the pictures, he got his wish. A racecar birthday cake and some more Disney Cars shake n' go cars. He also got a Cars pillow book and a Cars tee. So all in all, quite the respectable haul for a four year old.

The days of showering the kids with gift after gift after gift are long since gone. For one thing, may I point out I have four children? It isn't just the financial aspect (although that certainly plays a part) but it is the sheer amount of STUFF that accumulates when you have four kids.

I hate to say it, but when it was just Zachary he was spoiled at gift giving time. If one action figure would be cool, then the entire collection of action figures should be that much better! Right? I think Daddy had a little bit to do with that too. What man really grows out of crashing cars and playing good vs evil?

"Yeah, Honey. I think he really needs the entire collection of He-Man figures because I remember them from my childhood and I had so much fun!"

Never mind that that retro craze only lasted about three months. They were the right three months because they fell right around Christmas!

Of course, I can't really talk. I'm sure if we had a little girl it would look like Strawberry Shortcake and My Little Pony went on a bender and vomited all over my precious little princess' room. But we dodged that bullet, lol.

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Of course, with the birthday comes the annual check-up at the Doctor's. Poor Matthew had to get FOUR shots. But he was as fearless as ever and only started to cry on the very last one. You know, those icky intra-muscular ones that burn when they go in. He got to that one and statred wailing, "Mommy, I don't want to do this anymore!"

For putting up such a brave face, he earned his reward of a McFlurry on the way home and was actually neat enough with it that it only took one pass with the hose to wash out a small serving of imitation vanilla frozen treat with oreos out of the van.

Eli was also due for a check up so he tagged along. My little porker is a big boy now! Six month old and 14lbs 12oz. He is 26 inches long and has completely caught up developmentally.

No mother is supposed to have favorites, but I do. He is my favorite baby. (Just like Zack is my favorite 8 yo, Ian my favorite 5 yo and Matthew my favorite newly-minted 4 yo.) I just am enjoying him so much! He is so interactive, he holds your gaze and will have a conversation with you in coos and burbles.

I think its because Zachary was my first, and I really had no clue what I was doing. He survived (Thank goodness!) but the anxiety I felt over "Am I going to screw this up?!!" diminished the joy slightly. Ian and Matthew came so close together (and then Matthew had a slew of health problems--not that you'd know it now) I never got to enjoy them as babies. But Eli. With Eli I can take the time to wonder at the chubby cheeks and perfect rosebud lips. I can confidently play with him, feed him, bathe him, all of that and still have time to marvel at how he responds, the teeny fingers, how strong he is. He is such a little miracle to me and I just turn to mush whenever he smiles and grabs my fingers. Even though he was the surprise to end all surprises, he truly completes this family.

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Update on the washer. The repair guy finally made it out last Monday after missing our appointment on Saturday. So I had to take the day off of work because you couldn't make an appointment for a specific time and the window was 8 am to 5 pm! Really? Sheesh, could you be a little more vague? I got the call to come into work, they're having an all manager meeting with the owner and everyone must be there, so I had to contact the repair service and tell them that they couldn't come for the next two hours. I go to the meeting (at which HR was not addressed even once--more on that later) and got home to find two repair guys struggling with the washer. (DH was home by that time) After about an hour, they got things mostly put back together and declared it fixed. I say mostly because the front cover wasn't attached in one corner and hung all whopper jawed off the side. But, hey, it may not look pretty but it works, right?

My landlord called to follow up and I said, "Guess what I'm doing RIGHT NOW!" Yep, I was washing. Hallelujah! It took me about three loads to figure out that, yeah, it spins once more but NOW IT DOESN'T AGITATE!! Grrrrr!

So the repair guy came out again yesterday, looked at for five minutes, declared he needed to order parts and he'd see me NEXT Saturday.

Double grrr.

And I can't exactly use the hotel anymore to wash my clothes.

In brief, when the hotel was bought last year the new owners came in proclaiming they didn't believe in HR but offered me the position of Manager anyway. Wel, they weren't kidding. Now it's a year later and I've set everything up for them, so I guess my services aren't needed anymore, thank you very much.

I'm trying not to be bitter and look at it as an opportunity to grow somewhere else, but it still was a surprise, for all that it wasn't completely unexpected.

And my last day would be two weeks before I qualify for vacation.

But I negotiated with them and explained they really needed to keep me a little bit longer to train someone on payroll. So I have three weeks before I am unemployed.

Yay.

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In other news: Zachary is currently burning batteries in his new cd player listening to Radio Disney Jamz 10 over and over and over. It was his reward for bringing home straight A's, Honor Roll and perfect attendance. Give me just a moment to revel in the glory that I didn't screw him up and he's doing just fine! Until the teenage years at least...

Speaking of the teenage years. My LOAD quest continues and I've done pretty well at keeping up. Here's a smattering of my recent lo's (but not all, I'm actualy keeping some back for pub)

I can wait
Zachary just seemed a little too teenagerish in these pictures, hence the journaling about how I really can wait.

Smitten
This cutie girl latched on to Zack at a birthday party. He was oblivious, but I knew she was making a play for my little guy!

8
A layout designed around the premise of a little boy emptying his pockets. No frogs though.

It's not easy being green
My mistake. How could I possibly buy a green shirt for my OCD boy when his color is blue? green is Zack's color!

Waiting
this one is kind of a cheat because I did it a little bit ago, but I posted it in lieu of a different Eli one I'm holding to submit. It tells about waiting for Eli to come home from the NICU.

Lucky

How lucky are we to have found Mitzi? A woman who loves my kids (and Eli especially) as her own?

And that's it until I have something else that's blogworthy come up. Seems like it wouldn't take much, lol.