A midweek entry!

I'm actually posting before the week-end! I'm sure my fan base of maybe...two?....are ecstatic! lol

I did my first day "without a net" yesterday. I say without a net but I did have to ask my supervisor a couple of questions but she was great about it. But anyway, I had a couple of large deposits and one person who wanted their cash back in an odd assortment and I still balanced at the end of the day! Oh happy day!

I wish I knew why I've been getting so overly nervous and anxious about this job. I've had new jobs before and would get nervous at first but not the levels I've been hitting this time around. And the people that have trained me and that I'm working with now are great so it's not that. And I've worked with money before so that shouldn't be it either. I don't know! But at least, hopefully, maybe, perhaps I'm on the downside of that anxiety! Although in the shower this morning I realized I had put something in my proof work that I should have put elsewhere. sigh But I balanced!

Katie's had a cold for almost two weeks now and I've been fighting it. I have lost that fight. I dropped the dogs off for their grooming appt and then went straight to CVS to restock some cold meds. Hopefully they kick in soon! I've actually done pretty well in the cold/flu dept this winter (knock on wood). I'm hoping all the germs didn't just join forces to have one helluva party in my body!

Robbie has a new bus driver who apparently is "MEAN!". From what Robbie said the man stopped the bus in the middle of the road and yelled at everyone and he's going to make the 4th grade boys sit with 1st grade girls. I guess Robbie was upset when he got off the bus yesterday and Mark said all the kids looked downcast. The boy has RTC (resistance to change) along with the other issues. I think the RTC is probably a big factor for most people with OCD though. It's difficult dealing with a 9yo with this conditions in this situation. Change is a big part of life and you can't escape it no matter who you are. But what's the best way to help a 9yo who is already navigating a minefield to deal with change? We're muddling through it though. And I explained to Robbie that the bus driver is the "boss" of the bus and he has to do what he deems neccessary to keep all the kids safe on the bus. Robbie said he didn't like being told what to do and I told him he might as well accept that as a fact of life because he already has people telling him what to do and it's not going to stop! He replied "That's why I'm never gettting a job or moving out." I said "Oh.yes.you.are!" lol Oh, to be 9 again and have the whole rest of your life mapped out so certainly!

weekly update

I seem to be just getting here on the week-ends lately. But now that all my training is over and I'll be going into a "regular" schedule starting next week maybe I'll be here a tad more often once we get the routine down in the home....then again, knowing me who KNOWS what may happen! lol

My mentor week went well. I don't know why I was as nervous as I was Tuesday morning. I've started new jobs, moved to new states (and a different country once!), etc before and had been nervous but nothing like I was feeling Tuesday morning for some reason. I'm not sure if I was thinking "old dog/new tricks" or what. But my mentor was great! He's not much older than my oldest kidlet but he didn't make me feel like a dinosaur! He seems to have the same dry sense of humor I do too so that helped. I know I'm still going to have to ask my supervisor for some guidance time to time in the beginning but I'm pretty confident I can at least get people's deposits done correctly!

So now I have this three day week-end laying before me and I'm wondering what to do with it. There's the typical household cleaning stuff and I need to go do some shoe shopping for work. Mark and Robbie both need some shoes too....have I ever mentioned how much I HATE shoe shopping? And then the trick will be to not waste so much time online and maybe get some scrapbooking accomplished or try to read through the stack of library books due back soon. And at some point I think Mark and I are going to have to take the dishwasher apart and see why it's not rinsing well at all. I pray they didn't crimp the water line or something when they were fixing the leak and then pouring in new cement!

And I was going to borrow something from Jeanne's blog but can't get it to c/p for some reason. I'll try again later...hopefully before next week!

trials, training and tests

I spent this past week in "school". The bank has a training center in Greenwood which is south of Indy...I am northeast of Indy...so that meant driving in rush hour traffic to and fro all week. Just on a typical week I wouldn't be making that drive every day to a job! Too many crazy people out there driving like they're in the 500! But throw in the snowstorm that hit Thursday morning as rush hour was picking up and you get oodles of joy and fun...NOT! There were part of I-465 where you could not see the road nor tire tracks of the vehicles in front of you. It basically looked like a white field out there and not a highway. A drive that had been taken me roughly 45-50 minutes to make took two hours that morning. By the time I got to the training center I had a splitting headache and a ton of body aches from being tense and clenching the wheel. No gouda as we say around here!

But the good news is I aced my test even after feeling like the stupidest person alive on Tuesday. I was fighting tears driving home Tuesday and the only thing that kept me from saying "Curse it (not what I was actually thinking!), I'm quitting." was the whole setting an example for my kids thing! Don't you hate how often that can come around to bite you in the butt?! But I maintained and got through the course. I don't think, however, that the test is a good indicator of knowledge learned in that class! Most of the 50 questions are worded in a way that makes the answer more than obvious! But I aced it all the same. This week I go to a different branch than the one I'm assigned to so I can work with a "mentor". I'm told the guy I'm assigned to is a "real whiz kid". Great, another situation to make me feel like an idiotic dinosaur! Can't wait! cough cough. But I'll be working three full time days and then I guess if I pass that then the following week I'll start part time at my branch. I'm ready for it to be a year from now and all this being routine! Not that I want to rush the year but I just want the comfort level already!

I'd also like a maid but that's another story....

2010

I have high hopes for you, 2010! Your older sibling, 2009, had the grace to end on a positive note in my house but a good chunk of it was a naughty, mean spirited little year! But look at you, 2010, you even have a pleasant way to say your name, Twenty-Ten! Your two looks curvy and fun, your one stands tall and steadfast and your zeroes look like they're just chockful of hope, happiness and goodness! I think you are going to be a splendid year indeed! It's wonderful to meet you today!

MIA

I know it's been awhile and I could make a hundred excuses but it's just been LIFE. And I know everyone knows what that's like!

It's just starting to get light outside and I'm watching it snow. It's beautiful and relaxing. At least until I have to go out into it later today! I keep hearing a line from a song in my head over and over every time it snows lately. I can only hear the one part and can't think of the title or who sings it and I know it's not a Christmas song. "There's a kind of hush all over the world tonight." One of my favorite things about snow is how it muffles the sounds outside. A kind of "hush" if you will. So far we've just had patchy snow this year but if it keeps up like this then we may have a white Christmas. I think later in the week it's supposed to be icy rain though and after the great ice storm of Wichita a few years back I have no desire to go through anything like that again! Good thing Santa has an ATV sleigh!

I finally got some pictures up on Facebook of the whole plumbing mess. The new flooring is down but not without some complications along the way. The two guys who came in to put down the flooring said they had to call someone to move the toilet in the half bath because they don't do that. Apparently they were told over the phone that they DO do that but they didn't put it back very well. First it was a rocking chair and then a recliner. They finally sent an actual plumber out to reset it. Then a different man came out to put the shoe moulding back up. Supposedly they took the old to the shop so the paint could be matched up. It's not. The new pieces are white and the baseboard is more of an almond. Mark and I both agree we're just tired of dealing with the whole mess and we need to paint this spring anyway so we're just going to live with it. I'm sick of us having to call people back out and I'm sick of having people in and out of my house all day long lately. The man who is POC on the flooring is coming out tomorrow for a final inspection and to have Mark co-sign the check from the insurance company so I am going to point it out to him. And who knew a couple of tiny holes could be so costly! So far the cost to us has been $3000 and the restoration company got a check from the insurance company too. We're hoping they reimburse us for some of the plumbing costs as well. But trust me, find something more fun to spend your money on!

I could ramble on and on but the youngest just got up and I need to go make sure he eats some breakfast!

Moving in with Kermit

We have a swamp forming around our house. I noticed a spongy spot in the yard last week and pointed it out to DH who said "We'll keep an eye on it." NOT one of my favorite sayings but in the interest of family harmony I try to ignore it when I can. Last night the neighbors came over to show us what the small side yard between our two houses looks like and the dampness on our foundation. Today in the sunlight we see how swampy it is on the other side of the house too. Huge sigh.

A man from the water company came out, checked the meter and said "Nope, it's not here". Which I'm sure is what his job description entails but to quote my son's friend who was here all afternoon, "C'mon dude!" A little more helpful insight would have been appreciated.

This was while we were getting ready to hang Christmas lights outside since it was a warm, sunny day. DH discovers he has again misplaced a piece off the staple gun that fell off a few months ago. He found out and apparently it got lost again. So off to Ace he goes to buy a new one and I got online to check the town's website. I found a number to call for possible sewer emergencies so I call it and hear "Sheriff's Department" My tongue trips over itself as I start apologizing and tell her I had call the number listed on the website to call for sewer emergencies. She assures me it's ok and that she's working at "dispatch" and on the week-ends they get emergency town calls too. I explained I wasn't sure if we were an emergency or not and tell her what's going on. She put me on hold and then came back and said she had called someone from the sewer company to come out. Alrighty then!

A little bit later a kidlet brings me the phone outside and it's "sewer man". He said "I just got a call from the sheriff's department???" So I explained the number on the website to him too and we both agreed how strange it was. He comes by a little later and said he doesn't believe it's a backed up sewer since thankfully there's no awful smell. He said he thinks we have a leak and that all the pea gravel under our slab foundation has absorbed all the water it could so now it's spreading out. Then he says "It could be a pinpoint leak and been there since it was built." GREAAAAAAAAAAAAT! If we're lucky it's in a spot he pointed out on the side of the house. If it's under the house then I have horrifying images of jackhammers and flying concrete and linoleum through the kitchen in my head.

But how bad can it be to live in a swamp...really? Kermit did and look how well he's done for himself! I have kids, aren't they like fuzzy Muppets sometimes?! Then again, Kermit LEFT the swamp for Sesame Street.....can you tell me how to get...how to get to Sesame Street????

Oops, two weeks?

Ok, I did pretty well there for about a week! Then the girls were in a car accident and this and that and I just didn't get around to blogging.

I'm going to skip over the car accident for now...both girls are ok but Samantha's car had over $2200 worth of damage done to it. Luckily it was someone else's fault and their insurance is paying for it!

One of the big stories of the week is the CELTIC THUNDER SHOW!!!!! Oh my gosh, it was so AWESOME! And yes I am talking as badly as, if not worse than, my 12 yo daughter! Even Mark is saying "I want to see them again!" Such a great show! And they ain't bad to look at either! LOL

We picked Katie up early at school so we could make the over 2.5 hour drive to South Bend (which is north of us which I just found funny and Katie found confusing!). Mark went in to get her and I snapped a shot as they were walking to the van. Notice the Celtic Thunder t-shirt Katie is wearing! I ordered that from their website for her birthday back in the spring. And you can see Mark lugging her very pink and very HEAVY book bag for her, such a good dad!

So we drive while listening to the three Celtic Thunder cd's on the iPod! The Morris Performing Arts Center (PAC) was basically right off the road we drove most of the way up there. We were on a divided highway and then right into the city. Easy directions, gotta love that! We got there around 4 pm. The show didn't start until 7:30 pm and they didn't allow anyone into the theater until 6:30 pm but we weren't sure about the drive, traffic, etc and I wanted to make sure I could get a picture of Katie with the marquee since cameras weren't allowed into the show. So I got THIS shot....

See tiny Katie there?

I take pictures and then we drive around to find a place to eat and park the minivan. A lot of one way streets in the area (as it seems to be in almost every downtown!) so we find ourselves coming up a side street behind the theater when I saw the Celtic Thunder semis at which point I'm excitedly telling Mark, who was NOT in the turn lane, "Turn down that way!!!!!" He managed to make the turn without angering any other drivers and we parked. The back of the Morris is up against a one way street, obviously we didn't know that or know how easily we'd be able to see the trucks AND the tour buses!

Somewhere on that bus is my future son-in-law! At least that's what Katie tells me!

We get back into the van (even though Mark tried to keep my door lock so I'd get hit by oncoming traffic! That's my story and I'm sticking to it!) and cut through the parking lot and I ran into the ticket office to ask about parking. The kind man there told me where a parking garage was and we found our way there. Right across the street from it (on the same one-way street as the back of the Morris) we saw an Irish pub called the Fiddler's Hearth. Katie was game to try it so off we went. She surprised us both and went for the Irish stew even though there was lamb in it...there was some discussion over being able to eat "tiny, cute little lamb" or not beforehand! I had a seafood stew called Molly Malone Stew and it was really good! Good food at reasonable prices and we were in the Irish atmosphere getting into "the zone"! We finished our early supper and still had over an hour until we could even get into the theater but the place was starting to fill up with others going to the concert so we gave up our table and walked down to the theater.

We walked around in the front a bit even though I wanted to go back by the buses. Katie kept worrying they'd call us stalkers if we went back there though. Mark finally said "Let's go back there and see if we see anyone." There was a group of three women back there who told us we had just missed Damian (my future SIL for those keeping track!) Then we saw Keith walk out of the building and into one of the buses, he waved but didn't come over to the portable fence thing set up. One of the guys with the tour said they normally don't come out as a group because people pay big money through the PBS stations for the meet and greets and the organization doesn't want to upset those people. He also said though "What they do on their own though is out of anyone's control." So we were just standing there chatting with him and other fans when Ryan comes walking out. We all assumed he was going straight to the bus but he looked over and said "Hey there" and started walking towards us. Ok, I'll admit it, I freaked out! Ryan is the one who plays the "bad boy" in the show but he was so friendly to everyone. All I had to give Katie to hand him for an autograph was our dinner reciept. He laughed and said "I'm signing a receipt?!" in that gorgeous Irish accent! I said "I didn't know you were going to come out here!!!" So he laughed again and then let Mark take a picture of him with me and Katie.

Katie and I were saying to each other "He touched my shoulder!" We were such girls and Mark was such a good sport about it all! We also got to see George and his wife but they didn't come over to the fence.

We finally got to our seats (I'll skip over the crowd getting into the place and at the merchandise table). We were in the balcony and we had warned Katie that it wouldn't be like watching the DVDs. She said "Mom, these are good seats, they won't look too small at all!" LOL She kept thanking us over and over throughout that night! They made the final announcements and the lights dimmed. The show opens with Heartland which has a strong drum beginning. Katie grabbed my hand and I thought she was going to break my knuckles she was squeezing so hard! Once Damian came on stage she let go of my hand, let out a sigh and was riveted to the stage! They sang for about two hours and it all went by way too fast. If you've ever enjoyed watching one of their two DVDs seeing them in person is about a million times better!

After the show we walked back behind the building on the way to the garage. We saw Keith again who this time came over to the fence but my camera was in the van since it couldn't go inside and the camera phone didn't take a good picture in the dark so we didn't get one with him. No one else came out for awhile and it was getting late and we had a long drive ahead of us so we left. I wish Katie would have gotten to see Damian up close but it didn't work out that way. She kept thanking us again and then asked "Can we do it again sometime?" They're supposed to have another U.S. tour next fall so I hope we can take her again!

But I've been typing for awhile now and I'm getting tired so there's your short update!