At least it wasn't snow!

After a beautiful sunny Friday (and with 40 degrees it even felt warm!) we've had nothing but dreary drizzle since early Saturday morning. It's helping to melt the snow (we found we still have a deck!) but it's creating yucky, dreary looking mud pits instead. But at least it isn't more snow! And the yucky dreary looking mud pits were going to have to happen eventually so maybe we'll get it all out of the way in the next week or so just in time for March and hopefully the beginning of spring! But I really hate looking out and seeing nothing but dirty snow mounds and mud buuuuuuuuuuuut at least it wasn't more snow! (Notice a theme here?!)

We had a scout filled week-end this past week-end. Robbie's Blue and Gold Banquet was Saturday evening. Next year he'll be a Webelos II and crossing over to Boy Scouts and if next year's ceremony is like this year's I'm sure I'll be a bawling mess! I appreciate the value of ceremonies and marking achievements but boy is that rough for a parent sometimes! ;-)

Sunday we spent over five hours at Thinking Day for our local Girl Scouts. Katie's troop's booth was Costa Rica and they did a great job! It was really neat seeing all the different countries that were represented. Some of the troops went all out on their booths! And there was a group of Pakistani dancers that were just awesome! I know the dancing told a story and I wish I knew what the story was! But it was so cool to watch even if I was clueless!

Today I had the day off from work so I've cleaned bathrooms and have spent the day washing towels and bedding. Wheeeeeeee! I've also been listening to Celtic Thunder's latest CD. I think they could sing the phonebook and I'd buy the CD and enjoy it! They just make me happy and when I think back to Katie's excitement at the concert last November and Ryan putting his arms around me and Katie ("He touched my shoulder!" "I know, he touched mine too!") it just makes me even happier. I can't remember another group that I can listen to over and over and never get sick of listening! And their version of Amazing Grace IS amazing. That was my Grandma Lambert's favorite song and even though she never got to meet Katie (whose middle name comes from Grandma) listening to this song with Katie just makes those family ties seem tangible. I'm not putting it into words very well but it's an amazing thing!

Now I think I'm going to maybe go scrapbook!

It's been awhile

It's been almost a month since I've blogged. I wish I could tell you (and by you, I'm thinking it's just Jeanne and Kelli who are reading!) that it's because I've been living a fabulously exciting life and had no time to write but alas, I'd be lying! (It's so easy to use the word "alas" when writing but how often do you hear it used in vocal conversation?!)

It's just been a routine kind of life lately which sometimes is a nice thing. Take care of the family, go to work, fight this never-ending crud that won't seem to completely let go of any of its victims, be Cookie Mom for Katie's troop and swear, once again, that I will NEVER do it again. I think I mean it this time though. I don't want to go publicly into details but it's just been frustrating on my end. I was told I was the "odd one" for being responsible and on top of things (and not saying all the other parents are irresponsible parents) and I just don't have the need to add that frustration to my life again.

There's also been the never-ending snow this year. I think this year it's just been spread out over a longer period so it just feels worse. We did have glorious sunshine yesterday but today it's lightly snowing again and the weather folks are saying it's going to get pretty ugly Sunday and/or Monday. I was threatening to find the bleepin' groundhog and hang him last week.

Bright spot is, even though I didn't think I'd make it this year, I'm going to Get Scrappy in Wichita at the end of March! I'll get to hang out at the "noisy, cool kids" table again and hopefully get some mass quantities of layouts scrapped! Ok, with all the laughing and noise there may be not be mass quantities!

And now I've rambled for a bit and it's time to go serve some food at my cafe on Facebook!

The brighter side of my old job

My Sunday paper was missing the actual paper this morning. I had the ads and the Sunday magazine but no newspaper sections at all which meant it didn't take too long to peruse it! So I got on the computer, and while listening to what sounds like the wind trying to blow the house apart, I got onto the 2 Peas website and started perusing CHA sneak peeks.

There are so many cute lines coming out! And bright, vibrant colors in some of the lines! You wouldn't know it looking at my house but I like bright colors! It's hard NOT to be happy when you're scrapping with bright colors! And I hesitate to admit this again out loud to some people but I could take or leave most of the Basic Grey lines. There have been a couple that caught my eye in the past but they often seemed "darker" to me so I was never a BG junkie like some people I know! lol But they have some cute lines coming out and there's one out right now, I think it's called Sugar Rush, that is really cute too! And I loved all the Bo Bunny peeks I saw and then there was Fancy Pants and...and...and...!!!!

I do miss that part of my former job. The CHA review nights and then seeing everything when it started arriving in the store. Standing up there at the counter, pulling stuff out of the boxes, and sometimes squealing in delight or hearing one of my co-working friends squeal in delight! I miss that! The stashes that were started in the hold drawer. Certain people who could look in the computer system and see how much money employees had spent that year being sworn to secrecy! lol It was always baaaaaaaaaad when CHA stuff started coming in! They should have just paid me in merchandise and saved the paper check during that time frame!

And I miss working with some outstandingly creative women too! It was so easy to appreciate everyone's different styles because they were all so great at what they were creating!

sigh......I miss my peeps! So now in between scrubbing bathrooms today and maybe doing our taxes maybe I'll sneak in a few more peeks at what's to come and then go try to use up some of my stuff so I can make room for the new!

New job

I've only been back to work a month and I'm already relishing the fact that I have tomorrow off! I like the job but I had become such a quasi-hermit that this interacting with the public every day is rough! lol

I've hit my assigned goal for mortgage referals and the contest isn't over until the 12th so that's pretty good! Today I had a customer in the drive thru asking about the "4's and 5's" hanging in our window so I explained to her about our mortgage rates. She said to have the mortgage banker give her a call next week. It was during "power hour" where we were to ask every customer if they wanted to donate to St. Jude's so I mentioned that to her and she said to take money out of her cash she wanted back for it. My co-workers were complimenting me and I kept saying "It's beginner's luck!" I don't want the to upset the Fates with too many praises, doncha know?! ;-) I did say though "If I knew I was going to be validated like this I would have been here a long time ago!" LOL

We started a conversation about family taking each other for granted but then a customer came in so we got side tracked off of it. I think that's probably just a natural part of family life is you can take each other for granted. All I know is no one has ever sang my praises over how clean a bathroom was! LOL And considering the owners of my former place of employment....well, let's just say praise was not exactly forthcoming. Which is not something I really expect so it's sort of hard to get used to with this new job!

There's still a lot to learn but I definitely feel better about it than I did a couple of weeks ago during "school"! And everyone at the branch has been great about answering questions and not making me feel like a nuisance or an idiot when I need help with something! Including when I forgot I had put the card with all my safe codes on it in my pocket and washed it the other night! I felt like a kid saying "My dog ate my homework." but instead of getting upset my supervisor and the co-worker that I share codes with and had to write them all out for me again both just laughed and said at least I hadn't lost the card somewhere and everyone had to get new codes. Definitely would not have been that calm of a response at a former place of employment!

I'm afraid to say this in case those pesky Fates are listening but my work life is good! Maybe the fact I got salt water out of my bathroom sink this morning (stupid water softener is going haywire!) is the balance of karma?! ;-)

I am a rock star!

Whose drawer balanced yet again? And WHO got her first referral for our mortgage banker today?! Yeah, that's right! ME!!!! We're supposed to get so many referrals each month anyway but right now there's a contest on and I have to get five in the next month. My second official day on the job (minus training) and I have a referral! Go meeee, go meeee!

Certainly helped turn my day around after the first two people I asked said they had already refinanced or just weren't interested.

And I have caught Katie's cold and feel like my head is stuffed with cotton balls and just generally feel cruddy but go meeee, go meeee!!!

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!