Female Power

This past fall I had four new tires put on my car. At this time I told Kevin that I needed them readjusted, but he didn't believe me. Well, what do you know, I was right! My two front tires are worn out on the insides b/c of a bad alignment. So today I took matters into my own hands. I went to Goodyear, talked the guy into a deal, and walked out with two new tires :D Wait until Kevin gets home and finds out I did it all without him. I am a confident woman, sure in my abilities not to be taken advantage of...I hate having to depend on anybody, especially a man. Some may think that makes me snobby...I think it makes me smart. Which, incidentally, is the same reason why I pay all of the bills :D

First Kiss on a Crappy Morning

It's official, folks!! I got my first kiss from Emma today! I don't mean one of those open mouthed "I want to bite your nose" sorta kiss...Nope, a REAL kiss!! :D Boy, it could not have come on a better day, either.

Kev's alarm went off this morning at 4:00am. I will say that again--- 4:00. Then, being the hard sleeper he is, of course he didn't turn it off right away. So every 30 seconds or so (this is no joke) the alarm would go off again. Of course this woke Emma up (hide your shock!) Well, I spent about 10 minutes telling him to get up and take care of the baby. Finally I just got up, got Emma and her bottle, and brought her to him in our bed. Needless to say he DID not like that. Well, within minutes Ellie bounced into the living room. I could here her little feet patter down the hall from where I lay trying to go back to sleep. At this point I decided that if either of them were going to get more sleep I had better get up and go help Kevin. As I walked out I witnessed the site of Emma falling off of the couch where my zombie-like husband had placed her. Now the crying really began. As I reached to get Emma Kevin yelled at me to just get back in bed...though perhaps he didn't say it as nicely as he could have. Ignoring him, as I sometimes do, I got Ellie back into bed and took our hyper active dog out so he could go potty. Then I myself went to lay back down since I did not have to be up for another 2 hours. I am just drifting off when Kevin comes into the room, loudly asking why I didn't talk to him when I went to take the dog out. What? Huh? Are you KIDDING?? I won't go into detail about what was said then...

So, fast forward a few hours and here I am giving Emma a hug before I leave for work, and POOF, the kiss. :D I could go on YEARS with that...Moments like those remind me why I do what I do instead of, say, selling pineapples on a beach in Tahiti.

Decorating for Christmas

I decided I needed to start decorating the house this past weekend. I put up our little Charlie Brown tree, Kev's nativity, etc. The entire time I was doing this I was worried about how Emma would react to it all...She has very active hands and is crazy fast around the house. Well, my worries were totally misplaced! It is actually ELLIE who is into everything. She calls the nativity her "dollhouse", and I actually caught her trying to give baby Jesus a bath in the bathroom. The tree wasn't as bad except for ever time I turned by back she was trying to hang all of her toys as high as she could put them. I am excited that my house looks more festive, but a little worried that it will also be destroyed by the end of the season. Kevin finds the entire thing hilarious, and is only worried that the dog will pee on the tree like Koda did when we had him. So far no problems with that, but it's early yet so keep your fingers crossed :D

My Christmas Wish

It's getting closer to Christmas time, and I am starting to miss a lot of people back in Michigan. I love having my Daddy here in Minnesota, but I need my girlfriends as well!! I miss having coffee with Sarah, or watching a musical on TV with Jill, or baking something with Jen (Actually, usually I just ate what she baked but whatever ) Don't get me wrong, having Kevin home every night and not gone for months at a time is totally wonderful, but I just really need some female perspective and insight (aka. gossip) I want to talk about female things, not about what temperature he uses to cut wire at work. I want to watch Christmas shows with somebody who isn't rolling his eyes the entire time. I want to go shopping. Boy, sounds like I want a lot of things, doesn't it? Really, though, it's only one thing---I WANT MY FRIENDS!! I am grateful for everything I have here in MN, and the ladies I work with are terrific, but they all have their families and are very busy. Plus, I'm at least 10 years younger than each of them so sometimes I feel a little silly saying "Hey, you wanna hang out?" I know that there is no way for it to happen, but my Christmas wish this year would be to be closer to all of you again. I love you all so very much!!

Black Friday Crazy

I am working today...not what I really want to be doing, but none the less here I am. Oh, what we do for the money. Anyways, you would not BELIEVE the craziness in the Goodwill stores today. We are having a "boxed toy" sale, meaning we have new, unused toys from stores like Target. It's like a swarm of bees out there!! Women are actually yelling at each other over a stupid baby doll! I think I saw somebody actually try to shove another person out of the way with their cart earlier. The crazy thing was the woman who was pushed didn't even seem to notice because she was so intent on getting to the Dora doll sitting on the table. I cannot believe what some people will do for a sale! Now, don't get me wrong, I am a very thrifty shopper. With a family of four you have to be. But I don't think I would ever become ruthless and conniving just to get $3 off of a Nerf football. If it were a chocolate sale I might be singing a different tune...I just hope that I make it out to my car in one piece when I attempt to leave my office in a few minutes. I'm almost scared to try.

Graduate School Nightmare

I have been trying to get back to school for a while now, and it has finally been put in the budget at Goodwill for me to do so. With them paying 75%, what could be better?? So, I did my research and decided what I really want to do is become a psychologist. This is something that fits into what I enjoy about my current job, and I have gotten really excited about it. That is, until today...I spoke to an admissions rep at the school I am hoping to get into and find out that I don't have enough actuall CLASSES in psychology. Ok, never mind the fact that for the past 4 years I have been dealing every day all day with people who have sever and persistant mental illness. Never mind that I write behavior plans based on diagnosis all the time. Who cares, right?? So somebody with only an educational background can walk right in and sit down in a classroom, but somebody with some educationa and A LOT of hands on experience isn't qualified! UGH!!!!!!!!!! I thought I was finally going to have my chance to do what I want to do, but no, of course not, why would I? I work over 40 hours a week to be good at my job, and it seems that no matter how hard I swim something is grabbing at me holding me back.

I am sure that when I calm down I will understand more clearly how to get over this hurdle, such as taking some classes before applying to get my "education." However, at this point in time, I just want to be pissed off!

Exhaustion

I have to say that today I am the most stressed out I have been in a long time. I think there are a mixture of variables to blame here...the weather, my teething daughter, my snoring husband, and the MASSIVE work load I have been taking home with me every night. Of course things cannot go simply...Emma wakes up 2-3 times a night b/c her mouth hurts...My computer freezes and then deletes my entire report...the house fills up with smoke b/c Kevin burned something on the bottom of the oven. LOL. Seriously, there are times I just stop and look around and laugh...it's either that or cry. I think I'm going nuts!!! Oh, and the best part is that I caught my 10 month old trying to chew on the dogs bone this morning...No wonder I'm losing my marbles. :D

My work driven husband

Ok, so Kevin has this new job as a CNC operator for a company our neighbor runs. So far he loves it, but he is making 1/3 of what he used to in the union. Needless to say he has been doing everything he can to get noticed and move up the lines there. I am very proud of everything he's doing, and I know it won't be long before he has a new position. However, his drive to do so well at work has really made me step back and wonder...why the HECK can't he be like that at home??? Now, I understand that the rewards for doing work at home is quite a bit less than those at work, but still...If I could get him to put in even a fraction of the effort around the house that he does for his job I might actually have time to sit down at night and read a good book or something. I just found laundry in the dryer this morning from a WEEK ago when he was doing clothes. Not to mention that a couple of my line dry only sweaters were in there after repeated reminders NOT TO DRY THEM!! I have been unable to cook in my oven for the past week b/c he made some venison jerky and it dried all over the bottom. Now the only way to cook is if you open every window in the house...Yet there it stays. And I be darned if I am going to clean off dried deer meat!!! Yes, Kevin is a highly intelligent man who will move up in any company he works for...But at home I have to say HE'S FIRED!!!!!

Movin' Baby

I had a lot of time to spend with my little ones this weekend. The weather was CRAP so I decided just to stay put and hibernate. Well, I was sitting on the floor Friday night when I looked over and saw Emma moving away from the furniture ALL ON HER OWN! I about died! She has been moving and standing holding on to things for quite a while now, but this was the first time I had seen her take 3 to 4 actual STEPS without holding on to anything. Then, after taking a few steps, she decided to just stand in the middle of the floor clapping for a good 30 seconds. I couldn't believe it. I called Kevin into the room but of course he missed it :( It totally made my day, though :D After that we took Ellie for a walk around the house with Bruno where she decided to plop down in the 1/8 inch of snow we had and make a snow angel. The girl is so excited for winter I can't even tell you. Her newest game is to wrap up her toys in paper and put them under her table for "Santa." Wait until she finds out that Santa brings HER presents!! What a day that will be!

Exhausted

I am so very tired today...Kevin was his regular old foghorn last night, which meant that I got the good luck of sleeping on the couch. Lucky, lucky me. Then of course his darn alarm went off, and is SO STINKIN' LOUD that I could hear it down the hall in the living room even though the bedroom door was closed. Ug. What a pain. So, I got up at the crack of dawn (5:00) to get some work done before the girls got up. Sadly, that was only 15 minutes later :( As for work today, as of 2:00 this afternoon I have driven over 125 miles already :( OMG!!! I want out of my car, out of this crappy windy rainy icky poopy weather and into comfy pants and some hot chocolate!!! Ok, I am done complaining...Sorry....getting to be the end of the month, ya know ;) Honestly, though, who would like to be out in this weather, driving around listening to peoples excuses all day long???

November the 4th

What a crazy day!! Took the day off to spend with Ellie on her b-day. She loved the disney princess balloons I got her, and the castle cake Kevin made. :D We had a fun day of playing at the park...Then had dinner and cake. She got some great presents, though I don't think the dog appreciates the remote control Fisher Price car. LOL. I still can't believe she's three, but I guess I'll have to get over that b/c she is only going to get older.

Then of course there was the election! What a win! Now, I respect every political view out there, and I won't get into it much on here, but what an amazing night. I know it is going to be slow going and taka lot of time and effort, but I am hopefull that eventually things are going to change for the better now. I guess only time will tell.

Ellie's Birthday

So, my little girl is turning 3 tomorrow. I can't believe it. Seems like just yesterday I was screaming in the hospital room with the worst back labor anybody can imagine. She and I have been through so much together...Months of Kevin being on the road, us moving, having another baby. Ellie is an amazing big sister...she is always saying to me, "Mommy, I a big sister now." (That's the title of one of her favorite books.) I am so in love with my little girls.

We are doing a special dinner tomorrow night of her choosing, then opening gifts. And of course my wonderful chef of a husband is making a cake :D Sometimes I just watch her sleeping, or playing, or singing to her favorite movie and it brings tears to my eyes. Already she has so much independence...but she will always be my first little baby.

Cleaning House

So I am at work right now, taking a break from cleaning house as I like to call it. In other words, I am closing people on my case list who are not active in their job search. Now, given the fact that people elect to work with me to FIND A JOB, you would think that most of them would also choose to be involved in this. Sadly, that is not often the case. Many clients think that they are going to come to me and *POOF* they will get a job. You know, I will just pull one out of my little black bag...or wave my magic wand. Haha. Not so, my friend. I wish I could wave my wand and have things done that I want...But I think I would use that more to give my children a bath or get the dishes done...Oh well, such is life...I really do like my job, but it makes it so much easier when my clients want to help themselves.

Speaking of helping people, my poor puppy last night got his little toe stuck in one of Ellie's toys. He was hopping up and down on three feet, yipping away. Poor guy. Took 45 minutes and some of Kevin's work tools to get it off. He's fine now, and was right back to running the race track around my house only moments later. Stupid dog.

A Day In The Life Of Me

Ok, so here I am with my very first blog, and now everybody out there gets an insiders view on my life. Buckle up, hold on tight!

I am a mommy of two beautiful girls, a step-mom for two other beautiful girls, and a wife. Oh, and don't forget, I work over 40 hours a week at a high-stress but very rewarding job in human services. My typical day begins at 4:30 when I wake up to help get Kevin out the door. Then I rush and get ready before the girls wake up so that I have some time to get them ready. It's out the door by 7:15 and in the office by 7:30. When I am finally at work I usually end up driving about 100 miles a day average going to meetings with clients and employers, doing my best to find people jobs. I get back home about 5:00, make dinner or help make dinner, feed the family, and play with the kids for a few minutes before getting them off to bed. At this point I usually clean up a bit, do a little work, and if I am lucky watch a show or two on TV before falling into bed. Whew!!!

So, despite how it might sound up there I really do LOVE my job and can't imagine giving it up. Still, I am usually pretty tired by the end of the day and weekends are my saving grace. Part of me is jealous of those people out there who can stay home full time with their kids. I have done this and I loved it, seeing my first daughter Ellie grow up. I sometimes think I am missing a lot with Emma, and I HATE that feeling. But right now I have no choice so I do what I have to do, and just remind myself that I work so the both of them can be safe and warm every night and never hungry.

Yup, that's my life in a small nutshell. Now, thanks to this nifty blog, you will get a play-by-play of the messy details that make up my world.