Sheba

We adopted Sheba, a Jack Russell Patterdale terrier, from my sister-in-law, Kathy, the summer of 2005. She was born on Christmas day of 2001 so you could call her "Santa's little helper." We call her by the nicknames, ShebaBeeba and Sheebsters. She loves to play and give you kisses and she runs faster than the speed of light! It's funny how I have been always afraid that if we ever got a dog, it would make us miserable and misbehave all the time but she's actually a really good dog. I myself haven't owned a dog, EVER, so Sheba's been a good experience for me.

Muffers

Muffers came to us on a warm September evening in Wyoming about a month and a half after Charlie and I had met and was the first trip the boys and I took together to visit him at his apartment. Well we made a whole weekend out of it and decided to make a big family meal that night - fried chicken, potatoes & gravy, broccoli...the whole works. Yum. As we were cooking, the kitchen as you know can get quite smokey when frying anything, so we decided to open up the front and back doors to let some cool air in. It was such a nice night that while dinner was cooking I walked out to the front porch to look at the moon. I found Charlie had followed me to snuggle in the cool summer air and as we were looking up at the sky, low and behold this scraggly black and white kitten came running toward us beaming with affection of meows and leg rubbing.

We thought she was cute of course, and Charlie instantly called her by the name of Muffers because she was such a furry little thing and it's just stuck ever since. She circled our legs inviting us us to pet her as if she was starving for attention. She would lay on her back and let us rub her belly covered with long curly fur. We figured she was a stray since she wasn't the cleanest and just a skinny little thing. So we fed her some dinner and scooted her on her way just in case she was someone's pet and also because Charlie wasn't allowed to have pets in the apartment. She didn't act that hungry though, or at least not for fried chicken. Kind of strange I thought for her being a stray, but now I know why she wasn't all that interested. Muffers only likes dry cat food and nothing else.

After that weekend, Muffers came back and stayed at Charlie's house indefinitely. She didn't want to go anywhere else and was good company to him when we weren't around during the weekdays. So he made her a litter box, bought her some cat food, and gave her a bath. She would sit on his lap while he was at the computer, snuggle with him at night, wait for him when he got home from work, and do silly things like burn her whiskers on the lit candles while smelling them.

It's only obvious that she moved here with him from Wyoming and has been with us ever since. She's always been such a good kitty and a special one to our hearts. We are guessing she was born around July of 2002. Some of the other nicknames we have for her are Muffer Wuffers and Mow Mow's and some of the things she enjoys are rolling around in the dirt and carrying helium inflated balloons around the house with her mouth.

Is that all you got?

So I'm applying for the FA III job and I've come across one of the most redundant and invaluable questions that is always used for an application or in an interview - "Define customer service." This is silly. Everyone defines it as being the most important part of a job, why wouldn't they? I mean come on, if an applicant said it wasn't important do you think an employer would want you working for them? I mean, is that all you got? Maybe it's just a freebie question to add some points to your score to help get an interview, who knows...I'm sure the actual inteview will be a lot more intense and intimidating.

Savannah's Two!

Even though today is actually Savannah's birthday, we celebrated yesterday with a party get together with my family and our babysitter and her kids. It turned out well although not everyone was there that was invited. We had an Elmo theme with a light luncheon and cake and ice cream. Savannah was so wound up I can't believe she didn't even eat but one or two bites of her cake and ice cream. In fact I couldn't get her to eat or take a nap all day yesterday so guess what's she's doing today? A lot of eating and napping! I don't think she understood that it was her birthday though. She was hysterical about the balloons and the fact that her cousin and friends were all visiting and playing with her in her bedroom with her toys. She just loved having them over! When I look through all of my albums, I can't get over how much she's changed over the years...

It's Party Time...well luckily, not yet...

So we're having a party for Savannah's second birthday this weekend and I am not at all ready for it. Not only am I in denial that my little girl is no longer my chubby baby, but I still need to clean the carpets, mop the floors, and order the cake! Instead I am stuck here at work totally bored out of my mind (this week has been a slow one) and am going to pay Michael and Jacob to do the dirty work on their day off school Friday. How lame is that? What kind of mother am I?

Interesting Opportunity

So during all the recent transition of the reform of admin duties at the state agency where I work, a lot of people were unhappy and are continuing to be unhappy. One of the Financial Analyst III's (I'm a level II) is leaving our team for a promotion, therefore that leaves a spot for me to advance. I don't know when the interviews will be and I'm nervous about it as there is a lot more competition up here than there was for admin positions in the regions...and I'm not sure that I want to stay in this office either, but I can't pass it up. I'd be stupid not to, and what do I have to lose? We'll see. It seems a lot has happened for me since I started here almost 6 years ago as an unpaid intern so why stop now?

Happy Happy Birthday

Happy Birthday to my HUBBY today! I love him and wish I could spend the day home with him. I actually don't feel very good today and would have called in sick and could have if it weren't for a training I need to attend at work. I feel bad he will be working tonight, how can we celebrate if he has to work? I guess we'll meet up with him for a quick dinner and visit tonight during his lunch break and maybe even a surprise gift!

First day on the job

Good luck to my husband on his first day at the new job. I hope he has a good day. You should have seen how handsome he was this morning in his dress slacks and collared shirt!

Bittersweet

So even though this job could create better opportunities for Charlie and a good change for him, I am sad cause it means he will have to work swingshift 2:30-11:00 p.m. every day. It will be good in that it will save on our chid care costs and mileage on the car, but I will not get to see him on the weeknights. I'm semi-used to this from when he was in school (currently he's taking a break this semester), but I just really enjoy our dinnertime together as a family and that will be one major thing sacrificed. There is a happy ending though, I hope. He was told that the job may not permanently be those hours, so maybe it won't be forever but it sure will feel like it.

So be prepared for more blogging bits from me since I will have more time to kill after the kids are to bed. Better than lying awake listening to every little noise thinking it is him coming home or someone is breaking in. I am such a baby!

Talking about My poor husband

Charlie just got offered the job he interviewed for last Thursday and starts on Monday!!!
Thanks for all your support! I just knew he would get it!

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My poor husband
I feel so bad that he's lost his job, but maybe it's good in the long run. Even though he liked what he was doing, liked a lot of the people he worked with, had good benefits and pension plan, it will be better for him to leave such a corporate atmosphere with all its politics and other BS. You'd think after working day in and day out for over two years with a company and doing good work that they would over look one mistake regardless of the auditor's BS. They'll find out that they made a mistake. You just can't find another like my hubby. So keep your fingers crossed that his interview on Thursday will be a productful one, as he's counting on it.

Snow and more snow

I heard it was going to snow this morning but I didn't take it seriously, especially after the last time they said it was going to snow. Well they were right this time and here it is and has been for the last couple of hours. On top of that we are having some major server problems at work and I need to get to some of my files in order to get some things done, so I'm secretly hoping my boss will tell us to go home cause of the snow since we don't want to get in an accident, but I bet that won't happen. Even though it's been snowing this long, it didn't start sticking to the roads until just this last half hour. They say it will go on until about 5:00 tonight. I think if my hubby knew it was snowing over here, he would have called me by now to tell me to get home which means it must not be snowing at home.

Is it just me?

Or do you other mothers out there get sappy the most when your kids are in bed? I sometimes come home from work at night with my mind preoccupied with things that either went on during the day or elsewhere and don't really relax and enjoy the time left with the kids until they are finally all to bed and everything's out of my system. By that time they are asleep and that is when I really, really want to cuddle with them but can't and get really sad as if I was away from them for a really long time.

Also, do you ever find that sometimes when you are away from your kids (or not) you notice that they've grown up since the last time you saw them. Like last night, there just seemed to be something different about Savannah, I'm not sure what, but something was. Or recently I look at Jacob and all of a sudden he's taller than me! And Michael has whiskers like Shaggy from Scooby Doo...where does time fly and why can't we put our kids on pause so that we can see every passing moment without it passing first!?!?!?!?

Wow, just remembered something!

After reading Chrissy's blog today about "Doll Maker", she reminded me of a childhood toy I had from when I was 10 or so...Fashion Plates! Remember these? Of course today's version is all electronic, but I remember spending hours and hours mixing and matching and then coloring to make the perfect wardrobe!

It was one of my best birthday gifts...don't remember which birthday it was, but it will always be one I don't forget. You see, my mom had made a treasure hunt for my gifts when I got home from school. It was so exciting to read her poems to get the clue and then find the next gift. I remember they were mostly centered around art, so Fashion Plates and the Spirograph were sure hits, along with markers and colored pencils. I've always loved drawing as a kid, so she knew what to get me. Those were some of my favorite gifts. Wish I still had those plates though, they could be worth something now.

Embarrassing Moments

On a recent airing of a local radio show they were taking a poll from the listeners about embarrassing moments. I thought it would be interesting to continue the poll and see all what you had to say:

Has there ever been something you were doing when you thought you were alone and someone caught you such as farting in the file room, dancing or air gutaring to a song? Or have you caught someone else doing something embarrassing while they thought they were alone?

Here's one of mine....I was at work one day and just threw some papers in my garbage. I thought a minute to myself that I shouldn't be throwing them away and to save them for the shredder...so as I bent down and started digging out all the paper I had in there for the day from my garbage, my boss walked up behind me to talk to me. I felt so stupid!

Home Improvement Part III

So now we are (I should say the guys are) finishing the framing in the rest of the basement. We had purchased lumber last weekend and have put good use to it. He and the boys both said how much easier it was to do than the first time they framed a couple of years ago. I guess they've got some experience under their belt. Yeah, it was two years ago when we started our framing, got done what we could before Savannah came and then this last summer we did our lawn so this is now part III. I only hope things will work out the way we'd like them to so that we won't have to take another break in between for lack of money.

Talking about Happy Birthday Mom!

Well since I didn't want to go into details in my first blog, in case my mom read it, us kids threw her a kind of surprise birthday party. My brother's wife had everyone bring potluck and we all met at her house after she arrived home from work. I'm glad it was a good day for her, birthdays can be so depressing especially if you're alone like so many times she is. See the pics. OH, and I forgot to mention that is she is retiring today, so Hooray! for my mom twice int he same week!

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Happy Birthday Mom!

Happy birthday to you! Happy birthday to you! Happy birthday Dear Mommy! Happy birthday to you!

It's my mom's birthday today. I hope it will be a happy one, but I'm sure like her, I am finding out the older I get the less happy birthdays are...I hate getting old.

Toddler Blues

Okay this Elmo's World song in my head is driving me nuts! Savannah hasn't been feeling very well the last couple of days but tonight has been the worst out of them both. She has a cough and now it sounds as if she has a cold with the whole runny nose and watery eyes bit on top of it. She is just so miserable. So I gave her a bath, had her drink a glas of juice and then I let her watch her Elmo show whiile laying on my bed with her blankie, binkie, and pillow since that is about all she felt like doing and now I can't get the song out of my mind...but let me tell you when it comes to her shows, this is the order that I can stand to watch them:

1. Elmo's World
2. Boohbah
3. Teletubbies

Do we need to get some Blues Clues movies next or what???? I'd rather buy a movie here or there than pay for cable or dish. We just don't watch enough TV to warrant the money each month for it and we don't need the tempation to either. (Yes I'm talking about my sister! ) What are youf kids' favorite shows?