"They say the catching up is hard to doooooo..."
Wait, that's not how the song goes but it's in my mind like one. On one hand catching up is nice cause then I don't have to worry about being bored, on the other hand it can be very overwhelming and you're left wondering, "Where do I start?"
As most of you know I was gone for 4 out of 5 days from the office last week testing our accounting system at the State Capitol. Now my boss' boss wants me to do a demo for the rest of the finance team in today's afternoon meeting to introduce the screens to them since they are all freaking out about it. (No one likes change, especially the older ladies.) Yikes. So I've been stressed about it this weekend. I hate being put on the spot. But now that I'm here and have looked at the material again, it's not quite as threatening. (and hopefully they will turn the lights off to see the projection in turn not looking at me). I think it's just that I need to get over this tongue tied dilemma I have with this lady and I'll be fine, but of course that won't happen before 2:00 p.m.
Do any of you ever get tongue tied around specific people? For me it's always around the authoritive figures who I know are constantly watching people like a hawk. When I talk to them it's like the information in my brain just flies out the window, no matter how much I rehearse so wish me luck!
Monday, April 24, 2006
Sunday, April 16, 2006
Happy Easter!
We took Savannah to the Easter egg hunt at our church yesterday morning. She had fun getting all the eggs but as soon as she found out there was chocolate involved, she took more time to unwrap and eat them than anything. Easter day was good. The kids were excited about what the Easter bunny brought and had fun coloring eggs. We went with my mom for dinner and had fun watching Savannah hide the eggs in her house plant and then making grandma hold them all as she counted, 1-2. Needless to say it wasn't long before she tumbled over them and cracked them up good! The weather turned out better than expected, so all in all it was a nice Easter! Hope you all have a good Easter despite the gray weather (around here anyway).
Friday, April 14, 2006
Michael's got a job!
So Michael went to my brother's work yesterday to talk to his boss about getting a job and it turned out that the guy hired him on the spot was really impressed with his first day of work. He was so worried when he got home last night thinking that I would be upset cause he was so dirty. Duh, it's an auto repair shop, silly. Anyway, he is so excited and will have enough money to start paying his insurance for his car every month. I have yet to get quotes and add him on as I've been putting it off too scared to find out how much per month it's going to be. Now it's a relief knowing that he will be able to contribute. Thanks to my brother for the lead on this and Michael will be so excited to receive his first real paycheck along with his first deductions for taxes, (hee hee).
Thursday, April 13, 2006
I've gotta be crazy...
As of late I've set a personal goal of where I would like to be in 5 years. I don't see myself making the big bucks at the State Capitol just yet, but at least a start in the audit field within the state agency I work for now. Auditing and finding errors people make can be the most ruthless job, but it's satisfying for me in a sick sense that if I find something, I've done my job and feel like I have "fixed" something. I know people will hate me and I will be loathed excessively and will have no friends, but it's my goal nonetheless. How do I know this? Because I once used to be on the other end of an auditor, and still am. In my job now, I'm kind of like the middle man constantly trying to catch things before the auditors do.
I am in charge of approving payments on a second level basis, so in other words the final approval. I am also considered to be the lead and knowledge based worker for those I am approving work on. So these last couple of weeks I've had to be the bad guy and point out errors to be corrected before approving them or to suggest things to avoid errors and this always makes people feel incompetent and become offended and learn to hate me. I feel that they think I'm nitpicky or bullying them but I'm just doing my job.
A couple weeks ago one person actually swore at me and gave me the silent treatment claiming that I didn't train her to do what I was telling her was missing. Later she realized what she'd done wrong and apologized. And then today in staff meeting my supervisor announced to everyone that I had brought an issue to her attention then in the same sentence calmy asked those who enter payments to keep their invoice # entries consistent with each other so the system could catch any duplicates. You should have seen the look on their faces as they turned to me and worst part is I still don't think they knew what the issue was since they took it personally. I've truly been tested, but I'm sure there will be much more to come and I haven't changed my mind about my goal. Not yet anyway.
I am in charge of approving payments on a second level basis, so in other words the final approval. I am also considered to be the lead and knowledge based worker for those I am approving work on. So these last couple of weeks I've had to be the bad guy and point out errors to be corrected before approving them or to suggest things to avoid errors and this always makes people feel incompetent and become offended and learn to hate me. I feel that they think I'm nitpicky or bullying them but I'm just doing my job.
A couple weeks ago one person actually swore at me and gave me the silent treatment claiming that I didn't train her to do what I was telling her was missing. Later she realized what she'd done wrong and apologized. And then today in staff meeting my supervisor announced to everyone that I had brought an issue to her attention then in the same sentence calmy asked those who enter payments to keep their invoice # entries consistent with each other so the system could catch any duplicates. You should have seen the look on their faces as they turned to me and worst part is I still don't think they knew what the issue was since they took it personally. I've truly been tested, but I'm sure there will be much more to come and I haven't changed my mind about my goal. Not yet anyway.
Monday, April 03, 2006
HAPPY BIRTHDAY JACOB!
Can you believe 15 years ago I had a little boy that is now soon to be a freshman in High School? Jacob was due to be born on April 5th but came a couple days early. I started having labor pains on April 2nd around 9:00 p.m. Needless to say since I was inexperience and didn't ever have them with Michael, I just went to the hospital early and didn't dare wait. Everything went pretty smoothly except the fact that my epidural went out just as he was being born and can you say ouch! But that was better than having to go through pain the whole time. He was born at 4:35 in the morning and weighed 8 lbs and 3 oz and 19 inches. Now he's 150 lbs and around 6'0!
Jacob was always sick from day one. He caught whooping cough when he was only a few weeks old and the doctors treated him for RSV and also just thought he had a cold and acted like they didn't believe me when I told them he would turn blue and cough so bad. So finally they hospitalized him keeping him in an oxygen tent a nurse by his side 24hrs a day. He had to go back a second and third time because I guess whooping cough comes in three different stages. I felt so bad for him and was so distraught since there was nothing I could do - he was just brand new. I am so happy he's okay, I don't know what I would have done had he not made it. It seemed to me that all of this made him susceptible to colds and flus so often for the first few years.
He also had gastroesophageal reflux disorder (Reflux is when the muscle between your child's esophagus and stomach isn't working properly, allowing stomach contents to gurgle up into the throat.) and couldn't keep his food down. I felt so bad and was worried constantly for the first year until he grew out of it. We had to thicken his formula with rice cereal to keep it from coming up so that he would get some nourishment. He had a healthy appetite but his poor little tummy hurt all the time and he was fussy from it.
Jacob had to have the vacuum running in order to fall asleep at night, no matter what else I did to comfort him, that is what settled him down. I wasn't used to any of this behavior and worried incessantly since Michael was opposite. Even in and out of his troubles, he has always been a joy to have around and makes everyone laugh!
He's basically having the same kind of celebration Michael did, with friends and food at home, and unfortunately he won't be celebrating tonight since he wants a sleepover. It's tough for both of them, having their birthdays so close together, they get so tired of it so I always make sure to have separate parties for them. Only when they were really little did I have them share a party.
Jacob was always sick from day one. He caught whooping cough when he was only a few weeks old and the doctors treated him for RSV and also just thought he had a cold and acted like they didn't believe me when I told them he would turn blue and cough so bad. So finally they hospitalized him keeping him in an oxygen tent a nurse by his side 24hrs a day. He had to go back a second and third time because I guess whooping cough comes in three different stages. I felt so bad for him and was so distraught since there was nothing I could do - he was just brand new. I am so happy he's okay, I don't know what I would have done had he not made it. It seemed to me that all of this made him susceptible to colds and flus so often for the first few years.
He also had gastroesophageal reflux disorder (Reflux is when the muscle between your child's esophagus and stomach isn't working properly, allowing stomach contents to gurgle up into the throat.) and couldn't keep his food down. I felt so bad and was worried constantly for the first year until he grew out of it. We had to thicken his formula with rice cereal to keep it from coming up so that he would get some nourishment. He had a healthy appetite but his poor little tummy hurt all the time and he was fussy from it.
Jacob had to have the vacuum running in order to fall asleep at night, no matter what else I did to comfort him, that is what settled him down. I wasn't used to any of this behavior and worried incessantly since Michael was opposite. Even in and out of his troubles, he has always been a joy to have around and makes everyone laugh!
He's basically having the same kind of celebration Michael did, with friends and food at home, and unfortunately he won't be celebrating tonight since he wants a sleepover. It's tough for both of them, having their birthdays so close together, they get so tired of it so I always make sure to have separate parties for them. Only when they were really little did I have them share a party.
What made my day!
So when I got here I had a bunch of work piled up from taking Friday off, the day isn't going any faster even though we lost an hour, a coworker got mad at me, and my toe is still throbbing from being stubbed on the bed frame this morning.
But Savannah made my day this morning. She's gotten better about going to the sitter when I leave for work so today as the babysitter was using the tactic of distracting her to avoid any conflict, I quickly asked Savannah for a kiss. She gave me one and then turned to walk away, stopped and turned around, looked at me and waved a half wave with her arm, and said, "Wuh-you," and then proceeded on her way without looking back. I quickly said, "I love you too," and as I turned around and headed to the car, I couldn't stop smiling the whole way to work.
But Savannah made my day this morning. She's gotten better about going to the sitter when I leave for work so today as the babysitter was using the tactic of distracting her to avoid any conflict, I quickly asked Savannah for a kiss. She gave me one and then turned to walk away, stopped and turned around, looked at me and waved a half wave with her arm, and said, "Wuh-you," and then proceeded on her way without looking back. I quickly said, "I love you too," and as I turned around and headed to the car, I couldn't stop smiling the whole way to work.
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