The first day of the rest of my life.

As a mom back in the workforce. I guess I expected to jump in and have it all under control, which was just dumb.

This morning, I staggered out of bed at 6:15, boiled myself awake in the shower, ate...something (can't remember what at the moment), and managed to pull it together in time for the trip to school at 7:15. I got Elizabeth and my carpool kiddos off to school, then came back home at a little before 8:00 to get ready for my first day at work. Out the door by 8:30 and headed downtown, where I scored an available free 10-hour parking space a mere block from work. Whoot!

Work was fun. I think I'm going to like it there. I like the job, and my co-workers quite a bit. They have a slight advantage in that most of them know who I am. My father's job is in their main clientele (did that make sense? I'm so tired.), and they all know him.

Funny aside: their display window contains, among other things, a mannequin dressed in a polo shirt embroidered with dad's name. The mannequin cracks me up, because it's a wee, skinny little guy. Probably 5'8", and scrawny to boot. Dad's...not. Seeing "his" shirt on this wimpy little mannequin makes me giggle.

Moving on. I was introduced to lots of people who already knew who I was through dad, so that was a nice icebreaker. The woman training me, Doris, invited me to come to lunch with her and we had a nice chat over yummy food, getting to know one another a bit.
My job seems to be mostly billing, although I did type up an 11 page bid for a prospective new client and gave it to the owner. According to the other employees, owner man will review it, make corrections, and give it back to me to revise. I'll revise, turn it in, and get it back for another revision. Apparently, we'll go through this process three-ish times, and I'm not to take it personally.

One minor flub today: I was given a fat stack of invoices, and a self inking stamp, and told to stamp each one "anywhere". The stamp was red, and stated "Invoice. Please pay. Due within 30 days." So I found a nice empty spot on the invoices, and stamped all 200+ of them in that spot. Then I was to put them in envelopes for mailing. It was then that I realized I'd stamped each and every one so that the bright red "Invoice" stamp showed through the address window. Oops. [blush]

I got off work at 2, and things started heading downhill. Got home just in time to say goodbye to Kev so he could leave for work. Changed into my workout clothes, tossed Alexander and Catherine in the van, and headed to school to pick up the kiddos. Dropped off my carpool kids, and headed to the Y to meet Susan for a workout. Dropped the little kids off at the babysitting room, and Elizabeth and Katie ran on the track while Susan and I walked. We then packed the girls off to the older kids rec room to do their homework while we tortured ourselves on the elliptical machine and stationary bikes. So far so good. We finished and rounded up all our kids, then decided to meet at a fast food place for dinner. I was all excited because I had gift certificates for there. So far so good.

Got in the van, turned it on, and everything fell to pieces. It was 5:07. Elizabeth had soccer practice at 5:30, and I'd forgotten her uniform, cleats, and shinguards. So we dashed to the fast food place where I started to explain to Susan that I was going to have to get takeout and bail on her. Bless her, she'd realized the same thing when she turned on her van, and watched all five kids while I ordered food to go and got it all packed up to leave. The kids ate in the van while we drove to the soccer field. I explained to the coach that I'd just gotten overwhelmed today, and sorry we were late, and could Elizabeth practice today in capris and a tshirt? They were great about it, thank goodness.

Got home from soccer about 7, where I packed Alexander and Catherine off to bed. Elizabeth, darn her, had missed an entire half page of her homework, so she had to sit down and work on it. But she was tired and not comprehending things well, so I gave her a shower and packed her off to bed too. She'll have to finish it in the morning.

I hate that "getting a new routine down pat" time period. I expect myself to have it all together right away, and get everything just so, and it just. never. happens. Which frustrates me to no end. Gah.

Tomorrow is another day, though, right? I'm struggling to stay awake until Kev comes home, then we can hit the sack. Yawn.

The first day of the rest of my life.

Thinking...

I'm thinking about starting a recurring photo caption "contest".

Of course, since all I really have are pictures of Rubi and the kids, that means I'll have to carry the camera around and take interesting pictures of other things too. Because not all of my family pics lend themselves to humorous captions.
Oh yeah: I got the idea from Mustang23 and the Star Wars Caption contest.

How it works:
-I'll post a pic whenever I think I have a good one.
-You comment on the post with your humorous (and family friendly) caption.
-I pick a "winner" from the comments and post the winner and the best few captions in another post a few days later.
-The "winner" wins a swift kick, or their choice of a swirly or headlocks and noogies.

Here's the first photo for your captioning enjoyment:

Thinking...

Mini Book Review: DragonQuest - Dragonspell Series Book 2

I recently finished reading an excellent book:
DragonQuest, The Dragon Keeper Series #2 By Donita K. Paul.

This book is a recommended book "for all ages". It's second in a 4-novel series calles the Dragon Keeper Series. It's fantasy, obviously, with dragons, knights, wizards (one of which, if he stays still too long, turns into a tree - complete with bugs and other assorted pests!), an numerous "high races" and "low races" (well, not numerous - seven of each). The best thing about this series though - is that there is one true God, called Wulder in the series, and his one and only, uhm, representative to the people, called Paladin. Sold in mainstream bookstores (as well as Christian book stores), this is a nice change from other modern fantasy fiction creating their own pantheon of deities.

I eagerly await the next installment in the series. Maybe this is my Harry Potter. I tried to read that series. I read the first two books, and started the third - but couldn't get into it.

There are so many books and book series that I'm enjoying (or trying to find the time to enjoy) that I have to pick and choose what I read. It's like when I get a Barnes & Noble gift card as a gift: Too many books to choose from. Last time I ended up getting the Gargoyles DVD with one of my gift cards!

But anyway - DragonQuest and, so far, the entire Dragon Keeper Series, is excellent!

Mini Book Review: DragonQuest - Dragonspell Series Book 2

Rough Week

Poor Rubi.
She's had it bad lately.
She already posted about her bad day Monday.
Basically, she's been sick-ish for more almost 3 weeks now.
Finally last week her doctor made her get a chest x-ray. Monday, from those she found she has pneumonia. Then she went to the YMCA to work-out and go for a swim.
...
But before she gets inside the Y, she bangs her head on the van door and gets a bleeding head wound outside the Y. Her doctor sent her to the ER to get stitches, but instead she got a tetanus shot that made her arm hurt for 48 hours.
The next afternoon, after feeling ill all morning (and worn out the previous day), takes not only our 3 kids to the Y to go swimming, but one of Elizabeth's friends too, and her friend Susan and Susan's 2 kids accompany her. While at the Y, somehow she stumbles and scrapes her toes in the pool. Then she is bending over Alexander to pick him or dry him off or something, and Alexander jumps straight up and headbutts her - practically giving her a black eye.

Then she comes home and accidentally pokes her out with a fork... no wait, that hasn't happened yet - but I'm starting to think she might actually do that to herself on purpose just to get it over with.

Rough Week

I think I'm funny, but I'm not

Nod to MCF and The HappyHusband for this test.

This is supposedly my humor type (take the quiz: NOT family-friendly!).

The Cutting Edge (57% dark, 42% spontaneous, 31% vulgar) your humor style: CLEAN SPONTANEOUS DARK Your humor's mostly innocent and off-the-cuff, but somehow there's something slightly menacing about you. Part of your humor is making people a little uncomfortable, even if the things you say aren't themselves confrontational. You probably have a very dry delivery, or are seriously over-the-top. Your type is the most likely to appreciate a good insult and/or broken bone and/or very very fat person dancing. PEOPLE LIKE YOU: David Letterman - John Belushi This test tracked 3 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender: You scored higher than 54% on dark You scored higher than 36% on spontaneous You scored higher than 45% on vulgar

I can basically agree with that.

Rubi and I will often have the same humorous thought at exactly the same instant; and the first person to actually voice it wins! An example of that, and our silly humor: when we were in Florida last year, we hit a toll road, and at the toll booth, there were these tunnels running under the highway from the side of the road to the booths, for the workers to get there safely. Rubi and I both saw these and had the same thought at the same instant, but I voiced it first "Hey, those tunnels must be for the toll trolls!" Rubi stomped her foot, "Darn it! I was going to say that!" Sometimes she beats me to the punch too.
Luckily, we share the same sense of humor - we both like Monty Python and The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. We both like old SNL, but can't stand today's SNL. We both share a "stupid" sense of humor amongst ourselves - often making the dumbest jokes and laughing at the oddest things together - that most people probably wouldn't get. However, she enjoyed the movie Raising Arizona, and I couldn't stand it.

I'm glad Rubi and I found each other, I don't think we'd be able to share our sense of humor as well with anyone else.

I think I'm funny, but I'm not

Yeesh.

The XRays came back yesterday. Pneumonia. I explained that I didn't really have time for pneumonia, and was told that pneumonia doesn't necessarily take that into consideration. Bah. Stupid disease. The bag full of Levaquin that the Dr. gave me should knock it, though.

While I was waiting to call the doctors office yesterday, I kept to my normal routine of dropping Elizabeth and the carpool kids off at school, then heading to the Y to work out. While getting out of the van, I whacked my head on the sliding door of the minivan. Freaked out the entire staff of the Y by walking in bleeding like crazy and begging for an ice pack and towel. SO embarassing to begin with, and it went downhill from there. The manager arrived to find out what had happened, probably terrified that I was going to sue them. I explained that they were in no way responsible, and apologized for bleeding all over their pretty snow-white towels. He told me I could just keep the towels. [snicker] So while I'm sitting there bleeding, "This Is Your Life" is happening in the lobby. I swear, everyone I'd ever met came strolling through the front door, including three different people I haven't seen in years. No, really. Of course, they all had to stop and find out what had happened. Total humiliation.

When it was still bleeding three hours later, I headed for the ER to have it checked out. No stitches, but I got the tetanus shot consolation prize. Ow. Oh yeah, I also had a weirdly touchy-feely doctor. He kept rubbing my back and stroking my hair, and said that it was good I didn't need stitches, so he didn't have to cut off such pretty hair. Um, thanks?

Kev wound up calling sick in to work. I was just completely done in. I got home from the hospital at one and basically passed out for 45 minutes. I got up in time to wash the blood and neosporin from my hair, and head to school. I got my carpool kids home, then sheparded Elizabeth through homework, dinner, soccer practice, shower, packing her lunch and backpack for school, and bed. There was no way in the world I could have done all that plus handled the 3 and 5 year olds.

After Elizabeth went to bed, I tried so hard to stay up and keep Kev company, but I was beyond exhausted and ouchy. I crashed at 8:30. Because he's wonderful, Kev did the carpool thing this morning while I slept until nine. Thank goodness, I finally feel somewhat rested.

Yeesh.

Mommy miscellany.

I've been MIA for a while, due to an illness. After SEVENTY dollars worth of prescriptions that did exactly nothing ($70 that we most emphatically didn't have, by the way), some bloodwork, and a round of chest X-rays, I seem to be on the road to recovery. At any rate, I can sleep nights without coughing myself awake every half hour. My wonderful doctor gave me a full prescriptions worth of samples so I didn't have to fill yet another round of expensive Rx's, thank goodness. I'll hear back about the XRays and bloodwork Monday. Hopefully it's something easily fixable.

Moving on. Elizabeth started school Wednesday, and was delighted to find herself in the same class as her bestest buddy, plus a handful of other good friends. Unfortunately, Claire, another close friend, was off in another class. Ah well. Take the good with the bad, no?

More soccer drama, as well. There was an unexpected opening on Katie and Claire's team, and their moms, the coaches, suggested trying to switch Elizabeth to fill that opening. I was so, so tempted, but wound up deciding not to. Turns out Elizabeth went in the very first round of draft picks, so her current coach wouldn't be likely to give her up. Plus it's just not a very good precedent to set. If you let one kid switch to be with her friends, it's a can of worms. Eh. She's okay where she is.

I'm still job hunting. I was offered a job I wanted so badly with the local Girl Scouts office, but had to turn it down. The hours just didn't work out. Back to the resume board. Feh.

Monday kicks everything else into high gear. Elizabeth starts soccer practices Monday. She'll also start having homework three nights a week (They don't give homework the first week). I start driving two other kids to and from school every day. Kev and I are planning to go work out at the Y in the mornings after we drop her off at school. And Elizabeth will have at least one playdate scheduled weekly. I spent last week trying to get our morning routine whipped into shape - getting everyone fed, ready, and out the door in time. Next week will tell if I've got it down pat or not. [fingers crossed] The lack of being sick and exhausted should help some.

Mommy miscellany.

Blog For Books Review Coming Soon-ish

As soon as I get a chance to listen to it (or get a deadline from Stacy), I'll be reviewing the following:

Blog For Books Review Coming Soon-ish

Is it just me

Is it just me, or does Larry King look kinda like a grey?

Is it just me

Blog Party: Where You Been

MCF is hosting another Blog Party!
This one about where I've been.

Let's see...
I've traveled around the world from London to the Bay.

No wait... that wasn't me.

Back to the non-lyrical travels of me:
And let me start by saying that I do not like to travel. I don't mind being at other places and quite frequently enjoy myself - it's the getting there and getting back that I don't like. I don't like to drive on unfamiliar roads in unfamiliar conditions (Indiana drivers are just plain morons. Tennessee drivers seemed very competent. Chicago driving is just plain fast!). That being said, I'm such a control freak that I won't let anyone else drive if I have a choice. When I'm in the passenger seat, I'm always second guessing the driver, and white knuckling the arm rests. Unless I'm riding with a police officer - that's usually good for some enjoyment and I have to trust that they've have training to control a vehicle at emergency speeds. But now that I think about it... If I had the money to travel at my leisure, I probably would. "Hey Rubi! Let's go to Chicago for dinner!"
But I digress.... Back to "Where I've Been" - the actual purpose of this party.

This summer we went to Holiday World. It was hot, but fun. Rubi and I have been there several times since we've been married, and I went there a few times as a kid also, when it was Santa Claus Land.

Last year we went to Disney World. It was hot, but fun.

While we were in Florida, we went to Cocoa Beach. Because it's on the ocean, it wasn't as hot, and quite fun! We also hit Universal Studios Orlando.

I've been to Indy many times. Some for work, some for play, once or twice on a school field trip, and once or twice when Rubi was working for Famous Barr and had some training there.

St. Louis is closer than Indy, and I've been there a few times as well; once for the zoo, and a couple times, again, when Rubi had to go there for training with Famous Barr.

I had some fun in Chicago several times. But, so far, haven't taken Rubi there, much to her chagrin.

I've been to Nashville a couple of times. Rubi and went there once before we got married for a day trip and again shortly after we got married. We stayed in Nashville a day or two, and then went on to Memphis.

Speaking of Nasvhille, I've also been to Nashville, Indiana once or twice.

My youngest sister got married when I was fourteen-ish and moved to the city her husband was from, which was a good 7 hour drive away. I helped them move up there, and later, my parents and I traveled up there a few times to visit. And since it's just across the bridge from and part of the quad cities, we went to Davenport, Iowa for a day one trip.

When I was still in training at work, I applied for a supervisor's position (the job I have now), and they sent me to Troy, Michigan for a Supervisor's Training Class. While there, Rubi and I hit Detroit.

My dad's parents lived in Warren, Michigan, and we traveled to see them when I was five years old... most of the time, they came to visit us.

Rubi and I got married in a New Harmony, Indiana - just outside of our hometown. Before that, I worked in that city one summer as a sound designer for the New Harmony Theatre.

I worked for a year as a country radio Dj in Madisonville, Kentucky - commuting the 45 minutes each way from Evansville.

Rubi and I went to Louisville, Kentucky a couple of times - once because a mall there had a special maternity and baby store, and once for a concert.

When I was in college, I went to Cincinnati with a couple of friends, pretty much just because we could.

And, I've been to many of the small places in between home and many of those other places!

Blog Party: Where You Been

Writing Contest

Faith in Fiction is holding a Writing Contest for Christian Fiction.
This is quite a cool site. The author is in aquisitions for a Christian Publishing House, and posts about the biz and gives tips on writing Christian Fiction.

Now... if only I could convince myself to sit down and write something...

Writing Contest

R.I.P., shorts.

Well, we sure got our money's worth out of Elizabeth's soccer shorts. We bought them back in spring of 2004, for school league soccer. The following summer, they spent in the playclothes drawer, getting some heavy use. Spring 2005, they were back in rotation for soccer again. This summer, they've also been used for her position on the city league. All seasons, they were used for games and practices. In hindsight, MAYBE we could have bought more than one pair. (DUH) But these were so servicable, and soccer was spaced so they were never stuck in the laundry when she needed them.

Today she had a game. On the way home, she mentioned that she had a hole in her shorts. When we got home, I checked it out. Um, yeah, that's definitely a hole. The entire crotch of the shorts was out. Both seams, going both ways, completely frayed open. So she had four triangles of fabric just kind of hanging there.

I didn't notice it during the game, so I guess the shorts worked themselves, um, loose while she was playing. Yikes.
New soccer shorts are now on the shopping list for tomorrow.

R.I.P., shorts.

Proud mommy moment.

Elizabeth's school soccer league had the coaches meeting tonight. Susan is an assistant coach this year, and called to let me know that while some kids were pre-placed on teams (Their parents were coaching, etc.), most of them were placed on teams by a draft. She said that Elizabeth was snapped up pretty early on. Unfortunately, Susan wasn't able to get her, as her team roster was already full of pre-placed kids. Darn.

Anyway, the early draft pick made me so proud. Silly of me, yes. But I'll take it.

Proud mommy moment.

Busy Day and what's going on

Before going to work today at 2:30 this afternoon, I have to:
-Run to the library. They have six books on hold for me.
-Run two errands for work: Go to one of the local hospitals and pick up a map of the campus from the security directory, and go the the Dept of Parks and Recreation and return a CD-ROM I borrowed from them to copy maps of all the parks. (all these maps are for us to use for Public Safety reference).
-I'd like to go Barnes&Noble - I got a $25 gift card from MyPoints, and while cleaning out my wallet, found another gift card that still had over $7 left on it (Boo-Yah!!)
-And, as I find time, I'll work on my BlogParty entry for MCF's next BlogParty, and try to find appropriate pics to go along with it.

Rubi is still feeling sick. Actually, she's feeling worse. Now, instead of just the general body aches she's had since last week - she's full blown into the flu symptoms: stuffy runny nose, sore throat, more body aches, etc.

And I'm procrastinating mowing the lawn. I mowed my parents lawn yesterday, I should mow mine soon... but that means actually getting moving in the morning before it gets too hot (which happens about 9 in the morning).

Oh well... off to bathe the yung-uns.

Busy Day and what's going on