Please to not touch cute baby!

Ah, its germophobe season. In my constant battle against germs, I have one MAJOR weak link this year - the bear cub!


It is impossible to walk through wally world without at least two people touching him (or at least trying to). Yeah, he's cute, but show a little sense people! He's not so cute when he's amazing himself with double snot bubbles! Or sitting against me on the couch, hot with fever and absolutely miserable. Thankfully he hasn't gone through that yet, but I remember the way jack rabbit and honey badger would do that - just wanting the comfort of being next to me because doing anything else was miserable. They're old enough now that if they have a fever, they'll stay in their beds and just sleep.

Speaking of my two older boys being sick, I felt so bad for them this past weekend. Grandma and Grandpa planned for several weeks to come visit and take the boys to the OSU vs. Baylor football game. Unfortunately, Dad being a pilot and Mom flying out on Sunday to visit my sister and her new little one meant that they couldn't take the chance of exposing themselves to the flu. Completely understandable, especially since that would also mean exposing my pregnant sister-in-law as well. The boys didn't get to go to the game, but Mom and Dad brought them a few souvenirs. It didn't quite make up for the loss, but I told them we'd plan a game weekend for them - they could go up to visit and go to a game with Grandma and Grandpa on their own before the Thanksgiving holiday. That helped tremendously.

It also helps that Halloween is coming up this weekend. Jack rabbit is going to be Captain America! I don't really know why either. He doesn't have comic books about the hero and I don't think he's featured in any of the current cartoons. He saw the costume in wally world and decided on it immediately. Ah, my hero son! Now he wants a sheild - anyone got a red, white and blue Frisbee?

Honey badger is going to be a storm trooper, but not one of the bad ones from MY generation Star Wars movies. This is a storm trooper from 'Return of the Clones', an afternoon cartoon/animated show. They're actually the good guys in this one. Honey badger is agonizing over not having an accurate gun for the costume. Hopefully his best friend down the street will let him borrow his 'real' storm trooper gun for the night. Oops, one of my eyes just rolled out of my head - let me grab that...

Bear cub will be transformed into a pinto colt, thanks to Grandma! She sent down the boys old costume - or maybe it was just the honey badger that wore it? Anyhow, she made the costume and it was so cute! It'll be a bit large, but heck, toddlers always look cute in clothes that are too big, and there will be plenty of room underneath for warmer layers. I just have to get him to keep the head part on and not pull out the yarn that makes up the mane and tail. I see cute pics in my future - now to remind my future self to use the right camera...

Beading

I have a new craft! Well, not so new, I started working on it about a year ago, inspired by a co-worker doing the same thing. Creating jewelry with semi-precious gemstones. The bead markets that come through town a few times a year are always packed! I thought I'd share a few pics of some necklaces I've done.


I wear this necklace most often. Its black lava (the textured beads) with smooth and faceted black onyx and smaller silver beads. Since most of my work wardrobe is cool colors paired with black slacks it always goes with the outfit. Unfortunately, I need to fix it. Bear cub finally got a hold of it and pulled the clasp connector apart.


This necklace is pretty simple - blue labradorite beads with silver discs in between. Its rather heavy, but since its not long the weight is comfortable. Incidentally, thats one of the things I like about gemstone beads (their weight) aside from the fact that they're also pretty rocks!


This necklace is my favorite! Its also one of my newest. The large oval beads are call black opal, but in technical terms are actually a moss agate (because the inclusions look like moss). The faceted teardrop shaped beads are blue lace agate. The lighting was poor when I took the picture so you can't see the fine detail in the stone - its really stunning. I also included silver beads and a silver clasp.

I have more necklaces to show you, but not today.

What a week!

Last week started poorly. I got a call from a recruiter with bad news about a job that I'd thought I was in for - they decided not to hire for the position. Another call from a different recruiter revealed I was being strung along by a different company and another company she was working with on my behalf 'didn't have anything negative to say about me'. Grrg.

I got sick on tuesday with a cold or sinus infection that quickly knocked out my voice. I could barely talk for a few days. I was convinced I had the swine flu. Enough of the symptoms matched the description. Then the honey badger got REALLY sick thursday night - he actually had the flu, confirmed by a test at the doc - my test came out inconclusive. We got the honey badger on tamiflu. The doc gave me a prescription for it since I'd been exposed. Honey badger got better in record time, doing fine on the med. I took ONE tamiflu pill saturday morning and got all the side effects listed in the literature! Nausea, vomiting, you name it, I got it! All except for the 'may cause death' one. I don't recall seeing that one, but I'm sure it must have been in there - legal has to cover their butts! Believe me, all those side effects along with an intensely burning sinus infection headache, I wanted someone to shoot me and make 'may cause death' true! It took me most of the day to get to feeling better. I'm doing MUCH better now. A little shaky, but I'm actually hungry today and have had the energy to do basic house work (which I've been doing with gusto since I feel so much better).

The only shining point to this past week was friday. At 7:45am I got a call from a recruiter saying "I have a new lead for you thats a perfect fit! Do you want me to put you in?!" Well of course, dammit! I didn't really say that, they're supposed to confirm new job postings before they submit your info. That improved my mood on the job front quite a bit. Later that evening she called back with ANOTHER position! Wow! This one I don't think I'm qualified for - she said it was a Senior Staff position, but maybe they're flexible on years experience if they get a qualified candidate. So that was nice. I should be able to speak by monday - I've almost got my voice back now.

Looking forward to the coming week! Hope you enjoy yours!

Sorry for the lull in posts. Its not that I've been that busy, just..... busy. Did that make any sense?

I've done what I can as far as job searches go and except for maintaining the search, I'm now in a holding pattern, waiting to see if any of my 'seeds' have taken root. I've gotten a little bit of positive feedback, but no interviews yet. Things are slow, slow, slow. I keep hearing people exclaim brightly that things will pick up next year, but I don't think I can wait that long!

As far as home life goes, I noticed how easy it was to fall back into the old home life habits. The cleaning, laundry, dishes, cooking, kid care, etc. I've even begun to pick up old projects and plan on showing those off in later posts. The one below is the jack rabbit's new afghan - the replacement for his baby blankie that has long since ceased to cover him from head to toe. As long as he stays under 7 feet tall, this new afghan should last him a lot longer!


Its just barely started - it will have alternating bands of the blue and white. I'm already on the second white band and will soon start the third blue band. It will begin and end with blue bands and have a simple crocheted edge in blue when complete. There is something so satisfying about working on and completing a project like this. I'll be making another afghan for the honey badger, but I don't know if I'll start it immediately or try to finish the bear cub's baby blankie - he doesn't have one from me yet, though he has more blankies combined than his two older brothers! Below is the blankie I started for the bear cub - my first attempt at a ripple pattern and its going S L O W. Thats why I restarted the jack rabbit's project!


Talk to everyone later.

Yeah, I know the salutes are a bit off, but the jack rabbit and the honey badger are proud to be cub scouts! Jack rabbit is a Bear Scout and honey badger is a Wolf Scout. How's that for getting mixed up with animal names? They've been to three meetings now and had one day-hike down at Benbrook lake. Honey badger loved the day-hike so much he was seriously bummed when it was over after only an hour. We've promised to go back and re-hike it with him.

My New Normal

Here is a glimpse into my new normal. The cats are very happy I've come to my senses and returned to caring for them full time. They knew its where I should have been all along. Here they are, giving the 'feed me, love me' look right after I got back from taking the boys to school.

I've had some promising leads in my search and also expanded it into an area that I'd never really considered a possibility until now - the environmental sector. After holding a discussion about switching from oil and gas to environmental on linkedin, it doesn't appear that it would be too difficult. Much of my experience will transfer well, though I would need training in other areas. Hah, need training. Story of my professional life! Luckily most of the training is hands-on, on-the-job type training and not as much course training like in o&g. I would need a course on soil classification though. Another thing about enviro is that you need certification as a professional geologist, though I believe you need 5 industry (enviro) years before you qualify. Happily, getting my certification is something I'd always considered doing anyway. Ugh, but I have to study for an exam. Imagine doing a professional version of the SAT or GMAT. Eew. I hear the initial pass rate is 47%. Ulp. Maybe I don't really want to go enviro after all!

Let Go

I've been absent for a few days - big happenings this week. I was 'let go' at my job on monday. #1 is freaking out. I vacillate between excited and depressed. How could anyone be excited about losing their job, especially in this economy? I'm just glad its finally over. I've had enough of being overwhelmed, under-trained, ignored and subjected to a 'boys club' mentality. I hope to avoid working for small companies in the future, though at this point I can't be choosy. I'm mad at myself for letting things get so bad and upset that my supervisor didn't do a better job with me. Don't get me wrong - I take full responsibility for my failings, its just that every boss has an obligation to their underlings and my boss didn't keep up with his.

In other news, my sister just had her first baby! My newest nephew! I have nieces and nephews already, but they're on my husband's side of the family. This is the first baby either of my siblings have had and he's a sweetie! He was born on tuesday.

I'm so happy for my sister. She has wanted a baby for the longest time and her dream has now come true. My heart-felt best wishes go out to her and her husband. Wish I could come out and see them all now, but I'll have to wait until Thanksgiving.

Back in my world, I've been working all week on finding a job. I took a serious look at my resume and found it lacking, so I rewrote it, reorganized it and re-sent it to the recruiters I've been talking to. My resume looks 10 times better now, but it makes me regret having sent out so many copies of the old version over the summer. Unfortunately there are no 'take-backs' in this game. I've also contacted some old colleagues, found some new contacts through family and created a few new job search profiles. I even updated my linkedin page. My next job is writing a better cover letter. I'll be working on that today.

Talk to you all later.

Bear Cub in the tub

Here's the bear cub in the tub this weekend. His eyes are really puffy from the allergy attack, but he's very happy in the tub with all the bubbles. This is right before he accidentally dunked himself and started having a lot less fun!

Presidential Address to Congress

I watched the Presidential Address to Congress last night and thought I'd put down my impressions.  I have to say my initial impression of the program itself was that the audience sounded more like bar patrons than respected members of Congress – all the hooping and hollering!  In Congress!  Settle down people!  And the guy who yelled 'You lie!' to Obama at one point during the address was just over-the-top inexcusable.  I was amazed at his lack of self control.  I found out this morning the man is Rep. Joe Wilson from South Carolina and that he apologized soon after the speech.

I liked the address itself.  It's nice to finally listen to a good orator.  All the forced pauses for applause were annoying though many were deserved.  As far as the points Obama made, I was a little disappointed in how the healthcare reform is going to be done.  I was really looking forward to hearing that it's going to be mostly free, not a pay-in system.  However, I seriously doubt our country could jump from its current healthcare system to a more socialized, free system quickly or gracefully.  This is probably the best way to get the ball rolling in the right direction.  I'm glad to hear that insurance companies will have to face competition and accountability now and that denying coverage for pre-existing conditions or dropping coverage for current illnesses will be thrown out the door.  Those are heinous practices and should never have been tolerated in the first place.

One point I don't agree on is how this is going to be paid for – cleaning out the sources of wasteful spending and using those 'found' dollars to pay for it.  Yes, there is plenty of waste in the system, but it will never be cleaned out entirely and I don't see it being efficiently reapplied to pay for the plan.  I think I'll watch the speech again and see if there was something I missed.

Below are the points Obama stated in the address (taken from an article this morning because my memory is not that good!)

President Barack Obama's health care proposal would:

• Allow Americans to keep their current coverage if they wish.

• Create an "insurance exchange" that would allow individuals and small businesses to bargain for insurance collectively.

• Bar insurance companies from denying coverage because of a pre-existing condition.

• Prohibit annual and lifetime caps on the coverage recipients can receive.

• Impose limits on out-of-pocket expenses.

• Require free coverage for routine checkups and preventive care.

I certainly hope point #5 covers lab fees.  Last year was an expensive year for us medically.  I gave birth to the bear cub, #1 had surgery and the honey badger had an emergency trip.  I paid the deductibles that I knew I would have to – no beef there – but when all was said and done, the insurance company got away with THREE TIMES THAT because of LAB FEES!!!  This little loophole works very well for them.  What genius decided that lab fees aren't part of medical care!?  We ended up losing that much money through piddly little 20, 30 and 40 dollar payments, each of which would take 2 hours to clear up on the phone.  We cleared up as many as possible, but they just kept coming.  It was insane.  I'm still convinced that several of those charges were rebilled and we were charged multiple times for a single test, but the paperwork is so confusing that I can't prove it.

 

When compared to other western nations, the way our healthcare system is run really sucks.  I think this is an opportune time to try to clean up our act and become more competitive with other countries in this aspect.  Let's start making the patient the priority rather than the dollar.

Labor Day Weekend and Names

We had a somewhat nice three day weekend. It was initially marred by the massive allergy attacks of three out of five of us. #1, boy 1 and boy 3 are all very susceptible to airborne allergens. Friday afternoon, the neighborhood mowing service came by and mowed ALL the ragweed behind the house. They've never mowed back there before, now they're starting right when the allergy season is picking back up again. Argh. Boy 3 is in the permanent crusty/gurgly stage of his allergy attack. You could wipe his nose 50 times (if he'd let you get that close) and the same amount of snot would still be there, as gooey as ever. At one point he sneezed and blew a snot bubble with his nose – gross yet fascinating, all at the same time. All three of them are afflicted with red, puffy eyes, sneezes, sniffles and boy 1 keeps getting headaches. Poor guys. The best I could do was just make sure they were comfortable. Boy 1 was very happy with this arrangement because it kept him inside most of the time and close to the video games. There's only so much homework or reading you can get a 9 year old boy to do on his weekend off!

As for myself and boy 2, while we aren't as bad off in allergy season, we still feel it a bit. I get bad headaches that come on very fast and slow me down until I can manage them with meds. Boy 2 gets a few sniffles and some headaches.

I finally got back to working on boy 1's afghan this weekend! (Don't ask how many other half started projects I still need to get back to!) This is boy 1's replacement for his baby blankie that he's long since outgrown. I'm crocheting it in two main colors, holding two strands of yarn at a time – one a regular weight cotton/synthetic yarn and the other a very fine, synthetic eyelash yarn that will make the blanket look sorta fuzzy. The two base colors that I alternate every 10 rows are white and dark blue. I crochet in the eyelash yarn with both of those. I'll have to take a picture of it so everyone can see my work in progress. I'm going to make sure I make it extra long for him – I have a feeling he's going to be tall (at least to me). At 9 years old, he's getting close to my height already, though that's not a big feat since I'm not even close to being tall. You could say I'm an average petite height! My nickname in high school was Willow (how's that for an obscure sci fi movie reference!).

With everyone feeling sort of down, we didn't do too much. Boys 1 and 2 had a mutual friend from down the street stay over on Saturday night. I was also logging a well this weekend, so we couldn't go far anyway. I was lucky this time and only had to go in for a couple of hours very early Sunday morning – I was back home by 7:30am and that was after picking up fresh donuts for the boys.

#1 and I sat down on Monday morning and made out a list of meals we were going to make for the week and the ingredients we'd need. I tell you, we should have been doing this a long time ago. Except for the sandwich bread that I forgot to put on the list, I followed it exactly and ended up saving A LOT of money. Wandering through the store with no idea of what we'd feel like making for the week is a bad way to shop, because in our case, we pick up a lot of junk and stuff we just don't need or end up not remembering we have it until it's gone bad. I hope we can keep this up. I'll have to push for it to make sure we do continue.

I've had a request from one of my big fans out there about the boys code names in this blog. He feels that since our society is rife with identification numbers for people (like their SSN's that I can never seem to memorize) that the code names should actually be a little more personal and a lot less numeric. It reminded me that the two older boys, for one reason or another, have figured out what animals they're most similar to (with a little help from myself and #1). Boy 1 shall hence forth be known as Jack Rabbit or JR for short (or if you're speaking to him, the NORTH AMERICAN Jack Rabbit – he says it just like that). If you know him, you can see it fits. Boy 2 is Honey Badger, or HB. We saw a wildlife show on these creatures and their temperaments are just like his – irascible and will work at things until they're resolved, one way or another. Boy 3 is Bear Cub, or BC. He's already proven this one to us, especially this weekend when he climbed like a bear cub and was found on top of the kitchen table. Can't leave the chairs pushed out anymore! #1 is out of luck for a name change. I'm the captain of this ship so he'll remain #1 – he's not allowed to mutiny for a better position either because the boys won't let him!

So from myself, #1, Jack Rabbit, Honey Badger and Bear Cub, hope you all had a nice weekend.

Boy 3 Cuties

Okay, one thing I don't like much about Blogger is that its not easy to insert and manipulate pictures. I tried to post this earlier today but was having too much trouble with the pics.




For taking self pictures, I actually did pretty good! As you can see, boy 3 is exploring my face, but thankfully not with the noodle spoon. That would have been a bit rough. He's really just happy because he managed to crawl up on the couch. Its his newest trick and he does it quite often just to prove to us that nothing on the couch or the side table is safe anymore. He even gets up there just to grab the remote and run off with it, cackling the whole way because he hopes someone will chase him. (Someone usually does, so he has us trained pretty well!)

Say it with me 'AAWWWW'! This is the after-nap look that #1 claims he always gets from boy 3 when I'm holding him. Apparently, boy 3 is letting #1 know that I belong to him. No one else gets snuggles like these!

I'z sneaky

Okay, lets see if this contingency plan works.

 

So, as I was saying, I had a pretty good weekend, though I didn't get as much accomplished as I'd hoped.  I read most of the day on saturday, then did housework and made a meatloaf for supper on sunday.  Most of the weekend I was grumpy because, as usual, I was worrying needlessly about work - was there something that needed to be done?  I kept checking my business email, but each time found there was nothing to be done or worry about, but that didn't ease my mind.  Grr, this is part of the reason I need to leave this job.  To make myself feel better, I killed a bunch of bad guys on World of Warcraft (WoW).  RAWR!

 

Homework adventures were no so easily solved.  As a general rule, we give boys 1 and 2 a break on friday night and saturday, but then its time to get back into school mode on sunday.  On mondays they have their spelling pre-tests, so you can see the weak points before the real test on fridays.  Since boy 1 did so poorly on the first spelling test last week, I decided they needed to sit down and write all their words five times each for familiarity.  It should only have taken 30 minutes at the most.  >sigh<  15 minutes into the job, boy 1 flounces out of the office with a baleful glare and says "don't worry, I'm just going into my room to pout!"  (At least he announced it).  I walked in there a couple minutes later to find him crying on his bed, claiming the assignment was too hard.  Most of his words are only 4 letters long (but I can forsee I'll be wanting to add a few four letter words of my own soon).  I calm him down and lead him back into the office only to find boy 2 writhing around on the homework table, singing to his pencil that has mysteriously broken its lead point again.  On seeing us, he jumps up and gets back to work with a crafty look in his eye - he'll have to get out of his chair again to sharpen his pencil.  TWO HOURS AND SEVERAL INCIDENTS LATER boy 1 is writing his last line while boy 2 is only halfway done.  I have him write each of his remaining words once before getting ready for bed.  Those two forcefully reminded me of MY assignment for this school year - PATIENCE.  I did okay last night, but I could have done better.  Unfortunately, it was my bedtime too, so no more killing bad guys on WoW to ease my frustrations.  Grumble, grumble, grumble.

 

Until next time.

That feeling...

I felt it this weekend. The feeling that cruel summer is finally loosening his sweaty grip. Oh, I know he'll jab at us again, but each jab will be shorter and cooler than the one before until finally autumn has slapped his grasping, meaty paw out of the way. We actually had a high on sunday of only 88 degrees, with barely a heat index at all! And all this week its not supposed to get over 95! Hooray! In fact, I was a bit chilled in the house and stepped outside for a moment and was flabbergasted that I didn't immediately warm up (until I stepped out of the shade and into the sun).

I love fall and winter. Its a time to cozy into a nice warm sweater and jeans, a time that I don't have to worry so much about cottage cheese thighs, jiggly arms and how often I shave my legs. Ah, cool weather! I even considered wearing a sweater to work today (its usually cool enough in the building to do so, even on the hottest days) but I figured that would be taking it a bit too far! Soon though. Soon. Oooo, I better start buying more jeans for the boys for school - you'd think they'd reinforce the knees on boys jeans, but no, that would be too practical.

AARGH!!! I actually wrote at least twice as much as what you see here, but as I was writing my company blocked this site. I'm sneaky though, muah ha ha ha! I already had a contingency plan set up in the event that this may happen. Thbthbth!

Until next time, when our heroine thwarts the evil silencers!

A mile!

I did it! Last night on my usual evening walk/jog, I jogged a full mile without stopping! I'm so proud of myself! I've been trying to exercise more lately and usually go out to walk/jog once the sun has gone down. Even then though, temps are still up in the 90's with heat indices in the upper 90's. I come back from exercising with sweat pouring off of me. Last night was a little different. We had a line of storms come through with cooler temps behind them, so when I went out the temps were only in the mid 80's, though it was more humid than usual. I was still covered in sweat, but it was actually cooling me this time! Wonder if that had anything to do with my ability to do that mile - I'll have to see in a few days when the temps are back up. Another thing I was impressed about is that I completed my 3 mile walk in record time, beating my old record (set earlier this week) by almost two minutes! I'm now averaging a 14 to 15 minute mile. Those of you out there who are runners are probably laughing at that, but its an accomplishment for me! I'll soon get faster, especially if the temps continue to cooperate. However, the nicer the weather gets, the more likely I'll be pushing a stroller, which will slow me down, especially on the hills. Thats okay though, I'll just call it resistance training!

Now for my next goal - getting past the mile mark. I know what stopped me last night. I was rounding that sharp curve in the sidewalk by the park. Its a switchback going uphill and at the turn is where the elevation rise is the steepest - stopped me like a brick wall. I had already exceeded my goal of making it to the bridge and decided to let the switchback stop me. Next time, it won't. I'll keep going at least another fifty feet to the street I have to cross. Small goals are easier to accomplish than big ones, and before you know it I will have jogged two miles and improved my over all time again.

If anyone wants to know, I'm using an app on my iPhone to keep track of my time, distance, speed and route. Its called iMapMyRun and has an associated website. The downside of this app is that you have to have the 3G network on for it to track you (I think only my version of the iPhone has 3G), you have to turn off the auto-lock feature and it doesn't track accurately if you put it in a pocket or fanny pack so you have to carry it in your hand. The app does have its own locking feature so you won't accidentally stop your tracking. The app was free so I decided to give it a try and have adjusted easily to carrying my phone (besides, there aren't any pockets in my work-out clothes so I'd have to carry it anyway). Apparently being held in a hand thats bouncing or swinging back and forth doesn't affect tracking - its been very accurate. I even get a map with my track on it. Below is my mapped track from last night.



TTFN! I'll let everyone know how my jogging is progressing.

Family Portrait

This is a picture that boy 2 drew of his family at school yesterday. I really liked it. From left to right, as near as I can tell, its boy 3, boy 2, me, boy 1 and #1. He's a better artist than I am and he certainly solved the 'finger problem' - you just can't make five fingers look right when you draw something that small!