I’m so torn!

I have come to the conclusion that I hate my job.  I feel like if I have to sit at my desk one more day and transcribe medical documents for mumbling, ESL, speed-talking, burping doctors I’ll go nuts!  When I was typing a tape the other night, this doctor took a slight pause on his tape and “broke wind”!  Obviously, he thinks so little of the person transcribing his dictation that it’s okay just to “cut the cheese” loudly without a thought to how gross it might be to me!!  Oh, and does the fact that this doctor does colonoscopies make you any more nauseous?  With all the gas passage going on, sounds like he needs his own services.  (My nice way of saying for him to stick it up his…)

I started a new job a few weeks back with the hope that I’d be doing mostly editing for the speech recognition software this particular hospital uses.  I found out yesterday, that does not take place for another 3 months!  I’m not a happy camper.  I don’t want to wait three months, especially when I need to know what the editing job is like ASAP so I can decide whether or not to take another transcribing job I’ve been offered making more than I have in the past and more than this current job.  The only thing there is I’m not happy with the hours they need me to work.  So it’s looking like neither of the new jobs are going to work out, and I’m at a crossroads. 

I checked out the classifieds on our local newspaper’s web site last night, and today I faxed my resume to two companies and will mail it to a third.   Will I, though, be working just to be able to GO to work outside the home?  Gas prices, money for clothes to wear, daycare, wear and tear on my car, makeup, meals out if I don’t pack my lunch, etc.  Any extra money I might make would just be spent on these things, right? 

I’m at a loss as to what else I could do at home.  I’ve tried to figure out these work-at-home message boards that profess to have the list of legitimate businesses that allow you to work from home.  Good grief! It’s like a secret cult where they disquise the names of the companies, i.e.: M*D*N*L*D* (McDonalds), and I even replied to a few of the posts only to see my replies disappear for some reason.  WTF??

When I write down the pros and cons between the two jobs I have now and then the pros and cons of keeping one of these jobs that allows me to work at home versus going back to work outside the home, all I end up with is a couple of lists!  Nothing jumps out at me telling me which would be the better choice.

You know what my biggest worry is?  My age and my looks.  I don’t think it matters how intelligent I am or how qualified I am for the job.  What matters is how old I am and how I look.   The last job interview I went on, last year as a matter of fact, I was at least 10 years older than the oldest person in the office.  It was nerve wracking being interviewed by someone knowing that I might be old enough to be their mother!  I thought 40 was the new 30? No?   And we may have had more in common than she realized since I’m a 44 YO mom of a 4 YO boy doing the soccer mom thing. 

Oh, well.  I have a friend who says what’s meant to happen will happen.  I believe that, but what do I do in the meantime?  LOL!

Busy, but fun weekend-Oh, and a hail storm!

Friday was busy with catching up on papework, paying a few bills, and test driving a couple of cars.  Pat has decided to go with the Toyota Highlander, and she wanted me to drive it and give her my opinion.  We also drove a Saturn Vue just for the heck of it and neither one of us wanted to like it, but we did.  I guess it’s shameful that we were scared of the American-made car or American brand.  Who knows what is made where anymore, but even so, Consumer Reports still rates Toyota and Honda way above the rest.  Anyway, Pat needs a new car, as her 1996 Honda has served us well, but definitely needs to go to that scrapyard in the sky.  Mine is the car we depend on for our long trips, but even still it’s getting close to 10 years old.  Perhaps when I can afford a new car I’ll give the Vue a try.  It may be hard though to pull myself away from my trust in the Honda.

Saturday was a noon-time soccer game.  It was our turn to bring the snacks so I chose those Aquapod water bottles from Deer Park since they had the most in a pack, yogurt-covered raisins, and grapes.  I stressed over what to bring and then two of the kids didn’t show up.  Oh well, Jake has some extra snacks for this week and plenty of bottled water.  I could really tell this time that Jake has actually learned a bit about the game!  He is dribbling better and getting in there more to try and get the ball.  If he hears his name though, his attention turns to the sidelines and away from the game.  Guess we can’t yell, “Go Jake!”  LOL! 

We had lunch at a local hot dog joint where my 4 YO flirts with some female soccer players of the 10 YO age range and then we went home for a break before going for dinner with friends.   We’d just gotten home and my dad came knocking!  He was in town for training, as he has a weekend coming up where he will be spending four days at a local prison with the ministry he’s a part of.  He said he couldn’t just drive on by and had to stop and see Jake for a while.  Of course, that ended up in some fun for Jake.  Papa and he boxed and tickled, and rough-housed until it was time for Jake to have his bath.  My dad laughed about how sticky and sweaty Jake was from his soccer game and it was a hoot seeing my dad try to get Jake’s shin guards and sock off.  I love watching my dad with Jake.  He’s so good with him and Jake really loves him.

As we were getting things ready to go to Mandy and Lisa’s for dinner, it started to rain and the wind really picked up.  It had gotten so dark so quickly.  I was in the kitchen preparing a side dish to take with us when the hail started.  It was incredible how fast it started and how much came down!  Now, this was nothing like the hail storm I was in a few years ago where baseball sized hail did almost $4,000 in damage to my car, but it was pretty spectacular.  It fell in such quantity and so fast that you couldn’t take your eyes off it.  When I looked out the front door, it actually looked as if someone was on our roof, pouring ice out of bucket onto our front steps.   When it finally stopped, it had made a mess of our planting beds right at the door, pushing the dirt out into the walkway.  How remarkable Mother Nature is with a wind and hail storm one instant and the next the sun is shining and the rain is evaporating as steam from the roads. 

If you’ve been reading, you know that Lisa is the friend I’ve reunited with.  Every time I get to visit with her it just secures the fact that I made the right decision to contact her and makes me even more grateful that I did.  Plus, I had not seen Pat laugh as much in a while.  It was a great time.  We had wonderfully grilled chicken, fresh corn on the cob, the potato dish I made, and a cucumber/tomato salad.  Jake played the Wii with Lisa’s niece, Haleigh, and he had a blast sitting at the “kids’” table talking to Haleigh and her friend as if he were a 10-YO, too. 

Today, I’m working, but at least I’ve had a fun weekend to take me back into the work week.  I hope you all had as nice a weekend as we did, and a great week ahead!

 

It’s My Birthday!

Yep, #44 and I can’t believe it.  My dad and I were talking yesterday about how if we were the age we “think” we are, we’d be wide open with energy!  Between the two of us, our aches and pains keep us from moving as fast as we used to! LOL!

I have such a wonderful family and they always make my birthday so special.  Birthday wishes come in the form of e-mail, cards in the mail with a little green inside (always nice), and special gifts like I received yesterday.  My mom came by and took Jake with her for the afternoon.  When they finally got back here, he was so proud to bring in a gift bag.  He picked out these things for me.  Too sweet is my baby!

Of course, he also came home with Jonah and The Pirates Who Don’t Do Anything movies for himself.  The little stinker. 

My mom came by again today and brought me beautiful linen capris in a pretty salmon color and a shirt to go with.  Can’t wait to wear them!

It’s also so great to have the friends I do, the local close friends I have and my super great TallyScrapper friends.  TopTally Christine called me this morning with sweet birthday wishes and everyone has done so on the board this morning.  Love you all, Tally Gals!!  Sweet Minda even gave me a little spotlight on her blog! http://mindakms.typepad.com/  I so want to meet this wonderful lady!  Thank you, Minda!

I guess I seem boastful about all the wonderful people in my life, but I’m actually celebrating them!  Love you all!

 

Mid Week Blahs or Age 44?

Man! I am feeling low today!  It’s weird because it started Monday and seems to be getting worse as the week goes on.   I’m sure it’s the overwhelming amount of things I have to get done and the fact that I can’t seem to get ahead on any of it.  Being so sleepy I could literally lay down on the floor here in my office and sleep until tomorrow morning does not help at all.  I guess it could be that I turn 44 on Friday and boy does that number seem kind of high! LOL!  I was just thinking how nice it was to be 29 and POP! my bubble burst. 

Do you feel your age?  I don’t really.  Of course, I have some physical things going on that I could live without like back pain and carpal tunnel and stiff joints, but I’m 29 still in my head dammit! 

Whatever it may be causing these feelings of yuck, I hope it goes away soon.  And don’t say perimenopausal to me either!

Turkey Strut Festival!

I live in the south so we have county fairs and “Spring Flings” and “Downtown Alive” and “Music on Main”-all different festivities for everyone to gather and have a great time.  Now, if you go way out in the country, you get the Turkey Struts and the Chicken Pickin’s.  My dad’s a member of his community’s fundraising club, and today the club put on a big Turkey Strut and Chicken Pickin (both together! WOW!) to raise money to build a park for the area.   This was their first and actually I could not believe the number of people coming and going, some coming and going several times during the day.  The Shriner’s were there taking kids for rides on their jallopy-mobiles that made frog noises and chicken noises and had weird sounding horns.  There were games for the kids, some vendors selling all different kinds of things, and live gospel music as well as a good old southern rock band.  Then there was the food.  Festival food does not always thrill me, but these locals really know how to cook!  I had chicken lips, which thankfully were just chunks of chicken STRIPS and some homemade French fries.  Pat had fresh turkey sandwich with a sampling of “Steve’s” Mild, Medium, and Extra Hot sauces.  All three passed the Pat test.  Jake loves corn on the cob and when I saw someone had roasted corn, I got him that and as we were looking for something else, he spied a HUGE pickle jar with humongous dill pickles inside.  THAT was what he wanted.  He loves a good pickle.  I’m not sure how well corn and pickles go together, but the Jakester was quite happy alternating between corn and pickle.

Is he not the cutest??

I also got to see my dad, in charge of the parking lot, cousin Tootie and Barbara her daughter, my great aunt Frances and aunt Mary Anna.  Someone commented if the Striblings hadn’t shown up, there wouldn’t be anyone at the festival.  Yep, we’re a rather large family. 

To me, that’s what made this day extra fun.  Outside with all sorts of fun going on around you, music playing, and seeing family members, some of the working to raise money to better their community.  Yep, it was a great day.

Upcoming Kit at TallyScrapper!

Christine at Tally could not have come up with a better kit for me as a design team member.  It’s all vintage, baby!  The Paper Loft papers are wowee wonderful!  Here are some of the layouts I’ve done so far:

This is my great aunt Louise.  What a great photo, I think, so reminiscent of the time period!

A not so vintage, but yet with a touch.  I wanted to show that the vintage papers go just as well with more modern photos, too.

Love this photo of my grandmother!

This one is my great, great grandparents. 

Tally’s Survivor Challenge for week 10 is all vintage with a story.  This is about my grandfather, sad and sweet at the same time.

Go check out this kit!  There’s a preview video up and the kit goes on sale April 15th! 

 

Easter Layouts

I am loving the Scenic Route Lynden papers and die cuts!  Such great Easter colors! 

I LOVE the photo in this layout.  The boys were walking around hunting eggs and I caught them at such a cute moment.  Thanks to Chris Breecher, one of my Tally Friends, the newspaper box at the road is no longer in the photo, and didn’t she do a great job changing the photo to black and white EXCEPT for the boys?  I just love it!  Thanks, Chris!

WINNER!! Mini Book Giveaway!

By random number generator, the winner is Susan!!!  You can e-mail me with your address or if you’re a Tally Gal just Tally mail me!!  Thanks for playing everyone!!

WOW!

Can you believe it?  Yours truly made the design team at TallyScrapper!!!  I am so excited I can’t stand myself!  I cannot wait to be a part of such a great team!!  There are six of us and the other ladies are phenomenal scrapbookers so I feel really honored to have been chosen.  What a great next three months it’s going to be! 

 Here are the layouts I submitted.  At first I was so unsure about the Angel layout.  Using something like the wings on a layout was a big step outside what I usually do.  I really like the way it turned out though; I think it’s very sweet.

This layout was tough to do and I’m not sure if it’s the subject matter or what that makes me unsure of it.  I miss my grandmother terribly so this was defnitely an emotional one to do.  She was a quilter so I made a little quilt pattern and then the tops of the three “blocks” that go across are not adhered down so I can use them as a pocket.  I have some little quilt pieces she had cut out and I’m going to tuck them into the pocket.

This layout I’ve posted here before, but I did enter it in the DT tryout.  I think this is really one of my favorites.  Love the paper and it just went so well with this photo. 

Thanks to all the ladies at TallyScrapper for giving me the chance to work with such a great group of ladies!! 

Mini Book Give-Away!

Just for fun, I thought I’d do a little give-away here.  I made this mini book with Top-Line Creations’ Pocketbookz mini book and the Our Daughter kit.  It’s very cute and ready for you to add your favorite photos.  The book is 4 x 4 and accordion style, and certainly you can add more embellishments if you’d like!  If you’d like to win this just leave a post here and I’ll announce the winner (by random number generator) on Friday of this week!