Category: Workplace Drama

Change of Pace

Published by dee on February 8, 2013

As of today, I am officially one week into my new part-time schedule. This is going to take some adjustment time for sure. For now, I am working 3 hours in the office Monday through Friday, picking up the two younger kids, then working another 2.5-3 hours at home after that. It is a bit of an odd schedule, but works out the best as far as cutting day care costs down. This way, Evie is still able to go to preschool every day. She just comes home in the afternoon instead of staying and taking a nap at school.

The schedule, for me, feels a little chaotic. In time we will figure out a good routine, but for now it is a bit crazy. I leave work at 12:15, pick Evie up, pick Caleb up, then rush home to get Caleb down for a nap, scarf down my lunch, and get Evie settled in so that I can sit and work. The kids are doing pretty good with it, although Evie is pushing my buttons a bit. I think that will settle in time too, as she figures out what she will be able to get away with. The part I hate is that I have to wake Caleb up from his nap every day to go pick Zach up from school. It is so nice for Zach to be able to be home earlier and not have to go to the after school program though.

I’m finding that there are good and bad things about the new schedule. I LOVE being home in the afternoons. I love that I can throw in a load of laundry mid-day and not be waiting up at midnight for a load of diapers to dry for the next day. I love that I can take my laptop outside and work while the kids play on a sunny day. I love that our evenings don’t feel so rushed. I am also responsible for dinner prep now (it has been hubby’s job for the last several years) which is both good and bad. I’m not a fan of cooking, but I do like that I can introduce a better variety of meals now.

There are things I miss about being at work full-time too. Primarily, the paycheck! I miss having my lunch hour to run errands. I miss getting to actually eat my lunch without sharing. I miss lunches with my mom, especially when I didn’t get to take her our for her birthday this week. I miss zoning out in my office with my music cranked up in my headphones while I work.

I am learning a few things too. I have to really schedule and prepare for the work I am taking home every day. Some things are easier to do from home than others. Also, my kids eat A LOT. I was not prepared for the amount of snacking that they seem to think they need to do. Evie, in particular, is constantly wanting something to eat. I don’t know if it is just because she is home and it is available, or if the girl has been starving at school all this time. Zach also comes home wanting food immediately. I would pack them bigger lunches, but then they just tell me they don’t have time to eat it all. So, snacks it is. I apparently need to do some stocking up.

It feels a bit challenging as we adjust to this change, but I really think it will be good for our family in so many ways. It still feels really weird to me to be home during the day, but in a good way.

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Odds 'N' Ends

Published by dee on May 5, 2008

My brother has finally succumbed to the powers of the blog. I’ve always been under the impression that he thought blogs were stupid but now he has one of his own. Now that he has a baby (and in-laws that are constantly bugging him for pictures and updates) he’s finally decided that they aren’t so bad. Plus, he’s using WordPress which makes it even better. I would love to share the link but I’m not sure he wants it to be public so I’ll have to wait and find out first.
I’ve mentioned before how much time I can manage to waste browsing Etsy, right? Well, I found out this week that my cousin just started up her own Etsy shop. She currently has listed hair bows and hair bow holders for little girls. She also plans to add tote bags and tutus in the near future. If you are in need of any of those, please go check out her Tippy Toes Bowtique. I can’t wait until Evie has enough hair that I can actually put bows in it!
I’m finding myself getting quite addicted to Twitter. It’s like a cross between blogging and instant messaging and it is so much fun. I just wish I had more real life friends on there. I always feel kinda dumb replying to people that don’t really know who I am.
The proofs came back for Zach’s school pictures today and they were really great even though he looked like a slob on picture day. I had convinced myself I wasn’t going to buy any because I was so sure they would be terrible. Instead they came out so good that I have to buy them. I would have liked him to have been wearing better clothes, but the way his smile lights up his face you really don’t pay much attention to the clothes anyway. I’m a sucker, aren’t I?
I gave Zach’s school his 2-week notice today. I’m really hoping I made the right decision with this. I’m sure he’s going to really miss the social aspects of the school. He’s a very social kid and has made some really good friends there that he’s going to miss. But, at the same time, I’m hoping he won’t be coming home with scratches all over his face anymore. I won’t miss those at all.
Being back at work is HARD. I’m SO tired and I miss my kids like crazy. Like I said before, my job isn’t so bad. If I have to work, it’s a pretty good place to be. However, I WANT to be with my kids. It is just entirely too hard to function the way I need to function at work when I’ve gotten very little sleep and all I can think about all day is the fact that other people are taking care of MY kids.

And now that I’ve gotten all of that out, it is time to share some more pictures of my adorable kids.

They’ll never be able to claim that they aren’t related.

I love it when I catch him showing a little love to his baby sister.

Every time I turn on the camera here lately he starts making funny faces. (Also notice the scratch and recent scar on his cheek-courtesy of day care.)

Those eyes just make me melt.

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Turkey Day Eve

Published by dee on November 21, 2007

The day before Thanksgiving is just as busy, if not more busy, than the actual day. First of all, there is work. Completing a week’s worth of work in three days instead of five can get a little stressful, especially when you are an expert procrastinator like me. I put off things that should have probably been done on Monday thinking I had plenty of time. Then I was told today that I need to be available for two different meetings Wednesday morning which will likely take up most of the time before lunch. I had hopes of being able to leave a little early to run some errands and start getting ready for Thanksgiving day. Now it doesn’t look as if that will happen.

I am very much looking forward to Thanksgiving day. We plan to spend the day at my mom’s house watching the parade, enjoying a little football, and of course doing some cooking. If I’m really lucky, I might even get to take a nap or do a little bit of knitting. At some point in the day, my brother, sister, and their families will join us and we’ll have our traditional Thanksgiving dinner together. I can’t wait for the food. I’m not sure I’ve ever been so excited about eating. As I told a friend over IM today, I’ve been working on stretching my stomach out for the last few days so I’ll have plenty of room.

I’ll be posting at some point tomorrow to fulfill my NaBloPoMo requirement, but to all of you celebrating Thanksgiving on Thursday, I hope you have a wonderfully relaxing day with your family and friends. I’m very thankful that you are all around, because this blog wouldn’t be nearly as much fun without you.

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I believe that today is also the due date for my first little niece. Somewhere over in Hawaii, my brother-in-law and sister-in-law are anxiously awaiting the arrival of their first child. I am anxiously awaiting pictures since I won’t be able to be there to meet here when she arrives. I just hope the wait isn’t too much longer. A healthy delivery would certainly be something to be thankful for tomorrow!

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Routine or Chaos?

Published by dee on August 15, 2007

I’m not altogether sure whether it is the lack of activity in my life right now or the busy summer that has been keeping me from writing lately. I feel like I am so busy all the time, yet when I sit down to think about what I might write about I can’t think of a single interesting thing. Life just seems a little boring and routine right now. Perhaps I just haven’t had enough time to let my mind wander lately. I miss writing daily, but at the same time I have enjoyed the break from the computer screen. Hopefully things will start picking back up around here soon. In the meantime, here’s what’s been happening.

It seems like it has been a year, but in reality, for about the last 6 weeks or so my office has been in the middle of a remodeling project. During that time, all of my stuff has been packed away, with only the essentials crammed into the corner of my mom’s office where I’ve been working on a tiny little typewriter table. It hasn’t been miserable, but it certainly isn’t the ideal working situation. The end of the project is drawing near, and now that I can see a light at the end of the tunnel, it is getting harder and harder to work in my little corner of someone else’s office. When all is said and done, I’ll have my very own office with 4 walls and a door (for the first time in my life). My boss even agreed to let me have a lock on the door so that after the baby is born I’ll be able to pump with a little privacy. That fact alone makes it all worthwhile. The carpeting goes in next week and if all goes well, by the following Monday I’ll be able to move in. I can hardly stand the wait now.

I am finally over the illness from hell and feeling much better. I ate my first full meal in almost a week today and it was so good that I totally overstuffed myself and have been paying for it ever since. I’ll have to back off a bit for the rest of the week to make up for what I ate today. Since discovering that I am pregnant, I’ve been changing my diet up a bit. Instead of all of the diet drinks and low-fat or no-fat foods that I usually have (trying desperately to stick to my defunct WW diet), I’m trying to do about half and half. I’m still sucking down my Crystal Light like crazy, but I’m also trying to drink more plain water and letting myself have a regular soda every once in a while instead of drinking 2 or 3 Coke Zeros a day. I’m also cutting the caffeine quite a bit so the sugar helps pep me up a little when I need it. Instead of Lean Cuisine for lunch every day, I’ll throw in a Red Baron pizza or some mac ‘n’ cheese a couple times a week. The baby needs some fat, right? Oh, and the 2% chocolate milk? It is so on! Don’t get me wrong, I’m still watching the weight gain. I gained 30 pounds when I was pregnant with Zach and I’m trying to keep this one at less than 30 (preferably around 20), so I still have to watch myself.

Zach is doing much better at his new day care. This morning, we stopped by his old day care provider’s house (because she called and tempted me with warm Monkey Bread!) for a few minutes before going to his “school” to drop him off. The whole time we were at her house he was very clingy, refusing to let go of me even for a minute. As we were leaving, I asked him if he was ready to go to school and he actually smiled and said, “Yes!” When we got there, he went right in, told me good-bye and joined his class. For the first time, his teacher didn’t have to hold him while I walked away. As I turned to peek one last time, he was standing there smiling. For the first time I really felt like I made the right decision. Next week he’ll be promoting into the next higher 2-year-old class, so hopefully that won’t be too hard on him. He seems to be excited about it for now. Once he adjusts to that, maybe we can start working on all the other things that he has been regressing on lately (like potty training, that damn pacifier, and sleeping at night).

That’s about all I can come up with for tonight. It’s late, Hubby disappeared and left me mostly in the dark about an hour ago, and the caffeine buzz from my first Coke all week is starting to wear off. I suppose that means it’s time for bed.

p.s. I’ve really got the bug to re-design this site. The green is making me want to puke and that bikini-clad girl up there with the little smirk is irritating the crap out of me. Problem is, I have NO ideas what-so-ever. If anyone wants to throw out any ideas to help get the wheels turning, it would be much appreciated. I’m thinking a new design might just give me the little kick I need to get writing again.

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3-in-1

Published by dee on June 19, 2007

Last Friday I had grand ideas of sitting around in my pj’s relaxing all weekend. Then I started thinking about all of the things I needed to do, like grocery shopping so we could actually eat, and figuring out where exactly I was going to have Zach’s birthday party since I still hadn’t reserved the park shelter I wanted. Suddenly, my lazy weekend turned into a very busy one.

I ended up spending Friday evening and much of Saturday running errands. Saturday afternoon we went over to my mom’s to help her set up one of those 12 foot round pop up pools in her back yard. Since we no longer have her apartment complex pool to invade, we figured we needed something for the kiddos to splash around in this summer.

While the pool was filling up, we took the men of the family (hubby, my brother, and my brother-in-law) out for a Father’s Day dinner. Once our bellies were sufficiently full, we headed back to the house to watch a movie and monitor the water level of the pool. I think it was around 11:00 by the time we ended up leaving.

We spent most of Sunday at my dad’s house. Zach ended up taking an extra late nap and then refused to go to bed. He was still awake at 11:15 when I finally went to bed and had an extremely crabby morning on Monday. It was a great way to start out the week.

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I am really beginning to feel like my summer is over before it even really begins. There are still two days to go before the "official" first day of summer and we already have plans for the next five weekends in a row. Three of those weekend we’ll be traveling out of town and the other two will be consumed with a certain someone’s birthday party and some family activities.

Besides the traveling and other activities coming up in the next few weeks, it seems that my office space will be turned completely upside down for a while. Beginning Monday, we’ll have a construction crew in here remodeling the office space. When all is said and done it will be really nice, but in the meantime I am going to be a bit displaced. My work space will be wherever I can manage to find a chair and a plug-in for my laptop. If I’m lucky I’ll get to do some work from home where I have an actual desk. It is going to be pretty hard to work in the office when I have no space to spread out. The good news is that I will have a real office (with a door!) when it is all finished.

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I’ve been thinking for a while now about moving Zach into a big bed. He’s doing okay in his toddler bed, but he’s been asking more and more lately to sleep in our big bed, even when we aren’t in it. I don’t mind him sleeping with us really, but Hubby doesn’t like it. That is probably because Hubby ends up with little feet kicking and pushing him all night while I end up with the head end all snuggled up with me. He generally goes to sleep in his own bed, but ends up with us sometime during the night if/when he wakes up.

The alternative to him sleeping with us is that I stay in Zach’s room with him until he falls asleep again. He’ll settle back down in his own bed as long as I stay there with him. If I leave, he stands at the door and screams until I come back. I’m not so fond of this alternative when it’s 3:00 in the morning and I just want to go back to sleep myself. I have ended up falling asleep on his floor on more than one occasion and then waking up hours later with a sore back and neck.

My solution to this problem is to get him a big bed, probably a twin size for now. It would give him more room to wiggle around in, feel more like mom and dad’s bed, and would give me space to lay down next to him for a while if he wakes in the night.

I realize that he’ll probably still want to crawl into bed with us from time to time, but we all might get a little more sleep this way. Now I just have to figure out what style of bed I want and how in the heck I’m going to pay for it!

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Sometimes It's The Little Things

Published by dee on February 19, 2007

For over a week now, my office has been completely out of Coke Zero. You might think that this is not a very important thing, but it most definitely is. I am a creature of habit and being a creature of habit I find it very necessary to maintain a simple daily routine. Part of this routine includes drinking a bottle of Crystal Light Peach Tea first thing in the morning and then grabbing my first Coke Zero of the day shortly after I get to work. When I can’t have my Coke Zero it throws my whole day off. I’m less productive (if that is even possible) than usual and I’m having cravings all day. The really bad part is that I have been to the store several times and could have purchased my Coke but I keep forgetting to pick it up. I’ve tried subbing it with Diet Coke, real Coke, and Diet Dr. Pepper but none of them do it for me. Somebody seriously needs to stock the fridge soon. And yes, I realize that I am lucky to have an office where my drink of choice is normally stocked in the fridge and I should not be complaining.

I really enjoyed my weekend with Zach. I made a point to spend some time just focusing on him and paying attention to what he needed. The result made me realize that I really haven’t been giving him enough of myself lately and that I need to do that more. I have been relying way to much on the fact that he is capable of entertaining himself for longer periods of time and I have not been spending enough one-on-one time with him. A few small changes this weekend made a huge difference in his attitude. Coincidently, the same changes seemed to work wonders on the Hubby too.

One of my biggest struggles as a mother/wife is finding a little “me time” amidst the daily chaos. This weekend I managed to not only focus on Zach and the Hubby, but also to find some time to myself to release a little creative energy. I did some work on a blog site for a friend (that I will link to when it is all finished), made Zach and my nephew some Jack’s Big Music Show t-shirts (iron-on transfer paper rocks!), and started knitting a baby blanket for my new little nephew that is due to arrive at the end of April. I am loving the blanket and it is coming together very quickly thanks to my extra big knitting needles and the thick chunky yarn I found.

Sometimes the little things in life can be frustrating, but other times they make life worth living.

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