October...

Hey all,
My mom pointed out that I haven't blogged since the day before her birthday; almost a solid month ago. So here goes my midnight update for all the fans out there. (It's been a long day, so I'll probably be a little all-over the place with this update.)

-Plans are still on for Berta (and maybe Mark) visiting us for Thanksgiving. Haven't seen them since my birthday/Easter. The mall will be closed Thanksgiving day, so missing work isn't a problem for anyone.

-Emily, one of my co-workers, is dancing in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade. She's part of a dance team called the Silverados.

-I had my two-year anniversary at my job, October first. Rick and Regina took my whole family out for Mexican food to celebrate. Also got a raise.

-My bosses took me out for dinner after work this last Sunday. We had chinese buffet. Crablegs & sushi! Yummmmy.
-My closest friend at work, Jen, had her grandfather die this week, so she's in Arkansa. He was her last living grandparent.

-Pam's getting divorced.


-I've been fighting flu-like symptoms for almost 3 weeks now. I had fevers early on. Threw up, one night. Aches, sleepiness, horrible coughing & runny nose. Bleh!
All that's left is this chesty cough that wont go away. Some of the October-only employees and some of the regulars repeatedly called in sick. They had dizzy spells, aches, and everything else you can't have while helping a customer. I've been muscleing through and just crashing into bed or the sofa when I get home from work. Dayquill is my friend.
Last week I was scheduled on the calendar to work 49 hours, but I ended up coming in more than that to cover for sick co-workers or work on projects (October 31st is very close!). I'm working from open-to-close all this week. Six Eleven-hour days straight, plus Six hours on Sunday. And that's if we don't have to stay after-hours to clean the store any night.

Chained to my job. hahaha

-Most of the October-only employees have "self-terminated". One lady only worked for ONE DAY and never returned. She even left that night saying, "see yall tomorrow." Then she never came back or called! Two other October-only employees pulled the no-call/no-show thing. Tacky, and a waste of my time training them all.

-Elaine had a girl scout event at a pumpkin patch about a week ago. Jim and Allan took her to it. The only photos he took were on his phone, so I got a picture of them with their pumpkins this Sunday.
She didn't care what her pumpkin looks like. She wanted the heaviest.

On Sunday Elaine dressed herself for church in that red and white sundress that we love. She put on one red Hello Kitty sock and one pink Hello Kitty sock. I teased her about it and she had a clever response... "They kinda match because my dress is patterned red and white. Red and white MAKE pink! :) "

-Jim covered my shift in the church nursery, since I had to work. He also repaired a laptop for a man at church.

-Elaine was asked to be the flower girl in Big Allan's wedding next February. Jim and the kids went to Garland on Saturday. Elaine was measured for her flowergirl dress at Allan & Steven's house. She'll be a solid size 8 by then. While in Garland, he moved some flowers around for Margo (Jim's grandma) and got his hands and feet badly bitten by fire ants. He says that of everyone around, he's the best person to be bit, because his cousins are very allergic of fire ants.

-I need to give us all haircuts. My hair is long enough for pigtails again. Jim's hair is all curly. And Elaine's bangs are too long.

We bought the kids new sneakers like 3 weeks ago. Elaine complained about her shoes, so I re-measured her feet. She went up a size and a half from before! The same day we bought Elaine a few pairs of pants. She's growing up and out. The leather strap on the back of Allan's sandals broke, so we got Allan shoes at the same time. Neither pairs of shoes have shoelaces. :)

-Elaine's class went on a fieldtrip to see parts of 'Peter Pan'. She said that she thinks it's funny the kid was pretending to fly. I asked what she meant. She GRINNED and said, "I saw the strings."

Jim bought some double-A batteries for me this week, since my camera needed them. The spare batteries went into the keyboard Elaine use to play with. Allan has been playing with it. He brags that he's "playing a Pin-ano".

Yesterday when I got home from work, Allan got out some construction paper and said, "Can you hold this Mommy? I gotta find something so I can Art." Adorable! He was fetching alphabet stamps.

Jim and Allan have been bonding, watching 'Ninja warrior". Allan and Elaine move around toys and stools in the living room to make their own "Ninja warrior obsticle course". Allan's gonna be a Ninja this year for Happy Hallelujah. I picked him out a costume with a Cobra snake on it. I showed Allan the movie, "Side Kicks", so he keeps talking about Chuck Norris. We don't know what Elaine will be for Happy Hallelujah. She doesn't like my ideas (cute sailor girl costume we have at the store) and she didn't fit the size for her first choice. I'm gonna let her try on more costumes tomorrow night.

3 days ago, Allan said, Mommies are good at "helping, making things, cleaning and picking out perfect costumes." I asked him if ALL Mommy's pick out perfect costumes. He said, "Oh yes, because I wanted to be a lion and it was perfect, then I wanted to be a ninja and it's awesome!" :) Jim asked, what are Daddies good at? Allan said, "Driving Mommy to work."
By the way, Allan pronounces Ninja, "Inja"

God's Timing

It seems like God's hand was heavily guiding the timing of everything last night.

Elaine had her first Girl Scout meeting at 6pm at Kil'n Time. She got to meet all the girls in her troop and paint a tile, that was later fired in a kiln. Her meeting was gonna end between 7pm & 7:30pm. We were annoyed that we were gonna be in the middle of the last rush to help Pamela move (in Krum), and have to turn back to pick up Elaine from Girl Scouts (Denton). Then of course God stepped in.

We got a call from Dave, asking if we all wanted to meet for dinner. We told them we were still helping Pamela move. Katy and Dave volunteered to drive in and help Pam. They drove in, and even picked up Elaine from Girl Scouts on the way in. I think this was all pre-planned by God, since Katy is a grown Girl Scout and could relate what Elaine was doing. Elaine was very excited to see her Aunt Katy and Uncle Dave, when she didn't expect to see them.

As of last night around 9:30pm, Pam has all her belongings inside her place in Decatur. It was awesome at the end there. She had like a dozen people pitching-in to quickly move everything. There is a lot of unpacking and settling-in still to do. I work 8 hours today, but I'm off work tomorrow. After church, Jim and I are going over to Pam's to set up her computer and help her unpack.

Jim pointed out, to me, that in the last three days he's used as much gasoline as he normally uses in 2 weeks, driving between Denton, Krum and Decatur. But, he was the first to volunteer to set up Pam's computer on Sunday. Bragging about my hubby: he also drove to lots of different stores gathering up boxes for Pam, earlier this week. He's been making me really proud. October is around the corner, with the 60-hour work weeks that I expect, we'll get balanced back out from using the extra gas this week.

At work, a flamboyant man walked in alone and headed strait for a hotpink zebra print chiffon petticoat. He grabbed it and said that he was ready for a cashier. I asked him, quietly, "would you like to try it on?" and he snapped back "NO! It's a GIFT!!" (He looked shocked/angry) ... well, excu-use me for annoying you mister customer man, but you did just pick out a hot pink zebra print petticoat all by yourself.

Today Jim is watching Cole & Allan while I help Pam pack up. (Elaine will be at school.) I think we'll still make it to Bible study tonight, but not counting on it. She wants help moving but doesn't know many guys who are available during the middle of the day... this is where we come in.

If anyone local has a spare King-sized bedframe, let me know.

p.s. Monday was the Anniversary of our first date. Jim and I have been a couple for 8 years now.

Hung with my Niece and Nephew today

Well, they might as well be my niece and nephew, since we all call Pamela my "big sister". We hung out with Kaylee and Cole today. The boys got along pretty well, besides a couple sharing issues here and there. Once Elaine got home from school Kaylee and she played with my watercolors.





These kids always seem to line up in height/age order. teehee hee.
By the way, a blurry Cole sure looks a lot like Charlie Brown!

Last 8 days in photos.

Elaine had to decorate a shoebox for school that explains the sense of taste. She had to put 5 things inside to help explain taste, but NOT use real food. She made the box look like her mouth (her idea to leave out the front two teeth!) and put a construction paper tongue. We marked where all the appropriate tastebuds are located. Limes and Lemons say "Sour", Coffee is labeled "bitter", a Salt shaker for "Salty" and a cookie for "sweet". We had fun making it together Monday night.

Little brother at his finest.

Kids in rainy day gear.

such a ham.

Sunday Elaine's *other* front tooth fell out.

Last Wednesday, Allan posing with his storm trooper toy.

Elaine's Paula Dean cookbook had a diagram of how to set the table. She practiced the other night, with Allan.

Helping cook Fajitas.

Good News abounds

My new favorite treat: Garden Salsa Sunchips and Homemade Guacamole (with lots of cilantro).

I've been working between 43 and 48 hours at the store the last few weeks. So I've been getting 'time and a half'. We're finally catching up on the bills that we were behind on, from when we had to get the Van fixed like 6 weeks ago. October is just 3 weeks away, so things are getting crazy busy at work. I'm under deadlines for all my projects. Everything should have been done yesterday, so to speak.
The super good news is that Rick hired a new girl, Codi, who started on Friday and today he hired another girl. The girl he hired today, M'Lisa, I hand-picked.
She was in the store shopping with her mom, who needed makeup for a school face-painting event. M'Lisa was telling her mom about all the differences in the makeup, so I noticed she knows her stuff about theatrical makeup. Turns out, M'Lisa has a theatre degree focusing in Makeup (like how mine focused on Scenery and Makeup). I got the gal a job application, and called Rick out of his office to meet this one! Since she's a college graduate, like me, she doesn't have all the time conflicts my other co-workers have. M'Lisa was hired on the spot. I train her beginning Monday. Rick said I did a good job finding her. I'm excited. I get called away from my projects to explain the most BASIC makeup applications to customers, because my other co-workers don't retain all the makeup directions. I'm happy in the near future I will get more of my other more-important projects completed while this new girl helps customers with makeup.

Jim took Elaine to two important meetings on Tuesday. Elaine went to an information meeting about her school district's Gifted and Talented program, called 'Expo'. Only one other family from our school attended, so Jim got to ask lots of questions to the specialist who works at Elaine's school. Jim's setting an appointment to have her tested for Expo. It's a 6 hour process. One of the girls I work with at the store was in Expo from 1st grade through high school. She says that it's for creative kids; free thinkers who are good a problem solving. The same night, Jim also went to get Elaine registered for Girls Scouts. Her first meeting is either this coming Tuesday or the one after, I'll have to ask Jim.

Why does the past-tense of 'Picnic' have a 'K' in it? That makes no sense.

David kicked off his "Three-Day Birthday Extravaganza" with us last night. I took lots of pictures for our scrapbooks. After work, the family all got together and had a great time celebrating Dave's 30th (aka "18 with 12 years of experience"). We brought all the fixings to make HUGE sandwiches. I had to put a half-dozen toothpicks in Jim's sandwich, so it wouldn't fall apart! The whole family picnicked on blankets by the lake with the wild life.After diner, Katy surprised Dave with cupcakes. The smarty remembered to get half of the cupcakes without chocolate, so I could have one without my allergy kicking in.

After the grub, we all went Ice Skating at the Farmer's Branch Star's center.It was David's first time back on the ice since his surgery. He was super excited!! (His doctor says he can skate but can't jump back in to Hockey yet.) Dave zoomed past the kids and I, having lots of fun chasing their Aunt Katy. Jim's skates were super painful, until I pointed out that he had them on the wrong feet. Suddenly, he was fine. Go figure.

Allan did so so much better than he did last winter. He *marched* around the ice rink, holding on to my hand to balance. or leaning his shoulder against the wall. (click the pic to see it larger, you can totally tell he's marching, not sliding).

Last time we skated, it took both my hands to help his balance. After an hour, Allan started to PULL me around the ice. We had lots of fun. Elaine is getting better at skating too. She gets easily distracted and looses her balance when she turns her head. We've collectively decided the girl needs some blinders. hehe.

Katy called this his 3-Day Birthday Extravaganza, because she has all these surprises and celebrations planned for him all weekend. Today she surprised Dave in a big way... she set it up for him to fly a WW2 biplane! SERIOUSLY!
How cool is that!?!? Katy took lots of pictures. I can't wait to see how the scrapbook layouts turn out.

In other news: I'm off from work tomorrow (Sunday). I was off last Sunday too. Rick says he's only gonna have me work Sundays when he absolutely needs it, like if he has a church meeting that he's required to attend or whatever. I'm working next Sunday, but that's much better than every-other, like we've been doing since late May.