Chasing Contentment

Friday, February 29

I worked overtime three nights this week, and I'm going in again tomorrow, so tonight is LAZY NIGHT here in our house. Mike and Eliza have gone for pizza, and we're going to watch tv and be lazy all night. I'm loving it already.

[  posted by Chel on Friday, February 29, 2008  ]
[   1 comments  ]


Wednesday, February 27

Griff's been having some trouble with his spelling homework of late. He hasn't had trouble doing it. Or passing the tests. He has trouble remembering to turn it in. And so, for several weeks, he's taken little to no credit for work he's done properly simply because he didn't turn it in on time.

So I told him that every Sunday evening before bed (we do his spelling on Sunday afternoons), he would give me his iPod. And I would give it back when his teacher emailed me saying she had received the spelling.

Every day, they have to write journal entries. Today, his entry was:
Would you please sign that I turned in my spelling? Sorry. I'm a 21st Century boy and I need my iPod back.

I laughed out loud at work when I read the email.

[  posted by Chel on Wednesday, February 27, 2008  ]
[   2 comments  ]


Tuesday, February 26

I've been remiss about posting lately. We've been busy with Griff's school stuff (I'm not sure I've mentioned lately that I hate the fourth grade... but I do), and I've been working a fair bit of overtime. Last weekend, we did take the entire weekend off to play together, and it was really nice.

We had game weekend and played "Mythbusters" and Dora Chutes and Ladders and Pooh Candy Land. We watched the new "Hairspray" movie, which was FABO. And we just had fun.

I also have some work good news. We got our profit sharing checks last week, which was great since it was enough to cover our taxes that we owe. And... I got word today that I've been transferred to a new supervisor.

Now, of course, I'm worried now that I won't do well and that it'll turn out that it was me and not my supe. But at least then, we'll all know. I start with the new guy on Friday.

And we're blessedly finished with Griff's last project. Now, he did really badly on it, but at this point, we're just glad to be finished.

Mike got me a groovy new iPhone for Valentine's Day, so I'm going to have to start posting quick little snippets from work on my lunch break just to keep up with everyone.

[  posted by Chel on Tuesday, February 26, 2008  ]
[   0 comments  ]


Wednesday, February 20

As promised, pictures of Eliza's dance at school...



Clearly, my little one can cut a rug (as my Bud and Gran would have said)...



Mike hasn't seen this one of her dancing with three boys... shhh... don't tell him...



My Gran would have loved this one...

[  posted by Chel on Wednesday, February 20, 2008  ]
[   1 comments  ]


Tuesday, February 19

It's been a while since I posted. My brother told me that I had promised an update on my job situation but then didn't provide it. He's right, of course. Lots of things are going on... let's see if I can do a quick update.

First, I miss Diet Coke like there's no tomorrow. I'm already thinking about the Diet Coke with lime that I'm going to have on Easter morning. And then the huge DC I'm going to have at the spring training game that afternoon. Yum.

As for the job, the situation just keeps getting worse. My supervisor now knows that I requested a transfer, and she's none too pleased about it. Now, she's taking out her frustration on all of us, which makes me unhappy. If she were ugly to me, I'd be fine with that, but I'm very uncomfortable with her being ugly to everyone because of me.

Eliza had a fabulous time at her Valentine's Day dance. I've got photos that I'll post soon. She was beautiful in her new red dress.

We had THE talk with Griff this evening. He's only nine, but he's been asking questions for several weeks. And there are things going on around him that led us to believe it would be better for him to be properly informed. And we talked about love and God and ... chemistry. And he said he wanted to 'hurl,' which is, of course, exactly the reaction we wanted from him.

And now I'm on my way to try to convince Eliza to go to bed so I can have a fudge pop and watch "American Idol."

[  posted by Chel on Tuesday, February 19, 2008  ]
[   0 comments  ]


Wednesday, February 13

For Eliza's Valentine's Day party tomorrow, I made Hershey's Kisses brownies. They're little brownies, shaped like kisses, wrapped in aluminum foil. How cute is that?!



They're having a little dance tomorrow, and she's so excited about it (Mike not so much). They all get to dress up fancy, so I got her a new dress, and we are both pretty excited about it. I'll post pictures of her tomorrow.

[  posted by Chel on Wednesday, February 13, 2008  ]
[   2 comments  ]


Thursday, February 7

I have a few work updates, but I'm too tired to go into them right now. It's been a long, stressful week. And I gave up Diet Coke for Lent. Now, for those of you who don't know, I drink a LOT of Diet Coke. I was jittery yesterday, tired today. I'll post this weekend. Gotta go sleep now.

[  posted by Chel on Thursday, February 07, 2008  ]
[   3 comments  ]


Tuesday, February 5

A quick work update... my section had our skip level meeting with our manager today. I felt like it went well despite my manager telling me she wasn't going to move me. Her comment was that would be fixing the symptoms of the problem but not the problem itself. And she indicated that she wasnted to actually fix the problem. And I respect that! It just doesn't so much help me any. But I'm willing to wait it out a bit and see how it goes.

[  posted by Chel on Tuesday, February 05, 2008  ]
[   0 comments  ]


Sunday, February 3

I posted some jewelry to my Etsy shop (which I haven't done in forever), and we'll see if I sell anything. Like always, I had way more fun picking things to buy than I did uploading things to sell. I'm such a shopper.

[  posted by Chel on Sunday, February 03, 2008  ]
[   1 comments  ]


Saturday, February 2

It's been an exceptionally long week. Thankfully, it's been a blissfully slow Saturday. I'm especially grateful these days for slow, lazy days.

Here's my quick recap of our last week or so... such as it is...
Griff --
We took Griff to Tampa on Monday to meet the pediatric orthopaedist, and she recommended surgery to lengthen his heel cords. She explained that the dramatic worsening we've noticed over the last year or so is directly related to Griff growing. And the more he grows, the tighter those heel cords will get and thus, the worse his toe walking and leg pain will get.

So sometime in May, he'll have the surgery. He'll be in walking casts for six weeks and then will require physical therapy for several additional weeks. He was okay with it at the doctor's office - even discussed with the PA the scientific aspects of it - but then was just terrified that night. After that one night, though, he seems fine.

Work --
Work is still lousy. It was so bad that I called Mike and left a voice mail for him Thursday while he was in class telling him that if my supervisor yelled at me one more time, I was handing in my badge and leaving. I'm sure he loves the sobbing voice mails in which I tell him I might quit.

I made it through the day and returned on Friday. Friday morning, I went to see the manager - to whom my supervisor reports - and requested a change to another supervisor. I'm not a complainer... not interested in making any waves... not one to go against an authority figure... so that was really hard for me to do. The manager, though, was kind and receptive. She listened to my concerns and scheduled a meeting with the rest of my team (without our supervisor) to hear their concerns. She also asked - and I agreed - that I not quit until after the meeting on Tuesday.

Church --
After swearing I would never again attend a church in the denomination we have always attended, I've agreed to visit one tomorrow. This church is in a bit of a sub-set of that denomination, so Mike's hopeful, but I admit that I still have my doubts. But I know that we need to be involved in a church somewhere, so we might as well try this.

I'm trying really hard to get back into the habit of reading my Bible, of praying, of just being in communication with God. I know that I've been missing that. And I know that as I continue in this job and in this new place, I really need that.

[  posted by Chel on Saturday, February 02, 2008  ]
[   1 comments  ]