August 2011

Summer has flown by and it's going to be day 1 of school next Tuesday. 

My job is going well.  I'm solo and enjoying it so far. 

My family recently went camping. In addition I have some pictures to show of my last few weeks. I'm too lazy to write up a proper commentary so I apologize. 

Also, my mom is here this week and I'm bugged when she's here.  I don't know what's wrong with me because she's awesome, but I'm bugged just the same.  I like my space and with her here I lose some of that space. She's here because we asked her so it's not like she's not wanted.  Why can't I be normal?

Okay, on to the pictures.

  That's me, and my brother, Alan, behind me.  I'm getting ready to get in the cold water BEFORE I've had my coffee, and water ski.  This is Rollins Lake in Grassvalley/Colfax CA area.  Great lake, very pretty.  We've camped here for years. 

                                                                         I'm waterskiing. 

Now I'm wakeboarding.  I didn't move much the next day. 

My 8 year old Shawna got up on the training ski for the first time ever! 

Getting some air!!!

This year my husband strung twinkle lights around the campsite for everyone. We all agreed they were a nice touch. 

This is me playing on the kids playset.  I used to be a total pro on the bars so I showed them my "moves". I still got it.


Thanks for looking!

Jesus, Mary and Joseph

Holy Moley people.  I literally do NOT have time to breathe these days.  Work is busy and I only have tomorrow left with my trainer because tomorrow is her last day before maternity leave. I've learned a lot in 4 weeks but not enough!!! This gals desk is BUSY!  I know I'll be fine but holy shit batman. 

This past weekend was also our big family boating/camping trip. This year we had 46 people at the height of Saturday night.  Lots of fun had by many and my new nickname is Light Ass.  I could explain the origin of this name but if you weren't there to witness the experience it just won't mean as much. 

I missed Thursday and Monday because of my job and apparently those were the "best nights".  Figures. 

This post will be all over the place, just so you know, so hang on for the ride. 

My younger daughter is at my parents this week.  She's having a blast. Grandma even took her to Kmart to get new clothes. Kmart to my kids is a huge experience. We don't take the girls shopping.  I buy most of their stuff online.  Someday they'll learn just how lame Kmart is, and when I say lame I mean lame. Kmart was a job I had at age 16.  I worked there for 3 years.  I had to take back yellowed gross used pillows because "customer service comes first" and totally worn out shoes that the kid wore everyday for 6 months because "customer service comes first". Only you know what? Kmart is closing store by store.  I know because they were an account of mine at my last job. Sears bought Kmart but Kmart never fully recovered.  Each month I'd receive an email how another couple Kmart stores were closing down.  They will not be around much longer. 

Oh, while camping one of the moms kept saying "Jesus, Mary and Joseph". Hence my title. It felt fitting after the past few weeks I've had. 

This weekend is my 25 year high school reunion. It's a picnic of sorts and families are invited.  I don't know how big the turnout will be but it's fairly nearby for me so I'm going.  I sort of feel that with Facebook reunions aren't the same as they were before FB.  You know what the people are up to and see pictures of their families, etc. 

School starts in a couple weeks. Summer really flies by.  Remember when you were a kid and summer lasted FOREVER?!  At least it did for me.  I loved summers. 







 

I have a new job peeps

I've had a busy couple weeks my friends. 

A week ago last Friday I was emailed by the CFO of the semi-conductor company I was hoping to get a hob with, and he was asking if I'm still available and looking for a job.

I said Yes.

I received a phone call an hour later from he finance manager asking if I could start work on Monday. I was still working at my company (almost 12 years there) and later learned I had a job with them until August 5th.

I signed some paperwork and started my new (temporary) job on that following Monday. I'm being trained by the gal going on maternity leave. I like her a lot. She's a good trainer and gives me tons of patience and good training notes.

I hope this new job has an opportunity to become permanent, if it's meant to be. 

I wish I was a writer, like so many of the blogs I read, because there is so much more in my mind, but I'm lazy in writing it all down. I think it, but writing it down feels like so much work.

Kudos to the writers.

My Day

This Monday will be July 4th, otherwise known as Independence Day here in America. Many years ago I was born on July 4th, but not until I made my poor mother wait 10 days after my due date. Her father, my Grandpa, told her that since I was already late she needed to make sure I was born on July 4th or he'd disown us both. (he was kidding).




As a young girl my mom always knew she'd name her daughter Sandra. She intended to nickname me Sandy, but I never had the personality of a Sandy. Some neighbors growing up called me Sandy and if you're old and feeble I'll let you get away with calling me Sandy, but I am not a Sandy.



Once pregnant with me my mom never considered I was a boy. She just knew I was a girl. Ultrasounds were not available in those days. At least not according to my mom. However, on the way to the hospital she mentioned to my father how they should probably come up with a boys name just in case. His middle name is Edward so they agreed if I was a boy I'd be named Edward. No offense to the Edwards out there but I'm pretty happy I'm a Sandra and not an Edward.



As a child, birthday's were fun, but parties were problematic. When you're a summer birthday it's hard enough to find friends who aren't on vacation with their families, but when you're a 4th of July baby no one is available since it's a huge family affair.



Another downside to summer birthday's is you don't have classroom recognition of your birthday and you don't get to wear the birthday crown. Those are big deals to a child, if that child is me.



Something I do love for my birthday is an ice cream cake. As a child I'd always ask for one. My mom obliged sometimes, but more times than not she made my cake. I loved when the ice cream cake had a large firework decorated on it. This year my mom is getting me an ice cream cake. Just a small one since it will only be the 6 of us. I'm already excited.



Of course the fireworks on my birthday every year is pretty awesome. There have been a few birthday's with no fireworks, like when I went to horse camp for 2 week stretches a few times or when we just didn't feel like dealing with the traffic and parking, etc of getting a great spot to see a fireworks show or when I was little and scared of the fire crackers and loud noise they made. I " hid behind the skirts", that's what my Grandpa always said.. But for the most part I'd say I have seen fireworks on almost all my birthday's.


This year will be no different. My parents now live in a gated community with a lake and each year a very nice fireworks show, costing $20,000, is done over the lake . My parents don't actually live on the lake but their best friends do so we drive the couple minutes to their house a few minutes before the show starts, sit on their dock enjoying the show, then drive back to my parents house and put the kids to bed. It's really the best thing ever.



I hope everyone has a great 4th of July weekend. I plan to have a great time up at my parents house, spending time on the lake or by the pool where they organize activities for the kids. I'll try to forget, that in addition to it being my birthday, I'm actually a year older. heh

How about some pictures

I've posted these pictures on FB but only a few of you who read here actually know me know me on FB so I'm going to post these here too. 

My girls wear uniforms to school, so when summer comes around they LOVE being able to show their style off. Shawna's style is unique.  She's more fashionable than I ever was at her age.  She's funny in that in cold months she opts for sundresses, and in warm months she'll wear tall boots and a jacket. Although, to her credit, yesterday it did rain hard all day so her tall boots and jacket came in handy. 

I took this with my iphone before we left for summer camp yesterday.

This past weekend when Todd took the girls to the local water park I finally got around to buying and planting some annuals in front of my house.  This area is tiny, but it's right along the driveway.  I normally plant impatiens, but this time I opted for snapdragons.  On the end near the hose I planted some sage.  I don't use sage much for cooking but I do like planting herbs, watching them grow and then pulling off leaves and smelling them. I can't be the only one who does this right? 

Once I had them planted I needed to water them.  There was one sprinkler not working so I fiddled with it.  Bad idea. The sucker opened up completely and soaked me from head to tow, as well as soaking the driveway.  It was really a Candid Camera moment. 

Something else I did this past weekend was shave our dog.  Poor Rosie is a Llasa Poo whose hair, if left alone, would grow down to the ground.  Since no one in our house is interested in brushing her she tends to matt up.  Is it mat or matt?  Anyway, I borrowed some clippers from a neighbor friend but she only had a size 10 blade.  I've NEVER used clippers before. Ever. I knew this wasn't going to be pretty, but I did go online and watched a few videos on how to groom a dog with clippers. At first I thought I'd just do the important parts, like the butt hole, since this entire event started over the fact that Rosie had poop stuck to the hair on her butt.  Gross!  But, as I got going I decided to go all the way. 

I choose to clip her in the backyard on the patio table.  This allowed the hair to float all over my backyard which resembled what it would look like if an enourmous bag of cottons balls exploded.  

Here we have a before picture. 

This was also before Todd power washed the winter's worth of grime that accumulates on our back patio. 

And here we have after.

She's not as upset about her new look as she appears to be.  However, if you were to see her up close you would notice her cut is horribly uneven and blotchy.  heh.  She didn't like me messing with her feet and wouldn't you know there are 4 of those stupid things. But, by taking the initiative I saved me $50 in grooming fees and she's cooler for summer. Win win. 

Here is my oldest, Paula, enjoying a hot summers night in the backyard. 

whaaaat?!

I didn't get the wine and spirits job.  I found out last Thursday via a generic email.  I also don't think I got the temporary semi-conductor job either since I haven't heard back. I did check out the other guys resume' on linkedin and it did list some things mine didn't so I copied them onto mine for future jobs.

Sooo, I'm back to square one. 

I'm also anxious to start my new life as unemployed but with a severance so I can lay around and do nothing for a few days.  I did take a mental health day on Friday because I was pretty bummed about my current status in life.  Not getting chosen doesn't do much for the ego if you know what I'm talking about. 

Lastly, there is a really funny and popular blogger called the thebloggess.  She recently wrote a post that makes me laugh every time I read it, and I've read it several times today.  If you want a good belly laugh check her out.    I linked directly to the post.  Funnay!  I mostly laugh when I see the chicken at the front door.  hahahahahahaaha

Job Search update

Last week on Friday was a crazy day and it continues to be crazy.  I'm putting all this down mostly for myself, so I apologize if it jumps around or gets confusing. 

First, my brother calls me in the AM last Friday to say Mom called him and Dad had a mini stroke.  My dad's memory was affected but nothing else.  He couldn't remember things from far back as 2 weeks ago.  My mom was going to take him to the hospital for a scan.  My girls were up there with my parents, which is 3 hours from me, so I was worried about my mom even dealing with my children. Plus, Paula is a worrier and I knew she wouldn't like the hospital visit, but later in the day I learned it wasn't a mini stroke.  Doctor felt it was a reaction to something, maybe the Benadryl he'd been taking.  We all thought that was weird.  He had a follow up appt yesterday but I haven't called to see what his personal doctor had to say about it all.  I saw my dad over the weekend when I went to pick up the girls and he seemed fine, but still has pockets of no memory.  Some of it's coming back, but not all of it. 

Also on Friday I received an email from semi-conductor company I did a phone interview with 2 Thursdays ago, asking me my salary expectations.  I took this as a good sign but panicked on what to say.  I ran down to HR but everyone was outside for a company event.  I did track one gal down and she gave me some advice. I waited to email the company back.  I don't want to say too much $ or too little $. 

An hour after the email, I received a phone call from HR at the wine and spirits company I'd interviewed with the week prior, asking for a 2nd interview for Tuesday (yesterday).  Again, good news!  I bumped into another HR person and filled her in on my day so far. I've kept her posted on my job sitiation from the beginning.  We went back to her office where she gave me some good advice.

On Friday I called the CFO, who I know, at the semi-conductor company.  My HR person said since I have a relationship with him, ask if he can hire me as a regular employee.  He holds the purse strings and would be the one to ask.  After playing phone tag we had a nice conversation. He told me I'm 1 of 3 in the running.  I told him about the 2nd interview for the wine and spirits company and asked if he'd consider hiring me permanently instead of keeping it a temp job for now.  He understood but said at this time he can't promise a perm position.  They are running very tight at the seams though.  He asked me to let him know how the interview goes with the spirits company. 

Yesterday's 2nd interview at wine and spirit went well.  I met with a controller and the A/R supervisor who I met last week was also in the room.  I think I showed them I'm more than qualified, but I am wondering if I'm over qualified.  The perk to this company is definitely that it's only 6.5 miles from my house and it's a permanent position.  They aren't making their decision till the end of this week or next week.  He still needs to do more 2nd interviews. 

Yesterday I emailed my friend W, who I worked with here but in 2008 she was laid off. She managed the claims group.  I didn't work for her, but we sat next to each other in our cubicles and worked together for almost 10 years.  She's buying my Maui time share vacation week for next year so we've been emailing back and forth on details.  She knows about my job sitation.  I told her all about my job prospects and gave her the names of the companies. She called me today.   She just talked to that same semi-conductor company yesterday, as a reference for an ex-worker here named P.  But she wasn't listed as P's reference. Rather, the office manager, who we both know, called her to ask if she would mind talking to some people about him. 

P and I are applying for the same job. They told her yesterday he's the most qualified person so far. Which blows she and I away since if you knew P, you would not think he's more qualified than I am.  She asked if she could call the office manager and the other person she spoke to and recommend me over P.  I told her yes, I'd appreciate it if she did that for me.  W also reminded me that a guy we both worked with here,. T, his wife works at the semi-conductor company.  I saw T walking down the hall and told him what I learned today. He said he can't believe they're even considering P.  You have to understand that P is not like everyone else. He's a very serious odd person.  T said he'd email the CFO and recommend me.  T worked with the CFO as well. 

So, that's where my job status stands.  I'm still up in the air on whether, if I'm offered both jobs, I should go with one or the other.  I hope only one offers then I don't have to make a choice.