First Day On The Job

Super short post.

Started work today.  I love it.  I'm happy.  It's going to be awesome learning all the ins and outs of financial planning....something I've never done before.  I'm excited.  And it's good to be making decent money again after struggling with Ebay for so long.  Haven't walked this week.  Want to get back to that soon.  My goal for Biz's challenge was to have better lab numbers by my next bloodwork.  It's coming up in a couple of weeks and I have a feeling my #'s are going to be WAY lower. 

Will be back soon with another update on life. :)

Broken Snowtoe?

My baby girl Scarlette is in serious pain.  Her name is Scarlette Snowtoes...and she may have a broken toe.  It's either that or a sprained ankle according to the emergency vet we went to see at 6am this morning.

She and Boomer were playing under the bed last night, and when she came out from under the bed, she was holding her back right leg up off the ground.  Poor thing got no sleep last night.  She wouldn't lay down, she just sat on the bed holding her leg up.  I didn't get much sleep myself from waking up constantly to check on her.  At 5:30am she finally started pawing my face and whimpering.  She never makes sounds like that unless she's in pain, so I knew it was time for a trip to the emergency vet. 

The bill was $253 as it was, and they wanted to charge me another $285 on top of that for x-rays to narrow down the problem.  I simply didn't have that much money.  The vet prescribed some pain pills and anti-inflammatory meds and said that would get there through today until I can take her to her normal vet tomorrow where the x-rays will be much cheaper.

She also said if it IS a broken toe that it will have to have a splint on it for 6-8 weeks.  If anyone knew exactly how I feel about my fur babies and how I treat them like human children, they'd know I was within a gnat's ass of giving up on this job that starts Wednesday just to be home and take care of Scarlette.  The thought of her being left all day and dragging around a little splinted puppy leg behind is her is nearly more than I can take.  I am doing my best to stay rational and look at the long-term but boy this is just ripping my heart out.  She is so tiny and she's my first baby.  I love her so much.

Needless to say this day has sucked ass.  Dwayne and I have been right beside her today.  She's not eating hardly any at all, hasn't had any water today and hasn't used the bathroom at all.  We are worried sick.  I will have her at the normal vet at 8am when they open and will find out for sure what she needs to get better.  For now, I'm just tied up in knots.

Happy Freedom Day!

Ever since I was told I got the job life has been pretty chaotic.  After working from home for 3 years, it just feels like there's so much to do before I can start working at an outside job again.  Thus, I have been forgetting to blog.  The good news is we have been walking 2 miles each evening up until last night.  Thunderstorms, so it didn't happen. 

My friend Kim invited us over to cookout tonight and there may be some beers involved, so I doubt there will be any walking on the holiday.  I'm hoping we get back to our normal groove Sunday evening.  I start work on Wednesday so only a few days of freedom left, lol. 

Starting tomorrow morning, I'll be getting up at 5:15am to get myself used to the habit.  I have no idea what I'll do around here that early in the morning, especially since I don't want to wake Dwayne up that early.  But I have to get started now or the first day on the job is going to totally suck.

I definitely want to get back in the blogging habit, but probably shouldn't promise that's going to happen before I start the new job.  It seems the closer I get to the start date, the busier things are around here. But I will be back soon! :)

I Got The Job!

So...let's start back at last Thursday. 

Dwayne's mom called and said she had been sick for a few days, finally went to doctor, he did blood work, got the results back and called her and told her to check herself into the hospital on Thursday afternoon.  She called Dwayne to take her in.  I followed him over to her house and picked up her 13 year old dog, Sasha, to take care of while she was in the hospital.

She had surgery Friday morning with the surgeon saying that was the worst looking scenario he'd ever seen....that her body was full of poison from infection.  Come to find out, she had been seriously ill and on her couch for 3 days, refusing to go to the doctor until the workers finished remodeling her kitchen.  She wanted it done before she could be bothered with a gall bladder attack.  She's damn lucky to be alive.  They are finally letting her go home today.

Due to having all 3 dogs here Thursday night, my two and hers, it was a pretty chaotic night.  I tried to lay on the sofa and get some sleep but it just wasn't happening.  Dwayne finally got home about 1:30 Friday morning and I went to bed with Sasha and Scarlette.  Sasha snored loudly and Scarlette is jealous, so slept right on top of me.  I remember seeing 3am on the clock before I finally fell asleep.  I got up at 7am with the alarm clock to get ready for my job interview.

The interview was fabulous.  It was, by far, the best one I've ever done.  I interviewed with 3 managers for an hour and before leaving, they told me they had one other lady to interview on Monday and that I'd hear something soon after that. 

Less than an hour after I got home, one of the bosses called to say that they were so impressed with me in the interview, that they felt like interviewing the other lady on Monday would just be a waste of their time, and they'd like to extend an offer to me right now.  Ummm....ok!!!  lol

I got a dollar more per hour than I asked for.  And I got BETTER hours that I asked for.  It's 36 hours/week...Mon - Thur is 7:30a-3:30p with a half hour lunch in there, and Fri is 7:30p-2:00p!  How fabulous is that?  This allows me to stagger my work hours with Dwayne's, so that Boomer will only be crated about 7 hours, instead of the 10 hours.  And who wouldn't love to get off work by 2pm every Friday??  I am extremely happy.  I discussed the offer with Dwayne and it only took 10 minutes to call the guy back and tell him I accepted his offer and am ready to go to work.  Due to him being out of town, he asked that my first day be Wednesday, June 8th, so he'll be back in town to start my training.

The eating has been somewhat on the fly since his mom has been in the hospital.  Not totally horrible, just not as healthy as it could have been.  I have been getting all my water in though, and taken all 5 of my meds each day.  We finally got back to walking last night....2 miles at the park.  And I fianlly saw a new low on the scale a couple of days ago...236.4.  It's coming off very slowly, but it's coming off.

Dwayne is at the hospital with his mom now, waiting on her release.  He's going to call me when they're almost back to her house so I can take Sasha over.  I'll be glad when things get back to normal here.  Sasha wasn't a lot of trouble, just needs a lot of care.  She's 13 so that's 91 in human years!!  She's half blind and half deaf and can't walk very well.  My house has 3 sets of stairs in it, so she has to be carried everywhere, she can't go up and down the stairs by herself.  Also, she hasn't wanted her dog food that Judy sent, so I've had to give her people food just to get some calories in her.  Dwayne and I have both been praying that she doesn't pass while in our care...it really doesn't seem like she has much longer, so things have been stressful in every direction for the last several days.

I went out this morning and had my fingerprints done for the new job.  I also filled out some background check paperwork and confidentiality agreement.  I got an email back from the Operations Manager inviting me to come in the office tomorrow at 11am for a Compliance Meeting.  It's not mandatory, but would give me a jump on what they do there and allow me to meet some of the other team members.  Naturally I said I'd be there.  I need to go by a store at some point to pick up a couple of new clothing items and maybe a pair of shoes or two.  I also need to get some Ebay stuff wrapped up before the week gets away from me.

I'm going to try to get back to my normal blogging pattern in the evenings starting tomorrow.  I need to start taking pics again, too.  I think it makes the posts more interesting.  Hope everyone had a lot less stressful weekend than we did.  Here's to getting back on track! :)

Stressed

I didn't post last night because I simply forgot.  I was busy tending to Boomer and giving him lots of love after his surgery, which went extremely well.

Tomorrow morning is my job interview.  A couple of hours ago Dwayne got a call from his mom.  Apparently she's been vomiting the last couple of days.  She went to her doctor who ran some bloodwork.  He called her today and told her to check herself into the hospital today, that her liver enzymes were seriously high and her gall bladder didn't look good.  She will most likely be scheduled for surgery. 

So she called Dwayne to come over and take her to the hospital.  I followed him over in my car so I could pick up her little dog Sasha.  I got back home with Sasha, and Boomer was in his crate.  He's never met Sasha before.  He started growling and freaking out in his crate like he wanted to kill her.  So I'm a little scared to let him out.  I still haven't.  I guess I'll just hold her while I let him out to pee outside, and then see how he reacts around her while she's in my arms.  She's 12 or 13 years old now and hobbles everywhere she goes.  She really can't handle too much stress so I pray Boomer behaves.

I have no idea what the sleeping situation is going to be for me and the 3 dogs tonight.  Boomer normally sleeps in his crate but he's been sleeping with us the last few nights.  Sasha is used to sleeping in her mom's bed, which obviously isn't an option tonight.  And Scarlette is jealous of everybody.  I have a feeling there won't be much sleep at all tonight.  I sure hope I do okay in that job interview.

Job Interview

This morning kinda' sucked.  I went to the park at 10am and walked 2 miles.  But everything hurt.  My hips, back, knees, feet.  Everything.  So I was a little discouraged that I've been walking every day for 3 weeks now and it doesn't feel any easier yet.  It doesn't help that it's June in Georgia and that means mid 90 temps with a nasty humidity to match.  It might not have been that hot yet at 10am but it was certainly uncomfortable. 

Breakfast was another homemade egg mcmuffin.  Lunch was a philly cheesesteak of sorts.  I had some thin sliced steak.  I sauteed that as well as some mushrooms, onions and red bell pepper.  I didn't really plan ahead for the bread for this so I used a leftover hot dog bun from Dwayne's smoked sausages last night.  I also didn't have any mozzarella, so used some provolone.  It was pretty tasty albeit a little dry.

After lunch I ran out to Goodwill to purchase some inventory for my Ebay listings...

Then a quick stop at Wal-mart.  Right before I got out of the car, I got a call from a guy at Principal Financial Group asking me to come in this Friday morning for a job interview.  It's an Administrative Assistant position as an independent contractor assignment.  My good friend Lori told me about it...it's her old position, she's moved on to bigger and better things. 

I've been doing Ebay for about 3 or 4 years now and to be honest, it's a struggle.  The money keeps my part of the bills paid, but I can say I do not enjoy the stress of always wondering if you're going to make enough each month.  There's definitely not much extra and the stress of that can be draining.  It would be nice to work at a job outside the home again for the sole purpose of having a check you can count on.  Well, sort of.  At least count on for a little while.  I say that because I was laid off from my last 2 Accounting jobs, so nothing is ever guaranteed.  But it would be nice to have a little break from the weekly stress that comes with sales.

I will continue to do my Ebay sales on the side.  If I happen to get this job, and for some reason it ever ends in the future, I want Ebay to be up and running.  I do not want to have to build another store from the ground up.  So we'll see what happens.  I've discussed it with Dwayne and there are a couple of parameters that need to be met in order for me to accept on offer.

First of all, it's a pretty bad commute.  It will be at least an hour each way in metro Atlanta traffic, if not more.  So Dwayne said it needs to pay at least $17/hour to make it worth it.  Secondly, Boomer our Labradane puppy is only 7 months old.  With an 8 hour work day for each of us, and a 2 hour commute each way, that would leave him in the crate for 10 hours.  Neither of us are comfortable with that thought.  That's way too long to expect him to hold his bladder, plus it's just sad that he's used to being out and playing with Scarlette during the day, out in the back yard, all over the house, etc.  Dwayne shocked me to death.  He actually told me that I'm "so awesome" and "do so much for the family".  That he has grown to appreciate me working from home because I'm here to take care of the house and the dogs, etc.  Me doing these things takes the load off of him and he's thankful.  I was blown away.  I'm pretty sure that's the first time he's ever voiced his thoughts on that.

So...they would have to agree to let me work from 7a-3p or 7:30p-3:30p in order to stagger my hours with Dwayne.  He doesn't leave the house until 9:15a....so this would put Boomer in the crate about 6.5 hours instead of 10.  That is much more doable.

I've been a nervous wreck since I got the call this afternoon.  I haven't interviewed in quite a while.  I caught myself wondering if I could remember how to do basic admin duties.  Can I load paper in a printer?  Fax something?  Scan a document????  Dwayne came home from work and I was still freaking out and he just laughed at me.  Told me to chill and stop freaking, that everything would be fine...it's just a simple interview.  We don't even know if we're going to accept the offer, so just do the interview and don't worry about the next step.  He's my rock....my calm to the chaos that is my brain.

Dinner was a little late and not very well planned out because I was too busy freaking.  I mean, I knew I was making bbq chicken, but didn't bother to make any sides.  After he got home, I realized this, and threw a potato in the microwave for him.  Covered it with salt, pepper and butter and he was fine.  I went with raw veggies...cukes, tomatoes and carrots.

I had "bake egg cups" on my menu plan for tonight so I just pulled them out of the oven.  A lot more green in them this time.  I used yellow squash, spinach, zucchini, asparagus, mushrooms, onion, a little bit of steak leftover from lunch and a sprinkle of cheese...topped with Egg Beaters.  I bake mine at 375 for 20 mins and the consistency is perfect every time.

I didn't take a pic of the finished product because I started typing this post while they were still in the oven...but you've seen them before.  :)  Boomer has to go to the vet in the morning to be neutered.  He's starting to hump everything in sight and that just can't be tolerated.  I will be dropping him off at 7:30a and picking him up sometime before 5p.  I've been worried sick all week.  What if he's allergic to any of the meds?  or the anesthesia?  I just hate it when my babies have to have surgery....even one as common as this one.  I'll be happy when I get him back home and on the couch, and just cover him up with Momma hugs and kisses.  He's gonna need his Momma.  Sure do love my babies. 

Dwayne took off work Thursday and Friday to be home with Boomer, too.  He said one of the reasons is for the physical fact that I can't lift him if anything were to go wrong, he had to go back to the vet and lifted to the car, etc.  The other reason is because he's a big softie and loves his boy as much as I do.  :)

Chugging Along

Today was a good day.  That's saying a lot for a Monday, lol.  I didn't get out for my "morning" walk until noon.  Boy was it hot and humid.  I really did not want to do it today but I managed to do 4 laps, which was 1.3 mi.  According to the Runtastic app, I burned 390 calories. I took a pic, ever so thankful for these 2 little patches of shade on the track.

Breakfast was an egg mcmuffin, made at home.  I used a 100 calorie English muffin with 18g of net carbs, an egg, 2 slices of Canadian bacon and a sprinkle of cheese.  I had a small side of hashbrowns with it.  Lunch was a bowl of my deliciously chunky lasagna soup.  Holy cow this is soooo good.

I did lots of chores around the house today, as well as my normal Ebay listings.  At some point I had this snack plate to take one of my 5 meds with.  Turkey, cheese stick, baby carrots and cukes.

I had these in the freezer so I thawed them and sauteed 2 of them, then mixed them with the leftover grilled veggies from last night.  I also had a leftover ear of corn with it.  The corn served as my dinner carbs.  I roasted some sausages in the oven for Dwayne and served them on buns with a side of baked fries for his dinner.

We waited until 8pm to head to the park to let the sun go down as much as possible and still give us enough time to see for our walk.  We had intended to walk 5 laps starting today but lost count and ended up accidentally walking 6, which was 2 miles.  My app said I burned 557 calories.  Combined with my earlier walk, that is 947 cals burned for the day.  Yay me. :)