Ali’s Meanderings

I have really slacked on getting some pics and videos up here.  I will do it - I WILL.  Bare with me, I have some really good ones!

Let me just say that this had REALLY been a great 5 days off work.

Saturday was probably the most challenging day for Regan and I but we worked through it and yesterday was great again.  We hung out together in the morning (got coffee and a cookie - the coffee was for me).  We headed back home to wait for ‘Great Aunt Pam’.  Had a great visit and lunch with her. 

Today was THE BIG DAY!  We had picnic plans for today due to the park being wet on Friday.  Regan decided on the menu: Grapes, Carrots, Crackers, juice, and water.  We did end up adding a couple other items to the list but it really was a great time.  She got to play for about and hour or so at the BIG Park, then we ate and due to her having 3 cookies, and a brownie - (I usually do not allow that however, I was living in the moment and it was sooo worth it), that I let her run around for another 45 minutes to run the sugar out of her.

I have sunbathed just about every afternoon while she is napping, it has been wonderful.

I hope that this lovely time with Regan brings me the patience I am going to need when things get back to normal.

I hope that everyone is having a wonderful weekend too!!!

Yes, it is official.  I have TIME OFF!!  Very rarely do I take a lot of time off at one time.  A couple reasons, 1) I forget how to work when I go back, 2) I only have 2 weeks a year, with a 3 yo that can be challenging within itself.  3) We never really have money set aside for a “family” vacation - however we are working on that.

Regan’s sitter had shoulder surgery yesterday, nothing too major but think about it this way, she is 70+ years old.  Surgery is surgery in my book.  Anyway, I had off yesterday, today and of course Monday is a holiday (This is actually one of those holidays that printing manufacturer’s sometimes observe!).  (I can’t believe I’m gonna say this because it is going to come out sooooo wrong), but I’m thoroughly enjoying my time with Regan!  We haven’t had major melt down, we haven’t been snotty, we have been nice and pleasant to be around (I should clarify that I mean Regan).

Yesterday we took off for the “card” store, Father’s Day is coming fast ya know.  We went to the post office.  We headed to the BIG park that was still a little too wet for my liking (I made a deal with Regan that we would go back on Monday and have a picnic!), and she didn’t really get pissy until we were in the car - she couldn’t quite figure out why we were leaving already.  We hit the library (not literally), she played on the computer, had me read a story and picked out 2 books and a Diego DVD.  I even get enough cooperation to get 2 books for myself.  We went to see Daddy at work (an hour later) headed back home for lunch and nap.  The only bad thing was Mommy (yes, that would be me) completely passed out!  OMG, I didn’t feel that tired, but I must have been.  I didn’t wake up until 5:45 - yes, I’m a horrible mother and should know to just set me cell alarm if I’m gonna pass out on the couch - lesson learned (notice the time today?, I’m staying awake so I don’t make the same mistake twice).  We played a little inside, we played a little outside - I let her stay up a little later since I didn’t get her out of her room until late. 

Then of course it took me forEVER to fall asleep last night, by the time I don’t remember hearing the clock ring down here, the cat started that lovely pre-puking sound -UGH!  Then did another little small one - because don’t you know that one puke stain is never enough.  So at 2:35 in the am - I’m cleaning up puke in the living room (I decided to just sleep down stairs because I didn’t want to wake hubby and I wanted to be up this morning so that I could get a shower before someone woke up at o’ dark thirty.  Fell back asleep relatively easily and woke up this morning around 5:45 - Whoo Hoo.  So far still alive to talk about it!

Today we got gas (for the car), got coffee, hit the bank (again, not literally), paid for a special tutu/leotard for Regan’s final Dance class on June 18th.  We went to Petsmart, Famous Footwear, Target, and Toys-R-Us.  Damn if I didn’t have a good time spending some money - really it wasn’t too hateful.  (Oh, btw, TRU is having 50% of some Crayola products and also a sale on some board games - I got Hi-Ho Cherry O).

She is napping, I got some sun - while READING!  Getting a chance to blog and will enjoy some more outdoor time with some new 3D Chalk - I will let you know if it is worth getting the set or not.

Have a great Memorial Day weekend people!  I think that I will be enjoying mine still, even by Monday!

Crocs

Okay, hubby’s mom got Regan two pairs of (David-ism: GROCS [Generic CROCS]) Croc-knock off’s last year (and I’m perfectly fine with that).  So they were two different sizes and I pulled those out of the closet to see what would work.  Whoo Hoo one of them will suffice for a while.  I’m not sure that we will fit into the 10/11’s this year but we can always just wait!

Bra

Okay, so I blogged about this LAST THURSDAY!  I found out today that seriously nothing has been said to the offending boob person that this pertains to.  Seriously it isn’t my issue, however the person that I talked to about it in the first place advised me today that I needed to see the “purple sweater” and I knew what she was talking about without having to see “them”.  So come to find out, boobs (screw it, boob is a good name) supervisor hadn’t said anything to her because she believes that boob is wearing a bra  (Uhm, remember the headlights are pointed towards the belly button).  The Original Person that I went to originally ended up having a conversation with the Boobs Supervisor that went kind of like this:

OP: “If the headlights are pointed down, the puppies aren’t supported.”
BS: “Well only one person complianed.”
OP: “Actually three people complained”
BS: “Oh….”
OP: “She might be wearing a tank top but…”
BS: “Well, wouldn’t a tank top be considered an under garment?”
OP: “Do you just wear a tank top?”
BS: “No, I will wear one but with a bra under it”
OP: “If I hadn’t happened to see her one day outside after her hours, stripping off the same purple sweater and seeing the tank top, I wouldn’t push so hard, but too many people have brought it up”

Let me just add that BS doesn’t back down from confrontation any other time, so it kind of pisses me off that since there was only one complaint (Why does it matter HOW MANY people notice/complained??) this issue has not been dealt with and followed through on.

Okay, done with my soap box.

Mr. Not-The-Husband

If you haven’t read this you need to.  Hot talks about Mr. Not-The-Husband and I have been telling her that I have one in my neighborhood.  However the interesting twist in our situation is that we used to live 2 stories above ‘Not-The-Husband’ and his wife about 5-6 years ago.  They had 2 children and bought a house further back in the development where we live.  Lately, (in the 2 months) we have noticed that ‘NTH’ is hanging out across the street from us (in a house we call “The Prosti-Tots”).  Seriously, ever since the original owner of that house moved out that house had pheromones that reach ALL.THE.GUYS.IN.A.50.MILE.RADIUS.WITHIN.1.MINUTE.OF.A.GIRL.GETTING.HOME.  I kid you not, the last residence had a teenage daughter and I swear to you on someone’s grave, as their car was coming around the corner, 2 guys were walking toward the house already.  WTF?  Anyway, there is all girls now across the street.  One little girl about10 years old, must be the daughter of the lady that seriously looks no older than 20 years old from across the street.  There seems to always be another 2-3 girls that are staying there with the mother/daughter.  Hubby says that he has seen mother working at Taco Hell Bell, I didn’t know I could make THAT good of money to support 3-4 other people in the house and pay rent/mortgage. 

Hence, “Prosti-Tots”

ANYWAY, ‘NTH’s wife still lives in the neighborhood.  Not sure if they are still together or not as hubby ran into NTH a while back and NTH told hubby that he was doing a lot of “side work”, had another apt and was basically being a DAWG.  I guess prosti-tots and NTH met up, they deserve each other.

So it is becoming apparent to me that you all seem to either like the work blogs or the ones where I completely flip out about drivers and things like that.

I have a new work-related story for your reading pleasure.

About a year and a half ago, we had to have our annual meeting and all that fun jazz about work environment, blah, blah, blah.  The one thing that seemed to grab EVERYONE’S attention was the new dress code policy that had been incorporated into our company handbook.  How bad is it when your company has to include the following statement in their handbook?:

“UNDERGARMENTS SHOULD ALWAYS BE WORN”

WTF?, you say.  Yes well, it is a manufacturing facility, we do have office staff, and we practically work in the foothills of WV (that is a funny for all the other people who don’t live in WV and make fun of the state).

Back Story:  There was a lady in the plant that was working with no bra on one night.  Unfortunately for her, the men were NOT happy about it.  It was summer and I think that she might have been wearing a tank top or something and the guys were extremely scared that the “puppies” were going to make a grand appearance.  Therefore the change to the dress code statement.

Current story:  There is a new lady working here and she has an office job.  She is absolutely tiny in body, but it appears that she might have had some “puppy” work done a while ago.  (If it was recent it is a REALLY bad “puppy” job”).  Aaannnyyywwwwaaaaayyyy, she usually seems to have her stuff together and will wear a casual suit and is really covered up.  I do have to give her props she doesn’t dress cheaply, if you know what I mean.  One day she wore something along the lines of a baseball shirt (you know, the colored 3/4 sleeves and a different color on the torso - we do have dress-down Fridays), however either the shirt felt really good or she was REALLY cold.  Okay, let me just qualify that whole statement with: This wasn’t something that I noticed right off the bat, it was brought to my “attention” by other people.  Now there have been a couple more times where things that, professionally speaking, were noticeable that really shouldn’t have been.

I finally went to someone that used to work in HR and just said “Look, whatever floats her boobs boat, however there is a lot of things being said and technically according to the handbook, blah, blah, blah”.

Basically the big debate is: Is she in fact wearing a bra that lends absolutely NO support or coverage for that matter, or is she just not wearing one.  One suggestion has been that she is wearing maybe more of a camisole (no support, check; no nip coverage, check, check).

Don’t get me wrong, there is a time and place for no bra, but in a place of business with 30 + horn dogsguys out in a manufacturing plant??  Uhm, I won’t be doing that anytime soon.  I can wait until I get home to let everything breath.

Regan’s poor Crocs, they have no tread left and they slide on the floor sometimes.

Last night I decided to get her some new ones from Blue Canoe Crew, however they didn’t have them in the pink that Regan already has.  So, I got these.  The other thing that kind of stinks about crocs is the sizing of them.  Right now Regan wears an 8/9 in crocs.  It looks like her toe is right at the end.  However crocs doesn’t have in between size so the next size available is 10/11.  I brought them home for her to try and they are HUGE on her. 

Gayle (store owner) told me that they will be receiving Hannah Montana crocs June 1st.  As I am looking at the site I see that they only offer from a 10/11 and up in shoe size.  So that won’t help me much either?

What say you?: Do I just keep the ones I got and wait for her foot to grow, or do I take them back and get another pair of 8/9’s?  I guess I could keep the pair I got her and I could get another pair of 8/9’s.  UGH!  Just shoot me!

Hello All,

For all you Mothers!, I hope that you had a wonderful Mother’s Day.

I got to sleep in- Ahhhhh, is all I have to say.  9:20 wake-up.

We got coffee, we amused Regan by going to Costco to see if she could play in “her” house there.  Unfortunately, they have it on display up high now so she wasn’t able to play in it!  We went grocery shopping, Regan wanted to play in the Tree House (our grocery store has a kids center that they can play in for an hour and a half).  We came home, had some lunch, watched ‘13 going on 30′.  Regan went down for “quiet time” (yeah, right) around 1:30pm.  I cut my mom’s hair, we got Regan up.  David made quesadillas (OMG, yum) and everyone (including Regan) enjoyed them!

So my Mother’s Day is complete.

Seriously, this day COULD have made me FLIP.COMPLETELY.OUT. 

But you know, it has really worked out well for me today.  I have enjoyed work, I have done a fairly good job today (haven’t made any mistakes, YET).  I feel accomplished and  I still have just a little bit more to do to be “officially” done for the day.

The only thing left now is to have fun with Miss Thang. uhmmmmm, what to do, what to do?

Maybe we will have eggs tonight and she can help make them……what have you let your 3 year old help with?  (This is even for you all that have grown kids too! - They were 3……ONCE!!)

Let me be specific!

PHONES.AT.WORK.

Let me be MORE specific, the phones at work that the receptionist answers.

Okay, here is the deal.  We have a receptionist.  She gets a lunch break (1 hour).  We have an automated system, HOWEVER!!, Customer Service (specifically the Assholes Assistants) covers the phone for that hour.  (WTF is the point of an automated system if it isn’t used?  Because seriously, the guys in Prep have to answer the phones at night)  There is 2 assholes assistants, myself and another girl.  We used to have a laundry list of people that helped to answer the phone so that (specifically I)each person on the list only had to answer the phone 1 day a week.  Well we went from four assholes assistants to 2.  Plus the other people that used to help out that are either no longer alcoholics because they worked here working here or they were let go.  So now there is a TOTAL of 5 people that answer the phones and 3 of those people rotate it around within their department.  So the other girl and I answer the phones 4 days a week (Wed. is our ‘break’ day) and we get one Friday a month off that we alternate each month.  We alternate weeks because it is just easier to remember that you have a full week.

Today we find out that the receptionist will be training for 4 weeks as back-up for payroll that used to be done by one of the accountants.  So training will commence on Monday the 12th and each week she will be upstairs 2.5 days.

So…..Now, the other girl and I will have to cover the phones all day for 2.5 days a week on top of our lunch hour up front.  Another lady in a different department all together said that she would be able to do 1/2 day Tues and the 1/2 Wed.  Let me explain.  The department that she is in varies on the amount of work they have day to day.  I guaran-f*%king-tee you that those specific hours will not all be covered.  Not because she won’t try to still help out but I know how that department is and she is needed in that department.

Ya know, I don’t mind the phone, I really don’t.  However I just feel that I am paid to do a job. Covering the phones and trying to do work that you are actually “paid” to do gets very cumbersome to say the least. 

Oh, and just extra food for thought, what is going to happen when the real payroll person is out for a week? 

Any phone ideas out there for me to suggest to my boss??

Okay, I actually did really well this year.  I have the gifts already in my hot little hands, however, I suck at remembering the cards until the last minute.

Anyone else have an issue with either getting the gift on time or the card?