Our son

This morning, James was dressed in his Darth Vader costume and we were leaving for preschool, where he was to have a Halloween party. As we headed out, we noticed the neighbor had the exact same tote that mysteriously went missing from our driveway yesterday after we put it out with our recycling in it. James wanted to go over there and ask them to give it back, but I told him that it was possible they just bought the same kind somewhere. James wasn't convinced, but I walked to the other side of the van and put Gabby in her car seat. When I came back around, James was standing with his arm stretched out, like he was reaching for the tote. Then he turned around and with a completely serious look on his face said: "I tried to use the force, but it didn't work!"

Tougher than I expected

I am into my fourth weekend as a lead, with one day left to go and I am WORN OUT! My body aches from head to toe and my mind doesn't want to slow down. I know it will get easier, but there are parts of the job that have taken me by surprise. Mainly the human element. I didn't expect to feel the pain and heaviness I feel when it comes to my co-workers.

Take last week for example. One of my co-workers tried to take a few cans of soup home, which is against the rules. These cans were going into the garbage because they were part of an open pack, but nonetheless, policy says no taking of food of any kind from the warehouse. This employee was suspended as a result. Here's the kicker: he's homeless. I found out since this happened that he lives in a trailer in a junkyard with no water or electricity and all he has to live off of is the money he earns (or should I say earned) during his 12 to 18 hrs a week at work. My heart aches for him and even though I know that the choice was his and he knew better, I can't help but feel that some things in life just aren't fair.

Or this afternoon. I set up all the paperwork for tomorrow and had two extra people, due to a couple demos being cancelled and such. I had to call off two people, one of whom I know is in dire financial straights. I wanted to cry when I picked up the phone because I knew that this shift I was canceling for her could be the difference between whether or not she eats.

Another employee's wife came in this weekend and asked me to please give her husband more hours. The thing is, I can't. He's not a very good seller so he doesn't get scheduled very many shifts and last minute shifts, where many people pick up the majority of hours, are out for him because his phone has been disconnected and he has no car. My hands are tied.

One of my crew came in this morning and the first thing she said was that she was so embarrassed because she lost her bottom plate. I had no idea what she was talking about until she opened her mouth and showed me that most of her bottom teeth were missing. I had no idea she wore dentures. She's can't be older than 50. Now mind you this is the woman who I had to call off Saturday because her demo was canceled (not the one I called off for tomorrow :(.) and she too is strapped for cash. I don't know if she has any type of dental insurance through a spouse or what not, but I would be surprised. She did her entire demo today with her head hung low in shame, barely speaking. I didn't have the heart to tell her she had to talk. For one day, I let it slide, poor woman.

I mentioned once when I first started that I was working to pay for preschool and gymnastics and have since decided that this is a fact I will keep to myself. I don't need to advertise the fact that my world is so vastly different from that of the people I work with every day. I pray and I cry and I hope that somehow, in some way, I can touch the lives of those I work with in a positive way, to somehow bring a little hope and happiness into some pretty tough situations. And when I want to complain that my body hurts or that I'm out of spending money, I remind myself that it could be much, much worse.

Does God heal cars?

A couple months ago, Jason informed me that the tires on our van were starting to look warn and that we would need to set some $$ aside to get new tires. We have not bought new tires since we bought the van in 2006 and have made a couple long trips in it, so we figured we were due. We set aside $400, then I made an appointment with Les Schwab in Manteca, near my work. I took the van in and was told that the tires looked fine but the van needed to be aligned. I didn't have time to do it that day, so I left. Life happened. I got busy and finally asked Jason to call while I was at work and schedule an alignment for this week. He did, but at a different Les Schwab, about the same distance from our house. I went in this morning with the kids, ready to hand over a couple hundred dollars, only to find out that they only charge $80 for an alignment. SWEET!! I thought to myself. We waited for about 15 minutes or so and get the royal treatment: candy for the kids, popcorn (of course!), coloring books, crayons, etc and then the guy comes back and asked me why I thought the van needed to be aligned. Um, because the guy in Manteca told me it needed to. He asked me if the car has been acting any differently and I said no. He told me he test drove it and it drove fine and the tires have no wear on them (WHAT?! Ok. Sounds good to me. And yes, he did have the right van :-).) They checked it over just in case, but didn't need to align it and didn't charge us a thing. Off I went down the road for an oil change at a place Schwabs recommended and ended up paying 1/2 of what the dealership charges and didn't get pressured into anything or slimmed. Great morning, and we will be customers of Riverbank Les Schwab for life! Or at least until we move again :-).

Pix from last week

Mary came to visit last week. As you can tell, she loves having her picture taken :-). The day after she got here, Gabby started throwing up and ended up having the stomach flu for 5 days. James followed suit 2 days later with a milder case. As soon as the kids were better, Mary and I got really bad head colds and then I drove Mary back to the airport to go home :-(. I was really disappointed because we didn't get to do much of anything except try to keep each other from strangling Gabby after 5 days of whining. It was nice to see Mary though and watch her little belly grow, even over the course of just 8 days.

This is a cake I made at James' request. I had made the fondant pumpkins one night and he wanted some. I told him I would do my best to make the actual cake by the next night, but then didn't feel well and decided not to do it. Come dinner time, James of course remembers what I said. Mary was a great sport and said she didn't mind having leftovers, so we had leftovers and I made a cake instead of dinner. The leaves should have dried for a couple days, but I only had about an hour, so they are all floppy, but the kids didn't care :-).

Nana sent a surprise package last week and of course the stomach flu couldn't keep the kids from it.

See poor Gabby's pale face. Poor thing! Not a fun week for her. I had to work for the first couple days of her flu and she informed me Monday night that "sometimes we just feel sicky and yucky and we need our mommies." *sniff*

Legos are Jp's new-found passion, but candy legos!?!? No way to beat that!

Gabby got a Barbie storybook with stickers. She LOVES it!

Gabby is reading James' dinosaur book. She's quite the reader actually. She won't go to bed unless she has a huge stack of books to "read".

Well, I have to get ready to take the van to be aligned, a yearly occurrence here in CA since the roads are so bad. The kids are excited about the free popcorn :-), and I think I can scrounge up some quarters for the pop machine. It should be an exciting morning!!

The pix that would have been

A couple things happened yesterday where I reached for the camera only to realize that the batteries in both of our cameras were dead :(. So you will have to use your imagination :).

The first incident occurred in our main bathroom. Gabby was sitting on the stool with her legs covered in shaving cream from the travel size can Jason gave the kids when he got back from Vegas. Jp was next to her with a bladeless razor, shaving her legs :-).

The second one was in the evening when the kids got their mail. Grandma Betty sent them some stickers and they were busy sticking them everywhere, except, as James said, "not on the furniture because Daddy wouldn't be happy about that" :-).

More "REAL" pictures later...

LOTS of pictures!

Pumpkin patch time!

First stop: the tractors of course!

There's nothing better than a huge bin of corn to play in :-).

Searching (and searching and searching) for the perfect pumpkin.

Greetings from California

We finally found those perfect pumkins!

Who knew corn could be used as a gymnastics mat.

Even for the splits :-)

And summersaults of course!

What I've been up to this week

INSANITY!!!!

I have about 20 minutes before I have to head off to my next activity, so I thought I would sit down and give you all a brief update. I tried yesterday but couldn't get on :(.

Jason took the morning off and worked from home this afternoon, so we went to the pumpkin patch. Jason took quite a few pictures that I will upload when I have more than a few minutes (hmm. Not sure when that will happen, but I will try to make it soon.)

I've been working a lot (40 hrs last week) and am really enjoying being a lead. So far, it's been easier than I expected. I only lost my cool once last weekend (hanging head in shame). My boss is taking the whole weekend off this weekend, so I will be acting as lead Saturday, Sunday and Monday. It will be challenging, but she promised me whatever I want, so I can get extra workers to help :-). She also told me to go in and just write my own schedule, which I did :-).

Jason is leaving Saturday morning for Vegas, then Riverside (L.A. area), so he will be gone on a business trip for a week and a half. Thankfully Mary is coming down for the week. She's been so sick during this first trimester of her pregnancy poor thing :(. I've stocked up on Gatorade and bagels and cream cheese and hope that this will be a relaxing trip for her.

Gotta run! Bunko is calling!

I'm so proud!!

I just can't help myself! My best friend Beth is in her 3rd month of Tupperware's DIQ program and she's doing AWESOMELY :-)! If you or anyone you know needs some Tupperware, or you just want to find out what's currently available, look her up! I'm so excited for her I could burst! Way to go, Beth!

Btw, for those of you who remember what it was like the one month I was in the program, the DIQ program is not easy to do. Kudos to you, Beth!

www.my.tupperware.com/bethanyvdz