What a ride!

Two hours and 17 minutes ago, I joined the world of the unemployed. YES!!!! It's not as ominous for me as it is for many because Jason makes a good income and I was told I could (PLEASE) have my job back ANYTIME I wanted (can you hear the desperation/begging in the tone? :-).). What a couple weeks it has been! I found out Friday that Adrienne, Freda's boss, the one who told me that I would have to resign if I wanted to come up to Oregon, is no longer employed by WDS. Apparently, she made a very rapid decision, with some encouragement from her superiors, to retire. I won't go into the details of the last few days, but to sum it up, I made the right decision. WDS is a mess and I don't need that stress right now. I'm really sad to leave most of my co-workers though. I got to work with some really neat people the last few months.
I am excitedly looking forward to our trip in a week and a half. I can't wait!
Although unemployed, I am still looking at a fairly busy week. I am making two princess cakes for one year old twin girls' first birthday party on Saturday. That will take awhile. I also need to budget, clean and prepare for our trip, not to mention some Christmas shopping. I'm really looking forward to having the time to breathe, think, do the laundry and hug my kids. I will also be following up with a woman at Wilton about a cake decorating instructor position at the Michaels in Turlock. They have an opening there and the head lady (I don't know her official title) was impressed by the pictures of my cakes. She sent me the information about what the position entails and said we would talk after the holiday (Thanksgiving), so I will call her tomorrow. The nice thing about this position is that it's VERY part-time, I get to chose my hours (within reason), and it's doing something that I love. The down side is that it's 20 miles from my house and it doesn't pay too terribly well, although if you add in the benefits of 40% off all cake decorating supplies and 25% off anything at Michaels, it just might turn out to be a high-paying job :-).

Re-Post - covered bridge and related pix

I could have sworn I posted these months ago but both Rebecca and I looked and didn't find them. So here they are again, just more California for you.... These were taken in August at the Knights Ferry Covered Bridge and Power Plant... it was a mill, and then a hydroelectric plant from the 1890's on to about 1940 or so... The town of Knights Ferry currently has about 50 people living there...

Here is a plant fighting for life next to an early 20th century powerhouse wall... I like the colors...
Here is a covered bridge reflecting in the waters of the Merced River, it is the Knights Ferry Bridge

Yosemite During Fall

I know I don't post much, Becca tends to hog the blog... but here are a couple of images I created during a recent trip to Yosemite. It sure does change with the seasons and I am still scouting out locations and trying to understand weather patterns before I can put out any quality work... but here are a few images, I'll put up more as I go through them and pick the better ones.... jason

href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVvJ6A21sofNFVkWhWFBxeF6EeENrUzZA1KlM1EicMENa1YeoE-GcTGlVh8aU7MPTCWBNJsDyP5jj3fnpg_Nc_ppt6uAQEukny5IVjG9RobF69RrFe4umziEMaZtwYBSv7WZNNyc_krq4/s1600-h/clouds+at+tunnel+view++038.jpg"> Here is tunnel view from Inspiration Point. I kind of liked the clouds on this one but the sun is all wrong... still, just learning the weather patterns and how fall/winter sun hits the Yosemite Valley. You can see Bridalviel falls on the right, but it's just a trickle...
I love the mixture of the colors of the stones on the bridge with the fall colors of the trees and grass on the bank...
Kind of a strange tree, they were everywhere as I hiked up to inspiration point. The red bark was really that red, it was kind of cool

The decision has been made...

I'm resigning today, with my last day being Monday, December 8th. The whole trip issue was the catalyst, but honestly, there were a whole set of problems with my job that I wasn't even aware of until the possible trip cancellation brought them all to the surface. I finally realized what a tole this job was really taking on me, my family and my marriage. I will REALLY miss parts of the job. I was good at what I did and it's always nice to do something you're good at, but the sacrifice was too great. So today I am faxing my resignation in and finishing up my time there. And then we'll see all you Oregonians in 3 weeks!!! Yay! I can't wait!

More prayers needed

My boss' boss informed me this morning that the only way she will allow me to go to Oregon in December is if I resign. I am angry and frustrated. This was the final straw for me and I'm ready to quit my job, but I don't want to do something just because I'm angry. We definitely need to change something. I'm exhausted. Jason is exhausted and Gabby complains on a regular basis when I have to work. Please pray for guidance and peace for us in this.
Thanks!

Oh, GREAT!

*note the sarcasm*
Update on Jason's co-worker: Not a heart attack. Pancreatitis. Jason said he's pretty drugged up and they finally had to take his phone away from him because he was trying to make work calls and wasn't making any sense hehe.
Update on my boss: She was finally discharged from the hospital this evening (Tuesday) and came straight to work to return my cake taker and tell me everything I did wrong (only partially kidding). She's out for at least two weeks. She's been given meds to regulate her blood pressure and has to check back with the doctor in two weeks, so I guess no pacemaker for now.
As for me, I have a nice case of shingles. GREAT! Just what I needed! If I'm going to be in pain, I wish it were with something that would make me miss work so I could stay home and relax, but NOOOO! :-). I'm going to the doctor tomorrow so we'll see what he says.
As for Christmas, I'm going to talk to Adrienne (Freda's boss) tomorrow and see what she says about our trip up to Oregon. I'm not holding my breath though :-(. With Freda out for at least 2 weeks and the other lead not very strong, I don't know. I'll keep you posted.

In need of some prayers today

What a weekend! On Friday, my boss went to work with a sore toe. She had kicked her bedpost while making her bed and was quite sore. She hobbled around throughout the day (crazy day, too!), but when a Costco member hit her in the same foot with a shopping cart, the pain became more than she could handle. She called in sick for the next day and set off for the emergency room to have her toe looked at. While there, they took her blood pressure and it was through the roof. They told her that she was a walking heart attack and admitted her! Thank goodness for the broken toe!
I worked her shift Saturday, then went to see her at the hospital after work. Yesterday, the other lead was one, but I still put in 4 hrs as a breaker and 4 as "help" time (basically doing lead stuff without getting lead pay, since we can only have one lead on at a time. The pay difference is only $1 an hour, so that part doesn't really bother me). My boss had tests done on her heart yesterday morning and it looks like she is going to need a pacemaker, which her father and brother already have. She's very scared and doesn't want to talk about it. My heart breaks for her. She already had so much on her plate (rocky marriage, housing situation, work pressure, etc) and now this. As of right now, we're planning on her being out for a week, but the doctor told her she has to wear the walking cast for 4 to 5 weeks and she can't work with an open-toed shoe, so she would have to find a way to cover up the huge cast, not to mention the whole "heart" situation.
She's planning on coming into work tomorrow (yes. It honestly is no surprise that she has heart problems, with the crazy life she lives) to show me how to do all the paperwork, since Tuesdays are the days when everything gets set up for the week, as well as payday, and I've never done any of that. However, I couldn't get ahold of her yesterday and I'm not sure when her pacemaker will be put in, or even if the doctor will let her go. She may be walking me through it from her hospital bed, crazy woman!
Now for the prayer requests:
1. Please pray that God will use this time in Freda's life to bring her to Him. There is so much pain in that little heart of hers and she desperately needs His healing, both physically and spiritually.
2. Pray for peace for me as my schedule is being completely messed up. I don't adapt well to change and struggling with childcare and the like is also frustrating. I'm also feeling very overwhelmed by the responsibilities that have been thrown on me. We just hired 13 new people who have been trained, but have yet to work a shift on the floor. I know how to run the show for 2 to 3 days at a time, but not an entire week or more. Adrienne (Freda's boss) may very well assign another supervisor to us, which brings up a whole other set of issues.
3. Please pray that we will still be able to make it up to Oregon. We already reserved the hotel rooms and I don't think we can get refunded should the trip fall through. The only reason we were able to come up in the first place is because Freda was willing to work with me. If we end up with another supervisor, or if Adrienne wants me to take over while Freda is out, I may not be able to get the time off work :-(.

One last thing to pray about for now. Jason's co-worker Dari, the man who graciously invited us to spend Thanksgiving with him and his wife, is in the hospital with "chest pain and over 12 hrs of vomiting" which Jason said is indicative of a heart attack. YIKES!

WARNING! TOO MUCH CUTENESS!!!

Check out Gabby's latest skill! Sorry the video is sideways, but it's cute nonetheless.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JjxFWqQ8Gro

Halloween pictures

Halloween party at preschool. The tall cinderella is Miss Becky, Miss Shirley's attendant (Miss Shirley is the angel, in case you were wondering ;-).) James is QUITE fond of Miss Becky :D.

Getting ready for Trick or Treating

All dress and ready to go

Ding Dong

Starting at the neighbor's house

Mmmm! Good start!!

The Clawson Aliens :-).

All tuckered out (ok. So the date is different. But the pictures were cute and I wanted to post them, so deal with it!)

 :-).

Pumpkin carving

Daddy, James and Gabby carving pumpkins before bed.

Having a blast!

Well, maybe not. This is awfully gooey (notice Mommy is NOT involved in the actual carving of the pumpkin because Mommy wholeheartedly agrees with the look on Jp's face!)

Ok. Not so bad after all.

The finished product

Interesting day today

I spent the day interviewing people today to fill some demonstrator spots at work. I have to say it was an interesting experience. People are . . . interesting. Like the man who, in the answer to his very first question, tells me he has had problems with sexual harassment, perpetrated by him!!! YIKES! And then he goes on to tell me that he's not sure how he feels about being on his feet for 6 hrs at a time because he's been a couch potato for the last couple years. Um, ok. And the person who walks in, says she used to work for WDS and starts to argue with us when we say we have to verify with her former place of employment to make sure she is hirable. It was an exhausting day and my brain was fried by the end, but it looks like we will be getting some pretty good demonstrators this time around.

My boss asked me how I would feel about taking over the management of the store because she wants to retire. Haha! She was serious, but I told her I wouldn't even think about it for two more years, at least not until the kids are in school :-). I was flattered though ;-).

GREAT NEWS!

The other lead at work "unresigned" so now she can work the weekend I need to be in Oregon. YAY!!!!

GOOD NEWS!

I spoke to my boss this morning and she is willing to let me take a weekend off during the month of December so that we can stay in Oregon a bit longer and actually attend the extended Armstrong family Christmas party. Please pray, though, that nothing will change that because she is known to say things and then her boss steps in and changes them. Officially, I am not allowed to request any time off during November and December. As of right now, I am the only trained lead. The other one stepped down and a new one has yet to be trained. If the new lead doesn't work out, it will cause a major problem with me leaving over a weekend because Freda (my boss) will have no one to work on her days off. So please pray that it will all work out. I miss you all fiercely and would love to be able to come up for a bit longer of a trip.