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

I got the job!!!

A couple weeks ago, I posted about my decision to withdraw my name from the pool applying for the lead position. After much thought and prayer, I decided to go ahead with the interview and be brutally honest. The interview was with the regional manager and I had some things I wanted to talk to her about anyway. I ended up having my interview with her over the phone. She was on her bluetooth. I had a hard time hearing her and the interview was sprung on me as I walked into the office and was just handed the phone. YIKES! I don't like talking on the phone as is, but that was definitely out of my comfort zone!

She asked me the typical questions (What experience do you have? How would you handle an irate customer? etc). Then she said: "I'll be honest with you. You are a very strong contender for the position, but why do you think you would be better than everyone else who applied?" To which I answered: "I'm not sure that I am. Here are my concerns." I then told her that I am a mom first and foremost, that I'm only available Friday through Monday and that this isn't negotiable. I also told her that I had been told on two separate occasions by other leads that there is an expectation for leads to work off the clock to get everything done and that I was not willing to do that. I told her that I work for the benefit of my family and I'm not willing to give WDS any free time. She flew through the roof! She was really mad that people were working off the clock and said they could lose their jobs over that because it showed poor time management.

Today, my boss called and offered me the job and I accepted. They know my terms and if I am asked to work extra days or off the clock, I have already made it very clear that I don't do that. I did tell them that for training purposes, I could find childcare for a couple extra days as a one time thing, so my boss is training me Thursday, Friday and Saturday and then the show is mine Sunday and Monday. YIKES!!!! Not sure I'm ready to manage a bunch of adults who act like cranky toddlers much of the time. Oh, well. It's just a job, right?!?!?!

What have we been up to?

Every Tuesday, I watch the neighbor's daughter Erin, in exchange for her watching James and Gabby for me on Fridays. Here are James and Erin watching Aladdin this morning. James is "driving" at the same time.

Gabby was watching too, but she wasn't feeling very good, so she was keeping her distance. Poor girl :(.

James wanted to play with food colorings, so we compromised and the kids got to play with some leftover fondant I had. Playdough you can eat! How much better can it get? :)

Of course, Gabby chose (and ate) purple, her favorite color.

James went with green because he wanted to mix two colors, so I gave him blue and yellow to work into his fondant.

Gabby showing off the color residue on her hands from her hour of fun with her fondant (and yes, her dress is on backwards.)

And I, of course, have been baking. These are from a cupcake baking spree I had last week, lemon cupcakes with cream cheese filling. Today, I just baked chocolate cakes and haven't done anything with them yet, but the house sure smells good :-).

Why do I find this funny?

Let me say first of all that what I have to say in this blog may make some of you angry, as it may appear that I am heartless. I am not. I just find parts of our economic crisis amusing.

I just logged on to the Drudge Report, only to find out that the dow dropped 770 points today and I laughed. Why, you may ask (as I asked myself), in light of such a drastic drop, the largest single day drop ever according to Drudge, would I laugh? I guess it's because I'm starting to realize in the light of all of this how much we as Americans have taken for granted. We have had security and peace for such a long time. September 11th shook us up and then we went back to the lull of every day life. I don't think most of us really honestly realized that all of this could be gone in the blink of an eye.

Our church had a guest speaker this weekend, Dr David Hocking. He was a very dynamic speaker and I know he said some of what he said just for shock value, but one of the things he said has stuck with me. He said something like: "If you have come here today to hear about how important you are and how valuable you are to God's work, you have come to the wrong place. Sorry to break it to you, but there are more important things that YOU in the grand scheme of things! Your self-esteem is not what I'm worried about today." WHAT? How could he say such a thing? And yet, in light of all that is happening, in light of the past, the present and predictions of the future, my peace and comfort do not rank in the top 10 most important things. Now don't get me wrong. Jesus found our eternal peace important enough to die for, but I'm talking about day to day, starbucks, tv, cell phone and yes, even roof over my head peace. There are more important things in life and I hope and pray that all of this turmoil opens our eyes to the really important things and especially the most important One.

CONVICTED!

James was driving me nuts this morning. Right off the bat, he starts worrying about his friend Elise who's coming over this afternoon. "What if she gets on my bed and breaks my sword?" "What if she puts the hamster food (with nuts) in my room?" "What if she finds my batman car and breaks it?". Out of exasperation, I finally looked at him and said: "James! She isn't even coming until after lunch! Don't waste your morning worrying about what might or might not happen!" Then I got convicted. You see, I've been worrying a lot lately. This trouble with the economy has me worried. Not because of the "doom and gloom" predictions, but because of  the uncertainty of it all. No one seems to know where our country will be in a year, so my mind is filling in all the what ifs. But, like I told James this morning, why waste today worrying about what might or might not happen tomorrow? Planning is one thing. We put up Jp's favorite toys and the hamster food to prevent unnecessary conflicts and we plan for what might happen by stocking up on bottled water, rice and beans and make wise moves with our money. But worrying is a waste of today. Only God knows what tomorrow holds and He has it all under control anyway. The only thing that makes me nervous about that is that God is known to refine us with fire and I don't like to get hot!