employee of the month ????? I think not

let me acknowledge I am not #1 best employee in the world. I come in late. I leave when I want.  I put a lot of things before my job.  This being said I am also the only employee that does whatever needs to be done to make this company successful.  I do daily phone operations, bookkeeping, payroll, HR compliance, PennDot compliance, IT maintenance, financing, dealership compliance, pinch hit parts sales, warranty processing and property management (my boss has other properties that are leased). I happen to work in a very specific industry but anyone who works with others can relate to what I am saying.  I have 2 co-workers who do not pull their work weight.  Both say they just don't know how to do what ever it is that needs done.  I have had this in both of the other places I work.  How is I that when some people are presented with a situation that is not readily known to them one person will dig in their heals and figure it out the other will throw their hands up and declare it can't be done (at least not by me).  Can anyone guess which one I am?  So my bottom line is if I'm doing my job and all these other jobs and now all the jobs they can't figure out, should I ask for an extra $100,000 or $200,000 per year?????

You can't go home again...Well not without the new tenant thinking your crazy

As some of you know my mother passed away this summer.  This was especially hard because we were always very close in a special and unusual way.  It was always just her and I.  Not having her around has been harder than I ever imagined.  I know I am still early in the grief process but it has been very easy to just pretend that she was over in her little apartment and we just haven't talked for a few days.  Strangely the other day when I was passing the road to her apartment I had an over whelming feeling to go it and visit my childhood home.  See we moved into this apartment almost 33 years ago when I was just 5 years old so all of my childhood memories are incased in those walls.  When she passed it was the task of emptying the place and getting out so we wouldn't have to keep paying rent.  After the last load was gone I walked away and haven't went back...until yesterday.  I parked in my usual spot and walked up to the door and knocking, having no idea what I was going to say if and when someone opened.  I stood there for what seemed like forever noticing all the changes that had taken place already to the exterior of the house.  Finally a man open the door a crack and said very bewildered "can I help you."  I started with "ok this is going to be very strange to you but I need to do this so just bare with me."  I then explained that this was my mother's apt and my childhood home and I needed to do this to get some closure.  I talked for about 15 minutes about our life there and how I hoped his family would get even 1/2 as much out of it as we did.  By the end of the conversation he had canceled the restraining order opened the door (the whole way) and was very pleasant to talk to.  Point is this will never be my home again.  I will never walk thru that door and see me mom but those memories will live in me forever and seeing that someone else has made it their own really does give me closure to this.  I felt like the book was done when I walked away several months ago but now it has a back cover.

Best of intentions!

I started this blog sometime ago as a way of expressing myself creatively.  I was also hoping to have something all for myself.  I now realize as the mother of children under the age of 100 this is impossible.  It really shouldn't have taken me so long but as most mothers will attest kids suck out your brains.  My original plan was to right weekly, then it became monthly.  Now it is just before they close my account or when something really sets me off, which is about daily.  With the kids back in school and only soccer (x2), scouts, cheerleading, pageant, dance (x2), gymnastics, PTO  and work to take up my time I should be able to blog on a more regular basis.  That's right you have been warned!

Do's and Don't for the physically fit challenged

I have never been the picture of physical fitness.  Wait I'm wrong I was born a normal weight but it went down hill from there.  As most women I have dieted on and off for most of my life.  Some things worked some didn't.  I even had on of those trendy weight loss surgeries awhile back and while I would call it successful I still didn't hit my goal and here we are years later and my body doesn't like being over weight anymore and it tells me so.  Oh yes every morning I wake up to cracks and pops and pain shooting from various appendages.  It takes my body at least 30 minutes longer to wake up than my brain and internal organs.  Several months ago I started a "life style change"  and have had some success.  My husband and I also purchased some exercise equipment.  He got a home gym and I got an elliptical machine.  Today was my first morning on the elliptical and I learned several do's and don't.  Read closely this could save someones life or at least their pride.

• Do wear comfortable clothes.
• Do wear a bra.  Great pain can occur when you are delirious from working out for a few minutes and body parts are flopping everywhere and they come in contact with oh lets say a hand or even worse moving handle to your exercise equipment.
• Do take water or other beverage (preferably non alcohol) for hydration
• Do set up a play list of uplifting music to keep you going when you want to stop.
• Do set a goal for how long you want to exercise.
• Do establish proper ventilation and climate control in exercise area.
• Do establish a work out routine and stick with it.

Now the more important ones the don't!

• Don't wear spandex or any other material that can burst into flames at a high rate of chub rub.
• Don't work out in front of people until you have build up endurance.  After all you don't want people watching you pant like a Siberian Husky in the middle of July in Texas.
• Don't pick an area that is dark musty and over populated by kitty litter boxes.  After the work out has ended (or you have passed out) there is a chance for your new and improved jello legs to let you down and you fall face first into lets just say a bad place.
• Don't let your kids, or anyone else for that matter, video the workout in an effort to show you ways to improve.  Your doing just fine and don't need that type of photographic proof your an idiot.
• Don't forget tie your shoes or thing oh I'll get them in a second because in your concentration to get to the next level you may not notice that said shoe lace has wrapped itself around a moving part and you are now stuck to your new workout equipment.  Really, really stuck.
• Don't take yourself to serious and try to have fun with it.  After all this really is about getting healthier and laughing burns a lot of calories.  I would look up how many but I'm exhausted from my workout this morning so figure it out yourself.

7 Habits of .....

Most of us have heard of the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey.  What I am looking for is a book on the 7 Habits of Mom's with a Clean House.  I'm pretty sure that one of the tips would be to never sleep.  See I've been cleaning for three days.  Yesterday was my son's birthday party so of course I spent Friday cleaning the normal weekly dirt and disaster.  Yesterday, party day, I cleaned all the stuff I didn't get to and thought was really to gross for non-residents of the house to experience.  Because of the heat our party was an indoor/outdoor pool party so the house was filled with water, sprinkles, cake crumbs, crushed chips, and many other miscellaneous things.  Today I have spend cleaning up party dirt and dishes.  At one point in my life I never cared about having a clean or presentable house.  I never cared if there where any clean dishes in the cupboard.  I never cared if the floor was crunchy.  And life was good but now for some reason, I think it's for my kids, I care about those things and so much more.  This is really ironic because my kids are the reason, for the most part, the house is a disaster.  The birthday boys decided to get up at 630 and play with his presents which included 2 Lego sets totalling about 300+ pieces.  I now have a lovely Lego carpet in the living room.  Which leads me to some of the other tips.  Lock your children in one room and all their toys in another only allowing them to be together for 15 minute increments several times a week.  Only buy your children one outfit and one pair of shoes.  This will not allow them to put clothing and shoes all over the floor.  On a side note it also makes getting dressed in the morning much easier.  No more what will I wear, but that's another book.  Only allow them to eat in a the bathtub or back porch that way any crumbs or spills can quickly be dealt with.  The rest of the tips are a mystery to me or how you would get your children to comply with these tips.  Personally, I have said it before and I'll say it again.  I am waiting for the Rubbermaid Corporation to start building homes.  Just imagine the easy of cleaning your favorite storage containers in a house.  Just bring out a powerful garden hose or for really big messes a power washer and have at it.  If needed you can always use your favorite spray or degreaser.  And after the soak down it can easily be wiped dry or given a little more time it would dry in no time flat.  Now that is a real tip and as soon as production starts I'm outta here.  Happy Cleaning to you all.

This woman is CRAZY!

"This woman is CRAZY!  Completely out of her mind and making no sense at all." say the voice in my husband's head,  or so I imagine.   My husband, like so many others, is very simple on what "needs" to be done to get by each day.  He needs to go to work, eat, sleep, surf the Internet, watch TV, help out around the house enough that I don't kill him, take care of his other commitments and whenever possible-attempt marital activities.  His what does not need done list is a much more detailed list and strangely pretty identical to my must be done list.  These things include but are not limited to (and in no specific order)make dinner, do dishes, clean up after pets, clean up after kids, clean up after spouse, do laundry, review children's school papers, insure homework is done, eat, keep kids from killing each other, bath kids, schedule everything and remember it,  check inventories and shop accordingly, etc etc etc, whenever possible attempt surfing the Internet, watching TV or marital activities.  I know this is the life of a mom but I'm not sure he does.  Last night I did my normal Thursday evening cleansing of our home.  This is not cleaning per say it is more cleansing of inappropriate items from each area.  Let's go over the top things I remember.  Remove empty plate and easy mac container from between couch cushions, move used pull up from end stand and floor to inside of trash can, scoop kitty litter and remove 2# kicked out from carpet around litter box, find don't spill the beans game and put hands that hold bucket back in, deodorize carpets and run sweeper to pick up remains of all things the dog has eaten, remove clothing not seen under sofa from sweeper hose.  Next room put all the shoes back where they belong in the shoe rack instead of on the floor, hang giant pile of coats that cover the chair to put your shoes on and floor,  move buried dirty clothes basket to the basement,  take "found" lunch boxes to kitchen to be dealt with, pick up all things cats have knocked down from entry way stand, clean excess papers from desk, sweep up what appears to be a spare cat made only from hair.  Next room "file" all the lovely things my children have crafted for me today,  put away crafting materials, pick up all chewed up or played with (destroyed) items,  move all shed clothing to basement,  return all other mislaid items to their rightful home, sweep up another spare cat.  Next room find sink, put away all spices we own that are all over the kitchen because they were used,  garbage sweep counters (this is what I call it when I have to pick up misc garbage from counter; you know lids off of cans, food packaging, egg shells),  sweep up a confetti mixture of coco puffs, crushed fruit loops, dog food, pencil pieces and sugar,  put second load of dishes in washer, remove ice stuck jammed in dispense (thanks Lyd) that is causing the freezer door to kick open.  Next would be to take care of anything necessary for my other commitments or for work.  Now after all this I am taking a rest in the living room and tell my husband that I would like to mop the floors while everything is actually off of them so he will needs to bath the kids.  Even though he knows not to say it, his face gave him away and said, "You are CRAZY! Who cares is the floor is mopped."  And in that moment I realized that's why relationships are necessary because if we weren't together he would eat oodles of noodles and drink mt dew for every meal out of the same bowl and spoon rinsing them out right before he would eat.  More seriously he could suffer a devastating fate of tripping over all the things that are never picked up, fall into something that was spilled and never cleaned and be unable to get up because of how sticky it is, and then the cat hair would cover him until he was encased in it like a mummy.  Wooh thank god he has me!  In all fairness he does things that I wouldn't do if he wasn't there but at the moment they have slipped my mind.  After all this is about how great I am if he wants his side heard...let him start his own blog.    

Love you Dan! And thanks for always having my back when I'm CRAZY.

What a difference a pound makes.

Several months ago I started on a journey to have a healthier life which ment loosing weight.  Because this is a journey I have made many times, I knew it would be long hard and most likely not completable.  But they say it's not the destination it is the trip so off I went.  At first I just made little changes and had little success.  Then I started doing things like counting calories and increasing activiities and saw much better results.  The problems I had were the things that have always been my problems.  First I'm an emotional eater and not just big emotions little ones like someone cut me off I'm having a candy bar.  I'm not exagerating.  Some may say I was an excuse eater meaning any excuse I would eat.  I have a long and strong addiction to sugar.  It is my crack.  I must have it as soon as I wake up and right before I go to bed and everywhere in between.  And let me tell you none of that pink, blue, yellow or even green are gonna meet my needs.  If I wanted to taste the rainbow I would have skittles.  This is something I am still dealing with.  I have allowed myself some sugar daily but I do alot of substitutes also. Next I LOVE food.  I love to cook it, eat it, smell it, think about it, watch others cook it, any thing and everything except clean up after it.  This is probably the hardest because the other issues can be changed with will power but a true love of something is in your blood.  (No pun intended)  I was recently looking thru a food catalog to order so items for a fundraiser I am cooking for and I found my heart racing at the possibilities.  There weren't even any pictures just criptic descriptions.  Now that is love.  Anyway I am getting off track, food often does that to me.  Over these several months I have worked really hard and it is showing.  To me anyway.  Before I ever started this I decided that when I lost 30 pounds I would get my first tatoo.  So a few days ago I got on the scale and I have lost 29 pounds.  One pound from goal.  One pound from success.  One pound from the rest of my life.  What a difference a pound makes.  Because of this mile stone I started looking at my clothes.  Maybe I would try some of those jeans I couldnt get into before and decide my next goal.  Surprise they fit.  Then I had a funeral to go to.  What to wear?  Funerals are never fun but when you are unconfortable it is even worse.  Surprise the clothes I used to wear not only fit but are loose.  Then one day I had a crappy day.  You know the days.  You just want to curl up under a blanket somewhere and hide.  And to do this you need your comfy clothes.  Problem is a fews weeks ago I had went through my closet and cleaned out most of my fat comfy clothes and took them to Goodwill because they didnt fit.  But now I needed them and where was I going to find anything to take there place.  I went to the closet and found a t-shirt that didnt fit bad the last time I wore it and put it on.  Surprise it was loose.  Then I found a similar pair of lounge pants and found the same.  They were loose.  So what difference that pound makes isn't really that much except how we look at it.  Even without that pound I had found so many things and realized that you don't need to hang on to the old things that makes the old you happy because your not the old you anymore.  BTW I've now lost 32 pounds and will post pictures of my reward as soon as it's done.