April Second…

Hubby and I went to the zoo on Wednesday… Just the two of us while the boys were in school… The mother orangutans were out with their babies… One had a baby boy on Halloween and the other had a baby girl at Christmas time… I’m not sure if this was the boy or girl baby… the other mom was too far away to see…

Can you see the baby…

This picture I got off of Facebook from the actual zoo that they took… too cute…

The Peccary had twins…

They are too cute too…

And this was just a pretty kitty at the zoo… I can’t remember it’s name, something that started with a G I think…

Our neighbor’s wife brought home a stray cat from her work parking lot… which has since had six kittens as she was pregnant when they found her… They are just five weeks old so have another week or two with their mom… Bill said we would take one… although Chris and I are thinking two… they were so cute playing with each other… they just started walking and were waddling all around the garage… I think Holly might accept a kitten as she could mother it… she is always licking us like we need a bath… of course Danny might not like the idea as Holly has made him afraid of cats…

And the lone Red Wolf at the zoo… He is pretty too…

The first rose to bloom in our backyard…

What a week… It’s over already and tomorrow I start the new position… I was trying to do a smooth transition but I seem to have been thrown in already as my supervisor already moved on to her new position since Wednesday… She has been very eager to get out of shoes… She did show me the reports and how to make the schedule yesterday… and then it took me three hours to make the schedule, I know how to but I just couldn’t concentrate on it or wrap my mind around it or something… as I have had so many things on my mind all week, work related… I didn’t even finish doing the ad yesterday as I was making the schedule… even stayed 45 minutes over my day…

And the team is eager for me to start giving them direction… and there are so many things I want them to do and things I want to do… and this whole visit on Thursday is just in my way a bit as no one can tell me exactly why he is coming and what he expects… except probably for everything to be 100% perfect… I don’t even know if he knows I am his new lead… plus my new boss is on vacation next week… and my old supervisor is closing that day… so he may be surprised to see me… we do have lots of hours this week but with me taking the lead position, I lost me of getting things done… and having to train the others to do what I used to do and still do their tasks… so I’ll be playing the “I’m new” card on Thursday for the visit…

Meanwhile I go to sleep thinking about work and wake up thinking about work… and yet when I am there I don’t know what to do first… of course this past week I was still opening boxes… and then Friday I was a bit overwhelmed with supervisor giving me a crash course around her lunch… so hopefully tomorrow I will have a full day with the team and no outside influence and I can get organized and make a plan…

This week at home was a lazy week of saying goodbye to my old routine of getting off early and getting up early… I’m kinda looking forward to getting up at 6am instead of being at work at 6am… of course the day of the visit I’ll be there at 6am as I am off the day before…

It’s a bit overcast today but it has been in the 80’s all week… cleaned out son3’s summer clothes as he has been wanting to wear shorts to school… luckily he has a few pairs that still fit so he has enough clothes to get through the summer…

Son2 was at a sleep over last night… he mowed the lawn and cleaned his room… getting a new kitten might have inspired him a bit… Haven’t heard from son1 all week… son3 has been playing video games and watching movies…

Dinner is ready… gonna gather the boys… what shall we watch tonight… I think we watched all our Netflix… finished Lost in Space… son3 watched Scooby Doo, a new movie… I had Love and Other Drugs, just kinda skipped through it… and we may have a couple of Hogan’s Heroes to watch…

Got a bit behind on the God wants you to know from facebook:

On this day, God wants you to know

... that there are many ways to climb a mountain. There are many ways to worship God. There are many ways to live a life. Allow each person to choose their own path.

On this day, God wants you to know

... that whatever fills your heart with gladness is a good thing. Let yourself be filled. There is much joy and beauty in the world if you only open yourself to it.

On this day, God wants you to know

... that if you feel too busy, you are. Give yourself permission to be un-busy. Give yourself an hour or a day to simply be. Allow yourself the luxury of a small retreat. Allow your spirit time to be restored. Even God took a day of rest.

On this day, God wants you to know

... that God has an important purpose for you, and made everything possible for you to succeed. That's not to say it's an easy purpose, or a convenient one. It might very well seem hard or even impossible, but it only looks that way. The truth is that one day you will look back and see how all the pieces fit together. And how your life has been a complete and utter success.

 On this day, God wants you to know

... that most of your words are unnecessary. All too often you speak simply to fill the space with sound, because you feel too uncomfortable with the silence. But this silence is golden. Only in silence you can hear God speak to you. Only in silence can a real prayer, a heart prayer be born. Next time you start chattering, stop and feel into the silence, feel its shape, its texture, and then slowly and silently say only what really has to be said.

Happy Journaling…

Zoo Slide Show...

This free picture slideshow generated with Smilebox

March Twenty Eighth

What a busy day… It’s 10pm and I am still awake and watching Castle…

Holly above with her busy day of sleeping…

I got to work at 6am today… scanned the athletic shoes for missing displays, stocked the athletic clearance table, stocked the hanging women’s sandals…

7am, coworker came in, we discussed her new processes she is starting this week and we talked…

8am, supervisor came in and we talked about our new positions, things to do and personal items…

9:15am, store meeting… store manager gave the meeting and as he was wrapping up my new boss reminded him of his announcement of my new position… he whispered back are you ready for me to announce it… she whispered back, yes, no… he asked did she talk with all the candidates… she replied no… he announced to us that there would be an announcement tomorrow… lol…

9:35am, I went to lunch…

10:20pm, lunch is over, go back to work to open boxes… talk with other coworker that didn’t get the position, talk with supervisor, open boxes…

12:00pm, listen in on footwear conference with supervisor…

12:40pm, go back to department, talk with supervisor…

1:00pm, time to go home…

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Once home update hubby on all the adventure of the day…

Footwear district manager is coming for a visit a week from Thursday…

I officially start my new position on Sunday…

This is my weekend to work and will probably have to close Sunday… then I am off every other weekend…

In May I have footwear training to go to…

June the district manager will be coming again for footwear accreditation…

I have five weeks of vacation to take and was going to take one in either April or May and then another in June but not sure how that is going to happen…

I checked my weekend rotation and I work on my birthday… I have only worked once in the last thirty years on my birthday…

And so it begins…

Picked up son3 from school… math homework and spelling homework…

Son1 came over to wash a load of laundry… and wash his Jeep…

Last night son1 called sounding a bit down, updating on this and that… still trying to make a plan on his career of choice…

This evening in between washing clothes and the Jeep, he made reference to wishing he hadn’t moved out to his own apartment again…

While he was washing the Jeep I gave hubby a heads up of his comment and should we let him move back in if that was what he was thinking… and how it would effect us and what rules we would enforce this time… and that we would empty out his old room so he can move in there instead of our front living room… or if we should not…

Son2 came home from tennis, we had dinner, watched Hogan’s Heroes… son1 was still waiting for his clothes to dry and was supposed to go to girlfriend’s to have dinner… by 7:30 his clothes were still drying so he called girlfriend and told her it was getting late and he hadn’t gone home yet to shower so he would see her another time… so he had some dinner and was on my laptop for about an hour, looking up work boots and the military…

He has still been thinking about going to school to be a fireman, or waiting for his roommate’s connection to bring a company to our city so he can work there, or apply to the union for a job…. although he has still been seriously thinking of joining the military so they can train him to be a fireman or mechanic of some sort… So it was after 9pm by time we discussed his choices and he went home…

He seems more serious this time about the military but of course hesitant as it is such a big step… but he keeps feeling like he is getting old at almost 24, lol… of course he is seeing it as once he is finished with a four year tour, he will be almost 30… and of course girlfriend is a factor in the decision although this will be for her future too if they continue to be together… Meanwhile his roommate has gotten a job with PGE at just 20, setting up his future, which makes son1 feel he has to to something too…

Now at almost 11pm I need to go to sleep so I can go to work tomorrow and actually get something done as I continue on my career, son1 ponders on his career of choice and hubby applies for his next career… so many different stages of our lives all at the same time…

On this day, God wants you to know

... that you are a human being, not a human doing. Take time to just be, to breathe slowly, to feel your body that is the temple of your soul. No activities, no worries, no buzzing.

Happy Journaling…

March Twenty Seventh

Well I know you have been waiting as long as I have… Do you see it… the Bird of Paradise has bloomed… I’ve been waiting since Halloween…

And Yes, I got the footwear lead position!!

I finally found out Friday but couldn’t say anything until the other candidates had been talked to… of course when I got to work today, the news had spread through the store and most know now… It’ll probably be announced at tomorrow’s store meeting… Probably won’t be actually in the position til next week, well we’ll have to see when…

I have short hours this week as it is the end of the month, so I got off at 10:30 this morning… took some pictures in the yard, read blogs, and cleaned out and organized my work clothes as soon I won’t be able to wear my jeans anymore and wanted to make sure I still had enough twill work pants to wear that still fit, although some were too big and had to go… 

We’re watching Angel, almost done with season one…

The tulips are blooming…

It was raining most of the week… but now the rain is done and we are going to be having 70’s and 80’s this week… maybe rain again next weekend…

 

The wisteria are blooming…

Yesterday, Saturday, was a fast day… we actually slept in til 9:30… hubby made egg and ham on English muffins… we had a long talk with son2 about communication and using his cell phone to call us… well he does call us but only five minutes before he needs a ride… anyway he had an away game on Friday for tennis that was postponed from Thursday… he left school at 1pm and didn’t call home til 7:15pm to let us know that the game was over… of course I had text him twice but he didn’t check his phone… so by time he got back to his school to be picked up it was almost 8pm… So by time we were done with the cell phone talk and please use it, it was almost 1pm…

So then I started in on the printer as the ink and paper I ordered came in the mail… although I had to send hubby to the store to pick up one more ink cartridge as I forgot to order one… after an hour and a half of fighting with the printer and laptop I realized the printer was not set as the default so each time I hit print the other printer kept coming up… so set the printer as the default and look at it’s printing… so got all the taxes printed for mailing and keeping for records… going out in the mail tomorrow and they are done!

Of course by then it was 5pm so just heated up some leftovers for dinner… watched Angel… hubby dropped son2 off to hang with his friends… I put away the laundry… watched a bit of nothing on TV… and then son2 called promptly on time to be picked up…

Now we are going to watch The Simpsons… I already had the boys get in showers early and get their things ready for school… they have been pajama boys all weekend playing their video games… I just have to make son3’s lunch… and then we are going to bed early…

On this day, God wants you to know

... that you will feel better if you notice the sweetness of life. Notice the smiles of children, the songs of the birds, the caress of the sun's warmth. This sweetness is for you. Allow it to soothe your soul and bring a smile to your face.

On this day, God wants you to know

... that you cannot free yourself from a problem by shutting your eyes to it. To free yourself from a problem you have to acknowledge it and face it with your eyes and heart open.

On this day, God wants you to know

... that when you pursue your dreams, every second is an encounter with God. Following your dreams opens your heart allowing God to enter and fill you with bliss.

Happy Journaling…