Lots O Fun Stuff

Guess we'll start with Pictures from Saturday. They're on the private pictures blog, so if you don't have access, let me know and I'll send you an invite. (Crazy stalkers not included....LOL) The pictures are a couple that I took of the K-man when we went to the big town to stock up on supplies (like diapers and quiet toys) and he fell asleep in the car on the way back home. Then there's one of him on his new CAT. *grin* CAT-erpillar, that is.....it's a dump truck that little kids can ride on and also push, or haul blocks in it....etc. It also makes large truck noises. Someday if I ever get the capability of posting clips from our video camera on here, I will maybe post the clip of him riding it for the first time....it's really cute....and for the enjoyment he's already gotten out of it, I'd say it was well worth the money we spent on it.

Anywho, in other news, my dear hubby has perfect timing. See, I have been meaning to take CPR/First Aid certification for the foster parent thing for awhile now, and just have never had the time or inclination to go sign up. Well, if ya'll remember Mike (my little friend from church who blogs on GirlTalk), she had signed up to take the class and needed someone to go with her so she wouldn't have to do it alone. Cool, I can kill lots of birds with one stone....I can get the CPR certification that I need, and I don't have to do it alone, PLUS, I'm helping out a friend who needs someone to go with her so SHE won't have to do it alone.

One flaw in this plan. I have two kids. Class is on Tuesday and Thursday evening. Okay....well, I will just get KC to watch the kidlets while I go to class. Monday evening, my hubby reminds me that he's flying out the next day for a sales dinner in Florida on Tuesday evening. WHAT? Oh poo! How convenient for him. Now, I would have been upset, but he had told me WAY way way in advance, but I had forgotten, so it was really MY fault. Okay then, I will just get Nikki to keep the kids....it's last minute, but I'll just pay her for her time, especially being such last minute.

So KC flies out on Tuesday, Nikki takes the kidlets home with her, me and Mike go to class. I'm expecting class to last until around 7:30 at the latest. 8 rolls around and I'm freaking out b/c we're not even CLOSE to being finished and I have two kids that were supposed to be home and in bed by 8:30......YIKES. 9 oclock the class gets out. I call Nikki and apologize like crazy for being so late to come get them. (and by the way, I did pay her extra, I'm not a complete slouch....LOL....and of course, she said it wasn't necessary, but I insisted. I'm not going to take advantage of friends....at least not on a regular basis!! haha.) So I get there and they're both giving her a hard time about going to sleep. Poor Nikki. I took them home and put them in bed and they were zonked by 10:30 (which is really late....bad mommy....haha...oh well....it was for a good cause....it could save their life someday, although I hope I never have to use my newly acquired skills--LOL!)

Speaking of the newly acquired skills, here's a couple of pictures for you......
this one is the dude that I got to make out with for the evening. He was rather plain-looking for my tastes, and kinda stiff. He also wasn't a very good kisser, course, that may have had a lot to do with the fact that he had rubber lips and no teeth. I didn't really care for his hairstyle either. But then, in my book, there's nobody that could compare to KC. I think I'll stick with him.....he's a much better kisser!!!! ROFL!!! Besides all that, I don't really care for using a protective shield when I kiss. Cooties or not!!! Hahahah!


and THIS one is my bandage attempt of Mike's "booboo" (pretend booboo, of course).......

I passed. So did she. Now we just have to go back on Thursday night for the Infant/Child CPR part of the class. And KC will be home to watch the kids this time. LOL.

There was a couple of things that made me absolutely wince during this class. One was when the class had paired off to practice using the triangular bandages to create a sling/splint for a broken arm.....each person had to do one on the partner, and then swap so that everyone had done it. There was one older guy in the class who was paired off with this young/middle aged woman and he was tying the sling around her arm and he tied both of her arms in it by accident and there were some insinuating comments made that I won't even repeat here. Thankfully, they were just insinuating, not specific comments, or else my innocent young friend would have been terribly embarrassed. I've learned to just ignore stuff....well, to a point, but I do wish people would think before they said things. I guess there are so few innocent kids left in this world that no one even thinks about it anymore.

I have mixed feelings about innocence and the lack thereof.....on the one hand, I applaud innocence and feel very strongly that it should be protected, but on the other hand, I know from first hand experience that there are those in this world who are more than happy to take full advantage of that innocence, and that scares the fire out of me!!! I still have a lot of innocence left in me, enough to make me paranoid about it. I guess, just knowing that those kinds of people are out there and always looking for the opportunity to attack.....well, from time to time, that leaves me feeling very vulnerable. Innocence is all well and good as long as there is someone who isn't innocent is around to protect it, but when the innocent is out from under the protective watch, either by their own unknowing choice or by circumstances beyond anyone's control.....what happens? So is it better to be innocent and unknowing of the danger that lurks around in sometimes very deceptive ways, or is it better to be jaded and fully aware/extremely cautious of all the avenues in which one could be taken advantage of??? What is the happy medium??? I'm not sure how much of this we'll have to be concerned about with our kids, since probably a good portion of the kids coming through our home will have lost their innocence long ago, but I still can't help but wonder about it occasionally. And again, these are just thoughts in my head, I'm not speaking against or putting down anyone, or their choices....and comments are always open if you'd like to put your two cents in......

On lighter topics, Nikki told me that DSS called them about a 1month old baby last night. They called DSS back to let them know they would take it, but they'd already found a placement for it. That's a bummer. I know they didn't call us about it, and I'm glad, b/c I have a hard time saying no.....especially for a ONE MONTH OLD.....especially when it would pretty much be the end of my career....hehee. Here's the funny thought I had though....if they HAD called me about it, and I HAD said yes, it would have happened while KC was away AGAIN. Ya know, they called me about the K-man while KC was out of town on his LAST business trip and I just told them yeah without talking to KC b/c I knew he'd be fine with it, plus he was in a place where I couldn't easily reach him. But it would have been SOOOOO funny if KC had came home again to another child. LOL. I'd have been like, honey, I'm tellin ya, you got to put a stop to these business trips!!!! ROFL!!! Every time you leave I have a kid. BWAHAHAHA. Anywho, they didn't call us, and this time, I'm glad.

Well, we didn't go to church tonight. Me and KC both have some sinus junk, plus the kids (munchkin in particular) have been acting out again, plus I had a splitting headache when I got home. Both of the kids had a rough time doing the bedtime thing tonight and I don't think either one of them were asleep before 9:30....even though I put the K-man through the bedtime routine at 6:45 and finally gave up rocking him and put him in bed at 8....and also put the munchkin in her bed at 8:15 (except she had to do some timeout first b/c she was backtalking and refusing to go to bed when asked very nicely). She ended up getting put in her carseat in the car in the garage b/c she was having such fits in the bedroom about not going to bed that the K-man wouldn't even think of going to sleep during all that screaming. Once KC buckled her in her carseat in the car, we checked on her a few times and asked her if she wanted to come back in, and she kept saying no, so we left her out there for about half an hour. Then KC went and got her out and she was very nearly asleep. He stuck her back in bed and very sweetly tucked her in......but NO BANANA!!!! SHE WAS AWAKE AGAIN. What is up with her not wanting to sleep in her room? SHEEESH. Some nights she's fine and other nights it's a fiery blazing hot battle!! ARGH. I keep hearing thumping on the wall, but I'm really hoping that she's just sleeping against the wall and bumping it when she rolls over b/c it's now almost 11 and she better NOT be still awake. I'm halfway thinking about moving the rocking chair into K-man's room and moving her bed away from the wall. I'd probably have to stick it in the center of the room to keep her from tapping SOMEWHERE. Then she'd just get up and walk to the wall and tap it. Irritating child. Lord love her. *sigh* I do, too, she's just very difficult at times. I can't wait to get past this stage. The K-man doesn't seem to be nearly as frustrating. He has fits, but he is easily distracted....at least so far....we'll see.

Okay. I'm going to check on that banging now. If she's asleep, I'm going to just pull her away from the wall....and if she's NOT.....well, I'm going to have a COW! That will be a sight, let me tell ya. LOL.

No Cow. Thank goodness. She kinda woke up a little bit when I pulled her away from the wall, but I think she went right back to sleep. Judging from the soft little snores....LOL.

So tomorrow I'm calling in sick and I'm going to the doc. I am almost sure that I've got bronchitis again. I'm hacking up a lung and that's not good. Hopefully he can cure me. Plus the munchkin's still got some ear gunk, so I am going to try to get her in to see the doc, too. *sigh* I hate to not go to work b/c there is so much work to be done, but we're just feeling rotten around here and this has got to stop. Oh, thank the Lord, the headache did go away, (strangely enough, it was about the time the kids were in bed and finally quiet....hahaha....) but my throat is still yucky feeling and my sinuses are still messed up.

The headache? Got a LOT worse during todays meeting. In which we were informed of the bonus we were getting next month....and the source it was going to have to come from.......good GRAVY. On top of it being a virtually wasted two hours for non-programming staff.......***banging head against wall*** Oh wait, maybe THAT'S why my head hurts. But I can't help it, I WORK IN A LOONY BIN!!!! EVERY TIME I TURN AROUND there is a new reason to bang my head against the wall. It's much more productive than any alternative task I might be given. TOTALLY. Basically, the place we work is "owned" by another business, and we are paid through the "other business." HOWEVER--- the bonuses??? Well, the other business excludes us from getting bonuses along with the rest of the employees b/c in addition to funds from the business who owns us, we raise additional money to operate. Their solution? Take OUR funds (that we've raised) and give OUR people the SAME bonus that the business is getting from the state. We're not allowed to get OUR bonuses out of the same fund from the state that they're getting theirs from. Well okay then. But at the SAME TIME, when we want to take OUR FUNDS and hire more staff for our departments b/c we're all overworked and there's still work not getting done......"NO, that's not in the business's budget for salaries, and you're not allowed to take it out of your funds to do that." Well, why-ever not? Why should we be penalized for raising funds? Why should we work to raise more funds to do more stuff and make our business better when it's really going to hurt us being that we're all overworked as it is....and we're not going to be able to accommodate the staffing needs that more funding will create.....HELLO!

Boy, I love working for the state. People quit and they don't replace them....they just load up the work on the already overloaded.....and then complain b/c the department is getting up there in the comp hours. In a way, I'll feel bad when I leave b/c I don't know if they'll hire anyone to replace me or if they'll just distribute my tasks among the staff. When I was hired on full time, I actually replaced someone who left. However, not long after I was hired, my manager quit. At that time, there was only two full time staff and one part time.....when she left, it was me as full time and my mom as the part time staff. What did they do about it? They gave me most of the stuff that the manager was doing and a few things fell on mom. That lasted for about 2 years....then they hired a marketing person.....who stayed around for about a year and left.....guess where HER duties ended up??? Yep. On me. Oh and somewhere in that time frame, they also fired the "jr engineer" who was helping "Wally" set up for sessions and do all that stuff down the hall. Did they assign anybody to help him after that? Not a chance. So who helps him now? Yep. That would be me.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining. I have a very good job and I enjoy *most* of what I do.....but my job description still says that I am basically a receptionist. What-DOUBLE-ever.

And see, the thing is.....it's not just me. That's the story for everyone in development, and I'd say there are a couple of folks in programming that would also fit very well with that story. And we can't hire more staff b/c we're not allowed to use OUR FUNDS to pay for additional salaries. BUT WE CAN USE OUR FUNDS TO GIVE OURSELVES THE SAME BONUS THAT THE STATE FUNDS ARE GIVING TO THE OTHER EMPLOYEES OF THIS BUSINESS. Pardon me while I fume.

Okay. I think this post has gone on quite far enough. If you're still reading this, I have to give you kudos. As you can see, I have a lot on my mind right now. And this is just the tip of the iceberg. *sigh* It's been a long week already. I'm really glad this is hump day.....and I'm really sorry for the sake of whoever might be reading this, that I am having a very NON-wordless wednesday. ROFL.

Later!