Online with Michelle

Excitement

2009-06-30T11:26:00.002-05:00

I am really very excited for this weekend. J's niece is coming to stay with us for five days. I think that we will have a really good time. I am really excited about it.

Things have been pretty crazy lately. First, I signed up for Facebook after months of saying that I wouldn't. I have found so many people from years ago, its crazy and exciting and all of that.

I applied for a job that I really want. I interviewed for another position just like this and declined it, but knew the minute that I left that it was my calling. I found that the company has another opening and I re-sent my application. I am so hoping that they will call and give me another opportunity to interview for the position. I really want the job as the satisfaction that I am not getting here is creeping in more and more. Time will tell.

That's all I have for now. I will be back later!

Coupon Clipping

2009-06-12T05:01:00.002-05:00

Call me crazy, but J & I found something that we can do together and saves us money, coupon clipping! Now I know that it sounds crazy, but last week we saved almost ten dollars on our weekly grocery bill. Tonight we have set aside time of out our evening to firm up our list for Saturday's shopping then hunt for coupons. I am kind of looking forward to it.

Otherwise, it is just another day at work. Nothing exciting, nothing new, just rather boring. I really hate that I do the same thing day after day. However, I also know that I am the only one that can do anything to change it. I just do not know where to begin to make a change. I have put applications for job especially since I have realized what it is that I want to do, but I have not heard anything. I will just keep pushing on.

It is about time that I get up and get ready for the day. I hope that you have a great Friday.

Its Been A Day or Two

2009-06-10T11:29:00.003-05:00

Since the last time I have blogged. But isn't that why I went to a free blogging service, so I don't feel as if I have to blog every single day.

Seriously, things have not changed at all nor do I have anything good to report. Not that anything bad have happened. Its just been the same. Exciting, huh?

In just a couple of weeks, J & I will be having his niece coming up to stay with us for a while right around the 4th of July. I am looking forward to it. It will be a good time. The only thing that we know we will be doing for sure is going to Chuck E Cheese for dinner one night. She wants to go to 'Build A Bear', but dang, that is really expensive!

J & I are waiting to see if we get accepted in the Foster Parent program, so we can start our ten weeks of classes. It hasn't been a week since we turned in our original paperwork, however, it seems that it is taking a really long time. Either that or it certainly shows how impatient I am. Patience is something that I will need to learn.

Well, that's about it for now. I hope that you have a great afternoon!

Working Again

2009-06-03T06:39:00.003-05:00

Its only taken a couple of days to pretty much get caught up with my work from the week long vacation I took. Today, I am lacking the desire to get much done. On his 66th birthday, my Dad had a triple by-pass. He was taken out of ICU yesterday and that afternoon transferred to a private room. So J & I went up after work to see him. He was looking good, up and alert. Apparently, the doctors will let him go this weekend. All good news. I couldn't be happier about that.

I am so thankful for the earphones that I brought to work. The walls in our new offices are very thin and we can hear alot. Fortunately, they are helping to drown out the noises I don't want to hear. Today one of those noises is a drill. I am not sure what's going on, but it sounds like it is happening right next door.

Tonight I have algebra class and tomorrow J & I have our first meeting about foster care. I am looking forward to it. Unfortunately, I will have to miss my psychology class, but it is for a good cause, right? I think that I will be fine missing this one class. As much as I dislike the algebra, I am glad that I am not missing that class because I would feel like I was totally lost.

Well, that about wraps things up for today. I should probably get some work done. I hope that you have a great Hump Day!

Sunshine SVG Files

2009-05-31T06:58:00.005-05:00

I have spent some time creating some of my own SVG files. I have put together this one to include a sunburst, a moon, clouds and a couple of sayings. Below is a picture of the files. This is available for $1 and will available immediately for download upon payment. If you have any questions about these files, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Vacation Over

2009-05-29T19:28:00.001-05:00

It is hard to believe that in two days my week's worth of vacation will be over. Monday will be here before I know it and I will be heading back to work. Lovely new office, officemate and exciting work on top of it all, it is too much for someone like me to bear. Ok, that is all of the sarcasm you will get from me out of this post, I promise.

I have started selling some die cuts on eBay. I sold one last night and this morning. I have another one for Father's Day ready to list. I am hoping that I will get some good results from doing this. You never can tell what might happen.

I have quite a bit of college work to do this weekend. I should have really applied myself to do it since I had all of this vacation time, but with my Aunt making her appearance, I have not wanted to do much the past couple of days. Oh how, I dislike these times of the month.

J is watching Joaquin Rivers, back when he was an actor, in the Johnny Cash movie. If you have seen Joaquin Rivers lately, you will understand completely. He has quit acting and moved into a music career, only. Still this would have been good, if he had not become a crazy drug like recluse. Now maybe this is not the way he would like to be described, but that is the only way I can.

For now, I am going to close my post. I hope that you have a great night!

More Vacation Days

2009-05-28T06:16:00.001-05:00

At some point yesterday, I was thinking about all of the vacation time that I am going to have. I have like 35 or so hours in comp time. Actually, this is like sick time. If we do not use it, we lose it. Now our vacation time can roll over, up to one year. After this week off, I will have 30 hours, but there at the end of the first week of June, I will be back up to 40 hours. If I were to be very honest with myself, I am taking this time off so work can pile up in my absence. Since the downturn of the economy, my job has been extremely slow.

J just took off for exercising this morning. We are going to go get our fingerprints for foster kids this morning. Then next week we have our first appointment or class. I am looking forward to it, even though I will have to miss my psychology class that night, but it is ok.

We played the lottery last night because it was some BIG money. However, we did not win the BIG money. On the other hand, we did win small monies, a total of seven dollars. I do believe that this is some of the biggest winnings we have made off of the lottery. I am not sure that we could pull it off a second time. Even if we were, just to hope for another seven dollars.

I should go think about getting ready for the day. I hope that you have a great Thursday!

Different Night

2009-05-27T06:03:00.001-05:00

Tonight has been different. Poor J fell asleep about 5:30. He has not eaten dinner. He has not been out for a cigarette, which is probably a good thing because the rain has been falling for the past couple of hours. Usually, I am the one who is sawing logs before the clock strikes six. Therefore, something must be off with him. It is an unusual thing for J to do.

The whole reason I am blogging is that I went to look at the unread blog posts I have in my Google reader. I have read this one blog for just about nine months, this couple is ready for the delivery of their first child. I found this woman in a forum that I would go to when we were actively trying. It was one of those moments, which I felt like there was a giant clock hanging over my head ticking my fertile moments away. Time I will never be able to get back.

Yet, I have many moments where I am feeling that I am still 18 and have my whole life in front of me. Elastic skin, great body with little to no imperfections, clothes that fit in all the right places and wrinkles creeping in around my eyes. Ok, so that is how I keep myself in reality, always with the wrinkles. I figure my skin still has to be elastic. I lie down and hold a mirror over my face I look good. However, when I sit up, the skin sags a little and I look a bit more tired. My great body is not because of an extreme exercise regime. I have not had any kids; I do not need exercise. Those small imperfections are those varicose veins that have shown up and parked along my upper thighs somewhere in the past couple of years.

The best is yet to come. Because I have quit smoking, my tops have become a little better fitting. Not such good news that it meant a new bra size, but good enough that now my tops are tight enough to make me look like I have breasts. I am sure that none of this has anything to do with the fact that I just realized Hershey’s took their “May contain nuts” clause out of many of their chocolate products. Alternatively, that I substituted banana bread and chocolate pudding when the desire for a cigarette swept over me. Despite it all, I have managed to not smoke again, but gain 15 pounds, which is why my clothes are tight and I have bigger breasts. This is all happening because I am almost 40, right?

Someone forgot to tell me that I am closing in on the big four o. I still act, think and perceive the world around me through the eyes of an eighteen year old. Sometimes, I think that I need to ready myself for a new world. Perhaps, time to grow up. On the other hand, I am quite happy with all that my life is right now.

I think that is it for tonight. I am going to go get ready for bed. I still have three more days of vacation left. Yay, me.

Too Cool

2009-05-26T06:56:00.001-05:00

I have figured out how to make a blog post from MS Word 2007. So now, I can type and not make any errors, due to the auto correct feature of Word. Ok, I am not sure that is the best idea, but at least its working. I just wish that I could do this from Office Word 2003 while I was at work. I wonder if the newer features are one reason why they do not upgrade. Ok, I did some fancy text here on this post. I want to see if it will transfer. I am easily amused. It is almost seven. I should go get ready for the day. Have a great day!!

Totally Off

2009-05-26T06:37:00.003-05:00

Today feels really weird. Its a day after the holiday and another vacation day for the entire company. For whatever reason, I feel like I am cheating the system. That I should be at work. Almost a guilty feeling. Crazy, I know. Especially when today is given to use by the company. Its for the remainder of the week that I should feel like I am cheating the system.

I have all of my homework done for this unit. Its hard to believe that we are approaching our third week already in online college. Its amazing how the time is flying. I could really get a head of the game and begin doing homework for the next unit. Actually I have a project in psychology which is due at the end of next week that is worth 200 points. Maybe it is a good thing that I have all of this time off.

J is off exercising this morning. I am patiently waiting to hear if his friend came back to the gym. I felt so bad last week that I told him that I thought maybe this guy was not a friend, but perhaps just try to gather information. I won't go into alot of details, but needless to say, the fact that I said that really hurt J and that is not at all what I meant to happen. I so hope that I am wrong.

Well, that's about all I have to say for now. I hope that you have a great day!!

Memorial Day

2009-05-25T06:50:00.002-05:00

Today is Memorial Day. Its hard to believe that its the end of May already. Or to believe that I still have lots of vacation time for the week. One more day off and then I think that I may be ready to return to work. Ugh!

Right now, J is still sleeping. I have my school work done for the day and ready to craft. I made two layouts for our photo album. One was of J in his friend's wedding. I titled that one - My Best Man. And the other one was a few pictures of his Mom. That one I called, Me Ma - Mom - Friend. Both of them turned out really well. I will try to take some pictures and post them later.

I am down to three contacts. I have to order some more. I really don't want too, but I have a strange fascination with the ability to see. I kind of like it. For right now, I am thinking that I might to go have a piece of chocolate for breakfast. For now, I will close. I hope that you have a great day.

Kind of Strange

2009-05-22T06:53:00.005-05:00

Coming up to the new office this morning. Seeing different sites and people first thing in the day. Sometimes its not always a good thing. I keep looking forward to the time off I have a head of me.

Tomorrow J & I are taking a road trip to C'ville for the day. Going to see his Mom, nieces and nephews. It will be a good time. I am looking forward to it. Its been a while since we have been there.

I have been at work for almost two hours now and I am ready to pull my hair out. Absolutely no work to do. I am ready to begin vacation, right now! Now that I am at my desk, I guess I could start looking for things to do that might improve my job. I just don't know where to begin. Perhaps, I need to take this week off and evaluate my position. Is it time to search for something else? Maybe I should be more proactive about the information that is in the system and cleaning it up? Or do I just sit here and wait for something to happen?

Someone is walking the hallways wearing alot of cologne. Ohmy! Ok, well that does it for now. I hope that you have a great Friday morning.

Looking Up

2009-05-21T10:44:00.003-05:00

We have made our move into our new office area. Despite much disappointment, I still have the same office mate. But I will make do. I have a new desk, new office set up and things are looking good. I can see everything that is going on outside of my door and I swear the two ladies across the hall from me are the most unorganized! Its kind of funny watching them try to set their offices up.

I had my algebra class last night. I am glad that one is over for now. Tonight is psychology class. That one, unfortunately, is not an audio class. I prefer the audio classes over non-audio. It seems that we can get much more information into each class. As far as that goes, it seems that I can get more out of the classes. Its all good.

Just need to get through today and tomorrow is a half day. Then one week of vacation. Yipee! I can't believe that I agreed to take a week of vacation time. I wonder what I will do with myself. I intend on doing quite a bit of scrapbooking alternated with getting some schoolwork done. Maybe toss in a nap or two, once or twice during the week. It will be perfecto!

For now, I am going to close my post. I hope that you have a great afternoon!

One Whole Week

2009-05-18T09:31:00.003-05:00

I decided to do it. Take a whole week off from work, crazy huh? Nothing particular planned just some time off. Heck, I am getting three days for the price of five days. That's a huge savings! I am excited. I just hope that I won't drive myself too crazy being at home that long. I thought about seeing if J would let me go exercise with him a couple of days that week, but I think the gym charges either five or ten dollars per day for guests. That's expensive! Anywho, this week will be short and next involves absolutely no work, yay!!

We have instant messenger at work and right now I am getting pinged, hold on. It was an easy question. I challenged her to give me a harder one. Nothing came in over the weekend and it looks like this week could be another very slow one.

Now that I have a whole week off, I need to make a plan. A plan of action. A plan of action to do something. So far, all I am coming up with is working ahead on my school work and doing some scrapbooking. I printed off a bunch of pictures in order to do that. With only the weekends as my free time, its kind of hard to get in as much scrapbooking as I would like.

Ok, well I am off to figure out how I am going to spend the rest of my day. I hope that you have a great one!!

Good Sunday

2009-05-18T05:54:00.004-05:00

The weekend is over already, ugh! It was a good weekend, but didn't feel like it lasted very long. Of course they never do. My brother, sister-in-law, nephew, J and I went to go visit my Dad. We found out earlier this week that he is going to have by-pass surgery on his 66th birthday. Its been a couple of years since I have seen him. It was a good visit.

I am seriously thinking about taking a full week of work off, next week. I am not sure that I will because that's a lot of time off and I am not sure what I would do with myself with all that time off. I'll go look in the calendar and see what's happening.

I am hoping that this week at work goes by quickly. Quicker than it did last week. Ohmygosh, last week went by so slow. Well, that's about all I have for now. If I get another chance, I will write more later when I am at work.

So Glad

2009-05-15T11:06:00.003-05:00

It's Friday! Today couldn't have come any sooner if it had tried. I am just ready for the week to be over. I am sitting here at work hoping and praying that no one comes into my cozy quiet office for the remainder of the day. Yesterday, my office mate called to remind me that she was on vacation today. You see, we are getting ready to move our work offices, next week. So I told her that I would empty her one filing cabinet into boxes, not a big deal.

So this morning, my visitor came into chat while I was boxing things up. She noticed that my office mate had one drawer full of hanging files that were empty. Of course, she starts off ranting and raving that my office mate is a hoarder and blows the whole thing out of proportion. Anyway, it just reminded me how much I dislike working with women. How petty they sometimes can be. Such is life.

Well, I am going to start working on some of my school work before the weekend. Gosh knows, I will need all weekend to do the algebra. I hope that you have a great Friday!!

Long Afternoon

2009-05-14T13:33:00.004-05:00

Oh my, its been a long afternoon already. To think that I have a little more than two hours of this yet, is enough to make me want to scream. I do not do well not being challenged. I would probably make a terrible stay at home mother. With that said, I am going to make today the first day that I begin working towards my goal of the dream job that I want.

Perhaps, instead of calling it a dream job, I should tell a little more about what I am talking about. About a month ago, I applied for a position that involved doing casework. I would go to homes of the under privileged to talk to them, maybe supervise visitation or things of that nature. Well, it doesn't pay near what I am making right now. But from the moment that I left the interview, I knew that's career path I was meant to follow.

From that moment, I have been frantically searching for jobs which are similar. I have found a couple. I have applied, but still have not heard anything more from them. So I am sitting and waiting. Actually, the sitting and waiting is not really true. I am working full time, going to school full time and thinking of ways that I could supplement my income so I can follow my dream to do this type of work. Thankfully, I have the support of J.

In all of this journey, this is where I am at and the obstacles that I need to overcome in order to pursue my dream job. My second passion is being creative. I love to scrapbook using my all time favorite tool, Cricut. So I figured that I would create embellishments and sell them on eBay. I started last weekend without any good results. So I need to expand on what I started and keep believing in myself. Work hard and I will get what I want accomplished.

With that said, it means that I need to figure out why I am getting so tired by the end of the day. When I say so tired, I mean very tired. So much so, that I go home and sleep by 6:00 pm. Part of me is wondering if maybe I am taking too high of a dosage of meds, maybe I should cut back everyother day or something like that? Heck, I don't know.

Well, that about sums up my thoughts for now. I hope that you have a great afternoon!!

Ready to Bust Out

2009-05-12T14:06:00.003-05:00

You know I am sitting here looking around my office thinking there has to be something more than this, isn't there? I need to get up, move around and pinch myself before I actually fall asleep. My eyelids are so heavy. A nap sounds delicious at this particular moment.

I had lunch with J. Man does he get grouchy sometimes. You know its like if he was a quiet, kept to himself kind of grouchy that would be much more acceptable than the snappy kind of grouchy that he gets to be. I might be grouchy right now because I have very little work to do. I have everything accomplished that I wanted to for the day. Yay for me.

I know in the previous post I mentioned that classes start tomorrow. Its true. Did I also mention that I managed to pass my Composition classes, thankfully. Now its on to math, ugh. Give me a calculator and some paper, I am good to go. Balancing equations sounds like it might make my head hurt. I'll give it one heck of a try though.

Well, I am going to close this post and figure out what the afternoon holds for me. I hope that you have a great one!!

Shoot Me Now

2009-05-12T09:57:00.003-05:00

Literally, it feels like it has taken ten hours for the clock to move from 7 to 10. That's forever!! It is also why I said shoot me now. If the day is going to move that slow, I want it to be over.

I have finished up with a project that I was doing for another department. I am waiting for them to return some information to me before I send my documents out. Online classes don't start until tomorrow. We can't even get in to read the syllabus or work a head. Part of me thinks that a bummer and the other half of me says I should be devoted to my work. Ok, devoted is much to much of a deep word to work in that sentence, but I think that I made my point.

What I would love to do is get some work in my dream job field of Human Services. I have decided that I want to assist families. I have completed two years of working towards my Psychology degree and will be finished in the summer/fall of 2011. Let me know if you know of a position that my education might qualify me for.

Ok, well, that was a quick break and its back to work I go. I hope that your day is moving quicker than mine!

Totally Ready to Go

2009-05-12T06:53:00.003-05:00

Its been a couple of days since I have written in my blog. That is just because I haven't had a lot to say and it gets tiresome telling some of the same stories, day after day. Well, I just got the call that my officemate is gone for the day. So today was a perfect day for blogging instead of working. I have a ton of stuff to do, but I don't want to do any of it. I am lacking any motivation.

On Sunday, I put some of my Cricut products on eBay for sale. Its really kind of cool. I don't have a watcher or a bid, but I had fun doing it. I think that I might list some more this weekend. Actually, I would love to do some scrapbooking, but I haven't found the time. Now that classes are going to start up again tomorrow, I will be even more pressed to find the time. This term ought to be interesting. I have two classes, alegbra and cognitive psychology. In my current position, I use to hear the word cognitive all the time and I am still not sure what the definition is, but it sounds like an impressive word, doesn't it.

That's really about all I have to say for now. I am going to close out this post for now. Look for some tweets today since I am all alone. Have a great Tuesday!!

Blessed SVG

2009-05-10T19:56:00.005-05:00

Here is another one of my Cricut creations. Word Art "Blessed". The price is $1.00 and available immediately for download after payment.

Scrapbooking with Leaves

2009-05-10T17:06:00.006-05:00

One of my favorite things to do is scrapbook. I have become a scrapbooking fool, collecting all sorts of things at any time. A while back I purchased a Cricut and use SCAL with it, I can create anything, its a lot of fun. Those creations are what I will share here, starting today. So my blog is going to become a mishmash of everything. However, I will put my email to the side in case there is something that you might like to see or need to get in touch with me. I am trying to make all of my files available for download after payment, which is $1.00. I hope that you enjoy scrapbooking as much as I do.

Learning Stuff

2009-05-10T08:16:00.002-05:00

Its too cool!! I just realized that I could sell stuff from my blog with Paypal. How awesome is that! Ok, I am off to get ready for Mom's Day.

Good Night

2009-05-09T20:28:00.000-05:00

It has been a pretty darn good day. Of course, I didn't get a thing done that I had hoped too, but there is always tomorrow. We are going to my brother and sister-in-law's house for a Mother's Day cookout. It should be a good time. I just wanted to make a quick post before I sign off for the day. Hope that you have a great Saturday night!!

Going for Broke

2009-05-08T08:16:00.005-05:00

I have never made any bones about my dislike for my current job. I should say that my feelings have become more pronounced since I interviewed for what I would consider to be my dream job in the Human Services field. I just applied for another position here in my local area. We will see what happens with that.

I have spent the majority of my morning, so far, sending emails back and forth to an old co-worker. I have forgotten how much I miss working with everyone there. On a good note, by not working there, I am not enslaved to the work of the Open House, which is coming at the end of June. This year it will be 30 years. I can only imagine the celebration that they will have out there. Apparently, they have even built or are in the middle of building a hotel, which is booked full for this event. Ahh, the memories.

So now that I have applied for my perfect job (someday it will not be a dream, but a reality) and have taken the time to recall the good old days, I suppose its time to snap back to reality. Not a good thing to think about while its a beautiful sun shining Friday afternoon and I am trapped behind the tall white windowless walls of work.