January 22nd 2012

Wow, I see I haven't blogged since June! First things first. The hubby is still unemployed. I can't say much more than that right now. It sucks. I am praying he gets a job soon. Yes, we need the money, but more than that, he needs something to do, and I need my house back.

We were out of power the last three and a half days. The power outage came after a snowstorm that was followed by an ice storm. The heavy snow and ice brought down lots of trees and heavy branches. Over 230,00 residents were without power. Many still are. I still had to go to work, which made for some scary driving. My car is great in the snow, and I am a very careful driver. Unfortunately, there were many drivers out on the road that were not so careful. The elements I can handle, the other crazy drivers, I can't. Many were stuck in their houses, because they couldn't get out, and many others just didn't try. Sorry, I don't get that. I really don't. I mean, yes, if your job shuts down and you don't need to get out, just stay in. But if your job needs you, shouldn't you at least try to get there?

So, we stayed at my parents for two nights, which is almost an hour from our house. We headed out this morning to go to our church and then come check on the house. When we pulled up the driveway, Chet said he was going to try the garage door opener, and it worked, woo hoo!

Major life change.

Wow, I have not blogged on here for ever! There have been several times that I meant to, but it just fell to the bottom of the priority list. Lets see, I started working full time at the beginning of October. It has been quite an adjustment. In November, we took Sophie out of her crib and got her a twin bed. Here we are over six months later, and she is still fighting the program. I think it was a combination of losing the security of her crib and the security of mommy being with her all of the time. My mom watched her when Chet and I both worked. The way are schedules were, that was often only two to three days a week. A month ago, my mom had a medical emergency. I am very lucky to have some great friends that helped me out when I needed someone to watch Sophie. My mom started feeling better about two weeks ago, after having to have her medication adjusted several times.

In the meantime, Chet has been having some issues at work the last couple of months. It started to become obvious that they were trying to get him to quit. He started with the company almost 18 years ago, and was highly paid for the job he was doing. Long story short, he was fired this Monday. It is scary and liberating at the same time. Chet is a wonderful person and extremely loyal worker, and deserves a company that appreciates him. I am hoping that this will be a fresh start for him. We will probably take a bit of a financial hit, depending on how long it takes him to find a job. But I know we will be okay.

Sorry.

Last post July 11th. Yikes. In my poor defense, I have been better with my other blog. I am thinking of combining the two. I just need to come up with a name. My other blog is about my weight loss journey. Really, I could do a ton of blogs. A toddler blog, infertility blog, the list could go on. That was kind of the idea with this blog though. To encompass everything. That was before I started WW though.

Currently, I am still job hunting. My daughter started preschool this week. I have an event on Saturday that I am helping run at church. Add in physical therapy for a knee issue, various meetings, Bunco, etc., the last two weeks have been very busy. I interviewed for a great job last week, but didn't get it. I am getting very discouraged. I know I just need to persevere. I am praying a lot!

Must. Clear. Head.

As those who know me well know, my brain is a whirling albatross that runs 24/7 at a very high speed. And where ever it stops, I must disembark the thoughts. Which drives my hubby crazy. So, right now I am overwhelmed with all the projects/commitments/thoughts running through my head.

Today, for the first time in days, Sophie took a nap. So I was able to work on some things. When she doesn't take a nap, I only have the evening to work on things, and my brain is usually mush, so I watch tv and read my various message boards, blogs, and Facebook. I do some job applying, if I am not too tired. When she does take a nap, I usually do some housework. But today I finally sat down and wrote out what I needed to get done, and in what order. I am in charge of something for my moms group this year, and I was able to get some work done on that. The thing is, I have to rely on someone else on this project, and she is very slow in responding to my emails. But I got my part done for now, and will await her reply. The next thing I have to do is decide what I am doing about Sophie's birthday. But I have to wait and see if Chet is going to get the time off before I can plan a party. I am terrible about making decisions about this sort of things. And Chet is no help. My practical side says I have no business spending money on a party when I don't have a job. My mommy side says that I should do it while I don't have to worry about having to work. Yikes.

Money. That is the other thing blaring in my brain. To keep the amount I want to have in savings, I need to start working by mid August. But there is so much going on this summer, that I would like to wait until September. Which would be okay, because I could just start building up savings again. If I got a full time, retail management job. But that does not work well with family life. I applied last week for two great jobs, neither would be nearly the money I made before, but they would give me a great work/life balance. And we may have to cut some things out, and possibly refinance the house. But I haven't heard anything yet. I am crossing my fingers.

More media-mania

So, I have established my disdain for the media, our local outlets in particular. A couple of weeks ago there was an incident in Seattle. A Seattle police officer attempted to cite four girls for jaywalking across a busy street. Instead of stepping to the side and showing their id as requested, one starts to just walk away. So of course the officer grabs her arm and tries to arrest her. At which time her friend tries to stop the officer by pushing him away from her friend. So the officer punches said girl in the face. Meanwhile, a crowd has gathered, including a complete moron getting all on video, all the while giving us his intelligent feedback. There were lots of people recording with their cell phones, but this video that has gone viral was recorded by some dude with the intelligence of a nat. Over and over we get to hear, "Are you serious?" in what I can only describe as the dumbest voice I have ever heard. Along with lots of swearing. He also shares with the crowd that this video is going straight to CNN, ABC, "all those". He's going to get rich, man. Frickin idiot. Not only were the two girls stupid enough to think they could resist a police officer, it seemed that most of the crowd thought they had hit the jackpot. Like they were watching the next Rodney King and they were going to cash in. It never occurred to them that the girls were in the wrong. Who is raising these morons?

But wait! It appears they were justified in their thinking, wrong as it was. Because the media went wild with this one. Over and over we see a still image of the officer hitting the girl. Mind you, we have lost seven police officers in the line of duty in less than a year. Including 4 shot while drinking coffee in a coffee shop and one doing paperwork in his patrol car. Yet the media is making this guy look like he was in the wrong. And the Chief of Police, who is only an interim Chief but is up for the job, is not fully backing his officer. What the hell? Did I mention that the girls and most of the crowd were black, and the officer was white? Shouldn't matter, right? But of course it does. The NCAAP was on this like white on rice. A white officer punched a black minor girl in the face!! It must be because she is black!! Couldn't have anything to do with the fact that she was interfering with an officers duties?! This video went viral, and literally was viewed all over the world. Now, if you just read a news article and saw the image of him punching her, you would get the idea that he was totally in the wrong. But if you watch the whole video, if you can deal with all the cussing and ignoramous people, you will see this officer showed great restraint. He calmly asked video moron to step back, but told him he could still record. The punch was a very clear tactical move, not a violent reaction. He could have put her on the ground, and still be following policy. But here he had a growing, irate crowd. He could easily have been overcome by the crowd and shot with his own gun. He handled the situation very well. Yet over and over I keep reading comments that he needs more training. I loved the response from the person that said yeah, training in how to use a taser.

Why, why is the media not backing our officers? Because God forbid they not be politically correct! Are these stupid morons the ones watching our backs? Umm, no. It is the officers that risk their lives everyday to protect us all, including the morons and the freakin media idiots. As a matter of fact, this all started when the officer tried to teach four dumb girls the lesson that if they run across a five lane highway, they might be killed. What an asshole.

Headache from hell

So, I have now had a headache for ten days straight. I went to the doctor last Friday, got meds, already finished the antibiotic, and still, I have the sinus headache from hell! I have tried just about every cold and allergy medicine/remedy out there. Usually three Excedrin will knock the headache right out, but no such luck this time.

In the midst of the ten day headache, I am still expected to function, imagine that. Yesterday Sophie and I stayed home and cleaned out my insane linen closet. Not the smartest thing to do when you already have sinus drainage filling your head, ears and throat. Needless to say, I was having major asthma issues yesterday. Five bags of old bedding and kitchen linens later, the closet looks so pretty! The garbage bags are still in my entry, even though I went right by the Good Will truck today.

Today I took Sophie to the park for a picnic lunch with my moms group. Despite my headache and the January weather conditions in mid June, we had a great time. Just remind me never to take a cranky, tired, full of frosted animal cookies toddler to the store when I already have a pounding headache. I had been wanting to go all week to Fred Meyer, and today was the last day of the 25% off coupon I had. I wanted to pick up a few things for Sophie, and I ventured over to look at shoes for myself. Since I have lost a little fat in my feet, I really want some cute shoes. Needless to say, we left with cute new shoes for Sophie. They were a really good deal. And her spring tennies have been worn to shreds since sandal weather still hasn't started. By the time we got to the checkout Sophie had ran away once and had at least three melt downs. I was happy she was entertaining herself with the cart, but the stupid checkout lady kept saying "Mam, she can't do that". Lest you think I am just being mean, this lady has helped me many times, is slower than frickin molasses, and has undercharged me more than once. Mind you, in my past life, I had to scold many a child for their antics, usually directly since the parents were no where to be found. I would speak directly to the parent if they were there and letting their kids climb on the racks like monkey bars, but I never scolded anyone for letting their child push the shopping cart. Payback is a bitch, I guess. Three more melt downs later and we got home where Chet put Sophie down for a nap.

Tomorrow I have an interview. And for the first time since I have been looking, I think I will actually go. I just hope my headache goes away so I don't sound like a blubbering idiot.

Driving part 2

Okay, I am guessing by the lack of comments on my last post that either a) No one read it, or b) I touched a few nerves. Either way is okay, since this is really just an outlet for me to vent. And even then, there are some subjects I feel I can not write about, because I know there are people who may read my blog that will get upset.

Anyway, I do have some things to add on the driving subject. The day after I wrote that blog, Chet was driving me home from the doctor and we drove passed the high school where the boys that died last week were set to graduate from. There is a large memorial set up that you can see from the street. Many times over the years I have tried to get through to Chet about how important it is to drive carefully. Just a few minutes before this we were leaving the parking lot of the drugstore, and as Chet went to turn left to get to the driveway, a car was coming very fast towards us. Chet honked and slammed on his breaks. The guy had his hands in the air, like what was Chet's problem. Technically, the guy had the right away. But if he wasn't speeding through the parking lot, Chet would have had plenty of time to turn. But the guy stepped on the gas, and if Chet had continued to turn, he would have run right into us, right where I was sitting. So Chet was all mad, and said since the guy was speeding, he would have been in the wrong. And I told him, if we were both dead, what would it matter who was in the wrong?! Besides, the guy had the right away, whether he was speeding or not.

In the accident that killed the two young men last week, it happened to be a guy that was drinking that ran into them. But the fact is, they were stalled in the middle of a busy interstate. Anyone that was impaired in any way, be it by speeding, or just turning to talk to someone next to them, could have ran into them. Someone that was going 80 miles an hour at 10:30 at night, up a hill, would not have had time to stop suddenly. Maybe they could have swerved, if there was no one on either side of them. There have been many accidents where drivers have swerved and hit a car stalled on the shoulder.

All of us who drive need to be so cautious at all times. I am far from perfect. Yes, I talk on my phone. I know I can do it and still pay attention to the road, and I always leave lots of room in front of me. I have been trying not use my phone in the car for months, but sometimes I have to. I do have a blue tooth headphone that I have had for years. But I still have to dial from my phone. The thing is, if I have an emergency, I will make a call. If I get pulled over, I get pulled over. Talking on your phone, unless it's hands free, has been illegal here for two and a half years. However, it was not a primary offense, meaning that you couldn't get pulled over for it, but could get a ticket if you were pulled over for another reason, and were also caught talking on the phone. Now it is a primary offense, so you can get pulled over if an officer see's you talking on your phone and driving. The first day this went into effect, the local news had a lawyer on saying that anyone that get's a ticket can challenge it. And, they showed cops out patrolling for drivers on their cell phones. I have even called people who say they are driving, so they have to be careful to not get caught. So essentially for this law, or any driving law to really work and have a large impact, there needs to be cops or highway patrol officers lined up along every stretch of highway, because some drivers, unless they think there is one around, aren't going to follow the laws. The thought of hurting or maiming themselves or others is not enough. Or maybe they just haven't been personally affected by an accident, or think that bad things can't happen to them.

To me it is like the whole abortion argument. If someone is morally willing to kill an unborn child, they will do it whether it is legal or not. And while I do not agree with abortion in the least, making it illegal will not stop it. If we could just cut down on all the violence, and educate people on the value of life, and that when it is over, it is over, maybe the next generations can make better decisions. Like driving carefully, preventing unwanted pregnancy, and generally treating themselves and others with respect. We don't need more laws and more rules. We need people to care enough about themselves and others to treat all life with respect.