Tuesday, October 24, 2006

Ready for Halloween

Well the great pumpkin carving took place this past weekend. On Saturday the sprouts picked out their perfect pumpkin and mom got one as well. Here is a view of all three of them. This one is my oldest's who will be a princess kind of person with wings. A crown and wand were necissary to complete the outfit, and an added touch of lights have been placed around the wings. This one is mine, It says "Trick or Treat" on it. Maybe hard to read for some. (The green in the center is the battery operated light that changes colors.) I will not be wearing a costume, however I have been drafted to ride on the float to watch the sprouts so that they do not fall off. This will be the one time that I will not like snow in the forcast. This one belongs to the youngest, that announced a witch costume will work for this year. Bonus, we had one in storage that is home made and fits. An added touch of lights will be added to the hat this year. The sprouts enjoyed cleaning out the pumpkins and they picked out their design as well. Mom helped carve them for them. A good time was had by all. They really like them when the lights are on inside.

Monday, October 16, 2006

Co-Workers who want to be bosses!!!

I need to vent here for a moment. My boss, who happens to be married to the owners step-daughter, and he and I graduated from college together, also supervises two other women in his department. I am in my own department. I am the only one that works in my department. We all work upstairs in the office of a manufacturing facility.

I was gone all day last Monday on a vacation day. I left early on Thursday because I did not feel well. I am on some new meds that my system is not liking very much. Now, I am not the type of person to leave work every time I do not feel well. I work through headaches, colds, whatever. I am not one to just not come in to work because I do not feel like it. I had all my work done that I had to do before I left and I notified the Vice President of the company I was leaving because my boss was not going to be in until the afternoon, because he daughter who is in fifth grade had mono so his wife who works here at well were taking turns coming in. She came in the mornings because of the stuff she does and he comes in after lunch. He did a lot of work from his home because he could get his work email at home. I had emailed him as well to let him know of the situation, and I left about an hour before he was coming in anyways.

Now, I normally come back into work on the evenings that the sprouts are at their dads. This is usually right after I get done bowling, but not always. I usually am here for two to three hours, sometimes more. I get a lot of little stuff done that I normally cannot get done during the day, because the phone is ringing or one of the 5 other plants needs something or just everyday stuff that is a priority to me gets done first. It is nice to just be able to get a solid couple of hours to concentrate on things. I am salary so it really does not matter to some if they work their necessary hours or not or go an extra mile or not for a company. I does matter to me.

So, on Friday I came into work and got caught up from being gone the day before. Which only took me about an hour to do, there was not much work that needed to be done. I went and put some prints on my bosses desk for him to go over when he comes in later. While I was doing that the lady that works for him and is right next to his office was just ranted up a storm to the lab tech who will get out of any work possible if he can, and has every excuse as to why things are not done yet. This guy never tips a waitress because he has every excuse as to why they do not deserve one. Anyways, they are talking about me being gone and who supervises me when I am here at night and how can I be gone when I do not feel well and on and on and on. I could sit in my office and hear everything she was talking that loud. She has a high regard for her boss as well, because according to her his spine and other parts are missing from his body as well, and she has to do all this other stuff because he won't do it.

I just love these people that have to know exactly what the whole office is doing and that they are following all the rules. I was not aware this office had a rules enforcing police, but apparently she got that position when I was out sick for the half a day. Tomorrow should be fun, I am not going to be in the office at all in the morning because I have to go to another plant to give a training session to them. This is at the request of the Vice President, and my boss does know. Wonder if I should clear it with her to make sure that it is ok that I be gone in the morning? Naaaa, that would take the fun out of what could be an interesting week around here.

Wednesday, October 11, 2006

Hope You Enjoy The Color!

Here are a few pictures of the fall color from northern Michigan this past weekend.

This is the view I had everyday from the deck of our cabin.

Here is some of the color we saw near Houghton, Michigan and around Keewanaw bay on Lake Superior Saturday afternoon.

This was taken from Presque Isle in Marquette on Sunday.

And these are a few pictures on our way home on Monday. They are all taken south of the Bridge. Yes I was multi-tasking at the time, driving and picture taking.

A great time was had by all. I took my mom and grandmother up with me for the weekend. Grandma had a wonderful time, and she enjoyed the drives we took each day. It was great, we got to eat at all our favorite restuarants on both days and never cooked a meal at home. The weather was in the mid 70's both days. The color peaked probably around Wednesday or Thurdsay up there. We saw some good color but a lot of it was gone. At our cabin most of the leaves had fallen already. The northern lower pennisula of Michigan had better color than the upper and better on Friday than on Monday when we were coming home.

No big wild life around. :( We did see some deer, but I was hoping for a bear or a Moose. There will always be next time.

We were getting things around on Sunday night and mom and I had to go back into town to get a few things and the lady working in the store was going to be heading down state this Thursday. She was heading toward I-96 and US 23 which is in the general area between Lansing and Detroit. I was laughing to myself about her carrying on about her trip. I know where she is going because that is right near my sister, and she said that you would have thought that she was heading to Europe for this trip. I think if the "UPers" cross the bridge it is like entering a foreign country to them and they really have not even left the state they live in.

I was kind of bummed that they were going to be getting snow this week and I was leaving and going to miss it. Only to discover that we have snow in our forcast as well, bonus. I know a lot of you are not that excited about it, sorry.

Tuesday, October 03, 2006

All 3's

Ok I have been Tagged so here it goes:

All the 3s... Here are some things about me

3 smells I love:
Hot Apple Pie
Cinnamon
Orange

3 smells I hate:
Coffee (Sorry)
Body odor
Beer

3 jobs that I have had in my life:
Engineering Manager
Quality Manager
Video Store Manager

3 movies that I could watch over and over:
Good Morning Vietnam
The Shawshank Redemption
Sister Act 1 & 2

3 fond memories:
Going out Friday nights with my Grandparents
The birth of my two sprouts
Christmas at my other Grandparents

3 jobs I would love to have:
Making stainglass pieces full time
Web page designer
Continuing Education Teacher (Adults not kids)

3 places that I have lived:
Reading, Michigan
On Campus Tri-State University
Angola, Indiana

3 things I like to do:
Do Stuff with the kids
Create stainglass pieces
Work on the computer

3 of my favorite foods:
Seafood
Gingerbread cake w/lemon sauce
Grandmas fresh cherry dumplins

3 places I would like to be right now:
Around a campfire by the lake watching the sunset
Outside hanging out with the kids
With my twin sister rocking my nephew

3 websites that I visit daily:
www.yahoo.com
www.boatnerd.com
www.ebay.com

3 things that make me cry:
Onions
Disappointing my children at times
A Broken heart

3 friends that I am tagging:
All my friends in the tagging world have been tagged

...and it just Freaked me out!!

To add to my busy schedule, the sprouts are taking gymnastics once a week. They have been begging me to take them, so I finally found ones that fit everyone's schedule. The youngest has her 40 minute lesson, then we have dinner before the oldest has her lesson. I was putting the finishing touches on dinner last night and chatting with the 4 1/2 year old about her lesson. I do not stay for it, the oldest and I zip to the library a few blocks away and I do the same with the youngest later in the evening as well. Anyways, I was asking what all did they do today, did you get to do the bar, the trampoline,etc. I asked did you do the balance beam, which is a mat like beam that sits on the floor and is about 6 inches tall and maybe 8 - 10" wide. I saw them do that last week. She says "We had to go sideways, forwards, and backwards on it" excitingly telling me this. Then she says that "It just freaked her out" and on she went about her business. The mind of a child. :) They enjoy it, and they love going to the library as well, so life is good on Mondays.

2 more days before my mini vacation to the upper pennisula of Michigan. It is suppose to rain up there this weekend but I do not care, life is always good when ever I can get up there. I missed the seafood festival earlier this year, so I am glad I can get up there at all this year. I have had to do some last minute arrangements to get the sprouts to all of there stuff this weekend, but I have finally accomplished that as well. Now, all that is left is laundry and packing a few clothes for the trip.

My twin sister was trying to find away to go up as well for that weekend, which would of been really cool because I would have gotten to rock my nephew all weekend. He loves me! Well, he loves to spit up on me. :) I do not mind though, he is such a cutie. But, she is not going, and to be honest none of her SUV vehicles are big enough to pack everything that SHE would want to bring for both kids. Mind you there are lots of toys up there already and the little sprout does not require food yet, and there is a washer and dryer there as well. But, she still cannot make it.