SNOW!!!!

Yeah!!! There is finally snow on the ground! I know a lot of you are not happy about that, but in my world the little things go along way.

My sister called me last week to see if the sprouts and I wanted to go up to her house because she had snow and the sprouts could go sledding together. So we made the arrangements. I picked up my mom, cannot go see the 5 month old without taking grandma along, and since my grandma was home alone, and doing nothing. We took her along as well. So my 5 mo old nephew got a lot of Grandma loving, but only on his time. He was in a mood of his own. Fortunately, he and his aunt got along just fine.

After the sledding and playing of I think every single toy in the house, we headed back home for the two hour drive, because it was beginning to snow. Anytime you take your mom somewhere and it begins to snow, life pretty much revolves around her getting home safely. At least in my world it does. So needless to say I got the three kids in the car, my niece went as well. My grandma and my mom loaded as well. We grabbed dinner for the kids mostly and we were off. The roads were a bit slick at times and visibility was hampered as well, but not were I could not see the car in front of me. I had to put up with "don't push them" and "I wish you would just slow down" for two hours. Mind you there were at least a car length or two between me and the car in front of me and the slow down came when I was doing maybe 25 in traffic that had slowed for a slide off anyways. Yes, I finally blew up at my navigator then (my mom).

We did make it home safely and I got everyone else delivered to their respective places as well for the evening. What little was left of the evening I could have use drinking to calm my nerves from dealing with my mom, but I didn't. My oldest sprout and I watched the food network and got educated on how they make pretzels and chips. I think she got more from the show than I did, of course it probably would have helped me a lot more if my eyes were open.

Sunday brought more snow and of course I was still a half hour yet from my house, so I was "encouraged" to leave soon. I got home in the afternoon and the sprouts and I had a good time outside together. They helped me clear off the sidewalks and they finally got to make snow angles. Snow was not that great to make angels yesterday.

Now a little vent on men in my world lately. For the record my world would be much better without men in my life, I think. The ex. made an attempt to let me know his summer plans for the sprouts by email. I was impressed that it was so early, usually I barely get a weeks notice let alone months. I did not respond back to him one way or the other on it. There is a new guy in my life, but I am not sure where he stands in the world with his life, so I just play that one a day at a time. With my busy schedule that works well for me right now. The men at work, well they haven't exactly made my Christmas list of people to shop for. I have rescheduled the race, so hopefully something new will come along.

I have not been all that excited about my dad lately. My mom wanted to get groceries on Sunday because it was snowing and for one the pop(soda) was getting low. Not good for that house hold. During the blizzard of '78 I remember my dad bringing home about 8 cases of pop and a loaf of bread. Anyways, mom wanted to go along and he said no he could get them. They are a car short due to a deer encounter, so all vehicles are my dads work trucks, only seats in the front of them. My mom got a phone call it was my sister (the one that I do not get along well with) she was asking questions about the list my mom sent with my dad. She was mad when she hung up, he can't take me, but he can take her along. I spouted back, "That is so he can buy her groceries as well." Now you know one of the reasons I do not speak to her that much, she lives off my parents in her own house. My parents do help me when I ask, but I do not ask for everything little thing from them.

Stainglass, Work, and The Ex.....

Stainglass.....

This was a last minute request from a lady at church. So naturally what is a night or two with no sleep...lol. The only request was for the rose to be yellow. I came up with the other colors, which was not easy for me. I am pretty particular about the way my pieces look and turn out. I truly liked the way this one turned out. Usually it makes a difference which side of the glass you use, but this piece turned out that both sides looked well together.

Another last minute piece was for my mom to give as a gift as well. Both the rose and cross were given at the same function at church. I have shown this pattern before I think. It is a beveled cross in the center with a clear glass that has a rainbow tint to it for the border. I designed the border for this piece.

This last piece is my favorite. I completely designed this piece as a surprise gift. The glass is 11" x 17". I was able to hold the background glass so that is looks like the letters are pasted on to it. Not an easy thing to accomplish, but something that I am pretty particular in doing. This turned out better than I thought it would when I started it. I thought the script lettering was not going to turn out as well as it did. I am really happy with it, and I think it was a hit as well. This piece took a lot of hours to make, which included a couple late nights (ok all nighters) and I even stayed home from work one day to work on it as well. That is before the other stuff happened at work. My dad made the frame for me. We put a crack in the glass when we were framing it. Well, my dad did it. He missed fired the first time and about stuck a small nail thru his thumb, then the second shot was not that much better, and it cracked the piece of wood we were putting on. Then he says "Did I just crack that?" With my teeth slightly grinding I said "Yes" but it did not look bad, and I doubt you will be able to see it. I did point it out when I delivered it. Anyways here it is...

Work....

Well, the race has been postponed. The owner also took issue with my boss and he took it personally, which he can afford to do more than the rest of us because the owner is his father-in-law. They exchanged a few emails. On Monday of this week, I got an apology from the owner via email, for the letter that he sent me last week. For that I have put off my search. My boss was here on Monday and more emails went back and forth and by the end of the day he has his mind made up that he was done here. He has not been in the rest of the week. They have kissed and made up I guess and my boss will be in on Monday. Never a dull moment around here.

The Ex....

The legal battle is finally over I believe for now. I have been trying since July to get medical expenses due me from him. He lawyered up after the judge served him papers at work, since he did not show up for the court date, because he did not pick up his certified mail. So, I had to get my lawyer involved. We all had a meet a greet in November and I finally signed the new agreement today. I have spent about five times the amount do me to get that money. He owed me alot more when I started the whole process and paid some of it along the way. So that is finally over. Hopefully!!! I just get the pleasure now of seeing him more often and at my house. Doubt that it will be a pleasure, especially since it will be around 7am everytime on the weekends.

The Race Is On.....

The race is on to see if I can find a new job quicker than I lose the one I have. I am intending on winning this race. Apparently the owner of this company has an issue with me of which he stated in a letter to me that contained mostly lies. I have talked to my boss who is the son-in-law to the owner and we went to college together, and I also have spoke to the vice-president as well. The VP will go to bat for me in a heart beat. You see I am the engineering department I have no one else working for me here. When I go on vacation ALL the work is still waiting for me when I get back, there is no back up for me. The VP even stated in our meeting that if something happened to me GOD forbid this company would be in a world of hurt. I agree with that. I have even set up my home computer to be able to work from home when the sprouts are sick and I have to be home with them. I have even work at home on some 50 prints over a weekend, so that they would be done on time to get a big account that we were bidding for. I take my job very seriously, and I also take my family very seriously as well. I always put in my 40 hours or more, and am still able to meet my sprouts needs and appointments as well. I loved it when we had a second shift working here, because I could come in at night a work for a bit as well. I usually did that once a week, but the work I could get done in a few hours was a lot. I was not interrupted by the other 5 plants wanting something, or customer service needing a print. I could just concentrate on the task at hand. No I did not have to do it, but I did because I wanted to. Most of that time I was designing a 3D catalog of the more than 400+ molds that we use on our parts for all the plants to have. Since we move molds around periodically, I thought the plants should know what the part is going to look like because they do not normally work with it. The catalog when complete is two 3" binders packed. Why did I do that? Because it needed to be done to help out our plants. We take pride in our quality here, and that was just another way to insure our quality. In the infamous letter he is reorganizing the quality department, and I am going to have to be training someone to do the prints that I do. Which is fine with me, I am not against the reorganization or the training. He has said that for about 2 years now. I am not holding my breath on the training. I do not care if I have another job and no one is trained for my job. When you state in a letter that I am unmotivated, and slow, and do not care, when you are never around or know exactly what I do do for your company. The gloves are off. You crossed a line that cannot be erased. My office is upstairs and he has set foot in my office maybe twice in a year, once a year to hand me somekind of christmas gift. He hardly ever comes upstairs to anyones office. I left once before for a year, and this company asked me if I would come back. I did and I got the terms that I wanted and they got the terms that they wanted, life was good. I have no problems leaving again. I just have a problem with busting my butt to get everything done in a day, and being treated badly at the same time. No one deserves that.

Identical Twins!

I am an identical twin. Mirror image twins as well. I am right handed and my twin is left handed. We both were glasses, because my right eye is slightly weaker than the left and her left is weaker than the right.

She lives two hours from me and we do talk daily, mostly through the computer. We have shown up at family gatherings wearing almost the same outfits. Neither of us knew what the other was wearing. This really annoys her more than me for some reason. If I knew what she was wearing anyways, I would probably wear the same thing just to annoy her, because I could. :) Depends on my mood. In high school, we both played basketball, and that was fun. One game the opposing teams coach called a time out on his home court, and walked to the middle of the floor and asked his team who had number 45, which was me, because I had just hit to jumpers with no one guarding me. Of course none of their players raised their hands. They did correct that situation. She has taken fouls for me during the game because the refs would look at the faces of the person that committed the foul (which usually was me) and then when they got to the scores table they would turn to get the number, but by then we would be standing side by side so they had to guess. Sometimes that came in handy. We always knew were each other was on the court, I could pass the ball off with out looking and knew she would be there to catch it. That was awesome.

Anyways, the reason for this post, I have often been asked, "Do you feel each others pain?" No, not really. We have gone through some of the same pains in life. But never have really felt each others pain. Yesterday and today, I have been fighting and headache/migraine. Ever since I have been on the high blood pressure meds, my migraines are very mild now. I am very glad for that now. I was taking about 4 excerine migraines at one time for them before. I know that is not good for you, but taking Vicodin is not a pleasant thing for me either, which I have had to do before as well. Anyways, I was chatting with my brother-in-law this morning online asking him if he needed a box of tissues, because he is an Ohio State fan. He said that my twin was home with a headache/migraine that was making her sick. I know how she feels, I have been there as well. Both of us having a headache on the same day, coincidence or not. That is as close as it gets for us having the same pain as the other.

A little tribute and a Big Thank You!

Today is my last meeting with my venting specialists. This person helped me immensely, in moving on after my divorce. Granted I was venting 9 months before I even filed for the divorce. I am sure she thought I was crazy not to file sooner, but that never came into play with her. She never suggested that once. She knew that was not an option for me at that time. Finally after asking all the right questions, and having seen all the signs that I need to see, I filed for the divorce. I remember the look on her face when I told her what I did. I don't think she ever expected me to do that, and that is OK. We worked out a lot of issues in the three years that I have had to vent. For that I am grateful and ready to move on now.

After doing some final cleaning out of things still left to go through from when I was married, I know it was not my fault and I did everything I possibly could. He actually left the marriage long before I knew there was a problem between us. But we just cannot know then what we know now. So we move on. My venting specialist is moving on as well. I have been fortunate enough to be able to go where she has moved to, but this time the distance is to great. I wish her all the best in her new pursuit of happiness. I think it is perfect timing for me right now. Things are going well for me, besides the legal issues I still have with the former spouse and hopefully those with come to a close by the end of the month for sure. I will be facilitating and divorce group at church starting this month or next for sure. I have more people in my life now, and that is not something that I cared about. I perfectly fine just being with the sprouts, but it is very nice to add more adults to my life. As much as I hate to have it all end, it is at a good time.

Thank you for all that you have done. I wish you all the best in your new adventures. I will always remember that "Yes, you are always right" no matter how annoying that was for me, it was the best for me.

THANKS!!!