01.29.09
I’m stuck
Lately Mister has been suggestingI start looking for work, to get a jump start on the job hunt because so many are now unemployed and my severance will end in March. Oh yeah and I haven’t been approved/began receiving any unemployment benefits yet, either. I understand his concern. However, when I do look at HR jobs that are posted I don’t feel I’m qualified for them, yet. I mean, I just finished my sixth class, out of fifteen, so I’m not even half way through with school or even close to my certificate yet, you know? So how can I apply for a job that I’m not fully trained for? I don’t feel that’s very honest, nor responsible. Would you hire someone who says I don’t know how to do payroll yet but I should know it by end of March. Can I still have the job today, in January??? I don’t know. Should I look for a part time job at Starbucks or something instead? But I’d think those jobs would be the most sought after and not the HR positions he wants me to start applying for.
Then there’s the whole staying home with my kids thing. I’ve never had this opportunity and I doubt I ever will again (well unless Mister finally wins the Lotto but even then his ass says I still have to work! lol) so part of me wants to take as much time to be here for them as I can because this has really been a great time for the three of us. And now I’m also watching my three month old nephew and that’s an added joy. I don’t know.
We’ve got our joint savings and I also have my own savings so its not like the week after severance ends we’re going to be living with my parents, we’re ok. I’m also banking the babysitting money my sister is paying me and I expect my unemployment to begin within the next week or so and that’ll also go in the bank.
And finally when I think of looking for a job I think I have nothing to wear to an interview or a job! Since last fall I’ve lost 25 lbs so I’ve cleaned out my closet of my work clothes that no longer fit me and replaced them with fitted t-shirts and jeans. I don’t want to go out & buy all new work clothes and have them not fit me in two months. I’d rather get as close to my weight loss goal by March and then go out and shop. I don’t know.
I don’t know, I feel like I’m stuck right now and not sure what to do. My sister just told me to be careful with my money and stay home with the kids til I’m done with school and hit the temp agencies as soon as I’ve completed my last class. That’s my plan as of now but I think Mister is doubtful of it and I feel pressured. Oh man uncertainty sucks.
01.26.09
Changes & committments
When I turned 35, last summer, I vowed to myself that it would be the year I got hold of my finances and made a difference. Maybe I felt this lay off coming, deep down, and knew it was time to make changes. But since my vow I’ve done pretty good at knocking out a bunch of little silly debts and now I’m working on the larger ones. Although it sucks putting out big bucks for stuff like paying taxes and buying new tires its still a great feeling to get on track with these responsibilities and get them out of the way.
As far as committments go today I gave my trainer a check to pay for four months of private training so I can get farther on my weight loss journey. And I’ve got to say this has been the best money I’ve spent on myself in a very long time.
Another commitment I’ve made, recently, has been back to my faith. The girls and I have began going to church on Sunday morning. We go to 8am mass and I’ve got to say I really have missed church. My parents use to make me go when I was younger and I hated it, but now its something I actually look forward to. The Snitch gets a little bored, but hey she’s only six years old so I don’t blame her. Drama Queen, on the other hand, really enjoys mass and tries her hardest to keep up with the service. Drama Queen has been asking questions about religion and church for the last few months so I think that’s why she’s so into it now. And that’s a good thing, too, because she’s of the age where its almost time for her to begin her sacraments. I need to call the church office and get info on CCD (a Saturday class attend by kids for a few years to prepare for accepting Catholic sacraments) to get Drama Queen enrolled for this summer, The Snitch still has a few years before she has to go.
So even though my life appears boring, to me, on the day to day basis I feel pretty darn good about the changes I’ve been making.
01.21.09
Well there just may be hope for me afterall!
Hey all (hello? anyone still there? lol) its been awhile (it seems) since my last blog post but there’s not much to report. Still out of work, still going to school, hanging out with my family, just took on part time day care of my 3 month old nephew and working out w/my trainer 3-5 days a week. Same thing, different week is all.
Well school is going great, got a new instructor this time and come to find out he’s the one who actually developed the HR training program for the college so you know he’s passionate about his teaching. Thankfully he’s super nice, has TONS of different job/life experiences and shares them, very animatedly, with us so class time just flies by! I have ten more week/classes and I’ll be done and ready to look for work again. I didn’t think I’d ever say this but I’ll be glad to get back to work because I’m getting a little bored at home now that the kids are back in school and the holidays are gone. But I’m not ready to take a part time job because I still do school run around and now babysitting, so I’ll wait til I’m done with class and hit the pavement running.
Last night, in class, I learned something that just brightened up my day and gave me a more positive outlook on the upcoming job search. One of the reasons I stayed so long (9 years) at my previous company is because of my fear with my past criminal record. I had a few misdemeanors in my early 20’s and ended up with a couple of 30 day jail stints plus lots of probation. I’ve been afraid to look for a new job because I wasn’t sure how that would effect me, you know? But last night I just found out that our wonderful state of California has a seven year cap on criminal records. Yes! And for things like misdemeanors I don’t necessarily have to even list them because they are now irrelevant! I haven’t been in trouble in about 12′ish years so I’m in the clear. I was really worried about this, especially since I’ll be going into an HR field but now I’m feeling much better about the future.
Like I said, there just may be hope for me in this new career path after all. So how are you? What’s new?
01.14.09
Stupid dog!
Mister and I headed to bed about 11pm last night and I was wearing shorts all day right up to a minute before getting into bed which I then grabbed my favorite pink pajama bottoms, which got knocked down to the floor when my girls were watching tv in my room last night.
About 4am I went to adjust my pj’s because they had twisted in the blanket and felt a hole in them. I was like WTF? but just went right back to sleep. It wasn’t until 5:15 when my alarm went off and I went to pee that I realized what the hole was, my stupid dog had chewed just about the ENTIRE crotch out of my pj’s last night! Needless to say I was mad but what could I do? Yesterday she chewed up the back cover to one of the girls books that got kicked under the bed who knows when. And later she threw that up. Well a little bit ago Mister was leaving to work and stopped in his tracks to look down and say WTF is THAT? I look down to see a big yucky clump of dog regurgitation and said Oh its probably the crotch to my pajama pants! lol Oh and she eats decrotive pillows, too! I find cotton stuffing ALL OVER the living room if she’s been left too long unattended. Yeah my six month old four legged girl is JUST like having a toddler in the house at times.
Stupid dog. I hope she knows now that pants and books are off the menu.
01.11.09
Photo’s, compliments of Cece
I met up with a middle school BFF on Facebook and she posted some old photo’s, which prompted me to bring a step ladder to the closet and dig out the few I have. I scanned and posted them for your viewing (and laughing) pleasure. Please, be kind. Remember I was a child of the 80’s. 
This is me at aprox. age 5-6 years old. Mister had the nerves to say our girls look just like him, I think he was smoking crack that day.
This is my mom and I when I was about 7 years old. Remember those people who’d go door to door selling photo sessions? Yeah this was one of them.
I’ve always been close to my dad and I can see our connection started when I was a child. Here is a Don’t mess with me or you’ll mess with my dad, too, picture. I guess this is when the bad ass in me surfaced. You think?
This was taken when I was in JR HS, I think I was about 14′ish. Um, what’s with the purple eyeshadow??
I share my birth date with Disneyland and my parents use to take me for my birthday. This was taken on my 14th and on Main Street they would have people shoot confetti from big blowers on the top of the roofs to celebrate.
Um, this is about 1994, I have NO idea what’s up with that eye. I’ve got a lazy but c’mon that’s bad!
I was not only 9 months pregnant with The Snitch here but also in labor buying a new car that day too!
And me just last week, my how times have changed.
01.08.09
Just because I’m a mom doesn’t mean I can’t be pretty
I’ve been working for a long time and been a mom my whole adult life, it seems. So last year when I got laid off I was left with a sense of I don’t know what to do with myself, you know? Eventually I fell into a routine of kids and house, then added school and working out. But I made sure that no matter what I did with my hours I still showered and put myself together. Some may think make up, hair and perfume is a waste of costly cosmetics for a SAHM, but not me. Its a part of who I am and something I won’t change.
Mister and I are going on twelve years together, this year, and in those years I can probably count how many times he’s seen me spend a day not fixed up (the birth of our first child, not the birth of #2 b/c I made sure I had make up w/me at the hospital, a couple of flu’s and a major birthday hangover or two over the years).
Now that I’m home I still get up in the 5′oclock hour to enjoy cofee, quietly, and check email before the kids get up and off to school. I clean, cook, do laundry and still shower then put myself together because my mom taught me You never know. That means You never know if he’s going to say Hey, lets go grab lunch or a movie before the kids get home. Or You never know if someone will stop by unexpectedly. You just never know.
I’m happy to say that those rare occasions I don’t do hair and make up my family will ask me if I feel alright because its something they’re just not use to. And its ok with me!
Today, for example, Mister went to work at 6am so I got up as he was leaving, I drank coffee, surfed the ‘net then started house cleaning. I did ALL our laundry yesterday and when I was done cleaning floors, by 9am, I got dressed and hit the treadmill for 2 miles, showered and put myself together. Then proceeded to start dinner. After that it was dusting and vaccuming the living room, and guess what? Five minutes later Mister drove up to clean kids, house, wife dinner done and we popped open a bottle of wine and relaxed, after I dropped the kids off at their friends house for a few hours.
So just because I stay home with my kids doesn’t give me the pass to look like a stinkin’ slob. I feel better about myself and I can see Mister is a happy camper, too. This is me, who I’ve always been but I just know that because I’m home and have more time on my hands doesn’t mean its ok to be a slob, just because I’m married.
01.07.09
I swear I live among idiots
Because we live in the ghetto its not uncommon to see a burnt Christmas tree stump, or three, littered on the side of the street because the idiots on my block think its funny to set the dried, disregarded trees on fire and watch them burn. Nice. Usually these fools drag them, still standing, into the middle of the street and light them up then run. But some genius decided to burn a tree that didn’t have a stand so what is an idiot to do? They leaned the tree against a short brick wall, which encloses our trash bin, and lit the tree. Um, this short brick wall is also attached to our front neighbors garage which is attached to their HOUSE! Luckily the tree was short and the fire didn’t get out of hand but their grass is black along with the short brick wall.
Um it never occured to them that lighting a dry tree on fire, on grass, in front of a house isn’t possibly the safest thing to do. *shaking my head* I swear, the people of the ghetto are idiots.
