PHR Exam

Today I took the PHR exam. The results..... I passed! The test is lots of scenario questions where you have to select the best answer and more than one of them could be correct. I tend to over think these type of questions so this test has stressed me out for months. Before I left the house, hubby gave me a good luck coin with an Irish blessing on it. When I got to the testing site I heard the person checking everyone in that you couldn't have any jewelry on, couldn't take anything in with you - not even car keys, and nothing in your pockets. Before it was my time to check in, I went to the bathroom and took the coin out of my pocket and put it in my bra (I figured they wouldn't look there). After safely tucking the good luck coin away, I went back out to check in and get a locker to put my keys and other items inside. The test went pretty well and I forced myself not over think anything and just went with my gut instinct. When I clicked the "end exam" button it seemed like an eternity before it came back saying I had passed the exam. I am so relieved to have this one behind me and I can focus on my masters.

IKEA

Today is primarily a study day for me. I have a test tomorrow and the first of 3 research papers due on Monday. After getting up and studying for about 5 hours, hubby and I went out to run a couple of errands. We went to Home Depot to get some caulk for around the house, then to Target to pick up mouthwash and a couple of other items. After that we decided to go eat and hubby felt like I needed a little more time away from the house to take my mind off of studying. While trying to figure out a place to go eat, we decided to take a trip to IKEA. After about 5 minutes in IKEA, hubby had accomplished his goal of getting my mind off of studying. Now I was focused on trying not to strangle all of the rude people in that store. We picked up a couple of items then headed back home so I can resume studying.

Time Flies

I can't believe I haven't posted since Thursday. Where does the time go? Okay, here is a quick recap of what I have been up to....

On Friday, we found out that one of hubby's Uncles passed away. He was the last of his father's siblings. He was 89 years old and passed peacefully at home. I also went to class in San Marcos which didn't end until 9:30pm. By the time I got home (I live about 80 miles from the school) it was almost 11pm and I was wiped out.

Saturday and Sunday were filled with the normal errands and around the house chores, but for some reason I never got on the computer.

Monday was back to work, but luckily I was able to work from home that day. On days that I work from home, I actually get twice as much done and I get to do it in my comfy clothes.

On Tuesday, I was back in the office and delivered annual reviews for 6 of my team members, plus got my own review. That took up the majority of the day and then I left work a little early to attend the Rosary for hubby's Uncle (well I suppose since we have been married for almost 22 years, he is my uncle too). Unfortunately, by the time we got there (it was completely across town on the tail end of rush hour traffic), the parking lot was full and they were turning people away. We tried parking on the streets in the neighborhood with no success, so we went to have dinner and then came back at the end of the Rosary to pay our respects. Come to find out, there were two Rosary's going on and both had large families which caused extreme crowding at the funeral home.

That brings me to today. We have the funeral services today and again they are across town. Since I am off work, I will use this morning to get some studying done for a test I have on Sunday and one of 3 research papers due on Monday. About midday we will head to the services and then hopefully back home before rush hour traffic hits again. Today is also my mother's birthday so I have to remember to call her this evening. Hopefully her cards reached her on time. I sent her one from "the kids" and then one from hubby and I. She has been feeling down about hitting #60, so hopefully the cards will cheer her up a little.

I Have Speed!

I am so excited, hubby installed more memory on my computer and it works so much faster. Before it would take a minimum of 30 seconds to open up a page on the Internet. Now, I realize that 30 seconds is pretty fast, but it seems like a lifetime when you are watching the screen. Now everything loads in less than 5 seconds and it only took him a couple of minutes to make the upgrade on my computer. Thanks hubby.

Really Tired

I woke up this morning extremely tired. I slept really hard last night. It was one of those sleeps where you feel like you just put your head down and then the alarm went off. I know I am tired from work. It has been super busy lately and the only way I am keeping my head even remotely above water is because I bring work home and hubby helps me. He makes a great secretary....I mean administrative assistant. Yesterday I spent literally all day in meetings or conference calls so that totally kills your chances of getting anything done. We are also down one team member whose baby arrived early and for some reason the approval to get our temp help is taking significantly longer that it should. We are going on 4 days now without help and we already run a very lean team. Okay, I am done rambling and venting. Now time to go get dressed and drop the dog off at the vet. Hopefully when I pick her up this afternoon she will be without a bandage/cast.

Breathalyzer

I was at Walgreen's today when I saw something that totally irritated me. In the car parked next to me was a young girl (maybe 12 or 13) with what appeared to be her grandmother. The grandmother made a move that caught my attention out of the corner of my eye, so I turned in time to see the young girl blowing in to the breathalyzer kit that was attached to the car. After the girl blew in the piece of equipment, the grandmother started the car and proceeded to pull out. I quickly grabbed my cell phone and made a report to the police. As I was headed back to work, I saw that the police had acted quickly and they had the car pulled over only a few miles away from the Walgreen's. It is absolutely crazy for the grandmother to put that young girl in that situation. And why wasn't that young girl in school?

Dog Grooming

I had no idea how much dog grooming was until I started calling around this morning. My sister-in-law told me she got her dog groomed at PetsMart for only $25. After calling around to several places, PetsMart included, the going rate was from $40-$45! That is a crazy price. I can buy a good set of clippers for that price and do it myself. Even if I buy one of the more expensive clippers it will pay for itself in a couple of uses. I know, it is the convenience of taking the dog to someone and letting them do it, but I just couldn't make myself pay someone that much to clip the hair from my Yorkie. So, today we went to Petco and purchased a set of clippers to do the job. Now I need to watch the video and become a pro.

Social Media

It seems like every where I turn lately I am hearing more about social media. In our quarterly regional meeting at work, even our corporate representative was saying how social media is gaining steam and our company is going to be setting up more sites. In fact, the guy sitting next to me in the meeting was on Twitter almost the whole meeting.

I have to admit, I am not on most of those social media sites. I am too concerned about my personal information being shared. I have had my social get used by someone trying to get welfare and I have had a credit number stolen, that is enough to make me extremely cautious. I am on Linked In and I have a page on My Space that I haven't accessed in almost a year. I am not on Twitter, Face Book, or any of the others and that is fine with me.

Being a Homeowner

I can't believe it has been almost a year since we purchased our home. All in all being a homeowner hasn't been as scary as I imagined. Since we purchased a new home, we had a one year warranty on everything and during this year we made sure that we asked them to repair anything that was wrong. Today we had an inspector come out and do an inspection so we can report anything he finds before our warranty officially runs out. It was nice to hear him say that he really didn't find anything big. He was very thorough - he even checked the over temperature to make sure it was calibrated properly. With the first year almost behind us, I am glad we finally took the leap and purchased a home.

Poor Baby

My little one had her surgery yesterday and has a full length bandage/soft cast from the tip of her toe to her armpit. She is not feeling very good this morning and only wants to be held. She just lays in my arms and whimpers. She can have more meds this afternoon, so we will just have to baby her until then. Doing my morning activities with only one hand was a little harder than I expected, but I will do what I must for my baby.

Final Surgery for Abbie

Today I take Abbie in for her 3rd and final surgery due to her broken leg. Today they will take xrays and as long as everything looks good they will remove the plate and remaining screws. This happened on 6/12/09, so it has been almost 7 months to the day from her first surgery. I never want to go through this again. It has been both expensive and exhausting for her and us.

She saw me pull out the cone last night and didn't look too pleased. She went to lay and watch TV with her daddy and didn't want to be bothered. I know she hates wearing that thing, but it is he only way to keep her from licking at her stitches. I don't know what kind of restrictions to expect this time, but hopefully they won't be too bad.

Heartburn

I love to eat and that is no doubt what has lead to my additional curves. Unfortunately, food hasn't loved me back lately. I find that almost everything I eat gives me heartburn. Even things that normally would not bother me. So, I tried making sure I am eating small portions. Still no success. Daily I was still reaching for the Pepcid. I even made a trip to the doctor for some prescription strength antacid. Now, I have started substituting some veggie and soy products to see if that would help. The products taste pretty good, so I am hopeful.

Mama's Boy

Here is a recent picture of my little mama's boy, Nash. He will be 6 months old this month and has a ton of energy and attitude, but loves to snuggle too.

Where does the time go?

This week is flying by. I can't believe today is already Thursday. Work has been a total zoo; it is like people have gone in to overdrive after the holidays. I have had to bring work home every day this week just to keep from feeling like I am drowning. I am so ready for the weekend.

What's for Dinner?

I was talking on the phone with my mother and trying to decide what to make for dinner when my doorbell rang. It was my sister-in-law with a hot casserole dish. She brought us some homemade chicken and dumplings. Now, my dinner problem is solved. Thanks Sis!!

Menudo Recipe

Before my mother-in-law passed, she invited me over one day and showed me her menudo recipe. It took all morning to make, probably because I was slowing her down asking so many questions. I painstakingly wrote down everything she did and described how much of each ingredient she used (she didn't measure anything). It was a great day and I was so proud of that recipe because she never shared it with anyone else, not even her own daughters. After writing it down, I came home and put it away where it would be safe.

I bet you can guess what I am going to say next..... That recipe is tucked away so safely that I cannot find it anywhere. We have been looking for that recipe on and off now for over a year. I know exactly what the little notebook I wrote it in looks like, but for the life of me I can't find it anywhere. Since she never showed any of my sister-in-laws, I can't ask them to share the recipe. I need to find that recipe or the family menudo recipe is lost forever.

Have you ever tucked something away in such a safe place that even you can't find it anymore?

A New Look

I decided to start the new year with a new look. I got really frustrated with a strand of my hair, so out came the scissors and off went the piece of hair. Unfortunately, that hair was up front in the middle of my forehead. Since I had already made the first cut, I decided to go and get all of it cut and start the new year with a new look. My hair was just below the collar line and now it is really short. The longest pieces are on top and they are about 3 inches long. Tomorrow, I am going to add some auburn color to my hair and start 2010 as a new person!

Happy New Year

The year 2009 is officially gone and it was a year of ups and downs for us.

Here are a few of the "ups" for 2009:

• We purchased our first home. Purchasing a home was a huge step for us. We have been married over 20 years and always lived in an apartment, but decided it was time to take the next step. The home buying process was not easy, but we made it through and love our home.
• This was the year that hubby defied the odds with his hearing. When he was diagnosed as going deaf 2 years ago, they told him he would completely lose his ability to hear within 2 years. Thankfully he still has a portion of his hearing.
• I got a promotion at work and made it through 4 rounds of downsizing with our company.
• Hubby hit the 100 pound mark on his weight loss and looks fantastic. He weighs less now than when we met 22 years ago!
• I resumed working on my master's degree and am proudly hanging on to a 4.0 GPA.
• We added Nash to our family. He is a Yorkie that is 3 pounds of pure attitude and most definitely a mama's boy.
• We ended the year by seeing TSO in concert and spending News Years Eve with a great group of friends.

Unfortunately during 2009 we also had some curve balls tossed our way.

• Abbie, our 6 year old Rat Terrier, broke her leg in June which required 3 surgeries to repair (the last one will happen in January). That was an tremendous expense we were not expecting, but have found a way to make it work.
• After several months of extreme pain in my knees, we learned that I have advanced arthritis (thankfully just osteoarthritis) which is affecting the knees and will begin to affect the back at some point.
• We learned that hubby has Meniere's Disease. This was totally unexpected and actually been out biggest curve ball for the year.

Although we tend to remember the bad more than the good, when I look at our list, we really did have more ups than downs. I am looking forward to 2010 and hope that we can continue to have more ups than downs.

I hope everyone has a prosperous and happy 2010. Happy New Year!