Thanksgiving

We are going to spend Thanksgiving Day with Eileen and Shaun.  The last time we got to spend any time with them was the beginning of September.  Between my job and Eileen's two jobs and Shaun's job and his classes, our days off never once aligned up.  Woohooo for spending time with them.  Eileen told me last night she thinks she is forgettting something big for dinner... I told her that I didnt care if we were eating tomato soup for Turkey day dinner... it wouldnt matter as long as we could all be together.

Today, I work at Walmart from 12:30 to 8:30pm... then go home and sleep.  We head to Eileen's early tomorrow, then we will come home and I will go to bed so I can be rested for my Midnight to 9 am shift.  It is going to be very interesting. 

We are in the midst of our second snow storm of the winter... sure we have had a few mornings where we woke up to a thin layer of the white stuff on the ground but this is the second storm where snow plows were required.  Its soon to be followed with freezing rain and nasty guck like that.  The poor husband has been drafted into driving me to work lol... ostensibly to purchase the last few items we need for tomorrow so that I can come straight home from work as opposed to shopping after work... but its really so that I dont have to drive in this stuff.  I havent gotten my "winter storm legs" yet.

The baby blanket for Sarah's little boy is coming along.  I work at it here and there.   Took the picture with my cell phone... will try to get a better one once i find my camera.  =)  Its a little misleading in this picture.  The yarn is a variegated yarn with white, pale blue, darker blue, and purple in it.  Its very soft to the touch, Jericho is going to love it (I hope).  I can't wait to get it finished. 

Heh... this has been rather disjointed update, but at least its posted lol...

Hope you have a wonderful Turkey day surrounded by loved ones.  

*hugs*
Reg

A Foggy Morning

Its foggy here this morning, and my mind feels all foggy as well.  I didnt sleep well last night, kept waking up thinking of things that were worrying me or because I thought I heard something, and on top of that my allergies are acting up.  I tried to go back to bed, but laying there, attempting to fall asleep has done nothing but give me a headache lol... and yes i realize i am being rather whiney.

The husband went to visit his family last Saturday and  told me he had a long talk with his younger sister.  They have decided to not exchange gifts with everyone this year but to in fact only buy gifts for the kids.  While this is something I am heartily in favor of (my sister and I have been exchanging Christmas ornaments for many many years now instead of gifts and only buying for the children) it makes me a bit sad.  I don't know why, it just does. Perhaps its more that I feel like i have lost touch with his family with my job.  I work every weekend and that is typically when we would see them.  Haven't talked to any of them in a long time and I miss them. Guess I need to work on fixing that.

This morning Maddy woke us up with the news that the dryer isnt working... so we need to call the landlords (in florida) and get it looked at.  We live out in the middle of no where... I have no clue where the nearest laundromat is.  Sheesh...

I need the sun to come out and burn this fog away...

... And it's November!

Time sure flies when you are having fun!  *grins*

I have been getting between 32 and 34 hours a week at work and I am really getting into the swing of the job.  One of the CSMs told me last night that everyone has nothing but nice things to say about me... so that was good to hear.  I will have my 3 month performance review the first week of December and also my discount card.  That will be nice!!  Things have been getting busier and crazier at work as the holidays approach.  The weekend before Halloween everything was orange and black... costumes and scary themed food and candy.  I worked Halloween night and it was really dead.  I had a day off and when I came in next there were Christmas decorations up, Christmas trees in the entrys and Christmas music playing.  I felt a bit disoriented lol.

My niece, who got married in August, is pregnant.  Well technically, she was pregnant at the wedding, but it was early on yet and very few people knew.  She now has a baby belly... although its a little one and she finds out on Wednesday what the gender of the baby is.  I keep reminding her that not all babies want to share that info right off... but she is confident her child will behave and show the appropriate bits hehe.  Boy does she have a lot to learn about being a parent lmao... i cant wait to see it all unfold.  I hope her child is as much a joy and handful as Miss Sarah was for her parents.  I am trying to figure out what to make for this little one.  My sister is making the traditional (well in our family) cross-stitch blanket.  My eldest has stated she is making a quilt, so either i make some clothes for the child or knit something.  I may just go ahead and make a quilt too... a baby cant have too many quilts, but we will see.  I found a very cute pattern for a knit hat... it resembles a small berry, pattern can be found on Ravelry here.  Also found a pattern for a little knit blanket with a waffle pattern that looks adorable.  I think I will wait till we know on Wednesday (or dont know for that matter) before i finalize my plans. 


Paul and I had a long talk yesterday... he told me he fully intends to take the new job in Jan.  Its going to be very hard for the family to adjust but its going to be a good thing.  The pay is wonderful for this area, we will have medical insurance for the first time in a very long time... 401k, etc... and the town this business is in has a wonderful highschool.  Its actually a private boarding school but families that live in the town get to send their high school kids there.  Maddy will have the opportunity to get a fantastic education which will only benefit her in the future... and its half way between my sisters town and the town my eldest daughter lives in.  I just found out today that the library there is a Carnegie library.  That's exciting!  They also have an Egg festival in July... a week long festival of egg stuff.  >.>  hehe.  It will be nice to be part of a town again.

I guess thats it for now... i will try to post pictures of the projects I am thinking about doing for the baby.

*hugs*
Reg

Whoa... It's October already?

Hah... been some time since I posted, life has been a bit crazy.

Training went well, had about 3 days with my sponsor before I was set free.  I made sure that the CSMs up front knew I was a bit nervous being alone, so for the rest of my first week and all of my second, I was put at a register near a more experienced cashier.  It went very well.  I have been getting an average of 32-34 hours a week and they have mostly been afternoon into late evening shifts.

About 2 - 3 weeks after I started at Walmart, the husband went into work and left unemployed.  He was laid off with a bunch of his other co-workers.  They are all considered displaced workers as their jobs went to a company in Canada. As such he has additional unemployment benefits such as training etc.  Its been such an odd transition... He was the breadwinner and i the stay at home parent... and now its completely reversed.  He has a good job prospect about an hour north of us but that position doesn't start till Jan 3.  In the meantime he is enrolled in a program to help Maine workers start up businesses etc.  When he was laid off the last time (2008) he was in this program then as well. We are both hoping it will take off this time, he has a lot of great ideas.  We are just taking things a day at a time at this point, its all you can really do in these situations. 

I need to start getting my Christmas projects done, I know what I am making for a few people, need to figure out the rest of it soon.

I will try to remember to post every so often ... especially when the holiday projects start flowing.

*hugs*
Regi

Update...

Well lots of stuff has been happening around the old homestead.

I finished up my "orientation" to my job and moved on to the actual cashiering part.  Oh my gosh there is so much to remember, so many steps to making the process flow smoothly.  Codes to remember for fruits and veggies, procedures to follow for dealing with food stamps and wic, processes to go through for filling and selling phone cards, checks are used differently now... i was so surprised.  Anyways I have been on the registers for 4 days now, 2 days by myself.  I am still having to ask for help from the nearby cashiers but its happening less and less.  Had my first unhappy customer today and I just gritted my teeth, smiled and wished her a "pleasant day" all the while wishing her to the deepest parts of Hades.  One wicked weird thing happened... im still a bit in shock over it.  When my family moved here to Maine back in 1975 or 1976, the first girl I met was named Wanda.  We became very good friends during Junior and Senior High.  We lost touch after I went to college, I invited her and her mom to my wedding but they were unable to attend.  Over the years I have attempted to find her.  I even joined that classmates site just to see if she was registered there, as well as the Facebook group for our class.  I haven't been able to find her in any phone book or by asking ppl who live in our old hometown.  Today I was working the register and a couple came up.  I check them through when the woman said Regina?  I looked at her and smiled, lots of ppl say the cashiers name so I didn't think anything of it.  She looked at me and said " Do you remember me?" I looked again and saw my best friend from when we were children.  "Wanda?" I said... I was so surprised.  Come to find out she lives not 15 mins from me.  Unfortunately she doesn't use Facebook and I didn't catch her married name.  Hopefully she will come to the store again.  How amazing is life at times.

Another thing that happened this week was an unfortunate run in with a case of water... in trying to help a customer I hurt my back and its had an impact on the week for sure.

And the last huge thing that happened was that my husband was laid off on Wednesday.  All the management team was notified that there would be another round of lay offs in September.  He has spent the last two weeks helping to choose who would stay and who would go among the hourly employees.  I would see him come home all tired and just discouraged.  He hated helping to make those decisions but it had to be done.  On Tuesday some important customers came in and he dressed up for his meetings with them, but when I asked him about it that night, he said he hadn't gotten to meet with them at all.  Then bright and early the next day he was informed that they had to cut several people from management and he was unfortunately one of the ones to have to go.  *sigh* I am just flabbergasted at this... he had been told that his job was safe... he has taken not only a pay cut to help keep the company up and running but never got his initial raise that was promised to him in his employment contract from 3 years ago.  Because his job is being lost to Canada, he and the other employees are considered displaced employees and they have additional benefits under state or federal guidelines... but that doesn't help right now.  I am really discouraged and just plain tired.

When you come to the end of your rope, 
tie a knot and hang on.  
~Franklin D. Roosevelt

New Job!!

I started my new job today.  I 'm training to be a Walmart cashier. When we were introducing ourselves to other employees they would ask the group of us what positions we were going to be in.  They would nod and nod when someone said backend... assembler... but when the other woman and I said Cashier (or in her case Customer service desk) they would almost cheer.  One of them looked at me sadly and said... it will be ok.  Im totally not sure how to take that.  At one point I heard two people talking about how they were wicked short on cashiers... that they needed to hire 6 new ones and then some left.  I am a bit nervous but I know it will be ok. I am definitely not going into this blind... I had a choice between being a cashier and working the jewelry counter... and I think i got the better end of the deal.  *smiles* I have worked a register at a fast food restaurant, a bookstore, a clothing store and a department store... sure payment methods may have changed a bit over time but customers haven't.  You will always get the happy ones, the stressed ones... the angry ones and its important to take each one individually.  Dont let one unhappy customer ruin your whole day and make it a priority to send each customer off with a smile if you can.  Its like a game I play... can i make that person smile before they walk out the door.    

Anyways... this week is all about learning store policies, getting to know where things are and training via the computer.  Then for the two weeks following that, I will be training with my sponsor, that is a person who does the job I am training for and who will teach me what they know.  After that I will start settling into my schedule (while I am with my sponsor I will be working their shifts with them).

I am tired tonight...but its a good tired.  =D