Manatees – we all know them to be these huge, gorgeous, graceful, serene, peaceful, gentle creatures right? That said – have you ever smelled one of their farts???? OH MY GAWD!!!!! Sean, the kids and I went to the Lowry Park Zoo this past Saturday and had a great time. We got to the manatees and watched them swimming around and eating their heads of lettuce. (At this zoo you stand on a platform about 6 feet above the pond that they swim in so you can look below and see them.)

So we’re all standing there (and it’s just the 5 of us at this time) and there are 2 manatees swimming about 4 feet away from us, eating the lettuce and swimming toward the top of the water. At one point I notice ALOT of bubbles coming from underneath one of the manatees. So we all giggle since we know bubbles in the water usually means someone has gas! WELL – this manatee definitely had gas and the smell was HORRIBLE!!!!!! I guess when your diet consists of raw veggies like that it’s going to smell something fierce. It was so bad I started gagging (while laughing of course at the same time). And then wouldn’t you know it – another family comes walking up right at that moment (and this was right before we realized what the smell was) and my oldest says out loud “Mommy, did you fart?” NICE!!!!!!! So I’m sitting here laughing and gagging while trying to defend myself all at the same time – it was quite a sight! (And quite a smell – one that remained in my nose all that day!!!)

So word to the wise – if you are watching manatees and happen to see bubbles – RUN!!!!!!

I’ve been (ever so) slowly trying to declutter this house and I’m finding that I’m missing the full basement that we used to have in our house in New Jersey! There is just no room/storage in this house (all 1400 square feet of it). It’s just too small for the 5 of us plus a dog. Granted, our house in New Jersey was only 1000 square feet (so it was smaller then this one) BUT we had another 1000 square feet below us because of our full basement! It was awesome. It was so big the kids literally used to tide their bikes down there. We had room for storage plus some. Granted we did have to use a basement dehumidifier because, well…it had that basement smell. But it was HUGE! Had we stayed there we were planning on finishing the basement and making a room for storage, a laundry room, a playroom for the kids and then maybe even a game room. I REALLY miss this basement (not so much the house – except for the front porch of course!)

I am so psyched! I can’t believe our 5 weeks of training end tonight! I’ve had such a fun time in this training class and have met some great people! So glad I’ll be working with them! Have even set up tentative plans for some lunches with some of them. And tonight, I’ll be able to put voices/names with faces! (We’ve been training from home for the past 5 weeks via computer.)

I can’t say enough how much I love this job. I have so much fun every night helping others shop! Of course you get the nasty person every once in a while but I find if I start off with an audible smile and a happy tone to my voice that 9 times out of 10 the other person can’t help but catch on! Might sound corny but it works!

Tonight we all meet back up at the campus for our “graduation” where they’re serving pizza (YUM – craving melted cheese) and we’ll get to tour the campus (the studio where the filming takes place and the call center, etc. Hoping Emeril is there tonight – don’t think so though). I’m so excited to finally be done – even though training was alot of fun. Our trainers were/are awesome. I’m sad we won’t be talking with them every night. BUT, I am excited to go to the next level and be on my own and have my own schedule. Which, by the way my schedule for next week is great! I have tomorrow night off (which will be my last Saturday off for a while just because of that low man on the totem pole thing) and then my week starts Sunday night. Sunday night is my longest shift of the week 7pm-1am. I’m off Tuesday and Thursday and then have 3 hour shifts the other days ranging from 7pm-10pm or 10pm-1am. Then the following week I have Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday off! What’s cool too is since we’re part time we can only work up to 29 hours (unless over time is approved) so if I’m only scheduled for say 18 hours, there’s a place I can go (like a message board of sorts) to pick up any hours that others want to give up. I might just pick up a few day hours – going to give it a few weeks first before doing that though. Wanna get into a groove first!

Happy Graduation to us!!!!!!!!!

Now that I have a new job my need to shop is growing! We get an awesome discount, as employees, on all the items we sell and can even shop at our discounted warehouses (and from what I hear find some great things for cheap!). I haven’t yet had the chance to shop though – money is a bit tight and until we can get out from under…..well….my jeans with the holes in the knees will have to do. Ok, so it’s not THAT bad, but we have resorted to eating soups, PB&J sandwiches and the likes – so it’s a bit bad. So I’m trying to push all of the great deals I can get with my company or the Cyber Monday deals or an sales that I hear of. Just can’t do it right now.

It will get better though! I just keep asking myself if what I want is a *need* or a *want* and if it’s the latter it’s not getting bought!

I woke up yesterday, just like I have in the past craving buffalo chicken dip!And of course, since I haven’t done a full grocery shopping trip in over a week – I don’t have all of the ingredients needed to make it. Plus, who wants to wait 5 hours while it cooks in the crock-pot? I wanted it right then and there! So I made a “quick fix”. I used some cream cheese, some ranch dressing, some shredded cheddar cheese and some of Franks Red Hot Sauce, (eye balled all of that of course), mixed it all together and through it in the microwave and voila – craving satisfied! I do have to admit it doesn’t taste the same without the chicken in it. And for some reason I keep thinking it’s missing something else but I think it’s just the brand of Ranch dressing I was using – HAVE to use the Hidden Valley Ranch brand – nothing else comes close!

Guess what I had for breakfast this morning – leftovers of the dip I made yesterday! YUMMY!

which involves some things around the house and other things about life in general.

1. We just got a letter from our HOA saying we need to clean and repaint our eaves on the outside of our house. Eaves? What the hell are eaves? And it’s too cold right now to paint. What do they expect? One weekend Sean will go up on the ladder and clean them with part water/part bleach. There ya go – done!

2. Redo the garage now that my old dollhouse is out of there. Redo and declutter!

3. Find a life insurance policy 1st for Sean and then for me. We do have a little one through his work, but we need more.

4. Get our wills made up (including living wills).

5. Some day get rid of the carpet in the dining room – why oh why do people put carpet down where you’re going to eat? STUPIDO!

6. Some day also get rid of foul white linoleum in the kitchen. What was with the lady of this house that had it built and getting everything WHITE???? And she had kids to boot. Do not get it!

7. Make plans with our BFF’s up in New Jersey for this summer. We WILL see you!

8. Figure out where to go for soccer for the kids next season. Not sure if we’re staying with this club or going somewhere else. Time will tell.

I know there’s more I could add to this list, just can’t think of it off the top of my head right now.

Happy 8th birthday to my “bubsy”! My baby! The one who wakes up with a huge smile on his face everyday and runs and gives me a hug everyday when he gets off the bus. You bring so much joy into my life!!!! I love you sweetheart!!!

I feel like now that I have a job I can actually say that and mean it. LOL Although once my training is over I’ll no longer be working Monday through Friday – I’ll be all over the week.

So yesterday I did nothing all day. And I so needed it. As I said in a previous post I was feeling a little down. Between no sleep, Aunt Flo coming for a visit and missing my kids I was a bit depressed. And what I found (after reading the AWESOME book Tuesdays With Morrie by Mitch Albom) was that I wasn’t letting myself feel emotions that I knew I should be – I kept pushing them down, thinking to myself I had no right to feel that way. And normally I’m one to feel an emotion to the top and in full force and then let it go. But since working this new job I’ve been making myself feel guilty for things like missing the kids bedtimes (which I still at some point get to at least kiss them goodnight. It’s not like our usual 10-15 minutes with each kid, but at least I get that much). Then I kept telling myself before every shift “I don’t think I can do this”. That didn’t help. I was more afraid of getting the bad calls – the ones with the nasty people. And since I’ve been taking live calls every night since last Thursday I’ve only had maybe 2. So I told myself to stop worrying and just have fun. When that call does happen, and I’m sure it will again, deal with it then.

Yesterday was a day for me to mourn in a sense. Not sure if that does make sense to anyone but myself, but it was a day I needed. I literally lay in bed all day reading. I did get up for about an hour, make some banana bread and do some laundry. But for the most part I read the entire book Tuesdays with Morrie. And it was the perfect book for me to read at this time in my life. I’ll go into more detail in another post another time, but I highly recommend this book. Warning – you will need a box of tissues next to you while reading it.

And here’s my thankful for 5 for the week:

1. Being able to talk to my best friends (near or far) about anything and everything. And I talked to them this week which put a smile on my face. Love you gals!!!!! (and you know who you are!)

2. Knowing that even though my bedtime routine with the kids is changing, on the nights that I don’t work we will make them even more special now.

3. My hubby – who supports me through anything and everything and puts up with my bi-polar mood swings!!!

4. My kids who I just adore and put a smile on my face each and every day. I am so proud of them!!!!

5. All kids progress reports came home with flying colors and awards: Tristan can now apply to be in the National Junior Honors Society because his grades are so good; Caelie has her Odyssey of the Mind competition for school tomorrow and has also had her science project chosen to move onto the next round (whatever that may be); and Kieran not only turns 8 tomorrow (which I just realized could also be why I’m so weepy) but was also chosen as Citizen of the Month!!!

I’m glad that after 2 weeks of basically crying everyday I can still find the positive in everything! (And I knew a full moon was upon us – I just knew. If the moon can affect the oceans and the seas and the rivers with it’s pull, you know it HAS to affect us as human beings considering we’re made up mostly of water!!!! I can always tell when it’s going to be a full moon – I feel off.) (Maybe I should start howling-LOL)

I think in the past 2 weeks alone (being week 3 and 4 on my new job) I’ve probably lost 5-6 pounds! I haven’t weighed myself yet – I’m not one to get on the scale everyday. I can tell by the way my clothes fit and that’s fine for me. But my clothes are now alot bigger and my tummy is alot flatter. I just haven’t been eating much. I was worried with working the late shift 6pm-11pm (or 7pm-1am when I start after training) that on my breaks or in between calls (if there’s time) that I’d pig out but I’m just not hungry. A few days I even forgot to eat dinner before so never did. It’s tough with the kids getting home from school at 4, making sure homework is done and then their fed and ready to go to soccer or tennis at 5:30. Then I have to work at 6 – so I forget. I haven’t started back up working out – hoping to next week or the week after. It’s been hard getting into this work groove – my mind’s been so preoccupied. So I don’t think I’m going to need diet pills such as quick trim to help me lose weight. This new job is helping me out greatly doing just that! Love it!

I’m feeling so sleep deprived lately and am PMS’ing something fierce yesterday and today! All last week and now this week I’ve cried at the drop of a hat – I was watching the old movie Congo the other day and just started crying. WTH???? I’m so emotional and I know it’s a combo of my new job, my lack of sleep and my period kicking my butt!

I’m feeling so guilty about my new job and it taking me away from my kids at night. Granted all I’m missing is basically their soccer/tennis practices – but I’m also missing out on our long bedtime talks. I used to take 10-15 minutes each night with each kid to talk. And now I’m lucky if I even get to say goodnight before they go to sleep. It’s killing me! Then last night Sean and Tristan went to watch the USA vs. El Salvador soccer game and I had to work so my younger two had to put themselves to bed! It gave me such a knot in my stomach! I cried my entire shift almost. I did have a break from 9-9:20 so I ran into them then and luckily they were still awake. I know it’s affecting my little guy and it just breaks my heart. He keeps saying “mommy, I miss you!”

Mondays I don’t even get to see Caelie – only for a little in the morning before she leaves for school. This is because she stays at school until 5:30 for a school function every Monday. Sean then picks her up there and they then all go straight to Tristan’s tennis. Then home to bed and it then all depends when  my break is if I can see her again. I’m not used to this. I know there are people out there who do it and it affects them as well – and then there are some who do it and could care less. I do care and it’s not that I ever want to get used to this – I just want to get over this hump! I want what my normal schedule is going to be every night and to be done with training so I can start that! It will fluctuate from night to night which will help as well.

I’m going to try and go back to bed to get some sleep but I doubt that will happen! I just have too much flying through my head! And I seriously cannot wait for a weekend where we don’t have to wake up at the crack of dawn to be somewhere. Unfortunately that won’t be for a few more weeks.