Gwen is 4 and a room is being painted still

Gwen just turned 4. Wow. I keep telling her to stop aging but she refuses. She calls Gary's new family her cousins. They came over and everyone enjoyed pizza and a Dora cake. Happiness all around.

I'm in the process of painting the girls room. I had them paint a shelf for me. I put it on a blue tarp that is now 90% white. They are almost white from head to toe. I had a lot of trouble getting it off them so I gave up. They are going to get yet another bath tonight. Hopefully their body oils will be working on the dry paint and it will come off easier later. If not, they may need some elbow grease. Never fun if it is on a kids skin.

Daddy's home

Wow. It took me three days to break my own password. I know I suck at this whole update thing. Luckily there are only about 2 people who read this.

Tom just came home from his two week drill. Yeah! There is great rejoicing. The girls barely registered his return. This is from two weeks of crying that he wasn't there. It took them about a half hour to go "Wait a minute. That is our daddy!". Then there was happy tickling all around.
I really missed him. I still can't find my camera or I would have had a picture of him and the girls to put on this blog. The phone company took my ability to email pictures to myself away. They suck.

I have off for the next week. My goal is to repaint the girls room, but first I have to get ready for Gwen's birthday celebration. Wow. She is going to be 4. My little girl is no longer a toddler but a full grown child. Sigh. I keep telling her to stop aging but she insists on getting bigger, stronger and more knowledgeable. She is so smart.

When daddy came home he brought these pillow friends that are just amazing. I highly suggest you go to http://www.anitaspillowpets.com
They are just adorable. They are stuffed animals that you can unfold into pillows or fold back up into the animal. They are made to last. Even the velcro has a little flap to keep it from getting dirty. And I never felt such a soft animal. Gwen got the elephant and Heidi got the bunny. These things are huge. They are not overly expensive and are made correctly for little child play.

Heidi can now sing all the letters of the alphabet. The first five are even in the correct order.

Angry over credits

We needed to be at 10% credit today. We had 3 credit card sign ups and 31 transactions. Yup, we had a 9.7% credit. We missed it by one transaction. That includes all of those people who insisted on more than one transaction. Because four people had to have seperate receipts for whatever reason we did not make our goals and I have to be on a conference call tomorrow to find out how horrible we are doing and how we are bringing the company down. Can't wait. If my Store Manager quits and I have to deal with the District Manager directly, I am putting in my two week notice that day. So is everyone else I've talked to. Let her try to explain that to the rest of the corporation.

TGIF

It's Friday and the girls are all better except for a runny nose. According to the doc, when their fevers broke they were no longer contagious. Just in case I am not taking them to the babysitter until next week.
They are out back right now playing in the water table. We recently added sand so they are a very happy couple of toddlers. I took a picture of their extreme cuteness but I had to use my phone because I cannot find the camera. I will put it up on this blog if I can ever figure out how to get it from my phone to this computer. I tried sending it to my email but its been awhile and no new message.
The girls constantly fight and argue but when they are playing with water it seems like nothing will bother them including each other. I hope this lasts.

sick days no longer a day off.

Heidi has the croup. At least that is what I am thinking this barking cough is. I'm going to call the doc in a few minutes. Either way, I can't let her go to the babysitters with such a cold. The other infant might get it and that would be horrible. Now my entire week is messed up. I can't go to work until Tom gets out of work. I can't let either child play with others until I know they are not contagious. And as soon as Heidi is better, I know that Gwen will get sick.
Anyone with a child knows that joys of sick days. No longer something you get to relax in. To make is worse, you are using them when you feel perfectly healthy.

passwords and hairspray

Does everyone else hate passwords as much as I do? Don't get me wrong. I truly believe that they are a necessary evil. But they are evil nontheless. I just tried to crack into my blog for a half hour today. Then I gave up and reset it. After negotiating that maze, I am pretty sure that I just reset it to what I originally had it as. Joy. Fun.

Cool. The star of "Hairspray" is on "Ace of Cakes" right now to learn how to decorate cakes. I love that movie. Gwen and Heidi like to dance to it.

I would complain about work right now but I don't feel like writing a five page blog.

Oh, Heidi voluntarily used the potty today!!!!!

threat level orange

I managed to get zero people to sign up for credit cards yesterday. That made me very desperate to get some sign ups today. After I got two I downgraded myself from desperate to just needy. After my third, I downgraded myself from need to just greedy. Yeah, no meeting tomorrow to discuss why we couldn't get people to sign up for credits!!!!

Corporate is nuts.

Crappy night in the retail world. They took away most of the coupon offerings to entice customers to apply for a credit card. Now we can only offer a 30% off one item coupon if they are approved. There is also a sale where most of the store is only $10. It goes like this: Can I offer you a credit card? It will save you a whole $3 if you are approved. Who in their right mind is going to agree to that? We are still supposed to haIve a certain percentage of CC attempts to transactions. Yeah, not happening. We have to meet on Sun morning every week we don't make it. I don't plan on meeting but I think it just might happen.

blog....what blog...

Wow. I am really really bad at this blogging thing. My husband just pointed out that it has been two months since I left a post. Sorry about that. Since then I have watched my girls until I giggled with happiness, had my downstairs bathroom demolished and partually rebuilt, lost my mind a work a few times and been pretty much a normal women of the new century.

The big tragedy is that my coworker lost her baby a couple of nights ago. She was three months along. That has been taking up much of my thoughts. I am just so lucky. I really wished that God had allowed her to experience the joy that I experience on a daily basis. I don't know why he didn't. I am sad.

On a completly different note, we had a major storm just pass through and business was very slow. This was good because I worked a twelve hour shift and those can be killer when it's too busy.

Ewwwwww

It is really really hard to enjoy a bavarian cream doughnut when your daughter's nose is producing something the same color as the cream.

Lost friend and babysitting.

Yeah!!! My friend K from highschool just contacted me. He is the only friend I still talk to from then. I missed him a lot and had lost my contact info for him so this is a big deal for me.

On another note: Gwen only has a week left of school and then it is time for summer vacation. Tom was just put on constant days and I requested constant nights. The good news is that we were able to tell our babysitter that we need her for a fairly set schedule now. The bad news is that this seems to include to seeing of the spouse. I'm only going to get to see Tom awake when he waits up for me or I get up early. Yes, we will have a day or so off together so that will be nice too. How do people with more than two kids (like K) do it? Tom and I have enough trouble sneeking off to snuggle. Anything else seems like just a dream.

Dora the Explorer

I think I figured out the secret behind Dora the Explorer. She doesn't actually go on all of these missions. She is just a little 5 year old with a very active imagination. Boots the Monkey is a stuffed animal that she takes everywhere. She shows off what she learned in preschool to her stuffed friends. She also liked to show off her language skills to them. How else can the instrument playing bugs be wherever she is finishing a task. And if a local lake has crocodiles, wouldn't a smart parent be very careful that her daughter doesn't go near it let alone try to cross it on a weekly basis? Seriously, if this is real, her parents need to be visited by children's services.

Okay, I know it is just a cartoon. One that my daughters are madly in love with. Heidi is currently on a Dora and Little Einsteins kick. If the two ever put a movie together I think her head would explode with happiness.

Finally out of work

The good news about the nice weather is that it is causing increased sales at work. The bad news is that people are out later and see nothing wrong with coming in at 8:55 when we close at 9. I want to get home. Yes, I will help you with a smile. I will clean up after you and I will act patient around you. Trust me, I don't feel nice or patient. I just have no choice because I am not an overworked employee to you, I am the company. I don't need to get yelled at by the District Manager because I was rude to a customer. Just don't you dare stay in my store after close while leaving fifty things on the floor of the dressing room and decide you only need one item and then complain that it is only clearanced down to $9.96 when the original price was $29.90.
I may be willing to risk my job in order to tell you what to do with that item after you leave the store today.
Oh, and I get to open tomorrow. Yeah!


Believe it or not, I still love my job.

hold on.... I need to catch my breadth...

Daddy had the day with his girls today. They had lots of fun. When I got home I got to join them in a rousing game of tag. Wow am I out of shape. You know that commercial that talks about someone running their butt off (literally) while playing with their kids? No wonder the moms in this neighborhood are all so darn skinny. They play. (This pic is from last fall)

Floorset Madness

Today was floorset day. That is when we bust our humps trying to move everything in the store to a new location according to a set of plans that are
a)not created for a store of our layout.
b)do not contain the merchandise we have.
c)contain a lot of merchandise that we do not have yet. And
d)do not seem to include letting the customer shop around you while you are busy removing an entire wall so that you can make room elsewhere by refilling that wall with the right clothes.
I've worked jobs where they do such major changes at night while the store is closed. The problem with that is that we are so short staffed we would have to go into overtime to allow that to happen. Not an option when the company is trying to cut costs to stay in business. We are told almost everyday how important it is to stay within our hour matrix. Overall, today was a good day. We got a lot accomplished and I feel like I actually helped more than hurt the project this month. I am definately learning how to read those things and when to ignore the directions.

Eggtastic

I hope everyone is having (had, if you read this after the day I wrote it) a wonderful Easter. I got to watch my youngest go into the play room and get the suprise of her life when the toy oven was filled with her basket. Her older sister was very jeaolous and wanted to know where hers was. We only placed it just around the corned in the hallway but it took over a half hour for her to find it. I'm thinking that next year she will be old enough to find her basket before we even wake up.

I love eggs. I had hard-boiled eggs for breakfast. Egg salad for lunch. Deviled eggs for dinner. And Cadbury eggs in between. My cholosterol is going to go through the roof.

Old friends, college and colds

I was cleaning my bedroom (no easy feat) when I came across a mural of all of my friends that I made in college. I am suddenly feeling very nasta... nosta... nasti... remembering about the past in a positive way and missing it. I tried to email a few of my old friends but I no longer have valid emails for them. This probably wouldn't have happened if I had bothered to call them more than once a decade. Oh well. I'll try other routes.
I remember sitting in the lobby at school. There was a small rug with couches on the side of a very large hallway. One of the couches had succumbed to the Ed zone. A very large farmboy who sat in it on a daily basis just killed the springs. We used to play Magic, the Gathering and talk about everything from getting our grades up to nifty crochetting techniques. There were many of us that didn't graduate. They were too busy playing games to attend class. But there were more of us that went on to get really good jobs.
Sometimes I worry that I wasted my degree. Anyone can do retail. I went on to get my MBA but I'm working somewhere that doesn't require any college whatsoever. On the other hand, I have no real experience so I know that my degree is what got me my current job. Either way, I am smart, educated, and enjoy my job if not my income. Heck, without going to college I wouldn't have met my husband. Maybe I went to school to get my MRS?

On a side note, I am still suffering from having a child in school. Will this cold never end?

Heidi turns 2

yum...... Cake and Ice Cream

Happy Birthday Heidi!

My little girl is turning two tomorrow. 2!!!!! I remember that cute little 5 lbs of sleeping, eating machine I got only yesterday. No way is she 2 tomorrow.

This picture is from this time last year.

Today she is sick. The doc gave us some stuff to get rid of her ear infection but I had to leave work early because she is throwing up and the babysitter won't watch her like that. I don't blame her but I am really nervous about upsetting my boss. This is the second time this week I've had to take off for a child's illness.

Rocket's Toothbrush.

Today we were watching Little Einsteins and Daddy pointed out that it was silly that Rocket has a toothbrush since he doesn't have teeth. Gwen replied, "That's silly." than she thought for a moment and said, "It's to get the bugs off". What a smart girl we have!

Science and Headcolds

We went to the Science Center yesterday. I was thinking, "Let's go now before school lets out and this place is overrun with kids during the summer." Yeah. Great idea. There were four schools visiting that day. The only good news is the high number of adults as well. The last time I was there during a school outing my poor kids were overrun. This time, it seems that rules have changed and there have to be enough adults to control the groups. I actually enjoyed myself. Yes, my kids still got pushed around a bit but they weren't trampled and no one talked rudely to them. My girls need to learn to deal with others anyway, I just prefer that they learn to deal with rude people slowly due to lack of exposure.
Everyone at work is sick. I did a 12 hour shift a few days ago because my replacement had the flu. I only have a bad headcold so I offered to stay and let the other manager enjoy her day off. Now I still have to write the schedules for the next month. I work from 1-8 today and most of tomorrow. Trying to get a Saturday off for Heidi's upcoming 2nd birthday was like pulling teeth. I'm not going to be sure that I get the day off until the day of.

What, I work tomorrow?

I open tomorrow. I forgot this little fact until my manager called me and reminded me tonight. Wow, she is so intuitive. I wish I had half her intuition. I will learn.
My girls were put to bed 45 minutes ago. They are still chatting. I am pretty sure my youngest is out of her bed. I am tired of putting her back. I have tried countless times to use the "supernanny" technique of putting her back without talking as many times as needed. I found it is just best to let her collapes wherever she ends up. The only problem is that she does not understand daylight savings time and thinks she was put to bed early. She is in for a big shock when I wake her up early to get to the babysitters on time.

rain rain go away... wait, I need you to water the grass first.

It is my day off so of course it is raining. At least I got a few hours in my flower garden two days ago. I say flower garden but I was turning it back into grass. I know me and don't want to bother with it this year.
I may have lost my temper a few minutes ago. It's a bit hazy but my girls are giving me a wide berth and the living rooms been picked up. (just kidding. yes, I need to stop yelling but it would also be nice if they would clean during the first fifteen times I ask them to help me). Honestly, after cleaning up after customers all week you would think I would be used to this type of mess. Actually, my little girls are much cleaner.

tired

Worked hard today. Kids are full of energy. I keep trying to get it to rub off on me but it doesn't work. I am thinking of switching from hugs to nose rubbing. We'll see if that works.

Feeling just Thwell.

I'm thick. Tho thick that I want to thtay home from work. My nothe is clogged and my head hurth. I need to go to work. L, the other manager, can't come into work today. Thhe had a root canal done thith mornink and I don't want her to work today. I would rather work with thwollen glandth than with a raw mouth.
The girlth were nithe enough to share their cold with me. At leastht they are feeling better. We went to our uthual Thur lunch at Wild Buffalo Wingth today. I love it there. They know our order before we even tell them. According to their manager they are not having much of a thlow down in todayth economy. I hope thith ith a good thign. We are pretty buthy at work too. Of courthe, the item we sell the motht right now ith interview clotheth.
Hope everything ith okay for my readerth (all one of you, Amber ^_^).

Having a Glee moment.

I am now the Co-Manager of my store. Glee. E was just given keys because she was promoted to assistant manager. Now my task to get M to start doing her job. She is awesome. She is a hard worker and I really really really dont want to lose her but there is one item she isn't selling. Those stupid credit cards. We'll see what happens. I hope that we can get her to understand.

I got a new computer! It's one of those ity bitty inch thick ones with a 10 inch monitor. It's pink. It is called and ideapad. I love it. Tom got me a matching mouse to go with it! Glee again.

does good service mean I think you are a thief?

We had an upset customer. We have a rule where we are to go to every customer, no exceptions and ask them if we can help them. We take things to dressing rooms or to the counter to free up the customer's hands. This person tooks M's customer service as an accusation of theft and told me that M must think that all black people are thieves and that this isn't the 70s anymore and that white people should respect people like her. That her money is just as good and that we shouldn't make assumptions based on skin color. Poor M went into the back room and had herself a good cry.
Now to be fair, we do hover over all customers because our store has an alarming amount of theft for the company. I explained to her that we treat every customer with our full attention because store policy is to be there to help you with anything. It is not meant as an insult. She told me that our store was not nearly as nice as those in New York. She told me that our quality is going down and went on about how in New York she wasn't treated with suspician.
This goes on for over 40 minutes. When I was done with her she bought $250 worth of stuff and had calmed down enough that she even gave back the customer service number saying that she wasn't going to call corporate on us. I honestly hope she never returns but I am pretty proud of myself.
There is a very large chance that this lady (with a big hole in the butt of her pants I might add) just wanted a discount on her purchase. We don't give discounts. Period.
On an extra note, as she was leaving she told another worker that she had no right working in a big girls clothing store because her presence alone made the big girls feel bad. This worker is a size 3 and extremely beautiful. Not due to dieting but due to being deathly sick most of her life. This last bit of info is none of the customers business. The worker is one of the smartest and hardest working that the store had evered hired. Her size has nothing to do with her ability to do the job and should never come into play.

We are not closing, we are just out of everything.

We need merchandise. Corporate sends us lists of stuff to put on sale and how to decorate the room but they are not sending us anything new. We need more shirts. We need more options of pants in petiet and tall. We need the scarfs they are telling us to sell. We need the stuff to sell in order to make the sale. This is nuts. We haven't had a box to open in a month. We won't until the 12th. How are we suppose to increase our sales when we have nothing to sell? People are actually asking us if we are closing. As far as we know we are not. Heck, we are even looking into hiring a new assistant manager.
Gwen's at school right now. Heidi just had a tickle fest with Daddy and I. I love a job that gives me time with my girls.

Sigh, I'm going back to bed.

How come I am tired every day I get off work. At work I have tons of energy. I see no problems cleaning and folding. At home, I am tired. I look at the pile of toys with the intermixing of cheerios and just loose all energy. I'm sick. yeah. That's it. I have a disease that forces me to be extremely lazy. Like lupus or toxoplasmosis or something... Actually, I might since I show a lot of other symptoms. But let's worry about that after the doctors visit. Right now, I think I suffer from a bad case of "don't wannas".

Let all forsaken be forgot...

Happy New Year to those who didn't wake me up at 3 am because they forgot that they were in a different time zone!