Suck it up!

The title of my blog comes from advice that my Boss gave me when there are things at work that happen that I don't like or that I can do nothing about.....Suck it up!!!!

Yesterday started out fine, except for the fact that I was having a bad hair day and would have much rather curled up on the couch all day then came to work. Have you ever just had one of those days? Well I was having one of those days yesterday, and I was in the kitchen making some oatmeal for breakfast when one of my co-workers came in. I used to think she was a bit snobbish, but the truth is she is just quiet and withdrawn until you get to know her more. Yesterday I was wearing a pink shirt and in the kitchen she told me that pink is definitely my color...that it really brightens up my face. I told her that I was having one of those days and let her know that her compliment meant a lot to me. Then yesterday I find out at about 4:45pm that that very same co-worker that brightened my day was fired. I thought that my company was done with the getting rid of people and I heard from her Boss that there were still more people that are going to be let go. They say it was because of revenue and her not bringing enough money in. So on that one would assume that her position was not needed, right? Wrong! I come in today to find out that they replaced her with a guy from another team that had not been with the company very long. How does that make any sense? To me it doesn't. I don't think its fair. She had been going through a rough divorce and is out on her own in the first time in 15 years and she has 2 kids to , and now she has no job. I know that my company doesn't think of people's personal lives when they fire someone, but its still not fair.

Think Positive

So I keep talking about writing a blog when I am not bad about good things instead of just the things that have mad me mad this week. Well here goes.

The good that has come out of work this week is that I still will get another half day off work on a day of my choice for having to work on a day when everyone else is off. Also I got approved to start taking classes to get my CAPM certification. The company is paying for me to take the classes and take the test to get my certification. I am not a Project Manager YET, but I am one step down from it. The CAPM certification is a certification that my company wants all Project Managers to have so that will be good for me already to have it when a Project Manager position is open. The way I look at it is that the company would not be willing to pay for this for me if they didn't see me as a Project Manager in the future. Oh and when I had my review my Boss told me that I was wonderful and that I am a great employee so thats always good to hear. I do feel appreciated at work even if this week hasn't exactly turned out as I planned. Oh and I am definitely thankful that I do have a job especially with the way the economy is.

As far as my unexpected flat tire....I am glad that it was not something more costly and thankful that I do have a vehicle.

Merry Christmas Everyone!!!!

It just keeps getting better......NOT!

So I arrived to work this morning with a flat tire....completely flat!!!! A couple of the guys from the office were nice enough to take off my flat tire and put my spare tire on. It was quite funny because at one point there were 3 guys standing around my car so it looked like it took 3 guys to change my tire. But this means that now out of my paycheck I have an unexpected expense.

So then my Boss is still preparing my review and she had brought up to her Boss about me getting my annual raise and her Boss told her that I don't qualify because I do not have enough reviews for the year. How is that my fault? I came to this team in May of this year and asked my previous Boss several times about giving me my first quarter review and I have yet to get it. My current boss had told me months ago not to worry about it that she would push my raise through without out that review. Well it looks like I got screwed because my old Boss did not give me the review that they were supposed to give me.

So in case everyone hasn't figured it out...........I still have the blues........

The blues

Does anyone else have the blues? I was going to title my blog Christmas blues, but its not Christmas that has got me down. My original work plan this week was to only work Monday and Tuesday, I was going to "work from home" on Christmas Eve, and then completely have Christmas Day and the day after off. I had plans to go to Dave & Busters on Christmas Eve because me and Trish still have gift cards left that still have Money on them. My family is coming over for dinner on Christmas and then the day after Christmas me and Trish were going to the festival of lights at the Zoo with Trish's sister in law and her friend. Well its funny how things can change in an instant. My bosses boss did not remember saying that me and my co-worker could work from home on Christmas Eve and he said that it is all a perception thing that someone from the team has to be here since my Boss already is taking it as a vacation day. So he said that both me and my co-worker have to be here on Christmas Eve and only 1 of us is allowed to leave early. My boss said that whoever doesn't leave early on Christmas Eve can leave early on New Year's Eve so my co-worker didn't care so I said I'm leaving early on Christmas Eve. The other thing is that my bosses boss told my boss that she needs to force us to use vacation time. So that means that I have to use 1/2 a day of vacation time and still be available by phone and email after I leave the office until 5:30pm on Christmas Eve. Makes total sense, right? Not! So then the other thing is that the whole office is supposed to be closed the day after Christmas and 1 of my customer's submitted a request for a job that will be an all day thing on Friday. I tried to get it switched to another day, but that didn't work out. So now I have to work all day on Friday and only get a half day off on Christmas Eve and still have to use vacation time for it so basically I totally get gipped out of 1 day of Holiday time. My boss said that she is going to talk to her boss about it again, but I told her not to worry about it because I didn't want to seem like a whiner...if he thinks that its fair that everyone else gets a vacation day on Friday and I have to work and I don't even get Christmas Eve off in return then whatever.........

The Weekend Before Christmas!

Wow this weekend has definitely been very eventful:

Friday night I had my nephew and my Mom over and Trish made us all dinner. My nephew stayed the night with me and he is definitely a lot to handle. He is 9 years old and has adhd and does not even like someone suggesting something he needs to do because he is a big boy and he can do it himself or so he told me. I survived through the adventures with my nephew, but ended up with a big headache that turned out to be from sinuses and not from my nephew like I presumed.

Saturday morning Sarah came over at about 11:30 and Sarah and me and Trish baked all day well it seemed like all day...lol. Sarah left at about 3:00pm and me and Trish kept baking until about 4:30. We made every kind of cookie you can think of, fudge, rice krispie treats, brownies, and potato candy. Oh and in case anyone else didn't know, potato candy is really made with potato....lol. Me and Trish had a great time getting to know Sarah better. Our table, counter, and fridge is filled with all kinds of goodies. Me and Trish are making up tins of goodies to give to our families for Christmas. We of course had to sample some for ourselves. We even brought Ray a tin of goodies on Sunday because we heard that he had to sample any baking...lol.

Saturday night I enjoyed the last night of the Nativity. I had invited my friend Melissa to come and bring her 3 kids to see the live nativity several times and she finally did bring them. Melissa's 9 year old Rebekah had asked me what this was all about and why they were there and before I could answer Rebekah her 5 year old sister Charity said, "That's Baby Jesus".

The church Christmas party and ornament exchange was tons of fun. All of the food was delicious, and the ornament exchange was a blast. Who would have thought that a plunger would have been a big hit....lol.

Sunday's message was great! Thanks Ray! The Praise Team did an awesome job! When I got home from church I took almost a 2 hour nap because I had a really bad sinus headache. At 4pm The Smith small group as well as Sarah, Dan, Isaac, Eli, Jen, Travis, and Corey went to sing Christmas carols at the Continental Manor in Blanchester. The message that we were coming was not relayed to the people that were working yesterday; therefore we stood in the middle of each hall and then in front and sang Christmas Carols. We also went into the rooms to hand each resident a homemade gift. My favorite was the resident named Jeremy. Jeremy had a special request and wanted us to sing Amazing Grace. We all seemed to falter a little when it came to singing the words to the 2nd verse, but my Mom remembered all of the words and kept us singing strong. Jeremy was a comedian and had all of us rolling on the floor laughing.....who knew that poop could be so funny.....LOL.

After we went to the nursing home I went home and worked on the scrap book that I am making my Mom for Christmas and Trish helped me wrap some Christmas presents. Thanks Trish!

Now I was hoping that I would only have 2 days of work this week and that I would get to "work from home" on Christmas Eve, but my Boss has Christmas Eve off so I may have to take care of some of her accounts. I am supposed to be off on Friday, but a customer just put a huge all day job request in for Friday. I am trying to get it switched to tomorrow so I am hoping that it will work out and that I will really have the day off on Friday.

Christmas Cheer

The Smith Small group all gathered at mine and Trish's place this past Sunday to make bookmarks and cards to bring to the Continental Manor nursing home in Blanchester. We plan to go there this coming Sunday after Church and sing Christmas Carols and bring our homemade gifts. We had lots of fun, and even Scott who claims he is not crafty joined in and tied some knots. Here are some pictures of our fun and crafts.

Are you guilty?

Is anyone else guilting of judging people that you have never met? Well last week me and Trish went to see Emerson Drive in concert. We met up with a bunch of our friends that we had met by going to Emerson Drive concerts, and there were probably 10 of us near the front of the stage. It was standing room only so very difficult to save anyone a spot. 9 out of the 10 of us had a meet and greet pass to get our picture with the band before the show. This posed as a dilemma because how was the 1 person left going to save a spot for all of us. I mentioned to a couple of my friends that we could ask the 2 ladies behind us if they would help save our spots and we all agreed that they looked way too snooty. Kelly had asked 3 guys that were standing beside us to help save our spots and they agreed but it would be extra helpful for the 2 "snooty" girls to help save our spots. As we were all filing out to go get in line for our meet and greet I decided that I was going to ask the "snooty" girls to help save our spots and to my surprise they were both very pleasant and agreed to do what they could to help save our spots. We had to go to the front of the place to meet with the bands road manager to get in line, and then he walked us back stage. We had to walk past the front of the stage where our spots were and I thought it was quite funny to see a large gap on the left in front of the stage where all of the nice people around us were helping to save our spots. When I got back to my spot the non snooty ladies asked me how it was meeting the band. I told them that it was wonderful and thanked them for helping to hold our spots. Later on while the concert was going on one of the girls proceeded to chit chat with me about the band.

The moral of the story is that we should not judge people. Sometimes we make assumptions about people and who knows they could be really great people that we don't get to know because we choose to judge. Try talking to them instead of judging them. What do you have to lose?

Who Cares?

I just read a post on someone's blog that I figured I must share with everyone.



Nobody Cares?
A church newsletter mentioned a man who visited eighteen different churches on successive Sundays. He was trying to find out what the churches were really like. He said, "I sat near the front. After the service, I walked slowly to the rear, then returned to the front and went back to the foyer using another aisle. I smiled and was neatly dressed. I asked one person to direct me to a specific place: a fellowship hall, pastor's study, etc. I remained for coffee if served. I used a scale to rate the reception I received.
I awarded points on the following basis:
10 for a smile from a worshiper
10 for a greeting from someone sitting nearby
100 for an exchange of names
200 for an invitation to have coffee
200 for an invitation to return
1000 for an introduction to another worshiper
2000 for an invitation to meet the pastor
On this scale, eleven of the eighteen churches earned fewer than 100 points.Five actually received less than 20.The conclusion: The doctrine may be biblical, the singing inspirational, the sermon uplifting, but when a visitor finds nobody who cares whether he's here, he is not likely to come back.
~Author unknown



What is everyone's thoughts on this? Have you ever been in a similar situation? I remember several years ago when I was looking for a church home I visited this one church maybe 4 or 5 times, because I figured I wouldn't know for sure if I am meant to be at that church on just the first visit. I always sat close to the back, and a couple of times I came by myself and a couple of times I brought my Mom with me. After several visits I did not know anyone's name and I had never talked to the Pastor.