I Am Employed!

Posted on April 4, 2014 by Reb

So yeah, another looonnnggg absence and I am so annoyed at myself. It felt so good to get back into the swing of blogging again. But I do have a bit of an excuse, I was seriously job hunting again. I have never in my life had such a difficult time finding a job! I have always, ALWAYS gotten the job I wanted before now.
And now that I am thinking about it (and just because I want to) I am going to reminisce about my past jobs…
Age 16: First job, Hastings. I LOVED this job. It is a big Pacific Northwest chain of book/music/video stores. I had so much fun working here. I remember when DVD’s first started trickling onto our shelves. Loved it!
17/18, Schlotzsky’s, went to work there because one of my best friends was working there. Another super fun job, loved it. I ended up getting promoted to baker which was awesome. Got there at like 6 am to bake all the bread and pizza crusts.
17/18, Also worked at ol’ Papa John’s for awhile. I will always, always tip delivery drivers well because of this job.
18, I worked as a cocktail waitress for about 5 minutes at a country club at a golf course. Never really liked it.
-Big move to Virginia-
First week in VA, walked into a Petco, filled out an app got interviewed and hired on the spot. Worked at Petco for three years, becoming assistant manager and meeting the man I was going to marry my first day of work.
After Mckenna was born I started working at a vet’s office part time while Omar went to boot camp. I really enjoyed it but then it was time to move again, this time down to Virginia Beach.
I didn’t want to work outside the home so I started nannying which was great. I got to make some money but still be home with Mckenna. Once again, every family I interviewed with wanted to hire me! I am an awesome interview!
When we moved to Spain Omar was a baby so I wasn’t rushing into work anytime soon and the job market is seriously limited. When he was almost 3 I was ready. I applied at the commissary (one of the few jobs on base) and got hired.
After a year I moved over to the CDC which was even better, I was full time M-F and I could pop in on Omar anytime. I loved working the CDC the coworkers and families were awesome.
Then the move to Hawaii.
Ugh.
What a disheartening time I had.
For the first year I wasn’t really looking too seriously. Omar was deployed and I wanted to be home for the kids.
But then I started looking for real and I didn’t hear back from anyone! I sent out resumes, even got called in for a few interviews and NOTHING!
I know I had a gap in employment and no one really likes to hire military spouses because we move all the damn time, but come on!
I finally updated my resume once again to make it a skills based resume to highlight all my insane skillz, and redid my cover letter and finally got some nibbles again!
I interviewed with a local company and got hired on the spot. FINALLY!
And no, this isn’t my dream career or anything close to it, it’s just admin/accounts receivable (crazy enough I was actually an accounting major before decided I would kill myself if I had to do it for the rest of my life and ended up finding my passion in environmental management. Joke’s on me.) It’s a big parts wholesaler, with a million delivery drivers, but the clerical staff is just me and 4 other ladies. All who are super nice (so far!)
I love the hours, I work four hours in the morning (after dropping the kids off at school) then come home, eat lunch, pick up the house, laze around watching tv for a bit, then time to pick up the kids again. So far it’s working out perfectly. And I am really enjoying being in the ranks of the employed again!

Why I Can Never Be An Extreme Couponer (besides the fact that I am lazy)

Posted on August 14, 2012 by Reb

I read LOTS of blogs and a few of them like to post pictures of their crazy shopping trip where they bought $100 worth of stuff for $10. Which is fantastic, I would love to be able to get $100 worth of groceries for so little money. The problem is they are usually buying $100 worth of crap. No real food, just weird combinations of stuff.

I love to use coupons, but I learned very early on that I can only use coupons for stuff that I am already planning on buying. I have no loyalty when it comes to toothpaste, for instance, so I’ll use a coupon to buy the cheapest one. Buying something that you don’t normally buy or use just because you have a coupon doesn’t make sense. (Well it does for the company putting out the coupon!)

But really? My biggest issue with it is the insane consumption of stuff. Many of these couponers find coupons that are worth more than the actual product and buy 8 or 10 of that item so they get overage, basically taking extra money off the bill. I get the theory, buy this stuff for free and get money off other stuff you are buying. But it’s just so wasteful! Just how many bottles of vitamins or air fresheners do you need?

I am really to the point now where I am trying to stop buying stuff just for the sake of buying it. All of that stuff just ends up in a landfill and didn’t need to be purchased in the first place. I know I may sound like a ranting crazy person but I just wish people would look at all of this stuff they are buying and realize that they need very little of it.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to research compost bins.

Is Everyone Else Excited for the Olympics?!

Posted on July 27, 2012 by Reb

I can not wait for the opening ceremonies tonight and I’m so excited! I really wish that the tv would broadcast the opening ceremonies live, I’d love to be watching right now instead of having to wait. I am one of those people who really get into the Olympics. When my mom and I went to London last fall they already had tons of stuff out like t-shirts and pins, I can’t even imagine how insane it is in London right now!

I also really love watching the women’s events in particular. I think it’s great for Mckenna to watch all of these female athletes who have worked really hard to get where they are. (And of course nudge her to try to get to the Olympics in soccer one day…)

So to kill some time we are going to drive up to Schofield Barracks to pick up some freebie school supplies for the kids. Then have to go actually finish the school supply shopping. Their lists this year are out of control! I’ve never had a school supply list that specified brands before! They better not be communal supplies, that bugs the crap outta me! (And yes I will write my kids name on every single crayon and marker they bring in)

Enjoy Olympics watching this weekend!

Odds and Ends…

Posted on April 19, 2012 by Reb

So while I was trying to do something, ANYTHING, from working on my final research paper last night I decided to change the look over here… I have an idea in my head of how I would REALLY like it to look but I don’t know anything about web design and I really don’t want to put any money into what is really just an online scrapbook of my life. So for now my blog is trying on some new clothes and we’ll see how they fit.

My husband is begging me to buy sandwich bags. It’s pretty funny that this is even a conversation topic. I have become so anti-plastic that I don’t even know when the last time I bought ziploc bags was. Don’t get me wrong, we are no where near where we could be. Shit just has SO. MUCH. PACKAGING!

In other news my co-worker at the front desk is quitting. I don’t know what I am going to do. I am going to have to train her replacement and then my replacement. Ugh. Plus there is just SO much you have to be able to know how to do. We aren’t just answering phones up there! Hopefully they hire someone who is a fast learner! Plus I don’t know if I’ll be able to quit as early as I was going to. I am that crazy person who just can’t leave a mess behind at work. We’ll see about that because….

We STILL haven’t gotten our orders yet! I am getting more than a little bit stressed out because Lord knows PCSing isn’t stressful enough. Now we are down to3 months with no orders. Honestly this wouldn’t be that big of a deal but we have to get the dog on the rotater (the military flight that flies back and forth every two weeks). Because he is a boxer he can’t fly commercial airlines in the summer time. The flights are full of dogs until June already and I reeeeeeeeeeeaaaaally don’t want to leave my baby behind!

Still haven’t started cleaning out our belongings or closets, I need to do that as well as pull the rest of the kids summer clothes out. I am hoping that when I start cleaning I will find my damn camcorder that I somehow placed somewhere stupid. I have a very bad habit of walking around with something in my hand and then setting it down. I once lost my coffee cup and couldn’t find it anywhere. Next day, I found it in the linen cabinet. Really?

Well now that I got that off my chest, have a wonderful Thursday!

A not so sucky Monday

Posted on March 26, 2012 by Reb

Well it started out pretty sucky. Monday mornings are the worst because M is on the student council at school that meets an hour before school starts. An hour early. On a Monday. Worst idea ever. But because my lovely daughter must participate in Every. Activity. EVER! I indulge her and drag my butt out of bed a little early on Mondays.

But.

This Monday was also our first Daylight Savings/Spring Ahead Monday. (Spain sprung ahead two weeks after the states).

This morning didn’t go too well. Shocker I was running behind (story of my life). But I finally got my daughter ready (with the best lunch EVER! Homemade pizza lunchables) and at the door waiting for daddy to come home from PT to take her to school. (I reeeeeaaaallly don’t feel like having to get O up and ready early to drive M to school. Don’t judge me.) Well daddy is running late but finally gets there, I manage to get out of the house and to work on time.

Work=super chaos. Training a new front desk clerk and there are just too many people in my space.

Busy Monday at work and I ended up leaving for lunch 40 minutes late.

Finally get home and pull into the driveway and see my hubby and O playing frisbee in the front yard. M and I join them. M’s first throw? Frisbee on the roof. I couldn’t stop laughing. Of course. I don’t feel like starting dinner right away so I take the kids and the dog on a walk to the fruit man (Manolo who sells fruit from his van- seriously it’s not as shady as it seems. He also sells booze. I love him.) Come back, play a little more frisbee and this time I manage to throw it into a palm tree. (In my defense it has been SUPER windy and the wind just took that bad boy away.) With some ingenuity in the form of two broom handles zip-tied together manned by M on her daddy’s shoulders, we managed to get it free.

STILL didn’t feel like making dinner when we came inside so I decided to get the kids to do a quicky craft project, pinecone bird feeders. Pine cones, peanut butter and birdseed. It took five minutes, they had a great time and the bird feeders are hanging waiting for birds. I am not even sure that they will last the night with the way the wind is still blowing out there.

I REALLY wanted to go out for dinner tonight but hubby was wiped out from the time change/early PT so I made the easiest dinner ever, kielbasa, sauteed cabbage and rice pilaf. Done.

After dinner the kids flipped through old scrapbooks which reminds me of how happy I am that I make the damn things and then off to bed for them. I made a new batch of granola bites for M’s lunch this week – chocolate chip, marshmallow, walnut. We finally got those little mini marshmallow’s in a shaker. So excited for this batch!

So the not so fabulous Monday morning ended up turning into a pretty great evening. Plus I have a day date planned out for Sunday, going to go see The Hunger Games. Can’t wait!