duet

Damn it. Repo's found me and isn't letting go.

Yeah, expect the usual when I find something that's caught my interest this much.

(And on a side note, it's been so long since I've posted anything I almost forgot how to add a html link >.< )

Surprisingly I'm still alive. Just been very very busy lately. Good news is Ivy's doing better. Almost completely recovered from her Bell's Palsy.

Now that Ivy's old enough I'm gonna get back into the 'con groove' which also means getting back into the 'cosplaying groove'. I've got some ideas flowing for both Ivy and I and I've already started getting my space ready for my sewing. Yay. ^.^

Oh, and so I don't forget, I have a Dreamwidth account (that I haven't really started yet), so if anyone's over there you know the name and depending on how many people switch over to there I may switch over to there completely too.

Wow, it's been since January since I last posted. I don't think I've ever gone this long between posting like I do now.
I have good reason though. I've been so busy (with stuff I would have posted about) that I haven't had the time to post.
Highlights are:
~I've finished my CNA course
~I'm couponing like a fiend- and saving tons of money at the same time
~Dealing with a sick baby girl.

On the last one, this past week Ivy had been diagnosed with Bell's Palsy. We've been assured she will be fine. The worry is we don't have any clear reason for her having it. After a fight to get the appointment (ER doc saw her on Weds and didn't get an appointment till Friday) she will be seeing a neurologist on Wednesday. Hopefully they will have more information for us. Right now we are giving her the meds they prescribed and trying to keep her eye patch on her since she's not able to close her eye correctly now. :-(


Once this ordeal is over I'll post more. I've got lots on my mind I need to get out and post about. Plus I wanna get back into using Photoshop again. Nice and therapeutic for me.

Well, the holidays are over (finally) and things are now finally settling down. Ivy had a good Christmas, loved all her gifts and loved helping us open our gifts. Her favorite gift though seems to be the new kitten we brought home just before Christmas.

Yep, we have another cat. Her name is Kiki, is a mostly white calico, and is 5 months old. She's adorable, but VERY loving. Pretty much the exact opposite of Midnight in that respect. We love her anyway though. To our surprise it only took 4 days to acclimate the cats to each other. So yeah, our family has grown to 4.

Ended up with a B in my class last semester. Not bad, but wanted an A. In a few weeks I will be starting my CNA course and then will be able to petition for my clinicals starting in June.

I'm loving how much money I'm saving now due to couponing and clearance hunting. ^.^ For example, I've just gotten my whole Christmas preparations for next year bought for under $75 for everything including a 6 1/2 foot prelit tree I just got today for $7! All on clearance. Very happy with that. And a couponing example, I just got 25 shampoo/conditioner for free. All stocked up for quite awhile. ^.^ Yay coupons and sales in combination.

It's just a McDonald's people. You'd think it was some highly anticipated, first class dining spot by how busy this place is at any hour of the day. Yes, the McDonald's has been closed since August to build a new building, but c'mon.

Today I thought I'd run through the drive-thru quick to get a Mocha. I though, 'this shouldn't take too long, they have a double speaker system for the line'. Ten minutes later I hadn't moved an inch from where I had entered the line 3 cars from the speakers. I left. I'm sorry, but I'm not that McDonald's deprived or addicted to wait longer than that in any length of line at the drive thru. Now, if that was Culver's that would be a diffrent store.

Sorry, I just had to add this little bit of human stupidity to my list reminding why I can't stand most of society.

Looking around I found out that The Phantom of the Opera is comning back to town in August. Already have my mom agreeing to go with me one time, I'm working on Karl (not going so well), and I have someone at work who wants to go see the show and I agree to take them. So, if I can get Karl to go that will be 3 times this engagement (that will make up for me missing out last time it was here >.<).


Heh heh. Also found a recording of the first 'Phantom' I saw back in 1996. Amazing.



Okay, enough Phantom-spaming. Will post other content now.

Okay, it seems that at least every 3 year (I'm guessing here) I seem to be pulled back into my love for The Phantom of the Opera. I'm not talking just about the musical (and definitely not about the 2004 movie >.<), but the whole verse that came from that story.

I caught a glimpse of the movie while flicking through channels yesterday and that's all it took. I've pulled out my copy of Susan Kay's Phantom, I went in search of my copy of the The Phantom of the Opera novel (it's not here so it has to be at my parent's house), and I pulled out my cast recordings.--- Cute side note on the soundtracks. I had my iPod sitting out on the table next to me with the original cast recording queued up when Ivy came up and took it. She held the iPod next to her head like a phone, so I took the ear buds and put them next to her ear and turned it on. She did not give it back to me or take the ear bud from her ear for the next 15 mins. ^.^ Starting young.

What's interesting about all this that for the last few years there are parts of me I had tried to change to better fit with the people that are around me now and because being 'like that' kept me in a place where I had been really hurt emotionally that I wanted to get away from, but lately those parts of me that I 'changed' are slowly returning. Seems I have been able to move beyond what had made me 'change' in the first place and now I can return. Also, I think I've sealed my place here where how I am isn't as important any longer, the know what's important to know about me.

So, yeah, that's all I have to say. Those of you who knew me about 4 years ago... 'I'm back'. Expect some 'Phantom rambling' or things similar. ^.~

Oh, and if I think at this moment I'm just a bit happier because I'm almost done with this taxing semester!! Yay!

( Just adding this so I can find it when I want/need to watch it. But feel free to enjoy also )

Yes, I'm still here... if anyone else is. Don't know why, but my drive to post has been lacking this past year. May pick up again, may not. Don't know.

Nothing too new or exciting to talk about, maybe why I haven't posted.

Ivy's in her gymnastics class and loving it. I'm in my second semester of nursing school and surviving it.

Big news for me today though was I found someone to work my shift at the hospital on Halloween, so now have the night free to go out and have some fun for the first time in months. Costume shopping sucks though. Seems, just like swimsuits, they design costumes for women with no figures. Mrrr. For now it looks like I'll be wearing my big, heavy, velvet 'Victorian vampiress dress'. Don't really want to wear it because it's not very easy to get around in or to dance in if we go out.
Ah well, will keep searching this week.

Ivy was easier, she's going at Minnie Mouse. He loves Minnie, so we had to do that for the costume. I will get trick-o-treat picture on Sunday.

Now, bed. Can't think straight anymore.

Well, this week I enrolled Ivy into gymnastics class. The local gym has 'mommy and me' classes for toddlers starting at 12 months. From what I understand from the person who registered us, this first class is mostly getting used to the gym with music and movement and beginning introductions to the apparatuses. Main reason did it is to give her time to socialize with other children her age since she doesn't have any siblings or cousins near her age. She'll have fun ^.~

I'll update as the classes go on.

Damn I hate when a movie with a good premise really lets you down in the end. The worst are the ones where they let you down and you feel frustrated that you 'wasted' you time because you didn't get what you should have, but you don't feel bad because the overall premise was good, just poorly executed.

Ivy had her NICU reunion zoo outing. She had fun. Got to see lots of animals. Won a See-n-say. Rode the zoo train.

( Pics from the outing under the cut )

Okay, let me set this up for you:

Our work has 'self-scheduling'.
This scheduling happens in 6 week increments.
We get to schedule our time according to seniority.
At this time I have most seniority on my shift.

Okay, got that? Good.

So right now we are at the time we are supposed to schedule for the weeks of 08/31-10/12 and that's right at the beginning of the semester. I've decided that the location closer to home has an opening for my class and I was going to take it even though it interfered with working on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Okay, not a major thing, I only have to work 5 days each payperiod and I can do that without working on those days each week. I can schedule around that and have the days I want due to seniority. Now to be nice I've emailed the two other people on my shift (one had been in the position before me and the other just transferred to the position).

I email them telling them I can work any days but Tuesdays and Thursdays and not the Friday or Monday around my weekend to work (we work every 3rd weekend). Not bad right?
I get an email from the coworker who's been in the position the longest (and works the least amount of hours) and she says that's fine, she can work any day except Fridays. Okay, so I've worked my schedule to be every Wednesday and Friday except the weekend I work.

Then I talk to the person who just transferred to the position and she tells me she didn't understand my email because she was under the impression when she would transfer she would only work every Tuesday and Thursday and every 3rd weekend.... PERIOD. Where did she get this idea? The person she was replacing told her this was what she worked and be replacing her hours. She didn't talk to a supervisor about this, she didn't talk to new coworkers about this... took the word of the person she was replacing. Frustrating.

Our supervisor came down while I was talking with her and the schedule came up and she said that she was supposed to follow a 'master schedule' when looking at the self-scheduling. But as long as we work it out between us and have our hours in she doesn't care.

Uh, two problems here 1) I was never told about a master schedule when I took the job, and I talked with the district manager about the position before I took it. and 2) if there's a Master Schedule to follow I, the person with the most seniority, am having my schedule dictated by people with less seniority than I do.

None of this is right. Why have self-scheduling if you have a Master Schedule? Why have us schedule by seniority if it doesn't matter and people schedule just by what they want to have as availability?

I've decided I'm sticking to my guns and scheduling how I have it. My supervisor agrees that if you work the weekend you should not have the Friday also scheduled which basically takes away your whole weekend. If my seniority means anything, I should get this with self-scheduling. People need to realize when they are 'low man' seniority-wise you cannot choose your days or hours and have to take what's left at the end. I've paid my dues in jobs like that and now it's someone else's turn to have to do this. If I was in that position I would suck it up and do what I could to accommodate what I had to.

Sorry for the rant.

Well, my original plan for the upcoming semester was to have class in the morning on Tuesdays and Thursdays and work in the afternoon leaving the rest of the week free to be home with Ivy. Well, gas prices made that impossible now. I now have to take a class here in town in the afternoon on Tuesdays and Thursdays meaning I then have to work the other days instead meaning I will have at most one day free a week with Ivy. I know it's not that and it could be worse, but I wish I could have still had it all on the same day.

Had more to say, but I'm too tired and will have to say it tomorrow.

Ivy has a fever that started Monday about mid-day and slowly got worse through the day and night.
This morning she woke up, very slowly which is unusual for her, was crying for no reason as she work up, and her fever reached to 101+ and barely came down with the Tylenol. With these symptoms and the fact that she had been irritable with out any reason I called her doctor and they had me come right in.

Turns out she has tonsillitis. Not only that, but the doctor suspects she might also have roceola (sp?) but won't know about that until the fever breaks and we see if she develops a rash.

Poor girl. She had to get a shot of antibiotic and has a prescription for amoxicillin for the next 10 days. I feel so bad for her. Her fever is still a bit high and she wants nothing but to hold to mommy all the time. I'm supposed to work tomorrow, but if she's not starting to show signs of feeling better I'll be staying home and taking her back to the doctor like he requested.

I know I've been lucky so far since this is the first time she's been sick at all, but I wish she felt better.

Well, last Friday I took Ivy for a visit with my grandmother in Texas. It was a great trip, but way too short. She was very good on the plane rides. Fell asleep for most of the trip there and then for a half hour on the way home before watching The Wiggles the rest of the way. Speaking of The Wiggles, they have a "Play Center" in the same city that my Grandmother lives in (the only one in the US in fact) and we took Ivy to see it. She LOVED it. It was so cute when we first entered they had a wall painted in the toddler area with the supporting characters of The Wiggles and she ran to it to give the picture of Dorothy the Dinosaur a kiss. We also took her swimming the subdivision's pool for the first time and she had a blast doing that too. Didn't like it when she would get a face full of water, but still had fun. Her Great-Grandmother spoiled her rotten while down there. Came back with double the toys we went down with.

After the trip I looked into plane tickets to try and go back down with Karl for Thanksgiving, but it was too far out of our price range now. It would cost us $343 (not including taxes) for ONE plane ticket down. :-( I really wanted to take him there too since he's never been. For fun I check to see how much it would cost to take the train down and it would cost about $400 ROUND TRIP for the 3 of us. Down side, it would take about 24 hrs per the Amtrak website. Karl and I are still keeping that in mind for traveling down at a later date.

Now tonight, time to get to bed early before waking up to buy The Wiggles concert tickets for Ivy and myself tomorrow and then work 3 days in a row this weekend with the last one being a 12 hr shift. We'll see how I last with that.

Well, since I last posted I've started my new job and it's kept me BUSY.

I like it alot though. Much more interesting than the job before. I also don't have any problems with coworkers here. I get along with the other people in my position and I'm not having any problems with the nurses that I was warned to watch out for. On the contrary, a few of them have been even more helpful to me since I've been on my own after training than my on-site trainers were. The one in particular that's been awesome help to me happens to also be named Kelly. He has even offered to have me call him in the back when I have a question about what to put in the 'chief complaint' field for the patient. Like he said to me, we are all one department and the bickering and separation between 'us' and 'them' has to stop.
Anyways, in other news, I'm selling my car and buying Karl's mother's car instead. It's older than mine, but it does have 4 doors and it's a Toyota which will still last longer than my car. Just waiting for the guy at Karl's work to finally decide if he wants it or not. Grr.

Now, I'm so exhausted from the last two days of work I can't enter the rest of what I wanted. Thank goodness I'm off until next Wednesday now.

http://www.parents.com/app/sharemy/photoDetails.jsp?photoId=165800197

Vote for Ivy and and share the link and plea with others.

Well, since last I posted a few things have happened:

First, as of May 23rd I will be leaving my current position and moving to a new one. It's still part time, but instead of 5 4hr days per week it will now be 2 8hr days one week and 3 8hrs days another week per pay period in order to have my necessary 40 hours per paycheck for benefits. I'm glad for the move because it gets me away from the drama and also because I will have more time to spend with Ivy this summer.

One downside of this is I had to change my fall class for Adv A&P and now I have to drive to Kenosha for class instead of going here in town because of timing. So now I will have a 50 mile round trip twice a week this fall plus I will have to hire a babysitter 2 mornings a week for Ivy. Sucks, but will be worth it once it's all done.

Didn't get into a CNA program. None of them worked for me, so I now will have to wait till January before I can do that. Grrrr.

Lastly, saw Ironman this weekend. Awesome movie. First one in awhile where I felt I honestly got my money's worth for the movie. I kinda wanna go see it again, and I haven't wanted to do THAT in years. Expect icons once I have the time after finals next week.

After being verbally attacked by a coworker yesterday and bringing it to my bosses attention I get reprimanded by my boss along side the person who attacked me. I did nothing to provoke the attack and attitudes this cowoker had against me, but I was still blamed also. Very frustrating situation.

Another frustrating situation is that I can't get a leave of absence for the length of 6 weeks so I can get my CNA certification so I can start petitioning for clinicals next semester. She'll let me go to 'pool' status which means that I only work when they need a shift covered. It's not guaranteed work/paycheck and it does not supply me with health insurance. And on top of that, I'm not guaranteed my job back when I'm done with the CNA training. I'm screwed.

My only salvation will be if I'm allowed to take the 2 week course offered by my employer that my boss has another person petitioning for my admittance into on my behalf. I have my fingers crossed.

I really don't know what I'm supposed to do. If I didn't have to worry about the insurance it wouldn't be as big of a problem, but I do and thus it is.

My life sucks.


In other news, Ivy had her 1st birthday last Saturday. The party was actually the Sunday before though and she loved it and made out like a bandit. I'll have to post pictures. She's growing up so fast. She's standing on her own now and is taking a few little steps on her own when she feels adventurous. She also says 3 'words'. 'Dada', 'baba', and 'mama'. It's very cute to hear.

I have to remember that date. That's the date I can register for classes for the fall. I have to remember to register then because there is only ONE section for Adv. A&P at the campus near my home. If I don't get that the closest one I have would be almost a half hour away. >.<

Also, I have to get my finances in really good order since there are CNA courses being offered this summer, but if I would take them I wouldn't see my daughter for almost a month because I'd be at training then off to work. If I have everything in order I could take a leave of absence from work for that month then go back once it's finished.

*crosses fingers I can do that*