Busy Tuesday!

Today was a typical Tuesday. For some reason, Tuesdays have been really busy, all starting at work. Normally I would teach Jazzercise, but Today, Joleen taught for me, because her last day is tomorrow and I am teaching her Friday. It's so sad to see her leave, she's such a great instructor and we are just going to be hurting the 5:45am class. But for now, it's all taken care of.

So work has been very busy. We have taken over the whole Sales Support. The place it used to be is no longer, yeah, just like Thermo Fisher, they closed and moved the group to Dubuque. All I can say is thank God, because I love my job. It's going so good, but now that I'm supervisor, I feel I need to know everything. I know I will learn as I go. I have been in charge of running reports and distributing the work, but I have been doing most of the work, to figure out what I'm really doing, so before I hand out the work, I want to know how it's done. So for now, I will keep doing what I'm doing and I know it will get easier. There is a lady in NJ, who is still working until April 15th, so I have her to rely on for now, so hopefully between now and then I will have all my questions answered and I'm on my own.

After work tonight I had to pick up Micayla from the Hair Studio. Val did her hair for her, she has been wanting a haircut and color, so we finally got her in. When I got there at 4:45 or, she was sitting by the hair dryer with her WHOLE head in foils. I was scared. She talked about wanting to go blonde, but come on, she has dark hair, so when I saw her hair all foiled, I said "Micayla, what are you doing?" Val looked at me and said we went crazy! All I said to Micayla was you're explaining this to your Grandma. Because she's the one who would say, "why did you do that". LOL But needless to say her hair was not as blonde as I thought. They were just playing with me. I ended up going tanning while she was still waiting, so when I got back, she had her hair cut and colored. It looked really good. Lot's of blonde highlights. It looks awesome!

After her haircut, Micayla drove me to the mall to meet Tom and HuHot, the new restaurant by the mall. We saw Chris and his boys out there as well. Kristi had conference, so she and her boys were not with them. We ate supper and Micayla just wanted dessert, so we ordered "smores" yeah, we got to roast marshmallows over a "campfire" along with graham crackers and Hersey bars. I wish I could have gotten a picture, but didn't have a camera with me. The fire we used, well I can't even explain it. Its a good thing Tom has his..

Tomorrow, I go for blood work, to see my levels and to see if I ovulated, or something like that. So after tomorrow I will now more and this might tell me if I'm pregnant, but I think it's too early to tell. I have no idea.

Until tomorrow...

Busy day!

Here I sit, on my work laptop, yes, I did a little work, just to see if I could. LOL I wanted to make sure I could log onto the VPN since I tried the other day and I locked myself out, because I couldn't remember my password. Well, I got it reset so I had to check to see if it worked.

It did and since I was so busy today, I wanted to just do a few things. I had to go to the doctor today to meet my new doc. She is so nice! We talked about things and hopefully the clomid worked. Wednesday, I go to the lab for blood work and they are going to test some levels, I'm not sure what, if they need to put me on a higher dose of clomid, this will tell them that. Hopefully, I'm pregnant and just don't need to worry about it. Wouldn't that be nice?

This weekend, I tried to not drink! It was so hard. I don't know what I'm going to do when I really know I can't. I limited my alcohol, but I did have a few on Friday and Saturday.

So the doctor said, since my insurance does not cover, infertility treatment, until one year of service, she is going to keep me on clomid. She seemed pretty promising that if this one does not take, then the next 2 or 3 should. So I can handle $2.00 a month. Yeah, it ended costing me $2.01 for a month. Well, it was only 5 pills, but still, I can't believe how cheap it was.

So keep praying for us!

Right now I'm watching "Dancing With the Stars" wow, there are a lot of great dancers this year. It's so exciting!

Oh and I just realized the other day that I have a web cam on this computer.. sweet - now I can skype! I swear, it's the best thing ever. I got to see my little niece the other day and she was saying my name. She would say Tom and Rachoo.. it brought a tear to my eye. I miss them so much and can't wait to see them in May.

Micayla's big day!

Micayla got her permit today to drive. Can you believe it? She finally decided to get it. It took her 3 times this week. We kept telling her, you need to go everyday so it stays fresh in your mind, because she would take it once this month and then again the next, so she never would remember the questions, or the ones she wrong, or right probably for that matter. But finally, I think it was a competition between her and my nephew, Justin, they were talking about it last weekend at Jake and Cole's birthday party. So they both decided they just need to do it. It was funny because Wednesday, they were both out there sitting next to each other taking the test. Needless to say, they both failed that day, but Justin got his on Thursday and today, Micayla got hers. She called me at work to tell me, it was so sweet to hear her so excited. So Tom decided once he got home from work, he picked up Micayla and she drove the truck around the neighborhood. She was a little nervous, but they just went up in the new subdivision where all the big houses are, so there's not too much traffic up around there. Tomorrow she mentioned about driving my car around, so I might take her around somewhere where there won't be much traffic. So now, the next thing is...Driver's Ed.

That's a whole another story. They don't offer it in school anymore, so we have to private and it cost somewhere around $400. Yeah, nuts huh? It was free or maybe $50 when we were in High School. It's crazy, but we do what we have to do right?

Tonight we went to the Moose lodge for the famous fish fry. It was so good. Way too many salads, but it's always delicious. We were going to go to a going away party tonight, but decided to come home instead and watch the UNI Panthers play. Can you believe UNI made it to the Sweet 16? No one can, I know!

Another reason I didn't want to go to the party is the drinking... I'm trying to not drink so much, because if I'm pregnant, and we don't yet, I don't want to hurt the baby. So I know this sounds bad, but I still had a bloody mary tonight and then I finally decided to have Bud Select. Thank God it didn't taste too good, but the bloody mary sure did!

Tomorrow Tom's going to the Wild Game Feed with Chris, Z and Dewey. I'm staying home, since Kristi isn't going up until later. This again, is probably a good thing. LOL We are going to meet the Jazzercise girls and there husbands at Pizzaria Uno's in Platteville around 6:30 so I will go up and pick up Tom and then head over to UNO's. I'm sure Tom will be in no shape, but oh well, I just excited Chris called and asked him. I love that everyone in our family get along, it makes life so much easier!

I love my family and I can't wait for the final wedding and our family will be complete! I got the wedding invite today... now it's just around the corner. I'm so excited.

Well, UNI is starting so I'm going to cheer them on! Have a great weekend everyone.

First spring flowers

The first sign of spring has finally arrived. These flower are taken right outside the front of our house. The weather has been so nice. I have been able to go walk at lunch and it feels so good to go out and get fresh air.



Aren't they just so pretty? I love this time of year when you begin to see the spring flowers and trees and all the trees starting to bud.

This week was a good week, it went really fast, I can't believe it's already Thursday night. Tonight, we took Micayla and Brandon out shopping. Micayla needed some new clothes, so we went out to Kohl's and Brandon needed new shoes for baseball, so him and Tom went to MC Sports. I ended up buying a spring coat for myself. I'm sick of wearing black so I brought a nice green coat. I love it!

Tuesday night, we all went to the Three mile house for Tom's dad's birthday. He turned 61! I had steak and Tom had the seafood platter. It funny, how much they have cut back. The salad was twice as small and the hashbrowns, well, they were on a much. smaller plate so of course, their wasn't many hashbrowns, but everything was very good, especially the steak. I had a tenderloin.

Last night, Wednesday, was out last volleyball game. I'm glad its over, but it's always fun playing with the girls.

Oh and this week was my ovulation week. I finally seem a smiley face! I was so excited, so now we just have to wait and see. I'm not going to explain what Tom and I did all week, but I'm sure you can just imagine. LOL Hopefully everything went good and next week I go in for more blood work, since I now have to go to a different doctor, they want to talk about things and test some levels of something, but I have no idea what all the terminology is and what it means. But I'm so excited the clomid worked. At least I think it did. I felt crampy yesterday, so I'm taking that was me ovulating. It's not something I have felt before so it was weird. Oh well..

Tom only has one more week of work and it's a short one, because they have Good Friday off, so his last day is the 1st of April, Brandon's birthday, he is getting really excited, I think, about starting his new career. I heard today at TFS, it's getting really quiet. I guess tomorrow is another round of layoffs, so in CS, there will only be 2 people left. Then in 2 weeks, the rest but a few people will be gone. I'm so excited for Tom.

I don't think we could have asked for 2 better jobs. Me - McGraw-Hill and Tom - John Deere. What more can we ask.. just a baby! And we're working on it.

This weekend we have a few things going on, so maybe I will just wait to blog about it once it happens.

One other thing, Justin passed his driver's permit test today, finally. Micayla has been trying for the last 2 days, she's going to go again tomorrow. We keep telling her, just keep going. We're just excited it doesn't cost us anything to take the test, just $6 once she passes!

Hempstead Alumni Basketball

This weekend was the Hempstead Alumni Basketball Tournament. It all started Friday night at 7:30 as one of the junior high schools. It was so much fun. We only lost by 4 points! I had a few special visitors that came and watched. My one visitor was my wonderful husband, before the game we went to Lacoma for fish, thank God I didn't eat too much, but it was so good. Then, as we are pulling up to the school, theirs Kristi with Justin, Jake and Matt. They came to watch and as the boys say "laugh at me" but needless to say, they didn't laugh to much as I hit about 4 three pointers! Mom, dad and grandma all came to watch too. It was so nice to see them all there. Dad got injured, he was walking in front of the bench and a ball game towards him, so he stuck out his hand and the ball bent back his thumb's fingernail. Blood started gushing everywhere. It was so funny, because as he's walking in front of our bench, we all told him to go in and play, then all of the a sudden, there's the ball! Sorry pops! Anyway, it was a really close game, lots of fun and we were very exhausted. Again, we never got any practices in, but we have to admit, we played a lot better then last year. I think the 2 games we played last year, the total score, was less then the what we had our first game this year. I think we lost 46 to 50, something like that. So since we lost, we had to play Saturday morning at 10 up at Hempstead, our old school and against our old coach, this is really who we wanted to play, because the other team, there was only 4 teams, one of them are from UD, the college team, they are really good. We are hoping next year, we will have more teams, but it's so much fun.

After my game on Friday, we all went over to Grandma's for a few drinks. Kristi stopped to get a 30 pack of Bud Select and I think, between the 3 of us, we drank most of it. It was so fun over a Grandma's the boys were there and telling us stories and we were all laughing, it was funny and amazing how much they have grown and just having conversations with them, it amazing to see them excel.

So Saturday morning came pretty early. I got out of bed about 9 and had to play at 10. My legs were very sore. Our game on Saturday was not at good as Friday's game, but just as much fun. I hit a few three's, but the whole team was so worn out from Friday, it was so funny. My legs and arms felt like jello and my ankle's hurt so bad too. But all in all, it was a great weekend. Oh and I also had a couple visitors Saturday to watch my game. Tom, Chris and Kristi and Chris's boys all came to watch. Kristi said Chris was really to yell at me a couple times, but decided against it. 16 years ago, though, he would have, or should I say did! Chris was one of my biggest fans back in High School, he was always there at all, or most, of my games. Him and dad, they were my fan club. I remember Grandpa Louie always used to come to, to my home games. What sweet memories!

After our game on Saturday, the team all went to The Mining Co. for a bloody mary and lunch. It was so good. Then that night, was Jake and Cole's birthday party. We all went to Chris and Kristi's house for burgers and chicken sandwiches and of course, snacks and beer. Lots of them! We had a good time, we ended home about 11:30 or so, so it wasn't too bad. We were so excited to be able to sleep in on Sunday morning.

And that we did. Well, I was up at 9:30 or so, but it was so nice not having to get up by an alarm or a phone ringing. Tom didn't get up until 10:30 and then we made breakfast. We lounged around the house most of the day until we went to Grandma's for rubens. She had left of corn beef, so she invited us over for rubens. She also wanted to borrow my Dyson to see how it works, because she need a new vacuum and wanted to try the dyson. I think she liked it and wants us to order her one. We got our off the internet for about $100 cheaper, we just now have to find where we bought it.

I practiced a little Jazzercise, but boy, do my legs hurt. My quads feel like they got hit by a truck.

Oh, one other thing, we had some wonderful news this past week - Tom got hired at John Deere and start on April 5th! We are so excited and we could not have asked for better jobs! Tomorrow he has to get some testing done. He's fasting now, because he has to get his cholesterol checked in the morning along with other test, but he's not 100% sure yet what he's all getting done, then he has to go out to Deere's for more test! So he's taking the day off tomorrow from Thermo.

Well, that's all for now, back to the grind tomorrow!

2 beautiful days

The last 2 days have been absolutely beautiful. I think the temps got up around 60. For lunch at work, I went for a walk, however, my shin splint are back :( It really sucks. I don't know if it's because I'm thinking about it or just not walking right. Tom and I went for a walk last night and tonight and no shin splints. I'm not sure what's going on. I guess it could be my shoes, since the shoes at work I am using are one of my old pairs of Jazzercise shoes, so I might have to try a new pair. The pair I wear everyday are only a month old or so and they do not bother me at all.

So tonight, after our walk we decided to go to Kohl's and look at shoes. I am interested in the "walking" shoes from Sketchers. You know, the ones that tone your body? But they are $100 I just can't see myself paying that much money for them. I had them in my cart, but decided to put them back and maybe look for them cheaper elsewhere.

That was the excitement of my day today. Oh, the dog got sick, that was fun.

Oh, since Tom mentioned it.. LOL Tomorrow is my last day of Clomid! So the next couple of days well, I might not have time to blog, if you know what I mean?? I haven't felt any different, but then again, I"m sure what to expect. It all might hit me once I start ovulating. Oh and speaking about that. The docs want me to take ovulation test for a week and at 2:00 in the afternoon. I guess I know what I will be doing on my break. But hopefully everything works out! I know honey, just let it happen. I love you!

Rough weekend

Yeah, it was a rough one. Friday night, we went down to Hammerheads to celebrate, I guess, the first round of layoffs in the customer service department at TFS. Tom and I went down for a few hours and visited with some of the people. We had a few beers then decided to get something to eat, so we decided to go to Salsa's. It was so good! But then again, anything's good when you have had a few drinks. We didn't want to stay out too late because we had a long day ahead of us on Saturday.

So Saturday was our annual "Steeplegate" party. A bunch of old camping buddies get together once a year to do this, usually around this time of year, when the kids have conference because they have off Thursday and Friday, however the kids did not come this time. It was a kid free weekend, so we took advantage of it. Sometimes its nice, but we all know the kids love to go, so next year, they will get to go.

Chris and Kristi picked us up around 10:3o and we got to Davenport around noon and of course, we had to start drinking right away. Dad made me a couple of bloody mary's and from there on, between me Tom, Chris and Kristi, we drank 60 beers. We ran out about 1:00! There wasn't a lot of excitement, but we all had a great time. We played "right, left, center, a dice game and lucky me, I won all 3 games! I just got done counting my quarters and I won $24. So not too bad of a night huh? I should have gone to the casino. NOT!

I have a few pictures of the evening, but I'm not in the mood to download them right now, I'm sitting in the hangover chair right now, as I did have a hangover this morning, but I feel pretty good right now. We got home around 12:30 and I laid on the couch for a while and decided to make a frozen pizza. That was such a good idea because after that, I was ready to get to work. It was such a beautiful day outside and I didn't want it to go to waste. Tom was already outside picking up dog shit! Man, is there ever a lot of it. All winter's doggie do do! Tom raked it up and then we decided to take down the Christmas lights. So we did that and just sat outside, we talked to the neighbors for a while and just enjoyed the sunshine. It felt so good. Later on, Brandon and I played a few game of "around the world" - basketball game. I kicked his butt, but I had to practice because in 2 weeks, I am playing in the Hempstead Alumni basketball tournament. I played last year and boy, we were pretty rusty. I'm sure we will be the same this year, but I like to at least shoot a few hoops before hand.

Tom made some meatballs tonight for spaghetti and meatballs. It was so good. Oh and we had to move our clocks ahead so we got to enjoy an hour of more sunshine, so that was awesome.

Well, I'm ready for week 3 and MGH. I can't believe I have 2 weeks in already. Wow, does time fly. Oh, one other thing.. I started Clomid 2 days ago, so say some prayers everyone that this helps! I haven't felt any different yet, as in, no hot flashes or abdominal pain. Tomorrow's day 3. I have to take them for 5 days and then well, you know what I have to do then, I don't think I have to explain. I know Tom will be happy!

Ready for the weekend

Ok, so I have been waiting for an update from my sister-in-law, but she just hasn't had the time to blog, so since I don't have anything to read, I'm sure whoever is reading this "boring" blog, you are probably thinking the same thing. so Steph, I know you are in Texas and then heading to Las Vegas, so we will give you a break. I hope you are having a great time!

This is my second week at MGH and it's still going great. I can honestly say, I love my job, now! What a big change from Thermo Fisher. This week was back to normal, no lunches all week, so I brought my own. I even got to get out for a walk. It was so nice being able to walk up on the flood wall and see the river. Yes, the ice is just about gone. Thanks goodness for the 40 and 50 degrees weather. We love it. Speaking of lunches, today, Thursday, our department all walked over to Tony Roma's for lunch. We ended having lunch bought for us, thanks to our new boss, she bought everyone's lunch. It was so good. I have been there for dinner once and it was very good as well. I had a chicken panni and french fries. It was awesome. After lunch, we got to practice on the phones. Tomorrow we are going to start taking live phone calls. It's going to so much better then the phones call I used to get at ThermoFisher. I don't know how much I will have to be on the phone once everyone is trained, but I will be on them for now.

I am going to be having some tasks to do, once we all get settled and get everything figured out, since I'm supervisor, so for now, I'm just going to enjoy what I"m doing, not that I won't enjoy it later down the road, but I'm really looking forward to everything.

Tomorrow, Tom and I are going to Hammerheads to meet some people from Thermo. Tomorrow is the one of the 1st rounds of layoffs in my old department, so a bunch of people are getting together down there to have a few brewskis, then Saturday, we are heading to Davenport to stay at the steeplegate. A bunch of family friends and relatives all get together about this time of year to spend the weekend together. It's usually a lot of fun and this year, since it's a "kid free" weekend, just the adults are going. Tom and I are riding down with my brother Chris and his fiance Kristi. It should be a good time. Right now I am making my "dish to pass", we all usually bring a snack or something and this time I am bringing veggie pizza. A lady at work made this one time and it was to die for. She has made it several times since we all loved it so much, so she gave me the recipe on my last day of work, so I am making that tonight. I have all the veggies cut up and ready to go. I am just waiting for the crescent rolls to cool.

That about all the excitement for me this week. Hope to bring some good pictures from Davenport, so you can see all the fun we do have.

Have a good weekend everyone!

One week down

Well, it's Sunday night and I'm watching the Oscars and blogging on my new laptop, all while I am sitting in the hangover chair. No, I don't have a hang over, but it's the most comfortable seat in the house. I love sitting here, typing about my day and week. I have the heat on, so it feels great on my lower back. I'm about ready to turn on the vibration, but this just feels so good.

I finally had time this afternoon to learn a few Jazzercise songs. I think I over did it though, I have 4 new ones to put in tomorrow, so I just went over the music and the routines in my head before I started blogging. This is usually a Sunday night ritual.

I had a great first week at McGraw-Hill, oh speaking of laptop, it came from MGH. It was all ready for me on Monday when I started. I have never had a laptop needed for work, so I'm feeling kind of special. At least I know I can work from home if needed. This is one good thing, but the bad thing is, I can take work home with me and I don't like to work if I don't need to. But I guess if it's what I have to do, then so be it. I got my first check this week, well kind of, I was suppose to get paid Thursday, but for some reason it wasn't in my bank account, so I decided to wait until Friday just in case and I could also ask the other new girls if they got their check, well I asked and the did, so I had to take it a few steps further. I had to call the payroll dept. and they said it should have been sent to my bank.. well, it didn't and come realize the bank number I put in was missing a digit! oops.. I'm not sure who's fault, because I thought you had to enter the number twice, but anyway, we found it so hopefully it will be there tomorrow or Tuesday. I wasn't really expecting it, so it wasn't that big of a deal. I know I'm getting is, so it's all OK. Speaking of money, Tom told me that we are to be getting our bonuses this week or early next week. That means we are getting our yearly bonus and our Feb. (stay pay) bonus. The ones we have been getting if we meet our numbers. So the next couple of weeks will be nice :)

This week should be normal at work. No more free lunches for a while, so I have to start packing it again. This is better, because I was eating way too much lately and it's showing! I really need to stop eating so much, summer is coming! I don't think I will be able to fit into any of my clothes. Oh, gee, enough about that!

We had a great weekend, Friday night we went up to mom and dad's for fish and onion rings. Chris, Kristi and they boys came us as well as Grandma. The fish was delicious. Saturday, I had to teach Jazz in the morning at 8:45 for Shelley, who was out of town, then we sat around all afternoon until I got a text from Chris telling me that Justin was in the championship basketball game so Tom and I decided to go out and watch. They didn't win, but it was nice to watch. After the game we back to Chris and Kristi's house and we grilled out hamburgers and chicken breast. It was so nice to sit and relax and have a few drinks with them. I'm so happy they met each other. They are awesome together and they way they communicate with the boys is unbelievable. I don't know how they do it, but I think they were definitely brought into this world and met the way they did for a reason!

Tonight, we invited Tom and Linda up for supper. We had a big roast that we stuck in the crockpot along with potatoes and carrots. It was so good. Mom and dad stopped by for a drink before they went to Grandma's for supper.

Another great weekend, next weekend, we are off to Davenport for the big "campers" weekend at the steeple gate! We, Chris, Kristi and Tom and I, are going Saturday morning. It should be fun. No kids so we never know what's going to happen. Ta Ta for now! I'm going to finish watching the Oscars and go to bed early.

2nd day

Today flew by! I can't believe it's already time for bed. I just got out of the bathtub and boy, did it feel good. I love taking a bath, but I hate getting it ready, if that makes sense, but I sat in their for about 45 minutes listening to my Ipod. It was very relaxing. I ended up listening to my "wedding songs" playlist. I made a playlist of all my wedding songs, when I was preparing for my wedding. I decided to save it, because I loved all the songs that we played. I'm talking about all the church songs and the one's that Allie sang. Oh and the first dance and father/daughter dance. I had a few tears in my eyes just thinking about the whole day. I can't believe it's almost been a year! Again, time flies!

Well, today at work, was very busy. We had lots more training. Everything is done on webinars and things like that, but they went pretty good. I just have a few more to do and then I will be able to actually watch the programs in action. The 2 programs that I have to learn, for now anyways, is salesforce.com and Oracle. I haven't heard of Oracle, but I have heard of Saleforce.com. I'm looking forward to tomorrow because I can sleep in. The last 2 days with Jazzercise has really wore me out. I'm ready for the extra hour and a half of sleep.

Tom has his interview today and from the sounds of it, he did really well. I'm so excited for him. Hopefully, he will hear something soon and they will put him into the "hiring pool" then he just has to wait for the open position. I guess their is one open right now, so if all things go well, he could get that one! Keep saying some prayers.

First day!

What a great day it was. Up for Jazzercise for my 5:45 am class and it felt so great. I didn't think about much up until I was on my way home after class. That's when the butterflies started. I got home from Jazzercise about 7 and did a few dishes and then decided to get into the shower and take my time getting ready, as I didn't have to be at work until 9:00.

Well, I got there and their was 5 of us that were starting in the same department. We were the only external new hires, the rest came from within the company, and there are about 15 of us. I got my own office, laptop and all, and we did lots of online training today. The company brought in Jimmy John's for lunch, so I didn't have to eat the salad I brought, just in case.

I found out my insurance started today! I just have 30 days sign up for what plan we want. Tom and I looked it over tonight and we decided what plan so I am ready for signing up for all that.

I am so excited about this opportunity for me and I can't wait to get to know everyone and figure out what I'm going to be doing. I have lots to learn, especially since I'm a supervisor, my boss told me I will have more extensive training, but I'm ready!

Tom and I made stir fry tonight and we thought we had a sauce packet, but we couldn't find it, so we pulled a recipe up online and it was awesome. I can't remember what was all in it, but it was very good. Now we are watching, or I am, watching the Bachelor. I haven't been watching the whole season, but I always like the last one, plus they are announcing the Dancing With The Stars line up for this spring, starting the end of March! Oh and Tom is getting his interview stuff all ready for his interview with JD tomorrow. We got his outfit all picked out. Say some prayers it goes good. He took the day off, which is a good thing, because he said it was super busy at work today. I guess they asked him if he would go to Asheville, NC to help out on some training. So he will probably be gone next week or the week after :(