Wednesday, March 29, 2006
We Received our Fingerprint Appointment Letter!
What more can I say (or type)? Yippee! We are planning on driving to San Antonio early this Saturday and get there by 7:00am to be first in line to get fingerprinted.
Afterwards, Scott and I will go to downtown area and eat at my favorite restaurant "Mi Tierra's". Then we'll go walk to the riverwalk and do the tourist thing. Then we'll drive back home.
Thursday, March 23, 2006
I made a decision
The executive administrator our VP had chosen, chose to accept a counter offer from her employer. I can't think of anyone better for the job than that person. It is difficult to fill a position at that level. After some thought, I realized I have done the job very well. There has been some struggle because I am doing two jobs. This afternoon, I told the VP, I want to be her executive adminsitrator.
I struggled internally for a while about this. However, I WROTE the job requisition and I did specify what type of person the VP should be looking for to make the VP successful. I originally had self doubts because I came into such a chaotic situation. The VP's calendar was a mess with 12 hour days and she didn't have good relationships with outside departments. I have been able to get it under control by managing her time and pushing back diplomatically as well as saying the occassional "no" on her behalf. If I didn't have two jobs I may actually work 8-5pm.
She was pleasantly surprised. She had reservations because a few months ago I had said "no" to the idea of moving me into the position. I said no because I was scared of failing. I had based my opionion on "Ms. Exec Admin". I can't believe I was pursuaded by someone elses opinion and the fact they were failing horribly at the job. It wasn't like me. I usually am open minded.
I am very happy with my decision because I have seen the synergy of the team get better since I've taken charge of many task. Task which were never taken care of by the previous EA. I even had a few manager from California tell me they are really glad to have me helping the VP who is now more available to speak to them.
I've been to talk to and meet execs and employees as well as partners from other areas. That is so cool knowing people outside the department.
Oh! Not that my head is swelling, but I really was flattered. I had an EA to a director ask me for my opinion on a e-mail she was writing to the team. I don't even think I write that well! Which is why I blog. I need to write more often if I want to improve my writing skills. Hmmm... Maybe I should start a blog with my target audience being administrators, clerks and secretaries?
I-600A Update:
Still, no fingerprint appointment in the mail :-(
I struggled internally for a while about this. However, I WROTE the job requisition and I did specify what type of person the VP should be looking for to make the VP successful. I originally had self doubts because I came into such a chaotic situation. The VP's calendar was a mess with 12 hour days and she didn't have good relationships with outside departments. I have been able to get it under control by managing her time and pushing back diplomatically as well as saying the occassional "no" on her behalf. If I didn't have two jobs I may actually work 8-5pm.
She was pleasantly surprised. She had reservations because a few months ago I had said "no" to the idea of moving me into the position. I said no because I was scared of failing. I had based my opionion on "Ms. Exec Admin". I can't believe I was pursuaded by someone elses opinion and the fact they were failing horribly at the job. It wasn't like me. I usually am open minded.
I am very happy with my decision because I have seen the synergy of the team get better since I've taken charge of many task. Task which were never taken care of by the previous EA. I even had a few manager from California tell me they are really glad to have me helping the VP who is now more available to speak to them.
I've been to talk to and meet execs and employees as well as partners from other areas. That is so cool knowing people outside the department.
Oh! Not that my head is swelling, but I really was flattered. I had an EA to a director ask me for my opinion on a e-mail she was writing to the team. I don't even think I write that well! Which is why I blog. I need to write more often if I want to improve my writing skills. Hmmm... Maybe I should start a blog with my target audience being administrators, clerks and secretaries?
I-600A Update:
Still, no fingerprint appointment in the mail :-(
Tuesday, March 21, 2006
Weekly Update
I have so much to write about, but haven't had time (and of course blogger has been up and down during the last week).
Pets:
Scooter, my 4lb chihuahua, lost his eyesight in his right eye due to a cataract in January. The vet first noticed it in August of 2005 during his annual checkup. Poor, little, guy. A few weeks ago, he ran into a small branch laying on the ground and poked his cataract affected eye. The good thing is, he isn't going to lose the eye. I mean physically lose the eye, no pun intended. The bad thing is, it is a slow recovery. He has floating white blood cell clots which are visible. He is milking the attention for all it is worth. He has adjusted well to losing part of his eyesight. He runs into things and can't judge distance very well. Scott and I agreed, along with the vet opthomologist, we will monitor his good eye. If it starts to show signs of a cataract, then we'll do surgery. It seems when are trying to save for an expensive service or purchase our pets have an emergency which dips into our savings.
Admin to the VP
The VP has selected an executive administrator! Yippee! She accepted a verbal offer, but we are waiting to see if actually signs the employment contract. I hope she does. I interviewed her. I think she has a great personality and had several previous and current managers contact the VP with the verbal reference. If she does accept, then she'll start April 3rd. It will probably take her about two weeks for me to transition task to her and an additional two weeks to train her how to use our corporate applications.
Additional Duties
After all that work of trying to find a administrator to the VP, I found out we are going to be hiring an additional director and a chief technology officer. Guess who gets to support them? Yep! Me! Hmmm... Maybe I should have just taken the job of supporting the VP? Anyway, the VP and I had a heart to heart talk. We agreed I want to keep my current job of program coordinator. After the new director and CTO are onboard, I'll evaluate their administrative needs. If they are too needy, then we'll hire an additional administrator or divide duties between me and the VP's admin. My hunch is we are going to have to hire a new administrator. In one way it is good to have economic growth, but on the other hand, it is always the administrators who are stretched thin. I don't see why, considering we are the lowest paid employees on the payroll. Believe me, since I am privvy to what the other folks make in our department. You think it isn't too much to ask to hire one other administrator.
Chicago Chinese Consulate:
I sent a few docs via courier, Denise Hope of There is Always Hope , to the Chicago Chinese Consulate. Denise sent the docs back to me via Fedex 2 or 3 day (I can't remember what I selected on the label). By the way, she did an awesome job. I highly recommend her service.
Back to Gym:
I have been feeling so out of shape. With all the hours I am putting in, I have been eating fast food for lunch and dinner. I didn't make time to go the gym. I've been paying fees for four months. That changed last Friday. I made a commitment to myself to go back. I proclaimed it to upper management too. At 4:45pm on Friday I said "I AM GOING TO THE GYM, I AM OUTA HERE!!" Today, my body is screaming "OUCH!! PAIN!!! " after five days of working out. It should pass soon. I have had to put the treadmill settings at nearly the same elevation & speed as when I first joined the gym. My body is really in sad shape. I hadn't gained any weight since I quit going to the gym, but I definately lost muscle tone and gained fat.
I-600A
Still no word from from San Antonio. Tomorrow marks the 3 week period since I submitted my application. I shouldn't be upset. I heard that Chicago USCIS is hurting since they are going through some changes. The I-600A wait is really long there.
Pets:
Scooter, my 4lb chihuahua, lost his eyesight in his right eye due to a cataract in January. The vet first noticed it in August of 2005 during his annual checkup. Poor, little, guy. A few weeks ago, he ran into a small branch laying on the ground and poked his cataract affected eye. The good thing is, he isn't going to lose the eye. I mean physically lose the eye, no pun intended. The bad thing is, it is a slow recovery. He has floating white blood cell clots which are visible. He is milking the attention for all it is worth. He has adjusted well to losing part of his eyesight. He runs into things and can't judge distance very well. Scott and I agreed, along with the vet opthomologist, we will monitor his good eye. If it starts to show signs of a cataract, then we'll do surgery. It seems when are trying to save for an expensive service or purchase our pets have an emergency which dips into our savings.
Admin to the VP
The VP has selected an executive administrator! Yippee! She accepted a verbal offer, but we are waiting to see if actually signs the employment contract. I hope she does. I interviewed her. I think she has a great personality and had several previous and current managers contact the VP with the verbal reference. If she does accept, then she'll start April 3rd. It will probably take her about two weeks for me to transition task to her and an additional two weeks to train her how to use our corporate applications.
Additional Duties
After all that work of trying to find a administrator to the VP, I found out we are going to be hiring an additional director and a chief technology officer. Guess who gets to support them? Yep! Me! Hmmm... Maybe I should have just taken the job of supporting the VP? Anyway, the VP and I had a heart to heart talk. We agreed I want to keep my current job of program coordinator. After the new director and CTO are onboard, I'll evaluate their administrative needs. If they are too needy, then we'll hire an additional administrator or divide duties between me and the VP's admin. My hunch is we are going to have to hire a new administrator. In one way it is good to have economic growth, but on the other hand, it is always the administrators who are stretched thin. I don't see why, considering we are the lowest paid employees on the payroll. Believe me, since I am privvy to what the other folks make in our department. You think it isn't too much to ask to hire one other administrator.
Chicago Chinese Consulate:
I sent a few docs via courier, Denise Hope of There is Always Hope , to the Chicago Chinese Consulate. Denise sent the docs back to me via Fedex 2 or 3 day (I can't remember what I selected on the label). By the way, she did an awesome job. I highly recommend her service.
Back to Gym:
I have been feeling so out of shape. With all the hours I am putting in, I have been eating fast food for lunch and dinner. I didn't make time to go the gym. I've been paying fees for four months. That changed last Friday. I made a commitment to myself to go back. I proclaimed it to upper management too. At 4:45pm on Friday I said "I AM GOING TO THE GYM, I AM OUTA HERE!!" Today, my body is screaming "OUCH!! PAIN!!! " after five days of working out. It should pass soon. I have had to put the treadmill settings at nearly the same elevation & speed as when I first joined the gym. My body is really in sad shape. I hadn't gained any weight since I quit going to the gym, but I definately lost muscle tone and gained fat.
I-600A
Still no word from from San Antonio. Tomorrow marks the 3 week period since I submitted my application. I shouldn't be upset. I heard that Chicago USCIS is hurting since they are going through some changes. The I-600A wait is really long there.
Friday, March 17, 2006
Stalking the Mail Carrier
Where is the letter regarding our fingerprint appointment? Grrr... I am starting to stalk the mail carrier. I hover over her as she searches for my mail nearly on a daily basis. She has been nice, but I can tell she is nervous. I haven't told her what I am waiting for.
I Fedexed the application with the homestudy on March 1st, it arrived March 2nd, and USCIS cashed my check March 7th.
Pacing, pacing, like a tiger stalking it's next prey.
I Fedexed the application with the homestudy on March 1st, it arrived March 2nd, and USCIS cashed my check March 7th.
Pacing, pacing, like a tiger stalking it's next prey.
Wednesday, March 15, 2006
Saving Money
I've been reading the following websites to save money
The Dollar Stretcher
Frugal Living on About.Com
Miserly Moms
I had a candid talk with Scott about staying home with the children. He doesn't think I should since I detest housework. He reminded me I would rather have a root canal than cleaning a house. (Which is why we have a house cleaning service visit our house every few weeks). He said maybe working part time where I only take off 1 day a week or full-time where I spread the 5th day into a long weekend (Friday-Sunday for a 2.5 hours a day).
He did agree we should put money away to save for me to stay home for three months so our child could bond. He did reminded me what happened in 2000. I stayed at home (with no kids) for 5 months. He finally asked me to go find a job because I wasn't a good housekeeper. [Really, I wasn't. I wasn't organized at all] I have a question for Stay-At-Home Moms. Iis it possible to use a day planner and be able to keep the house neat as men like it or is it a pipe dream? I think when a child is involved, the neat house goes out the window.
Again, I see the fork in the road. Honestly, I think I'll take the vacation and 12 weeks unpaid family leave and then go back to work. I probably will sob as I drive to work my first day back (as I have heard every other woman in my company tell me) and get back into the scheme of things. I have my reasons.
I grew up poor and I didn't know it...until I couldn't go on certain trips with the rest of my friends. Furthermore, mom told me it was a hardship for me to be in extra curricular activities. Every summer I had to have garage sales and bake sales as well as save up baby sitting money to pay for uniforms and camps. I wasn't able to work in retail jobs because I didn't have a car and mom needed me to take care of my brother.
I think I found out why I don't want to stay at home. I really like my lifestyle. I never went on vacations growing up. I was really embarrassed about growing up in the "barrio". I like living in a nicer neighborhood and nicer house than I grew up in.
By the way, our lifestyle is a middle ground. Scott grew up in a very wealthy step-family who doesn't wish to share the wealth and I grew up in a very poor family who doesn't have anything to share. I'm not saying his family isn't a caring, loving people. We are just opposites in our famiy upbringing. His family had a house in Pebble Beach and my family had...well,we were lucky to have a roof over our head, but it was without central air or heat [Man! That house was hot in the summer and cold in the winter. ]
Decisions, Decisions.
The Dollar Stretcher
Frugal Living on About.Com
Miserly Moms
I had a candid talk with Scott about staying home with the children. He doesn't think I should since I detest housework. He reminded me I would rather have a root canal than cleaning a house. (Which is why we have a house cleaning service visit our house every few weeks). He said maybe working part time where I only take off 1 day a week or full-time where I spread the 5th day into a long weekend (Friday-Sunday for a 2.5 hours a day).
He did agree we should put money away to save for me to stay home for three months so our child could bond. He did reminded me what happened in 2000. I stayed at home (with no kids) for 5 months. He finally asked me to go find a job because I wasn't a good housekeeper. [Really, I wasn't. I wasn't organized at all] I have a question for Stay-At-Home Moms. Iis it possible to use a day planner and be able to keep the house neat as men like it or is it a pipe dream? I think when a child is involved, the neat house goes out the window.
Again, I see the fork in the road. Honestly, I think I'll take the vacation and 12 weeks unpaid family leave and then go back to work. I probably will sob as I drive to work my first day back (as I have heard every other woman in my company tell me) and get back into the scheme of things. I have my reasons.
I grew up poor and I didn't know it...until I couldn't go on certain trips with the rest of my friends. Furthermore, mom told me it was a hardship for me to be in extra curricular activities. Every summer I had to have garage sales and bake sales as well as save up baby sitting money to pay for uniforms and camps. I wasn't able to work in retail jobs because I didn't have a car and mom needed me to take care of my brother.
I think I found out why I don't want to stay at home. I really like my lifestyle. I never went on vacations growing up. I was really embarrassed about growing up in the "barrio". I like living in a nicer neighborhood and nicer house than I grew up in.
By the way, our lifestyle is a middle ground. Scott grew up in a very wealthy step-family who doesn't wish to share the wealth and I grew up in a very poor family who doesn't have anything to share. I'm not saying his family isn't a caring, loving people. We are just opposites in our famiy upbringing. His family had a house in Pebble Beach and my family had...well,we were lucky to have a roof over our head, but it was without central air or heat [Man! That house was hot in the summer and cold in the winter. ]
Decisions, Decisions.
Tuesday, March 14, 2006
Mommy Wars
After the child arrives, to work or stay at home? I'm really torn. I've been watching Good Morning Show with the clips about "mommy wars". The stay at home mom vs working mom. My opinion is it is a personal choice and each family has to do what they feel is best for their household.
Today, I had to take our chihuahua to the vet for an eye exam. Knowing I had to take off this morning, I had to work very late last night to meet today's noon deadlines. My poor little chihuahua, he hurt his eye early last week and I had to wait to take him to his vet on Saturday. They couldn't help him because of the type of trauma he had, so he had to go to veterinary opthomologist (Yes, I know, amazing they haveI vet specialist). The specialist called Saturday afternoon to make an appointment for Monday. I felt guilty I couldn't take him Monday. As a matter of fact, the whole event of his eye trauma has made me feel guilty because he hurts and Scott and I haveto plan our work around him. If this was our child, we couldn't plan, we could only react. I cry as I type this because my chihuahua is such a little guy. He only weighs 4 lbs. Poor thing.
Anyway, I took him to his appointment and then brought him back home. I remotely logged into the office, forwarded my phone to my house, and worked from home. During my lunch hour I went to the grocery store and PetsMart. At the grocery store I ran into our very pregnant neighbor (she is due next week). She's a stay at home mom. Her son was at mommy's day out. Our neighbor uses this time to run errands. She loves being a stay at home mommy.
I keep wondering if we can financially swing it for me to stay at home. Right now, we wouldn't be able to do it living in the current house. We pay off the cars this year and even that doesn't help. Our mortgage requires both of our incomes. We love our neighborhood because we have PreK - 2nd year of college within a 3 mile radius. We could move to a less costly house which is in this radius, but I like our house and its costly to move. I probably can come up with all kinds of excuses why I can't afford to stay home.
My mom tells me I have good employer benefits because of my seniority; 3 weeks of vacation, 1 week of winter break, and 5-6 other holidays. That is a total of over a month off. A small token bonus when the company makes money. I also have the luxury to work from home occassionally. Mom told me I should work with my manager and try to find a solution to keep working full-time. Mom is afraid I may never be able to get another executive administrator job at the pay I am getting along with the benefits. I know she is right. Not about finding another executive administrator position, but about the pay and the benefits. I think I may be having feelings of staying home because I am doing two jobs right now until we find a replacement executive administrator to the VP. I am working long hours, so I may be a little burned out. Mom thinks when things "return to normal" around the office, I may return to my old optimistic self.
I'm not quite at a fork in the road, but I see it looming. Also, a lot of things can happen between now and then. We haven't DTC'ed yet, so we have another 12-14 months before making a decision. Then I have 12 weeks of unpaid family leave if I want to test the waters.
Today, I had to take our chihuahua to the vet for an eye exam. Knowing I had to take off this morning, I had to work very late last night to meet today's noon deadlines. My poor little chihuahua, he hurt his eye early last week and I had to wait to take him to his vet on Saturday. They couldn't help him because of the type of trauma he had, so he had to go to veterinary opthomologist (Yes, I know, amazing they haveI vet specialist). The specialist called Saturday afternoon to make an appointment for Monday. I felt guilty I couldn't take him Monday. As a matter of fact, the whole event of his eye trauma has made me feel guilty because he hurts and Scott and I haveto plan our work around him. If this was our child, we couldn't plan, we could only react. I cry as I type this because my chihuahua is such a little guy. He only weighs 4 lbs. Poor thing.
Anyway, I took him to his appointment and then brought him back home. I remotely logged into the office, forwarded my phone to my house, and worked from home. During my lunch hour I went to the grocery store and PetsMart. At the grocery store I ran into our very pregnant neighbor (she is due next week). She's a stay at home mom. Her son was at mommy's day out. Our neighbor uses this time to run errands. She loves being a stay at home mommy.
I keep wondering if we can financially swing it for me to stay at home. Right now, we wouldn't be able to do it living in the current house. We pay off the cars this year and even that doesn't help. Our mortgage requires both of our incomes. We love our neighborhood because we have PreK - 2nd year of college within a 3 mile radius. We could move to a less costly house which is in this radius, but I like our house and its costly to move. I probably can come up with all kinds of excuses why I can't afford to stay home.
My mom tells me I have good employer benefits because of my seniority; 3 weeks of vacation, 1 week of winter break, and 5-6 other holidays. That is a total of over a month off. A small token bonus when the company makes money. I also have the luxury to work from home occassionally. Mom told me I should work with my manager and try to find a solution to keep working full-time. Mom is afraid I may never be able to get another executive administrator job at the pay I am getting along with the benefits. I know she is right. Not about finding another executive administrator position, but about the pay and the benefits. I think I may be having feelings of staying home because I am doing two jobs right now until we find a replacement executive administrator to the VP. I am working long hours, so I may be a little burned out. Mom thinks when things "return to normal" around the office, I may return to my old optimistic self.
I'm not quite at a fork in the road, but I see it looming. Also, a lot of things can happen between now and then. We haven't DTC'ed yet, so we have another 12-14 months before making a decision. Then I have 12 weeks of unpaid family leave if I want to test the waters.
Thursday, March 09, 2006
USCIS Cashed Our Check
I was reviewing my bank account this morning . On March 7th USCIS cashed the personal check I submitted with our I-600A application. Wow! That was fast considering it arrived the 2nd. Now, lets see how fast we get our letter to go get our fingerprints?
Wednesday, March 08, 2006
More Memories of Grandma
I've been thinking about my maternal grandmother since my last entry. My "M" grandmother was born in 1922 on February 29th (YES! a leap year!). My grandmother always understood what it was like to be poor because her parents were migrant farm workers. She grew up being poor when poor was tough because of the 1929 stock market crash caused the Great Depression. Then she lived through the ration years of WWII.
I have to let you know, both of my maternal and fraternal grandmothers have the same first name. How strange is that?
Anyway, "M" grandmother could really make a penny or dollar stretch. When she passed away, I found jars of buttons, scraps of old fabric, and other things which would make her look like a pack rack. Upon her "pack rack" think I ran across a ration card from WWII. It had meat, sugar, flour, milk, butter stamps left in it. My grandmother knew how to prepare for the worse.
She passed some of those skills to me because I lived with her during the summer times.
I remember my mother shunned this lifestyle of "used" anything because she had to live it. When mom was going through a divorce with dad, I remember at the tender age of 16 sitting down with mom and asking her "why do you look so sad?". She confessed that her small paycheck was a challenge to support my extra curricular cheerleading and choir activities. She finally opened up and drew up our finances. It was my first lesson in learning how to maintain finances. By the way, I helped mom trim the budget, and I was able to still pay to be in cheerleading, choir, and any activity.
Now, I look at how these skills are helping us pay for our adoption. I've had to cut back on several things. Mainly, eating out. Also, Scott and I am learning home improvement skills.
We recently put in our own cabinets into the game room. We had the plumbing pre-plumbed when we built the house. We saved up our money in cash and bought the cabinets at the local DIY store. There were some mistakes during the installation, but they aren't noticeable. Let me tell you, the builder quoted 4X more than the actual cost of the cabinets. RIP OFF!
I love reading. Unfortunately, we don't live in the city limits to be able to check out from the local library, but I do use second hand book stores, the free bin at work, and craig's list.
By the way, we have 1 more payment on the truck and 5 more payments on the car. The car is falling apart, but we will replace parts as they break off. Darn "luxury" model car has less than 50K miles on it, and two things broke! I'm serious! It is a luxury car model. Cheap @$$ plastic pieces! The dealership parts shop said it will take 6 - 8 weeks to get the parts. AS IF I WOULD BUY A NEW CAR because I have to wait several weeks. Order the parts! Which came out to a total of $85. (mind thinking frantically here) $85 or new car?? Hmmmm....
What we do for our children .... or future children. Thanks Grandma for teaching me frugality.
"Honey! Do we still want to add that extra space into the attic?" " I found a DIY book on how to build stairs and how to build out the attic within the roof line!"..... Ha!Ha!
Note: By the way, I didn't pay that much for my new cell phone. I searched for several months to find the right phone. I happened to be a local electronic store and they had a special. If I switched carriers I could get the phone for $40. The bonus was that included the pink color (which is sold out everywhere & it is sold for $149 + ) I was still on the AT&T plan and migrating to Cingular counted as a new activation. SWEET! After I purchased the phone, I called customer service and was able to apply our company discount to my account. Scott says I have my grandmother's penny pinching genes!
I have to let you know, both of my maternal and fraternal grandmothers have the same first name. How strange is that?
Anyway, "M" grandmother could really make a penny or dollar stretch. When she passed away, I found jars of buttons, scraps of old fabric, and other things which would make her look like a pack rack. Upon her "pack rack" think I ran across a ration card from WWII. It had meat, sugar, flour, milk, butter stamps left in it. My grandmother knew how to prepare for the worse.
She passed some of those skills to me because I lived with her during the summer times.
I remember my mother shunned this lifestyle of "used" anything because she had to live it. When mom was going through a divorce with dad, I remember at the tender age of 16 sitting down with mom and asking her "why do you look so sad?". She confessed that her small paycheck was a challenge to support my extra curricular cheerleading and choir activities. She finally opened up and drew up our finances. It was my first lesson in learning how to maintain finances. By the way, I helped mom trim the budget, and I was able to still pay to be in cheerleading, choir, and any activity.
Now, I look at how these skills are helping us pay for our adoption. I've had to cut back on several things. Mainly, eating out. Also, Scott and I am learning home improvement skills.
We recently put in our own cabinets into the game room. We had the plumbing pre-plumbed when we built the house. We saved up our money in cash and bought the cabinets at the local DIY store. There were some mistakes during the installation, but they aren't noticeable. Let me tell you, the builder quoted 4X more than the actual cost of the cabinets. RIP OFF!
I love reading. Unfortunately, we don't live in the city limits to be able to check out from the local library, but I do use second hand book stores, the free bin at work, and craig's list.
By the way, we have 1 more payment on the truck and 5 more payments on the car. The car is falling apart, but we will replace parts as they break off. Darn "luxury" model car has less than 50K miles on it, and two things broke! I'm serious! It is a luxury car model. Cheap @$$ plastic pieces! The dealership parts shop said it will take 6 - 8 weeks to get the parts. AS IF I WOULD BUY A NEW CAR because I have to wait several weeks. Order the parts! Which came out to a total of $85. (mind thinking frantically here) $85 or new car?? Hmmmm....
What we do for our children .... or future children. Thanks Grandma for teaching me frugality.
"Honey! Do we still want to add that extra space into the attic?" " I found a DIY book on how to build stairs and how to build out the attic within the roof line!"..... Ha!Ha!
Note: By the way, I didn't pay that much for my new cell phone. I searched for several months to find the right phone. I happened to be a local electronic store and they had a special. If I switched carriers I could get the phone for $40. The bonus was that included the pink color (which is sold out everywhere & it is sold for $149 + ) I was still on the AT&T plan and migrating to Cingular counted as a new activation. SWEET! After I purchased the phone, I called customer service and was able to apply our company discount to my account. Scott says I have my grandmother's penny pinching genes!
Tuesday, March 07, 2006
Memories of Grandma
As I was waiting in the drive thru line at our neighborhood Whataburger. They were displaying a poster about their fish sandwich. Then I looked next door at the Sonic poster and they were also displaying a fish sandwich. Across the street at the Jack In the Box, they had a fish sandwich poster as well. What a strange thing to make me think of my maternal grandmother. Funny how the brain works. I then remembered it is the season of Lent. Grandmother always loved her fish sandwich plain and dry on Friday for lunch. On Friday evening, my grandparents would go to the local catfish parlour and then go to bingo. That was their weekly Lenten Friday ritual.
It has been 16 years since my grandmother passed away. I wonder what "little things" my parents will imprint on my child's mind which will be remembered with fondness?
It has been 16 years since my grandmother passed away. I wonder what "little things" my parents will imprint on my child's mind which will be remembered with fondness?
Wednesday, March 01, 2006
New Cell Phone
I finally decided to get a new cell phone. The Motorola RAZR pink. Actually, I've been thinking about getting a new cell phone for six months, but couldn't find a phone I liked. I originally was an AT&T legacy customer. The cell phone I was using was a Sony Ericson. In the 2 years I have had that phone, I have never really been able to use all the features because the phone is for a power user. Get me in front of a computer, I am a power user. Put a cell phone in my hand and you would think I've never seen one before. This time, I am going to RTFM and try to use this phone to its full capabilities.
I sent off our I-600A today. Yipee!! I also received Scott's Secretary of State certified birth certificate. Hurray!! What a nice Ash Wednesday present.
The other thing good that happened today was our back yard neighbor, who has the most yappy dogs I have ever heard, SOLD his house today. We've tried to negotiate with that man, but he says he doesn't care for the dogs and he says they were his ex-wife's. So, he only shelters them during the evening in his house, but they are outside all day, every day. If he doesn't come home from a party, they bark all night nonstop. We've even had the Sheriff's department come out here, but there is nothing they can do since we haven't been annexed by the city. So we are out of jurisdiction to enforce any laws. It falls onto our home owners assocation. The home owners association sent him many warnings and fines. He pays the fines each time. Scott and I love animals but we actually had morbid, law breaking, thoughts about silencing the dogs for the past three years.
I was going to write about 2005 Mardi Gras, but if nothing exciting happens tomorrow, I will bore you with the story.
