Just stuff

Well I had my first full 8 hour shift at work on Sat. I'm not going to lie I was quite tired when it was over. I haven't been on my feet all day for over 6 months after all. It was super busy, the day went fast but I felt a little frazzled at the end.

I'm officially over the worm picking up grossies. I had to pick up to many to count on Sat, so many that I can do it with out even thinking.

The one bad thing about working at a pet store is wanting all the pets there. I would have a golden retriever puppy right now if I thought I would have the time. I did however buy some fish. Small in comparison to a puppy so I thought it was a nice way to scratch the pet itch. We have room for 3 more fish in our tank downstairs so after that I'm going to have to turn to dog toys or something.

Since we have my discount we decided to put the dogs and cats on some food from there. We used to buy the top of the line food from the store because it was easier. Now since I'm working it would be nothing to pick up better food. Not to mention with the discount it ends up costing the same. So far, Sam loves the new food and Gandolf isn't sure. Kess is gobbling it up, but Jackson is not to sure. We had to get the lamb food for him, he's got weird digestion so he's always been a little finicky. We'll see how it goes.

On the diet front I'm calling this another trial week. I've had some cheats. We went to Leanne's for a party thing on Sat night, so there was cheating there. There was also cheating last night. We got chips to watch WWE pay per view, so there was some munching involved. Here's hopping it doesn't hurt me to bad. I'll take any kind of loss on Wed. I'll have to make up for it and be good for the rest of the week.

Well that's about all for me today.
Have a good week ladies.

Yuck!

Well this picture is what I had to pick up and throw into a tinny little bag last night. Yup, with my fingers! Yuck! I didn't scream like a little girl but I did do the shack off the grossies dance. That was pretty much the high lite (gross high lite) of my night. Its a silk worm used to feed other larger things in the food chain. Since it is a silk worm it kind of stuck to the paper which I didn't expect the first time. It took me 3 tries before I finally got the balls (so to speck) not to just drop it. Some lady came in 20 minutes later and wanted 30! I looked at Derrek with a "don't you dare make me do it or I'll make your life hell" look. He went and did it. Few! I got out of that one.

It was to hot for the horned worms in the back room so they had to be set out behind the tills near the door. They are gross too. Kind of a mint green, with spikes on their heads. Still creepy but from far away where you can't tell what they are at least they're a pretty colour.

Weight loss. I weighed in today and was not very happy, well disgusted would be more the word. 120! pretty much on the nose. That's it! This is crap! I'm back in the game. Grrrrrrrr! I'm so mad at myself.

Have a good one.

Well I had my first night on the new job last night. I must say right off the bat so far I'm happy and I'm looking forward to tonight.
- The people are great.
- The uniform is tolerable.
- The job itself is interesting and fun.
- They keep you busy, if you have nothing to do they play a game. The manager gives you a product and you have to find it. It sounds gay but actually it really helped me get to know the store. You have to find the product and read the label, so your learning. There are ppl who have been there for 5 years that still do this.
- There are always at least 5 ppl on shift so I'll never have to work all alone.

So far so good. It perfect for me at this time in my life. The discount to support my zoo at home is perk too. 15% is more then the 10% at most places.

Another girl started yesterday as well. She was dumb. I would have paged her at about 16-18 years of age. Did you know what Aviation meant at that age? I think I did. She got Aviation sun as a product to find and was looking everywhere! I told her to look in the bird section. Duh! I could tell that this was maybe a first job, she stood around a lot, looking stunned.

I found out the girl who interviewed me has 2 more years and she's going to be a vet. I watched in interest as she helped a baby snake (a rainbow Python) remove it's skin, he was having problems. So that was rather interesting.

Of course there's always dogs, puppies and such around. There was a 9 month old Newfoundlander in the store, what a huge dog. His name is George. lol. George, what a great name for the dog. Anyway, George was in the obedience class and decided he didn't want to leave. The lady had to drag him out! It funny, but frustrating for her. But I couldn't help but chuckle a little. George, lol.

There's going to be 2 beautiful Golden's for sale as soon as they get their vet checks. They are super cute of course. One is really playful and the other is really calm. OMG if only I didn't already have a zoo I'd snap up the calm one in a minute! She's so gorgeous!

Well on the weight loss front of things, I've been trying my best to take what I learned on weight watchers, and on NS in combination to loss some weight. I'm using the daily schedule for NS, with the point teachings for proportions from WW. Does that make sense? I hope so. So far I'm doing pretty good. I've been using up some of the NS I had left that hasn't expired. The dry cup stuff and such. I'll let you know how it goes.

Luv you ladies.
Bye.

Another new job

Well here we go again. Yup I'm employed.

But I'm already feeling much better about this job compared to the last one. I am now employed by Paradise Pets right here in good old St A.

I found the interview was highly enjoyable. (How many ppl can say that). I felt respected for my experience and age from the moment I walked in there. This is something that has been sorely lacking in the job finding process. I'm starting at 10 an hour which for they're standards is high I guess. It is a small family owned pet store after all. They employ a lot of teens of course so I guess I was an angel dropped from heaven. (They're words not mine.) They've had a really hard time finding mature older ppl to work evenings and weekends. They where thrilled which makes me thrilled. I'm actually looking forward to Monday! They want to groom me for management! The two younger girls conducting the interview called the owner and his wife in after 5 minutes of talking to me. I expected that I guess but it was still nice to hear. So they're going to start me in the fish room since apparently fish ppl are hard to come by. Since I have the two tanks that makes me an expert! Surprised? So was I.

Then after that they're going to bounce me around a lot so I can learn everything there is to learn. I'm looking forward to learning more about the pets I've never owned. Not so much the creepy ones, but I've yet to see a big hairy spider there so I think I'm safe. Lizards and snakes I can take. They told me that screaming like a little girl is perfectly acceptable, lol, so I was glad for that. On the application they actually ask if your squeamish about touching live worms etc, I had to put a ? since I've never had to face that sort of situation. They assured me that it really wasn't that bad. I'll have to take they're word for it until I am faced with the problem. I'll keep you posted. At the very least this job should be more interesting then selling toasters, so here's hoping this one can last. They're working with my available hours and it's super close to home. I have relatively high hopes for this one. I've never walked in there and seen the staff looking unhappy with their job, so that's always a good sign. The uniform looks tolerable. Jeans and a golf shirt looks comfortable enough, and I don't have to tuck it in so I won't look like an egg with legs! Yahoo! Oh and it's not bright, bright, bright red. Did I mention that I hated the uniform at Crappy T! Red! Man made material (Rayon I think) it was like walking around in a thick, itchy sack. I couldn't move! Yuck! I'll take the blue, cotton golf shirt thanx.

Well that's it for me today. At the very least for you ladies this new job might make for some interesting reading. I'll keep you updated on the pet facts I learn, I'm sure there's going to be some surprises and funny little things that will come up.

Have a good one!

Playdoh recipe

So am I a cool mom or what! I always thought that the moms who made huge balls of playdoh at home where so cool! Now I'm cool too!

It didn't take long at all and I made 6 colours! Its so simple:



1 cup flower I found I had to add some more to make it less sticky but that's me.
1/2 cup salt
3 tbsp cooking oil
1 cup boiling water
1 package of cool aid or food colouring. I think the cool aid would make it smell better. lol. But I used food colouring because I don't buy cool aid yet.

Mix flower, salt and oil. Add water and either method of colouring. Mix. Then get your hands dirty and kneed until a dohie, lol. I found this is where I added some more flower, it seemed a little sticky to me.

Yield: I reproduced this recipe 6 times for each colour in the picture above. Balls are a little bigger then my fist.

Time: (this is with Evan "helping" me) for 6 colours 30 min!

Storage: Air tight bags or containers. I've always seen that the home made playdoh had to be stored in the fridge, so that's where I put mine.

Evan had a blast, he was totally engaged. I got 3 new words out of him in the 45 minutes we played with it! He even made a worm, said "eye" when he put on the eyes! I was shocked! the speech therapist said play doe was a great activity, wow was she right! Not to mention there is nothing I've found that has held his attention for 45 minutes. In fact there haven't been many activities we've both done that's held both of our interest for 45 minutes. Hey we have to enjoy it too.

Anyway more playdoh pics including his worm creation on face book.

Have a good one ladies.

Parents 1st words work shop

Well Earl and I attended our class as the first step to getting Evan into a speech program.

I must say I wasn't overly excited about attending, but knew it was necessary to start the ball rolling. But I was actually truly impressed with the class and when I left I felt a huge ton of bricks lifted from my shoulders. The speech therapist that presented was knowledgeable, funny and interesting. I expected it to be dry and boring. But it turned out to be very informative and yes even a little fun. It cleared up some errors that Earl and I where making, including some calculation errors on the number of words in his vocab.

1. We have been all most quizzing him. Saying things like. "What is this?, come on what is this Evan." Apparently that's a no no! Its adding pressure and compounding anxiety.

2. The calculation of his actual words includes any word he has said whether he uses it regularly or pronounces it properly. I was under the assumption that a word that's counted should be a vocab word he uses all the time. Such as mom, which I hear almost a billion times a day now. Or that the when he says bue instead of blue that it doesn't count. But it does. So that gave him a huge vocab of over 60 words.

3. I also learned to put things in perspective. Like for example I never thought of speaking as a movement that required strengthening muscles. Have you? So he doesn't say certain sounds because the muscles arn't strong enough! Duh! I never thought of that. I was thinking why! Why can't he just say it! But he has to try more then 100 times to strengthen that muscle to make that sound! OMG what a revelation. So I learned it's all about patience and repetition.

4. Toddlers concentrate on one major task at a time. I noticed before Xmas that he wasn't talking but he was trying to figure out potty training. Now it's the opposite. Santa brought me almost 10 new words over the holidays, but we definitely went through more diapers. So the lesson is, they pick the battle and you have to notice the signs and just deal.

All in all with the new word calculation rules I have come to know that Evan isn't all that far behind. Not at all in fact. At the age of 2 he should have a vocab of 50-75 words, and one 2 word phrase. He says "up mom" once in a while. We also got a great hand out book with lots of tips! I'm planning on reading through it tonight to start implementing the info.

So I'm not a horrible mom! My son isn't miles behind! Everything is okay! Yippee!

Christmas

So it's Jan 2 and as I look back on the holiday season I can't complain.

Xmas eve was fun just Earls family to contend with. Earls mom seemed more relaxed then ever this year which is nice.

My favorit day was Xmas day of course. Watching Evan open his gifts in the morning was fun and I took to many pictures. Evan even shared one of his small gifts with Sam! It was super cute and funny of course. He's still not sure whats going on with this whole santa thing. He was a little distrote about the tree coming down today. I'm looking forward to next year when I can really use the power of Santa! Over the corse of the afternoon we just lounged around a bit. Evan had a nap and so did I. Of course my child alarm clock didn't wake me up in time. So it was a sleepy Evan that greeted my Dad, Glenyce and her daughter Gorgie at the door. I was half asleep to when I came down stairs. The dinner went off with out a problem. I loved meeting Gorgie she is so wonderful. I could see myself being friends with her! She fit right in and I heard from Glenyce that she had the best time at my house. One of the best Christmases she's had in a long time. That made me a little misty because I felt the same. My dad actually played with Evan on the floor before dinner! It was wonderful. All around I went to sleep that night with a happy feeling looking forward to the same next year. I'm really hoping that Gorgie will join us for more future holidays.

The rest of the week was a little cleaning, a lot of relaxing and a ton of munching. My fat jeans are now feeling tight. So on Monday I'm planning on jumping on the wee fit and watching what I'm eating. I'm going to try!!!!

New Years was fun and relaxing for the first time as a mom. We went over to Leanne's and despite the drunken whoha which I expected the night was rather enjoyable. There was a lot of kids there, so I didn't feel I had to watch Evan at every second or follow him around. There was all boys ranging in age from the oldest at about 5 or 6 to only 3 months old. There was 5 total all boys!!!! I knew that no mater where he went there was always an eye on him, the other parents there felt the same way. There's just a different comradery with a gathering of parents. You can converse knowing that there's always some one looking out for all the kids. I had a good time, I'm looking forward to next year!

So that's my recap, I'm planning on posting some more xmas pics on face book so if your curious take a look. Watch for Evan sharing his presant it's super cute!

Luv ya gals! I hope your season was as good as mine.