A job change and a new baby Cowgar

I am officially a stay-at-home-mommy again! In the end, it all boiled down to the emotional strain on the family, since I have been home for two years. We did some extensive talking and decided it was worth a lot more for me to stay home than to stick at a crap part-time (no hours this time of year) job. They had wanted to register train me, which means I could have picked up hours doing mandatory cashiering, which I did not want to happen. My feet can’t handle cashiering. The budget will be tight, but we can manage, and so far this week I have been really focused on the house and getting stuff done.

On a side note, Jeremy and Crystal finally had the baby! Claire Marie was born Monday, January 5th, at 10:36AM. She was 8lbs, 1oz and 21” long. They went to the hospital since they were considered high risk, but the birth was routine, no complications, and they were discharged later that day. She did great until this morning, when we got a call that they were concerned with a choking episode she had this morning. They couldn’t get it completely cleared fast enough, so 911 was called and they took her up to Akron Children’s Hospital for observation. The doctors think she may have reflux, so necessary precautions are being taken to help combat this without needing medication. Hopefully she outgrows it really soon. We hope to see the family tomorrow for Luke’s father’s birthday party, but we are supposed to get 3-5 inches of snow tonight, and another 6-10 inches tomorrow, so I don’t know if the party will go on as scheduled or not. It’s coming down really good right now, and Luke is out taking some pictures.

Here is my favorite picture of Claire from the hospital, and the two pictures below are of the snow we had so far today, and Luke's artsy fartsy berry in the snow picture.

Happy New Year...I still have a job!

I worked 5pm-9pm today, and went in a bit early to talk to HR about my hours. Apparently she lost the note I wrote her about changing my availability to Wed.-Fri. 5pm-10pm and anytime Saturday. I may have an occasional Sunday in there when someone goes on vacation in electronics, therefore, next week I get register trained. WooHoo! (insert sarcasm here) I also had a verbal warning for my attendance for me being sick before Christmas. It's standard protocal for retail. I remember being so mad at Lowe's for going over my attendance because I missed the first week and a half of work because of a surgical complication and was placed on bedrest. Retail has no heart, they don't care what a doctor says. Unless you are dead, your lack of attendance is counted against you. So I guess I don't get to be that full-time stay-at-home-mom again...just yet. I will stick it out since they graciously started me out at more than minimum wage when I started. It will be slow the next couple of months, so I shouldn't get too many hours.

We took all of our Christmas decorations down today and packed them in the basement. The house looks a lot cleaner now. Looks like I'll be working on the living room the next 2 days to keep my deadline. We also plan to do grocery shopping tomorrow sometime...and hopefully soon, we will head up to Akron General for a baby. As it slowly approaches Tuesday, I'm afraid that we will have to sit through an induction, and all the induction stories I have from friends are bad. Hopefully it won't turn out that way.

We are staying on budget so far this month. Hopefully that won't change after the grocery shopping trip tomorrow. I'll check back in when I have more exciting news to share.

Happy New Year's Eve!

We stopped at K-Mart after Luke got off work to pick up some diapers, and I wanted to get next weeks schedule. My schedule says to see the HR Manager for my hours. Ugh! I work 5pm-9pm on Friday, and the HR Manager gets off at 5pm, so I will more than likely go in a bit early to talk to her. I'm sure I am probably getting laid off since the holidays are over with. I thought I was seasonal help anyways, and I only have 4 hours this week, so it kinda looks like a will be a full-time stay-at-home-Mommy again. At least it updates the resume with some seasonal retail work, to keep me in the loop somewhat with the job world. We could use the money, but I think we will be a lot happier having me here all the time again.

We've worked a bunch the past couple days on switching the bedroom around. We put mud up on the walls and reorganized the furniture. I'm still going through some stuff, so I will post pictures after I have everything done. Tomorrow I hope to start pulling down Christmas decorations, but that will probably mainly happen on Friday.

Luke's buddy is supposed to come over tomorrow and talk photography for a bit, and then we will head up to Luke's parents house for some sauerkraut and pork for the New Year. We don't plan on doing much of anything this evening, besides cleaning up kids and toys I guess.

On a family note, Luke's brother's wife still hasn't had a baby yet! She is 11 days overdue now, and the midwife is concerned with high amniotic fluid levels and heart decelerations that she wants to deliver the baby at a hospital. We will all be heading up to Akron General for the big event, and if she doesn't go into labor before Tuesday, the hospital will induce her Tuesday. After 3 homebirths, this is quite the surprise. Hopefully everything will go smoothly, but going through two hospital births myself, I'm leary that something will go wrong, even if it's not a bad wrong, just something they didn't want done wrong. I'm a worry wort, I can't help it. I think that's it for now, I'll probably post Friday, after I get my next weeks "schedule".

Christmas...again and again and again.

Well I missed work this week because of dry heaving and throwing up a lot. I couldn’t eat much, so I got dizzy really easily. Monday I worked 2 ½ hours and management sent me home because I looked like I was dying. I called off Tuesday and Wednesday, because the dry heaving just wasn’t letting up. I even dry heaved a few times Christmas Day, but I’ve been okay now, just feeling a little weak.

The girls had a great time with the holidays. Christmas Eve we went to my Dad’s and they opened gifts. Lilly doesn’t care about opening them, but Lexi loved to open hers and Lilly’s. They got a lot of play food from my Dad and their Nana and Papaw (on Sunday) for their kitchen sets.

Christmas Day we went to Luke’s brother’s house (they were supposed to have that new baby by now, so it was more convenient for them). We got some nice organization bags for toys, an art set, and some other toys from everyone.

On Boxing Day we went to my Mom’s place. She made a turkey and the girls got some socks, gloves, and an outfit. Her and her boyfriend also got them a little wooden table with chairs (very country-ish). Then we came home to start organizing toys in the living room.

Today I worked 11am-3pm. No one said anything to me about missing a few days. I went about my normal business and helped condense batter stack outs, since all the Christmas shelving was being torn down to make way for patio furniture. For now I think I will stick with the job. My schedule next week only consists of one night, for a total of 4 hours, so that’s not too bad…lol. Cutting hours is big after Christmas, so I probably won’t be working too much the next couple months. I changed by availability so I will not be working Sundays, Mondays, or Tuesdays. That gives Luke some consistent days off to schedule picture shoots if need be.

Below are a few shots from our various Christmas celebrations this week.