Tuesday Toot

I've never done this but one of the mommy blog communities does a "Tuesday Toot" in which moms are supposed to toot their own horn. While it hasn't been officially announced here at work, I was just told in my annual review that I have been promoted to a senior accountant. WAHOO!

Don't become an accountant!!!

OK for those of you that might be reading this that haven't gotten your college degree or you might have children getting ready to go to college, let me explain why they don't want that accounting degree if they want a normal work schedule.

It's year end close. I work in oil & gas and the facility I support sustained damage in Hurricane Ike in September. We came back online just to go only to go down again for "turnaround" which is scheduled maintenance. My work life had been mass chaos since October. So, here we are...closing the books at year-end and it's 8:49 PM, and I am STILL at work. I am so going to be in the dog house when I get home.

Parenting isn't for wussies!

So, we have had some crappy weather here (read ice & snow), so I stayed home Wednesday since it took me over two hours to make it in Tuesday in just the ice. Not a lot of time had progressed since I had called my boss and I had crawled back in my bed with the kids. W & G were in bed with me and they were playing. W growled at G and G reared her head back...right into my nose. I saw stars floating around in front of my eyes for a brief moment before I noticed fluid. Good grief! The gal had bloodied my nose. Just great!

Well it's two days later and I don't have a black eye to go along with the bloody nose (surprise!) but I do have one very sore nose and it really hurts if I touch it or sneeze or anything. OUCH!

And now I can breathe...quickly

You know, when I decided what path I wanted to pursue when I went into college, I knew I was going into business. I didn't really want to do the whole accounting thing as my mother was an accounting clerk and I knew the whole Hippocratic oath for accountants in regard to closing the books e.g. "You come in and work late; you do whatever it takes, unless you are dead. Then you had darn well better find a replacement first." Life got in the way, and I was in a hurry to graduate. I weighed my options when I transferred schools.

1. What degree could I pursue that would almost always mean I could find a job and that didn't require me to work with anything bloody (since I faint when giving blood)?
2. What degree could I choose that would get me out the quickest?
3. What degree could I chose that wouldn't lose me a whole lot of credits?
4. What degree could I chose that accentuated my strengths?

I ended up pursuing the degree that I set out not to pursue...accounting.

I'm still down a co-worker and I am still splitting all my movements from various facilities several different ways and I'm splitting them even more this month than I did last month. For those that aren't connecting the dots, more moves = more work. So quadruple the moves and double the desk, and I'm one busy chickadee right now. There was NO way I was going to get all the moves into the system and be able to meet the closing deadline, so I closed with estimates. So, while I am finally closed, I am not done. I can breathe a small sigh of relief and then delve into reversing the estimates and working through the numbers and booking them into the system one pipeline at a time. I refuse to touch those until Monday though. I'm worn out. You should see my eyes right now. They are bloodshot. I am actually wearing makeup today (a rare thing for me) because the bags under my eyes are horrific.

I'm getting ready to go through the Halloween pictures and get those uploaded. The kids were SO cute...especially Miss G. I'll have to update you on the whole Halloween debacle though. It was not fun and rather disappointing. So there's your hook...tune in next time for...why the kids didn't really get a Halloween.

My newest find

I know some moms might not like the concept behind this planner, but I ordered it just to give it a try and I LOVE it. Now, I am having to use pencil due to our ever changing crazy schedule but it's meeting my needs. It's the BusyBodyBook.

I ordered it online and it took just a little over a week for it to arrive, but it was well worth it. I must admit, I was a little concerned about the durability, but I was very surprised when I received it. There is a thicker plastic cover that covers the planner itself. I have myself, B, M, W, & G across the top and it makes it easy to see our week all at once. I also love the page that allows me to put my to do check list for the week. I am using the white space to keep track of my week at work so I can refer back to that information for my summary that is sent to management. This planner is my new best friend and like the contact page says, if it were lost, I would be lost without it!

Catching up...OSU...random thoughts...more football...

I'm sorry I haven't had much time to post lately. The work situation is really kicking my hiney right now. Catch up: I do accounting for an oil & gas company. The facility I support is outside of Houston. We sustained damage during Hurricane Ike. We are now on turnaround (scheduled maintenance). My coworker was let go. I'm having to split my numbers between hurricane/turnaround events and normal production. This equals double work. Add a missing coworker's work (which my boss has been really helping with or I would really be dying) and I'm going bonkers.

I have W's pictures up finally! (golf clap) The boy had a blast opening his Country Life toys! He LOVED them. G was very interested in them too! W had a great birthday weekend. He got chocolate chip pancakes from Memaw (mom made me pancakes too...awww!). The kids then got to go to the zoo; Memaw swears she is NEVER doing that by herself again.



and Anywho...how bout them 'Pokes!!! My 'Pokes gave those Burnt Orange Egyptian goobers south of the Red River a run for their money. Even though we didn't come home with the "W", I am extremely proud of those 'Boys!

Here's someone else that is proud of them too.




Saturday, M had another football game. We lost to BA 25-0. Here is a video of the boys warming up last week at home in our game against Skiatook.



We have playoffs this weekend, and the tournament is a one and done. Our boys do great on defense. We just can't seem to get the offense going, so I think we will only be playing on game. Oh, well!

Here are a few pictures we took of the kiddles this weekend. The "Dewey" boys are my nephews.


Ok, back to work...I have reconciliations that I must get finished.

Oh, before I forget, G is really walking between objects now. She's walked as many as 8-10 steps at a time before going back into crawling mode. Go G!

Where are my sunglasses?

I am dying today. I have yet another migraine and I am at work trudging through it...I usually do. I can't see taking off for a headache, but I do realize that I have a substantial reduction in productivity when I am suffering with one of these. However, I have no more vacation days left until my time starts back over in December because I was out with my arm...but that's another story.

So here I am...my headache is now down to a dull ache, but the damage is already done; I'm exhausted; I'm having trouble focusing on numbers (not good when you are an accountant; I'm able to type this as I can type without looking at the keyboard (thanks for making me take keyboarding Mom!) and I only really have to look at the words on the screen minimally.). I'm nauseated...did I mention I was exhausted from the headache? ;)

People that have never really had a migraine just truly do not understand the true meaning of a headache. It's quite debilitating. The one bright spot in my day is that I am leaving work early (even if it is to attend parent-teacher conferences).

Now where are my sunglasses? (and yes, I'm whining, but it's my blog and I'll whine if I want to!)

(I promise to get football pics from last weekend and birthday pics from W's party up soon!)

I think this pretty much sums up my feelings for this week...

Anyone got any Calgon?

Runny yolks

So I work in the oil & gas biz and I support a facility on the gulf coast. We sustained damage during Hurricane Ike and were done for about two weeks, so I only was producing product for about two weeks. I'm having to split numbers between the production period and when we were down which involves a lot of number crunching. It's fun (note sarcasm here). Add to this issue here that my counterpart is no longer with the company, and I've got my workload cut out for me this month and even the next few months.

So I arrived at my mother's house yesterday to pick up W and G. My brother and sister-in-law were there as well to pick up my nephew, J, and my niece, A was there too. My mom comes up to me...
"I was going to ask how it went today, but I can see it in your face."
"Yeah...."
"You look fried!"
"Oh, I'm beyond fried. I'm telling you, the yolks are broken and the yolk is running out."
"That good?"
"Yep."
"So when are they going to start looking for someone?"
"Supposedly pretty quickly, but you know how these things go. It takes forever, and then I'll know about it as the bring the new person onto the floor."

Don't get me wrong. I love my job. I really do. It just seems like when I encounter a challenge, I really get challenged. So bake me a cake of Hurricane Ike and make it a two layer with an upcoming turnaround (down for scheduled maintenance) and then ice it with co-worker has been axed, and it's not as tasty, know what I mean? Oh, well! I do feel bad for co-worker though. Co-worker just bought a new house and this is a really bad time to lose your job. Co-worker will end up on co-worker's feet though...I just know it and will be happier, too, I think.

On a lighter note, my new bed arrives tomorrow, so I am leaving at 3 to meet the delivery guy because B is in T town for training tomorrow. You can't beat cutting out at 3 on a Friday and something new to boot. :)

They say it's your birthday...and other random thoughts

Well, it's October 1st which means that the countdown to W's 3rd birthday has begun. We finally settled on a theme!!! Since moving out on to the 30 acres, W has really become fascinated with tractors, trailers, and trains. Ok, the trains probably threw some of you for a loop. W has always been fascinated with construction equipment, so it is no surprise extension that construction equipment also extends to tractors. He is also fascinated with trailers because of the towing of the tractors, ATVs, etc....and this also includes livestock trailers now. His like of trains has really come about because we pass by the power plant on the way in and there is a constant barrage of trains entering the power plant with coal and leaving with...you know, I don't know what they are shipping out. Anyway, this birthday party will not be Superman or Spider-man or Star Wars or Iron-man or whatever is the rage of the moment. We are going with a John Deere theme!

I bought W this toy at Walmart that had a Ford truck like dad's, a trailer like Pepaw's, and a tractor on it since he has been doing so well at potty training. He has to make sure he takes them every morning to Memaw's now. After commenting to B about his excitement over the tractor and such and the shrieking and wailing that occurs if they fall in the floorboard on the way home, we decided we definitely needed to go with farm life or tractors or something similar for his birthday. We landed on John Deere. So...for the relatives...if you are looking for something to get W that he'll love just hit Atwood's and hit the toy aisle there and you won't go wrong.

So I have the invitation ready to go out because I like to get those out on the first, but I'm waiting on my sister-in-law to get back to me on when her two boy's football games are those two days. I may just have to send the invites out and hope they can come. That will completely suck as W just loves those two boys.

Off the birthday subject....

We have the batch of new college recruits starting here at work. My company brings these kids in at the beginning of June and moves them through the company where they go to classes about the different divisions within the company and then they place them into their new positions at the end of September. Well, while my immediate group didn't get one this year directly, we did get a new one into the overall group. I tend to be a step-in-and-help kind of girl, and they were trying to set him up on instant messenger yesterday and it wasn't working. I got him set up, but I had to ask him his birth date for the Yahoo form. He disclosed he was born in 1985. OUCH! Geez, that made me feel OLD! I AM NOT OLD! I'm just inside the dirty thirties, but 1985 hit me hard yesterday. I thought, sheesh, in three more years, these kids are going to be born at the same time I was entering middle school. They won't know the true 80s. I've already ran into this with my younger counterpart here who hasn't seen some of the 80s movies, but good gravy!!! Let me reiterate...I AM NOT OLD!!!!

Well, I am off to the library to see if I can procure a CD for the boys to listen to tonight. (We let the boys' listen to books on CD after lights off...) They've went through all the books on CD in our house at least 3 times and I know they are growing bored with them. I might even pick one up for myself. It's sad when that's the only kind of reading you can fit in.