My week ...

I hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving. Last week must have been the most chaotic week ever!

The weekend before Thanksgiving I had shopping to try and get to, carpet cleaning, kids, driving, housework, this and that.. I went into Wally World for a few hours Sat afternoon to do some of those online courses they wanted done. I had maybe 15 or 18 to do before they put me on the schedule and each one took about 20 minutes. If I didn't pass, I had to go through the whole damn thing over again without the option to skip ahead. BLAH! I did three hours worth and ran home. Of course the kids hadn't started on the house. The place was a disaster! My daughter may have picked up one piece of clothing from her floor. My son probably accomplished a few messages on Myspace and little else. Em was running around unclothed. Chaos, mass hysteria....Spent Saturday night cleaning and getting the wash started. Sunday, I decided I would clean the carpet just one more time before the holiday spills, ribbon filled cat yak, spilled beer, food, chocolate etc. etc. Moved all the furniture and got the LR ready for the tree which I hadn't bought yet. Got done at 7. My back hurt. My legs hurt. But the LR looked nice and everything was arranged for the tree. Monday, spent all day on the phone working an expedite for one of our holiday dependent customers. Couldn't get Em to daycare. She was a pain in the butt all day waiting until I was on the phone with my boss and others to raise a fuss and be difficult. Unfortunately, I couldn't take her to Grace's becasue I had conference calls every hour with the team to discuss the expedites. I grew hundreds of gray hairs that day but we got the equipment out despite the obstacles. Kris had a trumpet lesson. I needed to get dinner on the stove. Em was yanking my arm because she wanted to play her "pickle chips" game (pixelchicks.com) Cass was griping about her day. Had to go to the store after dinner to get dry goods. Did that. Forgot cat litter. Got home at 8:30. Gave Em a bath. Attempted to sit down and relax but that was futile. I cheered when all kids were in bed and I could enjoy some me time. "Me time." HA HA.. My me time consisted of me falling asleep. Tuesday, more of the same. Had siding replaced last week so there were workers here pounding on the walls for 4 days. Scads of old siding was all over the lawn and the mailman couldn't get to the front door. Received notice that they returned a registered letter to the Post Office for that reason. Great! Now I have to go get the letter AND the damn tree and shop for Thanksgiving. To top it all off, a couple carpet guys called to schedule estimates. Scheduled carpet guy one for Wed morning. Carpet guy two was scheduled for this past Monday. Grocery shopped. Forgot the cat litter AGAIN. Hauled $150 worth of groceries into the house. Went to the post office to pick up the registered letter. Was told that it wasn't back yet from the carrier. Told to come back Wed. Made dinner. Bath for Em. Study with Cassie for her Science test. Kicked Kristpher off Myspace. Cleaned kitchen. Studied a little for the GRE. Ran around until end of the day and collapsed with the kids. Wednesday, worked, left to run an errand at the courthouse. My morning carpet estimate didn't happen. I thought I'd pick up the registered mail, go into Walmart and do more courses, and when Joe came home, get the tree from Menards when Joe returned home that night and before Black Friday. As I was driving back from the Post Office, the carpet installer called and said he was 10 minutes from my house. UGH!! Ran home and abandoned Wal-mart since it was just courses. Figured I'd get the tree after dinner. When I got home, message from Joe that he wouldn't be in that night. UGH! Kris was whining he wanted to go to a movie. Cass was whining she wanted to go to a friends. I exploded! The kids eyes were like saucers. Kris called his friend and said mom is freaking out. I need to stay home and help. Cass pouted but went and started cleaning the LR for the next day. House is still a disaster. I don't have the damn tree. It's snowing and crappy outside. WAHHHH!! Got my estimate. Went out in the crap with Kris and picked out a tree and hauled that 100lb sucker home. Spent the evening cleaning, then lived in a state of vegetation for the next few days. We got the holiday decorations up and I finally remembered the cat litter. The poop that my cat took in one of the bedrooms was a good reminder. MOLLLY!!!

Over the weekend, my work laptop died. I modified my home PC to access some of my work apps but I've been bored and feeling guilty and totally useless just sitting here. Went into Wal-mart Monday night to finish more courses. Ran into one of the managers who needed to clock me in. When we tried, the badge didn't work. To make a long story short, they put me on the schedule for this past weekend and noone told me. As far as I knew, I wasn't done with my courses yet. Well, he said, Didn't you get a handwritten schedule? Umm.. no one handed me one or discussed one with me. Oh.. well, you better call HR in the morning and explain to her. Well that's a load of crap! I felt so stupid and so humiliated. Not only did I not receive any communication from the department supervisor that they put me on the schedule, no one called when I didn't show up. If they had, I would have scooted out the door and apologized profusely for my ignorance and they wouldn't have wasted all that money on training me. In addition, they would have someone now and not 3weeks from now but hey, I'm not a manager so what do I know. I guess it's better to assume the employee blew you off. So much for their "Respect for Individual" clause. I hadn't been trained on the position. Tossing a brand spanking new employee in a job without introducing them to their supervisor, discussing hours, and explaining the position when the busiest shopping weekend of the year is looming, is normal there? I dunno. I haven't been able to reach to the HR person yet. I can't wait to have that conversation. I do know that I have decided that I'm not pleading for that job back. I'll take the Christmas season, enjoy it and revisit part time employment after the holidays.

Oh, Cass had a bloody nose yesterday. She gets them often during the Winter because of the dry air. I toldher to look in the medicine cabinet for the Vaseline. A little later she came back and said, "Mom, we don't have any Vagisil." Uh Say what?? You know, Vagisil.. what you told me to find. Well LOL!! That cracked me up. No honey, I said VASELINE.

Have a better week than me.