David's Words and Christmas Pics

In no particular order here are David's words:

jacket
dat (cat)
bye bye
choo choo
dada and mama
door
ball
baba (cup)
moo
juice
shoe
no no
nana (banana)
baby
duck
woo woo (woof woof)
meow
ah ah (monkey says)
more
nay (horse says)
bubble
uh oh
hat
book
cookie
poo poo
cheez
nack (snack)
hello
baa (sheep says)
peek boo
lo lo (lotion)
dow (down)

We had a wonderful Christmas which included a visit from Zach's mom and stepdad and both Z and I went back to work this AM. David had a sick Christmas. First off, Sunday he seemed to be pulling on his ear and we took him to the doc and she said he never fully got rid of an ear infection from a few weeks back and thought it would be wise to put him on another antibiotic. Then, the night before Christmas Eve and even the night before that he had a rash on his tummy. We thought it was a reaction to egg at first because he's allergic to it (we thought maybe he had somehow eaten a cat treat). Well, we took him to the doctor and he said it was Roseola- a common childhood virus. The rash comes at the end of the virus and he actually is no longer contagious once he has the rash. So thankfully we were at the end of the virus. Well this weekend David was no longer sick but he did cut a mollar. Poor little man! Oh dear, he is writing on the couch with a pen- I need to go!

The most ABSURD thing - CPSIA Act of 2008

THIS IS MAJOR, PEOPLE!
Did you know that effective February 9, 2009 it will be illegal to purchase or sell baby items used? That means, no craigslist, no ebay, no garage sales. I'm not even kidding. It's called the CPSIA Act of 2008. Consumer Protection Safety Act of 2008. It mainly puts strict standards saying that any baby item sold (or even given away), whether it be a big corporation selling it, or a handmade person on ETSY, or at a garage sale, that baby item must undergo specific safety testing. While the big corps. might be able to do this, the crafters, bargain hunters, consignment shops, etc will not be able to comply.

http://www.cafemom.com/journals/read/1320853/H_R_4040_the_CPSIA_truth_and_fiction

This is the most absurd thing I have ever seen. Please PLEASE call your congressman and tell them to re-work this legislation!!!

Here's an excerpt from my link:
THIS IS ACCORDING TO SECTION 102 of the ACT, view the PDF at Thomas.loc.gov, search H.R. 4040

Statement - All cribs must be tested if they are to be used in a daycare, home care facility, or to be re-sold (such as a hand-me down store, or consignment shop)
TRUE - unless amended (and it SHOULD be.) - It shall be a violation of section 19(a)(1) of the Consumer Product Safety Act for any person to which this applies to manufacture (make), sell (store or otherwise), contract to sell or resell (consignment store), lease, sublet, offer, provide for use (give away!!) or otherwise place in the stream of commerce a crib which is not in compliance with a standard promulgated under subsection (b). (meaning it must meet the lead levels I mentioned above... 600 parts per million, then 300.. maybe 100 eventually).

This applies to any person that -
(a) MANUFACTURES, DISTRIBUTES, OR CONTRACTS TO SELL CRIBS; (Salvation army, Consignment stores, Goodwill, Garage sales, Deseret Industries, Baby stores, Walmart.. it affects ANYONE who wants to SELL a crib.)
(B) BASED ON THE PERSON OCCUPATION, HOLDS ITSELF OUT AS HAVING KNOWLEDGE OR SKILL PECULIAT TO CRIBS, INCLUDING CHILD CARE FACILITIES AND FAMILY CARE HOMES; (Daycares, at home care facilities, babysitters, ANYONE who has children in their home and receive pay for it.)
(C) IS IN THE BUSINESS OF CONTRACTING TO SELL OR RESELL, LEASE, SUBLET, OR OTHERWISE PLACE CRIBS IN THE STREAM OF COMMERCE; OR (Consignment, Salvation army, Crib retailers, Baby Boutiques)
(D) OWNS OR OPERATES A PLACE OF PUBLIC ACCOMODATION AFFECTING COMMERCE (HOTELS)

BASICALLY - THIS AFFECTS ALL OF YOU! According to the way this law is written, it could be ILLEGALfor your sister to give you her crib without having it tested. It could be illegal to sell a crib which has not been tested, even illegal to give it away. Cribs should be tested, but there should be an exemption or "grandfather" clause for ones already in circulation! I cant afford to have my kids crib tested so I can donate it after she doesnt need it anymore.. I KNOW Goodwill cant afford to have all kids cribs tested before they can sell or donate them. This is REDICULOUS.

All "Durable infant or toddler products" must be tested... those are defined as:
(A) Full size cribs and non full-size cribs; (B) toddler beds; (C) high chairs, booster chairs, and hook-on chairs; (D) bath seats; (E) gates and other enclosures for confining a child; (F) play yards; (G) stationary activity centers; (H) infant carriers; (I) strollers; (J) walkers; (K) swings; and (L) bassinets and cradles.
ALL of those items are included in the law I posted above, ALL are illegal to sell or give away, even by you, without a lead test certification.

If you planned to donate your childrens old items, you cant. If you planned to give them to a friend, you cant. If you planned to sell them, you definitely cant. According to this law, as it is written right now, you CANT. its ILLEGAL.


I know many out there simply would not be able to afford children if it weren't for buying used items. This is RIDICULOUS!!! What do we live in- a communist society now? Can this really be serious??

Again?

David's been pulling and poking at his ear lately but we haven't thought anything of it because he kind of always does that. Well, today after church he just didn't seem right. He didn't want to play and I took his temperature and it was 102.5 the 1st time and 101.6 the 2nd (rectal). So, we took him to his doctor's office-which has amazing after hours- and sure enough he has a double ear infection. The doctor mentioned it was possible since his last one was only a couple weeks back he never fully got over that one. She did mention possibly seeing an ENT specialist to discuss tubes, but I would like to hold off on that... we'll see.

In other notes, whenever we say Christmas David points at the tree which we think is cute because we didn't teach him that. Also, when we say poo poo he pats his bottom. In the past couple of weeks his vocabulary has greatly expanded, though a lot of his words are still hard to understand. He also finally started using mama and dada. He before would make 'ma' and 'da' sounds but never use them appropriately. Now, he says it and points at one of us. A couple of times he got confused and called me dada. When he is in a good mood, you can say to him 'David say XXX' and he will try to repeat whatever word you told him to say.

A Week Late

Here are are pictures from last weekend. We took David to see Santa- which was disastrous. He was ok until we put him into Santa's lap in which he gave Zach the death grip like 'don't let me go'. He then proceeded to cry. We got our Christmas tree from Lowes- I am shocked at how much those places on the side of the road try to charge for their trees- you know the ones where you walk around picking out just the perfect tree? Anyhow this weekend, we are busy organizing and picking up the house trying to get ready for company- Z's parents are coming for Christmas! And, we have the whole week off of work- NICE!

Big Plans for the Weekend

It's Friday- Hallelujah! Tonight we are going to take David to see Santa and tomorrow we are going to go get a Christmas tree. We've already priced out trees- and I won't get started on that, but man are they expensive! I'll update later on how these activities go. You know how I recently posted about how David is at his golden age and so wonderful? Well, that has come up to bite me. David has started to have temper tantrums. Big ones. Though, for the most part he is still good. Next week Zach goes out of town- for the very first time at his work. Whoa, it's going to be a hard week! I'm not quite sure how I'm going to work out the logistics of it but I'm sure its going to involve having to take some vacation hours and less trips to ATL.

Charlie Brown

Zach's good friend at work starting calling David 'Charlie Brown'. The name has stuck and now Zach's son is also known as Charlie Brown. And, I do have to admit, I see a resemblance with the big head. After all, David's head is in the 85% and his height and weight were 15th and 25th, which make his head look all that much bigger.

Doing it all- at a Cost

I recently read this article online: click here 91% of working moms are depressed. Well, in today's work place that's no surprise. Fact is, the work place is simply NOT conducive to mom's. Standards are set so high, you are expected to be at peak productivity 100% of the time, and most places are not willing to do a flexible schedule. Take for instance my job. I get 10 days off in a year.
10 days That simply is not enough. Funny thing is, if I had more time off to spend bonding with my son, when I did spend time at work I would most definitely be more productive- instead of sitting at work, staring at the screen wondering about what David was doing. I should have gone into teaching- teachers are the only profession I know that only have to work (when you add up all their time off) approximately 9 months out of 12. But even now, the requirements that they are putting on teachers is unreal. How do people do it? How can someone manage to do everything? Well, I'll tell you. I do so many things that I don't do any of them well. Nope. My house is always a mess. I'm not doing great at work. The list goes on.

All this to say, that I think there needs to be a culture change in how our (USA) big corporations relate to and treat working mom's. Desperately.

Why do I work? To bring home the bacon, of course. Funny, but true. We are seriously trying to pay down some debt. The main culprits: 1 car loan, my student loans, and 1 2nd mortgage. In hindsight, we were in no position to buy a house when we did. However, I was pregnant and nesting and wanted a home- and Zach did too. If we were to try to get a mortgage right now there would be no way we'd get one. You see, typically mortgages are for 80% of a home's value. You have to put down 20% as a down payment. Well, we had nothing for a down payment. So, we took out a standard, 30-year fixed rate, mortgage for 80% home. Then we took out a loan for our down payment since we had none- also known as a second mortgage for the other 20% of the home. Because 2nd mortgages are more risky for banks they have much higher interest rates. This loan is killing us! And, in today's market, they don't even give these loans out anymore. Lesson learned- don't buy a home until you have a down payment- wait to have kids for several years so that you are able to save for this. Ok, enough financial talk for now.

Thanksgiving

We spent Thanksgiving with my parents in Loganville, GA. It was such a good time. I have lots of stories and not much time to post- I'm crazy busy studying for 2 finals next week (lab and lecture), and working too, of course. The main thing that we took away from the weekend is that David LOVES dogs. He is also allergic to them, or some of them. David also bonded with his Grandpa a lot on this trip. Also we got my little sister to take our Christmas picture- that was hard!


Oh, I don't like pictures. I'm going to hide!

I would rather feed mama.


This is the master picture taker- Aunt Lindsey, mama's 16 yr old sister. She is 5'8.5" and mommy is only 5'2.5".

I liked to chill with my grandpa.

Dada let me play the piano with him.

All weekend long I stood at the window to look at the dogs and yell 'dog' 'woo woo' (woof woof)

I wanted to play with Mimi and Grandpa's 3 dogs as much as I could. When I did play with them, the big one kept licking my face and my face turned all red and then got white bumps all over it. Mama and dada were not surprised because on my blood allergy test I was a class 1 allergic to dogs, luckily I'm not allergic to cats. Funny thing is, not all dogs give me the red rash and bumps, only some.

This is my Mimi and Grandpa. Thanks for the fun weekend and all the yummy food.

2 Posts- 1 Night

I found this article click here and was shocked. Did you know that in Canada mom's get a full year paid maternity leave? Then, they can take up to 3 years off with job security? In the US, with exception to the state of Tennesee, women only get 12 weeks maternity leave- that's just job security- unpaid, of course. In Tennessee, women get 16 weeks. Also, in Europe women get 9 months off. What is wrong with the US? Why are we forced to go back to work so soon after having babies?? I went back when D was only 10 weeks. It was terrible. I need to move to Canada! (they even help you pay for child care too!) Here is the article:

Women in both the USA and England agreed that we spend copious amounts of time at the office considering the following topics:

Finances and how to afford daycare;
Guilty feelings while being at work and not at home with our kids;
Worry about our child(ren) getting into an accident and how we could afford doctor or hospital bills;
Dreaming up ways to claw our way up the corporate ladder;
Thinking about how we will spend vacation time with our children; and,
Wondering when we can afford to get pregnant again and calculating how much time we can afford to take off if we are.

As a Canadian working mom I do consider these topics with some notable exceptions. I never consider how I will afford doctor care or hospital bills. Health Canada takes care of all that for me. Our universal health care system is for everyone and everyone is treated the same. The only things we pay for out of pocket are ‘optional’ services not covered by our employer provided Health Insurance such as private hospital rooms or drugs not deemed “mandatory” to our care (like marijuana pills for cancer patients). That’s it.

I also never spend a second thinking about when I can get pregnant again because I know that I am legally entitled to a full year of paid parental leave after my child is born and up to three full years of unpaid job protection if I decide to stay at home and raise my child through toddlerhood. I only spend 11 months of the year thinking about how I will spend vacation time with my son because in February, everyone in Canada receives a statutory “Family Day”, which is a vacation day designed to allow families to spend time together.

My USA and England mommy friends think this is a huge advantage for Canadian working moms. As my friend Neah, who had her baby Ellen in the states, then moved to England for work said “I was physically at work 3 months after Ellen was born… but my brain really didn’t start functioning until at least 6 months and more fully at 8.” She goes on to say “England gets nine months, and it makes a huge difference. Moms are more prepared when they go back to work.”

My other friend Tulip agreed, confirming “…the fact that we get anywhere from 6-12 weeks off as opposed to 12 months is a huge difference in terms of bonding, paying childcare, establishing breastfeeding, no paternity leave… physical recovery.” This makes perfect sense to me. Personally I was able to breastfeed my son for 8.5 months, but would that have been the same if I’d been forced back to work after 12 weeks? Probably not.

It quickly became apparent that a lot of moms from the USA felt that they were forced back into working much too soon for their own liking because of maternity leave restrictions. Then there were those who felt forced back into working for financial reasons.

...
(skipped some paragraphs)

Overall the differences between working motherhood in Canada, England and the USA were summarized by Fern who honestly observed “… since Canada gives such a long maternity leave, my guess would be that being a mother is valued more highly. I wish people encouraged/supported WAHM's [work at home mom’s] more. I'm figuring how to balance the best of both the working and the at home worlds …It is much more possible than anyone lets on.”

It is indeed possible to be both a mom and a working mom, but for Canadian moms it’s a whole lot easier. We have the support of our government and the support of our employers. We are very, very lucky.

15-Month Check Up

A couple weekends ago we held a shower for one of Zach's co-workers. This is the diaper cake I made- my first try at the diaper cake. I think it turned out pretty good, though, unsturdy because I refused to buy materials (except ribbons and the bear) so I constructed it a funky way. The shower went well!


Little man had his 15 month check up and he is exactly that- little! He is in the 15% for weight, 25% for height, and 80% for head circumfrance. At his 12-month appointment he weighed 21lb 10oz and at this appointment he weighed 21lbs 14oz. Only 4oz gain since his last appointment- sad! I attribute this to his picky eating. Well, that and the fact his day care will only give him 2 cups of milk a day. When he is at home, he drinks an enormous amount of milk (probably to make up for his lack of eating food), but at day care they only let him have milk at breakfast and lunch and at snack they have water. They are very rigid about food stuff. I honestly don't know how he makes it through the day. Hopefully he'll start eating more food sometime soon! Oh, I almost forgot to mention that at his check up we found out that David has a double ear infection- go figure. We had no idea. He started antibiotics tonight so hopefully it'll be better in no time. Thankfully with just an ear infection he doesn't have to miss any 'school'.

The Golden Age

I really like David's current age- 15 months. If I could just freeze him here, no, I'm just kidding! But, really, he is at such a fun age! He plays independently, Z and I can do what we need to and he'll just play around with the toys and walk around with his ball and do whatever, it's nice. Also, more and more when I talk to him it seems like he is trying to respond and knows what I'm saying. Maybe I'm crazy, but it does seem like he understands. And, he really doesn't throw that many fits. Sleeping is good now too! His wonderful cheerful disposition and 'funness' right now has made me increasingly sad to leave him all day. It's especially hard being away from him now too because he cries when we are seperated in the morning- he is all to good at saying 'bye bye' to mama every day.

I do realize that this is just a 'good' phase (just like many 'bad' phases we went through several months ago) and I'm sure it will pass and temper tantrums or bad sleep or something will start up at some point. But, for the time being I'm going to enjoy the kisses and hugs, independent playing, listening to no sometimes (not all the time), and general happiness with smiles and giggles.

Now, if only I could get the boy to eat! He is such a picky eater!

Macon Craigslist- Disappointing

As I peruse Macon's Craigslist- http://macon.craigslist.org/ for David's Christmas presents, I'm missing Atlanta's craigslist oh so very much. Macon's craigslist is very disappointing! The selection is nill. I guess the huge population in Atlanta provides for a better 'online garage sale' (what I call craigslist). Atlanta Craigslist is the source of so many things in our house- practically all our furniture, many many of our baby items, Zach's bike, and other things.

Oh how I miss the big city.

Operation NO PACI

We are on a mission to get rid of the Paci! For the past 2 months, David only gets the paci at nap times, night time, and car time. Now, we are trying to totally get rid of it. Tonight we put him to bed without it. We'll see how it goes. We suspect the hardest time is going to be the car time. David has never liked the car. The thought of him in the car without a paci is scary, yikes! I'll keep our progress posted.

Hey There

Long time, no blog. So here's what I found interesting at work today: Forget engineering- Zach and I need career changes! http://www.cnn.com/2008/LIVING/worklife/11/12/cb.jobs.pay.80k/index.html?iref=mpstoryview
Of course, I'm only kidding because all of these involve lots more school.

All of those months of David screaming in the crib have definitly ended, and now David doesn't even cry when he wakes up. It's CRAZY. For the past month, Zach and I have been sleeping in until around 7:30am on the weekends and we wake up and look at the monitor and David is literally just sitting there silently! (we usually get up at 5:30 during the week and wake him up at 6am). He also did it at his naps, too. Funny, huh? Goes to show, everything happens in phases!

By Myself!

David is going through a 'by myself' phase. He will no longer let Zach and I feed him at all. Though, he does feed himself very well with the spoon. Also, he wants to put on his own socks, pick up big things, etc by himfelf. Thankfully, he hasn't been throwing too many fits when we forcefully take over. Really the only time he throws an all out fit is when he is playing outside and we take him inside. He's an outside boy! We've also noticed he is very possesive of toys. He will grab one and put it in his lap and kind of hover over it so as to mark his territory. Being the only child it hasn't been a big deal, but it is funny to watch him and the cats fight over the play mouse (thankfully no more real ones). David delights himself in chasing around the cats, having us chase him, dancing to music, and playing with balls. In general, he is a very happy little guy. Especially now, he is smiling and laughing all the time! Except in the morning when it's time to go to school :(. More pictures to come.

Naked Boy

If David had his way he'd always be naked, but with shoes!

Recent Pics

Halloween and Haircut. Notice, we still haven't gotten rid of paci? We TRY to only use it at nap time, night time, and car time. Sometimes it doesn't always work out!

Election Day- Our Anniversary

Despite being CRAZY BUSY- I have a lecture test this week in class and a lab test next week and a bazillion other things going on- I made it out to vote today. I was undecided until the last minute. Between McCain and Barr, that is. I'm not going to say who I voted for here. Maybe I'll say in a later post. My explanation is just too much to type right now.

Tonight is also our 2 year anniversary. To celebrate, we took David to get his first hair cut at this place that I've been wanting to take him- it's a cuts for kids type of place. He was SO good it was shocking- we were not expecting that! Then we went to eat dinner. It's nights like this that I'm wishing that we had a babysitter. Or friends who we did a babysitting co-op with or something.

Anyhow, I don't have time to type, I've got to get busy!!!!

Mouse in the house

It's 12:42 AM and Zach and I are up late working on paperwork. We finally decide to go to bed and as we walk in the hall to our bedroom there lies our white cat King all sprawled out in the hall with his paw over it- a MOUSE. He looked up at us with this proud as a peacock look. I am freaking out here! Zach is 'cleaning it up' as we speak. I'm pretty sure it was dead. The cats have earned their stay in our house. Where did this mouse come from? Are there more? How do I get rid of them if there are? I don't want to go to bed tonight- I'm going to have fears of mice crawling over me.

Playing in the Sprinkler

Last weekend David was playing in the sprinkler. He had so much fun. It was very unexpected- we were out getting the mail and he was curious and ran into the water- and loved it! We just let him play. David is also in this new phase of giving kisses. It is really sweet. Itstarted in the tub with his duckies. Now he kisses us and his stuffed animals and other things. Yesterday, I was telling him no about something and making him look at me and giving him a serious face and he just plopped a kiss on my lips in the midst of me trying to be firm with him.

David's obsession of balls continues to increase. Specifically now he is interested in the full size football. Despite all his baby toys, he is mostly just interested in balls. I think he might be growing out of most of his toys. He is such a boy. He also almost always has some sort of bruise or bump on his head. He hits it on nearly everything all the time.

Now at 14 months, his eyes are still blue. Will they stay blue? We don't know, but I would like them too! I always felt like the outcast of my family with brown eyes- my family has: mom-green, dad-blue, brother1-green, sister-blue, brother2-blue. Apparently my eyes didn't turn brown until I was 18 months! So, it could still happen.

New Job Offer

Well, I got a new job offer. I know God is good and he provided it, but honestly I'm not excited about it. I DESPERATELY want to work part time, and there is NO potential at this new job to do that. For whatever reason, there are just zero part time engineering jobs. I hate engineering! And they wander why women don't go into these types of fields. I would NEVER recommend it to any female.

The job is on base as a Mechanical Engineer (my degree is in Civil- I would just have to do a little learning). There are pluses and minuses to it compared to my job now. Obviously the pluses include not traveling, consistent schedule, etc. The minuses would be loss of freedom (I have a lot of freedom in my schedule of my job right now- if I need to go a random place at a random time- no problem- or be home all day- no problem). If I'm thinking short term, the pluses outweight the minuses. The only thing that might make me not able to take the job is the start date. They want me to start ASAP. And, I can't because my class is on Friday during the day until December, so I wouldn't be able to start until January. I'll have to talk to them about that.

It's the same 2 year pay 'program'- DCIP- that Zach is on. Where you start out at a lower salary and move up (supposedly- I say that because they haven't given Z his promised raises). For whatever reason, though, what they offered me starting is really good. I mean, not as good as what I'm making at my company now, but better than what Z is making at the base which doesn't make any sense because he has a masters and has been there 1.5 years. I guess I shouldn't complain.

Also, it would be at least a 1 year commitment because they give a signing bonus and if you quit before 1 year you have to pay it back. So, we would have to wait one more year if we decide to try to get out of WR. Obviously, a draw back to taking the job would be that if we ended up back at ATL I would have given up my ATL job. Some of this probably doesn't make sense to you blog readers because I haven't yet talked about the potential of Zach looking for a new job at his 2-year at his job mark which lands on this May. Basically, the job circumstances (I'm talking about Zach's job now) are not ideal, here is why:

1. The job is a 2-year program where you start at 1 pay band and end up at another. In between, specifically every 6 months, you are supposed to get performance based raises. Well, they don't give them to Z and they don't say why. Also, they give him GOOD reviews, so he is doing well.
1A. I forgot to mention that government pay is ridiculously less than private pay. Z has his masters and his pay 2 years post school is now less than the average starting pay for someone fresh out of college with only a bachelors, sad, yes. For example, my pay at my job, where I only have a bachelors, is more than at his job. That should not be the case. Now I do need to mention, there are benefits such as good job security and good health insurance.
2. He works interdispersed with military people who do his same job, but they make more money. They get set raises all the time, but the civilian people get the shaft compared to the military people.
3. They civilians at his job have been in the same cube doing the same thing for 30 years. It is a dead-end job. There is no-where to go. His boss is not the least concerned about 'career' development.
4. The actual work doesn't stimulate Zach mentally. He is so smart and such a good critical thinker, and the work really doesn't involve any real engineering. Zach needs a job that focuses on solving complex problems. This job focuses on fixing the same thing on the same form over and over and you are basically measured on how quickly you output these things- there is no thinking involved. He's like a machine, and if you haven't noticed Z's talent is not speed. (that type of work would be great for me- bad for him)

Because of the current economy, we might be stuck staying here regardless if we want to or not. So, I think I'm going to take the job, so please pray that they let me start in January!

Another post about my job

Why would a boss select an employee who told him that she was not interested in management to be a part of a management shadowing program?? I figured out why! It's because I'm a girl. Yes, that's right. Out of the three people in the department selected, 2 are black males and 1 female (myself). My boss was having to select minorities. This wouldn't be the first time. Last year I went to a career fair to help recruit and my boss (white male) told me that he was only allowed to hire minorities. As such, his last 3 hires have been minorities (including myself).

It's pretty much a fact now that a white male can no longer get hired by any large corporation. This does not apply to small companies and there are still some that don't practive affirmative action, but they are few and far between. Males that are now in their mid-30's were still able to be hired by large companies but males that are now in their 20's- Zach's generation- haven't stood a chance. Ask any hiring manager you know- it's the truth. And, if you couldn't tell already, I think its just plain unfair. I know understand how the black people felt when they used to be discriminated against. However, in this day, there is now reverse discrimination. (In fact, we think this is why Z didn't get a job he interviewed for at Siemen's back in the day).

Anyhow, I am not racist, but I do admit that I harbor resentment becuase I feel like I have been discriminated against because of being white. For example, I was not able to get any scholarships to college- if I had been black or hispanic, I would have qualified for tons of them. I can understand giving opportunities to those minorities that really do come from an under-privaleged background (like the ghetto), but come on, the ones I saw getting all the big $, were in well-off middle class families, who all had lower SAT scores and grades. Anyhow, there's my rant on that.

Did I mention that all the 'non-minority' resumes received were put in a seperate stack and thrown away with out even being reviewed? Yep. I know becuase I did the resume reviewing!

**I got a phone call TODAY and I MIGHT be receiving a job offer from the base. I don't know any details but will post when and if I get any.

It's FRIDAY

Yeah for the weekend! I've had quite the drama filled week at work, so I'm thankful for the weekend! We don't have too many plans. That should be enjoyable.

Ok, so here is a recap of my drama at work. Let me prefice this by saying that I have flat out plain told my boss that I am not interested in management or moving up and I am happy where I am at. That being said, he always seems to be putting pressure on me to develop my 'career' and talks about where I am going to go next. (which is total opposite of Zach's boss who doesn't give a flip about his career and expects him to sit in the same cube for 30 years- I guess thats the difference between government and private sectors). He's even offered me a promotion and encouraged me to apply for different higher positions, but all would require Atlanta location.

Anyhow, so my boss tells me he's 'selected' (lucky me- I think he uses this term as a form of manipulation) for this training program where I shadow some service center management people and some other people, and some other stuff, and basically it grooms you to become management in the area of operations. My boss says to me 'I know you said your not interested in management but I think thats just because you are busy right now and I know you will be in the future and I think you are a good candidate for this'. He KNOWS what I want?? To make a long story short, it wouldn't be a different position immedietly, just 2 to 3 weeks training in ATL.

Well, I do not want to go out of town for 2 weeks. So, I politely told him I didn't want to leave my baby for 2 weeks so I couldn't do it, even though I was interested. (I wasn't even interested but I don't want to get fired!) Well, here is where it gets ugly, he tells me 'Wayne, Mike, Bruce, and Larry are all willing to go out of town for 2 weeks when need be and they have families. You are not going to get preferential treatment for being a women. That is not a valid excuse for not going out of town'. NICE! So, anyhow, this is coming down the piper and sometime after next January I'll have to do this stupid training, and of course, all while keeping up my responsibilities of my regular job. And I'm supposed to be happy about this??? And, ya'll, my boss is actually a really nice guy, just very serious about work and has very high work expectations from his employees.

I'm considering sticking to my guns and just plain refusing to go. Would he really fire me over it? I'm thinking not, but I guess I could be wrong. Or, should I not ruffle and feathers, and just suck it up any do it so I can continue to get paid so we can continue to pay off debt?

Your Thermostat

This is a friendly remimder of energy conservation! (can you tell I work for a natural gas company?) Thermastats should be set at:

Summer 78 degrees (80 - 83 when away)
Winter 68 degrees (65 at night)

This helps conserve energy and saves you money on your utility bills. Personally, we actually take it 2 degrees warmer in the summer and keep our thermastat at 80. Yes, it is hot, but even at 80 our bill is still $150- imagine if we kept it cooler? Research on Florida homes showed that summer AC cost increases 12% for each degree the thermostat is lowered below 80 degrees.


These are the industry recommended standards. Use blankets at night!

Triathlon Results

For my fans out there who were wondering how I did here are my overall results:
There were 749 total competitors, 468 male competitors and 51 competitors in my age group - MEN:25-29.
I completed the Swim portion (400 yards) in 9:17, and (I promise this will be the only "excuse" I give in this race report) it should be noted that this includes a 1/4 of a mile hill that competitors must run up with probably a 200 foot vertical rise. Ask Amy, I'm not exaggerating. I planned to run the whole thing but, somewhat tired from the swim and just plain demoralized by the steepness and length of it, I did stop to walk for probably the 30 or 40 steepest yards of it. So the swim itself probably took me in the neighborhood of 7 minutes and the hill another 2 and a quarter. Regardless 9:17 was the 16th fastest time among my fellow M25-29 age groupers, and 143/468 males. Here are pictures taken by the pros of me coming out of the swim.



Next was the transition area. For the transition you run to a little zone along a huge rack of bikes among a huge field of racks (fortunately my spot was the front-most right-most spot in the entire transition area - easy enough to find!) and you prepare yourself as you best see fit for the bike portion. For me this involved putting on a shirt, socks, cycling shoes, helmet, and sun glasses and then running along side my bike to the mount line where I hopped on and clipped in. Some studs will have their bike shoes already clipped into their pedals and they mount with bare feet and slip their feet into their shoes AS they pedal away to save time. I figured the accompanying trip to the hospital wouldn't be a big time saver so I went with the safer albeit possibly slower method. My transition took me 2:59 and was 35th/51 in my age group. Anyone suprised at me being slower than average in changing clothes is probably one of Amy's blog friends and doesn't know me very well.

Next the bike portion - the course was described as "mostly flat with rolling hills". I come from Warner Robins where the grades of the biggest hills are in tenths of a percent. Some of these hills were MONSTERS. I was surprised however that on the big steep hills is where I was able to pass a lot of people or at least make up a lot of ground. Apparently I'm a decent hill climber. The most lasting memory I will have of this portion, however, will be of cruising along feeling good and hearing a loud whoosh-whoosh-whoosh sound coming from behind me and seeing an extremely fit gentleman with a long pointy "spaceman" (as Amy called them") helmet powering by me on a bike with a disk wheel. They were all out of my age group, which I could tell because your age is written on your calves in black magic marker. So one by one dozens of 30-39 year olds blew past me on $10,000 bicycles - no exaggeration - and I could only hope that in 4-13 years I will be as fit as they are. Now for my time - I completed the 13 mile bike course in 40:55 at an average speed of 19.06 mph, good enough for 14/51 in my age group and 193/468 males. Here is an image taken by the pros of me on my bicycle.

After the bike, you return to the transition area, re-rack your bike, shed your cycling shoes for your running shoes, attach your race number (mine was pinned on to some mesh shorts which I put on) and head out for the run. This isn't supposed to take a long time. It took me 1:53, 43/51 in my age group. Again, changing clothes quickly has never been a strength of mine. One competitor in my age group actually completed this in 13 seconds. In all likelihood he was probably biking in his running shoes an already had his number pinned on, or that's what I tell myself. Good times are in the 40 second range.

Finally the run section. Up to this point I'm relatively competitive in my age group. I say relatively because as I'm headed out for my run, the overall winner of this triathlon who also happened to be in my age group was finishing up his run. You can see him in Amy's picture in the red white and black tri-suit going the opposite direction as me. However, I am not a good runner. At all. I find the run slow and laborious, particularly after swimming and biking. The way that your legs are used on a bike leg causes the first portion of the running to be extremely stiff. As a matter of fact, training sessions in which you do a bike session and follow it immediately with a run are known by triathletes as "bricks" probably because that's what your legs feel like. Well the brickiness stuck with me for the first mile which I completed in just shy of an eternity and had eased up pretty well by the turnaround point which was 1.5 miles out. By the 2 mile water station I was hi-5ing volunteers and I felt my strongest near the end of the run - funny huh? Perhaps this means I should have been running faster. When I rounded the final curve and saw the finish line I was scouring the crowd for Amy. When I found her I flashed a funny pose for her camera and then sprinted the last 60 or so yards to the finish line. Once I finished I wanted to keep moving, but they stopped me to remove the timing chip from my ankle. Standing still made me very dizzy and made me realize the exertion I had just given, but I managed to not fall while they took the chip and once I started moving again I felt better. I dumped bottle of water after bottle of water over my head to cool it down and felt (mostly) normal again after 30 minutes. Now for the gory results. I completed the 3.1 miles (5k) in 29:14, which comes out to an average 9:26 pace per mile - actually not bad for me, lately (did 7 minutes in high school but that was high school), and my run time was good(/bad) enough for 41/51 in my age group and 346 among all males.
Here are a couple pictures of me hobbling along, and warning: objects in the image are slower than they appear.


So my overall time was 1:24:17, which corresponded to 28/51 in my age group, 247/468 males, and 321/749 total competitors. I'm pretty pleased with these results, though I wanted to be "better than average" for my own age group. They don't keep these stats so I'll just tell myself that I was probably "better than average" among first timers. I had a GREAT time and I've really caught the bug and I will be doing more than one of these next year. Probably I will do this same event so I can compare my progress directly and my goal is to complete an olympic distance triathlon in the coming summer which ups the swim distance from 400 yards to 1000 meters, ups the bike from 13 miles to 40 km (24.8 miles) and ups the run from a 5k to a 10k - basically double everything. So I need to stop typing and start training!