(no subject)
It seems that once the new school year starts, I have less and less time to get on LJ. I read my friends page regularly and comment when I feel it is releveant but as far as me......I rarely take the time. (In more ways than just this one).
Emily has been battling a rash for the past six weeks. We've been to the doctor three times with this past Wednesday being the most recent. We've been told it is poison ivy and apparently Emily is extremely allergic to it. She is now on an oral steroid to try and get rid of it. It was so bad a couple of weeks ago that she had it on her eyelids and around her eyes, on her ears. It was awful, she was miserable. I let her stay home one day, the day after it appeared on her eyelids. All she could do to get relief was to take her glasses off and lay a cold wash cloth on her face. She is loving the violin class that she started at school this year and I love listening to her practice (esp. when she doesn't think I'm listening). She has picked it up really well and it staying on target with what she is supposed to be learning. I am very happy for her. Esp. since in the past she has tried different sports but never stuck with any of them. She also loves 5th grade and even all the homework that comes with it. This is definately the first year that she has a lot of homework at night but she enjoys doing it.
Matthew started guitar lessons at school this year. He loved it at first and was real gung-ho about it. But, now he is having trouble "getting the second string". Whatever that means. But he is easily discouraged and I hope he can get past this and stay interested. We'll see. XH finally got his electricity back on a few weeks ago and is supposedly seeing a therapist and is supposedly back on some anti-depression meds, again. I took Matthew over there two Saturdays ago for the day but he was bored b/c XH didn't have internet anymore and has no cable. So, he came home about three hours after he had been there. Emily is at her Dad's tonight, so I am taking Matthew to XH's for the night. He has internet again and Matthew is taking his XBox 360 over there so they will have things to do together. I am taking him over at 5pm tonight and picking him up at 3pm tomorrow. I guess XH is working somewhere, somehow b/c he got his electric back on as well as internet.
Kevin finally landed a job!! He was laid off from 17 years at Quest this past December. I didn't talk about it too much to anyone. Quest gave him an excellent severance package so financially, we've been fine. His severance and health insurance ends 12/31/08. He had to take a considerable cut in salary but he's been seriously job searching since March and hasn't had any luck. Lots of interviews but no offers. It seemed 17 years of loyal service means nothing unless you have a college degree to back it up. But, we are fortunate that he has landed a position with a local web design company. They have been in service since 1985 and seem to be really growing the last few years. He started the first week of September. By mid-November he will have health coverage through them. Which is great news b/c if he didn't have health coverage by the end of the year, we were considering getting married so that he could be covered on my policy through my job. Which I'm not saying would be a bad move, but, I want to get married when we both feel it is right for ourselves AND for our children. That time is not now.
My work is crazy right now and has been all summer. People are being laid off left and right. Well, they did two major lay off groups. One group of 4 people was in July. The other group was NINE people just three weeks ago. This last round was devastating to all of us. Not just the people that lost their jobs. They eliminated their positions but put all that work on the 22 people that were not laid off. I am one of those people. At first, I welcomed the overtime. Working one hour later each day meant TEN hours of overtime each paycheck!! That rocked! But the last few weeks for me have been hellacious! I have to leave an hour early every WED to pick up Matthew from guitar at school at 4:30pm. I've also had to take time off to take Emily to the Dr. several times in the past few weeks. Which means I have had less time to get all the work done that has been put on me. In September I celebrated five years of service so I was awarded a 3% raise as well as an extra week of vacation a year. That made me happy. I am not worried about my job. At least not right now. There is plenty of work that has been heaped upon me and I am in the accounting department which hasn't seen any cuts, yet. This has, although, allowed me to branch out and learn new things. All the more to add to my resume. I feel awful though for those that have lost their jobs. These were people that I worked side by side with for five years. I ran into this one guy just an hour after he was told and he was like, I'm 60 years old and I have to start over and my wife has diabetes and we are now without health insurance....i dont' know what I'm going to do. I've been in the newspaper business all my life.but who is going to hire me at my age. I felt so horrible for him and I was super angry. Angry at Lee that bought out Pulitzer three years ago. It feels like they are trying to make the STL Post Dispatch into a small town newspaper and we are not. Shit. That is a rant for another time. Kevin and I get a night to ourselves and I don't want to get in that crappy angry mood. That I seem to have been in too much lately. But it is mostly work crap and stress.
Anyhow, I will count my blessings for today.
I still want to share Iowa pics with all of you but will have to wait until later.