Birthday time

Wow, I can't believe we're already in the middle of February. Seems like only a couple of days ago it was Christmas. Well, another birtday has been and gone. I am now 24 years old and feeling every minute of it.

The past week has been a drag. Steve and I have both been very sick with the flu. I've taken the past couple of days to recoup and I've definately needed it. We're both starting to feel a little better, just weak and tired. Seems like it's that time of year for all the sickness going around. Seems like everyone at work has had it or has it now.

Steve and I have finally started the process for our new house.. YEA!!!! We went down to the office a couple of weeks ago to fill out the paperwork. We're now just waiting for their credit consulting company to do some magic with Steve's credit to get us approved. The guy that is working with us said that it shouldn't take more than a month or so which is very exciting. It would be great to be moving into our house in a couple of months. I'm so ready to get out of this tiny apartment. We've definately out grown it - and it's definately time the kids had a room of their own.

The kids are doing good. Brayden has been extra good at school the past week. He has earned all of his "reward sticks" every day - which is a first for him. He's soaking up the attention that Steve and I are giving him for being so good, so maybe he'll keep it up. Well, not much more to report right now. We're taking my dad to Hooters next weekend for his birthday - maybe I'll post after that.

Maybe this is my year!!

Well, it's 2006. Usually, the New Year doesn't mean much to me - it's just another year. I'm hoping that this year is different. I have so many plans for this year. I'm hoping to get married ;) and we're hoping to start looking into buying a house in a few weeks. I just hope things all go according to plan.

Well, guess I should update on the holidays and stuff. Christmas was GREAT!!! We had a blast. Even Steve seemed to have a good time. The kids had a great time and got a bunch of neat stuff. The time at my parents was fun. We played darts and got drunk, and I got to see my brothers that I haven't seen in a while. It was a lot of fun. New Year's was just as fun. My brothers weren't there - but we still had a lot of fun getting drunk. :)

The job is going really well. I have been given some important projects to take care of which is keeping me very busy. But that's just how I like it. My boss is awesome - we get along great.

Had a surprise visitor last night. My ex's mom stopped by. Haven't seen her since April. She wanted to see the kids. We visited for a while, and it was kind of nice seeing her again. She stopped by tonight with my neice and we had along talk. She told me how shitty my ex was doing (no big surprise). She brought the kids some presents over. I could tell that she'd really missed seeing them. She's going to start coming over more often to see them. I'm totally fine with this - she seems to be totally fine with the kids calling Steve "dad" and she seems to be doing her best to not bring up my ex to them or confuse them in anyway. I'm going to see how things go with the spending time with his family again. It might be nice for the kids to spend some time with them. They seem to be totally sure of who they want to be their dad so I don't have a problem with it right now.

Christmas time!!!

Well, it looks as though I've been posting about once a month which seems to be ok. Can't really do it more than that - cause it takes a while to gather enough stuff to talk about.

The new job is still going great. I have been able to work a lot more with the Executive Vice President of the Benefits department - Susan Chambers. Her name has been in the media a lot due to a memo that got leaked out to an anti Wal-Mart group. Most people outside of Wal-Mart know her as the "evil woman who stops associates from getting hired at Wal-Mart". I know her as an awesome person to work with. She is so funny and friendly, and makes me feel very good about the job that I'm doing. What people didn't realize from that memo was that she was given suggestions on how to make benefits better for associates - not worse. I don't care what anyone else says about her - I think she's great!!! My boss is also as wonderful. She has really let me get into what it is that she does, and help out with research and stuff. If nothing else, this job is going to be a great learning experience.

I'm on vacation now for Christmas. I'm really excited about it. Only 2 days left to go - and I think I'm just as excited as my kids are. Steve still isn't showing any kind of enthusiasm for the holidays. I'm a little sad by this - but I'm still hoping he will come around. We are going to go to his parents' house tomorrow (Christmas Eve) so the kids can get their presents. Then Christmas morning the kids are going to open their presents from Santa and then we head over to my parents house for 2 days of fun, food, and merriment. (That's another word for alcohol.. LOL) We are also taking our friend, Curtis, with us. He doesn't have anything to do Christmas day - so my parents have graciously invited him to spend Christmas with them. I'm so excited about this being the first Christmas in 5 years that I'm going to have a man to share it with. Steve is going to get to meet my brother - yea - whom I don't get along with very well. My other brother is also coming down from Kansas - Steve likes him. So, needless to say, the house is going to be a little crowded. But that's just the way I like it.

Well, I guess this is it until the New Year. This year has gone by so fast. I'll update in January on how Christmas and New Year's Eve goes. Happy holidays to you all.

The New Job

(The beautiful girl in the picture is my adorable neice, Kiersten. My brother's ex sent me some great new pics of her.. ain't she cute??) Well, I'm one week in to my new position. I'm absolutely LOVING IT!!!! My boss is a very awesome women that I know is going to be a great person to work for. Things are a lot slower paced than when I was in the legal dept. but I think things will pick up the more I move into the position. I pretty much get to make my own hours which is totally AWESOME!! I got to get off early today (Friday) which was great. In my old position that was never allowed. My boss goes on vacation next week, and I get to get a laptop and work some from home. Things couldn't be better ;)

Things at home are also great. I'm getting excited about the holidays. We put the kids' toys on layaway a couple of weeks ago. I can't wait till next Friday when I can start decorating the house. Christmas is my FAVORITE holiday. I try to go all out, even though we really can't afford it. I just can't wait for this time next year when we will be in our nice big house getting ready for Christmas.

We're going to be having Thanksgiving at my parent's house. This will be just a small taste for Steve for what holidays are like with my parents. He's really not into holidays, but I'm hoping the kids and my parents will help bring him around a little on that. They love to have a good time this time of year.

Well, that's all for now.. till next time ;)

Life is Good

Wow.. a month has past. (The picture is of my beautiful children dressed for Halloween, well my daughter is my son didn't dress up on that day) I should really try and keep up with this thing better. I have some more wonderful news to share with you all:

A week ago, I had an interview with a V.P. of a new dept that is being implemented in the company. For those that don't know, I work for Wal-Mart at the Home Office. I've been there a little over a year. The dept is called Benefit Strategies and Communications. It's basically a dept that is going to try and help with all the bad media and stuff we get about our wages and benefits. It's working very close with Public Relations and Corporate Affairs. I didn't know any of this before I went to the interview, as I hadn't even applied for the job. Somehow, the V.P. got a hold of my resume and called me in for an interview.

She was a very nice woman. I liked her very much. We basically talked and laughed through the whole interview. Very little of it actually focused on work. I went back to work with a great feeling. She had told me that I would have my answer in a couple of days. A couple of days went by with no word, I emailed the recruiter and she said that the V.P. had been very busy and unable to get the decision made. I decided to give it a couple more days. A week later, I sent another email to the recruiter and was told that she had decided to continue interviewing. I was pretty upset, being that I had been sure that she liked me.

Well, apparently that had been a decoy to push me off track... I received a phone call from the recruiter the next day that I had the job. I almost cried!!! So, I am now a V.P. (Vice President in case you don't get that part) Assistant!!! This is a very big promotion from me. I have been told by lots of people that it is very unusual for someone to move up that fast in the company... but I DID IT!!!!