Bad Week

I am so glad that we are onto a new week. Last week was one of those weeks where I just wanted to pull the covers over my head and go back to bed ~ each day.

I know that we are going to have a better week this week. I just spent about a half of an hour spilling my heart out on how horrible the past week was but that won't make it any better. So, I erased it.

The one incident that I am hoping that will get better is Katherine's teacher. Katherine has been in school for about 4 months now. Her teacher was awesome. She took Katherine in under her wing and we got to the point that Katherine wanted to go to school. Katherine was asking when she got to go back. Yea! It was a win until last Thursday. Ms. Cynthia is no longer there. I am not sure what happened but I can only guess that a parent complained. I don't know what they could complain about because she was such a great teacher. Her class was in order in the students loved her.

From my experience, there are a lot of kids out there without boundaries. Kids that get away with anything because their parents don't discipline them. When I say "discipline", I am saying, teaching the child right from wrong and having respect for others. Not only adults but other children too. Yes, I know that they are only 3 but kids can and do respect other kids when they are taught to.

So, I am just guessing since it was such an abrupt exit, that there was an altercation between teacher and student. I am really sad to see Ms. Cynthia go and I really hope that the parent of the child is happy. It was the right thing for their child but the wrong decision for so many others. We have gone back to square one with Katherine not wanting to go to school. She cries every morning now and it breaks my heart. One positive, Katherine is happy to see her friends.

I am also not happy with the teacher that they have in the classroom right now until the new teacher comes. I walked into the room to pick up Katherine today and it was absolute chaos. Kids were screaming and crying. There was another parent picking up their child and the child had scratch marks all over his face. The teachers reaction, "Oh, sorry. I forgot to mention that to you. I am not sure what happened but I think the other kid just wanted the toy that your boy had". Huh? And that is okay? That never happened when Ms. Cynthia was there. I know things will get better. This is just a transition ~ for everybody.

I want to wish Ms. Cynthia the best. You will be missed (A LOT). I am hoping that the new teacher will be just as understanding.

On the job front:
Still no job. I keep sending out my resumes and filling out applications on line. I am sure that something will hit. In the mean time, I also have three chocolate parties booked for the month of October now. Woo Hoo! I think that I may have two more. So, I may not have a Monday - Friday job right now but may have found a way for a supplement income.

Finally:
Only two more weeks until Brett is back in the country. He has been traveling all over. It is nice that we set up Skype so that Katherine can see and talk to him. That has made it a bit easier. Every night though, she asks if we can go pick daddy up at the airport tomorrow. When that tomorrow comes, she will be one happy little girl. She really misses her daddy.

So... this week has started off much better and I look forward to it getting even better.


My Little School Girl

Cooking Update

I would like to give a little update on my cooking adventure...

It is going well. I am doing much better than I expected. Even Brett is happy with my cooking. He loves his food and has high expectations especially with his job. When he is at work, he is able to go out to a nice restaurants and have outstanding food.

Each week, I look at making five meals ~ one familiar one such as tacos or spaghetti, one vegetarian, and a couple of meat meals. I have also been very creative with the sides as well. Katherine's favorite veggie is broccoli so I have gotten really good at steaming it (without over steaming).

This has given me more confidence so I have been trying a few harder recipes. Ones that take a little more prep and cook time but they turn out the most tasty.

It is funny, though... Each time I give Katherine her meal, she says, "Mac n' Cheese, please". I tell her that she needs to eat one bite before she can have Mac n' Cheese. I haven't once made her Mac n' Cheese because she has liked all of my meals as well.

So... that is a quick update. I feel very successful at my attempt to learn how to cook. It isn't as hard as I made it out to be. I just need to make sure that I read the entire recipe before starting to make the meal. :)

I Didn't Get The Job

I finally heard today that I didn't get the job that I interviewed for. As I have previously said, I am honored to have been chosen for the interview considering they have about a 100 applicants per posting and only interview 3 to 5 people. That puts me in the top 95%.

After hearing the job description at the interview, I was questioning if I really would accept the job if I was offered the position. As time went on, I don't think that the position was for me. When I received the call this morning stating that they had chosen another person, I was okay but also hurt. It's hard not to take it personally. After all, I was an Executive Administrative Assistant with over 7 years of experience. I was also a flight attendant that within my short time amount of time, I think that I experienced more emergencies and emergency landings (one on my IOE) than Brett has ever experienced. I was also a Wedding Coordinator with over 300 weddings under my belt as well as running my own branch in banking by the time I was 25. Let's also not forget the Mickey Mouse was my boss at one time as well. I have the experience so why wasn't I chosen? That is the answer that I will never know. What I do know is this...

After going to Katherine's Back To School Night tonight, I am so proud of her. I am so proud of us. She has come so far in such a short time. Yes, we have had our challenges with her starting school but after hearing all of the positive compliments about how wonderful she is doing, a mother cannot help but blush. I heard from other parents that they couldn't believe how smart she was. Then, it was awesome to hear from the teachers to hear how brilliant Katherine is and how well she has adapted.

I will never know why I didn't get the job that I interviewed for but I do know I have a little girl that doesn't judge me on my work experience. She and I work together and together we make an awesome team.

Missing her Friends

I know that Katherine is missing her Disney friends. We will need to make a trip soon.

Some Oldies but Goodies...

So with my free time, I am finally catching up on my scrapbooking. Actually, I have pretty much this year done so I have started from where I left off about 3 years ago. I guess I should back up a bit... When Katherine was first born and a few months after that, I scrapped one page per day. It was really easy since babies sleep and sleep and sleep... I can tell about the time that Katherine became mobile because that was about the time that I stopped.

Here is Katherine at 3 Months:

She still makes this face when she is in trouble.


Her first nap in her crib ~ August 7, 2007


Starting to really smile!


Katherine and Ms. BJ


Katherine's first flight in the 210

Brett's Co-Pilot

Dove Chocolates vs. Tupperware

I signed up with Tupperware when we moved to Palm Desert thinking that I would meet more people. Not so. I had great success selling Tupperware products when I first signed up. I couldn't get many parties, though. I heard the same excuse over and over, "I don't need anymore Tupperware" or "I have been to enough parties and I don't want to host one". It was a bit hard since I put a lot of time and effort as well as money into this adventure.

When we moved back to Phoenix, I really didn't put any time into Tupperware and has kind of gone off to the waste side. I still love the product and have a lot of it but it's tough to get turned down time and time again.

Finding it hard to get an interview for a job, I looked on line for other options. When I found Dove Chocolates and talked to Brett about it... he wasn't so "gung ho" for it. I think partly because he loves chocolate and the other part because he saw how hard I worked for Tupperware and it didn't go anywhere. I have a totally different feeling for this company, than Tupperware. Tupperware has been around for the past 50 years and it is well like but can be a bit on the expensive side.

The more that I talk to my friends about this, the more positive feedback I am receiving than when I was selling Tupperware. They are excited for me and even have a few that will book a party with me who wouldn't when I was selling Tupperware.

Doing the research before I signed up as a Chocolatier, I found that there are only 30 Chocolatiers here in Arizona. Wow! Only 30 in a space that is larger than the L.A. basin. I think that this can be a great opportunity for me and for my family! I can hopefully make some extra money that we can use to pay down some debt and start to put some money away for a family vacation.

I cannot wait to get my kit to get started. I am going to have to hide the chocolate from my husband because I can see it now... I get to a party and there are teeth marks in the chocolate bars. :)

With the holiday seasons coming up, Dove Chocolates have some amazing deals. They also really take care of their hosts not to mention, they don't take advantage of shipping costs like Tupperware does.

Below is my personal website. Go check it out and let me know what you think.

www.aloveofchocoate.com

Interview

As many know, I have not had great luck in finding a job. I finally got a interview! Woo Hoo!! It's for a receptionist position with the Paradise Valley School District. Receptionist... it is a step down from my previous job (outside the home) but at least it's a interview. I had to take a typing, math and spelling test before I was even considered. I graduated from UNLV, took Calculus and the "math test" that I had to take for this position almost killed me. It was a 45 minute test ~ addition, subtraction, multiplication and division.

Oh my gosh!! The addition part wasn't so bad. Just adding several groups of numbers with decimals. Then subtraction... same as addition but subtraction. Those two sections took awhile to complete because calculators were not allowed. I finally made it to the multiplication part with about 25 minutes left for the test. I didn't do so well in this section. Yes, it had decimals and I bombed it. What didn't make sense though, I did awesome with the division. Oh, I forgot to mention... long division with decimals. Something that I haven't done since I was probably in the 8th grade. When we finished, we got our scores. Oh, I was so ashamed... but the lady giving the test said that I did great! She said the median score was in the low 50's and I got close to a 70 score. Again, not sure how I did so bad in multiplication but great in the division section... don't you need multiplication with division?

The other two sections weren't so hard... typing and spelling. Well, I did a lot better with spelling than I thought because I am really horrible at spelling. I guess I got lucky on that one. The typing test wasn't so bad either because at least now I know how many words that I can type. Again, I am well above average. Not so bad considering I have been out of the work force for over 3 1/2 years.

At the end of the test, I told the lady that was giving the test that I understood the reasoning of the testing but if this was for an admin position, why didn't they test on the knowledge of Word or Excel? She understood my question and didn't really have an answer.

Anyway... I am honored to have this interview as it was told to us during the testing process that they have about a 100 applicants per posting and they interview between 3 to 5 people per posting. So, yea for me! I made it in the top 95%.