Back to Work...

I went back to work this Monday after being laid off for 3 weeks. I was glad to go back because I sure missed my check but I also had gotten used to being off and piddling and getting things accomplished. I had made a list for myself before I got laid off of things I wanted to accomplish while I was off. 21 things, 21 days. I think I accomplished 12 or 13 of them. Not too bad. I am slowly working on the last 8 or 9 things but some of them take lots of time (organizing ALL of our pictures into albums or onto CDs)

Work greeted me early with a phone call Friday night. It was my building manager calling to let me know that I ws being moved to a different department. My job title would still be the same but instead of being in her department (BPF), I would now be in Fuel. Just in case you don't know what NFS does, click here. Now, instead of going back to 3rd shift like I had hoped, I will go through a long training session on dayshift. After that, I will continue to train for my job on the floor on dayshift. The bad news is....once I complete my training, I will be going to 2nd shift. YUCK! We are a union so shift preference is determined by seniority. I have only been there a little over a year and I cannot "hold" 3rd shift on Fuel. I could in BPF but Fuel is different.

I am grateful to have a job but I am going to miss my friends in BPF and 3rd shift. "They" (whoever that may be) have said that they hope to get us (me and 2 others) back to BPF when we are ready to run again (our area is shut down for re-engineering) but with as much training, time and money that goes into this, I doubt we will get moved back. Oh well, I have never had a desire to work 2nd shift but we will give it a go and see how it works for me. I just keep telling myself that this isn't permanent and I am almost done with my classes. Greater things are yet to come for this chica!

Haiti $!

Yesterday was our big collection Sunday for our Haiti offering. We showed a quick slide show and took up an offering after the service was over. They counted it for us really quick and we were hoping for at least $10,000. We didn't get $10,000 but that's ok....we over $13,500!!!!! God is so good! We are also matching $ for $ what the community contributes but as of right now, they have only sent in $300. If anyone would like to donate to this worthy cause (all the money goes through IDES), we are continuing to take money to send. Contact me or the church and let us know that you would like to help Haiti and we will let you know who, what, and how. Thanks so much for all the prayers and the donations!

Excuse me...how much?

Our poor dog has some serious issues with her ears. Summer 2008 she started digging and scratching them so much that they became extemely infected. We took her to the vet and $200 and my heart attack later, they cleared up. She took her antibiotics and we put the cream and everything else in them. Fast forward to summer 2009...the digging and scratching begin AGAIN. We clean them, put cream in them, put her flea medicine on her, clean and BLEACH her pen, and everything else we could do to help kill whatever it is. Bless her heart, nothing helped. I finally took her to the vet yesterday. Once again, they gave me the same antibiotics (more because she has gained 11 pounds!!!), a different cream and instructions to bring her back in 2 weeks because it might not be bugs....it might be a FOOD ALLERGY!!!

Well, if you know us at all, we do not spend a million dollars on our pets. They are ANIMALS! I love my dog and I will do anything to prevent something from happening to her but I will not buy kangaroo based food products from the vet. Sorry but I won't. If she is allergic to beef, I will head down to the river, catch as many fish as I can and make her fish for dinner. If it's chicken she is allergic to, I will cook pork, beef or whatever else to make her happy but I will not spend that much money on my dog. They said that if she bites at her rump, which she does, that it is more than likely she has an allergy. When I take her back in 2 weeks which is probably going to cost me another $200 just to walk in the door, they will take another sample of her ears and see if we have killed the source of the problem. If not, we will begin a strict new diet. We will try fish first, we have some dented cans of tuna, some old frozen shrimp and a river full of trout. It seems to me to be the cheapest route. If that doesn't work then we will try something else.

The worst part about all this is that if she is allergic to something, she cannot even have a Milkbone while we test her. She takes her heartworm pill with peanut butter and gets a piece of cheese when she does something good or just because. I don't know if we will have to cut those out too. Anyway, I hope that it is jsut bugs and we can eliminate the problem with medicine and a good scrubbing.

Might I add, that she fell in love with a 6 week old Rottie when we were there yesterday? It whined and cried and she just sat there watching it and whining because she wanted to play. Apparently, the man with the dog was slightly intimidated by my whiny, 74 pound German Shepherd so he wouldn't put his dog down. Oh well, his loss.