I've just got so much on my mind right now, (like this), it's hard to focus. I can't even tell if what I just wrote makes sense! Did it? Ah well...
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
Whoopsie Daisy
Yeah, I know I promised you guys a post about my wonderful trip to Iowa and then the aftermath of letting my little brother in law watch the dogs at our house for 6 days, but honestly, I'm just not feeling it tonight. Thankfully my eye hasn't been twitching quite as much today, but I'm still feeling quite stressed out and can't put my thoughts together well enough to write a decent recap of the events of the past week. Sorry. :o(
I've just got so much on my mind right now, (like this), it's hard to focus. I can't even tell if what I just wrote makes sense! Did it? Ah well...
I've just got so much on my mind right now, (like this), it's hard to focus. I can't even tell if what I just wrote makes sense! Did it? Ah well...
At a loss
I could use some serious advice, y'all. I'm totally at a loss with my whole work situation. I'm sure, if you've been following my tweets, you know that I'm pretty unhappy with my job right now and have starting looking for something else. Well, being in the homebuilding industry, there's not a whole heck of a lot of opportunities out there right now, but I'm still looking. Even willing to take a pay cut to find something better. But that's beside the point. What I'm really at a loss with is what happened today at work. Here's the story:
I got back to work yesterday from vacation. I had a monitor so I was only in the office half the day and my boss was out the whole day so I didn't see him until today. Well, as usual, he calls me up about 10:30am and wants to see when we can meet to "go over some things". This is a weekly occurrence so I'm not too terribly concerned, but I am like completely overwhelmed with work at the moment so I'm really stressed about that and I know he's going to ask about it all. So I go in his office and he shuts the door. Uh oh. Now what?
He starts the conversation casually, per the usual...asks about vacation...how things are going. Then he starts in on what I've got going on. How do I feel about all this stuff. What can I do about it all. You know. Then he starts saying how he has been sensing that I'm getting frustrated and unhappy and overwhelmed and burnt out. Oh. Have I been that obvious? And he really wants to involve me in other things because I do great work and he values me as an employee and wants to see me grow...not fester. So I tell him that I would love to get involved in other things, but the responsibilities that make up my every day are really weighing me down and take up all my time and I don't have anything left to do anything else. And I don't know what to do about that. I can't not do my every day activities. I mean, I'm just at a loss. He wants me to do more, I want to do more, but I have too much other stuff in the way and no one else to pawn it off on.
Then I also start feeling a little guilty because he was completely right about me being frustrated, unhappy, overwhelmed and burnt out. I'm looking for a new job because of that yet here he is telling me he doesn't want me to go anywhere...he'd rather us work together to make a plan that will free up more of my time to do other things I'd rather be doing.
Ahhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!
The kicker? So they just did this crack-down on internet using while I was out and sent out the report to all the managers about how much time people are spending on the internet and where they're going. Well, apparently, my time on the internet was like double other people's time who have to be on the internet all day as part of their job...AND I have sites like blogs and such. And he didn't even get on to me about it! Just told me to "be more cognizant" about how much time I spend. Really?? Now I feel even more awful! Here I am wasting time being totally unhappy and all he can do is tell me how great I am and how much I mean to the company. Great.
So? What am I supposed to do with this??
I got back to work yesterday from vacation. I had a monitor so I was only in the office half the day and my boss was out the whole day so I didn't see him until today. Well, as usual, he calls me up about 10:30am and wants to see when we can meet to "go over some things". This is a weekly occurrence so I'm not too terribly concerned, but I am like completely overwhelmed with work at the moment so I'm really stressed about that and I know he's going to ask about it all. So I go in his office and he shuts the door. Uh oh. Now what?
He starts the conversation casually, per the usual...asks about vacation...how things are going. Then he starts in on what I've got going on. How do I feel about all this stuff. What can I do about it all. You know. Then he starts saying how he has been sensing that I'm getting frustrated and unhappy and overwhelmed and burnt out. Oh. Have I been that obvious? And he really wants to involve me in other things because I do great work and he values me as an employee and wants to see me grow...not fester. So I tell him that I would love to get involved in other things, but the responsibilities that make up my every day are really weighing me down and take up all my time and I don't have anything left to do anything else. And I don't know what to do about that. I can't not do my every day activities. I mean, I'm just at a loss. He wants me to do more, I want to do more, but I have too much other stuff in the way and no one else to pawn it off on.
Then I also start feeling a little guilty because he was completely right about me being frustrated, unhappy, overwhelmed and burnt out. I'm looking for a new job because of that yet here he is telling me he doesn't want me to go anywhere...he'd rather us work together to make a plan that will free up more of my time to do other things I'd rather be doing.
Ahhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!
The kicker? So they just did this crack-down on internet using while I was out and sent out the report to all the managers about how much time people are spending on the internet and where they're going. Well, apparently, my time on the internet was like double other people's time who have to be on the internet all day as part of their job...AND I have sites like blogs and such. And he didn't even get on to me about it! Just told me to "be more cognizant" about how much time I spend. Really?? Now I feel even more awful! Here I am wasting time being totally unhappy and all he can do is tell me how great I am and how much I mean to the company. Great.
So? What am I supposed to do with this??
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
Peeved...
So I had this whole big new blog post to write today about our trip. Well, then I get to work to find we have been banned from the Internet at work except for "work related" business. Soooooo, doesn't look like I'll be getting that post done too soon since I'm typing this one on my phone and it's really difficult to do! Sorry guys! At least I am back from vacation and I had a great time. I'll try to post more later tonight!
Monday, August 10, 2009
New addresses
So, I'm making a new attempt to go a little more incongnito. You know, for the sake if the wrong people find the wrong things in my writings. SOOOOO I've updated my blog address and changed my twitter name. You can now find my blog here: journalingjules.blogspot.com and my new twitter: twitter.com/Texagjules.
I'll also quit referring to my family by name, but I have yet to come up with some good nicknames. So until then, I might just be referring to my husband as "my husband" or "hubby"...you get the picture. :o)
I'm also taking opinions on my new blog address, twitter name, and family nicknames! Just leave me a comment!
I'll also quit referring to my family by name, but I have yet to come up with some good nicknames. So until then, I might just be referring to my husband as "my husband" or "hubby"...you get the picture. :o)
I'm also taking opinions on my new blog address, twitter name, and family nicknames! Just leave me a comment!
Thursday, August 6, 2009
In his absence.
Now that my husband is off flitting about the world for 2 weeks at a time, I'm finding that I'm becoming way more independent. Don't get me wrong, I'm way happier when he IS home, but while he's gone, life still must go on and I may have to take on roles I wouldn't normally when he is at home. But so it seems, that I actually tend to get MORE done when he's GONE. Is that terrible? Case in point:
One side of our fence has been leaning slightly since the hurricane. John's been talking the past few months about just going ahead and hiring someone to come re-level it. Never actually happened. So when the neighbor brought it up again the other night (after I had already noticed it was leaning even FURTHER) I decided I HAD to do something about it. And since I work for a homebuilder, I have connections to fence people like that. (Score 1 for Julie!) Talked to my friend in Purchasing, got the fence guys number, and called him up and let him know what we needed. He went by the house and took a look, called back and said it would cost about $150-$200 (Score 2 for Julie for getting homebuilder pricing!), and they could be out to fix it on Monday. My reply, "Sounds GREAT." So after months of talk about getting the fence fixed, who comes to the rescue and finally gets someone to come do it, within the week, no less?? Yep, that would be me. (Score 3 for Julie for being so AWESOME! Haha!)
I mean, even the trash and recycling get taken out more consistently when it is I alone who must get the job done. While it is nice to delegate jobs to my husband, I'm coming to learn that said job gets done in much more timely fashion if I just take care of it myself. HOWEVER, I will not keep doing EVERYTHING around the house when my husband is at home. Oh no. He will soon learn to start doing the things I ask of him on MY time rather than his own and we will have much more harmony around our house. We've gotten to the point where we can't just keep "talking" about doing things. We have to start "doing" them.
Being more independent lately, I have become a "can do" lady! I will no longer make excuses for things I have not done. I'll just DO them!
I'm feeling so empowered! Maybe this feeling will get me through the rest of this miserable day at work!! :o)
One side of our fence has been leaning slightly since the hurricane. John's been talking the past few months about just going ahead and hiring someone to come re-level it. Never actually happened. So when the neighbor brought it up again the other night (after I had already noticed it was leaning even FURTHER) I decided I HAD to do something about it. And since I work for a homebuilder, I have connections to fence people like that. (Score 1 for Julie!) Talked to my friend in Purchasing, got the fence guys number, and called him up and let him know what we needed. He went by the house and took a look, called back and said it would cost about $150-$200 (Score 2 for Julie for getting homebuilder pricing!), and they could be out to fix it on Monday. My reply, "Sounds GREAT." So after months of talk about getting the fence fixed, who comes to the rescue and finally gets someone to come do it, within the week, no less?? Yep, that would be me. (Score 3 for Julie for being so AWESOME! Haha!)
I mean, even the trash and recycling get taken out more consistently when it is I alone who must get the job done. While it is nice to delegate jobs to my husband, I'm coming to learn that said job gets done in much more timely fashion if I just take care of it myself. HOWEVER, I will not keep doing EVERYTHING around the house when my husband is at home. Oh no. He will soon learn to start doing the things I ask of him on MY time rather than his own and we will have much more harmony around our house. We've gotten to the point where we can't just keep "talking" about doing things. We have to start "doing" them.
Being more independent lately, I have become a "can do" lady! I will no longer make excuses for things I have not done. I'll just DO them!
I'm feeling so empowered! Maybe this feeling will get me through the rest of this miserable day at work!! :o)
So stoked!
As the day wore on yesterday, I more and more felt like NOT going to CardioSalsa class last night. I had promised myself that I would only skip class if I had a really good reason. Well, I convinced myself that watering the lawn, updating our budget for July, signing up for the 5k next weekend at the Sweet Corn Festival and walking the dogs was way more important than class. And yay for me for actually doing ALL of those things over the course of the evening! I watered the entire backyard which has been so thirsty. Got the budget done for July. Got the forms filled out for the 5k and put in the mail. Even walked the dogs for half an hour. (It was 9:45pm before we went for that walk, but hey, we still did it)
So what am I totally stoked about? Our budget! July was pretty darn crazy. John was in Brazil until a few days before we left for our vacation. Then we had vacation. Then John left for Brazil again just a week and a half after we got home. I don't think we had one completely normal week the entire month. So I was a little nervous to update our spreadsheet with July's results. After downloading our bank and credit cards statements, and making sure I entered in every last transaction, I was actually quite surprised by the results. Turns out we only spent $100 more than we took in during our crazy month of July...but that isn't even the truth. See...that's figuring in the entire $1200 we took out in cash for vacation. We still have about half of that left over in cash that I never put back in the bank because John took most of it to Brazil (but he gets reimbursed for that through work so it doesn't really count as being spent). So in reality, we probably spent about $500 LESS than what we brought in. After a super crazy month, I thought that was absolutely fantastic! We've had a surplus in our budget the past few months that I had yet to transfer to savings because I knew July would be crazy so I wanted it in checking "just in case", but after all was said and done, we have all of that surplus still left over! So that makes me really happy to know we didn't blow a whole bunch of extra money in one month!
Yeah, I know, it's not a particularly exciting post, but it was exciting to me so I just had to share! :o) Thanks for reading!
So what am I totally stoked about? Our budget! July was pretty darn crazy. John was in Brazil until a few days before we left for our vacation. Then we had vacation. Then John left for Brazil again just a week and a half after we got home. I don't think we had one completely normal week the entire month. So I was a little nervous to update our spreadsheet with July's results. After downloading our bank and credit cards statements, and making sure I entered in every last transaction, I was actually quite surprised by the results. Turns out we only spent $100 more than we took in during our crazy month of July...but that isn't even the truth. See...that's figuring in the entire $1200 we took out in cash for vacation. We still have about half of that left over in cash that I never put back in the bank because John took most of it to Brazil (but he gets reimbursed for that through work so it doesn't really count as being spent). So in reality, we probably spent about $500 LESS than what we brought in. After a super crazy month, I thought that was absolutely fantastic! We've had a surplus in our budget the past few months that I had yet to transfer to savings because I knew July would be crazy so I wanted it in checking "just in case", but after all was said and done, we have all of that surplus still left over! So that makes me really happy to know we didn't blow a whole bunch of extra money in one month!
Yeah, I know, it's not a particularly exciting post, but it was exciting to me so I just had to share! :o) Thanks for reading!
Wednesday, August 5, 2009
That long, huh?
Oh my good grief! I totally did not realize that I haven't posted in over a week! I'm sorry guys. I've been a complete mess since John's been gone this time. I don't know why this trip seems so different than the others, but it feels longer and I'm having a lot harder time with him being away. I've also been crazy busy.
My sister-in-law has been in Pittsburgh all summer on an internship and she came home the past two weekends so I've been doing things with the in-laws since she's been home. She's getting married next May and I'm a bridesmaid so the weekend before last we went to the big Bridal Extravaganza. That was fun. Then this past weekend we went and saw Harry Potter on Saturday and had a nice dinner for her fiance's birthday. Then on Sunday, the venue they're getting married at, the same as where John and I were married, was having an open house with lots of vendors so we went to that to visit with different vendors so she can start to find a florist, photographer, etc. She's trying to get a lot done sooner than later because her fiance is off to Pittsburgh next month to start his job while she comes home for her last semester and then heads to Pittsburgh herself in January...then back home for the wedding in May.
Oh, and my mother-in-law is making not only her wedding dress, but also the bridesmaid dresses. Guess what we both realized last week? More than likely, I'll be pregnant by the time the wedding comes around! So we'll have to wait until last minute to make my dress. And they're even looking at some different patterns than what they already have so that maybe she can find a nice dress she likes that has an empire waist, which would be better fitting on a pregnant lady. :o)
So I've hardly been home the past two weekends. And each night during the week I've been trying to work around the house (as I'm the only one there to work on it). Our house has been an absolute PIGSTY as of late. It was starting to totally gross me out. So I've been steadily working on that. Plus trying to work on the yard as well. I think I mentioned we finally got some new grass laid in the backyard and since it's been so freaking dry, I've had to remember to water the lawn every day when I get home. And the chinch bugs are killing our grass in the front yard so I went the other night and got some yard bug killer and spread that out last night and watered it in. Then come to find out that our fence is now starting to lean even more than it was after the hurricane so we REALLY need to get that taken care of soon. Thankfully while I was outside yesterday, the neighbor came out and mentioned the fence to me, which I had also noticed this week and she offered to help fix it...whatever we need from them. They're nice neighbors. I told her I was planning on talking to our Purchasing guy here at work to see if I can get one of our fence vendors to come out and fix it for a discount. I need to get on that.
Oh my! See what happens when I'm gone for so long?? I just keep talking and talking!! So sorry guys. And I haven't even mentioned work yet!! Okay, okay, I'll save that for another post. :o) And now my lunch is over and I've got to get back to work. Thanks for hanging in there and I hope to start getting back to more routine posting. John comes home Sunday, so that will help. Well...except for the fact that we're heading out on another vacation on Wednesday. To Iowa we go for the Sweet Corn Festival. Oh, it will be so much fun!
Oh yeah...I was leaving...right.
My sister-in-law has been in Pittsburgh all summer on an internship and she came home the past two weekends so I've been doing things with the in-laws since she's been home. She's getting married next May and I'm a bridesmaid so the weekend before last we went to the big Bridal Extravaganza. That was fun. Then this past weekend we went and saw Harry Potter on Saturday and had a nice dinner for her fiance's birthday. Then on Sunday, the venue they're getting married at, the same as where John and I were married, was having an open house with lots of vendors so we went to that to visit with different vendors so she can start to find a florist, photographer, etc. She's trying to get a lot done sooner than later because her fiance is off to Pittsburgh next month to start his job while she comes home for her last semester and then heads to Pittsburgh herself in January...then back home for the wedding in May.
Oh, and my mother-in-law is making not only her wedding dress, but also the bridesmaid dresses. Guess what we both realized last week? More than likely, I'll be pregnant by the time the wedding comes around! So we'll have to wait until last minute to make my dress. And they're even looking at some different patterns than what they already have so that maybe she can find a nice dress she likes that has an empire waist, which would be better fitting on a pregnant lady. :o)
So I've hardly been home the past two weekends. And each night during the week I've been trying to work around the house (as I'm the only one there to work on it). Our house has been an absolute PIGSTY as of late. It was starting to totally gross me out. So I've been steadily working on that. Plus trying to work on the yard as well. I think I mentioned we finally got some new grass laid in the backyard and since it's been so freaking dry, I've had to remember to water the lawn every day when I get home. And the chinch bugs are killing our grass in the front yard so I went the other night and got some yard bug killer and spread that out last night and watered it in. Then come to find out that our fence is now starting to lean even more than it was after the hurricane so we REALLY need to get that taken care of soon. Thankfully while I was outside yesterday, the neighbor came out and mentioned the fence to me, which I had also noticed this week and she offered to help fix it...whatever we need from them. They're nice neighbors. I told her I was planning on talking to our Purchasing guy here at work to see if I can get one of our fence vendors to come out and fix it for a discount. I need to get on that.
Oh my! See what happens when I'm gone for so long?? I just keep talking and talking!! So sorry guys. And I haven't even mentioned work yet!! Okay, okay, I'll save that for another post. :o) And now my lunch is over and I've got to get back to work. Thanks for hanging in there and I hope to start getting back to more routine posting. John comes home Sunday, so that will help. Well...except for the fact that we're heading out on another vacation on Wednesday. To Iowa we go for the Sweet Corn Festival. Oh, it will be so much fun!
Oh yeah...I was leaving...right.
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