In Our Backyard

Either we have an abundance of fungus in our yard or a whole village of smurfs just moved in.

A Milestone

Two of my most prized possessions boarded a plane without me on Saturday while in my husband's arms: my camera and Micah.

Labor Day weekend has become the annual weekend for Grandpa Deen's family reunion in Illinois. Due to a couple reasons, I was unable to attend this year. 1.) At the time that Tom purchased plane tickets, I was still job hunting, and I knew that it would be unlikely that I could take extra time off for the holiday weekend if I had been working. 2.) Micah, now 2 years old, requires his own plane ticket making our travel adventures a little more pricey. So, I stayed home and enjoyed a quiet weekend in Texas alone.

Saturday night marked the milestone of Micah spending the first night away from Mama. Yes, you're probably thinking this is long overdue, and I admit that it was. The prolonged milestone wasn't truly on purpose or for the fact that I couldn't let go. Well, maybe that was a small part of the reason.

Since I nursed Micah until he was 18 months old and he didn't start sleeping through the night until around that same time, I felt awkward asking anyone to sacrafice their sleep to tend to my little guy. Sure, his grandparents wouldn't mind keeping him, but proximity was a problem. Every time we would see Micah's grandparents, the trip would be brief and if we left Micah with them, we would be missing out on visiting with them. So, that led us to where we were last weekend.

In case you're wondering, Micah survived the weekend and so did I. Hopefully, my camera did too. And, hopefully, Tom got some pictures that I can share with you this week.

Tom just texted me and said they landed at Love Field, the airport, and should be home soon. The last 4 days have been long and I can't wait to hug and kiss them!

In other news, I started my new job today. It was 100% better than the last first day I experienced. I'll fill you in on my experiences soon.

Sprinkler Pad One More Time

I picked up Micah from school early today because I didn't have to go to work, and we drove over to the Frisco Commons Park to enjoy the sprinkler pad one more time before it closes this weekend. We were lucky and had the entire playground all to ourselves.

After a couple of days of rain, we had a very nice cool day today. When I woke up and took Micah to school it was breezy and only 70 degrees. It was a refreshing change to open the windows in the house and have fresh air blowing through the kitchen. The forecast for the remainder of the weekend shows highs around 90. I guess the triple digit degree days have come and gone.

Goodbye, summer! We'll miss you!

Big Things Are Happening

Several posts ago I mentioned that big things were happening, and in the previous post I mentioned that I would devote an entire entry to my job. Well, I'm ready to fill everyone in on what has been happening.

On the Tuesday prior to our trip to Mississippi, I had an interview with a healthcare group (I'll leave the name anonymous) that specializes in LTACs, or long term acute care hospitals. The first round went great and I got called back for a second interview hours later. Things were moving fast and by the next day I had an offer. Things seemed fantastic.

When I received the offer and read over all of the details, I wasn't too impressed. Yes, I realize I was once spoiled by Comcast which had many perks including FREE: internet, cable and phone to name a few. I knew going into this job search that I would need to lower my standards a bit.

Here's my Pros and Cons list for the healthcare group offer:

Pros

1. Salary was equivalent to my prior salary in Denver
2. The office is close to Tom's office (i.e. we could carpool and have lunch dates)
3. The high-rise building was attached to the Galleria mall

Cons

1. The office is 45 minutes away from home and when we weren't carpooling we would incur additional tollway charges ($8/day per car)
2. No paid holidays (That's just wrong. They would allow you to use PTO time so there wouldn't be a dip in pay. How generous?)
3. No paid maternity leave. They do honor FMLA regulations though.
4. No small perks (example: Comcast had free soda fountains which made my Dr.Pepper habit more affordable)

I weighed my options, at the time it was my only option, and accepted the offer. My start date was the following Thursday (Micah's birthday).

While driving across Arkansas on the Thursday a week before my start date, I received a call from another recruiter. He wanted to know if I would be interested in a position in Little Elm, the community where we live. The commute would be no more than 15 minutes from our house and only a few blocks down from the gym we go to. I bounced around in the car with excitement as he told me all about the opportunity. When we returned to Texas after visiting in Mississippi for the weekend, I had an interview with the company in Little Elm. And, on Wednesday, the day before I started my other job, I had my second interview. Things were moving right along until I found out that the company I was interviewing with needed to post the job internally for a period of time before they could truly consider me for the position.

So, I tried not to get my hopes up, and I went to work for the healthcare group on Thursday.

This is, by far, the worst first day of work I've every experienced. (Mind you that I have only had a hand full of jobs and please don't think I'm being a snot about the working environment I'm about to describe. I wouldn't wish this for anyone, and I'm sorry if you have to put up with this type of job everyday.)

First off my access card didn't work at the gate to the garage. Some nice gentleman got out of his car and walked over to the box and swiped his card so I could go through and quit holding up the line.

Once I made it up to the office, the director of finance met me in the lobby area and walked me around the floor. He wasn't sure where I was supposed to sit nor did they have a desk for me. [Dear employers: if you are extremely eager for someone to start working immediately, at least have a desk for them when they show up]

A half hour or so later, the financial analyst that would be training me showed up and found a desk for me down the isle (about 30 yds)from everyone else. On the up side, it had a window. I put my purse down and tried to get settled in, well, once the analyst pulled up a chair she found for me. The chair was missing a wheel and leaned to one side. I thought to myself, "it can't get much worse...can it?". The analyst showed me around and introduced me to some very sweet people. One jokingly said, "I bet you thought things would be fancy around here since you're working in the Gallaria." Another said, "We're just short of having port-o-potties around here." I was then told about the sewage problem they experienced several months ago in the break room that led to everyone taking the day off to avoid the fumes. The break room was gutted as a result to the problem and was still gutted when I arrived. They had heard of no plans of remodeling. I made a mental note to self: "don't drink the water".

While I was walking around getting to know everyone, the IT guy brought a laptop to my desk to hook to the old, giant monitor that looked like it had been sitting there since 1995. It was a slow computer, but it ran. Afterall, it was only missing one key on the keyboard...the ENTER key.

There were many other thing that happened that day that made me feel less and less comfortable at the job [I cringe every time I think about how many hands I shook that day knowing that there was no soap in the ladies bathroom Thursday or Friday], and I had made up my mind that I wouldn't stay there very long. If I didn't get the job in Little Elm, I was going to keep looking elsewhere.

Although, things started to improve this week: my access card started working in the garage, I got a chair with all of the wheels, and I got a new keyboard; I was still more interested in getting out of there.

Today, I received a call from my recruiter about the Little Elm job and they have extended me an offer and want me to start on Tuesday following Labor day. I'm THRILLED! I accepted right away.

I only had one problem. I had to quit the healthcare group job.

I called Tom, who has been in Houston since Tuesday and will be there until tomorrow night, and discussed the news and made a game plan. I did minimal research on the internet and found a resignation letter that met my situation. I copied and pasted it into Word, printed it out, signed it and walked over to my boss' desk.

The scene:

Me: "Laura, I have something I need to talk to you about. I have decided to leave [anonymous] healthcare group."

Laura: "Fine." (snatches resignation letter and tosses it to the side of her desk)

"Badge. Get Out. Bye."

Me: (Holding back laughter with a look on my face expressing disbelief) "OK"

I gathered my things and walked out.

The End.

I had fully prepared myself to explain that I appreciate the time and effort they put into training me and that it just wasn't working out, but I didn't get a chance. Oh well. Knowing now how she reacted, I am positively-without a doubt-glad I left. I have no regrets. I just couldn't believe how immature she acted. I would never want to work for someone like that.

Let's liken the situation to a couple of 5 year-olds for fun.

The scene:

Me: "Laura, I'm tired of playing at your house and I'm ready to go home."

Laura: "Fine. Give me back my toys. Get out. Bye."

The End

See any similarities?

Let's hope she decides to grow up one day.

On the bright side, I'm excited about my new job and I can't wait to start. It even has perks: I can wear jeans every day, they cover the cost of my gym membership, and they have fresh fruit baskets delivered every week instead of having vending machines. I think things are going to work out just fine at the new job.

I hope everyone has a nice holiday weekend. Mine just turned into a 4-day weekend!

Happy Birthday

Most of you may know that I found a job, and it just so happened that they were very eager to have me start this past Thursday, also Micah's second birthday, to make preparations for the month end close. (I'm planning to dedicate an entire blog to the job next week. Stay tuned.) So, it was another early morning for the Deen household. This is how we started Micah's birthday.

Warning!: Tom and I are singing. You may want to turn down the volume!

[Yes, I know the walls are pink. When we first moved here, we didn't anticipate Micah staying in the crib for this long and I didn't want to put effort into fixing up the nursery until the next little one comes along. (no, I'm not pregnant)]

When we arrived home from work and daycare, we noticed a package at the door.

Thanks for the cool latch board, Aunt Gamma and Uncle Wes!

Instead of another cake for his birthday, I baked chocolate chip cookies for an after dinner treat. He loves chocolate just like his Mama!

Happy 2nd Birthday, Micah! We love you!

More In Mississippi

...After cake we went outside to open some presents.

Next, Dada hung the pinata.

Mikayla took a few gentle swings.

Shortly afterwards, Henry and Will finished it off and candy went everywhere.

[Kathy, Kacyn, Mikayla, Micah, and Me]

I was so excited when I found out that Kathy, my BFF, and her two girls, Mikayla and Kacyn, were going to be able to make it to the party. I can't believe that her oldest daughter is almost the age that Kathy and I met in pre-school.


When it was time for Kathy and her girls to leave, Micah took Mikayla's hand and gave her a precious kiss. Ok, it took a little coaxing, but he was more than willing. So sweet!


Later that evening, Nana and Granddaddy babysat Micah so Tom and I could go out for another date night. Since we'd seen everything in town the night before, we just went to Jake 'n Rips to eat and called it a night. We had a long day of driving ahead of us on Sunday.

After church Sunday morning, we took a few pictures and got on the road.

Thanks for a great weekend, Nana and Granddaddy!

In Mississippi

I have so much to share and things just keep happening. I figured if I didn't start getting this blog updated, I may never catch up.

So, here we go.

Last weekend, we drove to Mississippi to visit my family and our friends and to celebrate Micah's 2nd birthday. Our first stop was in Southaven at my brother's house. Micah got to show off his swimming abilities for his Aunt Dawne; I got to get my hair done by Laura and eat lunch with Terri, one of my friends from Fred's; and Tom got to have breakfast with his old advisor and a grad school friend from Memphis.

Next, we traveled south to my parents' house in Grenada for the remainder of the weekend.

My parents were very gracious and accepted our request to babysit Micah while we went out on a date Friday night. We had dinner at No Way Jose, the newest Mexican place in town and apparently the hot spot. We ran into my high school friends: Kathy H. Jones and David and Ashley Harrell at dinner. I love being able to go back to a small town and be able to run into people I haven't seen in months and just catch up. No Grenada date is complete without driving out to the lake, and that's where we headed after dinner. Our next stop was Spencers for dipped ice cream cones.

Finally, our last stop on our date was, of course, Wal-Mart. Surprisingly, I didn't see one person I recognized in there. I guess I've been away for too long. Anyway, we picked up the food and extra supplies we needed for Micah's birthday party and headed home.On Saturday, we had Micah's birthday party at Nana and Granddaddy's house. The theme for the party was Disney Cars.

[Mikayla, Micah, Will and Henry eating hamburgers and hot dogs]

I have more to share from the birthday party and the rest of the trip, but I'll save it for my next blog. I have to keep you coming back for more, right?!

By the way, today is Micah's actual 2nd birthday! Yay! We made it to two! My little boy is getting so big!