Work, work, and more work....

This week I picked up extra shifts at work, which has coincided nicely with a pay raise too. Overtime rates on a higher pay rate? Yes, please!

The schedulers I that called to see if I would work crack me up, they always ask if I can pick up a shift, my first question is always "where?" That's the single most important question, knowing what I am agreeing to deal with for 8 hours! Last weekend when I agreed to work Sunday night, the scheduler says to me "Okay, I'm writing you down... In pen." LOL! Yup, I said I would do it, I'll be there!

Yesterday when I called them back (I was sleeping and missed their call), the day had changed but not the where... "Yes, I'll work that" I say. Her response? "You will? Okay, I'll write you down!"

In all fairness, usually when they call I can't take the shift they're offering due to school or prior commitments, and I never pick up when my kids are home. Spending time with my boys is way more important to me than working a few extra hours. I'll cut corners at home and turn down the heat before I miss time with either of my boys, they're growing up and I want to enjoy every minute of it before they're grown and gone. So, this week I'm working 7 days, next week will be no extra hours.

Priorities, it's all about priorities. For me, family is first. Always has been, always will be. But there's nothing wrong with working some overtime when it fits in!

Halloween is Approaching!

Two more weeks until Halloween! This holiday is a big deal for some people, but my boys have never really gotten into the whole thing. They went trick-or-treating when they were little, but have almost always stopped after just a short time in order to go hand out candy instead. We don't like scary movies or haunted houses, and corn mazes are not really our thing at all...

We do love to see all the kids in costume, handing out candy is fun, and we do decorate a little. I can usually convince Nate to carve a pumpkin, last year's got an apple carved into it and the title "iPumpkin" below, he loves Apple! This year I wasn't sure I was going to be able to even convince him to get a pumpkin, until one of our neighbors put out this terrific display:

We now have pumpkins, and are in the process of painting them. The base coat is on, and I will paint the second coat this week while Nate's at his dad's house.

While we love their display, ours will have a few less pumpkin pigs... We also need to figure out the structure for the pig to sit in/on yet. So many things to plan!! I'll post pictures when we're done. We think it would be fun to get all the neighbors involved, and have a street full of Angry Birds "levels."

Happy Saturday!

Today is the 5th annual World Wide Photo Walk, created & coordinated by Scott Kelby, of Kelby Media Group. Last year RJ, Nate & I participated in Grand Haven the day after Family Christmas. This year Nate (who doesn't really care for photography anyway) is going to be headed to Kalamazoo Valley Museum's annual Chemistry Day (a very cool, hands-on event for kids and adults) with his dad. I am headed to MSU to pick up RJ later so we can participate in the Lansing walk. There are 1300 cities worldwide and 30,000 photographers this year!

Can't wait! I'm excited to spend the afternoon with RJ and to participate in this fun event.

Oh, and what my son needs brought over? Two rolls of quarters and a USB hub... Laundry & tech, good combination!

My Daily Commute

I know, how exciting can a commute be, right? Trust me, it's not. I spend a lot of time in my car (or so it feels) when I'm going to school, and I notice a lot of things that just don't make any sense to me. Right now, with the beautiful weather we've had for the fall, there are a lot of motorcyclists on the road, getting in as much ride time as they can before the bad weather comes and the bikes get put away for the winter.

With no more helmet law in Michigan, I find it interesting that many bikers will wear their leathers and gloves to protect their bodies, but then their headgear is a bandana. Conversely, the people wearing shorts, sandals, and t-shirts tend to have a helmet on. I hope neither group crashes, one will have a body but no brain, the other will have no body but they'll keep their brain... The people that ride in full protective gear are becoming more and more rare, so thank you to all my family members that are still in that group! The rider that inspired this was doing at least 80MPH on the expressway, cutting into traffic, and wearing heavy boots, jeans, leather jacket, leather gloves, and a bandana. He pulled into the Staff-Only parking at Kalamazoo Valley Community College. He is not one of my teachers. FYI, I call these riders "Organ Donors."

The other group that tends to annoy me happens to be the police. While going to school last week, I was going the speed limit on the expressway (shocking, but true), and an Allegan County Sheriff passed me like I was standing still. Really? They had a someone in the back seat, I'm assuming it was a prisoner transport. Not long after that, on my way to work, I notice some idiot in my rear-view mirror weaving in and out of traffic, driving like an idiot on a city street. When they passed me, it's only to discover it's Wyoming City Police... I slowed down so he wouldn't have to cut me off (he did anyway) to get around the car that was in front of him in the other lane. He eventually pulled over a car that was 3 ahead of me. Sometimes I worry that the police are going to cause an accident trying to pull someone over!

SUV's tend to tailgate small cars much more aggressively that they do other SUV's and trucks (observed mostly while driving my dad's truck for a bit)... This seems counter-productive. I can stop MUCH faster in my little car than they can in their SUV, you'd think they'd back off a little. Also, no matter how hard they try to push me down the road, I'm keeping my speed the same. Be pissed if you want, but as long as I'm passing the car next to me, I will stay in the lane I'm in, at the speed I'm at, until I can get over safely in the other lane. Get over it. I'm not the idiot that can't pick a speed and has a 10MPH range. Suck it up, back off a little, and I'll let you by when I can.

Isn't commuting fun? Oh yes, my new car as an auxiliary input jack, so I get to listen to my own music while commuting now (without the FM tuner adapter thingy). My favorite commute song? Rhianna's "Shut Up and Drive," of course!