My Definition of Busy Used To Be Different

Lately, I feel like I am habitually behind on everything. I seriously don't remember ever being this busy in my entire life. Thing is, once upon a time, I thought I was busy. It was nothing like what I have felt in these past few weeks. And to top it all off, I have been having a rather difficult time getting into the holiday spirit which is in a large part due to how busy and overwhelming this year feels (and the fact that as a result of holiday hussle and bustle several people lost their lives on Friday).

We had a nice enough Thanksgiving holiday. My father and his mother visited for the long weekend. My 90 year old grandmother was having a very difficult time breathing and had forgotten her medicine at home, on top of that my father, her caregiver (if you can call it that) was not very considerate of her...at all. Her hearing, eyesight and mind are almost gone and he treats her like a small child who keeps asking "are we there yet". We all did the best we could and survived the weekend. What a difficult balancing act family can be. On one hand I love my family and get excited when they are coming to visit but sometimes, after they get here, I count the minutes to their departure and then I wind up feeling guilty afterwards.

One of the most endearing things I witnessed this weekend is the flowering friendship between our children and their nephew, the X-man, who is 8 months their senior. On Thanksgiving they were basically playing hide and seek behind furniture at my aunt's house and it reminded me of playing that same game in that very same house with my cousins 20 years ago. It's a trip to live vicariously through one's children. On Friday, the three of them were chasing one another around on the Little Tikes cars at our house and by Saturday Bailey had developed what her father calls a 'cousin crush' on the X-man, for she followed him everywhere at his house. Our children try to walk like him and he gets down and crawls with them.

In case you were wondering, some of us did go shopping on Friday. Actually, some of us skipped Thanksgiving dinner entirely to set up camp outside of Best Buy on Thursday afternoon. Then some of us brought hot cocoa and doughnuts for those crazy enough to stay outside all nate in the late November cold weather for other people's gain. What do I mean other people's gain? These particular people waited outside all night to gain tickets for laptops for other family members. Gosh they're sweet, and I hope some of you liked the cocoa, and thank you. Some of us were waiting outside of Toys 'R Us at 4:15. And some of us, well we slept in with the kids. I will let you all figure out who did what. I know lots of people don't agree with the Black Friday shopping, but I really enjoy the experience. I love having a plan and I love shopping, so it's like Black Friday was invented for me, however, I wasn't the one who camped outside of Best Buy in the cold.

Ward was a tremendous help on Friday afternoon preparing dinner. He peeled vegetables so that I could keep my fingers, he diced, he chopped and fried and washed pot after pot. It was the least stressful of all the dinners thus far, after seven years maybe we are getting a knack for this. Everything was ready at 6 p.m., when our invitations said dinner would begin, our guests however, some of them were not here until after 6:30. My aunts and uncles and even a few cousins (who had never seen the kids) made it by and with over 20 people here it was one of the most uncomfortable dinners we've had. The 'turkey' bread was a hit however and was gone long before I ever thought of taking a picture of it, sorry.

I have some real stories to tell, and how I wanted to get some blogging time in over the weekend, but I will have to wait until tomorrow because I am far too busy to get into them today. But I hope each and every one of you had a happy thanksgiving and are gearing up for the holidays.

-june

I'm Thankful. Very, very thankful.

I haven't had a lot of things to post about this week. I have been chasing around two foot tall treasures and busy at nap times with holiday planning with a very busy four day weekend coming up ahead. I have had several ideas but before I have a had a moments chance to post the thought has escaped and I haven't chased them down.

However, this morning we were having a lazy morning with Banana-Pecan waffles and coffee for us and regular waffles and milk for the kids when I thought about the holidays coming up and how much Thanksgiving is just brushed over, at least in my famiy. It just feels like any other day most of the time, like we are just pushing through so that Black Friday and Christmas can be upon us. I want to take back Thanksgiving, give it some meaning.

So for the next few days I am going to focus on all of the things I am thankful for, little or huge, in no particular order, starting with:

1. Ward, Cooper and Bailey. Thankful seems like such a small word for how lucky I feel to have these people as my focus, my center, my core.
2. My friends and family. I won't take time to list everyone, you know who you are.
3. Our roof. And by roof, I mean our shelter, our home. We have a roof over our heads that we often take for granted when we really shouldn't, especially in a year when Americans are losing their homes at all time records. And yet many of those people are still far more fortunate than millions of other people in the world, without a roof or shelter of any kind.
4. Bread and cherry coke.
5. That my Father who turns 70 tomorrow is still alive, that his mother, who turned 90 in April is still alive and that my maternal grandmother who is 80 can still keep up with us at Potomac Mills.
6. That I am finally a mother.
7. My children's laughs.

Ok, I could go on and on, and I probably will as the week progresses but I have to start thinking about dinner and grocery lists so I should log off. But I encourage all of you to take time this week and reflect on all the things you are grateful for.

-june

I Can Tell, You're Going to Win Some HR Rewards

A little over two weeks ago we transferred a C.D. from one bank to Wachovia. I know they are struggling but they're FDIC insured and had better rates than their competitors. I didn't have an account of any kind there but in a very short time span a very kind young man (yes, younger than me even) opened the C.D., a checking account (free) and a savings account (5% interest). I was very pleased with the encounter. The man who opened the account also gave me information to set up online banking. The next day I tried to set up the account only to get an error message. I meant to call, but I am pretty busy and I don't plan on using that account for very much and I don't really care if I ever set up the online banking to be perfectly honest with you.

This morning I was on the phone with a girlfriend of mine when my cell rang. I was on the home phone and it wasn't a number I recognized so I let the voicemail take care of it, after I got off the phone with my friend I saw I had a message, it was from the nice man at Wachovia. I called back even though it was approaching nap time here in our home but I thought he may want to know why I hadn't activated my check card (I don't get out a lot, there is no money in that account, I was prepared for the why's). But he was calling because he saw that I hadn't set up my online account and he wanted to know if I needed help. He asked if I could get online and he would walk me through the process. He did, except I got the same error message. He told me he would call the helpline and get back with me.

When the phone rang again it was even closer to nap time. Instead of the nice gentleman from Wachovia it was an online account assitance lady. After she verified who I was she brought the nice man from Wachovia back on the line. She then proceeded to tell him that when new account members set up their online accounts they will always get that error message in a very patronizing way. I felt bad for him because she was very nasty about it and it seemed unneccessary to tell him that with me on the line, it seems that she could have told them that before our three-way conversation began. It also seems silly that new account members would always get an error message. Maybe I am lazy but so are they, maybe they should invest some time into a registration process free of instant error messages.

She begins to walk me through the registration for what seems like the umpteenth time. By this point my children are at my feet crying and pulling up and falling and crying some more. I get to the point where I have successfully (or so I assumed) entered in all of the new passwords and codes when I get yet another error message. She tells me that I have done something wrong and I need to start over. I tell her that we will need to do this later, I have to go take care of my kids when she tells me that "no, it is fine they deal with this sort of thing (you mean crying?) all the time, if it is bothering me I should deal with it". I wish I could record my phone calls for training purposes sometimes, her rudeness had me so shocked and taken aback that I didn't know what to do at first. I then told her "no, it's my children's nap time, I am getting off of the phone". She then proceeded to tell me what I needed to do next, I replied, cutting her off, "Thank you" and hung up.

I am still flabbergasted. I wasn't getting off the phone for her benefit or mine, I was getting off the phone for Bailey and Cooper's benefit. Because it was nap time and we try to adhere to a schedule around here. The children are now napping (they fell asleep very quickly I might add) and I think I will call the nicest employee at Wachovia back and apologize for her rudeness and my subsequent rudeness because I did appreciate his call and his attempt to help me set up my online account. Companies, especially those struggling, should take a look inwards perhaps. I know Wachovia isn't struggling bacause of their impolite employees but it can't be helping them.

-june