Fa La La...

It's Christmas time again and I am SOOOOOOOO excited that most of my family will be here. I wish we all could be together, but I totally understand when people can't get away from work. That happens to me a lot.

We really love our little house we're renting and I'm also loving that we aren't living with mom and dad this year so that others will have a place to stay and we have a place to get away if needed.

I am really hoping that work will be settled down by Christmas eve and Christmas day so that I won't have to go in to work.
Housekeeping is a mess again right now and I need to hire some people for a few other areas on the property too and that makes a lot of overtime for me. All in all I need to hire about 10 people and the pickins are slim right now as far as people who are right for the job. Keep your fingers crossed.

YAY...

We finally got our own place to live. A girl that used to work at the front desk told Camie and I about a house that her grandmother was renting. She had some other renters in here and they were getting ready to move out so we were the only people who knew about it. The previous renters pretty much trashed the place and left it like that, so her grandma didn't really charge us a deposit since we would clean it ourselves. Camie is my roommate. She went on vacation the week that we found out we got the place so it was pretty much the boys and I who cleaned. We got it for an awesome rent price too. (I finally feel like a "REAL" girl.)

It has been snowing here for several days and we had a big storm last weekendtoo so there is a ton of snow and the boys and I have had a fun time with building snowmen and having snowball fights and going sledding. I have a few pictures so I'll post them.

On the job note...

I still have one.

The owners have decided to send me to Anaheim, California to General Manager training for a week in January. I'm kind of looking forward to it, but mostly I'll just be glad when it's over. It'll be like going to college for a week and a lot of homework and I have to pass the class with a 92% or better so that's a little stressful.!!
I really like my job though and want to continue so I'll pass!

I'm really looking forward to seeing all my family members at Christmastime.
See you soon.

Dayz off

So finally some good news. My Boss has been back for a few days and he told me yesterday not to step foot on the property for 2 days!
And to that I replied,
"AWESOME!!!"

So the boys and I went to see a movie today with my friend Camie with whom I work and who also has the day off. And then the boys and I went to the library to get some reading material and it's been pretty relaxxxing.

I don't look forward to start the grueling day ahead on Monday, but somebody has got to pay the bills and if I don't work we'll never be able to get a place of our own someday.

The RED ZONE!!!

My work has not been a fun space for me to be in lately.
My boss has been gone a LOT! And we have been short handed
for most of the work areas like house keeping and maintenance
for over a month now. AND I have been working tons of long hours.
AND I have been doing (or at least trying to do) several jobs
around the hotel each day.

Well... the ceiling came crashing in and the
worst thing happened the other day. We received
a surprise visit from IHG Quality Control. They come
for an inspection of your hotel without
any notice to see if you're doing what you should be to provide
the guests with the quality experience that they expect and
deserve, blah blah blah. You get graded during this inspection.
WE FAILED!
Miserably! We are a brand new hotel and we got below 75%.
Most old hotels don't even rate below 80%.
It was the most embarrasing 2 days I've experienced in quite some time!

When the guy checked in at 8:pm there were still towels and dirty linens
and dirty dishes and trash lining the entire hallway on third floor
(his room was on 3rd).
Then he came to get me to "bring something to my attention", and that something was a baseball size peice of poop stuck to the rim of his toilet
in a supposedly "cleaned and inspected" room.
And that was only the start...

Anyway... I've been demoted. The hotel was fined 2000.00
and given 30 days to correct the problem. (The problem being housekeeping)
Part of correcting it is that I have to go back to cleaning rooms,
because the rest of the people can't seem to get them done.

I have a friend who tells me often that this job is going to kill me
and that may be the truest statement ever.
I'll either die from the stress or go crazy.

I can't decide if they are setting me up for failure
purposely to try to get rid of me, to see if I'll quit instead
of firing me or to see if I'm cut out for the job
or if this is just all a crazy bunch of circumstances or what.

Baby B

I finally got the video of Bianca from mom
so I will post it so all can see how cute she is.
She was just a newborn in this video and so cute,
so I'm sure she's even more darling now.

PS. Check out those lips!

Crazy things

So today at work my head housekeeper told me that she went looking for houses to buy with her fiance and they ended up looking at the house of my ex-husband.
The one that I spent 6 long weeks remodeling. ( Not the husband, the house, and at least he gave me props for that).
She said she loved the house and so did her fiance.
I didn't tell her that it has many bad memories for me.

I thought it was a crazy, crazy thing that this is such a small world and that she would be looking at his house.
(Not to mention the fact that his son's wife works for me too.)
CRAZY! But I don't hold those kind of things against people.
You can't always choose who you're related to. (ha ha)

My friend in California started her own blog too. Thanks Minz for getting me rolling on this craze! It's a nicer way to do mass mailing on the events in your life.

Everybody have a GREAT day!
Live a little and laugh a little. You'll be glad you did.

My family

I love my family. Carey and I were talking about what great fun it is to be a member of this family.
The boys are all so hilarious and the girls are all so fun... and how LUCKY are we to all get along with each other so famously!
I am so blessed to have so many sisters! Each of you contributes to our family in a different and wonderful way and my relationship with each of you, though different from the other, is perfect! I wouldn't change anything!
My big son's have a disadvantage, because they are so much bigger than the rest of their cousins, but on the other hand they are so lucky, because they know their aunts and uncles better than anyone else will.
I love that they have such a good relationship with all of you.
HEY. You people are AWESOME!

Work a lot sleep a little work work work!

So work has been crazy. I was given a promotion with out a payraise. Which translates to more work less pay.
I still love my job, but it leaves me a little frazzled some days. Today being one one of them.
My boss told me that if I don't find out who's stealing from us and get it fixed he's going to fire the entire staff including me and start over.
I was pretty mad about that, but... being mad doesn't solve anything so I've got my thinking cap on and I'd love some suggestions.

Last week I cut my finger with a box cutter that had a brand new blade and I had to go to the hospital for stitches. The doctor opted for derma-bond which is basically super glue, instead of stitches. There was just one problem with her plan, the cut was still bleeding heavily and as we all know... glue doesn't stick to moisture. Well most of us know it anyway...

The cut is mostly healed now though, so no worries.

The same night that I cut myself, I went back to work to take my insurance paperwork back (this was last friday, which was the paperwork deadline) and while I was there the power went out. SO I ended up having to stay there for 4 hours.

I've decided that if it's not one thing it's another and those all add up to a never-ending story.(which, as those of you who have seen it will recall, is a somewhat entertaining, but mostly stupid story!
Atreyou where are you? Bastian- call my name, Bastar_, I mean , Bastian! Who thinks these things up?)

MY love to all. Kisses to the babies what I love!

Check out these classics...

H., R., and M in full halloween attire.

Right after Reids arm broke the 2nd time

Awesome! yes?