Wordless Wednesday

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Working Girl

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As of tomorrow, I will officially be a working girl!  I'm excited but also scared.  I have absolutely NO experience with taxes or accounting.  I'm trying to be positive and to think of it as a new skill to add to my resume.

I have a feeling this is going to be an extremely overwhelming week.  It's been awhile since I've had to get up early and keep an actual schedule.  I'll be learning a new job and meeting new people.  That's not easy!  The good thing is that I won't be having to deal with homework or studying while also adjusting to all of the changes.

While I'm relieved to have a new job (even if it is only temporary), it also makes me sad.  I'm going to miss Shiver and Chico.  We've spent all day every day together since graduation last May.  They're used to having me around and I'm used to being with them.  I've been watching Chico like a hawk for even the slightest change now that I know he has cancer.  I want to be on top of any changes to deal with them immediately.  I just worry I won't see them as quickly now since I won't be there to watch over him.  Shiver is anxious and I worry about how he'll react to me not being around as much.  I'm sure it'll all be fine, I just stress about everything.

With everything going on this week, I wanted to let everyone know that I won't be around this week.  I don't know what the coming week will bring, but I want time to let everything settle in and get used to it all.  I may visit and comment a little bit later in the week, it will all depend on what the week brings.

Wordless Wednesday

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Colorful Monday

Monday's are generally a drag and very rarely does one actually look forward to the day.  I got a coloring book for Christmas and thought I'd share a little of my work to brighten your Monday.  Because I'm nice that way, ha ha!  I'm no professional but I think my pictures turned out OK, and I had fun which is all that really matters.

But first, let me share some good news.  I GOT A JOB!!!  It's only temporary, but it's better than nothing.  I am sooooooooo bad at math and know absolutely nothing about how to prepare taxes, but the state hired me as a taxpayer accountant.  I start next week.  When I did my interview, one of the ladies there said that they always treat their temps very well because they do the bulk of the work and that if we're ever not treated well to let someone in management know immediately so that they can take care of the issue as soon as possible.  So that was nice to hear!  I know from my experiences working as a temp and also working with temps that they aren't always treated so well.  The pay isn't great for this job but it's more than I got paid at the university as a student and I'll be learning a new skill.  The job runs sometime into June if all goes well.

And now onto my coloring book!  This is one of the first pictures I worked on.  I thought since it was large, it wouldn't take as long to do.  I was wrong!

I just started working on this a couple of nights ago.  As you can see, it's not done yet.  That's what's so wonderful about coloring though - you can stop whenever you want or need to and pick it back up at a later time.  There's one small section that looks dark brown here but it actually doesn't look that way in person.  It's a mixture of colors and looks much prettier than what the camera picked up because it kind of shows bits and pieces of different colors here and there and looks kinda cool.

Lynne was kind and generous enough to gift me with this recently, so now I have two coloring books!  I already picked out the first page to work on and hope to be showing the finished product to you soon.

Does anyone else color?  If you do, I hope you'll share your work on your blog.  And if you don't, you should totally start!  It's fun and a great way to relax.  Lynne shared a few links with me on youtube of various coloring techniques, which is always fun to watch.  Click on the link for a sample.

Wordless Wednesday

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Is it 2016 already?

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Wow, time flies!  2015 had it's fair share of ups and downs but overall, I'd have to say it was an excellent year.  I hope 2016 will be just as exciting!

Last week was so so busy!  Last Monday I had an interview for an internship.  I already found out that I didn't get it and I'm fine with that.  For what few hours and little pay they offered, my paycheck would be spent on the gas for the commute there and back with very little left over.

Tuesday I interviewed for 3 jobs.  I only applied for one, but the Human Resources department thought my experience might fit in with two additional job openings.  It was a weird interview.  I'd already filled out an online and paper application and had to fill out some additional paperwork when I got there, then take a data entry exam.  When that was all done, I was led to another room and sat at a table in the middle of the room to wait my turn for an interview.  Various tables were set up around sides of the room where groups of three people conducted interviews for different positions.  The table I sat at in the middle had a list of questions for each position that would be asked of us, so I looked them over and quickly formulated answers for them all in my head.  My name was called fairly quickly and I did my first interview.  I sat back down in the middle when it was done and waited until my name was called twice more for the other two interviews.  Other people were there were interviewing at the same time I was and I tried not to listen in on their interviews.  The questions were all easy and the interviews were quick.  The jobs are all seasonal, and have different start and end dates and pay rates.

Wednesday afternoon I got an email saying that I needed to go to the state police headquarters and get my fingerprints taken, then provide the potential employer with a stamped and signed document from the state police headquarters saying that I'd done so by no later than the end of the day Thursday.  I did that Thursday afternoon and now I just have to sit and wait.  I have no idea which of the three jobs I'm being considered for but I feel like they probably wouldn't have asked for my fingerprints if I wasn't a pretty decent candidate for at least one of them.  I got an email from the employer late that afternoon saying that the deadline for fingerprinting had been extended through this coming Tuesday.  I figure I'm probably not going to hear back before then.

Tuesday morning I've been invited to attend a free workshop that I'm pretty excited about.  It'll be an opportunity to network more and to learn.  Plus it's one more thing to add to my resume!  I complained to Starbucks last week that I never got my free birthday drink last October (yeah, I have no idea why I waited so long to contact them, either) and they were kind enough to credit my account, so I'll be enjoying a coffee on them Tuesday morning.  So far the year is looking pretty good!  How's your year going?

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Happy New Year

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Peace Out, 2015

New Year's Eve with Chewy.com

Sadly, I did not get a package of goodies delivered to my door this Christmas.  But my boys did!  This month they tried the Wellness CORE Grain-Free Protein Bars Salmon and Whitefish with Pomegranates Recipe Dog Treats from Chewy.  Since Chico has cancer, I'm much more picky now about what I feed him and these protein bars seemed like a healthy choice.  The chi's received a 5.5 oz bag to sample.  

Each treat is only 16 calories (for those who may be watching their waistline), they're 100% natural, and made in the USA.  Not only are they grain-free, they're also gluten free.    

When I first opened the bag, a VERY strong fish smell assaulted my nose.  I don't care for fish and I didn't care for the smell of these bars.  The smell seemed to turn Shiver off too, and he wasn't interested in trying a bite.  Chico immediately began to shake all over with excitement though and whined because I made him wait a moment so I could get a picture of it.  Once Shiver saw Chico enjoying a treat, he came begging.  He ran off under the bed with it and Chico ran into the bathroom.  Once he saw me with a camera, he hid behind the toilet while he ate.  Silly boy!  

Shiver and Chico both give this 4 paws up for a total of 8 paws.  I'm tempted to knock it down a paw for the smell, but they both did seem to enjoy it so I'll leave it at 8.

We were not compensated financially for this post, but were provided free samples of dog treats in return for our honest opinions.

Wordless Wednesday

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Merry Monday

I hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas!  Mine was quite nice.  Santa was very generous this year, as he usually is.  Knowing this could be Chico's last Christmas, I brought him and Shiver with me to hang out at my mom's for the day.  Shockingly, Chico left my mom's beagle alone all day.  Chico loves my mom's beagle and tries to show that love as frequently as possible, so that's kind of surprising.  

What did Santa bring you?  One of my favorite gifts this year was a solar angel for the garden.  I took it out to the yard right after I got home.  It immediately lit up which surprised me and it was so so so pretty!  I tried sticking it in the ground and apparently pushed too hard and it broke, which made me sad.  I now have to find another one just like it because I don't want to make my mom feel bad that I destroyed it ten seconds after I got it!  Ugh!

What a difference a week makes!  Last Monday I commented that I have no job prospects.  Well, I have an interview today and another one tomorrow!  They're both only temporary and don't pay very well at all, but it's money and it's experience.  Plus they're both an opportunity to network more and hopefully find an even better job, so I'm just trying to remain positive about it.  Both jobs are seasonal so if nothing else, it might be an opportunity to come back and work in the future.  One job would be full time and the other part time.  If those don't work out, I've been invited to attend two different workshops after the New Year.  They're both free and another opportunity to network.

I noticed recently that I lost 5 followers in one day.  I mentioned it to Lynne and told her I felt bad to have lost so many at once.  She said she lost 4 followers the same exact day and we wondered if maybe it might be a Blogger thing?  It seemed suspicious that we both lost several on the same day.  Has anyone else noticed that they've lost several lately?  Lynne also said that some of her newer followers don't show up in her followers list either.

Flipping through my Wreck This Journal recently, I came across a page that I thought would be fairly easy.  I feel like it's an epic failure though!

The page says to collect pocket lint and glue it there.  I decided to use laundry lint collected from the dryer instead and saved it from a couple of different laundry sessions.  I printed out a stencil thinking I'd just follow that and it would be so easy to create something cool.  Have you ever tried to cut lint from the laundry with scissors?  It doesn't work very well!  I finally ended up just tearing it.  My glue was like 20 years old (not really, but old nonetheless!) and didn't want to squeeze out properly.  Oh well.  It was fun all the same.  My lint is on the right, the stencil is on the left so that you can hopefully figure out what it's supposed to be.

Merry Christmas!

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Wordless Wednesday

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What's Your End of Year Review Like?

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I can't believe Christmas is on Friday!  Where did the year go?  With the end in sight, it's made me reflect on the past year.  There were a lot of highs - I graduated from college and participated in a life changing leadership program.  There were a lot of lows - Chico was diagnosed with cancer and I still have no job prospects almost 8 months after graduation.  I met a lot of inspiring people and got to do a lot of amazing things.  Overall, it was a year of growth.

I will never regret going to college in any way, shape, or form.  I didn't just learn stuff from textbooks, I learned a lot about myself.  But I thought that finding a job would be so much easier with a degree and I'm finding it's actually been harder.  I was living off a maxed out credit card for a little bit, then cashed out a very small retirement fund from an old job.  I used that to buy a laptop and a cell phone thinking that my paycheck from the nonprofit job that I've been waiting to start would replace the money I spent.  I was about 90% certain that I had the job, only they emailed me on Friday to say that they decided not to fill the position.  Now I'm freaking out because my tiny retirement fund is almost gone and I'll be right back to living on a maxed out credit card again very soon.  I'm hoping 2016 will bring some much needed peace and a job.

Thank you to everyone for the kind comments regarding my decision not to give Chico the chemo treatment.  I worried people might be judgmental, but everyone was so supportive.  I go back and forth several times a day still, but in my heart I feel like it's the right decision for him.  I'll do everything I can to make sure his last days are happy and filled with love.  For right now, at least, he's doing well and takes advantage of extra cuddle time.  He'll let me know when it's time to go.

I don't know what kind of plant this is, but I've been waiting for it to bloom since I got it back in February!  The first bud took what felt like a century to open and I was so excited that I had to share it!  There are 3 more much smaller buds that will hopefully open up soon.

Wordless Wednesday

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Snow Flurry Fury

Baby, it's CCCOOOLLLDDD outside!!!  The snow was coming down heavily last night as I drove to my mom's house for dinner and didn't let up much at all by the time I went home three hours later.  It didn't stick, but it made it difficult to see and the roads were slick.  Fortunately I live fairly close to mom and made it there and back safely.  Today it's super windy.  I'm just very grateful I don't have to leave the house today!

I got a new laptop last Friday!  I love it, but can't believe how different it is from my old one.  It's taken some getting used to.  It took forever and two long phone calls to get the internet set up on it, but we got it figured out.  I spent the weekend playing around with it a little more to feel more comfortable with it.  I also finally got a cell phone.  When I went to get it, there was a guy who kept asking what happened to my old phone and didn't seem to grasp that I didn't have one.  I really could not afford the laptop or the cell phone but I think I may have a new job soon and I'll need both if I do get it.

A very cool thing happened when I was at the store.  As I walked towards the computers I saw a large group going from one laptop to another as a store associate went through all the differences between them.  I didn't pay much attention to them as I walked around them to get to the area I wanted to look at.  After I had chosen my computer, I turned around and saw the large group again. and that's when I realized what was going on.  There was a young girl there getting a laptop from the Make-A-Wish Foundation!  I stood there for a second or two watching them, but didn't want to seem like I was staring so I left and walked towards the registers to pay for my stuff.  I'm glad I got to see that though.

I finally got to talk to the oncologist last week.  Surprisingly, he said that Chico's chemo would last the rest of his life!  I thought it would only be like 6-8 months or something, but no...  When I asked how long it would extend Chico's life, he didn't really have an answer but he did say that it tends to work better when animals have lower white blood cell counts.  Chico's are off the charts, so I asked if I should consider not doing it then.  He said it wasn't unreasonable to want to try it.  My next question was how long Chico would have if I decided not to do anything at all.  He replied that all dogs are different so he really couldn't say.  Chico could be fine for a few more weeks, a few more months, or even a year before showing any other symptoms of the cancer.  The chemo and blood work would probably be about $200 a month.

I've thought about it a lot and I think I'm not going to do the chemo.  As much as I want to, I don't know that I can afford $200 a month for the rest of his life.  It wouldn't be fair to start him on it and have to stop it because I can't afford it.  I felt awful having to open a GoFundMe account and felt like I was begging for money.  Plus he's so little and I worry that the chemo would be too difficult on him.  I want his life to be filled with love and happiness for whatever time he has left.  Thank you to everyone who contributed to his fund, it was a huge help and I will never forget your kindness.

The cell phone came with an awesome camera, 1000x better than the one on my iPod!  Shiver thinks that I've been talking about Chico a little too much lately and that it's his time on the blog now.  So here you go, a picture of the handsome Mr. Shiver!

Wordless Wednesday

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Wreck It Monday

Flipping through my Wreck This Journal reminded me of how much I enjoyed doing the stains in this post.  I chose to do something similar this time.  The directions said to drip something on the page and close it.  I found some old paints from when I did ceramics a bazillion and 87 years ago and started with the yellow.  I liked the effect, but thought it might be fun to add in another color.  So I dripped brown paint on one side and green on the other, closed the book tight, rubbed it good from end to end and side to side a few times, opened it back up and waalaa...  

While certainly no masterpiece, I'm happy with it!  I thought the brown would have spread over both pages more, but I'm kinda glad it didn't - just makes it that much more interesting!  

Sorry the top one is sideways.  I didn't feel like fixing it. Because I'm lazy like that.  

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In other news, I called the oncologist last week to ensure he'd gotten Chico's blood work results from the vet.  He wasn't available, so I left a message.  He finally called back Friday afternoon when I was out running errands and left a message.  He said it was good that the results hadn't changed because it meant Chico wasn't doing worse.  I think Chico's treatments will be roughly $200 a month, but I'm not sure how many months he'll have to continue them.  I still have questions that he didn't answer so I need to call back.  The oncologist doesn't work everyday, so I won't hear from him until Wednesday at the earliest.  

My laptop still doesn't want to charge.  :(  I've only tried a couple of times and got frustrated with it, so I've been using my ancient PC.  It isn't conducive to reading blogs because it freezes up frequently and takes forever and day to load pages sometimes, so I've only visited a few of you here and there.  I'm super hopeful that Santa might bring me a new laptop for Christmas, although I'm not really expecting him to.  I'm just thankful I at least have the PC because I'd go crazy without being able to go online everyday.  

Wordless Wednesday

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