Emma's Garden

I finally got a few hours together in a row today to just stitch. :) I worked on Emma's Garden which I'm going to give my niece for her first birthday in September. I'm also hoping to enter this in this year's fair. This time I did all the flowers and leaves on the left side of the design. It was a lot of confetti type stitching and it was a pain trying to figure out where to anchor all the thread ends, but I'm pretty happy with the result. Will do the flowers on the other side next time I work on it, then there is just the lacey design along the bottom. :)

Katie is 2 Today. :)

Wow, the last two years have really flown by! I cannot believe my baby is 2 already. How did that happen? We decided not to have a party or anything as she is really still too young to expect one and it was really a good thing as we were all so sick recently I'd hate to have all the friends and relatives over, just to infect them with the worst cold known to man. We are mostly better now, but we all still have a bit of a residual cough. We did bake her a cake and sing happy birthday, and she got the Little People's Princess Palace for her birthday, which she really liked. She has been playing with it all afternoon. We took the kids to Chucky Cheese for her birthday too, and she just went down the slide like a million times. She also liked pretending to drive on the racecar game they have there. I think she had a pretty good birthday. :)

Sick Sick Sick!

Ugh, as I mentioned in a recent entry, Katie had pink eye - well that is cleared up, but she also had a nasty cold along with the pink eye. In fact, when we visited the doctor on Monday because she was still battling a fever and the cold was showing no signs of getting better, he said she likely didn't catch the pink eye from daycare. More likely, it was another symptom of the terrible cold she had, which was causing a sinus infection which had likely seeped into her eyes and caused the pink eye. *sigh* So he put her on an antibiotic for the sinus infection and sent us on our way. She was well enough to return to daycare on Tues (yesterday).

In the meantime, everyone else in our family has caught this terrible cold. It is totally kicking my @ss! I've been sick since Saturday. I missed work on Friday to take care of Katie, on Monday because I was sick and still caring for Katie and taking her to the doctor. Yesterday and today I'm back at work even though I probably really shouldn't be because I just cannot afford all the sick days. DH who is almost never sick is totally laid out as well, he has also been sick since Saturday and after trying to tough it out Monday and Tuesday is staying home today. He actually seems to be getting worse instead of better as time goes on and might have to go to the doctor like Katie did if he doesn't get better soon. He doesn't have any sick time built up at all at his job until he has been there for 6 months (not until August) so he's been reluctant to take time off as he already took off one sick day about a month ago with another bug Katie brought home from daycare. Any days he takes off come directly out of his pay and his boss gives him a hard time about taking days he hasn't "earned" yet.

Alex, who was so far dodging this illness, turned up sick as a dog yesterday afternoon. I picked him up from school and he just looked so miserable. I asked him why he didn't call me at work to come and get him and he said, "I know you had to miss work for Katie, and I didn't want your boss to get mad at you for having to leave again." Knife in the heart there. I told him he could always call and not to worry about stuff like that - my boss would have to understand if my kids were sick. Besides, my boss probably would have understood - its obvious that I'm still a bit under the whether and he has kids too. I don't think I have said anything contrary to that in front of Alex - so I don't know where he got that idea. So he is home sick today with dad. Katie has pretty much made a full recovery now and is at daycare blissfully playing dolly or something. :) I'm trying to lay low in my cube and wash my hands a billion times to avoid spreading germs.

Cross your fingers that this is our last illness for awhile!

Finally SM2!

I started working on this pretty much right after part 5 was released on Apr 29th I think. Part 5 was big, so I'm very relieved that I was able to finish it in time for the last installment, which will be released on or about June 1. The lettering, the plant, and the two peacocks on either side of the plant are what is new for this installment. Now I can get in a bit of stitching on Emma's Garden before the next Mira RR shows up! :)

Pink Eye!

I picked Katie up from daycare yesterday only to discover that they were about to call me to come and get her. She has pink eye, which has been going around in her room at daycare. So I called her ped. who called in a RX for some eyedrops to the pharmacy. We are home today as she has to be on the drops for 24 hours before she can return to daycare. I'm sort of glad - I really needed a day off and there wasn't anything pressing going on at work, so the timing was good. This is my first week day not working since I started back to work on Feb 6.

It feels good to be home doing our old routine. Katie is in pretty good spirits despite the pink eye and the nasty cold she has on top of it. We even took a walk and visited a few rummage sales this morning. I found several sesame street picture books for 50 cents each! She is really having fun paging through those and pretending to read them. :) The only real problem I'm having is getting the darn drops in her eyes - anyone have any tips on how to get a screaming, struggling toddler to hold still so I can drop her medicine in her eyes - please share! We also had a pretty miserable night last night as she didn't sleep well, more from congestion I think rather than her eyes. I spent between 2:30 and 4am trying to get her to go back to sleep. She would fall asleep in my arms and thenwhen I tried to put her back in bed she would cry and cry til I came back. Very exhausting. She did sleep in a bit this morning to compensate though.

Well, I'm going to try and capitalize on my time off and get in a bit of extra stitching time!!

I got beat. :(

I probably shouldnt' be looking at it that way, but it is tough not to. The other woman got the placement and I didn't. My interview went well and hers did too. I think she got it because she has a Master's degree in Instructional Design and I just have a measly Bachelor's in English. The placement was for creating job aids for salespeople. I *know* I could have done it and done it well, but her credentials were admittedly better than mine.

Like I said yesterday, I didn't even want this particular placement that much - I just don't like the fact that the whole office sees the two of us go up against each other and I lose. Guess I can just park my but in front of that copy machine cause that's what I'm going to be doing while I'm waiting for another placement to come along and she is off doing what she went to school for.

I know that sounds bitter, but I'm feeling a little raw about the whole thing right now. Just feeling publically humiliated more than anything.

Competition

I've never really thought of myself as a competitive person - but I guess I sort of am...

Today I'm interviewing for a new consulting placement. I don't really want the placement that badly as it is downtown Milwaukee and the traffic is really terrible right now because they are reconstructing major portions of the freeway system in and around the city. Also I have a friend who just came off a placement there and did not have a good experience working for this particular company. The manager she was under was a big jerk - they tell me I'll be working for someone different, but it is hard to know how much of that kind of treatment is company culture and how much is one guy being a jerk.

The competition comes in when I find out another writer at my consulting firm is also interviewing for the same position. I've only known this woman since I started here in early Feb. and she seems very nice. We have similiar qualifications and I think either one of us would do well in the role. Suddenly, now that I know she is also being submitted for the same placement I feel I have to beat her out. I don't really get this about myself as I don't really even want the "prize" as it were. I guess I just don't want to be seen by our managers and coworkers as the weaker candidate or the one who lost out. I feel I'm already fighting a secretarial type stereotype at times, and I don't need my bottom-rung status confirmed by being beat out of a placement. I wish they had just submitted her and not me, but I cannot really request that without a more legitimate gripe. *sigh*

I'm back... for now

The consulting position I was on for work ended on Friday, so I should be around the net a bit more, at least for a little while. I'm being proposed for at least one other new position, so it might not last long, but for now I have internet access at work again and nothing pressing to work on... so I'll be online more.

Stitching wise I finished up a section for the "Any Designer Band Sampler RR" and I've been working on part 5 of Chatalaine's "Sampler Myster II". It is a really large amount to be stitched, so I'm just hoping I can finish it before the next part comes out and complete any RR obligations that come up, and maybe, just maybe get in a bit on Emma's Garden. I was hoping to be able to enter her in the fair, but if I don't find some extra stitching time somewhere it ain't gonna happen!

So anyway, hopefully there will be more regular updates on me here in the blog for at least a little while. :)