Random Musings And Photos (take 2): case of the mondays (& weekend pictures to make us smile through them!)

today was definitely a monday.

that is not to say that it was a horrible day, just had more than its fair share of stressy moments.

i was out of the office friday. long weekends are GREAT! sometimes coming back & facing my email boxes is not so great, but today they weren't so bad. only about 100 emails among the four of them, instead of the over 400 when i came back from my last time off! LOL i even got through them fairly quickly, so that was a blessing.

then i had to converse w/ two VERY RUDE ladies back to back.

timecard issues were rather hectic, altho not unusual for any monday.

and there have been quite a few HR actions that haven't been completed in a timely manner - either by reps or managers of new employees. these actions that don't get done in a timely manner end up causing new employees or transferring employees to be w/o necessary accesses for longer than normal. and of course when their accesses mess up (or, appear to mess up as the case may be), who do they call?

moi.

and it's really interesting sometimes to see the email chains on some of these issues, because ppl get persnickety about things happening, and then i have to point out that these things are happening because THEY didn't do what they were supposed to do.

i point this out as politely as i can, because my goal is not to make anyone feel badly! but i definitely want them to know it wasn't someone else's fault, or a systems issue, or anything like that. i want them to LEARN what THEY need to do in order for this same situation not to happen again, ya know?

my goal is to educate, so i try to be as clear as i can be. i don't think anyone WANTS to screw up! but in order to not screw up, they need to listen and pay attention to processes, because for the most part processes are there for a reason.

so.

*laugh*

other than all of that, it was a perfectly pleasant day.

weather was nice, new ppl starting were nice.

no work-crush sightings, but that is the norm more often than an actual sighting, so... LOL

after work, trish texted to see if i wanted to come over for homemade chicken & noodles.

um, the answer to that is always YES!

she makes EXCELLENT chicken & noodles. grammy worthy noodles, for sure.

YUM!

i had to stop at casey's & then i headed to her house. we had a good couple of hours of chatting & delicious food. i didn't get to stay for monday night comedies, tho, because mom & jen had been stalking my phone while i was in the kitchen chatting w/ trish. *laugh* apparently, the power was out at jen's & mom was at work & jen had to go to volleyball. so she wanted me to pick the kids up & take them to mom's if the power wasn't back by the time it was getting dark.

no worries, that, except i had to think - WHY DID YOU WAIT UNTIL THE LAST MINUTE?!

the power was off this morning, because she had called mom to ask for help getting it back on.

no shame in that - as you know i have had to do the same thing once upon a time. i'm not annoyed by that. i'm annoyed because - why couldn't you call/text & ask me to pick the kids up earlier? or even figure out earlier that you wanted them to stay at mom's? even if the power came back on while they were gone, ya know? at least they would have been taken care of & not at the last minute, making everyone (except jen) rearrange schedules? i mean, she could have taken them to mom's before volleyball. (when i asked that, she said she didn't have time because she was headed out the door right then, but at that point it was 20 after 5. if she'd just taken them to mom's at 4:30, she would have been golden, right?)

anyway, i'm sure she had reasons for waiting til the last minute, so whatever.
i left trish's as it was getting dark & picked the boys up. they were in a good mood on the ride to gramma's. they were in a good mood while we were there.
and then, when mom got home, for some reason both their attitudes went phhhttt. :(
well, i know the reasons - and it wasn't mom's fault. LOL
leyton wanted to watch tom & jerry, but it was bedtime when mom got home. why he didn't say anything about watching tom & jerry right when we GOT there, i have no idea. i would've loved to watch tom & jerry! which i told him as he was having his melt down. if it'd just been that, i think i could have talked him out of his mood, but then mom said something about the whole power outage thing, and anthony wasn't aware it was because there was a past due or whatever on the bill. he thought it was the power company's fault, based on a call his mom made to them... anyway, so then he wasn't in the greatest of moods. mom was upset, and then upset that anthony (not meaning to, but did) called her a liar when in actuality he'd either misunderstood the call his mom was making to the power company, or... ya know?

anyway, i needed to get home, and so i hugged - or attempted to hug - both kids & headed out. of course, since both kids were being brats, including to me, i said something snappy about being so glad that i'd ended my plans for the evening early so they wouldn't be either stuck in the dark or having to go to their mom's vb games, and how maybe next time they could just go w/ her.

i did say i love you & see you later before i left, but their attitudes really hurt my feelings. :(

anyway.
happy to be home.
i'm going to finish Time Untime, the last book in the D-H series so far. idk if i will get to start Infinity before bed or not, but that's the next one on my list! : ) and then will be The Host, which i borrowed from trish. i've been wanting to read it for ages!!

oohhhh, and just to end this on a really happy note - over the weekend btwn massive reading sessions & movie watching, i got to hang out w/ mom & the boys. we did red robin & target on saturday & then went to nathan's bday party on sunday. the kids had a BLAST! well, so did the adults! : ) cousin matt & johnna did a GREAT job w/ the pirate themed party. johnna made the cake & pirate cookies, pirate bubbles, all sorts of nifty things!! super neat!! : )

leyton's smile for the first picture.
mom was not smiling.

leyton's look for the second picture...
but mom was smiling! : )
(Red Robin (YUM!) on saturday

rollin thru target, gettin a present for nathan's party the next day.

my new phone comes equipt w/ a flash & a "negative" option on the camera feature.
interesting!

sunday treasure hunt w/ cousins jonell & soph

piñata!!!
isn't this a clever idea?

idk why, but this reminds me of the scene in Office Space where the guys take the fax machine out in a field & beat the crap out of it... LOL

well, at least he's not glowering at me...
(aunt gnome - i mean nancy - and anthony)

johnna made the cake, cookies, pirate bubbles - all the little figures on the cake...
she is WAY talented!! : )

idk if you can tell, but they really did beat the crap outta that box...
also, it gave them at least an hour of enjoyment AFTER the candy was sucked out of it!!