It's Been Awhile

I just realized it's been about 2 months since I posted anything here. So let me catch you up on what's going on.
1st the good news. I was offered a job about a month ago I started on May 23rd and so far everything is going well. The people are so nice and friendly. The work atmophere so different from my last place of employment, I am still getting used to it.
I have attached some pictures of the building that I work at.

I enter from the parking garage from the back of this picture. This is what I get to enjoy looking at every morning on my way to the office.

Some of the plants on the 1st floor of the building I work in.

More plants

These are by the front enterance of the building.

The outdoor eating area

The indoor eating area

This is the waterfall on the 1st floor of the building that I work at. I see this everyday on my way to the elevators.

The front enterance of the building

The 5th floor elevator hallway. I work on the 5th floor.

The door to enter the company that I work for.

My desk. Long and narrow. It is nice and clean. Notice the 2 monitors and I have a scanner on my desk too.
So, that is my new home for 8 hours of the day.

Stamp Camp Project

This is one of the projects we made at Stamp Camp this weekend. No stamping involved on this project but we did use the BIG SHOT to make it. You need a colorful aluminum can and a few other small accessories to make it. I got the idea from Dawn Griffith-thanks Dawn!

Where have I been?

I am still around, not in much of a mood to blog right now. I thought that I would just do a little post today to let you know what is going on.
On March 17th I was let go from my job that I worked at for a total of almost 7 years. It came as a complete shock to me and in my opinion was unjust. I will not go into detail as to why I was let go, I have told those who I feel need to know, and I feel that posting this information would not be something wise for me to do at this time. I will say though that I was dedicated to what I did at my job and I stepped up when others didn't and was willing to learn everything I could to make my job as productive as I possibly could. I will also say that the reason I was let go had nothing to do with my job performance.

I have been involved in an investigation being done by unemployment to see if I will receive unemployment benefits and just this morning learned that the ruling on my case was that I will receive benefits. This is wonderful news. I just hope that my past employer doesn't dispute the ruling. If they do then I will probably have to testify, not something I really want to do.

So now to look for a job. If anyone knows of any Accounts Payable job openings in the Chicagoland area please send me an e-mail.

Tom Hanks on Jimmy Kimmel

I posted this on my Facebook status today but had to post it here too.
This is so gosh darn funny, take a few minutes to watch it and enjoy the laugh.
Mute the music on my page in the left hand column 1st.

Blizzard 2011

We were hit last night with a blizzard. The snow started here at about 2:00pm immediately with white out conditions. Work announced at 3:00pm that if we wanted to leave that we could (but you would have to make up your time if you were leaving early). Since I was already there at 6:00am I left at 3:00pm. What usually takes 20 to 30minutes to get home took approx 90 minutes to get home.
Ethan and Jordan plowed throughout the day and Todd plowed once in the evening.
Both colleges closed their facilities for Wednesday and I in anticipation took Wednesday off as a vacation day. We turned off all our alarms and decided we would get up when we got up.
We woke up to this, 16" of snow:


Here are a few pictures of my 3 men plowing us out.
Todd starting the process of plowing:


The small area that we dug out to get the front door open:


The path down the sidewalk, the snow is up to Jordan's knees:


Ethan helping dig us out:


Jordan helping dig us out:


This last picture was taken between the side of our house and the neighbors fence.
We call it Catch a Wave because it looks like an ocean wave.


The village's snow plows finally came by at about 11:30am so even if I wanted to, I wouldn't have made it to work anyway. The snow finally stopped right around noon and now we have a bright sunny winter day. Thank GOD we were all home safe during the major part of the snow storm.

2nd semester of college

Jordan started his 2nd semester of his 1st year in college this week and his 1st day was very stressful.
Tuesdays and Thursdays are a full day for him so needless to say Thursday which was the 1st day of school he had major problems finding parking which stressed him out and made the rest of his day hard for him.
Monday, Wednesday and Fridays he has 1 class for an hour, kind of silly to go to school for 1 hour but with the problems we had with financial aid he had to register late and had to take classes that were open.
He also attends school on Saturday. BLAH He has a 3 hour business math class that he is taking on Saturdays. He could have opt to take Math on Monday, Wednesday and Fridays but he want to do the Saturday 3 hour class. So basically he goes to school Monday - Saturday's
I think he should be OK with his school load once he gets used to the hours and routine.

RIP Cousin Ed

Tonight is the visitation for my cousin Ed. My memory is spending the summer when I was 15 babysitting him and his brother Doug. Ed was very personable and was able to approach anyone and have a conversation with them.
Ed you will be missed.

Happy New Year!!!

Here is wishing everyone a Happy and Healthy 2011. May a smile be the 1st thing on your face when you wake up and the last thing on your face when you go to bed.

Merry day after Christmas

Well another Christmas has come and gone. We had a very nice Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.
On Christmas Eve we went to my sister Raelynn and Gary's house. Below are a few pics of the 3 boys/cousins. It is a blessing that the 3 of them get along so well considering the age difference between the cousins.

The cousins; Jordan, Nikolas & Ethan Christmas Eve:


One of the gifts we got Nik. I think the camera focused on the gift. LOL


Jordan opening his gifts:


Ethan opening his gifts. He had a feeling the Eickhoff's would get him this:


Christmas Morning:
Ok why did I take this picture? Because Jordan kept saying that he didn't hear this version of this song all season. The minute we sat down to open presents look what came on:


Ethan opening up his presents Christmas morning:


Jordan opening up his presents Christmas morning. Jordan thought for sure Raelynn was going to get him this:


Even though he has not been a good boy lately, Dilly/Dillinger received a couple of gifts:


Todd was able to take a break from work to open gifts:


And here I am opening gifts too:


As like every year our Christmas' are dominated by DVD's here is the pile of ones that we received minus a couple:


And this was the big gift to the family this year. I think I was the only one excited about it, because I was the one who wanted it. LOL


So now we wait a few more day for New Years Eve. Looking forward to it because I have 1 vacation day left for the year and I am using it for a 4 day weekend.
Merry day after Christmas!!!

Holiday Movies

I have been trying to squeeze as many holiday movies as I can from Thanksgiving until Christmas.
Here are the ones I have watched so far:

Disney's A Christmas Carol. A lot of people are freaked out by the animation, for me no more than Polar Express (now that animation was freaky!) but I really liked this movie alot.


How the Grinch Stole Christmas. One of my favorites. Again another Jim Carrey, coincidence I promise.

I never get to watch all 3 of this so this year I made it a point to do it:

The Santa Clause really well written version that explains how Santa comes to be.


The Santa Clause 2 not my favorite, but The Santa Clause 3 wouldn't have been able to be made without this one. I notice that Peter Boyle play a duel role in this trilogy. He plays Scott Calvins boss in The Santa Clause and then he plays Father Time in The Santa Clause 2 and The Santa Clause 3 the Escape Clause.

The Santa Clause 3 The Escape Clause. My favorite of the 3 SANTA CLAUSE movies

There are 2 more I really want to see:

ELF this one just makes me laugh so much.
And our Christmas Eve tradition movie:

A Christmas Carol with Alastair Sim. All the presents are under the tree, we turn all the lights off, light candles and watch this movie.

Others I would love to squeeze in but just never have the time to do so. Holiday Inn, Miracle on 34th Street, National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, A Christmas Story and It's a Wonderful Life; which by the way I have never seen.
Nope, I have never see that movie. I know the jist of what the movie is about, but never have actually seen it.