Today I’m supposed to be finishing out my weekend but I’m still writing articles. Patrick was just asking me about work – the usual how many articles do you have, are you going to take a day off any time soon…? One of the writers on my team commented on me working on the weekend too. It reminded me of an article I saw on CNN last week.

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I like to read other people’s blogs and lately Chris has been tossing me links to some she finds funny or interesting. I don’t normally link to all the funny or interesting blogs, because that’s her job lol. This guy’s explanation of blogging, however… Just go read it Irregularly Periodic Ruminations – and I LOVE the name of the blog by the way!

As for my ramblings of the day … My aunt quit her job in December. She’d been working something like 75 hours a week for Kmart as an associate manager at one of the Kentucky locations. I told her ANY job that required xanax just to work there, wasn’t worth it! But since she quit, she has been looking for a new job so if anyone knows of a great marketing/advertising job toss me a link! In the meantime she’s been writing a book about what it was like to grow up with a father who had PTSD and was misdiagnosed as paranoid schizophrenic for 50 years. I hope she’ll have the opportunity to finish it before she gets caught up in the corporate world again but I also know she needs to provide for those two kids and pay the bills

I shouldn’t have skipped coffee immediately after waking up. I got swindled by my dog. Rotten little shih tzu! One of these days I’m going to buy her a shirt that says that Anyway, I skipped coffee as my first-thing this morning and was sitting here chatting on messenger with Chris. I hear Hayleigh making some noises then she runs over to me, does her cute little “I gotta pee” murble-growl and twisty dance. So I even ask her “it’s early, you have to pee already??” Again with the twisty dance, I’ll have to get that on video one of these days, it’s adorable! But… she lied! On the way out the door she almost tripped me and she headed straight for the snow in the corner of the porch. She played in the snow a couple of minutes then ran around the yard full speed once, only stopping twice to sniff around, then went back to the door to go in. She LOVES snow and leaves! She loves to find piles of dry leaves during the fall and run and jump in them. They’re a mess to get out of her hair, but… oh well. She’s been so covered with snowballs before that I have to wrap her in a blanket and use the hair dryer to melt her so it doesn’t hurt her skin but you should see the fun she has in snow!

As for the rest of us, I just had a cup of coffee so I’m not having to erase as many typos now. Jeff’s watching some anime show on youtube, Patrick’s working and able to hobble without crutches again today and Brittany’s getting ready to go to the grocery store with me.

The kitchen’s a mess. People are saying “mom, I’m hungry.” There is laundry on the futon. I have no viruses on my PC. There are boxes in the living room from a couple of new computer components. There is more laundry to be done and Hayleigh needs a bath. Yup… life’s back to normal!

Poor Patrick’s back on the crutches. He was able to hobble a few days ago but pushed it too hard yesterday so he’s having a lot of pain in his knee again. Guess it’s a good thing he doesn’t have a long commute to work As of right now his usual 5 second trip is taking closer to 10 though. He has to take time to stretch his leg a bit before he moves.

Work in the article world is picking up again! A lot of webmasters are looking at a whole new marketing plan for 2009 and from what I’ve seen so far, most are doing a great job. I read a CNN article a couple of days ago about this woman getting scammed out of $200 in a “work at home” scam so I wrote up a quick article about scams and working from home. I included a couple of pictures of our home offices. Right now my “office” is in the living room so in my pic you can see part of the laundry basket in the corner !

And yes, that’s really my coffee cup; and it really is that big. Have you noticed the name of my blog yet? The picture on my desktop is a screen capture of the game I play, World of Warcraft, isn’t it pretty!

Patrick’s office area is a bit more complicated. He has 2 computers with three monitors. He uses 2 monitors for work and the third to watch tv or play a game while he’s not working.

He cleaned his monitors… after the picture

We’re considering building a garage with office space over it. A garage will allow us to unclutter our junk room and maybe turn that into a real, usable part of the house. The office space is pretty self-explanatory. We would like to eventually have our work spaces separate from our living space, but for now it works perfectly!

I’ve always thought I got really lucky in my choice for hubby. He doesn’t mind helping with house work, laundry and such. All I have to do is ask for help if I need it, which I rarely do because no one else folds things like they should be folded… and he’s a great dad. He’s just the right mix of fun and discipline where the kids are concerned.

You may think this is sappy or that I’m making it up, but I assure you it’s true As you know, Patrick is now working from home. He’s in his first week of transition and still LOVES it. Here’s how he’s gotten his last several “good” jobs:

He gets so sick and tired of what he’s doing that I get sick and tired of hearing him complain about it so I start trying to find him something else. After some research time and resume posts, I find him a great job, he’s all happy again. Of course that’s it “in a nutshell” but that’s really how it happens

This time I spent my usual research time but instead of posting resumes to places looking to hire people on location, I looked ONLY for places that hire telecommuters. Several places hire telecommuters, it may surprise you to look around! But I submitted his resume to a few different places. Two of them responded quite quickly. From the time I submitted his application/resume to the time he started training with SupportSoft was only about 5 weeks.

So now my hubby and I both work from home and I feel like the most appreciated wife in the history of mankind. Last week during his training, he thanked me several times a day. Over the weekend while we were driving out to his grandma’s he thanked me a couple of times. Just 10 minutes ago I was in the laundry room, he came barging out of the bedroom (his office) and wrapped me up in this big tight hug and thanked me. Hugged me for about 15 seconds or so, kissed me all over the face – skipping my mouth because he doesn’t want to catch the blahs or what ever I’m trying to fight off – thanked me again. Walked in here about 2 minutes ago just to say “thank you” then walked back into his office LOL.

I’m not complaining! It’s awesome knowing he’s happy with his new job and that I’m to “blame” or in this case… thank

And I’m already behind LOL! Figures doesn’t it My idea is so huge I had to take time out yesterday to make a map of the regions so I could keep it all straight in my head. Photoshop CS3 ROCKS by the way!!

In a nutshell, if you read my final for my writing class over the summer, you have seen a very small snippet of the storyline that’s rapidly evolved in my head. Now just to get it all on paper! (well into Word anyway hehe)

Family Life During NaNoWriMo

We’re late starting our school year too. With everything up in the air with Patrick’s job situation and me working all the time, I didn’t want to get Jeff started then have a bunch of interruptions. We did get their academic test results back though.

Looks as though I was on the right track letting Brittany graduate so early. She took the 12th grade CAT (California Achievement Test – it’s a national standardized test like the SOL or SAT) and scored PHS (post-high-school) in six subjects and the total battery. Her lowest score was in Study Skills and she got a 10.4 there. She is an avid reader and loves to learn and study so she was VERY concerned “How the heck do I score 10th grade in STUDY SKILLS?!?!” Add a little flare of 15 year old girlish drama in there and you got the idea Top score on the CAT is 999, her total battery (average of all tests taken) was 802.

Jeff did really well on his CAT too! His total battery was 761. He scored 11.4 (eleventh grade, fourth month) in Vocabulary, 11.3 in Spelling, 10.4 in Math Concepts. All others were between 5.8 and 9.8 so we do have a few weak spots to fill in this year (namely Science, Social Studies, Study Skills lol). He’s heading into a 7th grade curriculum this year.

Needless to say we are very happy with their test scores and that helped validate for Brittany that she actually HAD completed high school requirements at 14 years of age I think she had a few doubts in herself, but don’t we all? I mean especially as teenagers.

Patrick’s on his second day of work today. His schedule is fuller today and runs from 11am to 7pm. They’re going over some real work training today, not just paperwork. He finally got his phone, headset and webcam in and set up Friday evening. Now his office space is complete

I have some work to get done today and three articles due by noon tomorrow. I’m also behind a day for NaNo since most of yesterday was spent mapping out continents, drawing rivers and planning out 2 more races!