Staying Busy, Keeping up

So Wal*Mart is keeping me pretty busy…..

So far I have been getting between 27 and 30.5 hours a week…I can work as many as 33 and still remain part time…They usually don’t hire any full time people….Keeps from having to pay medical for them I guess….Although I guess if I really needed to, I could have it taken out of my check even if I am only part time.

I received my first full pay check last week….It’s so nice to have money even if over 2/3 of it went to buy groceries!  I am having them put so much into a savings account for me every week….which is the only way I have any money now…I filled the car up for the first time in a long time; and because I bought my groceries at the Giant Eagle, I saved $1 per gallon on the gas there….nice!!!  The good thing is, my husband got paid 2 days after I did so I can buy other things I need with cash without having to dip into my accounts…and Tomorrow is the 1st so I’ll have more money to spend then.  By the time I get done paying bills there won’t be much left anyway…maybe $75….which will last until next week when we get paid again.

I have less time to run errands for the lady across the street but I still do her shopping once a week and mow her yard for her as needed….Lately the weather has kept the grass from growing much and kept the yards damp from recent rains….I will mow it tomorrow whether or not she wants it done or not….it’s been 2 weeks! Our yard really needs it as it seams to grow wild sometimes.  The last time I mowed the lawns, I did our yard first and then went across the street to do her yard.  When I came home I found a baby possum in our garden. 

If he looks mad, it’s because we picked him up by the tail with gloves on to put him on the path back to his Mama….He got distracted because the yard next door has a gate he could get under, so we had to pick him up a second time….now I will say he could fit in the palm of your hand if you did decide to take your chances holding him.

Not much time for knitting or crocheting and my quilt pieces are crying out for attention.  My new sewing machine, while managing to be taken out of the box and set up has not even been threaded for the first time…I will want to buy a plastic case for it to keep it from collecting dust. 

I have a new project I just started.  I learned to make “Duct Tape Roses”

…I practiced with the gray tape I had, now I want to get more colors….Duct tape comes in lots of colors now! 

So now I have managed to catch you up on things….My hours are all over the place…I work anywhere from a 4 hour shift to a 9 hour shift (with lunch after about 4 hours).  I have gone to work as early as 6:30 a.m…..and left as late as 11 p.m….so there is no getting used to the hours.  My legs are sore, my back hurts….but so far I really enjoy the people I work with…..except when the CSM decides to wait to send me on my 15 minute break until 20 minutes before time for me to go home anyway!

The good news is, since I have been working, I have heard from my grand children more often.

More later….when things get slow again!

Hugs and Love to all!

 

You can Satisfy some of the people some of the time…..

I think some people just like to make other people miserable.

This is the case with my mother-in-law. No matter what I do, I can’t satisfy her. 

Case in point; I mow the lawn, weed, edge and care for the flower beds….But in her eyes, I don’t do it right.  Every year I go through this.  She doesn’t understand that every so often, you need to dig bulbs up, separate them and bring them closer to the surface to make them continue to bloom and flourish.  Every year I weed out the Hosta beds and after they have bloomed and start to die back, I cut them off and allow them to hibernate until the next spring….They have come up stronger every year and I think much prettier than when they were left to grow wild on their own.  I have grown marigolds every year and when the blooms die, I take them apart and save the seeds for the next year….I planted Four O’ Clocks that seed themselves and come up every year making the front flower bed full of color. 

I carefully mow around plants that have been planted willy-nilly in the yard with no barriers to prevent them from growing where they please….I use hand edgers to get all the weeds and grass away from their bases to make them pretty….But I “don’t do it right”…..

Well guess what? I am the only one who takes the time to work in the yard and to keep it neat and pretty.  I’m not allowed to plant bushes or flowering trees because she doesn’t like them…Not even azaleas, Dogwood or Forsythia…

The 81 year old lady across the street pays me to mow her lawn once a week….$17….I use the mower we have here as Barbara hasn’t owned a mower in 10 years.  And every time I mow, I hear crap about “Doesn’t Barb own her own mower?”  The answer is NO!!! But no one pays me to mow our yard and we do pay for the gas that goes in the mower. 

Yesterday, after I got off work, I mowed Barb’s yard, then mowed and edged our yard.  Do I get a thank you or a “The yard looks nice” from my Mother-in-Law??? No!! I get “The grass is uneven”….because out front where the cars are parked I can not mow right up against the curbs and the ground isn’t level where trees once were….or I hear “That edger needs a guard on it” because it kicks up the grass it clips when I edge. Or I heard how the Easter Lillies that were in the back yard didn’t come up this year…..  probably because we didn’t have a hard winter and they are getting too deep in the ground. 

Now she is telling me she wants to take up the landscape timbers and bricks around the flower beds to replace it with plastic fencing.  Well Plastic fencing will allow the grass and weeds to take over the flower beds….and if that happens, I will quit weeding…Plastic fencing also cracks, breaks, fades, etc due to weather conditions or age….It would need replacing probably every year….

She complains about only having $12 left until the end of the month, but she spends at least $20 a week on lottery tickets….so far she hasn’t won anything near what she has spent in the 20 years she has been playing it….

Maybe I am wrong, but if you are that poor in the middle of the month, shouldn’t you be doing anything you can to save money???  Landscape timbers are generally pressure treated and made to last a long time….I have been in this house for 4 years and the timbers were here long before that….If she is that concerned about how everything in the yard looks, why doesn’t she get off her butt and get out in the yard and do the work herself….

I know I’m on a tirade and it’s not Wednesday, but Heaven help me…..I do what I can.

There is a saying about Pleasing some of the people some of the time; "You can please all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you cannot please all the people all the time."   But she is one person I can never please….no matter what I do and I am tired of trying to live up to her expectations….

My Daddy always taught me, “If you don’t like what is being done, change it, or do it yourself”

I think it is time I gave up trying to please her and let her do it herself.

Hugs and love to all!

Working Stiff

I have officially been employed now for 1 week.

I work at the Wal*Mart here in town as a cashier….I have worked for 2 other Wal*Marts in the past.  The first I started in the photo lab and the second I started as a cashier and ended up in the photo lab….I don’t want to end up in the photo lab this time as there never is anyone back there whenever I go past there.  They have to work several other areas and you have to hunt them down if you need help.

Wal*Mart has changed since I worked there 3 years ago.  First, you have to wait 90 days before you can get your employee discount card.  Then they no longer issue paychecks every payday. The issue your first one….which usually is only for your 4 hour orientation day, and then you MUST set up direct deposit.

This means I received my first pay check yesterday….after taxes $25… I went in an hour early so I could go to the bank inside Wal*Mart and set up an account.  They have other means you can get paid…They have a money card you can use or you can use a pre-paid credit card (which is what I did in the past). But I decided to see what the bank could do.  An hour later, just in time to go to work, I had a new checking and savings account….with no money in either….

Next step was either on my break or before or after lunch, I would have to go to their computers and set up the direct deposit….Do you see where I am going here??  The employee has to do it all now where as the personnel representatives used to do this for you.  But I’m not done yet….I had to go on-line when I got home to the bank’s website, watch a Powerpoint presentation and print off a certificate to get $25 deposited into my savings account.  Then I had to set up on-line banking….Whoooo! It’s a good thing I have a computer!!

Another change is they no longer print schedules and post them in the store on a schedule board….You guessed it!  I have to get that on-line, too!!  For this I had to go to personnel and get my 9 digit employee number…Then it’s back on-line , fill out more profile data, set up my employee site and print the schedule….

At least I am working….which means less time to Facebook….

But I am only part-time which means no benefits and no more than 32 hours a week….

But it also means I am one sore person right now…I am not used to standing on my feet for an 8 hour shift yet.

So if you don’t see me for awhile, I am probably at work or sleeping….

Hugs and Love to all!!