Happy Birthday Aunt Caryn

Caryn's birthday was on Friday and Cackie was excited to call her and sing Happy Birthday.
Thank you to everyone who has Chipped In to help Aunt Caryn go to China. She really appreciates it! (and we do, too!)

Chinese New Year

I wrote this over the weekend and forgot to post (will add pics later)...



We had a busy week and last weekend, but we’ve had soo much FUN!
Last Saturday was our FCC Chinese New Year Celebration and Cackie had a blast! It was a little early this year, but we had to accommodate other CNY events and it worked perfect for us. From the minute we got there Cackie was off on her own and hard to tie down. Such a social butterfly she is!
She & I had some professional portraits taken in our silks, I can’t wait to get them (Michael forgot to wear his silk, so he got excluded).

On Sunday we did some rearranging and I went out and got some shopping done. The soon to be kids room is almost cleaned out and now Cackie had a king sized bed all to herself! She looks lost in it, but thinks its soo cool!
Monday she & I both had off for the MLK holiday and we both had dentist appointments. I had to have a crown replaced (long story there) and they were running overtime, so Cackie went off with the hygienist and before I knew it she was done. I missed the whole first dental cleaning L. Oh, well! The hygienist said she was great, but wanted to do everything herself.
Then after the dentist we had lunch with Michael and headed home for nap. I did a whole bunch of things around the house while she napped, it was great. I got the majority of Owen’s next care package together and finally got that sent off on Thursday.
I had a pretty busy week at work. It was the last week that my old boss was there and HR was soo helpful to speed up the process to let my new boss start before the old one left. So, we essentially had two bosses for the week. I know that the new boss knows about the situation that happened with me not getting that position and my director has advised me to be completely honest with him about it. We didn’t actually see too much of new boss all week, but the little interaction that I had with him I worry that he thinks I’m upset with him. On Monday if I get to discuss it with him I want to tell him that it’s the system that sucks and I don’t have any beef with him. It’s not his fault that I didn’t get the job. But, that if he really wants me to like him he will work with me and give me the training that I need to move to the next step.
We did have a big announcement that some restructuring will take place. Basically three new people have been added to my little area under new boss. I like these three people and think we will make an awesome team all together, not just producing good work, but they have great personalities and we will have fun while working. That’s HUGE for me, I can’t be bored while I work!
I didn’t hear any more from the headhunter that I had been in contact with and I pretty much figured that the job market is soo tight right now that I wouldn’t hear from anyone else either. But, late Friday afternoon there was a message on the answering machine from one of the places that I submitted my resume to. I have to decide this weekend what I want to tell them when I call. I really do love my job and the people there. There are soo many positives about it that I would really hate to lose and the thought of having to establish myself for 6 years somewhere else is really exhausting. But, I have totally gotten screwed once that I’m not sure if I should believe them when they tell me that the new restructuring plan includes future growth opportunities for me. I have another day or so to think about it and decide what to do.
Today I had plans to start painting the kids bathroom, but I don’t think I’m going to get to it. The kids in Cackie’s class have had everything from the sniffles to strep throat to the flu and they’ve been so kind to share it with us. We just have a viral bug that’s been going around, but we’re pretty worn down. I don’t need to be pushing myself so close to my surgery, so I really need to keep things low key for the next few days and I need Michael feeling well, too.
My parents are on the way here, they are coming to spend the week and help out with things while I’m recovering from my surgery. It will be a huge help to know that Michael doesn’t need to be stressed about me being home alone and worrying about leaving work to pick up Cackie and all. Cackie of course, is totally excited about her LaoLao & LaoYe coming to be here with her. She can’t wait for them to take her to her gymnastics lesson and pick her up from school. If we can keep her whining down, it should be a good week!

Other news

Here’s the update that I started earlier today… now I should be just about caught up!
I know it’s been a while since I’ve updated (Yes, it seems all my posts start this way…). We’ve really been super busy and a lot has happened. It’s all combined to keep me away from my computer for days at a time.
First we were trying to get back into our routine after the new year. Cackie was back in school and work picked up for both Michael and I. On the first Friday of the new year, cackie spent the night with Michael’s mom so we took advantage and went to the Tigers game that Saturday. We had a great time, just the two of us…OK, we went with some friends but it was like the days before we had Cackie and sometimes it’s nice to have that freedom for a couple of hours.
That Sunday we spent the entire day putting up the Christmas decorations and starting the reorganization of the house. We were able to redo the setup in our living area and move some of Cackie’s toys into the living area to free up some space in her room. None of it is ideal, but it will work for now. We also reconfigured the furniture in our home office to give us some space to move my sewing/crafts supplies into there. This past weekend we were able to get more of the basement cleaned out, again making some storage space, and I was able to get all of my sewing stuff into the home office and even spent a couple of hours going through and cleaning out things that were no longer needed. We’re almost ready to move the spare bed into Cackie’s room to free up the room that will become Cackie & Owens. YAY! Last week I ordered quilts for the new room and they should be here any day now. I’m anxious for them to get here so that I can start working on paint colors. I have some ideas in my head, but I need some time to put them together.
The other big thing lately (besides the job thing that I wrote about earlier) is that two weeks from today I’m having sinus surgery. I had my first appt with an ENT about a month ago, he changed up my meds some and wanted me to follow up with a CT last week. So, Wednesday I went in had the CT and then had an appointment with the doc. He reviewed my CT with me and showed me where I have polyps on both sides of my sinuses and how that where they are situated they are basically keeping the infection in my head. He also stuck a small camera in my nose and said that I have a partially deviated septum. All this together adds up to why I keep getting sick so often. My sinuses just won’t drain and the infection stays, even with some pretty strong meds. So, my only real option is to have surgery to fix the septum so that he can get into the sinuses and clear out the polyps.
I felt a huge sense of relief as the doc explained everything to me. I’m not imagining what I’ve been feeling, especially the being tired all the time. He says that the tiredness the irritableness, even the dark spot under my eyes are all symptoms of what is happening to me. So, now hopefully the surgery will go well and all this will be behind me. I was really relieved to be able to schedule the surgery so quickly. I want to be as healed as I can be when we get on that 16 hour plane ride and hopefully the bad air in China won’t bother me as bad this time as it did before.
So, the next two weeks may be kinda hectic around here, but I’ll be home for a week recovering from surgery and should find some time then to do some blogging.

My big gripe right now

At home last night I started a catch up of the many things that have been going on in our lives. Of course, I left it on the computer there and can’t finish it right now as I sit and eat my lunch. So, instead I’ll write about the big thing that is really plaguing me right now.

Human Resources sucks!

Sorry if you work in HR and are reading this, but I have a huge issue with HR right now, at least where I work. HR at my company has to be the biggest group of idiots that has ever been assembled. Their world is purely back and white with no shades of grey at all (that would cause them to have to think and that must hurt their poor little heads).

Here’s the deal… On Christmas Eve I found out that my boss was resigning, he didn’t officially tell us until later that week, but I had the inside scoop. So, being that I’m the senior of the group and I’m interested in new opportunities, I pulled together my resume and applied for the manager position. I put a lot of thought into this and decided that this would be a good move for me and my family. I was really hoping that this would be an opportunity for me to grow with the company that I have invested 6 years with now.

So last week I spoke with the director about it and was told that I’m the preferred candidate, but that it was going to be hard to work with HR because I don’t have any official management experience. At that point I was the only candidate and if it stayed that way the position could be downgraded so that I could qualify based on my multitude of experience. The director acknowledged that we don’t have a “career path” program established in our department to help people grow and develop new skills, but that they would implement one ASAP so that it would never be questioned again.

Well, on Friday I got to work and found an email telling me that another candidate had applied and that he had already been interviewed and hired because he has years of management experience.

So, basically I’ve gotten screwed by HR. I’ve worked my tail off in my department, always taking on new tasks and I’m the “go to” person for everything because I get things done and I do them right. I know our accounting system inside & out, I know how things are run around here and I know who to contact to get what I need to get the job done. But, to HR I’m not qualified for the position because I’ve never done an employee evaluation and I won’t be qualified until I have at least two years of experience.

Yesterday I sat down with my director and I was really super pissed about the whole thing. She tells me that they fought with HR, but HR just wouldn’t budge and allow me to grow into the position. They basically made her interview and hire new dude because he fit all the job qualifications.

Now, new dude sounds like he’s a good guy. He definitely sounds like a good fit for our dept (I should know… I’ve been there the longest!) and I have nothing against him, but damn it give me a chance!

My director has promised me that the new career path will be started right away and that even the controller will explain it to the whole department that they realize they were not preparing us to grow within the department. I just wonder, at this point is it too little too late?

I’m pretty upset over this. I feel completely under appreciated in all this. My director says that I am definitely appreciated around here, it’s just the way that HR works and they tried everything they could. Well, HR may get what they deserve in this deal. Sunday night I put my resume out on Monster and HotJobs. I also applied to two positions that were posted. Yesterday I talked to a recruiter that I’ve worked with in the past and he’s going to send my resume out to a few places. Our impending trip to get Owen is my biggest concern, but he tells me that many employers will understand if I tell them on the front end. Today he submitted my resume two places, so we’ll see.

I really love my job, the people are great and I believe in the mission of the institution. But, once you’re burned do you keep sticking your hand back in the fire? I’ve got to do some investigating and see if there isn’t something better out there. Am I right?