Thankful For

Last weekend was Thanksgiving. It was pretty ho hum for me this year. By Wednesday night, the night before Thanksgiving, I could tell I was getting sick. I didn't feel good. Just blah. Something. The last few weeks have been hard on me emotionally, and I think it caught up to me.

I woke up on Thanksgiving with a sore throat. Just as I suspected, sickness was setting in. Again. I thought I'd snap out of it once I got up and moving around. The Husband and I headed out to my parents' house outside of Lansing for our first Thanksgiving meal of the day at 1:00 p.m. I started to feel better once I was at there and catching up with my family. So we ate, and I stuffed myself on my mom's awesome cooking, and we had to leave at 2:30 to go to Macomb to my mother-in-law's house for another Thanksgiving celebration. After spending more time in the car than at my parents' house, we arrived. I was feeling like crap again. Nothing a few glasses of wine couldn't cure though. I was able to hit the hay around 10:00, and totally stuffed up, unable to sleep.

We finally got back home to our own house on Friday afternoon at 2:00 p.m. By then I was sick. I mean blowing multiple tissues full of snot out at a time, and have more to go (I'm picturing the clown who pulls handkerchief after handkerchief out of his pocket. Yeah, my snot was like that. Never ending.). Sinus headache, body aches, and drowsiness. So the remainder of my Friday and all of my Saturday were spent lying on the couch. One of my favorite weekends of the year was ruined. Saturday was gorgeous too. We really should have gotten our Christmas decorations for outside put up, but we didn't. Now I don't know if we'll even get to it at all this season, because since Sunday on, it's been snowing pretty good. And that pesky day job I have, seems to get away as well.

Onto the day job...about four weeks ago now I interviewed for another job. I was looking for a promotion since I was unable to get one here. I ended up getting the job offer and accepting. Ever since accepting, something just didn't feel right about it. I had a pit in my stomach about leaving my current job. Yeah, the money...we're talking in the next two years about working my way into a five-digit raise. The office is rigid though. Firm on the rules and anal. For someone like me, who commutes an hour into work, I like a little leeway when I need it, and especially when the kids come, I'm going to want that flexibility. None to be had there. So is the extra money worth anything if I can't even be with my family? And they were cold. In the interview, when we were going over the offer, when I had questions. Every time. They weren't exactly a welcoming committee, if you know what I mean.

I have some connections, so I called the person that used to have the job. She found it hard to have one positive thing to say about the place. Ut oh. Then again, it could be a personality issue on her part. Who knows.

In the meantime, I have told my boss that I got an offer to leave. She said she was sad to see my go, and wondered had I gotten a promotion here, had I even been looking elsewhere? I was honest and told her "No, I wouldn't have been looking if they had promoted me here". Truth be told, this is a pretty cush place to work. It's flexible, my boss is totally family oriented and believes in "family first", and most important, I'm in my comfort zone, but I need a raise.

I ran into the director here before Thanksgiving and we had a nice little chat. He told me that I needed to be careful at my new job, that the management there was awful, and that they can't keep their staff around because of it. He said that I would've been perfect for my boss's job when she moves up, that's its too bad I'm leaving, blah, blah.

That was the final thing that pushed me. I hadn't been feeling good about this change from the start, but that just confirmed it. The following day I marched into his office and asked him to do something to get me to stay. That in turn resulted in my boss submitting paperwork to HR immediately for me to be promoted (I just have to hope the HR committee agrees to it, because they have final say). ALSO, are you ready for this? There was talk about letting me work out of a Grand Rapids office when the weather is bad. Supposedly they are working on this for me now.

Pretty cool, huh? So I guess everything has worked out for me. On paper at least. Only time will tell. Big sigh of relief.

I don't say this often, if at all, but "thanks". He knows I'm talking to Him.

Brandon + Meghan - November 22

We got the pleasure of attending the Husband's cousin's wedding in Detroit a couple of weekends ago. It was a lot of fun. We stayed right in Greektown, and the weather was perfect for November (i.e. no snow and even sunshine!).

We stayed at The Atheneum hotel. I thought it was absolutely gorgeous!

The living room area.

Our view out the 7th floor window...

The reception was at the Roostertail. Top notch indeed.

The happy, newly married couple.

And the old, married couple. We're still happy most of the time. ;-)

And The Winner Is...

As a follow-up to the competition I had earlier this month, the winner is Kristen, with her guess of November 24 being the first day we'd get over 1-inch of snow accumulation this season!

The official weather report can be found here.

Kristen, please e-mail me at ker.co@hotmail.com and give me your mailing address. I will send out your $9.00 Gift Card to Celebration Cinema, good for one adult ticket into a feature film! Enjoy!

Christmas Groove

We're getting into the spirit of the holidays...Check out our slamming moves...

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Say What?

If the temperature hits 70-degrees today, it will mark the first time EVER that Grand Rapids has managed to have 4-days in a row in the month of November with highs at or above 70-degrees! It's looking pretty likely that it will happen. Get out and enjoy it if you can, because this is pretty unseasonable in Michigan for sure.

So in honor of this fabulous weather, and the crummy weather that is to come, I'm going to have a little competition.

Cast your vote in the comments section of this post for which day Grand Rapids will get their first official snowfall. The first official snowfall means snow in accumulation of 1-inch or more as reported by Wood TV 8.

The winner will get a prize!

**EDIT**
The prize will be awarded based on the Price Is Right rules. The closest guess to the actual snowfall date without going over, is the winner. Good luck!

Sweet Cleo

Goodbye sweet Cleo. You were the kindest, most gentle creative ever. You touched our lives in so many ways. You were there for the laughter and the tears; always so loyal, always a friend, and always a part of the family. We will love you forever and will miss you with all our hearts.

1995 - 2008

Another Birthday!

Happy Birthday to my favorite brother!



...and many more!