It’s been an interesting week and it’s only Monday.  It’ll be something to see how this week goes, though I doubt we’ll see the end result until after October 1, if not later.  I’m still not entirely sure what to think about the job situation.  We were told that our department is going to change to the QA side of things since that’s how the other company handles the differences in the departments… they’ve got the regulatory side separated from the plant side of things…

We were told to dress up all week, or at least refrain from wearing tennis shoes/sneakers and dress nicely.

Today, the department head came in to speak with us.  He told us we definitely have a job until the end of the year, but if we were offered a job by one of the companies in town that is growing and doing well, we should take the job.  He said don’t jump at a job flipping burgers at BK, because those types of jobs will always be there, but if we are offered a job at a good company…  He repeated himself several times, which made everyone uncomfortable.  He said he wasn’t trying to convince everyone to jump ship, but we need to think about job stability as well.

Which means, I have a job until the end of the year… and I’m not the only one who got the feeling that he was telling us to start looking for another job.  Pretty much the whole department got that sense.  He also said that some of the computer or network techs are interviewing elsewhere.

The final thing he said left me with something to think about.  He made a comment about starting a business if we end up without a job after it’s done.  He looked at me when he said it, and he even suggested the type of business I’ve been thinking about starting.  I guess that’s just the final indication of what I should be doing.

So my ‘normal’ writing may dry up.  That’ll mean more time to blog…

The owners of the company I write for are selling.  I just wish I had enough money to buy it for what they’re asking, which  is lower than what they’d ask from someone who is not one of their regular writers.  The email said they’re offering it for a discount.

It’s all good, though.  It’s just shoving me in the direction I need to go, whether or not I’m ready to do it.  Life is certainly interesting lately.

Anyway, the munchkins are going to be up soon, I’d best get a nap.

“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes?” ~ Matthew 6:25

Something I’ve learned over the last year.  I need to stop worrying about things that I have no control over.  Of course, over the years I’ve worried about a lot of things that I have no control over.  This takes a lot of the fun out of my life.  It’s kinda hard to enjoy yourself when you’re worried.

My goal this weekend is to let go and forget about the job situation.  I have a website that needs to be designed (http://www.seocopywritingdesign.com) and will work on that as well as picking up the house.  Though I won’t have to mop, my husband mopped on Thursday because the kittens peed on the floor.  Only one of the four has figured out the litter box.  That’s still not bad at 5 weeks.

Something that was sent to me in email a few years ago is this:

“Take the most difficult challenge you are now facing and turn it into the greatest opportunity to grow simply by changing how you see it. Dead ends then become turning points.”  Bob Perks

It definitely gives me something to think about.  I have a few idea for the weekend, including a bunch of reading.  I need to check into an inter-library loan… or else I can spend some time working on the afghan I was knitting for my sister’s son.  I have a couple of other yarn projects going if I can get the afghan finished.

I was reading something from a copywriting course that I signed up for, and it got me thinking.  They suggested that if I want a niche to write or blog about, I should find something that I’m passionate about.  The question remains, what AM I passionate about?  What do I find interesting enough to do the necessary research that I can become an expert?

It’s difficult to imagine that anything would hold my interest like that… but there are a few things.  They’re just not exactly what you’d think about when you ask someone what they’re passionate about. 

For example, fantasy – whether sword and sorcery or alternate universe/timeline type.  Silly, huh?  I have at least 3 fantasy stories floating around in my head, I just need to go through the effort of writing an outline and spend the time getting the stories on paper.  But some days, that effort just seems to be too much.

Another example, graphic design – though it isn’t very obvious with how little any of my site has been redesigned in the last few years.  I love spending time playing with a graphics program to see what I can come up with… but then again, the effort seems to be too much.

When I was designing websites, I loved the back-end programming that was needed for many of the database sites I worked on.  Though I often found the programming frustrating at times, I felt a thrill when I finished the work and got everything working like the customer wanted it.

Even couponing has slowed in the last couple of months.  I still clip the coupons, but they sit in the box, not even sorted in my binder and I don’t use very many.

The question remains why do I let my life slide past as I put off doing things I enjoy?

It’s one thing to procrastinate the things I don’t like doing, but to procrastinate on the things I do like doing?  That’s just silly… or it’s perfectionism rearing its ugly head.  I can’t get it exactly how I want it, whether because I don’t know how I want it, or another reason, and I just put it off… it gives me the perfect excuse on why I haven’t gotten anything published other than the writing I was doing for the SEO company.

Or maybe that’s zen.  I always forget how the word is spelled for a silly reason.  A friend of mine used to use the name Xen when playing morts on the MUD.

Work is getting more interesting, but it may be a year before we know anything definite about what’s going to happen.  That means a year of doing what I’ve been doing… I can manage that.  The longer I work, the more I can get put aside in case I lose my job, and/or the more bills I can pay off so I have that many fewer bills if I lose my job.  It’ll all work out, or it won’t.  So instead of worrying, I’m trying to focus on my writing… or finding other places to write since the place I normally write is very slow in the summer. 

Eventually, things will work out as they should, or they won’t.  Severance packages at other facilities they’ve closed have been as little as 1 week of severance pay for each year working for the company.  Considering this is one of the biggest employers in the area, it’ll be interesting to see how the economy in the area fares with these changes.  I feel bad for the visible head of the company… one of the founders.  He was no longer running the company, the next generation was running the company.  I suspect all they saw was dollar signs.

All the drama at work has the added benefit of making me realize how lucky I’ve been over the years.  One of my coworkers has been through a large number of mergers, some of these mergers have meant job loss.  This is my first time facing this type of situation. 

It’s best to let go of the worry.  Nothing I do can change what’ll happen to myself or my coworkers.  All I can do is be sure that I don’t backstab anyone just to keep my job.  Backstabbing others is not the way I’d choose to save my job.  I’ rather lose my job and someone else keep theirs in that situation.  Because I’m not sure I could handle the guilt… besides, something always comes along, and all I have to do is focus on writing to get more income on top of any unemployment I’d get…

Time to sleep.  Hopefully I haven’t bored anyone too much lol.

So today, the big-wigs at work sprang a big surprise on everyone.  Everything that we’ve heard is that the company I work for has been doing well.  However, today there was a meeting with the 2 people that founded the company and the current CEO.  They’re doing a merger with 2 other companies, our sister company and one based out of Cincinnati.  A venture capital type firm is going to be the majority owner in the new company, and the CEO of the company based in OH is going to be the CEO of the new company.

No one knows what’s going to happen and there are a ton of rumors going on that they’re going to close the plants here in OK. 

I’m afraid that the owners didn’t help at all because they gave some information during the meeting that was contradicted when they sent out a FAQ later in the afternoon.

It should be an interesting few months for sure.

Monday night, I turned my back on my 19 month old son for a few minutes (less than 5 minutes tops) and he picked up a tin can from the trash.  He got his finger stuck in between the lid and the side and cut his finger.  I got the bleeding to stop and put a band aid on it. 

Tuesday, I put on liquid skin on his cut because band aids wouldn’t stay on with those curious fingers.  He had gone through four through the day.

Wednesday, the bleeding started again and my husband couldn’t get it to stop, so I brought my son to the hospital… which had me feeling like a bad mom because I started thinking that I should have brought him in on Monday.  Especially since he couldn’t get stitches because it had been 2 days since he was injured.

The PA that looked at the cut said she wouldn’t have brought one of her kids in either, but she sent in an EMT to wrap the finger in a compression bandage.  It’s looking much better, but I keep thinking about how I could have handled it differently.

I’ve been doing a lot of extra writing lately.  It makes it difficult to keep up with the updates some weeks.  I’ve also been reading a weight loss blog on the NewsOK website (http://www.newsok.com/fat-to-fit).  It’s rather interesting to see someone else’s point of view on weight loss.

I did find out today that a knitting needle can break through your skin.  I now I have a hole in my leg because I’m a klutz.  Not big enough for stitches, but deep enough that it burns to walk much 🙁 I even bled through the first band aid.  Ick.

We now return you to your regularly scheduled boring lack of updates 🙂

So, I’ve started a new hobby.  One that I’m finding rather fun even though it has nothing to do with gaming or computers (except in that I read blogs to help me find more deals).  There’s using coupons and there’s this.

I’m not an expert at it yet, but between matching coupons and sales, I saved over $40 last week.  Maybe more, I’d have to go through my receipts and I don’t feel like doing it at this time of morning.   I paid more than some of the girls whose blogs I’ve been reading.  BUT I’m paying less, in many cases much less than I have been.

I got 2 boxes of Tornadoes for free, 2 more for .99 cents.  I got 2 Healthy Choice meals for $1 each and 2 more for $1.50 each.  Lean Cuisine meals for $1.67 each (I didn’t get them at the store that doubled coupons for this weekend only), cups of yogurt for .32 cents each and jars of peanut butter for $1.20 each and a box of raisin bran for .50 cents.  I did get healthy food as well including a bunch of produce.  Overall, I paid about the same as I normally do but got almost 1/3 more food.  My fridge, freezer and cupboards are over-full, though I do need to pick up another bag of apples and more yogurt since we go through them so fast.  Even the 18 month old loves them.

On the other hand, I’ve gotten razors at Walgreens and received register rewards (like coupons good on the next purchase) back for more than I paid for the razors.  I did the same for womens body wash.  I’ve paid only tax for deodorant. Last Sunday I went to Walgreens and bought mens body wash and deodorant, I paid $4.97 and got $4.50 in register rewards.  This Sunday, I’ll be able to get 2 packages of diapers for $6 each before register rewards.  It’ll be about $4.50 each if you subtract the extra $3 in register rewards I’ll get for buying 2 packages at once.  I may get 4 packages of diapers simply because that’s the best price I’ve been able to get with any consistency so far.   I’ll probably get another set of body wash and deodorant because it’s not like my husband won’t use it and it never goes bad.  The same week I get the diapers, I’ll be able to combine coupons with the sale on toothpaste to get tubes of toothpaste for .24 cents each before tax, and I think that’s the week that I’ll be able to get hair ties for $3 and get $3 in register rewards, I’ll have to look at the circular after I finish my writing for the week.  The week of Father’s day, I’ll be able to pay $3 for mens body wash (Nivea) and get back $6 in register rewards.

I haven’t broken down all of the deals I’m going to be doing because I’ve been going week to week.  I know I have enough shaving cream to send some to my sister when I send her the afghan I knit for the baby.  I may send body wash since she can use it as bubble bath and she’s going to need it once she goes back to work in the next couple of weeks.

I can get more deodorant for just the sales tax at Dollar General this week, so I’m probably going to get some and donate it to the local women’s shelter.  It’s hard to justify not spending .50 cents for 4 sticks of deodorant when I know they desperately need personal care items.  I think the deodorant that my son always wanted me to get will also be free at Dollar General, I need to look at the ad… I don’t know if he’d want it now or if he’s found something better in the Marines.

I haven’t figured out what I’m going to do with the extra mens care items, but most of these I’ve been getting back more in register rewards than I’ve been paying out… Making money on transactions is very addicting.  LOL

My goal is to get my grocery bill down by 50%.  That means catching the sales and trying to stock up on the things we go through the most… like peanut butter (with apologies to the dear friend who hates the stuff lol).  I was supposed to get some cereal this weekend, but the only stuff they really had on sale was sugar cereal and since my hubby and I have been trying to watch what we eat (and since the kids don’t need the sugar) I held off.  I need to find some coupons for the stuff that’s healthy, or see how much it’d be to buy the healthy stuff at Wal-Mart with the coupons I do have… for Total and Fiber One… at least they’ll eat it with fruit on it.  I’ve been doing better at stores other than Wal-Mart because they don’t really have sales 😛  Oh yea, and because they don’t really have a whole lot of competition here and their prices are higher than in other areas.  I do read the deal pages on Wal-Mart and go there with the intention of doing those deals.  Instead I’m finding my prices are .50 cents to $1 higher than quoted on those pages with prices from central IL and other areas.   ‘Always Low Prices’ my butt.  Granted, they are lower on some things, but others their prices are much higher than I want to pay.  And with coupons, I’m able to pay less than I’d pay at Aldis for some stuff.

For those who say that it’s too expensive to drive to 3 or more stores… sorry, I can do those in one wide circle around town.  Go to one store, the next is on the way to the bread store… and if I decide to do Wal-Mart for something that’s past the bread store in the same direction and I can just loop around to go home.  All within 5 miles of my house.  When you shop the loss leaders with coupons it pays for the gas… Oh yea and drive a Honda Civic which is more fuel efficient than my old Buick (R.I.P.  I do miss that car even though it started needing more work than I could afford to put into it after I had to buy 4 new/used tires for it last summer because we kept getting flats, luckily I had the money on hand for various reasons)  Of course it also had more than 250k miles on it at only 11 years old LOL.  Too many trips back east in it… of course the last one of those was 2006 and I’d love to see my family again, but that’s another post for another day.  It’s well after 4 and I need to get back to sleep so I can get up for work in 3 hours and I’m starting to ramble because I’m tired.

Ok, so I’ve been using a pedometer and trying to increase my steps.  I didn’t hit my goal today.  I only managed about 7200 steps instead of 8000, which is still less than the 10,000 I should be walking for my health.  I am making progress on other aspects as well.  But I still need to work at it so I can nail more than just the water every day. 

I’ve been very tempted to delete the post below where I was being so negative, but I haven’t decided yet.  It may disappear.

Oh and one reminder note: losing inches is better than losing pounds and the negative voices need to go LOL.