Job Update…

I haven’t talked about my job in a while.  It’s been a year now that I moved over to the Homeowner’s side of the company.  I will never go back to Auto!  At least I won’t go without kicking and screaming!

I’ve been climbing on roofs now for a year and I’m getting better every day.  I’m still scared to death on the tall steep ones, but I manage to do my part.  As a matter of fact, I have a steep 2 story home this week.  One of my teammates is going with me because I can’t carry the 2 story ladder by myself!  It’s super heavy and weighs over the 50 lbs limit for my job description. 

Most of the people I’ve encountered have been super nice.  And I can’t say enough about the guys on my team and my trainer.  They are super nice and supportive of me.  I can even say the roofers have been great.  Most of the time they offer to carry my ladder and help me when I’m up there and scared to death!  They’ve all been doing this for so long that they aren’t the least bit intimidated.  At first I didn’t like then to see me scared, but now I have no pride.  I’ve learned to just be honest and tell them it’s a little too steep for me to be comfortable on.  They all tend to help me out and to hold my ladder for me getting on and off when I’m scared.  Not sure if it’s because I am scared and admit it or because I’m a woman.  I really don’t care.  Like I said, I have no pride anymore.  I’ll take whatever help I can get.

But I have moved up on the steepness chart.  I can climb the 7/12s now where I used to just go up to 6/12.  Anything over a 7/12 and I’m not getting all the way on it.  I will climb the ladder and inspect that way, but I’m not taking the risk of falling off when I know I would be scared to death up there.  There is a reason there is an extra charge associated with anything over a 7/12. 

I still carry my pink tool belt and pink clipboard.  People get a kick out of it.  I still have customers ask me if I’m the one getting up there like they can’t believe a girl does this.  It’s hot as hell up there during the summer and freezing cold in the winter but I’m never up there for more than an hour and don’t do more than 2 a day.  Most days I just do 1 if I go out. 

My choice to move was a tough one.  I was comfortable at my desk job where I had been for 16 years but it was time for the change.  I didn’t want to have to move to Dallas and I needed to do something else.  I had gotten stale and burned out.  Now, everyday is something new and I love it.  I set my own schedule and don’t have people breathing down my neck.  I’m not in an office and thankfully, I haven’t gotten sick in a year!  No laryngitis or bronchitis!

Now, if I could just work up the nerve to climb my own roof I might could put up Christmas lights!

Happy Birthday Pawpaw…

We have Pawpaw’s birthday party here yesterday.  It was a busy day.  Erin’s friend from her old daycare had a party and we were there yesterday morning.  It was at the same place we had Erin’s party.  The girls loved seeing each other.  They haven’t been together since Erin left in August.

Later that afternoon WAM came over and we celebrated Pawpaw’s 69th birthday with a steak and cupcake party.  William and Erin got along great.  It was super cute.  They were sharing things and they were sweet to each other.

I charged the battery for my camera then completely forgot to take any pictures. 

The highlight of the day for the kids was bath time.  They got in my bathtub for a bubble bath.  I turned the jets on and the bubbles went to the top of the tub.  All you could see was their little heads poking up from the bubbles.

Dog Gone…

For those of you who have met Mae Lynn Mize and Scooby Doo Mize you know they are a handful.  Scooby is an incessant barker and thinks it’s his job to bark at anyone who comes in the house.  He just won’t let up either.  He just gets so protective of us, especially me.  Mae has no social skills and likes to jump on people to say hi.

Erin has been scared of Mae for a while.  My plan to have her have a dog backfired because Mae is so over zealous.  But, we’ve rounded a corner.  In the past, we’ve left the dogs locked up when Erin is out.  She tends to run a skip everywhere she goes instead of walking and Mae takes that as an invitation to jump along with her.  Lately Erin has been asking to have them out.  So, we leave them out of the kennel for a while and they roam the house.  Mostly Mae cleans up anything under the table that Erin has recently eaten.  Scooby isn’t fast enough so he usually misses out.

Scooby is also obsessed with the squirrels in the backyard.  Tommy feeds them so we have some really big squirrels.  They eat the dried corn on the cob off the feeders.  The dogs eat what they drop, but 24/7 Scooby runs the perimeter of the yard making sure they don’t come down into the yard.  He stares at the trees and barks when they aren’t even out there.  He’s really really into the hunt.  He will run the perimeter for hours if I let him.  I don’t leave them out that long, but he’s never ready to come in.

With that being said, I can’t really leave them out of the kennel too much when I’m here working either.  Scooby stands at the window by the backdoor and does this high pitch scream like whine to go out and chase the squirrels.  Mae will go with him and run along beside him but she has no interest in catching the squirrels.  I can’t talk on the phone with the dogs going nuts in the house.

But, all in all I do love my dogs.  Tommy still cannot stand them, but Erin is coming around and loves them now too.  Maybe one day we’ll learn so social skills and they can stay out when we have company.  But for now, we’ll keep them under wraps.

Lazy Daze…

It’s been a crazy 2 weeks around here.  Tommy has been in Dallas most of the time for work.  That leaves Erin and I here alone.  Scary thought!  We have managed to make it together without killing each other.  We’re so much alike it’s scary!

It’s been going well except that I don’t sleep well when Tom isn’t here.  Not because I get scared of miss him in the bed.  It’s because Erin thinks when he’s gone she should sleep with me.  So, I end up with a bed buddy.  How can someone so small take up so much of a king sized bed?  I end up all the way on the edge on my side with her stuck to my side.  I get soooo hot and wake up sweating. 

I also have to wake her up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom.  Which in reality is not a big deal.  The older I get the more I have to get up at least once at night to go anyway.  So, I just get her up and we go.  I ask her in the morning and she never remembers getting up.

Tommy is home this week and goes back next week for another week.  He brings her a surprise for every day he’s gone.  It’s usually something from the Disney store.  If it keeps up at this pace we may be broke by the time he’s finished with this project!

So, this weekend has been spent at the house.  The only time we got out yesterday was to take her 5 year pictures with Hard2Hold Photography.  We went to a park and climbed down into a big creek/ditch thing.  There was a little waterfall and a lot of rock and roots.  They see such creative ways to take pictures.  When we were done in the ditch we climbed out and went to the playground.  We took a lot of pictures on the swings.  I can’t wait to see them.  Then they pulled out the props.  They bought a gallon of Blue Bell ice cream and an old fashioned sundae cup.  They bought sprinkles and had her make a sundae.  I’m sure the mess is going to translate into the best pictures EVER!

Right now Tommy is at the table with her playing Play Doh and we’re all still in our pajamas and it’s 10:45 in the morning! 

Love it!

Sight Words…

Erin started getting homework the last 2 weeks.  They have about 16 sight words they’re working on and they add to them every week.

Erin is falling behind because she’s a lot like me.  She wants to just know them and put no effort into it.  She got very upset because she didn’t get it right away and she missed some of them when she and I were quizzing.  She gets frustrated because she doesn’t know the answers.

I bought her a Kindle Fire to do our homework on it.  I didn’t want to load homework on her iPad.  (That way I can still take the iPad away when she gets in trouble.)  The Kindle will be just for homework only. 

One of the apps I found for it is a flash card app.  I love it.  I put it on my computer too and I made flash cards sets for her Sight Words and for her Speech Therapy.  You can add sounds to it.  We’re blocking off time every night to sit down and work on it.  So far it seems to be working.  She would rather do the flash cards on the computer because it talks too.

Of course, I bought the stylus to go with it too.  I got a handwriting app for practicing that as well.  Mrs. Meade sent home a note that she needs to be working on handwriting too. 

It’s like homework overload in Kindergarten.  Life in the Mize house has changed significantly.  We used to relax when she got home from daycare.  No relaxing now.   

Speaking Up…

Erin starts her speech therapy today.  I’m more nervous about it than she is.  I explained it as best I could this morning considering I don’t really know what they do exactly.

It’s at Texas Children’s Hospital in the Woodlands so I know we’re in great hands.  The only thing Erin worried about was whether it was a boy or girl teaching her.  She said she didn’t want a boy.  Whew, we got a chick!

Hopefully we won’t have to do this all year.  I’m hoping that the 45 minute sessions and work at home will do the trick.  Her cognitive abilities are tremendous, she just needs help with her sounds before she really starts reading.

More on our progress later…

Kinder Update…

The first week of Kindergarten is in the books.  Erin loves it so far. I am amazed at all she has learned in just one week.  They have 5 Kindergarten Rules and asked us to go over them with them at home.  I grabbed the sheet today to read them off thinking it was something new and Erin recited them verbatim!

The hardest part for her is in the morning.  They have the entrance doors then double locked doors for the kids to go thru.  After the 3rd day of school they do not allow parents back behind the locked doors unless you sign in first and have had the background check.  (Yes, I’ve done mine.  Did it the minute they told me I needed it!  Over-achiever!)

Erin’s classroom is on the first hall to the left and 2nd room.  I knew we were going to have a problem after the 2nd day.  She was too excited and not paying attention to which way we were going  even though I explained to her that we have to pay attention and get to the right class.

On Thursday Tommy said it was a total meltdown.  He got to the double doors and was denied.  He didn’t have his ID with him so they couldn’t let him back.  Luckily there are teachers all over the place in the mornings so one of them walked her back, but not before there were a bunch of tears.

Friday when I took her it wasn’t much better.  But as I handed her to the teacher I told her she needed to lead the way and show the teacher where her room was.  Hopefully she’s getting it.  Today Tommy said she walked with a teacher but never looked back at him.  It made both of us feel good to know that she likes school and feels safe and comfortable there.

Our area has grown up so much that there are 12 K-garten classes at the neighborhood school.  The classes were fuller than the school likes so they added a teacher.  To make up her class, they are taking volunteers to leave the class you’re in to join the new class.  The email said that if they don’t get a volunteer from each class then they are going to draw names from the later registered students.  Luckily we registered her early so I think we’re safe.  She seems to be adjusting well and I don’t want to mess up a good thing.  Pray for us!  (The Kindergarten class at this one little school is probably bigger than my graduating class!  Conroe ISD is just huge!)