First Day

Today was my first day at Amazon.  Our warehouse receives boxes that are already packed and labeled, we then sort them by where in the area they are being shipped.  So far it was fairly easy, but tiring work.  I didn't work the whole shift, because we had some orientation at the beginning, and I still had 7100 steps by the time I left.

I'm still not sure of my schedule.  The problem with big companies (like this) is there isn't anyone around to ask.  The warehouse is stand alone, all the HR is in another building.  So I'm going back tonight, as it was suggested by the floor manager (since he didn't know either).

I'm working 12:30am-5:30am.  I slept a little this morning, about 90 minutes, but I couldn't sleep this afternoon.  I'm grumpy from no sleep. So I'm going to take some melatonin around 5pm, so I can nap til a little after 11.

I left too early last night.  I was there by midnight.  So I think I'll leave at midnight, then I should get there at 12:20ish.  (The site is as north as you can go and still be in San Jose.  As in, the other side of Montague Expressway is Milpitas.  I'm just south of the Great Mall).

The shipment didn't get done by 5:30, so some people stayed on.  I would have, except I needed sleep (since I was teaching at church today).  And I didn't bring adequate food (or any money, because I'm a dummy), so I was starving at 5:30.  Tonight, I'll stay a little later if they need it.  I think if I leave there by 6, I should miss most traffic.

I'm sure this is really disjointed, but there ya go.  Day 1 is in the books.

I start with Amazon is a couple of days (Sunday at 12:30am actually).  I'm feeling anxious, which is compounded by the fact that I have not received all the new hire paperwork yet.  I talked to an employment rep who said this was fine.  So maybe I'll get it before I start?  I'd like to know my schedule too.  Not that it matters too much, because it's always in the middle of the night.  But I'd just like to know.

The lump on my neck is still there, it feels a little smaller.  I'm almost done with the antibiotic, though it's taking a toll on my body's flora (or is it fauna?).  Grumble.

Bertie was really good yesterday.  Today he is really bad.  Not listening, having a lot of consequences etc.  He's driving me crazy.  It's nap/quiet time now, and I've had to tuck him in 3 times 4 times already (in a less than 30 minute period).

I finished 30 days of yoga yesterday.  Now Bri and I are alternating choosing workouts every week.

At Target today, I found an unopened bag of Hershey Kisses in my cart in the parking lot.  Score!

I tried to count Macros yesterday and failed.  I may try again in the future, but I need to research what I should be eating.

Ch-Ch-Changes

I'd been looking for a job, a couple of large expenses (tires etc) have made our savings dip quite low.  It's hard to find a job that will work, since I don't have infinite child care for Bertie.  My MiL said 3 days a week would be her max.  I had gotten a job interview with Waiter.com to be a lunchtime delivery driver.  M-F from 10:30-1:45.  But I found out that won't work for her.  So I nixed it.  This is why my old job was so great (aside from the fact that I really liked medical billing, and didn't mind dealing with insurance companies), I worked from 6:30am-10:30am 2-3 times a week.  So Aaron had Bertram until 8ish, then took him to his mom's house.  I was looking for early morning or late night.

Then I found a seasonal position with Amazon, working in their warehouse.  And it looks like I've got that job.  I need to go fill out forms on Wednesday.  It's 4-5 days a week (the days are all in a row, but I don't know which days yet), and the shift is from Midnight to 4-6:15.  (This is all from the posting, I'll get more info tomorrow, hopefully).  It pays $13.50 an hour, which is great for unskilled labour.  It's seasonal, so through the new year, then I'll either be done, or maybe I can stay on at reduced hours.  Not sure yet.  It's 12 miles away, in San Jose but near Milpitas.  Usually that would make for an awful commute, but the hours make it a really easy commute (just hop up 880).

Hopefully I can nap from 8pm-11ish.  Then Adderall, work, and maybe a nap once I get home, if my MiL can watch Bertie.  Otherwise he can watch tv for a couple hours (great parenting), and I'll nap.  We'll see how it goes, I'm sure I'll work something out.

A nice day

I got up at 5:30, and drove to the track.  I did a minuscule amount of running, and walked most of the time.  I love being able to see the sun rise.  I came home around 7, and I could hear Bertram waking up.  I got him up and took off his diaper and put on his undies.  A minute later he ran up to me and said "I wet, I need to potty".  His undies were a little damp, and he ran off to his little potty.  He really had to go!

Then he said he wanted a toy out of his closet.  It was a big garbage truck that he got for his first birthday (I think).  It's a German toy, and it's pretty well made.  After I showed him how to use it, and gave him some little pom-poms to put in and dump out, he played with it for two hours straight!  I did yoga, and got all our stuff together for the beach.  He cried for a minute when I said he needed to get ready, but calmed down quickly.

We headed off to Santa Cruz, well, Aptos, actually.  The drive there was uneventful.  Bertie read a book most of the way there.  When we got to Rio del Mar, we both went to the bathroom (he was dry when we arrived).  Then went back to the car to get all the necessary beach crap (towels, sand toys, snacks, and a blanket).  That was a difficult trip, the stuff was heavy, and Bertram was walking so slow.  But we got set up, and he went to play in the little stream that goes to the ocean.  He did a lot of digging, splashing, finding different rocks, and sticks.  We stayed for 3 hours, and stopped to add more sunblock and have a snack about halfway through.  It was a beautiful day.  Warm, and comfortable, with a nice breeze.

When we left, around 1:45, we went to Marianne's in Aptos for ice cream lunch.  I put Bertie up to the counter, and asked him what flavour he wanted.  (99% of the time, he chooses mint).  He said "white".  The ice cream guy said "ok, let me bring you some samples".  He brought 4: Vanilla, Coconut, Banana, and I can't remember the last one.  He chose Banana, I got Heaven (peanut butter base, with brownies).  He ate almost all of it.  We went to the bathroom there, and got ready to hit the road.

I wanted a drink before we got back on the highway.  I thought if I drove down the main drag (Soquel Ave), I would see a drive through.  We drove 7 miles, from Aptos to Santa Cruz, and didn't see a single drive thru.  I found one when we were back in Santa Cruz, but it was on the wrong side of a divided road.  So we stopped at Macca's, the one without a drive thru.  The line was super long, and of course, Bertie needed to crawl around on the floor...

We got on to Hwy 17.  I was driving pretty slowly, I was hoping he'd fall asleep.  We hit the summit and started down the other side.  (The harder part of the drive, there are a lot of sharp turns).  We came around one of the blind curves, and there was a car, stopped.  The car was stopped, the driver was standing next to it (on the highway!) and he didn't have his hazard lights on.  (I should mention this all happened in a matter of seconds).  I couldn't slam on the brakes, because there was a car right behind me.  So I eased on to them hard.  I stopped in time, and then kept my eyes on the rear view mirror.  I willed the car behind me to stop.  And miraculously, he did.  And the car behind him swerved around without issue.   When it was safe, I went around.  The car I didn't hit, looked fine, I have no clue why he was stopped.  There was another car in front of him, which also looked fine, but maybe hit the guardrail.  Neither looked immobile, so I'm not sure why they didn't move to an area with a shoulder.  I was shaking.  (I somehow managed not to swear).  Once I'd calmed down a little, I said a prayer of thanks.  That could have been terrible.  (I checked Google Traffic about an hour after that, the accident was still there, so I assume someone probably hit the first car).

The rest of the drive was fine, thankfully.  We ran to the grocery on the way home.  Then Bertie went to see his grandparents, and I started dinner and showered.  I got a little sunburn on the back of arms and shoulders.  I can never make rice correctly, it's either burnt or soggy.  I made cilantro lime chicken and rice.  It was still good, even with mushy rice.

It was a good day.

waiting.

This morning I found a lump on the side of my neck.  It's small, like a hard contact lens.  I called advice, but the wait was long, so I made an appointment instead.

At 11:30 Bertie and I went to the doctor.  My hope was she would say "Oh, that is nothing.  Don't even worry about it!"  It's not nothing, but it may not be something either.  She said it is on my lymphnode.  It's possibly an infection.  She asked if I'd be open to trying a course of antibiotics (she's usually reticent to give antibiotics).  So I have some Keflex.  She said that ENT wouldn't do a biopsy unless it's been present for a month (or longer).

So we wait.

Take the Keflex and hope it goes away.

It's scary to think about even the idea of cancer.  Especially since I've long had the feeling that I would die young, from cancer.

But it's probably nothing.  Hopefully it goes away.

I made an ice cream cake for Aaron's birthday.  I asked him what kind of cake he wanted.  (Usually he'd ask for a Carvel Fudgie the Whale cake.  But our "local" (about 25 minutes away) Carvel closed. Now the only one in NorCal is in Placerville, 2.5 hours away.  For my birthday we bought a Baskin Robbins cake, but it was small, and $30+.  I read a couple recipes online and decided I could make my own ice cream cake.  I was actually a bit dubious that I would be able to pull it off.

First I gathered my supplies.  I went to Target and bought 2 boxes of chocolate cake mix, two cartons of cookies and cream ice cream, one carton of vanilla, a tub of cool-whip, and two decorating icings.  I wanted extras, in case I made a mistake.  I baked 2 9x9 squares and 1 loaf cake.  I leveled the squares and cut the loaf in half, long-ways. The recipes I read said to slice the ice cream and then cut the cake to fit the slices.  I found that to be stupid.  So I cut the ice cream into 1" slices, and assembled them on the cakes.  I put the big (whole) slices on first, and then cut smaller pieces to fit.  The ice cream was getting melty, so I put the cakes in the freezer.
The recipe said to frost the cake with vanilla ice cream, but I thought cool-whip would be easier.  And it was pretty easy.  No melting, and it filled in the gaps on the side really well.  The downside with cool-whip is that it doesn't freeze super firm, and while that makes for a nice cake, it makes decorating a little tricky, as the icing didn't stick to it well.  I ran out of cool-whip for the loaf, so I used chocolate cream cheese frosting.  That turned out fine, but was a little overly sweet.
It turned out really well, and got a lot of compliments.  I am going to experiment with icing with vanilla.  But it is now my go to birthday cake.  It's easy, but a little labour intensive, but it looks and tastes great.  And the total cost was under $10.

Aaron took the Friday before him birthday off.  We went to the Jelly Belly factory, and my dad came too.  Bertie was really enthralled with some of the robots on the factory floor, but not too interested in the actual candy making process.  It was a nice trip.

I've been having weird insomnia lately.  Either I can't sleep, or I wake up at 2 or 3 and can't go back to sleep (like tonight).  I took half of a Midnite (dissolving melatonin) and fell asleep at 10.  I've been up since about 2 (it's 4 now).  I may talk to my shrink about it, maybe not.  There isn't a whole lot I can do.  I get up at the same time most days, I don't nap, I don't drink too much caffeine, I relax a bedtime.  I suppose I could get Ambien again, but it's kind of a stop-gap.

My tooth has been feeling about the same.  I got my Novamin tooth paste about 5 days ago.  So far it doesn't feel too different.  But I go back to the dentist on Thursday.

Potty training has been going ok.  More of the same, really.  Still not really pooping in the potty, but he's pretty good about peeing.  He doesn't wear diapers or pull ups in the day time.

Something quick, before the boy awakens

I didn't realize how long it had been since I'd blogged.

Potty training it going pretty well.  Still no poo in the potty, but he's doing well with peeing.  Instead of waiting for him to tell me he needs to pee, I take him ever 45-60 minutes.  I realized that if I wait for him to tell me he needs to pee, it's an immediate need.  But we go out in undies or training pants, and he sleeps in pull ups.

I think he's nearly given up on naps.  But a miracle occurred yesterday and he napped for almost 2 hours.  Ahh.  Sweet relief.

I finished the Bikini Body Mommy challenge.  Not much changed, except I'm stronger.  But my measurements, and weight didn't change.  Brianon and I are going to do a month of yoga, then choose what to do next.  It's nice to have a buddy.

I've been going to the track 4ish days a week.  I want to be a runner.  I don't think I'm a runner, but I'm hoping I can become one.

Aaron doesn't like his job.  We both love the benefits and hours.  The pay is ok.  But he doesn't like the work.  It's not challenging, and he is bored a lot of the time (such is governmental work, I guess).  He's been looking for other things within the county, and had some interviews, but no luck yet.  I know he'll find something he likes better soon, but I feel bad for him in the meantime.  And I feel guilty, a major reason he took this job is the health care (top tier coverage, and it's practically free).  The reason that is an issue is me.  Crohns is expensive.  So I feel responsible for his work misery.  But this too shall pass.

Boy is awake.  More later, perhaps.

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Night time now.  I have the Olympics on, but I'm not really watching it.

I've had a lot of dental visits lately.  Fillings to get done.  Last week I went to get a filling repaired, but ended up having a pretty deep cavity filled.  The dentist thought I might need a root canal, but everything looks ok so far.  But then I started having pain on a different tooth (one I had filled about a month ago).  He told me to order a special European tooth paste, and see if it helps.  I did two day shipping, but it's one of those where two days, doesn't mean two days.  It is feeling a little better, even without special tooth paste.

We had our first family home evening (FHE) tonight.  I made cupcakes that only turned out ok.  (They tasted fine, but didn't have the texture you want).  And Aaron did the "lesson", which was showing Bertie pictures, and talking about Jesus for a minute.  

Oh.  Bertram pooped in the potty today!  He said he needed to pee.  So I rushed him over to his little potty.  He sat for a minute, then popped up.  And there it was.  I made a bfd about it (because it is a bfd), and he got two dum-dums.  So hopefully he'll be encouraged for the future.

He had gymnastics today.  It was the first day he participated, and didn't run for the door every time I put him down.  But he spent a lot of time just laying on the mat.  I'll take it as a win.