Wednesday, June 23, 2010

It's been awhile...

Sorry it has been so long since I have posted anything on here. No excuses, but plenty of reasons. There have been quite a few things happening around our place.

The air conditioner compressor is about to go out at the house... the part is under warranty, but we have to pay the labor to get the new one in. The catch? Well, seems that they had to go to a different type of compressor since R22 coolant is being phased out in the HVAC world. Therefore, alot more work for them because they need to redo some plumbing, which means more time on the job, which equals more $$ out of my pocket. UGH! And the worst part is, since we don't have that much money IN our pocket, we have to wait till next week to get the part put in. It's been 2 weeks since it really started going out and it has been pretty toasty in the house at times.

The fuel pump went out in the Suburban about 2 weeks ago. Luckily, we just changed that a little less than a year ago and the part had a 1 yr warranty on it. Whew! Saved $250 right there just for the part! Last year, Sandra helped Mr. Kyle change it, but we still paid him to do it. this time, we just did it ourselves to keep from paying someone else to do it. Next time, someone else can do it!! It was pretty much a pain in the butt, but at least we didn't have much fuel in the tank like last year when I had just put $75 worth of gas in it. Made it much easier to drop the tank...

My job has been going pretty good. To be continued...

Thursday, April 8, 2010

Our Easter...

Our Easter Sunday started out GREAT!! We went to church (it's been awhile, I'm sorry to say), and Melissa, Alex, & Keegan went with us. And Corbin. He contained Keegan for the entire service. LOL

After church, we went to the Merayo household for an Easter egg hunt and grilled some burgers and dogs for lunch. Sandra put money in the eggs and hid them while I was cooking on the grill. We had smaller plastic eggs with change in them, and some medium eggs were for the big bucks! Not sure what all she put in which eggs, but one had a $20 bill in it!! One of Melissa's friends came over with her kids and they really had a good time hunting for the eggs... the little girl was SO excited that she "found a purple egg with FIVE BUCKS!!!" LOL

Well, the next thing on our agenda for that great day was Chase Branson's very first birthday party!! Nicki made a cake that looked like an Easter egg. It was the same colors as in the picture when she painted her stomach like an egg right before Chase was born. She put the pic on the birth announcements. Very cute stuff.
Chase was so funny... eating his birthday cake and ice cream and opening his gifts. He was eating with his hands of course and he kept wanting to feed one of his guests... and he was laughing so hard at himself. It was pretty funny.

After we left the Branson's, we went back to Melissa's and Sandra helped her make some "ice cream cone cupcakes" for Keegan's birthday at his school. They are basically cupcakes made the traditional way, but before you bake them, put an ice cream cone on them, and after they're done and you take off the cupcake paper and frost them, they look like ice cream cones!! I was in charge of figuring out how to transport them to the school Monday morning. OMG! Hmmm... let's see. I've got it!! I need something like cotton candy vendors use to carry the cotton candy around at ball games and circuses and such. I found a box that Ramen noodles came in, turned it upside down and cut holes in it to hold the cones. It worked out great and they rode to the school without incident.

That's about it for our Easter. Everyone had a good time, we went to church, ate well, went to a birthday party, and made cupcake things. It was a full day for us, but we wouldn't have changed a thing.

Tuesday, April 6, 2010

It's been awhile...

I've been told by a few people that they actually read this thing and I haven't posted anything for awhile. I apologize for that and will do better from now on!! I have a little bit of time to catch up on and I'll do my best.

I quit the temporary job at the clinic in Little Rock a week ago this past Friday... mainly due to prolonged standing. When I tried to suggest to the boss that I could do part of the sorting and filing while sitting down, she said that's not the way she wanted it done. Well, alrighty then! See ya. She was very close-minded and kept telling us "I've been doing this a long time" and "this is the way I want it done". I totally understand managers wanting to do something a certain way and managing their people, but when the way it has been running and the lack of progress over an extended period of time, you might want to be a little more open to suggestions. "Nuff said about that I think.

I have been working with the Veteran's Administration (VA) for awhile... I have my service-connected disability claim and they paid for me to go back to school. For the most part, the results have been very positive, even if my counselor leaves a lot to be desired as a counselor. I have another person I've been dealing with down there too... the Employment Coordinator. She is to help me find employment after my college. It's been an interesting process and slow, but things are looking up.
She has heped me fill out forms for federal employment and encouraged me to apply at the VA. The only problem with that is my qualifications (even after school) don't match up with the requirements of the positions. And with federal employment applications (with the VA anyway), you have to match you knowledge, skills, and abilities to the posting. And they have to match your resume. I can make some of it match up, but I am not going to embellish my qualifications on a federal form where if I get caught "lying" I can be terminate and sent to prison. Terminated, maybe... but I ain't goin' to prison. I'm way to cute for an old guy. LOL
The Employment Coordinator is also in charge of a new program for the VA called Non-Paid Work Experience (NPWE). That is for people to work at a business, but not be paid by that business. Sounds like a terrible idea from just hearing that, but it can, and hopefully will be, very beneficial in the long run. Also, the VA actually pays a stipend while you're working. So, it's not really "non-paid". It's not much (it's the same rate as the VA gave me while I was going to school), but it's better than nothing. The key to this program is that you gain experience while working, so you'll actually have some experience to put on your resume.
Well, I found out last week that I have been selected by the VA to participate in the NPWE Program!! I had an interview at the Central Arkansas Veterans Healthcare System (the VA Medical Center) medical coding department, and they liked me, my education, and my qualifications. SO... at the end of April, I will start working there, and under NPWE, may be there for up to six months. They will have the option of hiring me before the 6 months is up or they may wait. Or they may not hire me directly at all. But the main point is that I will actually have experience doing what I was trained for and what I want to be doing...

Keep me in your thoughts and prayers!! It's a little while before I start, so maybe I can get some stuff done around the house. I already have part of the desk cleaned off, much to Sandra's amazement and she hasn't even seen it yet. LOL I told her I did it over the phone earlier.

I'll catch up a little bit more later... I have to drop some paperwork off at the VA and do a few other things around town. I kinda get carried away wehn I post on here... start rambling and lose track of time. But I promise I will be back very soon!!!

Take care!!
~Keith

Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Stepping all over each other...

Well, after two weeks of trying to catch up on some backed up paperwork that needed to be put in patients' charts, it seems like we're not making much progress. I was hired on a temporary basis (3-4 weeks is what I was told in the interview). The items I was hired to file are filed, but now, we're 2 weeks behind on the stuff we should have been filing. Ironic, huh?

Well, we're trying to get a system to make things run a little smoother during this whole process, but one of the people I work with can't seem to grasp her function in life. Three times today, I go to do what I'm supposed to be doing, and there she is... doing my job instead of hers! I talked to her about it twice, but the third time, I just had to get outta there. I told the other person (who is the long term employee of the group - I guess he's actually the supervisor of the records section) and he's frustrated with her too. Well, I'm here to tell you that crap ain't gonna last long. Do your job and not mine because:

a) you're in my way.
b) you're not doing your job.

Monday, March 22, 2010

Uneventful Monday...

Well, as far as Monday's go, today was just okay. No complaints, but nothing to brag about either. Traffic was pretty light on the way to work this morning due to Spring Break, and it was a pretty quick cruise home too.

I made dinner when I got home, since Sandra had a throbbing headache. She was taking a nap when I got home, so I figured I'd make "Breakfast Skillet". I opened up the new Tropicana 50 juice (Pineapple Mango) and we had breakfast in bed and watched our Monday night comedies on CBS.

Going to take some medicine and hit the sack... still had the sniffles from yesterday. But I felt pretty good today considering.

Gearing up to take some resumes downtown this week... they are updated and printed. I am going to research some of the places I am going to before I drop them off. I don't want to look like an idiot when I walk in there and they ask why I want to work at a nephrology clinic, for example, and I don't even know what it is. LOL

Will be updating later this week, unless something exciting happens sooner.

"Dueces"

Sunday, March 21, 2010

Sickly Sunday...

Well, yesterday coming home from the grocery store, I told Sandra my throat was kinda scratchy and she said hers was too. It only got worse through the evening. Woke up LATE this morning, took some medicine, and chilled out in bed for a few more hours.

Drank my coffee in bed... Of course my wonderful wife brought it (and the medicine I took earlier). Then, she cooked an early dinner, we watched some NCAA basketball games, and now some recorded shows on the DVR.

I'm feeling better and will probably take some more medicine before bed tonight.

Hope you all had a great weekend!!

Saturday, March 20, 2010

The weekend is here

Well, the workweek is over... and now for the weekend. Looks like it's going to be a cold rainy weekend, but I'll take it.

Went and picked up Haley & Cameron so we could meet up with Melissa, Alex, Levi & Keegan. Went to the movies and saw Diary of a Wimpy Kid. It's based of a book series.
It was pretty funny. Check out the trailer and other stuff from the movie website. Psst... I made a link back there. Did ya see it?

Looks like we're gonna be grocery shopping and other fun stuff this weekend. The kids are going on cruises (Corbin is going with some Senior friends and Kayla is going with her dad) for Spring Break and they leave tomorrow. We have to get them both some motion sickness medicine and get it to them today. Sandra packed up other meds for them so they don't have to worry about it if they need them while they're off having fun. We hope they don't need any of it, but it's better to be prepared. Especially since there's not a Walgreen's on every corner of the ship.

I might be getting a new phone this weekend... we'll see. I had a dream about having a new phone and being on a trip. It wasn't good. Not sure if that was a sign and if it was, was it a good one or a bad one? LOL