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.
Thursday, April 8, 2010
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
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
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