For the BEAUTY of the earth!!

I am a TOTAL and COMPLETE lover of spring!! I especially LOVE the flowers: Tulips, daffodils, lilacs...you name it...they're all my favorites!! And with spring also comes outdoor activities....ohhhh yeah!

There is a Tulip Farm about an hour away from us that has an annual Tulip Festival. We've lived in this area for 12 years and each year we miss it. Well, this year we decided that we had enough of missing out on all the beauty....So we skipped out on Nathan's lacrosse game and head to the festival. (It really didn't matter because he still can't play because of his broken hand)Wow!!! We loved it. WOW!! (Did I already say that?..oops) The rolling hills of tulips are amazing. We had so much fun running around taking pictures. It was all so pretty! Here are some pics to brighten your day! (disclaimer: over-abundance of pictures due to WAY too much fun, indecision and lack of control!!!) Oh yeah, and I soooo wanted to do some photoshop on these...but, it's the job's fault!!!

Here's the man I love. He brings me flowers to brighten my days and lets me spend WAY too much money each year on hanging baskets and annuals for my yard.

Now, here come a slew of pictures of my cute kids! They're not those cute little toddlers...but, they're still cute to me in a mommy sort of way :)

And Toby (my non-hunam kid) had to get in on the action....a human wanna be!

Ha-ha-ha....crazy dog! (He's probably thinking, "crazy humans!"

There was also a little place where they had some games and activities

Here's Nathan saving a little girl who got scared on the rock wall and wouldn't come down. I can't believe how big and strong he's getting!

Ducky races....Derrick won. I love the faces on these two!


What a great day!!!

IT'S THE JOB'S FAULT!!

Yep...IT'S THE JOB!!! It's KILLING me!!! I have a TON of posts to catch up on...I for sure want to capture my daughter's 16th birthday, her first and second date, her driver's license and her lacrosse games. I need to share about Nathan trying to get an umpire job and Derrick's writing the phrase "I will be respectful" 950 times (and 950 is NOT an exaggeration!!--Oh MY!!) I'm planning on getting some stuff up this weekend...hopefully!

At least, here's my update on my job (since it's the reason I am a slacker in all other areas). I was trained on March 17 for 2 hours and then when I got home, there was an audio file waiting for me to transcribe. It took me 4 blasted hours to transcribe that thing and it ended up being only 5 pages long...at 90 cents a page....well....you do the math. I thought, "What the heck did I get myself into?" The company has it's own little format to use, their own grammar and words to use, etc. Plus, the tape was soooo hard to understand! Getting paid by the page and not the hour.....this wasn't good AT ALL! After the first week, I averaged out my hours and the number of pages and I was making around 50 cents an hour....this was slave labor...back to the sweat shop days!

(One bonus.... as you can tell from my picture, I'm looking soooo glamorous in my LARGE cheapo headphones I bought. Anyway....back to the story)

By the end of the pay cycle, I told Bob that figured I'd made about $13.00. After a good amount of laughter, he got in control and said, "Oh, that's GREAT, we're definitely on our way to getting the glass for our shower!" Booya Baby!! Hmmm....welll.....The only problem was that the rental of my foot pedal was $20.00 a month....oops...we'll be owing the company 7 bucks! Let's see, I would say...hmmm...not very smart? But, to my pleasant suprise, when I actually did get my first paycheck, it was 90 dollars!! What??? Did they accidently pay someone elses paycheck to me and that poor person was cursing and saying, "13 Bucks...what the....?"? Ahhh....but wait....there's more....I looked through the paperwork that came with the paycheck and noticed a letter informing me that they recommend I take some training classes because my number of pages compare with the hours I worked didn't equal to at least minimum wage. By law, I have to be making at least minimum wage....so I was payed for the hours I worked in addition to my pages sent in....no wonder I made 90 bucks instead of 13. But now I'm on probation on my probation...hmmmm? :) Nah, it was just a basic form letter that they send out when you fall below expectations. They know I was just starting out. My hours this month compared to the number of pages I typed are much better. If my calculations are correct, I'm actually making a little over minimum wage!! Hooray!!

All in all, I'm actually loving this little job. It is so funny to listen to some people give their explanations. There are some pretty funny accents and phrases said also. Plus, I love just filling up my 1/2 hour between this event and that event. Hopefully I will continue to get faster and faster so I can make my millions and retire by age 30....oops....I forgot....I already passed that age...hmmm...50? :)