3 Days Off

Shannon has the next 3 days off. He’s going to use his PTO (paid time off) hours to cover one of the days. We applied for food stamps and now we are gathering all the information together to send back to them.

The General Manager forwarded Shannon’s resume to the hotel that is being built across from his work. Hopefully they will call. Shannon also applied for another position in another city that is 2 hours away. He also put for a transfer within the same company but it’s in another state. So, now we’re just waiting to hear from either of the above. We are also still looking for any positions that open up.

We are still waiting for our dining set from Target. I ordered our set over 2 weeks ago. The first shipment made it all the way to North Carolina but was sent back due to damage during transit. I contacted Target and they sent out another shipment and now I am not sure about this second shipment. On the UPS website, it says merchandised returned… But Target is saying it is due to be delivered tomorrow. So, we’ll see. If it does get here tomorrow, Shannon can put it together over his days off. It will be nice to finally have a table!

I am still lauching at the CEO's of the big 3 car companies showing up in Washington, D.C. in their big corporate private jets asking for a bailout from Congress! LOL WTF were they thinking? At least dress and act the part when asking for help.

Stressful Week

It’s been a stressful week for us. Shannon was laid off on Monday, but they did offer him another position at lower pay. Shannon also talked to the General Manager on Tuesday and he is going to send his resume to another hotel that is being built right across the street. The General Manager said he can’t promise anything, but we are thankful he offered to help. Meanwhile, Shannon said he is still looking for other jobs. I am glad he isn’t applying for one job at a time and wait for them to respond before applying for other jobs, like he has in the past!

Shannon did the math to figure out his new wage versus how much our bills are and it‘s not pretty. We’ll be making $600 less each month!!!!!! We decided we are going to apply for food stamps. I have the application all filled out, I just need Shannon to fill out a few things and then I am going to mail it in on Monday.

We had to wait until Thursday night (when direct deposit went through) to buy groceries because there wasn’t enough in the bank.

Shannon’s birthday is tomorrow. He bought a video game with tip money he received earlier this week. He also bought me some business supplies earlier this week.

For the last month or so, I’ve been unplugging the microwave when not in use. I just got our electric bill and it went down $9! I know it wasn’t from the microwave itself, rather it was mostly because our weather was so mild during that time so we didn’t have to use the AC or the heater.

Sad News

Shannon was laid off from work today. Although, they did offer him a lower paid position. They said in the meantime, they understand if he looks for other jobs, applies for transfers at other properties, etc. They also said they will give him references and letters of recommendations! The General Manager also offered to call the hotels across the street and next door that are being built and recommend him for their properties.

Shannon can also apply for unemployment. I did check the company website for internal opportunities and they have open positions in Colorado and Arkansas. I am not sure if Shannon wants to stay local but he has many opportunities in front of him to choose what he wants to do.

He is going to accept the lower paid position for now, as well as look for other jobs internally.

What a great birthday present for him!

I think this is a good thing in disguise, meaning he will find a higher paying job which will be good for our family.

This also has weird timing because I just ordered our dining set yesterday. It’s time for us to be even more frugal!

They gave him the rest of the day off today to think things over and decide what he’s going to do.

Saturday

Shannon has the “weekend” off. I made some business cards for one of my businesses. I will be sending them out to other home business owners. This is a great way to network and help others promote their businesses.

I’ve been wanting to get a dining room table since we’ve never had one. We’ve thought about looking at buying a used one on Craiglist, newspaper, or wherever but that is not an option. We don’t have a truck or a big vehicle to carry it in. Since I don’t know this area, the only furniture I know of (in our price range) is 40 minutes away. I heard about them on TV and visited their website many times to see what they have. I even found the dinette set I wanted. Shannon finally said to buy one online and have it delivered. Since this website didn’t have the option to “buy online” Shannon suggested I check Rooms to go and Rent a center. Both of those places were higher priced so then I thought of Target and Shannon suggested Kmart too. I loved the tables at Target and Kmart. Target is currently offering free shipping on some of their sets. I found a Martha Stewart set at Kmart that I liked but after shipping costs and taxes it was going to be more than I wanted to spend. So I went back to Target and found a table I liked, based on the customer reviews. It’s a little more than the price range I was set on but the free shipping is worth it. Last night, I spent an hour looking and searching and comparing dinette sets and finally found the one we are getting.

Somehow we ended up on the Walmart mailing list and they sent us a toy catalog. Kyle loves catalogs/magazines and he always wants to look through them before me. So I gave him the catalog to look through and there was a full page of Disney’s Cars stuff, including twin bed set, and other toys. Kyle stopped on that page and did a double take. He recognized the cartoon characters! He LOVES Cars!

Time Flying By

This month will mark the one year anniversary of us living in North Carolina. I am amazed that it’s been a year! Kyle has grown so much in the past year. When we left Nevada a year ago, Kyle was about 22 months old. He didn’t like being in the car for long periods of time during our drive here. But by the last few days of our trip here, he learned that he could fall asleep in the car. Now he LOVES riding in the car. He loves looking out the window and seeing everything.

Shannon’s birthday is also this month!

I finally heard back from Kyle’s doctor about a hearing test and they scheduled it for us but I ended up having to cancel it. Shannon’s work schedule isn’t set, it changes every week. So I will have to reschedule.

We went to Chuck E. Cheese this week and Kyle was just not into it. He was overwhelmed by all the lights, music, and noise. He did ride a few of the little rides but he wasn’t into that either. Shannon played a few of the games there with Kyle. We’re thinking next time, we’re going to a park to let Kyle run around.

We Voted!

Shannon had today off! We didn’t go vote until evening time. I made sure Kyle had something to eat before we left, I wasn’t sure if there would be a long line. Kyle was really good while we were waiting in line and voting. He kept looking around at everyone and listening to them talk. We both got the “I voted” sticker and I noticed Kyle had one on too! Shannon said they gave him his own sticker, so I thought that was nice of them.

We are planning on going to Chuck E. Cheese this Thursday! I am excited. I signed up for the e-club where they email you coupons but they don’t really apply to us. They have coupons for extra tokens when you purchase so many of them. Kyle is too young to be playing the video games or other games. I just want him to play and having fun.

Kyle has been into playing with socks! He loves going through the laundry basket putting on our socks and running around the house with his dad’s undershirts. At least he’s learning how to put socks on!

I found some promotional opportunities for Shannon at another hotel (owned by the same company he works for) in Colorado. Since he is still new to the company and still learning the computer system, he’s going to talk to his department head about learning more and his wanting to move up.