So Here's My Life

The things we make,
the food we eat and
the shenanigans in between.

A blog about making things by
MICHELLE SEXTON

Monday, March 31, 2008

Here's my update...

Ahhh!! The last five weeks have been so hectic! But right now I am one happy camper. I am learning so much, and definitely have become a better photographer from this experience. Two weeks have gone by with out one scheduling problem at work. I had one issue a couple of weeks ago, and very firmly told them I could not stay any longer (they agreed that I would be off by 5 on Saturdays). I totally scared the girls working. (I don't think they like confrontations). There was no manager...and after a while, someone came and took my place, and I left to go to worship practice at church. Honestly, I think everyone at work totally had the impression that I was this nice little push-over Christian girl that they could walk all over. Well, I am nice, (most of the time!) but I'm definitely not a push-over. I may let an issue slide once maybe twice, but if it continues to occur, I'm definitely going to speak up. I did. I won. HA!

I am desperately trying to make time to work on my stockphotos. I haven't been doing well on that lately. I have pictures that have been selling, but I have a lot more to edit and upload....but here's a link to see what I have so far. More will be coming soon....
View My Portfolio

A couple of weeks ago Joel and I played a Wii at my aunt and uncle's house. We had such a good time that Joel was determined to find one. I refused to pay for it out of our normal income. So Joel found a good deal on Craig's List , sold some of his electronics on ebay, and purchased a Wii. Even though I'm not much of a video game person, I will admit that it's lots of fun...that is when I'm not losing....

This week is District Council for all the ministers for all the A/G churches in the state. We have a serious election to do during the business meeting. The spot for the new DYD (district youth director (the person who runs all the youth activities for the state)) will be open. Two people will be considered. I've really been seeking the Lord for direction, but I'm still not sure who to vote for. We/I need prayer about this decision.

Yesterday I looked out the window to the backyard and noticed the dog was playing with a rolled-up newspaper. I did not give him this paper. I thought perhaps the neighbor boys threw it over the fence...just because boys do things like that. So I asked Joel to go and take it away from the dog before he tore it to shreds and spread it all over the yard. When Joel came back inside after taking away the newspaper, he told me the back gate was open. Joel and I were working on the yard the previous day, and apparently did not shut the gate very tightly. It was windy outside too, so the gate came open. I guess the dog took his liberty to go and inspect the front of the house, found a newspaper, and brought it back into the back yard. And then he played with it there. lol. At least he wants to be in the backyard!!

I bought a brand new lense for my camera with my paycheck from working at the studio. For those of you who know what I'm talking about, it's a 55-200mm. YES! I'm way excited about it. I can hardly wait to use it. I'm also buying a bounce flash as well. Yay!!

We finally have a new dishwasher! (Our stopped working at the beginning of February). Yay for clean dishes!!

And last but not least, I have 4 days off from work!! Definitely a blessing from God!! The company had to cut back on our hours, plus I needed to be off for District Council as well. I have a couple of days off to get some much needed rest, plus time to get some other things done....like upload my stock photos!!

Sunday, March 23, 2008

Some people have issues.

On Tuesday after work, I stopped at Walmart to pick up some groceries before I went home. I walked at a brisk pace around the store and picked up all the items I needed. When I got to the check out lines, I noticed the "20 items or less" checkout line was rather small. I glanced at my cart and estimated that I had about 20 items. It wasn't until I was loading them onto the counter at the check out that I realized I probably had more like 30 or 35. Honest mistake. I'm terrible at making those kind of judgments anyway...and I wasn't going to stand around and count my items before I got in line. As I was finishing up, and getting ready to pay a woman from two people behind me shouted out to me, "It's too bad that people like you don't know how to count and get into a line when you have more than 20 items!!" LOL. I turned around with a smirk on my face and calmy said, "You know, it was an accident. I thought that I had about 20 items. I'm sorry" and she fired back, "Yeah, that's what they all say! Tell that to all the people behind you." So I turned around and faced the line of people behind me and said, "Everyone, I have more than 20 items. It was a mistake. I miscalculated. Please forgive me." Then I turned back around and started laughing as I paid the cashier for my purchases as the lady continued to yell at me. (Seriously, what is wrong with people that they feel the need to yell at complete strangers?) The cashier and I laughed at that lady. I'm sure she only got angrier. I wanted to say a comment like, "You know, there are anger management classes for people like you." But I didn't. I ignored her...and laughed at her instead. She did a fine job of humiliating herself in front all those people. She didn't need any help from me. People are so retarded sometimes. Honestly, I felt kind of bad for her. What kind of person takes out their anger on perfect strangers? As I walked away, she yelled out, "Next time count!" Ok, thanks for that great tip. I ignored her comment and left her to deal with the stares from all the spectators. What a nut case!

Friday, March 14, 2008

So lately...

It seems that now that I have a job again, my life is so much busier. I have no time. Well, I have a little time, but not as much as I would like. You know what? I'm so over having a job. Don't get me wrong, I like my job, but I hate being tied down to a schedule. For real.

So here's a couple of things that have happened over the past couple of weeks:

Joel dropped his Blackberry cell phone into the toilet last week in a public restroom. It died. Fortunately Joel has a track record of accidentally destroying phones, and we had insurance on his phone. But we still had to pay a deductible of $95.

I'm no longer in training for my job. I've worked the camera for four days now. I think I'm doing pretty good, in fact I've been told that I'm doing great for this being my first week on camera.

We have this giant feather duster stick thing (it's clean of course) to tickle the children when we take their pictures. It usually makes them smile and pictures come out great. Today I got a little too carried away with the Tickler and knocked over the shy little girl I was photographing. Fortunately her mother laughed (it was really funny), but after that I think she was afraid of the tickler...or maybe it was me. Poor girl.

I've hit a small bump in the road with my job. A scheduling conflict, of course. I got scheduled to work one hour longer on Saturday than the original agreement when I first got hired. I need to be off by a certain time in order go to our church's worship practice. On Saturday I get off half an hour before practice starts. I have at least a 40 minute drive to get to church from work...plus I hardly ever get off at the exact time my shift is over. So I'm pretty much not going to be able to make it to the practice. I'm frustrated. I talked to my manager about it but blah blah, blah, excuse, excuse, excuse. I've decided to put up with this issue until after Easter is over and then I'll put my foot down and insist I get off at the original time we agreed on or else I'll quit. I don't want to, but my first priority is to my commitment with our church. (that's kind of important when, you know, you work on staff at a church). So we'll see what happens. I really want to keep this job, but I don't have to....

Saturday, March 1, 2008

Exhausted.

Let me tell you. I am completely exhausted. This past week, my schedule has been almost completely booked from 5:30 AM to 11:00 PM. No joke. I am so tired. My job is great. I like it a lot. It's fun, and exactly what I want to learn about and do. I'm glad I held out for this job. I'm still in training for one more week. Plans have also changed for the job. There is now an opening at work for a permanent position. I like the idea, and I don't. I HATE being tied down to a work schedule. It drives me absolutely crazy. But I really like my job. Plus, working with our church, being married, and now this job makes my schedule suddenly become very tight (it's a good thing we don't have kids yet). I'm going to have to talk to my boss and see if we can work out an arrangement here. I'm going to fall apart if I have to maintain such a hectic schedule. You guys, please pray for favor with my boss, ok? One other cool part about my job. I've been planning on getting my certification in photography for a while, and a couple of days ago, my boss told me that all the training I'm currently going through is what I need in order to get certified!! I was so excited, I could hardly stand it. I'm getting paid to get certified, something I've been wanting to do anyway. It's pretty cool. I'm so tired. I don't know why I'm typing this instead of sleeping...I think I'll go do that.