Happy Easter - Ya'll

It's not a real secret that I work for a local city... So I was working Easter weekend. We had over 7,000 people come down to our spring celebration the Saturday before the holiday. 

It was an overcast day and probably perfect weather because it wasn't too hot or too cold. A live band, 3 hour egg hunts, pictures with the bunny, photo booths, carnival games, food trucks, bubbles, and sponsors... it was a big to-do, but also tons of fun. (some far away shots)

I was exhausted afterward, but could still move! I ended up clocking 10 miles that morning between set up at 7 am, and the final strike at 2:30 pm. Over 25,000 steps by mid-day.

But the real fun, was after the event. Sure hubs took little man down for pictures with the bunny, a quick egg hunt, and some games, but afterwards we met up at a park for a local pot luck and fun with friends from church. The boys loved the hammock we strung up between two trees. We hid some eggs on a hill and had some pot luck picnic snacks... this was by far more "my speed" than the morning before. 

Work confrence

Spent almost a week out in Sacramento at a work conference, and boy am I glad that they are covering the expenses.

The hotel stay alone was almost $900!

I have to say there is something about just eating at home that is amazing. I got pretty sick the first night there because I had to eat all three meals OUT when I maybe do once a week out if its been a rough day.

What surprised me was the looks this statement got. The idea that every meal out might actually make me sick... because I don't do it all the time...

Needless to say its a week of Salads and Spinach Bites for lunches this week just to get me back to normal, lol.

So why did I go to Sacramento?

I was speaking at our annual state wide conference... Which is a pretty big deal... Cause I did a really good job... and as much as I wish this profession was just about doing a good job... It's also about who knows YOU, not who you know... (you can do great work, but if no one knows your awesome, it's like sticking it under the couch and leaving it there to be covered in dog hair.... forgotten until the annual cleaning takes place, and said toddler re-discovers the lost item too late because the rest of the set is no longer in the house...)... 

and after this conference, it's safe to say there are a lot more people out there who know who I am... which is a good thing.... plus I had a lot of fun presenting and I hope to do it again.

I think the highlight for me was the gal who came up to me afterward and told me my session made her entire conference worth coming out here... 

Another Raise??? Hubs work updates

So earlier in the month, Hubs requested we buy some things for his work... (we still own them, if he were to quit, he'd take them back home) but he wanted to make his work space a bit more efficient since their store has been running under staffed for some time as employees choose to leave and retire.

If you remember way way way back, we have two spare monitors. We sent one to Utah so when we go out to hang for the holidays, he can still game with his brothers... but we have been storing another one in our house that doesn't have a mount. Hubs really wanted a dual monitor set up at work and it isn't a high priority for their store since they have a staffing issue... so we bought a "mount" for it and hubs brought it into work. His boss didn't say anything as he set it up, but it has helped him a lot with his new duties at work as the pseudo ordering manager.

The other day when he was working, his boss was stressing because they had to order a complicated line of products and he thought he would need to do it himself... but Hubs had already started it and surprised his boss 45 minutes later when he walked into the office and ask what special order items he wanted to add to the order... his response was "your already done with it???" -- a task like that took the old project manager 5 hours... he did it in an hour and a half.

So, we set him up with a dual monitor at work since he's now doing a bulk of the store ordering and it makes him happier at work...

He also wanted a new keyboard. We have a new one at home that lights up when you press buttons, but it's also one of those "old school" ones where the keys make a taping sound when you press one (he got one with a sound dampener so he's not annoying at work), because he wanted to type on one type of system at both work and home... and it makes him happier at work...

Needless to say, work hasn't been all that happy as their store has been under staffed for a while, but hubs is picking up the slack in a HUGE way... but his boss is starting to look at him like his 2nd in command and that's an amazing thing.

Next week is profit share where they normally sit down and do annual performance updates, etc... his boss told him yesterday that he put in for him to get another raise now that his co-worker retired and isn't on the books anymore... but we will see what happens. He didn't mention how much of a raise he put in for hubs, but Hubs isn't even getting paid what he should be getting as lead inside sales... let alone purchase manager....

Hubs has a figure in mind that his boss needs to pay him... so we will see what happens there....  but profit share is coming. Apparently, it will be very similar to last year since they still have to pay the guy who retired his share (and as the old purchase manager he would receive a larger chunk of the profit share check.) But someone just quit yesterday, and they just hired a warehouse guy so those employees won't be receiving checks because they weren't at the store a whole year.

Conference Meltdown: Guest post by South County Boy

Breakfast call from dad!

In a rare blogging first, Hubs would like to feature a post on the blog! You seen his mug all the time playing with little dude, and while he generally leaves the blog, posts, content, and writing all to me, after his conference fiasco, he wanted to share his stream of consciousness with you.  

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Hello there everyone! South County (Boy?) here for a change. I wanted to share with you all how I  survived my very first work conference down in San Diego.

It was a 3-day conference for training in various electrical areas that I need some base knowledge in... and I have been basically begging my boss to send me to for the last 3 years. He has been promising to send me to training's since Booger Bear (Little Dude) was 6 months old, but has kept on, let's say "forgetting."

We had a bit of work drama going on in October and November when my boss hired a new girl at work that basically lied about her qualifications, and instead of getting rid of her as soon as possible, he kept her on to see if he could at least get her trained up to a usable level. During this time, the new hire "accidentally" left her pay stub up on the computer screen when she left the office and EVERYONE was able to see it (the digital pay sheet is VERY recognizable). It very quickly became apparent that she was getting paid even more than the SENIOR member of the team that has been there for 37 years. Needless to say this brought on more than a few issues between everyone and she ended up getting fired in short manner when she started lashing out at other team members to try and justify her being there.

During the whole process of her getting fired, the boss had to call in each team member and basically listen to them complain and yell at him for everything that went on. When he called me into his office (I was the only one not to go in there and rant to my personal credit) and after confirming her under performance, I brought up the fact that he STILL hadn't sent me on a single training despite promises to do so over the past 3 years.

Well, the boss man decided to take a jump on this because this was something that he could actually do something about in the aftermath of her leaving. Two days later I got an email from him telling me to sign up for this 3-day training in San Diego. We would upfront the cost of accommodations and meals and the company would reimburse us in a week or two after I returned.

So Fast forward to the morning of the conference. I am up at 4:30 a.m. so I can drive down for the first day before I get my hotel room for two nights. I'm about 25 miles away when my car starts going haywire. My battery light had been going on and off for a little while now, and while I knew this wasn't good, I thought it would, at least, be okay to get me to the training because the light wasn't staying on the whole time. We'll call it a flicker.

Anyway, my RPM dial died... then my gas gauge... and then the radio... and all the lights. 

Needless to say I got off the freeway as fast as I could and parked the car before I did anymore damage. After calling the wife (cause she's the brain of the operation), I called the State Farm Roadside Assistance line (best 3 dollars a year ever) and told them what was going on. They called up a tow company and said that they would be there in an hour to tow me to the closest mechanic (1 stinkin mile away).

I waited about 45-minutes and I get a call that they had an emergency call (probably a car stuck on the actual freeway) and that they would be delayed by about 30 minutes...

45-minutes later I call back State Farm and they call the dispatcher and tell me that it will be about another 30 minutes now before they can get to me.

All in all it took me THREE stinkin hours before the tow truck was able to come and get me.

They took me down the road to the mechanic and he agreed that it was probably the alternator and that they would put my car first on the docket for the day. He called up Hertz for me and they came and picked me up and I was able to get a rental car without too much trouble. 

So, I was off! I was able to drive down and get to my training, and I was only three and a half hours late, thankfully a colleague of mine told me a lot of what I missed was base knowledge that I already had...  but it still kind of sucked that I missed it.

The packet they gave me covered everything that they talked about, just not with all of the demonstrations and in depth knowledge that comes from people asking questions. I enjoyed the rest of the day, and I ended up getting a call from the mechanic at about 2 o'clock telling me that, yes it was the alternator, and it took this long to diagnose because they had to charge up my battery first because I had run it down quite a bit since the alternator was dead. It would take an hour to change it out and it would cost $400.

At this point I am happier than happy because this means that Sally (The Ford Escourt) has not died her last death. I am also more than a little happy that my car will be ready today because I REALLY do not like driving the rental car. Not because it's a crappy model or anything but because I always over worry about other drivers wrecking into me and leaving me on the hook for a car I don't even own. (I know that's what insurance is for, but like I said, I over worry).

So we get out of training a little early and I start booking it up to the mechanic since he was going to close at 5 p.m. and it's just a little after 4 p.m. at this point.

Let me be honest, I was booking it...  the Nissan Altima that I was driving really had some nice get up and go. As I was getting through traffic,  I called the mechanic to let him know that I was on my way. I continued driving and just when as i'm about 2 miles away from the exit I need to take, I get a call back from the mechanic.

Dad playing with face filters to make little dude smile

(Wanna guess what they said? I'll give you a hint, it's bad........)

He tells me that in the process of pulling my car out front, the battery light turned back on...........

The alternator that they had put in was defective........

Turns out that it was    just      good enough to pass the test drive, but that was it........

So I am feeling really dejected at this point and just end up turning around so that I can drive back down south and get to my hotel room. On day two I get the call from the mechanic that the car is actually ready this time, so I left for lunch a little early and I was able to get on up there, pay for the car, drive up to Hertz, and convince them to give me a ride on back to the mechanic so I could drive "Sally" back.

As I got back on the freeway, I almost immediately got in trouble because I was too used to all the punch that the other car was able to give, that Sally isn't able to..... But I survived the work conference in one piece.

I also learned a lesson about hotels... go with the "conference" recommended hotel. I ended up with crappy wifi, a worthless "tap water" warm hot tub, and air planes buzzing overhead till 9 p.m. all because I chose an $80 a night hotel instead of a $180 hotel. The wifi was what really bugged me. Made video chatting with Little Dude more difficult.


Conference Expenses: 
$189.78 (Hotel)
$6.99 (Breakfast Day one)
$31.00 (Dinner Night one)
$32.73 (Rental Car) -- We think work is going to reimburse 
$7.54 (Snacks)
$29 (Dinner night two)
$11.30 (Dinner night three)
$13.52 (Rental Car Gas)

$321.86 + Mileage on my car to be reimbursed.

#388.95 (Car Repair) -- This we will have to pay.. I joked with my boss about expensing it, but alas, "pre-existing condition."

He got a raise!

SCB got a raise at work! 

Woot! Woot! 

When he was first hired at his job, they started him out at $10.50 and promised him they would review his compensation after he had been working there 3 months to see if he was a good fit for the company... and they kept good on their word.

They sat down and gave him a raise!

He's now getting $11.00 an hour, or a 4.76% raise.

I'm really excited for SCB since this is not only his first "real" (as he calls it) non-minimum wage job, but its also its first raise too!

With our new plan to save his entire income in 2014, this will help us grow our savings even more.

**Happy Dance**

I got promoted...

There, I said it.

Yours truly got a promotion at work.

(Now you know why my "budget" post was a bit more lucrative... ) 
If you did the math, it just didn't add up with what SCB was bringing in from the month before... by a lot...

I had to wait for word to get around the office before I could announce any changes on here, but back in February/March, my boss and my bosses boss pulled me into their office and told me they were going to submit my job for reclassification based on all the extra work and projects I had been taking on over the past 3 years...

I was in shock and appreciation at the same time. For three years I've worked really hard to make some good long lasting changes in my department and I've been very flexible as an employee. People have retired and I've learned how to do their work... as well as keep with the changing times and jump on website programming and digital and graphic media.

It was a lengthy paperwork process where we had to sit down and list all our responsibilities down to a "T" and then elaborate on them and their value to the department... (the document took me at least a week to do proper) and then it was examined by an outside HR company...

and it was denied... and I wasn't the only one either... there were 2 other employees that were being evaluated from my department and the hope was that all three of us would receive the "jump up" in both pay and title... but all three of our applications were denied.

My supervisor told me they were going to see what they could do... but I figured all hope was gone.

The irony of the situation was the day they told me it didn't go through was a day were I was too busy to leave work to go home and throw myself the much needed pity party I was offered... but I'm not really one to just give up on something I want. I told him I was going to try harder and work on more things that would lead me that direction... just after I got over the initial sting of rejection.

Skip a week or two later and the next thing I know I'm talking to my bosses boss about the new budget and he closes the door... He tells me that they re-submitted my paperwork for re-classification because a certain department Director was not satisfied with the response we received... and then he tells me that it went through... and starts to congratulate me.

Pure utter shock and gratitude. I work with some of the best people ever. Not only did they fight for me, but they didn't give up on me. It was my goal to get here by 30-35 years... and i'm 27 now and i'm now a salary employee...

I'll keep doing what I've been doing at work... but I get to do a little less of the more tedious stuff I didn't like as much... and now I get more special projects and events to work on... and staff to supervise... and an 18.51% pay raise... I'll generally do just 40 hour work weeks instead of some of those crazy 50 hour weeks I had to pull sometime during all those summer Lifeguard training sessions.

Ya...  Kind of makes those 3 years without a raise worth it.

Moral of the story-- work hard. When people make cuts, look for opportunities to make yourself more valuable. Always be willing to learn. Be the person everyone will depend on and be afraid to loose. Do the work that no one wants to that's necessary.

The last one is why when they re-petitioned my classification, it went through the second time. I took the projects that weren't fun that people turned down and dramatically improved them.

Man I love what I do... How many people can say that they actually like their job... cause right now, I love mine.