Friday, January 25, 2013

The Tide Has Turned!

I have a full time job again!!  Horray!!

I can't give you the details of how the past week has shaken down but boy oh boy were there a lot of meetings and phone calls.  I turned my anger into action!

The short version of myself and others vs. employer:  give me the job that I should have been hired for, was most senior and most qualified for or.... we can go to the Labour Standards Act or all the way to the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.  Your pick.  You can not discriminate against an injured worker when they are capable of doing the job.

Ta Dah!  The job opens up and I'm given the position the next day.  The new position comes with free scowls and sneers from a manager that got her hand slapped hard.  I don't care.  My boss (that I still hate) got a spank too.  Don't mess with me.  We kicked a$$ and took names.

The best day of all was when my little guy told me that I looked "Just like Alicia in The Good Wife" when I was preparing to go in to yet another meeting.  One of the hags ladies at the table looked like she had crawled out from a creek bank somewhere.  Just sayin' that if you are meeting with a bunch of suits, you should look like you belong.  (Thank goodness for the Christmas gift card free shopping!!!)

Now by Feb 4 we should know the status of dh's employment.  It looks promising and we are hopeful that things fall into place quickly.

My salary is still lower than it was pre-injury because I don't do any overtime but it will be a lot higher than it was heading earlier!

This job has a time limit of a year but there are many opportunities that can come along.  Once dh is settled into something and my year is up I am open to ideas and opportunities.  Those include part-time and being around more for my kids!

The Good Things....
an extra almost $30,000 per year
awesome friends and co-workers
a complete "rock" for me to lean on in my dh

Things that suck...
first world problems of what to wear to work

Monday, January 14, 2013

I'm Going to Roll With it this Week

I'm not sure what is happening with my blogging posts.  Ah well, add it to the long list of things going on around me that I don't know what happening.

My job that I thought I had, I don't.  Huge, huge cluster *&$#.  I now can say without hesitation that I hate my boss.

My take home pay has been reduced by 45% so spending is nil.

Dh is waiting to hear about 2 interviews that he's done.  Luckily he is still at full wage.


To counter next to no money coming in, I did a shopping spree with Christmas gift cards!  3 pr of pants, 3 tops and 8 pr socks, and a sweater for kid #2 for $15.00 cost to me!

Then I had a free Starbucks Latte!

I'm still angry about a lot of things going on - but damn I look good !)

I would love to go into detail, who knows, if I get fired then I will publish who I am and all I know.  Complete with pictures :) 

Hope that everyone's week goes a lot better than mine!!!

Friday, January 4, 2013

2013 The year of Wait and See

2013 I have declared to be the year of uncertainty.  There are so many things that are out of my control.  The new position that I am supposed to start, there is no start date...
The new job for dh, there is no official job contract offer.  But now he interviews for another department next week.
My kid #1 is not trying very hard at university.  I am not impressed with the marks.  So no laptop and I will not be funding a second year as it stands now.  He has to get it together.

Kid #2 who is very bright, completely tanked his English.  He hates the teacher.  I've met her, spoke with her, she is not an unpleasant person but I agree with my son that she is disorganized and difficult to follow when she talks.  When I ask her a yes or no question 3 minutes later when she's done talking about god knows what, I still have to ask "So is that a YES or a NO?"  I appreciate people that are clear and concise.  She is neither.
Regardless of his difficulty to learn from her, all of the course requirements are on paper.  Shakespeare still has all of the same lines.

All of the Christmas decorations came down yesterday.  There weren't many up, so easy and quick to put away.  Christmas spending came in around $800 for 16 people's gifts and 3 hosted meals for 9,9 and 11 people.  I think I did really good.  My sibling owes me $50 for the parental units gift but I'm not going to see that I'm sure.

The parental units are going away on a little one week get-away to a 5* resort in central america somewhere.  Such a great deal ya know, only $3800.  But they are paying extra to be in the "exclusive club".  They just thought that I should know since they leave this Sunday and I am the contact number! Goody for you two.  Holy moly are they ever a pair of jerks.  They did see my kids the beginning of October when we were there for a funeral so I guess that is good enough.  I did not write down any of the resorts contact information because quite honestly there is not one thing that could happen, death included, that I would call them about.

Like my husband says "Keep our heads down and keep moving".  Life goes on, it doesn't matter what bs goes on around us.  I have to tend to life as it is happening in my house.

I have been researching what to do with my TFSA that comes due and my RRSP's that I pulled out of the high risk mutual funds.  I'm still up in the air.  I have a couple of funds that I think look promising and are less risk.  Will see when we meet with the financial planner in a month. 

Today I am procrastinating doing my paperwork.  I have a truck load of papers to fill out for benefits and pension because they were affected by my time off from injury.  I likely have 100 pages of forms and photocopies to do this weekend.  BARF.

What has gone my way this week?.... I got an awesome haircut yesterday and it was free!  I was able to help out my hairdresser a few months back and she was so grateful it was a freebie! (saved $55!)
I found dress pants for the new job (that starts god knows when) for 75% off - $23 tax incl.  And I splurged on a pair of casual low black shoes. $120 yikes!  But I love them and will wear them likely every day!  My previous pair are 7-8 years old and pretty scuffed up.  For clothes I've lost 12+ lbs so nothing in the pants department of my closet really fits properly.  I don't like saggy bum and always having to hike up my pants. (unlike many teenage boys!)

Having been through a few bouts of plantar fasciaitis good shoes are a must, not a splurge.  I can pay $30 every 6 months for cheap ones or $120 every 7-8 years.  Simple.

For some reason I can't add pictures with Blogger today.

The Good Things...
Great free haircut!
Healthy kids
I'm feeling better and moving better
My in-laws at least care about their grand kid and my older 2 their step-grand kids

Things that suck...
insurance paperwork
as always, my side of the family