A Little Time Off

I had some vacation time I needed to get used up before my hire in date of June the 5th or I'd lose it. I had put in for a full vacation when I was going to keep the grandkids, but we had three people who went off to set up in Knoxville and so I gave two days of it back, so we wouldn't be so short-handed at work. That left me with 7 days to take instead of the normal five.

We are having revival this week, so I asked if I could take three of my days this week. That would give me four days off, counting my normal off day--that's aside from Sunday when we're closed.

I knew I would need to do my own order on Monday. It takes me all day on order day to do it. Someone not familiar with it would not be able to jump in and do it very well. (I have the biggest orderable department because much of home accents and none of the seasonal are ordered.) And I knew that this would be my Saturday to work. I hate to ask for my Saturday off, because we're always so busy on Saturdays and I knew it would throw us short on help. (Remember we're already short on help because of the pay raise. Hours were cut and people let go to cover that.) So I asked for the three days plus my normal day off. That gave me Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday.

Tuesday was the day that Tesia was to find out if she was having a boy or a girl, so I planned to meet her, Josh, and Katie after the appointment and have lunch with them and find out the "exciting" news. And the exciting news is that we are having another boy for the Smith family ball team. Mandy and Ryan now have three--as of Monday night-- and Brandon and Rebecca have two. (Nathan and Christina --hmm -- I can't remember. He doesn't live close by.) So with Josh and Tesia having a boy that makes six boys in Alabama for Bro. Randy to grandfather.

After the lunch, I had to spend a good deal of the rest of the day proving to Social Security that I was NOT born five years AFTER they first showed me as going to work. To that end, I had had to order my birth certificate from Tennessee and take it, along with my drivers' license, to show them. And I was warned that I was in danger of being libel for purgery if I was giving them false information. Funny, they didn't come after me when their records showed I was born in 1969 and my first year to work was 1964.

I opted out of going to Walmart and buying a few things I needed, because i really wanted to get home and take a short nap before going to church.

Tuesday evening, Jeni and the kids came and ate supper with me and met Jef here. He was working below Birmingham and just drove back this far and got ready to go to church here.

And the evening was taken by the second night of our WONDERFUL revival.

On Wednesday, I went to Arab to get my tag renewed. And I went to Walmart to get the things I had not stopped to get on Tuesday. PLUS, I decided that it would be good to just go ahead since I had the time and get my oil changed. My Onstar diagnostic report was showing that my oil life was 33% but I had let Tim drive my car to Gulf Shores Monday so I knew that the trip down there and back would knock me on down. Might as well get it done while I'm off from work and not be wondering how I'm going to work it in later.

Back home I was able to begin working on one of the "projects" I hoped to spend some time getting done while off from work. Took another little nap.

And the evening was taken by the third night of our WONDERFUL revival.

I'm really enjoying these days off. I like my job and I'm glad that I do but whenever I take time off, I realize that my life would still be very full of things to do, even if I did have back the time it takes getting ready for, driving to, working all day, and driving home... and, of course, thinking I need to relax a little after I get home.

I was extremely happy with the way my new boss scheduled my Saturday. I "ALWAYS" close on the Saturdays I work so I assumed that he would schedule me that way. Instead he scheduled me to work from nine until four. That means for the first time since I've gone to work that I will not miss even one night of our revival. I was SO HAPPY!!!