My last day of work is tomorrow - yipee! I'm starting to think about packing for the trip. Today I wanted to book Amtrak but they need our passport numbers, and my husband locked them in the fire proof safe.... only I have NO clue where he put the keys!! I hope I can find them before long, other wise not only will I be unable to book our train ride to our destination, we won't be able to cross the border to go on our trip!

Lots of stress on my plate, some good, some bad. Trip is good, work is good except a temp was given a half hours notice that her temp job was done with, which I find highly unfair considering she was a decent worker. Unfairness always cheeses me off, but since I only have one more day left it's hard to get too involved. Plus I figure something better will come up for her, then she will be happy that she was forced to look for what will make her happy.

We had our first book club meeting this evening at the local library; I've been part of a book club for almost a year now, and we have decided to combine forces with the library and hopefully bring in a few new members. I'm very excited about it and hope it is very successful.

I'm not sure if I will be posting before we leave for our trip, I intend to, but if not, then I shall continue my little rant-blog around the end of February!

Only a week until I see my honey! Work was so hectic today, I wasn't even able to check all my email let alone get all my work done. I have four days left at my current position and I want to get things as tidied up as much as possible while at the same time not stressing myself out crazy! I'm exhausted right now and it's only 9:30 pm. I think I'll finish watching Coronation Street. I'm trying to get myself addicted to something and for some reason I picked Coronation Street. I've never been much for watching television shows.

People who can't get their shit together irritate me.

Since my husband joined the reg force just under five years ago, we have been outright lied to, complained about such lies and, even with proof was told no discipline would be instilled upon said employee. The latest thing to really get my goat is trying to arrange a video conference with my husband who is over in Afghanistan.

As per policy, my husband booked the time for us to do the conference. We tried EVERY thing possible to get a ride to the MFRC as I live off base and no bus goes to the MFRC (it goes close, but just TRY pushing a stroller through the 3" of wet snow that remains uncleared from the sidewalks the whole distance!). The MFRC, the FSS, the DSU and my husbands home unit could/would not help. So I had to rent a car, not the cheapest thing to do but cheaper to rent a car for a day than take a taxi back and forth. And since I should not be driving, I had to take some pretty heavy duty drugs to prevent a serious side effect of my medical condition in order for me to drive safely.

I show up Saturday morning and the Video Conference machine isn't working. We're not sure who's end it's on so after an hour we find out (via my husband phoning my cell phone which is pay per minute) it may be on their end, although we did have a storm here that night so it could be on our end as well. Being a weekend no one in Ottawa was answering.

Turns out Ottawa had entered the WRONG code for the video connection between our local MFRC and where my husband is in the Sandbox. So we still don't know if it was the wrong number or if was a result of the storm(s).

So the video conference was rescheduled (via email) to Sunday morning 10:30 am local time.

The person in the Sandbox arranging this actually typed my first name wrong and therefore I did not get the email from her (who on earth spells Katherine Kathereine?!). My husband asked and double asked her to recheck the email addresses, so obviously she didn't. Luckily my husband caught it and (two hours before the video conference was to happen) forwarded the email to me.

So, I get my daughter ready yet AGAIN, stressing out over being late because, well, she *IS* a two year old and fights me every step of the way to get ready in the morning.

We show up at 10:15 am for a 10:30 conference. The MFRC is locked. So we wait. and wait. and wait until my husband phones my cell asking where we are. At this point I am SO pissed off at the number of errors that continually happen in the military. What is up with staff not double checking simple things WHEN ASKED? I work in Healthcare and if I did half the number of stupid errors I've seen happen I would be out of a job. Or people would be dead. Mistakes happen, but when asked to double check something and you don't, that person should get in serious trouble. But that will never happen.

While I was on the phone with my husband this morning, I told him it's time we seriously talk about him releasing from the military. I am so tired of being treated like shit. I have never worked in an environment that is so vile towards family members, and I do not plan on continuing to have to put up with it for the next twenty some years.

The countdown is on!

Less than two weeks until we see my husband for his hlta!! I'm starting to get excited. The not so funny thing is I hate flying, absolutely hate it. I hate airports and I am scared of flying which makes it double trouble. I fly because there's no realistic way to get anywhere without it, but that doesn't mean I enjoy it one bit. At least this flight is for a very worthwhile cause :)

Today I went for lunch with the person who I will be replacing at my new job, and we decided my start date will be March 1st. This will leave me a week after I get back from hlta to get some stuff done that always seems to get pushed aside, and will leave me some time to veg out and read and relax... looking forward to that!

MICE - yes, I typed mice. We have mice in the house. Our dear old cats of 18 years passed away just over a year ago, and so the mice have decided now it's safe to move in. I can NOT catch mice, I have tried every suggestion and every trap you can think of with ZERO results. Thank goodness for my roomate who showed me that I was indeed setting the "snap" traps up improperly, which essentially meant I was merely feeding the mice. No wonder they don't want to leave. So, after two days of the properly set up snap traps, today we caught a mouse. A SMALL mouse - which means, most likely, a younger mouse from a litter that has hatched recently :( So, off to the store tomorrow to pick up more mouse traps!

I forgot, I had a really PO'd few moments this afternoon trying to find something in our garage... I've been asking my husband for at least three years to organize his "stuff" (replace stuff with a much harsher word!). I've spent hours more than once organizing his stuff, only to cry days later to see it disorganized again, with more "stuff" added to the pile!

The garage was so bad I could barely walk in there. I was tempted to take a photo hoping it would put my husband to shame, but I was much too flustered to go back in there again.

During those 10 or 15 minutes of trying to find what I was looking for I ran a few nasty names through my head aimed at my husband, and thought how I could get him to FINALLY organize his "stuff". I thought no sex may work, but then it's been a 15 months deployment so chances are I would cave on that one. The silent treatment wouldn't work either, I would forget and get chatty quickly. I even though how freeing it would be to put an ad on Freecycle saying "Lots of tools, hardware, automobile supplies, wood, crates, even a motorcycle that hasn't worked in over six years...." but that I may regret once I see the credit card bill after hubby starts to restock the garage again.

I may just have to tell myself to stay out the garage and make sure at our next house we either have a storage unit offsite for him to store his "stuff" or a separate garage for him and a shed for me and my gardening supplies. Then I won't be so sad when someone lights a match to the garage >:)

I couldn't believe that it's almost been a week since my last post - this week went by so quickly! I'm sitting here thinking how exhausted I am and I still need to finish laundry and get lunches ready for the coming week.

This weekend was especially busy, but a good busy. I took my daughter to Family Story time at the library Saturday, then took her for lunch at Boston Pizza. Met a great lady who has a baby, hope to meet her again next Saturday. Then today I went to church and attended a single mom's luncheon which was SO nice! They had the children supervised in one room while the moms enjoyed their lunch in the next room over. I really enjoyed the time alone with other moms who can relate to my situation.

There's a lot happening in my life lately, and lots of exciting things happening over the next four to six week as well! Here is a list of either recent accomplishments or events that are happening in my very near future:

1. Wrote my final exam. Elated it's over with, could care less what my final course mark is as long as I pass!

2. Removed one of my mom's sisters from my facebook account. She tagged a video of my daughter with someone's name in order for that person to watch the video... with out even asking first. How creepy is that? I realize it IS the internet, but I had expected friends and relatives to not do something so very obviously creepy!

3. Ending my current contract at work in two weeks!

4. Planning and going on HLTA - yeah!!!!

5. Starting a new contract sometime in March (start date also something TBD in the very near future, as in a few days from now!).

6. Flying. I hate flying, I am terrified of it but of course I do it because, well, how else could I get around the world!?

I'm sure there are lots of other little things but these are the main half dozen stressors, both good and bad, that I need to deal with over the next six to eight weeks.

WHEW!! My exam is over!

I finally wrote my deferred exam today! I was supposed to write it December 18th but couldn't because of work commitments, so it was delayed until today. At the time of deferral I was excited to have some more time to study, but it was so not worth it.... I had to study that much harder to maintain the knowledge I had plus brush up for the exam. Too much time had passed with the course ending in November and writing the exam in mid January. But, I think I did okay, certainly not my best shot but seeing as I don't have the luxury of a spouse around to give me some quiet study time... I'm sure I'll be happy with the final course mark.

I'm realizing I only have three more weeks work left for this current job. I'm excited to be finishing up, and soon to be seeing my hubby after many months of separation, and to be having a week or two off to myself after I return (with my daughter in daycare during the day if I wish to have some REAL quiet time - yahoo!) AND to be starting a new job sometime in early/mid March. Lots of my plate but it's all good.

This weekend has been a pretty good weekend so far. I had a laser treatment Saturday morning, then, since I had a sitter I went shopping at a local market. It was nice to just get out without having to constantly chase after, fight with, discipline, you name it, with a two year old in tow.

Today we skipped church and attended a community dinner in the afternoon. My daughter and I were there to volunteer, but since a two year old is a lot to look after in a room full of strangers and many sharp edges, I didn't do much. My daughter however delivered take out dinners to a few tables and got a kick out of sweeping the floors. I took videos of her and another 2 yr old girl using the broom and dustpan - so cute!

Tomorrow I have a dreaded final exam to write. I have not studied for it at all and am worried I won't remember a thing since it's been weeks, perhaps even months since I last studied. My exam was deferred from December 18th to January 12th because of my work schedule. The last class was at the end of November, so I realize my exam result won't be so hot, but at least if I pass the course it really shouldn't matter in the end what my mark is.

I got THE job!

I have been stressing out over looking for a new job. Not stressing out that I wouldn't be offered a nice job, just the opposite. I was worried about being offered a job while a second job offer was incoming (the second offer being the one being my first choice).

Long story short, I had a job interview scheduled for my second choice job this afternoon, so I spoke with the guy who's in charge of the department for my number one choice job, and he told me "the job is yours!". I was so happy! I cancelled the job interview and all is super fantastic in the world of employment for me right now! Now, if only this darn tour was over!!!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

2010 is going to be a very exciting year for my family and I. We will be going on a special trip soon to reunite for a few weeks, then my husband will return from his deployment this spring/early summer, and it looks like I will be starting a new one year job covering a maternity leave in a department that is awesome to work for!

I didn't do much last night, the plans were for my daughter and I to go to a family dance at a local community centre, but it was so cold out and the buses were not convenient and the thought of trying to get a cab was scary enough! So we stayed home, watched tv and ate junk food! :)

Yesterday I rented our spare room out to a fellow who's from Chile. He's here studying french at the local french university. He seems very nice and I'm sure it will work out well for everyone.

Wednesday night I went to my second knitting meet up at a local pub. It was great, I met some lovely women and I can go another three Wednesday nights because I have respite. And, best thing is it's really close to my house, a short, direct bus ride almost from doorstep to doorstep!