Hell Week - week 1

I thought I'd posted this but found it in my drafts tonight so I'll post it even though it's about 2 weeks late.  It gives you the idea of what type of insane schedule I was going to have to work if I'd stayed at the hotel.

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The fact that I work for the military is probably why my mind made this connection that this week has sort of been like Hell Week during Basic Training.  Once you make it through Hell Week everything gets easier and that's sort of what I think will happen.

When I left work Friday night I'd officially completed a little over 78 hours in 7 days.  I've actually been surprised at how well I've done this week.  The exhaustion I'd expected has not set in.  My feet are not hurting as badly as they were from standing.  Having worked a desk job for over 6 years my feet were not accustomed to standing 12 hours straight.  I have plantar fascitis in both feet which compounded the pain.  My purchasing a pair of crocs designed for restaurant workers was a wise decision.

Wednesday:  First night off since starting the second job.  Pure exhaustion.  I came home and took a two hour nap but felt physically exhausted to the point I couldn't seem to do anything.  I allowed my body the rest.  Days like these I think we all need to learn to listen to our bodies and if they say rest then we need to rest.  I was too tired to even read.

Lunch: leftovers
Supper: Brats and mac & cheese

Thursday:  Second day off and apparently by allowing my body to rest Wednesday allowed my body to recuperate.  I felt pretty normal, almost normal energy, although still a bit of tiredness.  When I came home from work I started an oven roast.  It was an easy meal to prep and allowed me to do other things while it cooked.  My focus for the night was the living room.  It took about an hour to clean, dust, sweep, and mop.  I also put a load of laundry in before I left for work, after I got home, and then a third load before I went to bed.  After I completed that I sat down and read my new Country Woman magazine.

Lunch: peanut butter & jelly sandwich, carrot sticks, and apple slices  - I was actually craving the peanut butter & jelly sandwich so I was glad I'd picked up some peanut butter the day before
Supper: beef roast, carrots, and potatoes with gravy and crescent rolls

Friday's Menu:

Lunch:  fattouch salad in a jar
Dinner: leftover beef roast, carrots, and potatoes from Thursday night's dinner

I've been seeing salads in jars and meals in jars recipes recently and decided to try some.  I have tons of mason jars so these type of meals will work great.  The fattouch salad was fabulous. 

Fattouch in a jar

Put 2 to 3 tablespoons of dressing in the bottom of the jar.  I bought a bottle of fattouch dressing at Cedar Grill and used it.  Chop romaine lettuce up and put into jar.  Push down periodically as you fill so it packs it in some.  Add cukes on top.  I chopped up some pitted kalamata olives and added.  I put the broken up pita chips in smaller containers so they wouldn't get soggy. Just add the pita chips when your ready to eat and shake the jar until the dressing is mixed with the lettuce thoroughly. 

You could also add feta cheese on top of the cukes if you'd like.  I was out of feta so I didn't add any.  If you'd like some protein like chicken you could add it either below or above the lettuce.

Cleaning, job searching, and menues

Saturday and Sunday I spent getting the house back up to standards.  I think I did at least 6 loads of laundry, maybe more.  Saturday morning I decided a spa morning was in order before I started my cleaning routine.  After I got out of the tub I dumped 1 cup of citric acid in the water and mixed it up.  I allowed it to sit until Matt got home from work and would need a shower.  I didn't get to scrub the tub until Sunday afternoon but the tub is once again looking majorly clean and bright.  Matt even asked me what I'd used to clean it.  As Matt would say, "I was a cleaning fool."  Sunday night I took the furkids out for a wander.  They all needed it pretty bad.  I need to get them in shape to walk a parade next month.  A friend is recruiting dogs to walk in the Memorial Day Parade for a local dog grooming and self wash.  It's good to keep the furkids in action with this type of stuff so they still get exposure to lots of people.  The parade is 1.5 miles so it's not that bad as long as it's not insanely hot.  I'd just like to knock a couple (okay quite a few) pounds off Lacey (okay and myself) before we do it.  Tip is nice and svelte but Oreo could knock a few off as well. 

The weekend was also spent sending out resumes and applying for jobs.  Haven't heard anything from any of them unfortunately.  I did find a listing today on Craigslist for a weekend receptionist.  I faxed over my resume, got a call to set up an interview, and interviewed on my way home from work.  I think the position would be great for me.  It's a senior apartment complex, very upscale.  I enjoy working with older people.  I also found a listing for transcription work for a court reporter that I will probably check out as well. 

Detroit and I can probably safely say the entire state of Michigan is in hockey playoff madness.  It's the first round of the playoffs.  So far the Red Wings are down 1-2.  I had never seen a hockey game prior to moving to Michigan but have fallen in love with the sport.  I actually prefer the minor leagues as I think they play with more heart.  Just my opinion.  Matt keeps calling me to come watch since the Wings apparently are playing really well.

Menus for the week:

Sunday:  Broccoli & Cheesy Beer Soup with cheesy biscuits
Monday: Pancakes and sausage
Tuesday:  Wendy's (I was dying for a spicy chicken sandwich for some reason)
Wednesday: Bacon Ranch Chicken with California veggies
Thursday:  Brats & baked beans
Friday: Homemade Mac & Cheese

DINNER AND A MOVIE

My youngest son turned 20 last month and between his work schedule and mine we've had to reschedule three times to go out for a movie and dinner.  Tonight we managed it although it nearly got shortened.  We went to see The Hunger Games.  I thought it was pretty good.  I might start reading the books.  I was so embarrassed because I thought I'd turned my ringer off and my phone went off during the movie.  I quickly turned it off but was horrified that I was one of "those" people.  My son's phone went off too right after mine which was a little weird.  They were calling him in to work since another employee had walked off the job.  After the movie was over they called again and told him they'd found somebody so he didn't have to come in so we were able to enjoy our planned trip to his favorite Chinese restaurant. 

It's strange to think my son is 20 already.  I've been melancholy of late and missing the days when the kids were younger and home.  My oldest son should be arriving back in Texas from Afghanistan any day.  I'll sleep much better once he's back.  I miss spending time with the kids.  He stayed for a little bit and we searched paperbackbookswap.com.  He enjoys reading anime books and was looking for new reading material.  I had two books he'd previously ordered that had come so he's got some reading material.  I also found a pair of his shorts in the computer room the other day when I was working in there that needed a new button so I sewed that on for him and returned those.

Lunch:  Leftover steak and pepper onion mix, chocolate chip cookies

Supper:  Out to Eat - Chinese - sweet and sour soup, eggroll, fried rice, and sesame chicken.  Tons of leftovers for lunch tomorrow.

GROCERIES

Tuesday I spent cleaning out my coupons and filing all the new ones then going grocery shopping.  No idea why but by the time I was done with that I hit exhaustion so no housework got completed unfortunately.  The dogs were restless  so about 8pm I took them out for a quick wander.  Thankfully it helped . 

Lunch: Burrito with sour cream and cheese, romaine with pita chips and fattouch dressing and some Anne's chocolate bunny grahams (yum).  Matt had bought some frozen burritos to eat on nights I worked so I grabbed one of those.  I love these lunch containers with the 3 compartments.  I'm going to have to get a few more.

Supper:  Grilled steak sandwiches on crusty rolls with provolone cheese and sauteed sweet peppers, green pepper, and onions.  I saw bags of small sweet peppers at Costco and grabbed one thinking a steak sandwich sounded perfect for a meal this week.  I noticed Kroger also had them on sale for $3.99/bag.  What I didn't use I sliced in half and frozen for future use. 

MORE CHANGES

Well life does seem to like throwing me curve balls of late.  After two weeks at the new job I've officially quit and with Matt's total blessing  The manager of the hotel I was working at definitely takes 2nd worse boss in history.  He told me that I was being hired in at $8/hr and would quickly go up from there when he made me manager but when I got my check for the first week discovered he'd put me at $7.40/hr.  I also discovered that he'd pretty much promised management positions to everybody.  There's nothing worse then a lying manager.  I've never seen such lousy management skills either. If he was in the military he'd be relieved of command and probably Article 15'ed out.  The final straw occurred Sunday when I was nearly attacked by irate guests due to something another coworker had done and said. It was like watching a chemical reaction going off and anything I tried to do just made it worse.  I had to call the police and there was a point I could feel the energy change and knew it could turn violent before the police got there.  No job is worth my life.  I could never return to a job where I didn't feel safe at and I most definitely no longer felt safe there.  The first day I worked they'd mentioned a front desk clerk had been attacked and hospitalized after a guest attacked them but I thought they were just trying to scare us.  The near attack on Sunday seriously shook me up.  To increase revenues they plan to allow hourly room rentals in the near future, which would draw in more prostitutes, pimps, and drug dealers.  Definitely not the place for me.  So I'm back to job hunting.  I'm looking at some transcription sites and hope to test for a few companies this week. 

I didn't do well last week keeping up on the cleaning and I'll admit that it was nice today to start to put the house back in order.  Today's focus was the living room.  Another huge tumbleweed of dog and cat fur was swept up from the living room.  I'll have to take a pictures one day of these tumbleweeds because it's amazing how large they are.  I could understand if I didn't sweep for a long period of time but it gets swept a minimum of once a week.  I might take one of the dogs to the doggie self wash this week so I can blow some of the fur out they're shedding.  With these warmer temps they're shedding earlier this year. If I can get a second job I'll probably buy a dog blower so I can groom them at home instead of having to pay all the time.  I also had stacks of books on the coffee table that I'd ordered from paperbackbookswap.com so those needed to be put into the bookcase.  Newspapers were scattered across the coffee table that needed to be sorted and tossed.  Now the living room has been cleaned and is comfortable again.  I even washed the blanket in Lacey's crate and Oreo's blanket she has for the couch.  There are still coupons on the coffee table from the paper sorting but I'll get to those later this week.  I'd hoped to clean off the top of the dishwasher but didn't make it that far.

Tonight Matt made chicken terriyaki stir-fry and rice for supper.  I was running late leaving for work so I didn't get a lunch packed.  I picked up a hamburger and small fry at Burger King on my way home.  I had to stop at the post office and UPS store on my way home. 

Spring ----A Time For Changes

Life is one of those things that constantly changes and we have to adapt accordingly.  My job was cut in September from a full time 40 hr/week position to a part time 30 hr/week position.  I've been trying to find another position, part time or another full time position.  I've been able to survive due to having very few bills, being frugal, using coupons as much as possible, and rarely going out.  If I'd had to support myself fully it would have been impossible to have survived in our area on my pay.  Life caught up with me recently with a financial crisis causing me to accept a second job that I wouldn't have chosen before.  My youngest daughter who I would have described as the must responsible and trust worthy of my kids has chosen to walk away from a vehicle loan that I allowed her to put in my name but not before blowing the engine in it.  My ex refused to help her repair it but instead offered her assistance in getting another vehicle if she walked away from it and let me deal with it. (Is it any wonder I'm no longer married to him?)  I am now on the line financially for the unpaid payments, unpaid insurance, and future vehicle and insurance payments but also for a $2600 engine repair so the vehicle will even run.  I needed another vehicle but this vehicle was not one I would have chosen and I would never have bought something with such high monthly payments.  Fates apparently had other plans.  Word of warning - don't ever allow anybody to put anything in your name - it rarely works.  Many people warned me but I insisted my daughter would NEVER do anything like that.  How wrong I was.

My manager at the new job assured me that my only wanting 18 to 24 hours a week was acceptable yet has put me on a 40 hr/week schedule.  Putting the two jobs together that makes roughly a 70+ hr/week.  It's been suggested that I quit and find something else but that's not an option at the moment.  The fact that it is a full time position, even if it is minimum wage, may end up being a life saver if I find myself unemployed at my first job when our contract ends the end of April.  We are currently on the second extension of our last contract and this extension was only for two months.  I don't think it bodes well at the moment.  I had enrolled at a massage school to start classes in May hoping to be able to move into another field either full or part time but that's no longer an option.  Fate can be cruel but having a pity party won't help with the issues so there's no point in dwelling on it.  It is what it is and I have to deal with it.  The new job eases the huge stress I've been under financially but creates it's own stresses obviously.

Working so many hours leaves very few hours to do anything else during the week to say the least.  As my life is now changing, I have the option to either stop blogging, put the blog on hiatus, or to share my attempts to organize and survive until I find another position that better suits my life better.  I have chosen the latter.  For those of us that take our debts seriously and in the lousy economy we are currently living in I'm sure I'm not the only person that has had to take a second or possibly a third job to make ends meet.  If my sharing my struggles with learning to manage my household and other responsibilities helps somebody else then it will be worth it. 

I hope to be able to share my struggles with having to pack all my meals before I leave the house without breaking the bank.  I'm hoping there's a way to organize and keep our house clean since hiring somebody to clean isn't an option.  I refuse to believe that I won't be able to have a garden so I need to figure out how to manage that also.  Caring for the dogs is a huge concern.  I've been working this schedule for a week and already the dogs are showing they have too much energy and need to do something to wear them out before they start getting destructive. Excessive energy is a huge problem for those of us with high energy breeds like the Border Collie.  Of course there's also concerns of how to keep a relationship going between Matt and I along with maintaining a relationship with my adult children.  My son is due back from Afghanistan in two weeks and it tears me apart that I can't go out to Texas to see him when he gets back stateside.  Hopefully he'll take mercy on me and come back for a visit.
 
I don't want anybody to think I'm having a pity party for myself.  I've accepted it and have learned from the experience.  I'm a fighter and although I may have an occasional pity party for myself it doesn't last long.  I know that this too shall pass.  Hopefully what I learn along the way will help somebody else out who may be in a similar situation.

Asian Glazed Tilapia

I'll be honest, I've never cooked fish before other then baking salmon.  I absolutely love fish so I can't explain why I haven't pan fried fish before.  Matt has always cooked it since we've been together.  Prior to that I never cooked fish because nobody in the family liked fish except for myself so I would have it when we went out to eat on occasion. 

Tonight I braved the scary world of fish cooking and I aced it.  I saw the recipe for Asian Glazed Tilapia on The Frugal Girl's Blog and thought it looked delicious so I added it to the menu for this week.  I had originally thought to substitute salmon since Aldi's lowered their salmon price but when I went shopping I stopped at Krogers first and they had tilapia on sale for almost the same price so I grabbed the fresh tilapia.  The one thing I might alter in this recipe is adding either a scallion or green onions to it.  I served it with Dole's Asian Island Salad and it was a nice light meal which I can safely say will be repeated over the summer.  This is an awesome fast recipe, which probably took me about 15 minutes and that included opening and preparing the salad.

Matt has been telling me for years about these fish tacos he had out in California and after tasting the glazed fish he said the fish tasted just like the fish in those tacos so I'm anticipating fish tacos will be appearing on the menu using this recipe too.

One word of caution regarding buying fish at the fish counter - watch the weight.  I told the guy I wanted 1 pound and didn't realize until I went to check out and saw the price that he'd actually given me 1.5 pounds.  Granted I have a piece to take to lunch tomorrow but if I didn't like leftovers this would be a waste of food - well to a degree - the dogs would have loved eating it and weren't to happy that it went into the refrigerator.