Holiday Pay

So at my work we get paid eight hours for Labor Day and we get the day off. Now there is some qualifications to receiving this pay. You must work your scheduled shift before and after the Holiday without being more than a half hour late. So I was the designated Saturday yesterday. My shift was from 6:45-1:00.
I woke up at 6:35, nice, I am already late, but no problem I can still get to work no time without being more than a half hour late. So I leave the house at 6:45 and it takes me about 12 minutes to drive to work. I get on 215 and start driving and then I get on the 2100 s freeway. Right as I was to the 2100 S freeway I heard a huge sound and knew my tire had just blown, nice. Then I thought to myself maybe not, because I could still drive and it felt fine. So I get around the circle for the freeway switch and start going straight again and yes my tire has definitely blown. So I keep thinking I have to get to work, I will keep driving until it starts to sound bad. Right now it just sounded like driving on a flat, rubber tire. So I get to 900 W, the exit I take to get to work and the light is green, so I don't have to stop. I get to 2100 S and again the light is green to turn right, yeah! Then I hit another green light and as I am approaching the light on 500 W it is red, oh no. So I have to stop. There is a white car to the side of me and as I start to go it sounds really bad now and I know I have to pull over or else I will ruin my rim. So this white car that was on my side pulled over in the Uhaul parking lot and waived me over. Turns out he is a mechanic on his way to work, thank you Jesus!
He was like do you need help changing that, oh yes I replied. So I am looking at my watch the whole time, because now I am 2 minutes away from my work and it is 7:00. I am thinking this guy can probably change a tire that fast and I can still make it. Well my spare tire is under my car and is on a chain that you have to lower. He had problems getting the long stick thing to engage the thing to make the tire come down. Now it is like 7:10 and I am panicking. So I try to call someone at work, no luck. So he finally gets it and gets the tire back on. I cant thank him enough and speed off. I get to work and I clock in at 7:17. Ouch, that hurt, I was two minutes late. I don't know if they are going to give it to me or not, but I could really use that, so we shall see on Tuesday if my Manager can make an exception.
I called Cody later to tell him what had happened and of course he yelled at me for driving on it. If I wouldn't had driven on it I would have definitely been late and that mechanic guy wouldn't have seen me, so I know I was supposed to keep on driving and I didn't ruin the rim. The other good thing is my tires are only two years old and we have certificate replacements from Discount, where we bought them, so I wont have to pay to get a new tire either. It is just the hassle of it all, but I am trying to look at the blessing side of things.

I Don't Know How You Do It?

People say to me all the time "I don't know how you do it?" My only response back is "I just do." So lets go on a journey through a typical day of the Duffin household. I wake up a 6 AM, make Cody a lunch and get to work around 6:35 AM. I don't do much in the morning to get ready, I hardly ever wear makeup. I work until 11 AM, three days a week, drive to the airport, park in the employee parking lot, park the car, get out and walk to where Cody is waiting for me in the other car. I get in the car with Cody and the girls and drive up to the front of the airport and drop Cody off for him to work. When we get home I make lunch for the girls. I usually have some straightening to do, maybe some laundry or some other type of cleaning. After the girls eat I put them up on my bed, hoping they will fall asleep watching a video, but it usually doesn't happen. I get sometime to get on the computer or watch a TV program. If I have to go grocery shopping, that is not fun. I have learned to ignore people starring and just try to focus on the food. It doesn't help though when the girls want to talk to everyone they see. ( "Hi, are you a grandma?) Then we walk to pick up Tabatha from school. When we get home we check on her homework, then she gets some free time to do what she likes to do. I will make her lunch and look at the cooking calendar to figure out what I need to do for dinner. If we don't have left overs I will start dinner. After dinner we have bath time, reading, brushing teeth and a little bit more free time before bed. Bed time is a chore because the two little ones want to jump on the bed all night. I usually have to go in their room 3-6 times a night to lay them back down. Tabatha is usually out like a light but sometimes she can add to the chaos. After they are in bed, I get some more free time until Cody comes home around 10:15. At that time we may have a TV show we watch together or have a quick chat or something else (if you know what I mean). Then I am off to bed to begin a whole new day. I usually work 6 days a week to get 40 hours, go to church on Sunday and have to keep up with three little girls, a husband and our dog. Its not that bad! I think when the girls are a little older and it is much more homework and driving around for whatever activities they have, that will be worse. I just take it a day at a time.

Slacker

I have not updated this for a very long time! Tabatha broke our camera, so I have to use the phone as a camera, which is fine, but just not as easy to put the pictures on the computer.
On August 17Th Brooklyn and Bailey turned three. Where has time gone! They are Binky free since that day, YEAH!! I told them that the Binky's ran away because they were big girls now and don't need them any longer. We has a family BBQ and swimming for their birthday, which was fun. My Sisters car almost got towed though and the towing guy is a jerk. You know me, I had to have words with the tow hick and still no luck. I guess my negotiating skills are going down hill.
On August 24Th Tabatha started first grade. I love having just the two until 3:30! I cant wait until all my kids are in all day school, that will be a joyous day! She likes school and likes her teacher. I like her teacher as well. Her school is brand spanking new and just right around the corner from our house, it is great! The first day she came home, she brought a packet they were coloring and only one page was colored, she told me she got tired. Poor girl has to adjust to all day school. I asked her who she sat with for lunch and she told me no one and I about died. Then I started asking more questions and it ends up she sat with some kids she didn't know. I asked her if she talked to them and she told me she was too nervous. So the second day she started to make some new friends in her class and now she has some lunch pals, fwwwww!

Soccer with the Bearcats

So I am at work one day and my friend Jamie says, "Hey you've played soccer, wanna come play in the corporate games?" I told her I probably could. But although I had played for six years, I haven't played for ten+. So the day came that I was supposed to play and I was still going back and forth about it. So I texted her and I made myself a deal, if she texts me back I will go, if she doesn't I wont. So it was about 2:30 and I was supposed to play at 6, still no text. So I was pretty sure I wasn't going to go. I had made all these reasons why not to go. Then I got a text back. So I was going to go then. I am glad I went because the team has to have three girls on the field at all times and there were only four girls that showed up. Not to mention Jamie had a hurt ankle, but still played both games, the whole time, she rocks! It pretty much came back to me. I started getting better and better as the night progressed. It was really fun! So now I am planning on going to all the games. I had forgotten how much I enjoy the sport. I hope to play a little better in our next game. We had to play two games. One of the girls left shortly after the second game started, so that meant the other three of us had to step up our game. We won both games, the first against 1800 Contacts and the second against ARUP. I don't know who we play this week, either EBay or some other company, whomever won out of their game. The second game was tough, they were good. We went to sudden death and we just happen to have a rock star keeper. Wish us luck with our next game, this Friday, Go Bearcats!

Primary Answers

So a couple weeks ago in church, someone gave a talk, in sacrament, about the Word of Wisdom. She was telling us that in the scriptures it talks about if you obey the Word of Wisdom you will receive many blessings. After she was reading that, I felt something I never felt before, anger. I was angry because my Dad obeyed the Word of Wisdom like no one I ever knew. I used to make fun of him for it. He didn't drink caffeine, he wouldn't really eat chocolate because it had caffeine in it, he ate a lot of fruits and vegetables, not a lot of meat, he would ride his bike to work from Cottonwood heights to downtown. I could probably go on. But I thought to myself, where were his blessings? He was on a mission for the church when he died, at the age of 62, I wouldn't really call that a long a prosperous life. He never got to meet my children, on this Earth. Now people will tell me all the Primary answers, he could have died a lot sooner if he didn't live like that. I guess it takes me a lot longer to grieve because I never felt anger towards his death before and it has been 9 years since he passed. Everyone that met my Dad loved him! I just wish he would come home from the vacation he has been on, at least that's what it feels like. I love you Dad!

A Grooming Experience

So today I took Ego to get groomed for the first time. I went and picked him up and he looked really cute. He was really hyper, I guess he was just happy to see us. He was very jumpy too, which is not normal for him. I put him in the car and we began to drive home. I got almost home and I looked at him and noticed his tail was longer than I remember and he looked a little bigger and skinnier. I decided this was not my dog. I started to drive back to the groomers and I called Cody to tell him what had happened. I took a picture and sent it to him. He called back and said that he think I am wrong and that it could be Ego. We had never seen Ego groomed before and they look so different when they are groomed. At this point he started making me questions myself, but I knew there was no way our dogs tail could have grown. When I got back to the groomer I told them that this wasn't my dog. She went in the back to look at the dogs, came back dogless and asked if I had a westie. Ummm, no, my dog is black, Westies are white. So she went back again and brought me out a black dog, Yeah, it was my dog!! When I saw Ego I was mad at myself that I hadnt noticed I had the wrong dog from the beginning. The girl that owned the dog I took walked in right at the time too. I went to the Manager and they decided to give me a free add on to my groom next time, a whole $20 value, I guess it was better than nothing, but it took me asking for compensation, than them just offering it. At least I got my dog back and the girl got her dog back too! Here is a picture of the dog they gave me.



And here is my dog.

Sleep-Walker

So last night, at around 2 AM, I heard Brooklyn and Bailey's door open and shut to their room. I heard Bailey talking for a minute and then I heard some whining. I woke up Cody and told him to go check on the girls. He got up and then laid right back down. I asked him why he didn't go, he said he didn't hear anything. So I tried to go back to sleep, but I kept having horrible thoughts about Bailey going outside and getting lost or hurt. So I finally got up myself to go check on them. At this point it had been about 5 minutes since I heard the door open and close. When I reached the hall I had quite a fright, Bailey was just standing there. She didn't say a word to me until I picked her up and asked her what she was doing. She blabbed something to me about my room and then she asked me where Brooklyn was. I walked back into her room, where Brooklyn was sprawled out on both of their beds. I moved her and put them both back into bed. It was so strange that Bailey would just stand there and not come in our room to get us and also shut her door after she left her room, she would normally just leave it open. So this is why I think she was sleep walking. I have also gone into check on them another time and Bailey was sleeping at the side of her bed. She was standing next to the bed with her head laid on it. We are going to have to watch out for this one.