Fingers not quite working...

I am finally finished with overnight stock!! Would do the major happy dance if I could move out of my chair. I just finished 5 days (er, nights) of working 9+ hours. Every fiber of my being is rebelling aginst my every movement. Tomorrow morning at 7:30am I start my new job at the school district. I hope I don't have to lift anything other than my head tomorrow.

In other news, I got my hair fixed yesterday. I was looking like a sea-witch (per Patrick), so we drove down to Schaumburg so I could get myself fixed up before I start the new job. The boy and girl also got their hair cut.

Now going to resume my reclining position on the couch if I can manage to kick the kids off the couch...

Wednesday today, right?

Man those overnights do mess with my already perilous sense of time. 1800 pieces last night, so the truck wasn't bad and we actually kicked butt getting stuff out on the floor. I worked in Stationery, Housewares, Plastics, Shoes, Baby, and back to school. Got out at 6:45 even. Most other people left earlier, but I stayed to earn myself some points. Also most of the others worked a double truck the night before and worked a 12 hour shift. We'll see how I'm doing by Saturday. lol. Saw some cute stuff on clearance though and need to go back tonight to get some groceries. Seems butter got left off the grocery list when I went over the weekend.

I'm amazed at how quickly I bounce back to feeling ok after working. I had three days off and by the third day I felt fine. But the day after and even 2 days after are killers! Every joint in my body hurts. Even my poor little fingers. Last night was my first in the baby department. It was pretty easy until I got to the baby food aisle. What a pain in the butt. All those little tiny jars! But it did bring back my lifelong desire to straighten the store shelves. I'm finally living my fantasy job. Remind me not to fantasize about stuff like that again.

No one has said anything about my switching to days after this week. There is a new boss guy working, so I guess I'll talk to him about it tonight. They do have me scheduled the first week in August, which I absolutely can't do, so I'll have to get that straightened out. No free food last night either. Heard the people who stayed late the other day got free Starbucks. Glad I wasn't there.

In Happy Jack land, I'm working feverishly on my shopping cart. I have about 50% of it in place, have to add the code to the baskets and the candy bar wrappers and mugs. Which brings up another glitch in the system...how to figure shipping costs. Most people use a percentage of the sale or a flat fee, but since my stuff ranges from $1.25 buttons to $60 baskets, I don't think I can do that. I will have to base it on weight, I think. I need Patrick to help me figure that stuff out. Also, I found the coolest supplier of ceramics...just absolutely darling mugs that would be perfect for Happy Jack chocolate mugs! Must perfect those...I know what I want to do with them, but just haven't had the time to devote to fixing those designs. Stay tuned maybe by Christmas time I'll have them figured out. Also the Teddy Bear Treats will be coming soon!

Now to get something done...

Pics are Up

I opened an account with Flickr.com as a photo books for posting photos. Check out the Hansel & Gretel play here.

In other news...I met with HR on Saturday and am switching off overnights to part time evenings either on the floor or cashiering. So I get to keep my discount. I am hoping they let me off overnights after this week of I'll have a big problem as I start the new job Aug. 1. I am scheduled Tues-Sat. this week, not sure what I was scheduled for the following week.

I have a new website going up...http://www.ccsd46educationfoundation.org I am the webmaster at the moment. We'll see if my new job impacts any of my school activites. I don't want to have any conflict of interest charges filed against me.

I'm going to check the weather and then see about going to the pool today. Today or tomorrow might be the last chance to go to the pool during the week this summer. Starting in August the kids will have to go to my mom's house during the week.

Friday already?

Oh man, what a night. 4600+ pieces on two trucks. We finished unloading around 1am. Then I worked in stationery and housewares. I'm getting to know those areas really well. Most stuff I can put away on site alone, so I don't usually use a scanner. I was noticing a few more things that I could use for Happy Jack last night. Like the helium balloon tanks...lol. I didn't have the heart to tell my TL last night that I was leaving. She is going on vacation today for 10 days and I didn't want to ruin her vacation. She likes me, and I do a good job, so I think she will be sad to lose me. And, frankly, she could snap me like a twig, so I was a little worried about breaking the news. I called the HR lady this afternoon (after not nearle enough sleep) and told her that I accepted another position and my last day would be July 30. But I also inquired about switching to part time evenings and she said that would be no problem. So yippee, I get to keep my discount!

In other Happier news, I had three baskets delivered today. Two for retirement parties, and one a surprise children's basket. The retirement baskets were fun to put together. One was for a guy who runs marathons...



...and one was for a movie buff.



The suprise basket was for a family who just got a new puppy and included a book for a first grader (Henry Huggins & Ribsy) and a fourth grader (Ginger Pye) and also an education sticker book about dogs & puppies. Lots of dog goodies in there too.





I think all three turned out so cute!

Today I have to do some laundry and rest my weary bones and get ready for tonight. Maybe there won't be a truck...and I'm already at 33 hours this week, so if I stay til 7am I'll be past 40...

Score!

Well, now it seems I have 2 jobs. Yes, I was offered the job with the school district this morning and I accepted. Now I have to figure out what to do with the other job. Obviously I can't continue to work overnight there, so I am hoping they can accomodate me and switch me to part time evenings/weekends. Something like 2 nights a week and one of the weekend days would be nice. That way I won't lose my discount, and they won't have trained me for nothing. I start the new job August 1.

Now I have to go finish those baskets! Watch, all of a sudden Happy Jack will get noticed now too...

RAIN!

It finally rained today! Well, stormed is more like it. We had some pretty good thunder & lightning come through this afternoon. Lots of tree limbs and branches down in Grayslake. Luckily since we don't have many trees near us we didn't sustain any damage. Almost toppled my tomato plants though. But it was so nice to see the driving rain. We need more though.

Worked this morning until 7am. I got to do Housewares and Stationery by myself. We unloaded a 2200+ piece truck in an hour and a half. Our TL was jumping for joy. Apparently that is some kind of record. I hear Thursday we have a 2200+ truck and another truck too. So it will be a long tiring night on Thursday. Don't look for a post from me on Friday. lol.

I also went to another job interview today. This one with the local school district. Everything they presented in the job description was something I've done previously. Office clerical, purchasing, equipment maintenance, database, spreadsheet, budgeting, Mac/PC, etc. So I think I would be a good fit. They asked me to fax over my references, which I did, and also the president of the PTO sent an email about me too. Now we just wait and see.

Ok, gotta go finish up some baskets. I'm soooooo glad I have tonight off!

And for the record...

Any job I take is not like a new career. My career is Happy Jack. These other jobs are merely a source of capital to keep things moving along on the Happy Jack homefront. And get me a car too. And keep a roof over my head until Happy Jack is discovered by the masses. Just wanted to set the record straight.

Happy Jack is alive and well.

When it rains....

it pours! Not the weather, of course, still dry as a bone here. I got a call this morning, while I was rejuvinating with my 5 hours of sleep, for a job interview at the school district. I applied a while ago for an office clerk job at the boy's (and girl's former) school but recently heard they filled the position. So I was surprised to have a message this morning to set up an interview. Turns out this job is for the Technology department which is located in a house outside the middle school. Hours are a much more reasonable 7:30-4:00pm and pay is quite a bit more than I'm currently making even with the overnight differential. So here are the pros and the cons:

PRO:

1. Daytime hours
2. More money
3. Working for education
4. Close to home
5. Using my brain
6. Technology is good!

CON:

1. No car to get to job
2. Too far to bike to
3. Starts before girl gets on bus
4. Ends 2 hours later than kids school schedule
5. 12-month job which means the end of all-day pool fun
6. Large chunk of HJ time gone

So I go for the interview tomorrow afternoon. I work tonight but should be able to get 4-5 hours of sleep in before the interview. I hope I don't babble too much. Anyone have a CHEAP car for sale? Sheesh, what am I gonna wear....

So so tired...

I'm here....yawn...I'm awake....
Monday morning, right? Well, afternoon at this point. What a busy few days. Since I last posted the girl had her 5 play performances, I got a paycheck, name badge, and I think that's it. But it sure seems like there was more. Last thursday I had the car so after the first play performance the kids and I went to the beach with our friends. That was a lot of fun! I definitely need to get myself one of those blow up raft thingys and go sleep out on the rolling waves of Round Lake.

Friday, girl had two play performances. Patrick took off work to drive her over at 8am since I worked Thursday night. I also worked Friday night. By Friday morning I had reached 40 hours, so they told me I didn't need to work Saturday night if I didn't want to, so I decided not to since Sunday was an early call for play performance and also the picture day.

Saturday my mom and sister and family came up to see the play. Patrick baked cookies Friday night while I was at work, so they got a bag of cookies for their trip. I can't believe how big the cousins are getting. Course when I look at the girl I can't believe how tall she is all of a sudden. When did that happen?

Sunday was photo call for the play. That's when they run the show backwards so the director can take pictures, and we parents can take pictures too. I have over 100 on my digital camera, plus Patrick took pics with the regular camera too. I haven't uploaded the pics yet, but will post a few when I can. They play was great! But they really need someone else to do their playbills for them. That was really bad. I wish they'd let me do them... Oh, we gave out candy bars after the show too, and there were a couple people who were really interested in them. Hopefully that will turn into some business. I debated giving them out again, and figured I would since I did get one order from the Honk! bars I did last time.

As for work, I'm now no longer the "new guy"...there were 2 new ladies there last night, as bewildered as I was initially. It was fun being able to explain stuff to them. It is very confusing when they start talking store lingo and as an outsider you have no clue what they are talking about. But I was the nice person and introduced myself and translated what was going on, etc. I felt better last night since I was no longer the new person. Last night I did Housewares, Stationery and Back to School. I work again tonight and tomorrow night too.

In Happy Jack land, I have three book baskets I'm working on for delivery this week and also some sample bars I'm working on for the football team up here. HJ will also be at the Lake County Fair. I donated a basket for the prize package for the Fair Queen pagent.

Ok, that's enough updating for today. Go back to work. lol.

No work Wednesday

Yea! It's a no work Wednesday! It occurred to me last night (at work) how very strange it is to go to work twice in the same day. lol. I hadn't thought of that before, but as I was unpacking smelly candles and putting them away I remembered being up at the front registers in the morning putting away Mr. Clean spot sponge thingies. That's when it hit me that it was the very same day and there I was back again that evening. Pretty weird. I think I prefer only going in to a place to work one time a day. But so far it isn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. We'll see after my 6-day stretch coming up, but at least after 4 days working and 2 days off it hasn't been too bad.

Last night I unloaded 8 cartloads of candles. I was pretty excited when my TL told me that I'd get to do stationery by myself. But when I got there there was another girl there already and she stuck me in candles. Ugh. I thought the smell would kill me, but after cart number 2 I was used to it. And there were some pretty cool candle holders and stuff in there too. M-u-s-t-N-o-t-L-o-o-k-A-t-M-e-r-c-h-a-n-d-i-s-e.

After Stationery we went to (gasp!) SCHOOL SUPPLIES!! Those who know me, know that I live for school supply season. It is my most favorite time of the year....just the glimpse of a crayon box makes me weak in the knees. Must also be some deep-seated childhood issues to go along with my blankie-fetish. So I got to put away glue sticks, Elmer's Glue (is there anything better than Elmer's Glue?), boxes of #2 pencils, and some folders. Oh, and index cards too. But while I was back there I kept hearing "It's the hap-happiest time of the year...."of course that was just in my head.

After school supplies I moved on to electronics. See the bad thing about this job is seeing all sorts of stuff I never saw there before. They have instruments there! Musical instruments! When did that happen? I didn't get a good look, but they have starter band instruments...trumpets, flutes, clarinets are the ones I noticed as I was turning a corner. But since I get a discount, seems like a good deal to me. Course, I have to figure out how to get the girl over to school in the morning for band practice if she's going to do that. She's deciding between the clarinet and the flute. She's leaning towards the clarinet though. And of course, I can't find my clarinet. I have no idea what happened to it.

So last night I actually got out early! 5am! I was just going to sleep for a little bit...like maybe til 10am or so so I could get some HJ work done and some domestic work done, but instead I didn't wake up until almost 2pm! Yikes. Hopefully I'll still be able to sleep tonight too. Tonight, strangely enough, we need to go back to the work place and do some shopping. We're almost out of food again.

It's Tuesday right?

Ok, don't be surprised if you have to remind me what day it is...I have a feeling my already dubious time/space continuum is going to be thrown for a loop with this new job. More about that later.

Last night we went to the Village board meeting where we witnessed the appointment and swearing in of a new police chief. None other than our former next door neighbor Cliff Metaxa! Saw him before the circus...er...meeting began and saw his wife Amy too. But dang, it, I forgot my camera. They had a public comment section where several people spoke up on behalf of the outgoing chief (ousted by the mayor). It is quite apparent that what is going on in Round Lake is really a changing of the guard. You can really see it, and I find it really exciting to be here when this change is taking place. The mayor is really trying to turn this town around from the blue-collar, summer cabin type community it once was. New developments of $300,000+ homes, a new plan to totally revamp and restructure the downtown, a classy, educated new police chief, some beautiful new municipal buildings, etc. I really believe that we are on the right course to turn this town around and rebuild the reputation of Round Lake. And I think by redeveloping that downtown area they will attract more upscale businesses to the area as well which will help up with the tax situation. Read more about the police chief appointment here.

Today when I woke up and checked in on Happy Jack I was pleased to see several new visitors from Millikin University, my alma mater. I sent in an update to the alumni office about starting Happy Jack and it seems I am now listed in a directory of alumni-owned businesses. Cool! Check it out here.


I have also been implored by several people to offer wedding favors. Everything I've read on the gift basket biz says to establish your "niche" and sell to that market. I decided on children as my niche because I felt that was an area that was sorely lacking since almost everything else I've seen are baskets full of junk food, candy and crappy toys. Plus I like the little people. I have two I'm especially fond of. But I will admit that the biggest segment of my business is the chocolate wrappers, which are not necessarily all geared towards kids. I have also shyed away from the wedding market because it is SO large and there are so many other people doing just weddings, that I felt I couldn't really compete. After all, I don't actually have any wedding experience since I never had one of my own. Didn't really feel qualified to do wedding stuff since I eloped and missed all that hoopla. But as one of my PTO friends pointed out last night even if I get one large order for candy bars, that's better than nothing, and with that large order more people will see Happy Jack. So in a way I guess it is more advertising. I'm just really not sure how to incorporate it into Happy Jack and market it without taking away from the children's side and diluting the HJ image. Ya know? Maybe I should have an offshoot of Happy Jack....I jokingly said maybe I could call it Happy Jill. But maybe I will have to think on this more. It sure would be nice for things in Happy Jack land to take off so I wouldn't have to do this other overnight job.

Ah, well, back to work. It's 3:30 and I still have so much to do. Not to mention the PTO meeting tonight before I have to go to the job. At least I have tomorrow night off. After that though don't be surprised if I am nowhere to be found for a week or so. I work every night Thursday-next Tuesday. And Thursday starts the girl's play performances. I'll try to post some pics from it by mid next week.

So much, so much, so much

First off, I started the new job on Friday night. Boy, I could write a book about this place...I probably should. The first night was absolutely horrible and I didn't think I could go back. Course, all along the application/interview process I had the intense desire to flee, but I stuck it out. So after a tumultuous first night, I slept all day Saturday until about 6:30, got up, showered and went over to a friend's house where Patrick and the kids were enjoying a barbecue get-together. I spent about an hour there and then came home to get dressed for work again. Saturday night was not 1/4 as bad as Friday was, so we'll see. Tonight is the test of me getting back with the car in time to pass Patrick as he goes to work. Luckily I didn't work last night so I got to catch up on some sleep. And Friday I get paid for 17 hours work so we'll see if that brightens things up.

On another note...this town is being pulled apart by the decision of the mayor to not renew the police chief. Mayor has his reasons, people are blasting the mayor, etc. The usual RL stuff. But we learned over the weekend who the proposed replacement is....and it is fantastic!! I'll spill the beans later this week. Tonight is the village board meeting where they vote to approve and swear him in. I was shocked and couldn't be more pleased. They made a terrific choice and I'm just thrilled about it. He will do a great job.

Today (after sleeping in a bit), I am doing a bit of Happy Jack work, some ebay packing, some foundation work, some laundry, taking the kids to the pool, then having two meetings and getting the girl ready for play rehearsal at 6pm, then dinner for the rest of us and off to the village board meeting, picking up the girl, and going to work. That's a full day.

Now, I better get to it.

I'm alive!

I'm alive....but barely. What a weekend. I'll write more about it tomorrow. Yea...no work tonight. Going to spend some quality time with the family (saw them for about an hour yesterday) and some quality time in bed tonight too! lol. Today the girl has play rehearsal at 4pm and they both have swimming lessons at 7:15. I have to finish up some ebay purchases (send out my EOA notices) and go to the bank and get something for dinner. More tomorrow...

Nothing new...

Not much going on. Working on staying up late and sleeping in so I get used to my new schedule, but that's not working so good. Loppy dog always wakes me up and the kids don't seem to understand the concept of getting off the couch to let her out. That's gonna change quick. The boy is going for "Granny Day" tomorrow. Riding the train downtown to do whatever he wants with Granny. Girl is going to a friend's house while I have training for the new job. Still have to find out what's up with Market Day and if I can even do that now with the job thing.

Finished up 3 orders last night (one benefit of staying up late) and more laundry. Also added some more new links to the link page at Happy Jack. Today we are going to head to the pool in a bit since the girl has a later call tonight for play rehearsal. We'll be back in a bit...hopefully all intact. lol

Another Year Down

Yesterday (the fourth) was our 14th wedding anniversary. It was a nice uneventful day. Went to the parade in the morning, then it rained so we came home and did laundry, etc. then we decided to go to the movie, and then we caught the Round Lake fireworks afterwards. Didn't get home until almost 11pm though. The traffic control really stunk.

Other weekend activities included taking a load of stuff to the Salvation Army (now we only have about 8 more car loads, lol), going to the Grayslake Family Festival and seeing their fireworks (they were ok), lounging around, playing some baseball with the kids (I even hit the ball), and hanging out with the neighbors around their fire pit while the kids played football.


This pic is one of the fireworks from Grayslake. Don't know how it turned out looking like this, but we thought it was too cool. The boy thinks it looks like birds.

Click here to see more pictures from the Fourth of July celebration.

Oh, I have my new job orientation this Thursday.

Oh yeah....

Happy July too! 3 days til our 14th anniversary. Wowzers.

I'm getting ready for a new product launch. Still debating on the name though. These little guys will be sold with coordinating buttons and chocolates, or maybe buttons and bookmarks, something along that line. Here is a sampling of what I'm going for. Question is, do I leave their tags on their ears or remove them? I'd like to remove them just because I think they detract from the effect. Plus the boy insists that the animals are crying when they have those plastic attacher thingies in their ears. Any suggestions/comments? Winners/Duds?

Summertime

It is a gorgeous day out today. 66 degrees, sunny for the most part, but we're hoping for rain. We so desperately need it. Since it is so nice today I'm going to do some work outside, packing up the rest of the garage sale stuff, and tending to my gardens. Take a look at these summertime photos. I took this one last week when the boy and I were out back by the lake.



And look who we found swimming in the lake...



We were thinking about going to the pool again today (spent 4 hours there yesterday) but I don't think my legs can handle another trek there and back. I was seriously running out of steam on the return trip yesterday. I got a lot of design work done while at the pool though. I usually get out a few hours ahead of our departure time so I can adequately dry off before the ride home. So lots of new designs to try out soon.