boo

I think I have officially failed at blogtober. I missed Monday and Tuesday, not even because I wanted to, but because I just don't have a very exciting life. Sorry :(

Halloween Dance

On Saturday we had Thanksgiving with my family as my mom was working the last couple weekends. It was really nice to go home as it had been a long time since we'd been to Austin.

Saturday night we all got dressed up and went to the Halloween Dance in town. There were not a lot of people there but the kids had a blast! Brayden was the life of the party and even won first prize in the costume judging for kids 12 and under. By that time he didn't know what was going on, he was so tired because from the minute we got there, he ran back and forth, back and forth across the floor. I am not sure where my boys learned to dance but they sure had some interesting moves. I think it might be a form of break dancing but I'm not sure.

We partied long into the night, well, it was about 11pm, which for boys that normally go to bed at 7:30, that is long into the night. They had a great time, it was really fun to see. My parents even won a prize for the best couple costumes. I love that we can still get them into costumes and have a good time.

I will have to add a picture to this when I get them onto the computer.

Oct 22

Just playing catch up because I didn't get on the computer at all this weekend.

Saturday morning I went into work for about an hour to have some papers signed for my first actual loan! It wasn't a mortgage, it was a car loan but it was exciting for me none the less! This was the first customer I dealt with when I started here and 2 months later, he is VERY happy with my service. It is a good sign that I've had that impact on my only client! Hopefully it's a sign of good things to come.

seriously

What is up with this Jackhammer outside my office window. Nice of you to fix the step but did you really need to do it on a Friday? The busiest banking day. Glad I don't have any appointments in my office today. I had to call a client from a stock room on the other side of the building so I could hear what he was saying! All I have to say is that I think I will appreciate the noise level of my children when I go home tonight!

Oct 20

Yesterday went pretty well with my realtor, today I am seeing 2 more. Hopefully I can begin to build this business and the money will start rolling in cause I'm sure thinking about how to spend it, I mean invest it. :)

taking the plunge

Today is my first realtor interview. I am very nervous. I do know this realtor as she was actually a client of mine at Herbal Magic so that makes it a little bit easier but at the same time, she is a bit scatter-brained and it is hard to get her to sit still for a 5 minutes so it could be interesting. I chose to sit with her because she is very successful and she is someone I'd have no problem refering my clients back to because I know she puts the client first! That is important to me. I am all about customer service!

Keeping my fingers crossed!

Toronto Bound

Looks like another trip to the big city is in my future. I am off to Toronto again the second week of November. There was some confusion as to what I need to be "qualified" for my position and the first course I took was not enough so I am off again.

I am less than excited this time. The first time it was exciting going away but now that I have been there, and been to Winnipeg twice for a week in total, I'm ok with staying home. The worst part is, I when I go, I don't get to stay at right at the learning facility like I did last time. I have to stay at the 4 season hotel which will mean a 20 - 30 minute cab ride to and from class every day, meaning I have to pay for 2 cab rides everyday (which I will be reimbursed for but I still have to dish it out up front!) and I will have to go to a restaurant and order and pay for my meals everyday (again, reimbursed but still a pain in the butt). I also won't be able to do any of the activities that go on in the gym each night as I will have to head back to my hotel after class. I am hoping I can get on a waiting list for a room at the training facility and maybe, just maybe, I can get in there and save myself so much of a hassel.

Jason wasn't too keen on the idea of me having to go either. That is his first week back to work after completing his school. It's one thing for me to be gone 2 nights to Winnipeg but now we have to take the day to drive to Winnipeg to go to the airport, then he has 5 nights alone and then another trip to Winnipeg after work on the Friday to come pick me up from the airport. I feel bad this time around. The first time I didn't. :)

Keeping my fingers crossed I can get in at the learning facility and then it'll be a great trip!

Oct 16

Wow, feels good to be working hard today. I finally have a bit to do at work. Nothing thats making me money right now but it is to set up for the future!

I have actually kept busy all day today, and not studying. It's great. I am anxious to get into my role and meet some people I will be able to work with. I have 2 appointments set up for this week and plan to get working on a few more! Time to step outside my comfort zone and get this show on the road!

Oct 16

Cheating, was busy with other stuff yesterday so didn't write

Oct 15

Wow, that was quite the adventure.

I now know that a builders gala is as exciting as I thought it would be but we had a good time anyway. A live band which strongly resembled a high school jazz band from the class of 1960. Not a lot of music options. Very interesting.

The meal was good, not really to my taste for the most part. Have you ever eaten sweet pototo and pumpkin soup with sour cream and a pastry of some sort in it? I can't say I have either but that started it off.

Finally after an attempt to dance the night away to some very undanceable music, we headed back to the hotel. One of the mortgage specialists from Winnipeg gave myself and my boss (who is out from Calgary) a ride back. My boss wanted to go in for a night cap (like we needed anymore) but the lounge in the hotel was closed. The other MS took us to, what we thought was another lounge, just behind the hotel that his friend owned. Turns out its a bar of some sort. VERY loud. I have a cold and had pretty much lost my voice by that time so it was hard to talk. Our boss was trying to convince us that it was a gay bar. We did start to wonder as there were a lot of girls there but very few of the guys were near them, the guys were gravitating to each other.

2am, bar is closing, wow, been a long time since I did that! Good night overall. Now time to get my stuff packed up and head back home. I do miss all my boys. Going out on the town like that reminds me why I'm not living the single life and why I am happy I have a family! Fun to do it once and awhile but definitely not my scene!

Oct. 14

don't know if I will get internet access again today so on my phone again.

Meetings today again and an awards gala tonight. Sounds like it is going to quite the party. As much as love staying in hotels, I m looking forward to going home tomorrow.

oops

missed another day, at a trade show all day, can we say exciting! then worked with my boss til late. no computer access, typing this on my blackberry!

Oct 12

Don't you hate when you go to pay your liscense and they tell you that you need a picture? That's what happened to me this morning. My liscense is due tomorrow and as always, I waited until the last minute to go pay for it. Kids in tow, thought it would just be a couple minutes but then I needed a photo, and why can't you smile? I don't get it!

Seriously nothing to say today :)

Oct 11

Wow, I'm not very exciting. The highlight of my day today is that I have 2 phone appointments, not with clients, but I'm still excited about having something to do.

The first call is with one of the guys I met in Toronto when I went for training. He is from Chiliwack BC. We have kept in touch and are trading business ideas.

The second call is with my coach, who also happens to be from BC as well. We will just be doing some training.

This week will be busy. I have to get groceries on my lunch break today. Ashton has skating lessons after work tonight. Tomorrow morning, Brayden and I have family circle, then I have to come to work for awhile, get a spray tan at some point, then Brayden has a dr. app't in the afternoon. I play volleyball at 7pm and then I have to head to Wpg. Oh right, I need to pack somewhere in there too.

Thursday, I will be at the Victoria Inn Airport west doing a realtor trade show with the other mortgage specialists from Winnipeg. Don't get too excited for me! Then Friday, I'll have some one on one time with my boss so I can do some more training, then in the evening, we will be attending the Manitoba Builders awards gala. (and you got excited about the realtor trade show!!! Just imagine this one!) Truthfully, I am a bit excited about this gala mainly because I have to get really dressed up. I borrowed a really cute dress from a friend so it didn't cost me anything! (this event is the reason for my spray tan too). It will be a fun filled evening.

Lucky enough, I got a much better hotel this time. I'll be staying at the Fairmont downtown. It's supposed to be pretty classy so I'm looking forward to it. I just hope the gym equipement works at least!

Then Saturday morning I'll be heading home and possibly taking the kids to the pumpkin patch at Oak lake.

I like being busy. I was rather bored this weekend. Guess I had more to say than I thought :)

Oct. 10th

Nothing to say today. Wanted to take the kids to the pumpkin patch today but it is raining so I guess we will hopefully go next weekend!

the next Sidney Crosby

I may have discovered a superstar today.

Jason's sister and family are out for Thanksgiving and she wanted to take the kids skating this morning because her daughter, who is 4 months younger than Ashton, was not happy at skating lessons last week, and she hoped that if she saw Ashton skating and having fun that she'd want to do it by herself too.

We decided as we were getting ready that we might as well grab the old skates we'd bought Ashton was he was little and let Brayden try. They are just plastic skates and they've been sitting in the basement unused for 2 years or so, kind of rusty but we figured he'd only try for like 5 minutes anyway. We only have one hockey helmet so Ashton's bike helmet was the solution for Brayden.

We get to the rink and I was having trouble getting mitts on  Brayden, he didn't want to wear them. I didn't force him because I figured I'd be holding his hands the whole time but when we got out on the ice, he wanted to it by himself. He stood by himself for a long time. Even tried to actually skate. When he fell, he laughed and he wouldn't even let me help him get up. He wanted to do it by himself. Probably because for the last week we've been praising Ashton for getting up on his own. He had no mitts on, and he had his hands on the ice pushing himself up on his skates, he'd fall, but he just kept trying.

We were really impressed since the skates were so rusty on the bottom and really needed sharpened. We weren't going to bother trying skating with him because we tried with Ashton when he was that age and he didn't like it. Brayden is another story. He might be the next Sid the Kid. He's only 17 months old and we have the whole winter ahead of us to teach him. Funny how different 2 brothers can be when it comes to personality. I'm sure it's because he sees his big brother and wants to do everything he does.

I guess we'll have to sharpen up those skates and keep on trying, maybe he'll be flying around on his own by the end of the season.

family picture

I'm cheating today, just posting a picture

Skating lessons

Ashton started skating lessons this week. He is a tough kid to do anything with because if he doesn't feel like doing it at that moment, he is rather difficult to deal with. I'm always nervous about signing him up for things like this because it's a lot of money if he desides he isn't going to do it.

Tuesday went ok, but after about 15 minutes, he came off the ice crying. This didn't surprise me as that's is what he always does when we take him. He said his feet hurt. We begin to think maybe his skates are too small. We bought them last year and not thinking that if he grew 3 inches this year, maybe his feet grew too. On top of that, Jason had put socks that were too thick on him and tied the skates too tight. I loosened his laces and sent him back out. He made it through the rest of the lesson and we bought him a slurpee.

Thursday, he said he decided he didn't want to go, he would rather go the next day. How do you explain to a 4 year old that things are scheduled and I have no control over when they are on! We finally convinced him to go. Bribery works great. We asked him what he wanted for a treat if he stayed on the ice the whole time, he said a sucker. Easy enough. We had planned to look for new skates for him but didn't have time on Wednesday so I put thinner socks on him. He was doing great, then he fell, I think he landed on the same bruise on his knee that he'd gotten the previous time and he tried to come off the ice. The coach brought him to the door and I convinced him to stay on longer. He stayed out the rest of the time. I was so proud of him! He had a big smile on his face the whole time. He made such progress even from the last day. He is able to get up on his own now, he walked in a circle (like a spin) bending over picking stuff up, all things he couldn't do before. He hardly even fell down.

I hope that he'll be excited to go now. This is why I had kids, to be able to go out and do things like this. Might even have to get back into the coaching next year.

work

Wow, when you try to blog everyday, you sure realize how boring your life really is, thanks for that eye opener Tif. lol :)

Been very anxious lately. I think it's work related. Don't get me wrong, I love my new job, but I'm in an awkward stage right now. My job is an independent position. I am the only mortgage specialist for BMO in Brandon, therefore, job shadowing isn't an option. I have taken my courses, I have done many conference calls, I've talked to my coach (the person who helps me with anything I don't know) and now I'm done with "training" but I still have SO much I don't know. I have so much support and can ask questions to a lot of people but one of the other new MS's put into perfect words, "I don't know what I don't know", therefore, I have no questions to ask.

I would love to go out and get some business as I only have 4 more months of (crappy) base pay, then I'm on full commission. Scary! If I don't have business, I don't have a paycheck! You can now see why I'd be anxious. I am excited to go out and meet people and I know I have help to put the loans together and make sure it's done right but when I'm with a customer, I have to have some answers or why would they want to deal with me? It's all about credibility. I have to give a good impression so these people will pass my name onto their friends, that's the who idea. I need to develop a referal system where I don't have to put in so much effort, where they come to me. I have no doubt that I will do a good job for anyone but some people have patience for new people and some do not. I don't want to get a bad name by approaching people to soon. If I don't know enough or at least a little about what they want to know, I'm not going to look good, whether I'm new or not.

This is my dilemma. Do I make an attempt to go out and network when I clearly won't be able to answer the questions my customers or realtors will have, or so I continue to sit at my desk and read until I absorb all the info I see and continue to search out other things I don't know that I don't know?

I am really going to love everything about this job, just struggling a bit to get started. I knew that would be the case, but reality is a tough pill to swallow sometimes. Hopefully I can find some friends/family that will recommend me so I can get a few things on the go.

family circle

I love the flexibility of my new job. I spent the morning with Brayden at our first session of family circle. It's a little group where (mostly) mom's bring their kids under 2 and we do nursery rhymes and songs. I started going to this when Ashton was 2 months old and I took him until he was 2 and then started taking Brayden when he was a baby. This is our first session since he turned 1 so it's a very different experience. He was fasinated with the songs. In between each rhyme, he would run away from me and head for the door but as soon as we'd start singing, he bolted back and sat on my knee and listened intently. It was so cute. It's a 9 week session, every Wednesday morning for 45 minutes.

I am glad I had the opportunity to spend this time with him. That is a big reason I took this job. Flexibility for family time.

rough night

What is wrong with my baby? He is a pretty good kid most times, but has been waking up at night a lot again lately, he's up more nights then not. Usually he wakes up crying and all I hear is "mama" thru the sobbing. I normally get up with him because I don't want him waking up the rest of the household. I go pick him up, the crying stops, we sit on the couch for 2 minutes, he falls back to sleep, I put him back to bed and he's usually out for the night.

Last night, however, he work up crying 3 times between 9pm and 6am. I got up with him the first 2 times, the third time, my brain could not convince my body I needed to get out of bed. I just layed there and listened to him cry. Eventually he went to sleep again.

I know that I need to let him cry sometimes but I feel so bad listening to him "mama, mama" thru the tears. I don't know what is causing this. Ashton never gets up at night, with the odd exception to go pee now, but not when he was a baby. The poor kid is pretty sick, he has a terrible cold, that's half the reason that I get up with him, I feel bad when he cries and then he coughs more and then there's more snot. It might be that his teeth are sore. He is 17 months old and only has 6 teeth! His gums are swollen and he's drooly but that could be from being sick too.

I also have a new concern that hit me this morning, maybe he's scared of the dark now. I think of this because this morning, I was down the hall from his room in the bathroom and he had woken up and was chatting and as soon as I turned out the bathroom light (which was shinning in his room a little), he started to cry. I am thinking of getting a night lite for him and see if that helps. This may not be the case, but I am exhausted from getting up every night so I need to try something.

It's weird because Jason says he doesn't wake up when I'm not there. I have been away for work a few nights here and there and Brayden sleeps all night. I don't know if that is really the case or if Jason just doesn't hear him. How can you not hear him? His room is right next to ours.

I will continue to search for a solution. Maybe just let him cry it out . . .

Oct 3

Since I had to pretend the blog I did early this morning was for yesterday so I don't fail Blogtober already, here is my real Monday entry. :)

I do have a lot to talk about but I should really be working right now so I will try to keep it short. I have been feeling really crummy lately. Since going on holidays Aug. long weekend, I have gained 8 lbs! ouch! There were a lot of changes in my life at that time, starting a new job with a new routine didn't help matters. I thought I'd be back on track by now, but 2 months later, I am still over 140 and not happy about it.

This weekend I decided to start making a little bit better attempt. I managed to get in 2 runs. I was tired of running the same old route, so I drove down to the north end of town to do some of the massive hills here in Brandon. I have been wanting to try and run up these hill for sometime but I find it silly to drive somewhere to go for a run, but I needed something different so that's what I did.

I was really proud of myself. I made it up the big hill on 18th street, the one that goes past Walmart. It was actually really easy. Then I ran down the big hill on 1st street, which was also easy because it was down. I need to go up that one next time. Then I threw in the big hill that runs by the sportsplex at the end of my run. That was a challenge. I was already feeling my quads seize up when I got there but I was feeling it in my butt which means I was working the area that I want to work. Normally I don't feel it in my butt so I was happy. The total run was about 6 km.

Sunday, I was hurting but I know that if I just get out there and do it again, I would probably be less stiff. I wanted to try running up and over the 18th street bridge this time. The one that goes over the tracks heading into town, so I drove to the corral center and parked there, and off I went. I was being a bit of a wimp because I could have parked on the other side of the tracks, closer to my house and had that hill at the end of my run but I figured since I was already stiff, I wanted to loosen up my muscles before I tried it but not be doing it at the end when I was starting to feel sore again. Well, I ran up that hill without even slowing down and my heart wasn't racing when I reached the top. It was actually easy. Again, pretty happy. My final distance was about 4 miles.

I know it's not what I was doing earlier this summer, but I did feel better just to get out there and get in a couple runs. I know if I can just start running at least 4 times/week, I will be ok and won't have so much work to do come spring. Now, if I can only stick to that plan.

failed already

Well, that's not such a great way to start. I woke up this morning and realized it was Oct 3, that means I missed a day already. Starting on a weekend is not good for me. I am hardly on the computer and I don't have any concept of time or day! Not that I missed a day, I can see me not doing well at this because next time I 'almost' forget to blog, I will just think "oh well, I missed oct. 2nd already . . " that's a terrible mentality but that's me!

So let's pretend this is oct 2nd blog as it is still oct 2 somewhere . . .

Challenge accepted

Well Tif, this one's for you. I will make my best attempt to write everyday this month on my blog but that might be a little complicated as I will be away at times and may not have access to a computer. Might have to figure it out on my blackberry.

Anyway, not going to actually write anything right now. Just had to make my attempt to get this started off right. Almost forgot about it already, didn't realize it was October already.