Monday, December 30, 2013

Looking behind, looking ahead

I can't believe we are at the end of another year!

Babyzilla just turned 3. We've lived in our house for over a year (an done pretty much nothing off the home improvement to do list). A's piece of crap car has lasted over a year. It's been two years since we used a credit card! This year we made a big push to get more organized. We continued to refine our budget and envelope system (thanks Dave Ramsey) and attempt to pay off our debt. We made time and worked through One Year to an Organized Life for big picture home organization and Secrets of an Organized Mom for specific ideas for organizing. We'll continue to refine by going back and re-looking at every area in the One Year book once a year.

I had a total of 3 job assignment changes at work moving from Neurology to ICU to Neuro ICU to Newborn ICU. Thankfully I discovered that I really enjoy working in an ICU setting. I love where I am at and don't forsee any more changes. I also racked up a total of 19 comp days through taking extra on call time and used only 3 paid time off days the whole year. I also became a La Leche League leader. I read a total of 89 books this year, all chronicled in my book list on the side bar. There are still 272 books on my to read list... My friend Google Reader was shelved and I switched to Feedly to manage my blog subscription; ironically you have to provide the entire blog URL to get my own blog to show up there...I made 15 dozen cookies from scratch in one weekend to give to our neighbors for the holidays.

A continued to move up the seniority ladder and is in the top 30 in his base, which means he finally gets pretty good schedules. We still fight about him wanting weekends off and me feeling it's more helpful to have weekdays off. Now that he's just a few classes from upgrade, true to form, the airline has stopped upgrades because they don't have enough First Officers to cover for all the people upgrading. The two year journey to upgrade continues as the seven year never ending quest.

This next year will focus on continuing to manage our finances,  getting rid of more STUFF, and figuring out once a month cooking to free up my evenings. With the ever present work out more, spend more time with the kids, blog more and have a million dollars fall into my lap on the list as well.

Wishing everyone a happy new year!


Tuesday, December 17, 2013

Letting the steam out

Yet another month has gone by without a post. I hate how time gets away from me so quickly. I feel like I have spent so much of the past month angry at A. Not for any one or two particular things, but a more deep and festering anger at personality traits and feeling overburdened. It's not his job feeding all this, but rather how he handles his time on the road and at home. But how to communicate my feelings to him admits the chaos that is our family vying for attention and Christmas preparations. Without it becoming "A Laundry List of Things That Are Wrong With You." It's going to be hard to find the right time and way to get around this but I know it needs be to done and I need to feel heard before I can let go of my anger. And I don't have a lot of confidence that changes will stick. It feels especially important to get this worked out because This is a momentous year for us in our marriage. We just celebrated our seventh wedding anniversary this month. I was married previously and we split on out seventh anniversary. A was also previously married for seven years. Making it to eight is a big deal for us. Our anniversary this year was pretty anticlimactic this year- 13 days later I can't even remember where we went out to eat.

A continues to progress toward upgrade in a steady manner. He's somewhere about 90 spots from the least senior captain and they just announce upgrades for 30 more people. With the droves of people who seem to be leaving, we've almost hit the " upgrade in the foreseeable future". The guy who was once 19 people away from furlough is now bidding in the top 15% of his base. Of course he still gets crap lines, but the are the best of the crap lines. 

Jealousy is always right there behind a thin veil for me though. A guy whom a started his initial flight training, at the private pilot level, completed all his traing with and who went to the same regional a few months prior to A is now in training with a major. When is it our turn? When will we get the financial security that comes with the bigger paycheck? Although I have to keep in mind that this gut had a major inside connection AND a college degree. But A has yet to even get an application together and instead comes home with excuses like "oh they only want pilots that have been FO's for two years because they are easy to train, not six year FO's like me that will take a lot to train to new procedures."  I swear, A needs to start a rumor about a new ridiculous company policy and see how long it takes to get to him and see how people pass it off as truth.

For now, we just take it as it comes and try to remember the good in all we do have.