WOW...What a Blog Slacker!

It's amazing how time flies, isn't it?

We had a great time when Mike and Cathy visited at the beginning of last month. We took a drive down to Helena and then came back a different way...can't think of what it is called, but we drove past some really beautiful countryside. We also got to see a couple of MOOSE!! Cathy's keen eyes caught sight of a huge moose getting a drink from the stream running adjacent to the highway. It was gorgeous!

Not too much else has been happening in the Schott household lately...just working and taking care of the family. It just so happens that Samantha is sick right now with a bit of the flu and Ben is out of town in Polson, Montana at a Hazmat Conference. I'm just hoping that the rest of us don't catch what she's got. We'll keep out fingers crossed!

I will update with new pictures soon. The girls have had haircuts...they're so CUTE!!

Love to all!
I'll write sooner next time, I promise!

We are expecting...

...company tonight! Come on, now. What did you really think it was going to say?! Shame on you for thinking that I could handle another munchkin....tsk, tsk, tsk.

ANYWAY, the whole family is SO excited tonight. I am surprised that the girls went straight to sleep. Aunt Cathy & Uncle Mike are on their 2nd airplane right this minute on their way to Great Falls. What a hoot it will be to have our first visitors since becoming Montana visitors. I'm not sure what we will be doing, but I'm sure we will all enjoy the heck out of each other.

I will post updates after our eventful weekend...hopefully, some pictures, too.

I hope that everyone back in Indiana, especially the Indy area, are doing well today. I know the weather has not been cooperative and we are thinking of you all.

Love from BIG SKY COUNTRY to all!

***Updates***

I haven't written for almost a week and I'm sure you'll understand when I tell you that I started my new job this past Monday. I received the job offer last Friday and accepted immediately. I am working at the Cascade County Clerk of Court's Office. I am the Microfilm & Records Management Clerk. Sounds pretty important if I do say so myself. In reality, I am responsible for pulling files, putting files away, putting documents in files, and making copies as requested by the public, attorneys, etc. I am also responsible for transferring files ready for archive onto microfilm. It definitely keeps a person "hopping" all day long. It sounds pretty boring for some, but I actually think it is one of the best jobs for my personality and interests. I like to organize things and you'd better not mess with my FILES!! The end result is that I've found a job with good benefits and one that I will probably enjoy for quite some time. There will also be lots of opportunities to move to other departments and/or positions should I desire to do so in the future.

The girls and Ben are adjusting to having a regular routine now that I am working full-time. I can't begin to convey how great it is to have Ben on a regular schedule...Monday through Friday day shift is AWESOME! There is no more worrying about him working 2nd or 3rd shift........EVEN MORE AWESOME! OK....so he is required to work a few of those shifts every now and then, but not very often to impact much.

Everything else is the same old stuff....not much else to report at this time. Hopefully all of our families and friends back in Indiana are surviving the icky weather.

Love to all!

Confession of a Six-Year-Old

I absolutely must post the funniest things my kids say...it does me good to share and get a good laugh out of it at the same time. Let me set up the story for you...

Riley's hair drives me absolutely crazy and it has for her entire 3.7 years of life. It is very fine and hasn't taken on a thicker texture like big sister's hair. I finally gave in and took her to get bangs cut last weekend. I like little girls with hair one length, so this was tough for me. We got the bangs cut and she looks absolutely adorable...more so than before if that's even possible! Photo posted below...

Samantha has decided that she would like to have bangs cut also. She already got most of her hair cut off last September and now she wants to be as adorable as her little sister, I think. So, the other night when the girls were in the tub Samantha asked again to have bangs. I said I could cut them for her...she insisted on going to Great Clips like Riley...I agreed stating that they could trim the rest of her hair, too, since it seems to be growing a little unevenly.

Are you ready for it? The confession (and direct quote):
"Well, maybe that's because I cut my hair at school."

Of course, my response was, "What?!" She revealed her crime...when doing a craft at school before Christmas, she just grabbed a little bit of hair near her ear and cut off 2-3 inches. She then turned to a classmate and said, "Landon, look, I just cut my hair." I'm guessing that she decided to throw the hair away with no intention of sharing this juicy tidbit of information with her mother.

I thought I was going to wet my pants I was laughing so hard.

Kids...they make it all worth while, don't they??

Hi, ho...hi, ho....

it's off to find a job I go...

I had an interview this morning for a job at the county commissioner's office. It would be really glamorous, let me tell you..."thank you for calling, how may I direct your call?" Seriously, being a receptionist is not my favorite thing in the world...probably my least favorite...as a matter of fact, I'd rather not deal with many people at all. HOWEVER, this trait is not embraced by most employers. :-)

I also e-mailed two resumes, dropped off a resume at a local chiropractors office (medical receptionist), and made an appointment for an inteview (customer service rep) on Friday. I also stopped by the Job Service Workforce Center to see if any new jobs posted today. I also check their website daily...this is where I get 99% of my job leads. If I don't get something soon, I'm going to start taking it personally. Of course, I already made a really bad decision two weeks ago....had my chance, I guess. I think I'll mail a letter to that office manager to thank her for the opportunity that I THREW AWAY!!!!

Deep breath....focus.....all better now.
I'm off to work on some behavior charts for the girls. We are also making job charts so that can earn some money, plus contribute to the household. Samantha has been waiting for this for a long time, so I'd better get it done.

Adios for now.

It's 2:30am and I'm still awake...

A little confession...I am addicted to staying up late and doing whatever I darn well please. Aren't I terrible? This is the only time that I can concentrate on my addictions without being interrupted by my munchkins. I can devote time to my few, but powerful, addictions...Webkinz, Facebook, and blogging (reading others' blogs more so than writing in my own). I've pretty much always been a "loner"...preferring to have quiet surroundings without interruptions. It's no wonder I'm too pooped during the day to do anything...

I hereby vow to get myself in bed earlier...starting tomorrow night.
:-)

Good News and Bad News

I figure I'd better go ahead and get this posting done. I was so excited last week (Thursday, to be exact) when I received two job offers...count 'em...TWO. The first was a contract position over at Malmstrom AFB here in Great Falls. This company found me on Monster.com and pretty much offered me the position with no questions asked. The rate of pay was pretty darn good considering the area and it was an opportunity to get experience in a government job. The second position was for an oral & maxillofacial surgeon's office acting as one of the two receptionists. The pay was less, but the benefits were good and it seemed that the office would be a great "family." To quote the knight in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, I "chose poorly." I thought the contract position would be a better opportunity and the money wouldn't be bad either...

WRONG!!!!!!!!!!!!

I only made it two hours into the job on Monday before deciding that there was NO WAY I would ever be happy working there. Unfortunately, I didn't "listen" to that internal voice that was telling me to take the receptionist job at the dentisit/surgeon's office. It nagged at me all weekend and, of course, it's way too late to do anything about it.

SO, now I'm once again putting out my resumes and looking for the right job.
C'est la vie!!

Laugh, Cry or Scream?

I want to share a few things so that you can laugh, cry or feel sorry for me when I do the screaming...

FUNNY...

Riley and I picked up Samantha from school the other day. When we got home and got out of the car, Riley said "Wait, guys, I hear (a dog) barfing." I thought Samantha was going to wet her pants from laughing so hard. I asked her if she knew what "barfing" meant and she made vomiting actions with her mouth/tongue. We laughed about it off and on for a day or so until I think Riley started taking offense. Toughen up, kid....these things are HILARIOUS!

NOT SO FUNNY...

Riley drank an excessive amount of juice today...thanks to me giving it to her in a sippy cup instead of a smaller juice box. She has been potty trained for several months now and doesn't usually have accidents anymore. She doesn't wipe for herself, but she can at least get herself to the facilities on time. HOWEVER, today proved to be a challenge for her little body's bladder. I left the house around 3:15pm to go to a job interview (more tomorrow on that). I called home when I left the interview and Ben didn't answer...hmm, unusual. I got home and finally found a naked Riley in her bedroom searching for clean clothes. She apparently needed to potty, notified her daddy, daddy said "go," Riley proceeded to watch television (or whatever activity in which she was engaged), and then tinkled all over herself and the floor (CARPET). Ben was getting her cleaned up and scolding her for unacceptable "big girl" behavior. Situation done, right? Not quite...read on, my friends...

I came downstairs to crunch some numbers with our budget and the rest of the family followed. Riley and Samantha both disappeared upstairs for a few minutes with Samantha reappearing downstairs first. I wondered aloud as to Riley's location. She came downstairs shortly thereafter. After many minutes had passed (fifteen?), Riley came over to check out the computer with me. I went to lift her up onto my lap and the seat of her pants was wet. I double-checked and asked her if she wet herself again. "Ummm..." she says while batting her eyes at me. I scolded her and told her to go to the bathroom and wait for me. A minute later I visit her and she confesses that she actually tinkled upstairs...IN MY BED!!!!!!!

I instructed Ben to handle the child while I went on a mission to check the bed. I couldn't find anything. Riley came upstairs and proceeded by my request to show me where she did the deed. She then lifted up the covers and said, "In there" while pointing to a spot where Ben's feet would be while sleeping. Sure enough, I lifted back the covers and found a wet spot the size of the palm of my hand. What a complete turkey this child has become! She climbed under the covers and tinkled in my bed!! She peed in my bed!!! IN MY BED!!!

I really don't think she cares...I have no idea why she decided to do her business under my covers...I have no idea why a 3-year-old does ANYTHING...to quote Riley, "Ummmmmmm...I don't know."

When you're done laughing, go hug your kids!!

Happy New Year!

I realize that I haven't even blogged since before Christmas. What a slacker! I'm sorry to report that I have just been too busy with two primary activities...looking for a job and keeping up with my Webkinz account...not necessarily in that order. :-)

On the job front, I had an interview with the Montana Dept of Transportation on Monday the 22nd of December. This was actually considered the 3rd round (1st = application qualification, 2nd = written exam, 3rd = initial interview, 4th = interview with supervisory staff). I actually "studied" like crazy for the interview...spending hours preparing answers to typical behavioral interview questions. I was the first of five candidates to interview on Monday...not good news for those of you who may know that the last candidate to interview can typically be the one selected. However, the interview is conducted by three individuals who score each question individually. Those scores are tallied and you must receive a score of 70% in order to "pass." WELL FOLKS, I didn't pass...according to a rejection e-mail I so kindly received the next afternoon. This completely bummed me out for the next.....well.... I'm still pretty depressed about it. I feel like I can do pretty much any office job thrown my way and nothing makes me feel worse than being rejected. A big blow to the professional ego I have definitely sustained!

On the Webkinz front you'll be happy to know that Charlie (female collie), Gilda (panda), Gary (panda), and Oliver (striped alley cat) are doing well. They are taking classes at the Kinzville Academy are excelling in every subject except Creativity (painting class). That one is TOUGH! They also enjoy making and serving pizzas...this one is challenging me and I will DEFEAT it! Those temperamental customers just won't let me pass a certain score...

Those are just my personal Webkinz. You may also be pleased to know that the girls' Webkinz are doing well. Samantha has 6 Webkinz and Riley has 8. Yeah, thanks to Aunt Misty for starting this whole darn craze in our home! It all began one year ago Christmas when Aunt Misty introduced a tiger to Riley and a pink poodle to Samantha. We had never heard of them before and didn't even set up their accounts until late March. It has been a lot of fun since then and I have become addicted myself. My fascination is really with the games. I've loved games all my life and when I get bored with one there are always others from which to choose.

So, you want to know all of the names for the girls' pets?

Samantha has Pearl (pink poodle), Jewel (black stallion), Snowflake (white poodle), Leia (white yorkie), Rayla (charcoal cat), and William (pink whimsy dragon...the only boy in the bunch!)

Riley has Jimmy (female, tiger), Ila (brown arabian), Olive (frog), Sarah (cocker spaniel), Lily (white persian), Bubble Gum (female, golden retriever), Cocoa (female, brown horse), and Eunice (white unicorn)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The girls enjoyed their Christmas...I hope everyone else did as well. Ben and I let the girls open their gifts under the tree on Christmas Eve. It was a total surprise to them...they had no idea. The look on their faces was priceless. Ben had to work on Christmas Day, so that is the reason we strayed from protocol. Christmas morning was relatively calm since they only had their gifts from Santa to open and not the entire mountain of gifts. It was more fun for me that way...seeing them thoroughly focus on and enjoy Santa's gifts.

I am posting some pictures of the gift-opening and also of our plentiful snow in Great Falls. Apparently, we are lucky enough to be blessed with a record-breaking December...we got something like 25 inches of snow for the month. This was also the first "white Christmas" in many years. LUCKY US! OK, I'm being sarcastic...I don't enjoy the snow unless I can just look at it and say "OOH" and "AAH." Seriously, it's not often you can experience the kind of snow where you can really see each snowflake landing and make out the entire design. It is really, really beautiful at that moment, but not so much when you have to drive in it OR when you are stuck inside for more than a week because it is too darn cold to even venture outside to retrieve the mail. Yup, I counted it...I left the house twice in the last 10 days. That's completely pathetic and making me CRAZY!!

Samantha is very excited to get back to school in the morning. She can't wait to show off some of her new outfits...one of which you can see in their pictures in front of the Christmas tree. Of course, Riley has an identical outfit...who can resist matching kids?!

Enjoy the pictures and know that we all wish you the best of everything for 2009!