My New Job 30 Days Later

Today marks my 30th day here @ Shands. **WOW** is all I can say!!. Time has really flown by in one month. I work as a Financial Represenative in Out Patient Admissions. I have learned so much about insurances. I never knew so many existed! I have come so far but I still have a long ways to go.
I have been training in the Out Patient Lab with Ms. Jean. I feel so blessed and lucky to have been placed here with her. She has been and continues to be such a wonderful teacher. I am so thankful she has so much patience with me. I probably drove her crazy the first two weeks by asking a million questions!!!  Ms. Jean is willing to explain the proper way for me to process patients and has willingly given me copies of information that she has personally made to make her job easier and more accurate & now I'm fortunate to have them too.
I have also gotten to know Monique (who has helped me a lot too!), Jenna, Tina & Natalie from the Out Patient Lab. They are all unique individuals. I've grown to really care for them! I look forward to seeing them, to laugh & joke around but then we all know how to get busy & work to get the job done.
I'm just very thankful for Darlene because she told me there were several openings. So I looked online & applied.
It does seem strange in a way not to go through the red light & head straight to Overstreet Mulching. I worked at Overstreet Mulching for almost 13 years. This is the longest I've ever worked anywhere. I'm so glad Robin had faith in me back in Nov. 1997 when she called me & offered me a job @ OM. To begin with it was part time 8:30-2:30. It worked out perfect so I could take Colby & Brandon to school, go to work, & then pick them up at 2:40 & head home.I knew this was a blessing & answered prayers to be able to work outside the home & still be able to see about my boys! I even babysat Logan after school for a year or so. I wouldn't trade working there for anything in the world. I do miss working with my very best friend Robin. I miss the old days when we would go to the kids parties @ school, field trips etc. Those were the simple days & we didn't even know it. I just hope peaceful days can be upon us again.  Those were the days. I did enjoy them so very much. This was all before I was dx with Mono & Chronic Fatigue. This happended in 2005. This will be another post for me to write!!
As strange as it seems not to be heading to OM it does feel so right heading to Gainesville. At this moment in time I do like the drive to Gainesville.(I may not like it in 5 years!) I get up at 5:30 and I'm ready to leave the house @ 6:45. I will admit the first 2-3 weeks was really tough getting up that early but now I actually like it. I have found a blessing in leaving work @ 6:45: by the time I reach the Rolling Oaks hill I get to see one of God's greatest creations: God's beautiful drawings...a beautiful sunrise!!!! This is probably my most favorite time of day. I've just come to realize this last week. As I'm writing this (Sept. 27th-Monday) I was very excited to reach the hill because I knew it was going to be a pretty sight. (When I'm driving down Hwy 26 heading towards the hill it's very dark because I'm surrounded by pine trees on both sides of the road.) Well when I reached the top of the hill the sky was turning pink & white and right straight ahead was a cloud that looked like a bunny rabbit!!! I would have snapped a picture but out of all mornings I left my camera on the coffee table. My other favorite spot to get a pefect picture of the sky is by the Equesterain Show Place right outside of Newberry. So this is the joy I find in driving to work everyday. I'm still looking for the joy in driving home! Ha,ha,ha!
I am very thankful to be where I'm at in my life right now.
Here are a few pics of my coworkers:

This is Jenna.....

Here's Ms. Jean & Jenna :)

Here's Tina....

Here's Monique....

And Ms. Jean & I. A very, very sweet lady & wonderful teacher!

Babysitting My Little Nephew Kason

I was lucky enough to spend my day Saturday, September 25, 2010 babysitting my sweet little nephew Kason aka Bubee. I am so in love with Kason. It is a total joy to spend time doing nothing but seeing about him. Being an Aunt is so much different than being a Mom. When I get to spend time babysitting him I don't have to worry about cleaning house, washing clothes, cooking lunch etc. because I always go to Karen & Jay's house! It's so much easier for Karen too because she doesn't have to worry about packing up Kason's baby items.
Karen and Jay decided to get away for one night in celebration of their 2nd Anniversary. I kept Kason until 5:00pm & then I took him over to his Nana & Papa's house (Jay's parents) to spend the night. I was so wishing I had agreed to keep for the night by staying @ Karen & Jay's house but Karen didn't think I'd be up to it after working all week & driving back & forth from Gainesville everyday.
Kason is starting to crawl!! He will crawl about three spaces & then he lays down. He has the sitting up by himself down pat. He seems too little to being doing this. I already miss him being a little baby! Several times I would look up & Kason would be sitting there just staring at me! I would smile & then he would smile right back. We made a game out of me tickling him under his arm pits! He was laying in the crook of my arms & I would say, "I'm gonna get you" & then lift up his arm and tickle him. He would actually laugh!! I almost called Karen to get her to listen but I didn't.
Karen & I txted back several times during the day. I sent her pics of Kason to her on her phone. They stayed @ the Hilton in St. Augustine. She txt me one time saying, "Guess what? They have a Hobby Lobby here!" I have been in Hobby Lobby in Ocala & told her & Mom that we needed to go. So now she knows what I'm talking about when I say, "Hobby Lobby!"
Brandon came over & brought some pizza from Pizza Hut. Then Chuckie came over on his lunch hour. So Kason was able to give out even more baby sugars. :)
I gave Kason a bath & fed him before taking him to Nana's.We drove to their house & Kason helped me drive. No I didn't drive on the highway we drove in the ditch. When we walked in the side door & Nana was in the kitchen with Granny & Jady. I handed Kason to Nana & he looked back to me as if to say, "Why are you leaving me Aunt Amee?" I almost started crying!! We walked to the living room to see Jady's little brother Jake. Nana sat Kason down on the quilt & again he looked at me with the same look..."why, Aunt Amee?" I kissed him bye & then aruged with myself why didn't I tell Karen weeks ago that I would keep him for the night! So I've learned something. Next time I'm volunteering to keep Kason for the night!!!!!!

I put these cute shoes on Kason. Who knew they would provide him with entertainment!?

Kason ended up getting one of his shoes off & was going to chew on it so I put them on the coffee table. Well he watched me sit them there & he crawled over to the table & tried pulling up!!! So it will not be long & he will be into everything!!

Me & my Sweetie Pie!

Brandon stopped by to see Kason! He was headed to Ken & Kris's house to watch some football games.

Kason loved Brandon's silver watch!

Mr. Smiley!

Our Mini Vacation to Atlanta Motor Speedway / Nascar Race / Labor Day Weekend

Chuckie, and Frances (my Mother in Law) & I have been looking forward to this weekend, a mini vacation for a much needed relaxing weekend. Brandon came with them on Friday afternoon Sept. 4, 2010 so he could pick my vechicle up and drive it back to good ole' Trenton. He actually drove to Gainesville & pulled the camper for the very first time!! It did save us about 1hr being able to leave from Gainesville. All we had to do was hop onto I-75 and head north. We left Gainesville at 5:15pm

We stopped at McDonalds at Exit 5 in Georgia and ordered our food to go and also got some diesel. I of course had to have a strawberry banana smoothie with my meal! Delicious smoothie!!
We arrived at the track around 11:15pm. We made great time!! The traffic wasn't near as bad as I had expected since it was a holiday weekend.

We woke up on Saturday morning to the sound of the jet dryers going around the track. For y'all that have never been to a Nascar Race these jet dryers is exactly what it sounds like...jet engines that are blow drying the track. When you have 3 or 4 of these going at the same time it is LOUD! They do get the job done! Just don't think you're falling back to sleep because it's not going to happen!

We are fortunate enough to be able to camp right in the middle of the track at turn 1!! Aunt Ruthie & Uncle Gene have a camping spot there & the guy that has the spot next to them lets us buy his spot when he's not going to be there. This spot is one of the best spots to have in my opinion. I don't think I will ever buy a seat in the stands after experencing camping infield & being able to sit on top of the camper or sit in your own lawn chairs. It's the BEST!!

Aunt Ruthie and Uncle Gene received tickets for a Hot Pass / Garage Pass & since they've already been before they gave them to Chuckie & I!!!! We've never had Hot Passes before so we were excited!! When we walked down to the garage area the cars were being inspected one at a time before they were allowed to go qualify. I was able to get good pics of the cars and we even saw a couple of drivers! We saw Mark Martin, Carl Edwards, Kurt Busch,& Marcus Ambrose. I was so hoping to see my favorite driver Ryan Newman but I didn't.

I ended up getting too hot at the garages and had to lay down when we got back to the camper! I felt plum sick! Headache, nauseous & extremely hot. After laying down for a couple of hours I did some better.

The Nation Wide race was tonight (Saturday) at 7:30pm. Chuckie sat on top of the camper but since I still was feeling ill I stayed in the camper. Tomorrow night is the Sprint Cup race at 7:30 pm. I am planning on sitting on top of the camera and taking pics!! Then Monday morning we will be heading back to Trenton to get ready for work on Tuesday. Except for Chuckie who is off another week!! Lucky guy!!
Here are a few of my favorite photos:

 

Aunt Amee & Amer

• 

Amer standing by the fence as the race cars go zooming by!

Our camper is on the left & Uncle Gene & Aunt Ruthie are camping to the right of us. We are located on Turn 1!

Uncle Chuckie & Amer chessin' for me!

Aunt Ruthie gave Chuckie & I Hot Passes for the Garage Area! We've never had passes to tour the garage area. The crew members were getting the cars ready for inspection time in order to race Sunday night @ 7:30pm. We really enjoyed walking through and seeing each cars garage.

Aunt Ruthie brought her little scooter! She rode it out front & met Frances & Amer there. They checked out the hauler trailers. Lots of merchandise is sold from these trailers.

I just love this little car! While Chuckie & I were walking around at the Atlanta Motor Speedway track we found this cute little UPS truck. Of course I just had to have my picture taken with it!!