Brody's 9th Birthday 12-16-17!

This year for Brody's party we decided to have a laid back one and have it at our house. For the past two years we have had it at other places so it worked out great especially 9 isn't such a big birthday and we can do something next year when he is 10 and we are more financially stable.

Brody on his actual birthday on the 11th. He loves his cat Mack!! He is almost as big as him

He had a minion party. Cake from Smith's

This is all that came. Nana, Nana Heckert, Jordan and Kevin and their family with Avien. Johanna was sick so she didn't come. All the nieces and nephews are getting older and doing their own things. :( Aaron with Nana, Trena had to work. Uncle Justin and Brody's friend Roger. We had pizza and cake and ice cream of course. I wanted to use our free movie tickets but Brody wanted to have a sleepover with Roger and his cousin Aaron. It went pretty well! I wish these kids would slow down. 

He is so goofy just like his daddy. Like father; like son haha!! We all had a great time!! We always try to make our kids feel special on their birthdays especially Brody since his birthday is 2 weeks before Christmas. We don't want him to get screwed over so we always make sure he gets what he wants for his birthday parties and that we always give him a birthday present on top of his Christmas presents because I just think that is the right thing to do. Now onto Christmas!! Can't wait to see his face on Christmas. He is such a sweet kid who is always trying to think of others and always trying to do the right thing. We love you Brody! Can't wait to see what next year brings him!!

Why I am deciding to leave Exxon

Every since they took my position away from me when I was working at Motherhood I feel like I don't belong anywhere and I haven't found another job that I love as much as I loved Motherhood. I loved that job; I was proud of it! I have been having a lot of problems with my job lately and I thought I could stick it out. I promised myself and Chris that if things don't change by the end of the year than I am going to find a new job. I don't know what my next steps are. I used to be excited about this job when I first started but the excitement stopped. When I first started working the employees that I worked with are no longer there except one. The overturn rate is so huge; that I have never seen a company loose so many employees since I have been there and I have only been there for 8 months. One of the reasons why I think it is so huge because the management sucks. I get so taken advantage it's not even funny! I have worked every Saturday since I started unless I request it off. And it seems like I am always fighting for my requested days off; doesn't matter what days I request off. Last night was the breaking point; last night the straw finally broke the camel's back. I requested Christmas Eve and Christmas Day off a month in advance and she wasn't going to give me both days off. I understand that we are open 24-7 but I don't care about any other holiday but Christmas. Christmas is very important to me. That is the one day that my dad comes down. I thought that she would be understanding about that; but she wasn't. I go into work everyday that I am schedule on time and work my butt off. I always get the butt end of everyone during the day. I swear no one does anything during the day especially on Thursdays. I come in and have to play catch up and I am running around like a mad woman. And I swear not only am I the only one that does her job but I am the really the only one that comes in on time and that effects me especially when the overnight lady comes in. It doesn't matter how many times she is late or does no shows no calls they keep her around. It seems like they are never going to fire her and that isn't fair. Not only does she not show up some times but she has so much drama that I think that she is high most of the times that she comes in. No one else sees this because she is only scheduled when I am working so I am the one that gets screwed over. I have to admit lately she has been good about coming into work on time but last night it seemed like she went back to her old ways. I had to call her and remind her that she was scheduled and it seemed like I woke her up. She comes in finally and has a washcloth around her hand and it's all cut up. I am the type of person that doesn't get involved into people's personal life but I on the other hand I was concerned and trying to figure out if I should of left her alone or what because apparently she didn't look like she was in the right state to work anyways. If she was upset about anything that happened at home she should of had the decently to call the boss and tell her that she can't come; she should of never not showed up and waited until I call. But I guess we can't all be irresponsible. I swear I work with so many irresponsible people. I take my job seriously! I don't just have a job to play around with money; I have it to help support my family. That is when I realized that it doesn't matter what she does that they are never get rid of her. It's hard to get fired from this place. You either quit before you get fired because you are tired of dealing with all of the crap! I have been holding this in for too long. It's even effecting my sleep. I had a hard time falling asleep last night because I had so much going on through my head; plus I didn't get home until 12:30. I am just so glad Chris found a good company that really shows their appreciation for the employees. I feel like I am stuck and don't know where to go from here. I am happy for Chris! I want to move forward and move up with him and get into a great company like he is at right now. To be honest him being fired from Savers was the best thing for our family. I don't want a job that makes me choose my family over my job and I feel like this job does. It feels like me and Chris switched rolls and I don't like it one bit. So I am not going to leave until I have a new job lined up. It's going to be hard because overall I like the job and I am good at it and I love my customers because I get my same customers in and I know exactly what they want because they usually get the same things all the time. I just need to stop getting taken advantage of and a place that really appreciates their employees and what they do. My boss is going to be sorry once I am gone because I am one of her best employees but you can't have good employees when you take advantage of them because no one is going to put up with it.