MY LITTLE BOY IS GROWING UP!  Well, with the exception of night time, Colby is completely potty trained, with I must admit, very little help from me.  He has done this all by himself.  We were in the Superstore today, eating chicken fingers, (his favorite snack) and he looked at me and said "Mommy, I have to pee".  I had put a pull up on him for the trip out just in case, but he decided he wanted to pee in the public washroom.  I will admit, I am not a big fan of public washrooms, but the ones in the Superstore are very well maintained.  The first time we went in, he was afraid and did not want to sit on the toilet.  (We have a toilet seat and step up set up for him here in his bathroom).  We left the bathroom, both of us frustrated, when he told me again that he had to pee and wanted to go back.  And sure enough, he peed.  I was very shocked as I figured since he was afraid to go in the first time, he would just pee in the pull up.  He has had the same pull up on all day and it is still bone dry.  I think it's about time to stop putting pull ups on him when we go out.  He is only going to get one at night for another couple of weeks, then I will stop them all together.  I was looking at him today and wondering where all the time went.  I can't believe my little boy is growing up so quickly.  When we were in the doctor's office waiting for Kassie today, he played with the other kids that were there like he does it all the time.  I am really going to have to look into a morning play group for him for the fall, now that he is trained.  He really needs to get out and socialize with kids his own age.  My girlfriend Sandra has twins that are his age, but she is having issues with getting her son to sleep at night, so I don't feel right showing up there in the mornings. For all I know, they could still be sleeping when I show up.  There has also been a big shake up at work.  All of us on the Resolution Desk have all been promoted to Senior Lead Representatives, which is sort of the equivalent to assistant supervisor, sort of.  It means that we are no longer sitting up stairs segregated from general customer care, but down walking the floor, helping people with questions, and taking escalations when necessary.  Last night was my first night in this new position, and I really enjoy it.  It is much less stressful, as I spend much less time on the phones.  It is also nice to actually see who it is I'm helping.  Some representatives on the floor do not like this new procedure, as there is no longer a 1+hour wait to get to talk to us, so they actually have to work.  Oh well.  I also called and am switching my home phone and internet service to Eastlink. Aliant is still on strike with no end in site, and I'm really sick of it.  I have been waiting for a 120.00 credit on my account for 3 months now, since this strike started. They billed me for the month that I moved in here when I couldn't get them to come out and hook up the phone.  Everytime I drive by protestors I want to stop and ask them if this is really worth it.  They have been on strike for 3 months, and strike pay really can't be paying the bills.  But yet, day after day they are out in all weather holding their signs.  I swear, I will never work for a company that is unionized.  I don't see any union leaders out there holding signs.  And today, with it being so hot, sticky and raining, it really can't be worth it.

Future NBA star 

On the tire horse 

Colby, Kira and Rebecca 

Hanging with Nanny 

Colby reading 

Well, as you can see, potty training is going well.  These were pictures that mom and dad took yesterday.

Well, it was a sad day at Mom's today.  We had to put down Tiffany, our family pet of 15 years.  She was very old and very sick.  She was no longer able to walk.  Kassie and I took her down.  It was extremly hard, but ultimately she is much better off.

Well, the end of the day with Potty Training 101 has been a huge hit. He has been amazing today. It seems within the span of 24 hours he has trained himself. In a way it is also sad for me. My little boy is growing up much too fast. I can't believe he is now over 1/2 fully potty trained and will be 3 in 4 months. Where did my baby go?

HE PEED ON THE POTTY! Well, Colby has finally got the hang of the potty. I admit, I pushed him at the beginning of the week. I have had the attitude all long that he will when he's ready. Well, he's almost 3. I will NOT have a 3 year old in diapers. I started this Monday, and he did pee in the potty. He was soo proud of himself. Yesterday, absoutely no go. He wanted nothing to do with it. I thought, oh shit, it's done. Well, this morning when he got up, I took his pull up off, put him in real underwear and told him that if he has to pee, it has to be in the potty. Well, not even 10 minutes later he walked over to the potty himself, whipped the little blues clues undies down, and PEED! He was SOOO proud of himself. We didn't ask him or anything, he just went on his own. I think I am finally seeing diaper free days ahead!

Well, I have had no comments back on my letter yet. I figure I will know when management finds out that I sent it and rocked the boat. My guess is right now that I have 2 weeks left in REZ and they will find some reason to kick me out. I also put in my 2 weeks notice at the Physioclinic. It kills me to give up the typing, but now that I am getting nothing but 5-1:30 shifts at work I can no longer type when I get home. It's not fair to the physios if their letters are not getting back to them for a week. They need this documentation to go to insurance companies so they get paid. I am going to stay on as casual to help them out when needed, but am giving up the commitment. I think I'm going to start selling Avon, just for the tax write offs. Wanna buy some Avon anyone?

HERE IS MY LETTER:

Anna, Normally I do not voice my opinion as this but I feel this needs to be addressed. Yesterday, as I assume you are aware, the resolution department was treated to pizza. My understanding is that this was a morale booster for this department, due to the stress that we all have been under lately with the call volume. I cannot comment as to how it went over with the day shift, but as a night rez rep I feel you need to know what happened. We were approached at 8:30 PM to see what each of us would prefer for pizza. First of all, I feel that this was too late, as we have part time reps that were leaving as of 9:30. At approximately 9:10 P.M, the pizza arrived. The only reason I know that is I, along with a couple other representatives, watched them bring the pizza into the small conference room. We then watched SLR’s that were off line, TL’s from Rez, TL’s from the floor and MO’s go into this room. At this point, to my understanding no one from this department was advised that it had arrived. I went to my break at 9:30 and others around me went to their breaks and lunches within the same hour. As of midnight when I was off, I STILL was never offically informed that the pizza had arrived. My understanding is that people from the front of the row did get pizza, but us here at the end of the row were never informed. So needless to say, there were a few of us that never did benefit from this “morale booster”. I have to tell you, the food here is not the issue. The issue is that OUR TL’s and MO’s never even bothered to walk down the aisle and inform us that it was here. They had to walk past this aisle to go to the room where they all ate! Honestly, I was so upset when I left last night I was not coming back. To me, this was a HUGE slap in the face. I felt, and still do feel, very unappreciated. Not that I think that they are not working as hard as we are, but we are on the front line, drowning in que. And when a morale booster is offered to us, just so that we are made to feel that yes, someone does appreciate what we are doing, the time is not even spent to walk down this aisle and tell us it’s here. As a TL, I would expect that this is the least that could have been done. But again, the TL’s, SLR’s and MO’s didn’t miss out on their share. I feel that if the DEPARTMENT is being treated to something nice, the ENTIRE department should benefit, not just a selected few. That really doesn’t say much for the rest of us. I can tell you that I am not the only one in this department that feels this way, but I am only speaking on my behalf. I would appreciate if you do address this with anyone, that my name is left out of it. This is very small department and I felt that someone higher up needed to know, but I really don’t want to draw attention to myself. If you feel that you would like to discuss this further or in person, I would be more than happy to meet with you, outside the department. If not, I would just like to thank you for taking the time to hear (read I guess is the more appropriate term) me ramble. Tina Schwartz. How horribly wrong is that??? I was also talking to Dad the other day and he says, "I still can't leave a comment on your site". I checked it out. It is different. I told him to leave it as anomymous. Now it works! Post away Dad!

Well, of all the things I could be doing on a Thursday afternoon I watched Oprah. They were talking about medical screw ups, which should have made me turn the channel right there. There was a woman on there that went into labor and was in the hospital 4 days before her babies were delivered. Long and short of it, one little boy is severly brain damaged and blind due to lack of oxygen. He looked like Colby and I started to bawl. Just thinking about it makes me want to bawl again. Really makes you think. Anyways, there was also a HUGE issue at work on Tuesday night, which I will just cut and paste the letter that I emailed to senior management. I wasn't going to, but now I'm glad I did. It should be interesting when I go to work today if there is anything in my email as a response.

Well, vacation is officially over and we are all back to work. We had a fabulous vacation. We took BJ and Kelly to see Spider Man 2 on B's birthday (June 30th, I can't believe my little brother is 26!) and the movie was amazing. We went camping on Friday, Sat and Sunday, and Friday night we had the biggest thunder and lightning storm that I can remember. And we were in a tent! Luckily Colby was in the motorhome with his grandparents and slept through it all. And to make it worse, our tent started to leak so we also had Chinese Water torture (dripping on the forehead). It was not nice. But, besides that it was a great weekend. Colby had a fabulous time and was very well bahaved. He ended up at one point trying to play basketball wiht a couple teenagers. It was the cutest thing to see him trying to make a basket in a regulation height net. Mom and dad found him a play basketball net on the weekend and he loved it! Of course there were pics. These are the ones from dad's digital camera. We had a family bbq on Sunday for Kassie's birthday. Everyone had a blast. The house was a little crowded, but it was fun. I think Colby now has a little bit of a cold. Kira had the sniffles this weekend I think Colby caught whatever she has. Should be a fun couple of days.

O 

Colby and Poppy 

In the grass 

Window 

Heartbreaking 

Curtains 

Well, Happy Canada day! We got up very early this morning, with me having to wake everyone and rushing to the Sackville Days Parade. Dad was in the parade, driving the zamboni. We waited patiently for him to drive by, and when he did he didn't see us! We were not on the side of the road, but just off on the sidewalk. Colby was yelling "Poppy stop the Zamboni!". It was very cute. Pictures will be developed shortly. Speaking of pictures, Kassie spent the day with us today and we went to the Kinsmen Centre for a bbq beef supper. It was very good, and even Colby ate some. Afterwards, Colby and Kassie went outside on the grass and of course, I had my pictures! After that, Rob and Adam were finishing the baseboard in the living room (which looks FABULOUS, Rob even built a new entertainment centre) and we decided to take a drive to the Villa, as I had picked up b/w film. And with Shoppers being open today until midnight, I had to rush and get them developed. I must admit, they turned out a lot better than I hoped. I think I may actually have a knack for this photography stuff!