"Bluebird"

I love Sara Bareilles, and this song is no exception. 

Soo, now I am a Tyco Integrated Security employee.  We didn't have a choice
in the matter.  We had someone walk into our center and pick us because of
the size and number of employees we have.  No longer a part of ADT Security
Services.  Thought this song was a little

Thursday Night fire..

Took the pups outside after they were fed and was just sitting down to relax.  Looked up and saw a huge black cloud of smoke rolling a couple blocks away from our house.  We think it was an industrial building that sits near one of the nursing homes close to us.  Whatever it was, it was fully engulfed and blazing.  Didn't hear any sirens, so I called 911.  The fire department were already on site working on the fire.  We cruised up the back roads until we could get some better pics and I got a pretty good video on the iphone.

I cant quite figure out my iphone video.  It's sideways.

I was holding my phone right side up.  Go figure.

I'll hopefully figure it out one day.

Addendum: found out it was a plating company that makes airplane bolts.

No one was there, people said there was an explosion before the fire,

and pretty sure the place was totaled.  Houses evacuated in the

area because of the chemicals they had in the building.

Oh, btw, woot!

Speakin of setting things on fiyah,

our QA department finished all five rounds of evaluations for

this month with well over a full day to spare!

Go team!  : )..  Woohoo!

Umm. Yes please? : )..

I have seen this before, but I've really been wanting to try this lately.  I love Snickers.  I love Granny Smith Apples and I love Cool Whip.  Add them together?  Sounds great to me!

Found one link here..

Can't wait to give it a shot!

: )..  I'm betting it's deeelishus..

Lesson still to be learned by a 4.. Err 37 year old..

Never.. And I do mean ever.. Kiss a sneezing puppy.

Crazy days..

This has been a crazy, chaotic, challenging month at the Kansas City ADT monitoring center.  We have 800 floor operators, and only 9 Quality Assurance representatives.  We had to complete five rounds, or 4,000 evaluations this month, despite the fact that we lost 27 man hour days to our national account training.  All 9 of us had to complete three days of training, losing out on working our usual quota of evaluations.  It's been a struggle, but by gosh, we have three days left and we are on our last round starting tonight.  We have been limited until the past few days, because we weren't able to put in any overtime.  They finally relented and offered us four hours each.  Lemme tell ya, we've been without overtime since February, most of us jumped on that quick!  Lol.

We still have 800 evaluations to go, but we'll get there.  They just opened up another 5 hours of overtime for us starting tomorrow, so that will help a lot.

It's been crazy, chaotic and challenging.  It's coming to a close.  Soon.  As of midnight, Saturday morning, the Kansas City monitoring center will no longer be a part of the ADT Security Services family.  Starting then, we will become the new entity known as Tyco Integrated Security.  Tyco and ADT are splitting, becoming two totally separate companies.  Within two years, we may be direct competitors, because ADT can come back and try to lure some of our commercial companies from us.

Our monitoring center has been chosen to become a commercial, national chain, domestic violence and Department of Defense monitoring center.  We will no longer monitor residential or small business accounts, our custom home services, which monitored the homes of the rich and famous, or the home health accounts that we had all grown to know and love.  I don't think that any of us truly know what changes are going to come our way in the near future, but we are ready for the challenge.

I'm going to miss ADT.  It's been a part of my life for over eight years.  I've been an outbound emergency dispatch operator, getting to actually talk to several celebs while handling accounts (Clint Black, Wayne Brady, Heather Tom, Carmine Giovanazzo, just to name a few), an inbound customer service agent (although that had a short shelf life with me), a training assistant and now a quality assurance coordinator.  It's been a crazy, chaotic, hectic, fun, monotonous, long, drawn out, challenging, exciting, busy, insane at times ride, but I have enjoyed almost all of it.  Some of the best times were when it was the craziest.  Whether it was the New York City blackout a few years ago, or hurricanes driving alarm systems crazy, or just the challenge of meeting our evaluation rounds, it's been fun.  I'm going to miss that.  I'm sure it will be the same under our new name and company, but I won't feel the same sense of pride when I see ADT commercials on the tv.

One thing that I am proud of, I've spent my last week as an ADT employee kickin some serious evaluation booty.  Not only did I enter 92 evals yesterday alone, I actually got a kudos from my boss today.  Lol.  I also got a challenge from a co-worker.  She's going to buy me a candy bar if I can hit 100 tomorrow.  My boss said he'll open his snack drawer, which is filled to the brim with candy from our recent QA Trivia game a few months ago.  Lol.  Either way, it's a win-win and I am up to the challenge.  Bring.It.On.  : )..  Let's get crazy!

Drip! Drip! Drip!

Alrighty then.  Once again, my craft idea was spawned from..  Yup.  You guessed it.  My favorite thing, Pinterest.  I seriously need a Pintervention.  Seriously.  I went over 3GB on my unlimited iphone data plan this month, although part of it was on Pandora.  Lol.  I love Pinterest.  It's awesome.  Especially when I find ideas like this!  Voila!  Drip painted pots!  Awesome idea found here!  Love it.  : )..

And then I found this drip painted pot found here..

I really love the whole drip painted pottery craze.

: )..  Soo, I gathered my paint and my pots..

And gave it a shot.

It takes a little practice, a lot of patience,

steady hands and an understanding of how

to correctly drizzle the paint.

I tried doing the painted rainbow-ish color scheme

like the first picture, but it turned out as one huge pink and yellow

blob, mostly a yellow gooey mess.

I tried a red and white one, but needed to paint the lip

beforehand.  I recycled my lighthouse pots for this week's craft project,

which were white with a blue lip.

Then, after painting the lip black and the pot yellow,

I decided on a bumblebee drip painted color scheme.

You probably know me and my love of the darker colors.  : )..

I also love bright, contrasting looks too.

I finally got the hang of the drizzle, and kept

turning my pot while dribbling the paint down the sides,

starting at the base and working my way around.

Guess where I found the knowledge to paint it correctly.

Pinterest?  Nah.  My husband, Dutch.  Lol.

He discovered the whole gooey mess and gave me a few pointers.

Worked pretty well.  Have to give him some props, lol,

after all, he painted this all by himself with small, handheld

Preval misting spray bottles.

He built it all by himself a few years ago.

Guess he's pretty crafty too.

I'm linking up to DebbieDoo's Newbie party this week.

Great host!  Great site!  Great ideas!  Great newbies!
I'm also linking up to Barbe's Beez Rental Design's

link party this week as well.  : )..

Great blog parties!

Ahh.. A quiet Sunday..

Didn't do much, but that was a good thing..  Did laundry, played with puppies, got stymied when I tried to do my craft item for Debbie Doo's newbie party because I'm lacking some supplies.  Lol..  Looked on Pinterest a bit, not as much as usual though, and just basically took it easy after that headache yesterday.  Whew.  And the fact that tomorrow is Monday, which means it's back to the grindstone, with some overtime hours to boot.  It was nice to have a quiet day to rest and relax.  And watch neighborhood people swim in their backyard pools.  : (..  I have pool envy.  Sigh.  One of these days though, one of these days.  That'll be a thing of the past.

Anyway, since I haven't accomplished much today, I'll end my day the same.  .

Here are some great Pinterest pics again.



Alrighty.  Now to rest up for tomorrow.

Yay.

Ouch! Ow! Ouch! Ow!

Went to a fish fry this afternoon, and had some delicious food, including some red fish from Louisiana.  Yummy!  : )..  However, as the day went on, I started to get a little bit of a headache.  It started off small, and was only noticible at times.  I should have gone ahead and grabbed some meds, but I kept putting it off, hoping that it would go away on it's own.

By the time we left?  Oooh my gosh.  : (..  Ouch!  Ow!  Ouch!  Ow! 

The entire drive home was rough. 

I took some of my Tension Headache meds, hoping it was just a tension headache.

Still no relief.

 Oooh, my poor, aching head.

I tried a Sudafed, hoping maybe it was a sinus headache.

Still no relief.

 Laid down, hoping that the meds would kick in and the pain would stop.

Still no relief.

 Thought about grabbing my ice pack and using it, but

settled for a couple Aleve pills instead.

Finally!  Whew!

Relief!

I still don't know what kind of

headache that was, but it was rough!

It had a little stabbing pain from time to time.

: (..  Luckily, that's the first time I've had one like that.

Whew.  Still had a great time at the fish fry though!

Yummy food!  : )..

Red fish, Crappie fish,

Catfish.  Jalepeno hushpuppies.

Deelishus!

I asked my friend who invited us,

do I have to catch my own fish to fry?  Lol.

Ha!  Just kidding.  I told her I would be there,

giving people a poor, starving puppy look, while

other's were eating their fish.  All I ever catch is the

junk and weeds off the bottom of the pond.  : )..

Thankfully, lol, lucky for me!

The fish were already caught,

prepared and cooked by the time

we got there.  Ha!  : )..

So we were all like this instead..

Woot!

Whew.

Time to rest again.

Yes! Yes! Yes! I love this song!

I've said it many times before, but I will say it many, many, many more times
to come.  I love Pandora Radio.  I have found soo many great artists and songs.
This is no exception.  I love almost all of Sean Hayes (no relation to the actor)
 music, but I think out of all the one's I have heard?  This is by far my absolute
favorite song.  : )..  I love, love, love, love, love it.

Workin it at work yesterday..

Whew..  Soo, our backs are once again, against the wall when it comes to finishing five rounds of evaluations on almost 800 floor operators.  There are nine of us in the Quality Assurance Department, but this month has been cahrazy.  We've had one person out sick for a few days, and then at least four of us going through our National training meetings at a time.  That doesn't bode well for getting things done.  We finally made it to the H's on our third round yesterday evening around six o'clock.

I started in the Co's, though, so that is quite an accomplishment to get all the way to the H's by the time that I left.  Whew!  I put in 63 evaluations yesterday by myself.  One other person put in 53, and then the rest of the QA's were from our evening shift workers.  But!  We were up to the H's.  And after having any overtime cut out since February of this year, we were granted 20-30 hours this month so that we might be able to hit our fifth round of evals by the 29th.  If I look at it, and the fact that we made it to the H's, I think we can do it if we can buckle down and keep people focused, but if I look at it, and the fact that we still have over 1600 evaluations left to do, and I'm only putting in 60 each day?  I'm not quite so sure if it's going to happen.  We have four people going through the training this week, and then two more are going to be assisting training next week.

I felt like I was putting so many evals in and movin soo fast, that I set off a fire alarm.  Lol.  Around 5pm-ish, we had a quick siren go off.  Tomato, Toe-mah-toe.  Potato, Poe-tah-toe.  I like my theory better than knowing that it was actually a Burglar Alarm.  Lol.  Somebody set our alarm system wrong and set the burglar alarms on the doors where everyone comes in.  Lo and behold, when someone came in the doors?  Lol.  It went off.  I still like thinkin it was me, back there setting the programs on fiyah.  And I was kinda hoping it was a fire alarm and that our firefighters would be back out there, visiting us again.  Ha!  : )..

Alrighty.  Gotta go put in some overtime.  Whew.  I'm expecting to hit close to 80 evals today.  I can do it!  Maybe.  Should be crazy.

Whew.. It's already Wednesday..

Not sure if it's me, or what, but this week is just flying by!  Not that I'm complaining.  At all.  It just seems like it's zipping right along.  Well, until I get to work.  Lol.  Or forget my iphone.  : )..  Anyway, here are some great Pinterest pics for the day.  Some of them might even end up being my screensaver at work this week.  Hmm. 

I've posted that last one before,

but it's soo nice, it begs to be posted again.

: )..  Alrighty.  Let's get this party started.

My day.. In a nutshell.. Lol..

Started out to work this morning, which is about 20 miles from home. 

Got halfway there and then realized....

Noooo..

Lol..

My iphone didn't make the morning commute with me.

Nine whole hours without my phone.

Nine whole hours without my music.

Nine whole hours without facebook.

Nine hole hours without Pinterest!

Whew!  Good news?  I made it through all that with flying colors.

Lol..

Glad it doesn't happen often.

It was a looooonnnnngggg day.

Glad to be back in touch with electronic media.

A whole work shift without Pinterest.

That really doesn't happen often!

TGFiPhones.  Lol.

I missed my little pretty.  : )..

Suhweet! : )..

I've noticed several people wearing something similar to a vest at ADT here lately.  They are super cute and I've been wondering where they are getting them.  Never really asked, but voila!  Cruising..  Pinterest.. of course..  (I do that a lot..  nah.. really.. a lot..  ask AT&T..  I went over 3 GB on my iphone unlimited data plan this month alone and I still have 4 more days left on the billing cycle..  Most of that time was spent on Pinterest..  wow..)  Lol..  However, it was time well spent, if you ask me!  Yay!  I ran across this Pinterest picture..

 Cute?  I agree..

 Super cute?  I know!

Find how to make this here..

 No Sew?  I'm in.

Mine still needs a little work

and I'm sorry for the crinkly

undershirt.  I'm in a time crunch

before heading out to work and had to

grab something.  It was actually folded, but

stuck in a drawer for a while.  Lol.

However, a few little adjustments,

turning some of the hem under,

and it will be just as cute as ever.

: )..

Soo, next time I see someone wearing

one of these cute little vests, I no longer

will have vest jealousy.  Ha!

I can make one!  Teehee!

I'm linking up to Debbie Doo's
newbie party today.  : )..
Great site, great ideas,
great host and great newbies!

Smells like.. Teen Spirit? Nah.. Wet puppies!

Lol.  It was soo hot here today, the pups didn't spend much time outside.  Until...  This evening.  Not that the temperature dropped much, but it felt like it did after the sun receded a little.  Milo got to enjoy his favorite summer activity in the whole wide world!  He got a little splish splash time in his splish splash pool!  Yay!  Crazy little puppies.  They love the water.  Emmy and Fergus love chasing the water hose, while Milo prefers to stomp, splash and snap at the water from inside his pool.  Here are some pics of the wet little doggies.  Oooh what fun they had!

 Emmy splashin..

 Milo takin a splish splash..

 The Ferginator attackin..

 Rubba Dub Dub, almost three pups inna tub..

 The Wetinator..

A wet Em'n'em..

Milo was too busy splashing to get his picture taken.  : )..

He loves his splish splash pool.  Lol.

Wet, happy little puppies.

Finally got that smelly good stuff off them for sure!

Pintervention Needed.. Lol..

Got to spend a nice, quiet, long day cruising through the Pinterest website.  I am addicted.  Lol.  Seriously.  I went over 3 GB on my iphone alone.  Mostly because of Pinterest.  Thankfully, I still have an unlimited data plan on my phone.  Whew.  Here were some great finds from today though.

All great ideas.  : )..

I love Pinterest.

Really.  Lol.

Pinterest is awesome.

I could spend alllll day there.

No..  Really..  All day..

I love me some Pinterest.

I think I definitely need a Pintervention.

Lol.  : )..

Channeling my inner Training Assistant..

Whew.  Soo, our National training is over.  Yay.  Three full days of National accounts (all of the chain store, Home Depot, Buffalo Wild Wings, Pizza Hut, Sears, etc), and operators clearing accounts to our training queue to be checked.  Not too bad on the first night.  The second night, we had a few more signals because they opened it up from alpha signals (Fire, Burglar, Hold Up,) and added maintenance issues on alarm systems, to the lowest (ack, and the biggest bane of my alarm system career) fail to communicate signals tonight. 

Add to all of that, there were only two of us clearing the accounts after supper (from 630pm to 9pm), and 15 operators who were zipping through accounts, it was a little crazy.  Toss in assist questions where I had to open another program to jump in accounts to check the account information because our screen shot program wasn't working, and you could say, it was pretty chaotic. 

Whew!  I actually had to let my inner Training Assistant back out of the cobwebby filled box she's been stuck in for over two years.  I channeled her this evening.  My brain is mush.  Mush I tell ya!  Wow.  I am sooo not used to being a training assistant anymore.  Now I remember why I loved my weekends sooo much.  Lol.  It may take a couple days to recover.  : )..  TGIF for sure.

iPhone Covers..

Once we upgraded to the new iphones, we had to buy new covers because our old ones wouldn't fit with the new phone design. After having bought a red, rubber, clunky cover,

it started falling apart after a few months. The corner started ripping open and finally, we decided to get me another one.  I chose one from WalMart that had a Missouri Tiger logo on it.

It looked like this one, just in black.

Within a week or so, the Tiger logo started to

rub off.  Blah..  Dang it..  : )..

Wish I had found one like this one..

Although, there was one store who had this one,

for $25.  Nah..  That's ok..  Lol.. 

Soo, I settled for a plain, clear case

that will let me add a picture or some kind

of my own design inside.

I chose one of the pictures from

Notley Hawkin's website.

It's a picture he took in my old hometown

of Fulton, MO.  I had never seen Fulton

look that great!  I printed it off on

regular paper, I'll probably try some photo

paper next time. 

 Here's what the picture looked like

from his webpage.  : )..

Such an awesome shot!

Soo, now I have a little piece of Fulton

that I can take with me where ever I go.

What's For Lunch Today?

Hmm.  We start our National account training today, but we get a little extra, extra on our lunch hour.  Instead of a 30 minute, fight for a microwave, scarf your food down lunch, we can relax a little and slow down.  Whew.  Nice.  : )..  Soo, this is what's for lunch.

Kraft's Turkey Gyro..

Found here.. 
It's super easy and super delish!  : )..  Yummy!

I love Jack Johnson.. : )..

Been hearing "Go On" a lot on my Pandora Radio Station.  It's always
been one of my favorites by him.  : )..  Such a great way to start the day.

Fun With Puppies..

Milo says he loves the smell of neighborhood cats in the morning.. : )..

Lucky for him, our neighbor has a gazillion of them.

I counted seven of them sitting in a group in that yard behind us

one afternoon.  I think they were trying to make Milo lose his mind.

It worked.  He about had a conniption!

 Auntie Em looking pretty and smelling sweet after

visiting, "Aunt Chelsea" and being groomed.

(we still hadn't picked up our extra seating from the party, lol)

(i'm still trying to recover from the bbq, whew!)

(it might take another week or so, lol)

Now, if she could ONLY find something stinky to roll in,

she'd be a happy little girly girl.

And, finally..

The Ferginator, Sir Fergus Ozborn McDougal

lookin like he needs to go visit "Aunt Chelsea" soon.

: )..  We've noticed, he's definitely getting his

adult teeth in.  Look at those chompers!

Thankfully, he chews on toys.

Emmy didn't.  We were her chew toys.  Lol.

He's too sweet to do that.  Ha!  He loves chewing

on all kinds of things that he shouldn't though.

Baseboards, metal desk legs, furniture, bowls.

You name something he shouldn't chew and he'll

try and chew on it.  However, we've also figured out,

he doesn't like the taste of limes, so everything

gets a little lime spritzer from time to time.

Works like a charm.  : )..  Or I guess a lime.