At Least It's Clean

Day 12 of Sweatshirt Watch. You'll be pleased to learn that I was able to wash it last night, and he was forced to spend the evening in a different sweatshirt (complaining the whole time). Tonight, of course, it's back on, but it's clean.

The weather people are calling for up to 12 inches of snow tonight and tomorrow. Given their history of "over-exaggerating" (Randy Willett original word), we expect somewhere around 4 inches. Either way, I'm working from home tomorrow. That's one of the perks of my job at LandAm, and I love it. I've been working from home about once a week now, and it's great. Yes, I really do work. It's nice because when I have things to create or write, I can do it at home without interruption, except for the phones. I do have my work phone transferred to my cell phone, so that doesn't stop. But I can always let it go to voice mail and catch up later in the day. It's just nice to be able to be home in comfortable clothes. It's not at all unusual for people at LandAm to be at home, so even when the dogs bark, people don't bat an eye. I'm just glad they can't see me, especially when I'm working with bed head in my bathrobe.

Speaking of weather, I was talking with a guy in Dallas today. He told me that recently they predicted it would drop down to below freezing. In his thick accent, he said they had to keep cutting into the television shows to show weathermen standing beside the freeway talking about how cold it was. I about died laughing, thinking of what we in Michigan go through every day all winter long. He said he'd never make it up here. Even people at our headquarters in Richmonda, VA don't get it. Our head of HR couldn't believe we were predicted to get more snow. He said, "You just got a bunch of snow. You mean you're going to get more?" Like once you get snow, that's it for the year.

So, tomorrow will be a good day with lots of time to get caught up on things I want to do for work. I'm looking forward to it. Then, the weekend. That's the best part of working at home on a Friday.....when 5:00 comes, I close my laptop, and my weekend immediately begins.

Here's to Fridays!

Subscribing to the Blog

Some of you have asked about subscribing and what that is. In blogworld, if you subscribe to a blog, then you will receive an e-mail when the blog is updated. It means you don't have to check it - you automatically know when an update is loaded.

So, look at the column to the right of this post, and, if you want to subscribe, just enter your e-mail address and follow the directions. Your e-mail will NOT be shared with anyone; it will only be used to receive updates from this blog.

New York Lives Forever

Why do men wear the same thing every single day of their lives? See this sweatshirt? I bought it for Randy a couple of years ago when I was in NYC. He wore it once in a while. Now, suddenly, that's all he will wear. He goes to work, comes home, out he comes wearing the sweatshirt. The only time I can get it off him is to wash it, which I do demand happen once a week. But the minute that dryer stops, the sweatshirt is on again.

I don't get it. Comfort is one thing....but every day, week after week? Must be a guy thing.

Yoda Is On My Last Nerve

So, I started this blog and then promptly didn't update it for days. What's up with that? Well, I've been devoting ALL of my time to studying for my SPHR (Senior Professional in Human Resources) exam. It's a national certification through the Society of Human Resources, and, with LandAm's support, I finally decided to go for it.

The first step was ordering $1,000 worth of study materials and paying $375 for the test plus $90 application fee. These costs are where LandAm came in. Have I mentioned how nice it is to be out of non-profit? Anyway, that all happened last fall.

I'd like to say that I've been studying for months, but that's a lie. I actually started just over a month ago. I made a study plan and pretty much stuck to it. There were six volumes of material to review, and I read them all. The study materials also gave me a series of pre-tests, post-test, and practice tests. I did them all.

And yesterday I was absolutely convinced I would fail.

It's not that I didn't know the information. I did. I knew it well. But these questions were written by Yoda. They were stated in such a way that it didn't matter if you knew the answer because you couldn't understand the question. So, yesterday Randy and I trucked it over to Barnes & Noble, and I picked up a different study guide. This was written by normal people, and I scored something like an 88 on that test (I needed a 70 to pass). But, no matter which test I took from the "official" study guide, I could not get over 68.

This morning I got up and took more tests. Failed them again. Kept at it. Left around 11:30 to take my test. Spent nearly 4 hours on it.

PASSED.

There I am, in Sylvan Learning Center, exhausted and convinced I failed. She prints out my report, and as she's signing it, I see the word "PASS" on it. And I start to cry, yes, in the lobby of the Sylvan Learning Center. I'm a dork, but then that's not news.

So, I'm officially Lori Willett, SPHR. There are only 1100 people in the State of Michigan who can say that. The test has only a 58% pass rate, and I can see why. I'm exhausted. But I'm thrilled. And so, so happy that it's over.

And I just have to add one more thing.... you know I have the world's best husband. He's put up with a lot of drama from me the past few days. God bless him. And housework, well, let's just say that things that fell stayed there. That adorable man came home today during his lunch, after I left, and he totally cleaned the house top to bottom. Am I lucky or what?

If you've seen the wacko video by Tom Cruise talking about Scientology, you'll enjoy this. It's Jerry O'Connell in the part of Tom, and it cracked me up. Enjoy!

What a great day! When I worked at Sparrow, I only had six holidays per year. Now that I'm living the good life at LandAmerica, I have ten holidays per year! Gotta love that. Today is my first 2008 holiday, MLK Day. Given the temp outside, I'm staying inside all day and enjoying a nice quiet day to myself.

I've had a number of people ask how to leave comments on this blog. I'd love to hear from you, so here's what you do.....

Below the post, it says 0 comments (or some number of comments). Click on that, and another screen will open. Write what you want in the comment box. Be sure to include your name so I know who left the comment. Then, complete the verification, meaning look at the squiggly letters and type what you see in the box below them (this is to prevent comments being left by spammers). Then, scroll down, and click on "anonymous." This allows you to leave me a comment without having to register for anything.

I look forward to hearing from you!

Artsy Fartsy

Randy and I went to the theatre today and saw "Atonement." I am the one who selected the movie. Being the shallow, ADD person I am, I thought it was L-O-N-G. Great story, actually, but L-O-N-G. As the movie ended, I asked Randy if he was going to kill me for picking this one (since I usually pick horrible movies for him to endure). He really surprised me by saying he liked it. But of course he said if he's asked, he'll deny it since it's a chick flick.

If you like the artsy "Piano" kind of movies, you'll love this. For me, a great story can't overcome a movie that takes forever to get to the point.

Saturday at The Willett Household

Randy made us a great breakfast this morning, and he's now gone out to run some errands. I asked him to stop by Meijer and pick up a package of foam wedges we women use for applying makeup. His response? "I just know I'm going to end up at Meijer's digging for days through piles of tampons to find those stupid things."

He'll kill me when he reads that.

First Post

Welcome! Starting a blog.....I feel so hip. Not sure what this blog will contain, since I just decided in the last 30 seconds to do this. I would imagine it will have some crafting items, some family updates, and, of course, pictures of what's happening in the Willett household. So hang on, folks, we'll see where this takes us.