Bittersweet Ending Ahead

It's Friday, a little after 1:00pm and I'm listening to some good music while blogging on my couch. Normally on a Friday at this time I would be at work wishing for the time to go by faster so the weekend could start. But not right now; right now I'm glad that it's only 1:00pm. Today was my furlough and I made sure to schedule it on this day so I could take advantage of getting a four day weekend with Memorial Day being on Monday. And while I am thoroughly enjoying my furlough time today, there is a bittersweet ending ahead as next month is the last month that we have furloughs.

Being forced into furloughs last year was a really hard pill to swallow. You're being told that you can't work two days a month, your salary is being reduced by 10%, your workload stays the same so you're having to work harder to get things done, and there's nothing you can do about it. I remember asking myself when we were told that we would have furloughs, "Why are state workers the ones who have to be punished when it's the entire state of California's fault that we're in a budget crisis?" And I can't speak for all state workers, but I know that a majority of them aren't getting paid a lot already, so taking away 10% of their salary is a big deal. Then after being on furloughs for a few months I read an article in The Sacramento Bee that basically said furloughs weren't really saving all that much money for the state like they had originally planned. That made me even more upset.

After getting used to a 10% pay cut in my salary - budgeting has taken on a whole new meaning for us - I actually was enjoying having two days off a month. We were fortunate in the sense that most months we were allowed to pick whatever two days in the month we wanted; they didn't necessarily have to be Friday and they didn't have to follow the rest of the state furlough schedule of the first and second Friday of each month. So having a random day off during the week became the silver lining to a crappy situation. I took pleasure in knowing that if I needed to run errands it wasn't going to be crazy busy like it is during the weekends, or if I needed to schedule doctor or dentist appointments I wasn't going to have to use my sick leave credits to do so.

Now that the year of furloughs is almost up and extending them for another year has been taken off the table for Sacramento State employees, I'm realizing that a part of me is sort of sad to see furloughs go. I've gotten spoiled by having these extra days off. However, I am also so thrilled that with the elimination of furloughs means I get my 10% back. And if there is ever a time when that 10% means something it's now; with a baby on the way we need every penny we can get to build up that savings account even more. I'm also looking forward to not having to be so overwhelmed with workloads and meeting unattainable deadlines. Furloughs have been stressful in more ways then one and yet, they are also a bittersweet ending.

Let’s Play Catch Up, Shall We

Looking at the date of my last post makes me feel ashamed. It’s been over two weeks since I’ve last blogged and one of the rules that I told myself when starting this blog was that I would post something at least twice a week. Twice a week should be an easy rule to keep considering that most days there is always at least one thing that happens that I can think about turning into a story. And even if my post for the day was only to be a couple of paragraphs long, that would suffice for me. But no, I decide to wait over two weeks before getting my butt in gear to post something. Every day I’ve been telling myself, “You need to blog.” And my only excuse lately – I’ve been lazy when it comes to writing. I’d like to blame it on being pregnant but I can’t because I have plenty of energy to work out and do other things around the house after work. And then there are the weekends where I can always find time for myself. So no good excuse for not blogging is going to grace this post other than the fact that I’ve just been lazy with my writing. I apologize for that and will now recap the events that have been going on with the Jenkins over the last couple of weeks to play catch up. I’m going to start with the most recent and work my way backwards; be prepared for a novel.

May 24 – Present: Nothing too exciting has happened so far this week other than the fact that I went to San Francisco for a couple of days. Unfortunately it was for work so I didn’t get to enjoy being in the city like I would had I gone there with Jody or a friend. My commute back to Sacramento started out really bad with it taking 50 minutes to go three miles just to get onto the Bay Bridge. If I lived there I would seriously go nuts. Being stuck that long in traffic to the point where you don’t move for awhile started making me feel claustrophobic. Thankfully the freeway opened up once I got to Vallejo so I made it home in three hours, which is what I thought it would be. On May 25 I met with the HR rep at work to discuss my maternity leave and let’s just say it sort of ruined the rest of my day. Though I get the four months off that I was expecting, not all of it is at full-pay from my employer which means I'll have to use up my sick leave and vacation. I’m not going to bore you with the specifics of the breakdown but I will say that I am very disappointed in the amount of days that my employer contributes to my full-pay. And I’m trying to remain positive so I’m not going to sit here and bash my employer in detail; just know that I was expecting a lot more after hearing from others about the “great benefits” when you work for the State.

May 17 – May 23: Started the week with a day off to celebrate our two year anniversary. We originally had planned on going for a hike to Mt. Diablo but the weather was cold and rainy so we chose to do other things that we enjoy; went to the gym, took a nap, saw Iron Man 2, and played Rummikub. Yes, we’re already the old married couple but we wouldn’t have it any other way. May 19 was a late birthday celebration from my co-workers who took me out to lunch at Jack’s. I absolutely love their salads. While it was a day of celebration, it was also a day of mourning as our beloved co-worker Sarah was leaving CTS for another job. I made her lemon cupcakes with “You’ll Be Missed” spelled out on the frosting to surprise her with – and to eat of course. May 21 was a day that started off with a ton of excitement. We had our 20-week ultrasound appointment that afternoon and we were planning on finally being able to know the sex of the baby. I invited my mom to come down and go with us since this is her first grandchild and I know she’s so excited. At 2:45pm we all arrived and went into the appointment. Over an hour later, all the excitement for finding out the baby’s sex was instead filled with disappointment as the technician wasn’t able to completely tell if it was a boy or a girl. As soon as I got into my car I started crying. I understood that the baby wasn’t cooperating for the technician but I also felt that for as long as the appointment was, waiting until the very end to look for the baby’s sex wasn’t smart. So I’ve made another appointment to have an ultrasound with Western Career College (free by the way!) on June 8. They’ll spend as much time with you as necessary in order to find out the sex because that’s all they’re allowed to tell you. Maybe this time I shouldn’t go into the appointment so excited though, just in case. Mom stayed the night and helped me out with our community garage sale on May 22. I was amazed at how much stuff I had to sell and even more surprised that I sold almost all of it. A lot of it I just wanted to get off my hands so I dropped prices if people asked. I figured any amount of money was better than none because what I didn’t sell we took over to Goodwill. It was nice to spend time with my mom doing something fun and it brought back memories of when I was growing up and we would have garage sales all the time.

May 10 – May 16: Nothing fun happened until May 13 when I got to meet up with my old co-workers Jenna and Brittany for dinner after work. It was so good to see them as it had been way too long. I miss working with those girls. They both recently were promoted and Brittany is even moving to the San Francisco office for a try at living somewhere different. I’m proud of her for taking such a huge step toward a change that most people would be terrified to make. I remember when I was single, I always thought about getting up and going somewhere I had never been before. And I almost did when I interviewed to be a flight attendant with Southwest but right before I got the call to go to training in Dallas, I decided that I needed to go back to school and finish my degree instead. We met at Ernesto’s for some delicious Mexican food and a chance to play catch up. I realized after leaving that night that I really miss hanging out with Jenna and Brittany. Would love to at least get back to our monthly happy hour get together – though with me being pregnant it wouldn’t be a true happy hour. Run with Nature 5K was on May 15. It was my first race now that I’m pregnant and I was really happy with how well I did. The course was different than last year and although the scenery was nicer this year, it was a lot of hills and running hills while pregnant is not easy. But I did it and finished 3.1 miles in 29:43 which is a 9:35 average per mile. For five months pregnant, I was really proud of myself. Got to go birthday shopping after the race and buy some much needed maternity clothes with the gift cards that I received. I must say that maternity clothes are so much more comfortable than regular clothes, and can be really cute too. Started off celebrating my 29th birthday on May 16 with a nice breakfast made by Chef Jody. Then we went for an ‘extreme’ mountain bike ride and I realized afterward that it’s getting harder to bend under tree branches that are in the bike path now that my belly is starting to get bigger. Guess we’ll have to pick different bike paths soon. Later that evening family came over for a BBQ dinner and yummy ice cream cake. It was a wonderful way to spend my birthday, and the last one sans baby. Though I’ve already promised myself that next year for my 30th I will be going big in Vegas with my girlfriends.

So I’m all caught up now. I promise – PROMISE – that unless I have a really, really good excuse I won’t go so long in between posts. In fact, I already know what I’ll be blogging about tomorrow; good night!

Memories Created and Memories Remembered

I’d like to start off by saying Happy Mother’s Day to all of the moms, moms-to-be, and to those that have been like a mom. You are truly amazing individuals who love your children like no one else could. You sacrifice so much to make sure your children's lives are full. I’m looking forward to creating that bond with my child soon.

Memories Created: Mother’s Day was very enjoyable for me. It started on Saturday when after the gym, I came home to a beautiful bouquet of flowers and a card from Jody. It made me smile big time and even brought a tear to my eye. (Being pregnant definitely has made me more emotional). I’m so grateful to have a husband who shows me he loves me! It’s the little things that mean so much.

Today, we drove up to Chico/Paradise to share Mother’s Day with my mom. We met at Marie Calendars for lunch but got there about 30 minutes before our reservation. Jody was already starving so we walked next door to Taco Bell and grabbed a Pintos and Cheese – I might have had a couple of bites too. After lunch we went to my parent's house for some dessert and conversation. My mom found a new recipe on allrecipes.com for a strawberry bunt cake and then topped it off with chocolate covered strawberries. I was more excited about the chocolate covered strawberries only because the bunt cake was so rich.

Memories Remembered: Because we're budgeting to prepare for the baby, I made a gift for my mom that ended up meaning a lot more to her than something expensive I could have bought. I went to Michael's and bought a decorative storage box, took small pieces of nice paper, and wrote down a bunch of memories that I have of my mom throughout my life to make a Memory Box. I was actually surprised that I was able to think of so many and ended up filling the entire box. If I hadn't of run out of the paper I was using I could have written down even more memories. While we sat at the table, she went through and read them out loud so we were able to elaborate on the memory by reliving the story it went along with.

In the process of writing down the memories for the box I went through my photo box to stir up some of the memories that I had forgotten about. In doing so I came across my favorite picture of my mom and I that was taken when I was three years old. I decided to take the picture with me up to my mom’s so we could recreate the photo. Almost 26 years later, I don’t quite fit in her lap the same way I once did and we both look different, but I love that both pictures capture the love we share. My mom is one of my best friends and I hope to share a similar bond with my child.

I Just Couldn't Wait

I can honestly say that one of the traits that I like about myself is that I'm a pretty patient person. I didn't always used to be this way, so I think that's why I'm proud of the fact. I mean, I did grow up an only child and while I wasn't totally spoiled like some only children are, I did get what I wanted when I wanted it often enough. I would say that after moving back home from being in the Los Angeles area for junior college is when I noticed that my unwillingness to wait started to fade. I began to realize that some things in life really are worth the wait and good things come to those who wait.

There are, however, exceptions when I am not so patient. Like when I bought Jody a PlayStation 3 for Christmas the day after Thanksgiving and had every intention to not give it to him until we agreed to do gifts for each other a few days before Christmas. And I was doing so well; only providing him with sayings like, "You're going to love your gift," and "I can't wait to see your reaction when you open your gift." But then around the middle of December I just couldn't take it anymore and told him that I needed to just let him open his gift. He wasn't even pressuring me to open it early; no, I did that for him. I just couldn't wait.

Another example of my unwillingness to wait has surfaced with my pregnancy and wanting to find out the sex of the baby. I don't want to wait until I'm 20 weeks to know; especially because I know doctors can tell sooner than that. Don't they know that I need to start planning the nursery, and start shopping for my registry to prepare for the baby's arrival, and narrow our list of names down so it's not so frustrating to decide on our favorites?! So, I took matters into my own hands and started researching baby gender prediction tests that a friend of mine told me about. That's when I found IntelliGender. I decided that since it claimed to be 90% accurate and was touted on the show The Doctors, I had nothing to lose. And more importantly, I just couldn't wait.

Now, from the very beginning of this pregnancy, both Jody and I have had a very strong feeling that it's a boy. And when we went to our first ultrasound and got to see the little one, even the profile looked like it was going to be a boy. So I went to Target after work a few weeks ago, bought the last kit available (guess I wasn't the only one who couldn't wait), read the instructions that I had to wait to use my first morning urine (patience Jacqueline), even had a dream that night that I gave birth to a boy, shot out of bed as soon as the alarm went off, took the test, and in less than the 10 minutes it claimed to take...results said boy!

Of course I still wanted to be sensible so I wasn't running around telling everyone that I was pregnant with a boy. And I didn't go out and buy blue paint for the nursery. But we have focused our efforts to only boy names, which has proven to be harder to agree on than the list we have for girls. And we still refer to the baby as "him" and "little boy." We'll know for sure in a couple of weeks when we go in for the 20 week ultrasound. If when we go in and it ends up being a girl, we'll be just as excited - though I will feel a little bad for calling her a "him" for so long. But if our strong feeling from the beginning and the results of the IntelliGender were correct, then my just couldn't wait moment will be justified and I won't feel guilty for not being patient.

The Spoiled One...For Now

He goes by many names: Leo, The Buds, Leo Buds, Stink, Senor Buds, Old Man... Realistically though, he should be called The Spoiled One because he definitely fits that bill. He has three beds so we don't have to move them from room to room, a basket full of toys to choose from that he scatters everywhere so I can pick them up for him, specialty food so it won't upset his sensitive stomach, owns the entire backyard so much so that we don't dare plant anything because he'll ruin it, invites himself up on your lap and forces you to be lazy with him, has a space heater in the garage next to his crate for the cold months that drives our SMUD bill up, dominates our weekend mornings from 10:00am - 12:00pm so we can take him to the dog park when it's not raining, sleeps in our bed on the weekends, gets his own piece of turkey bacon on Saturday mornings (among other people food treats), gets to tag along leash-free when I go get the mail, annoys Littles all the time and we don't stop it (in fact we egg it on for our entertainment), has broken the "not allowed on the couch" rule so many times it no longer exists, uses the back door as his revolving door to go in and out every 10 minutes while we get to act as the doorman to open it for him, steals the blanket on your lap to cover himself with, runs to Jody when he's in trouble because he knows that he'll give him sympathy, and has us wired to automatically give him an ice cube every time we use the dispenser. These are just some of the ways that this dog is spoiled; I'm sure I could think of more.

However, this dog is in for a rude awakening when October rolls around and the baby arrives. While we can sit here and say that we're going to try and give him as much attention as possible still, even I think we're underestimating how much of our attention this baby will require of us. While there is a part of me that is interested to see him be pushed off his throne so he can stop being such a baby, there's also a part of me that's scared how he'll react. I've heard horror stories from others about how their dogs turned into brats and started peeing in the house again or even on the baby's stuff, chewed on anything they could find in the house, even a story about how their dog would run away. But I'm hoping - really hoping - that Leo will remain the lovable dog that he is. I'd like to think that he's going to be one of those dogs that lays next to the crib and licks the baby's face. You know, like in the feel good movies like Marley and Me.

So for the next 5 months, we'll let our Leo Buds be the spoiled one. We'll let him soak it up. And we're still going to try to give him as much attention as possible once the baby comes. We definitely won't ignore him because we love him too much. I mean, he is basically like our child - just a little more hairier, and with stinkier breath. Love you Stink!

What's the Big Idea?

Before deciding to take the plunge into the blogging world, I asked myself over and over, "What would you write about that people would want to read?" And after months of not really being able to come up with a better answer than, "I don't know," I decided that when it comes to blogging, you don't really need a big idea in order to write. As Blogger puts it, "Your blog is whatever you want it to be." So I'm taking that advice and just letting this blog be whatever I make it in to be. Of course, being the planner that I am I do still have ideas of what I hope to turn my blog in to, but because this whole blogging world is still new to me I'm going to start out with small, "whatever" ideas.

For now, I'm going to use The Jenkins Chronicle as a news source for family and friends who want to catch up on what our little family is up to. I promise to make it interesting (because boring stories aren't fun to read), update it frequently (more than once a week), and post photos to go along with posts (because everyone likes pictures). So, welcome to The Jenkins Chronicle where you can learn a little bit more about who we are, what we do, and how we live our day to day!