I fought the law and the law won

This week has been extremely busy for me...and even though it's Thursday there are no signs of it slowing down anytime soon. I had one final Tuesday night, and another one last night...I'll post about it later. Monday night after I got off work I spent 2 hours finishing the cleaning I started on Saturday for my Grandpa. He is buying one of the townhouses my dad just built, so the interior needed to be thorougly cleaned before they could move in. It took me FOREVER! It was well worth it though! :)

Anyway, it's bee a crazy week, so here it is Thursday and I'm seriously drained. It doesn't help that for the last three nights Alexa has woken me up about 3 or 4. I'm not certain that she woke me up Monday night because at this point they are all running together. Tuesday night when she woke up I nursed her and put her back down with no problem, but yesterday at work I could tell how tired I was. So after a long day yesterday...my exam wasn't until 8:15, I came home and put Alexa to bed and shortly thereafter got in bed myself. When she woke up crying about 3 I really hoped she would go back to sleep...no such luck. So I got her and nursed her again hoping that would put her back to sleep, but when she started biting me I knew we were done there. I could just tell she wanted to play. She was all over the bed, so I decided to try and put her back in her bed to see if she would go to sleep. As we walked into her room she had her head on my shoulder and seemed to be very sleepy...as soon as I moved her away from my body she started screaming. I couldn't take it any longer...I had been up with her for over an hour and I desperately needed sleep. So, I did the only thing I could do...

I gave her the PACI!

I know, I'm so disappointed in myself, I couldn't hold out! As soon as the paci went in her mouth, I laid her down and she went right off to sleep. I was so relieved...I got to go back to sleep! I know it's not a huge deal, but I almost felt like a failure. I'm going to try again tonight, so we will see how it goes.

Check it out...

Check out Jodi's blog for some super cute pictures of Alexa and Walker playing together last night! They are both so sweet! I wish I could've been there. Hopefully we will get some really cute pictures Thursday when we are putting the tree up!

One down...Two to go

Last night I took the hands-on portion of my networking final. I am pleased to announce that I made a 100 on it!! It actually wasn't very hard...lots of router configuration, but that's all pretty standard. The hardest part was troubleshooting.

The whole exam was broken down into sections and each section was worth 10, 20, or 30 points. After we had our entire network subnetted, and then configured and the teacher checked everything, he then got to "break" our network. I was the first one finished, and I had to leave the room to let him "break" my network. After a few minutes I came back and had to troubleshoot my router to see what he did. This was worth 10 points, so in the scheme of things was it a big deal if I got a 90 on the exam?? No, probably not, but since the online final is going to be very difficult, I need all the help I can get!

Needless to say, I figured out everything he had done to my router, and I fixed it pretty quickly. I have to say I think he was a bit disappointed that it didn't take me longer to figure out what he did.

I am glad to have that one out of the way...I have my next final tonight, and then I'm going to take the online portion on Friday afternoon. Wish me luck!

Slacking...

I have done such a poor job of posting pictures lately...and there are multiple reasons. The main one would be that it's hard to post pictures you didn't take!! :) The second would be that I had a hard time locating the USB cable for my new camera. I finally found it last night, so I'm going to post a few pictures.

Here is Alexa on one of her last paci days...I think this was on Friday or Saturday before it went away on Sunday. She has done remarkably well, and I am so proud of her. With the exception of once at daycare and at the basketball game late Friday night when she was sleepy, she has been over a week without it. She doesn't even seem to miss it! My baby is growing up way too fast!! :) I love every minute of it!

Here Mimi and Alexa are playing with Gabe the kitty...Alexa loves to try and hug him, give him kisses, or back up and sit down on him. He doesn't always love her, but he has been super sweet to her no matter what she has done to him!

And finally...my first attempt at card making! This is the thank you card I sent a friend for the contest prize she sent me. She was super sweet to email me and let me know she got it and that she thought I did a good job. Like I said for my first attempt I didn't think it was too bad, but compared to what I've seen her do, it was nothing! I'm going to try the star again on my next card...a little bigger, and with a different technique, but I thought the beads gave it a neat look. I will let you know how it goes. As for the embossing done with the Cuttlebug, I would recommend stamping or writing on the card ahead of time if you are going to emboss the whole thing. It made that slightly difficult!

I hope I'm going to get to scrap this weekend and play with some of my new techniques...including embossing pictures! Embossing folders would be a great stocking stuffer...hint hint...for any scrapper on your list! :) Hope everyone is having a great week! Mine will be better tomorrow once my exams are over. At this point I am really in need of a few weeks that don't include school. They won't necessarily be restful (because I haven't even started Christmas shopping) but at least I won't have the stress of school hanging over me too! Only 21 more days until Christmas...I'm getting so excited, I can't wait to see Alexa rip into presents!! :)

Stocking Stuffers

Ok everyone...Leigh-Ann of Freckled Nest is offering the cutest little Christmas ornaments. You can personalize them for anyone! They are also a great price @ only $4 a piece. Check them out, they are sure to be a crowd pleaser!

It's Thursday Again!!

I love Thursday because that means the weekend is just around the corner...and I usually leave early on Friday so my weekend is even closer!! :) This Thursday I'm going to do my list on 13 things I want for Christmas...with a twist!!

1. This Christmas I want to start new traditions that we can carry on each year with the babies!
2. I want to give as much as possible to those less fortunate than myself
3. I want to see Alexa tearing into presents...last Christmas was pretty much a regular day to a 3 month old!
4. I want to find the perfect gift for everyone on my list
5. I want to spend as much time as I can with my family
6. I want our church to surpass our Lottie Moon goal
7. I want to make a new friend
8. I want to take a trip somewhere special...it doesn't have to be far away or cost a lot of money as long as it's special
9. I want everyone (myself included) to remember the reason for the season!
10. I want to celebrate in a way that glories God
11. I want to bake cookies with Alexa
12. I want snow!!
13. I want those around me to know how much I love and appreciate them!

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend. I'm having a girls' night out tomorrow night...I can't wait! :) I'll try to post some pictures on Saturday!

Removed from my blacklist

On October 8th, Medicare went through an upgrade, and immediatly all of the 1500 claims began showing a new error in EDI (which is the application I mainly work in). This meant that Medicare was not accepting any claims from us electronically...and they never accept hardcopy claims. So, what does that mean? It means claims piling up left and right!

After talking to countless people at EDI, Medicare, and who knows where else the problem was resolved as of yesterday!! YEAH!!! Test claims were submitted yesterday and they were accepted...and this morning I edited some of the older claims and transmitted those and they have also been accepted!! I can't tell you how happy I am about this.

Up until October 8th I was working each workfile in EDI daily...at the end of the day my goal was to have 0 errors, and unless something unusual was going on I almost always met my goal. As of today I have 4000 Medicare claims waiting to be edited and processed. While this means I have a lot of editing to do...it also means that I'm going to get both workfiles down to 0 errors again, which really makes me happy!

Medicare has officially been removed from my blacklist! (of course that is contingent on all of these claims being paid and not coming back with some other error which would be my luck...LOL)

My Wednesday just got a little bit brighter!