Summer Vacation?

Well, I've officially had my first week of summer vacation and I am not amused. I am working at my summer job, which is really a great place to work. I can do my job and leave when I finish--even if it's earlier than I'm scheduled. Unfortunately, since I'm part-time, I tend to get the crummy parts of the job to help out the people who work full-time since they don't want to do them either. Needless to say, I am not looking forward to a summer of working. I originally thought I'd work a couple days a week and have plenty of time to get my apartment set up and get some scrapbooking and reading done. However, I am working 5 days a week with some Saturdays thrown in as well. YUCK!

I know I should be grateful to have a job while so many people are out looking, but I am really willing to share the work load. I work this second job to keep me out of trouble, not because I really want to work. I think I'll have to ask my supervisor if we can reduce my hours during the month of July. I think she gave them to me because she thinks I actually want to work nine million hours. I'm hoping it's just miscommunication because I don't mind filling in every now and then, but I would like to have some semblance of a summer or I'm going to implode. Truly--I think my blood pressure is going crazy--which means I need to get to the doctor....just one more thing to add to my already overflowing to-do list.

In addition to working, I've been trying to get my apartment set-up so that I can officially stay over there. (I'm still staying at my parents' house with the cat until I can get things set-up.) I had hoped to stay over there starting this week, but VBS is this week, which means my niece will be staying with me and neither one of us are morning people if you catch my drift, so my Mom thought it would be better for us to stay with them so she can help me get my niece ready in the morning. Also, my air conditioner is out in the apartment. It hadn't been working very well for the past couple of days, but I thought it was because I had been moving furniture around. Nope. It was leaking like a river in the utility closet. Thankfully we had put the painting supplies in there and the paint tray was catching the water. (Thank you Lord for watching out for me.) The air conditioning guy didn't want to come out yesterday because it was getting too late and he wouldn't be able to see what he was doing, so he was supposed to go over today to fix it. I decided that I'll wait until after VBS tomorrow to look and see if he actually showed up. Here are some pictures of the apartment so far...

The Kitchen:

The Living Room/Dining Room (They shrunk):

The Craft Room: (Painted "Happy Camper" Green--doesn't the name just make you grin?)

My Bedroom: (Yes, I know it's missing a valuable piece of furniture--it's over there now)

I would show you the laundry closet--unfortunately, I shorted out the dryer cord when I tried to plug it in. Here's a tip for you--when checking cord, make sure the metal end pieces are not touching or they will blow apart and try to start a fire. Needless to say, I had to get a new cord from Home Depot. When my Dad came over last night to hang the ceiling fan in the craft room, he said he'd help with the dryer too. I had to laugh because he did the exact same thing mine did--only it didn't blow apart like my cord did. It just arced--whatever that means. Laundry will definitely be an adventure for the first time. I'll have the fire extinguisher ready--just in case....

After work this week, I finally went to IKEA with my friend Kim to see what the fuss is all about. This store opened a few weeks ago and is supposed to be one of the largest showrooms available. I've heard wonderful things about IKEA, but this was the first time I have actually been in one. I wasn't really impressed. The lighting was horrible and the walkways were cluttered. Finding a salesperson was like trying to find a needle in a haystack, and when you did finally come across a person, they weren't too thrilled to be helping you. They did have some great vignettes with their furniture and I found a really comfortable chair that may end up in my apartment one day, but over all--the best deals that I found were on extension cords--2 for $5.99. I may go back by myself one day just to browse and see if it was just the mood I was in, or if the store is always like that, but I'm not holding my breath.

VBS starts tomorrow. We have over 2000 kids attending and about 700 workers. Please pray for me. I really hate doing VBS because I'm horrible with little kids, but I volunteer because my niece attends and I feel like I have to. Last year I started out with a bad attitude also, but it was through your prayers that I was able to last and not kill a child by the end of our Family Night on Friday. I have 4th graders again this year and I'm trying to adjust my attitude so that they have fun and enjoy themselves despite me and my bad attitude. I was going to have the same girl working with me as last year, but they moved her to someone else's group so I have another teenager to try to get to know. I'll keep you posted and hopefully my attitude will improve. I think I actually liked my kids by the end of the week last year, so I'm going to go in with the attitude that I love my kids and hope that it actually works. Pray for all of us--it's supposed to rain this week. Pray that it waits until after 1 pm. Thanks!