Just Another Frantic Friday!

So today was the Friday when I wish it was Monday at work. I was scheduled to come in at 1:15. Thursday, they asked if I could come in at 11:15 instead... Friday Morning I got a call asking if I could be there, as soon as I can get there. Which is fine, I like the extra pay when my check comes rolling in :)

But...It was BUSY, Carol the office manager was sick, Joe the branch manger took a vacation day, and I was having an off day! Seriously, I couldn't manage to do anything right. I put holds on checks that probably didn't need them, I talked one lady into a tantrum by asking her to sign the back of the check...?? It was made out to her husband, he signed it - that's cool. They are both on the account - that's cool. However, since he is not in the car with her- she HAS to sign it indicating I gave the money to her, so he can't come back and say it was given to someone without authority. She just stares at me when I send it back to her, so I ask "Did the tube get stuck?" she takes a deep breath, and yells, "No. Why do I need to sign it when I never have before? This is ridiculous." So I told her the policy, and she still yelling says, "I've been coming here for years and never had to sign the check." So Carrie comes over and says, "(name). It is policy and we should have been having you sign the checks every time, she's just doing her job." So she signs them, rolls her eyes several times like she is two, then tears the money envelope into a million pieces and puts the trash back in the tube. Carrie then told me , "that's why we don't ask her to sign the checks, so we don't have to deal with her."

Then, at the end of the night, the guys wants 1200 back in cash. Yeah I count 8 100's then 20, 20's. Some how between counting it out of my drawer, counting it into the computer, and counting it into the envelope, I drop some 20's and he gets shorted 160 bucks. So he comes back around, and now I have to count my drawer ALL THE WAY DOWN. Just to find, I am over. So Carries hands me a stack of 20's and says here you can tell him you found it. I thought she counted those 20's out, so I stuff them in the envelope and send it out. Well then Carrie is like, "just balance out and go pick Isabela up." So then I am 40 SHORT! Thankfully the guy is a regular, he beeps in and says, "I love free money, but I think you gave me too much." So Luckily he was honest enough to give it back! Then I was only 12 cents short, which I gladly took the loss on and called it a night! Not to mention that before all of this here, Isabela calls to go to a Pasta party with the soccer team, I talk to the coach she says she will take her. During this transaction (why I got in the rush) is because she calls and Abby takes a message to tell me to pick her up right after I get off work, so not to wait till the party is over. Abby says, "she really needs picked up now." So I'm thinking oh lordy, what is going on. I'm thinking she got there and there is alcohol or something and I need to pick her up because the last thing we want is to get sent back home so early. Yeah, that takes me 40 minutes because I get lost! Thanks to Chris and his great sense of direction with maps he leads me to the house over the phone, and Isabela comes outside and everything is fine. She just was afraid she was putting us out by going, and then it was a swim party and she didn't have her suit because she just had her first practice with them today...so... that was interesting.

Football, Shopping and Concerts

Friday Night got our weekend started with a little hometown team football game. It was the Michigan City Wolves vs. the Gary-Roosevelt Panthers.

It was probably a victory for MC. We left just after half time because the score was 54 - 0! This makes for a poor football game, but it was also sad because we were rooting for the other team! So we left and got some ice cream from DQ.







Saturday, I had to work till 1:00. When I got home, I took a nap because I was just plain tired. Then Isabela and I went to the Lighthouse Mall. We walked the entire thing. Seeing every shop there. The only outlet priced store is Bath and Body Works- and this is a change from last year when I went there and it was a regular store. However, you can not use your coupons there anymore, it's already cheap now- 2.99 for almost everything in a regular large size.


Sunday morning we woke up early and headed to Chicago. We had a lot of things to do. We walked through one of the parks...not millennium....I can't remember... but anyway, Latin Fest was going on so we took a stroll through that. Making our way through the botanical garden to The Bean in Millennium Park.





...More Festivities going on, on the streets...We did not go check it out, but we did enjoy a nice yummy hot dog from a hot dog cart.





We went to catch the Trolley so we could visit Navy Pier. It was a packed Trolley. We had to stand and hold the bars which were way above the heads of myself and Isabela. Our arms felt like Jello when we were done. We rode the Ferris Wheel, got our picture taken, and Chris and Bela rode the Swings. My tummy was not feeling like going in those kind of circles after that hot dog.








Next we changed clothes at the car and walked to the Metra station that is more than a mile away. We ate Panda Express at the station and started our venture to the Backstreet Boys Concert. Here we are on the Train.


The Ravinia Park was nothing like we expected. We assumed it would be like Deer Creek (yeah, I know it's not Deer Creek anymore). It was crazy! The Stage was low, the seats in the pavilion were high and the lawn was full of trees and it went down hill from the stage. I was sad that we would not be able to see anything, but we were!


And you can bring in food, tables, chairs, candles, alcohol- whatever you want. People had four course meals, pretty much everything but the kitchen sink.


Here is Chris being bored. He was doing his favorite thing, listening to the security people on the scanner.


This was funny. If you forgot your food, there were no hot dogs, no chips, no soda... here is the menu for the concession stand. There were stands for drinks where you can get Martini's, specialty coffee drinks and wine. Lucky for us, there was a guy selling DIPPIN' DOTS!




Our Bracelets.





Girlicious.



Enjoying the Show.


We stood in the crowd for most of the Backstreet boys performance. Then some little girls in front left and everyone came running forward like a herd of elephants, so we decided to go back the blanket. We met a girl that has a great, like 12X zoom camera that was getting pictures of the faces, so I got her email, when she sends them I will post some. I did not get any of the BSB because it was too dark by then, and the lights were too bright.

Once we were back to the blanket, Chris was listening to his scanner. He had found the frequencies to hear like just the keyboard, just the guitar and even Brian's voice before it hit the sound board to make him sound good. It was quite an experience. He just has a normal voice, it was kind of shaky even.

After the concert we got on the metra train and went back into Chicago. What was a 20 minute ride to the park, was an hour ride back because of all the drop offs. We had to sit next to a drunk gay couple on the train back. The one had the hiccups, and he got up to use the restroom, I thought he was going to puke. The other guy says, "don't judge, don't judge now. I saw the look." And the rest of the time they were on the train, it was FUNNY! He had a $300 bottle of liquor, he had some other kind of liquor, club soda and wine cups. He was offering us drinks, we all said no, but he goes, "you're from Brazil, you need a drink." and she said, "no thank I am much younger." and he's like come on, come on. And I said No really she's an exchange student here, and he asks, "you mean for the art institute?" and I said, "no for like Michigan City High School." His face turned bright red, "omg, omg and I'm offering you alcohol! I could go to jail, I am so sorry I just assumed you were all in college." It was funny! So I guess you had to be there, but hey- we all had fun.

All in all, we had a great weekend filled with adventure...

Day Of Caring

On Friday, August 22 all National City's in LaPorte County locked their doors at noon and headed off to "volunteer" for a Day of Caring with the United Way. We actually got paid because the district manager made it a mandatory task. We had fun while we were doing it, but sorry to everyone in the county who wanted to cash their paychecks...(Just so everyone knows, I do volunteer on my own time. I volunteered 4 hours a week in a first grade class room last year, and this year I am spending one of my days off each week in a 6th grade language arts classroom.)

Here is the whole bunch of us. This is only the MC Branches. Here we are holding the sign that the Barker Woods Enrichment Center made for us. We also got lunch from Jimmy John's Catered in, it was GOOOOOD.

My first task was to wash all of the bikes and trikes. Then I oiled all of the chains and every turning thing on them all with WD40. I must have done a good job, because when the kids came out to play later that day one boy yelled, "Man this thing is really fast now!"

Eileen and I then worked together to pull the grass out of the playground rocks. This was HAAARRRRD work...and my nails were nasty gross after we were done.

I went over to see what everyone else was up to over in the play house section....big mistake! They were sweeping the basketball courts when they got a great idea to clean under that basketball hoop...yeah, let's just say that this little guy and about 500 of his friends and family members are out of a home now.

Here is my team members, minus Carol who was at Ball State dropping her son off for college. First is our Branch Manager Joe, Next is our CSLeader, Carrie- she has been with the bank for 7 years. There I am, Next to me is Abby- and behind her is Andy... and yes, he is squatting just slightly because he is way tall. Everyone comments on his height when they come into the branch.

After our nice little break from the heat, it was time to move a massive pile of wet, dried and wet again Cardboard boxes. In this process, three little mice also lost their home. They were fast too.

Yeah, I wasn't talking little boxes- I they were huge. Here I am trying to "roll" it up. There was a long walk to the other side of the building for the dumpster. My arms were nice and tired when we were done.

After our work was done, we took a tour of the facilities. Here is the world's smallest toilet. The lady said that regulations for childcare prevent them from using a training potty, so they had to get this itty-bitty toilet for the 2 year olds bathroom.

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Carrie and I worked the day on Saturday, and it was not as bad as we expected. We thought we would be crazy busy, and would get yelled at a lot. However, that did not happen. Two people called to be sure we were open today, and one person asked what all we did through the drive thru. We would like to think this is the end of it, but... next week may prove to have a few more angry customers, we'll just have to wait and see...

Congrats Hundley Family!

Welcome Caleb!

I just wanted to welcome Baby Caleb into the wonderful world! He is the handsome nephew of our Great Friend Jamie. I love the Hundley Family so much and wanted to share their joyful new addition with everyone. Congrats Momma and Papa Hundley on the new Grand baby, and a gigantic CONGRATS to Erica and her husband Nate!!

The First Day

Here is Isabella at the bus stop on her first day of school. It is close enough to walk, but we just drove down the road instead. Her stop is about 2.5 blocks away. She walked right up to the other students already waiting at the bus stop, and started making friends. Sure she has been here less than a week, but I still felt like I was sending my own child on their first day... I came home and no one to talk with. I had four days in a row off, and I was getting used to sitting on the couch till 11am and talking, talking, talking... So now I know slightly what moms feels like on the first day of school... I guess all the emails from before she arrived made me get to know her that much better, a lot more quickly. I may be crazy, I could be crazy, am I crazy? :) No, but seriously she is doing so great at making friends, her parents should be really proud of the outgoing personality they have helped her develop.

My Mistake

In Brazil, they have LOTS and LOTS and LOTS of ATM's everywhere... Isabela was just saying that she is not used to the Drive-Thru part of the bank. I thought is was very weird that they would not have ATM's.... aren't they more advanced than us in that department...???

Jackpot!

It has been very fun these past few days with Bela. Sunday morning we hung out at the house. Then we got dressed and went to Burger King for lunch. Bela said that she liked Burger King because there is one in Rio that she likes. We thought that would be a safe place to eat for her stomach. Food her belly will recognize. It tasted a little different she said, but still very good.



We knew that we would need for cash for the tour at Barker Mansion we wanted to take. So we got to show Isabela all about the ATM and how you get cash when the bank is closed. She said that they do not have ATM's.


We went to Barker Mansion but you must go on a guided tour, and the next tour was in an hour. We decided we would come back, and we went to the beach for the Art Festival.


Chris and Isabela enjoy the art booths. The prices were outrageous. The most expensive thing I saw was $2100. It was a lengthy rectangular canvas painting with green paint splattered and a metal fish head coming out of the middle... I would not pay $2100 for it, but then again I am not really into art like that...




We also went to Wal-Mart to get a few items for Isabela. Then we came home and Chris and I fell asleep on the couch! When we woke up we made plans to go see The Dark Knight at the IMAX. Unfortunately, the interstate was at a dead stop, so we had to take the toll road, Which the on-ramp was backed up. Then the direction were off, because we took a different road. The movie had already started by the time we arrived. We decided that we would just come back another night.

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Monday Chris went to work and Isabela and I just chilled until about 11:30. Then we went outside in our PJ's and washed the car. Here is what it looked like when we started.



There was a sprinkler on at the University Park Mall and it was VERY hard water. My car looked bad. Check out those spots.






Here is the nice shiny car! See, it really does shine!



We even cleaned the tires.


Taaa-Daaa, we're finished.


Now, it was time to get registered for school. The teachers and counselors were in meetings all day. So we have to go back today to get her registered. We met Robyn at the school and she showed us around the school, and told Isabela about the different types of food lines in the cafeteria.

Then we stopped at my work and said HELLO to my co-workers. Joe, Carrie and Abby were working, Andy was out to lunch and so was Carol. We got cookies at the branch because we beat our Credit Card Application Goal for last month. They sent a HUGE box of cookies! They were VERY GOOOOOD.

While we were there at work, Joe asked me into his office. Of course I'm like thinking, "Dude it's my day off- don't yell at me now." and he came in and said he had one more thing to finish. He left, he came back, and he gave me 25 dollars. We have been having a contest at work where any approved loan applications or credit card applications that we get, he pays us a set amount out of his wallet. This is because he has been in trouble for us not meeting our goals lately, so this is how he gets us to get more referrals. So last week, I had three pre-approved Signature Lines of Credit pop up. I told the customer and sold them the product! But since they were not written applications I guess they do not count for the money contest. However, I still got money because Joe's boss made a special mention of it on the managers call, and said I deserve something special for getting 3 sig lines. so.. JACKPOT!

After the bank, we went to McDonalds for milkshakes and fries. Can I just say Poor Bela! When we went to Olive Garden they put peppers on her food when she asked them not too. So she had to wait for it to get remade, and NOW we are told the McD's is OUT OF MILKSHAKES! Yeah that's right , OUT OF MILKSHAKES! So we got some soda instead.

Then we went back to the school to watch the Girls Soccer team. They want her to join the team very badly. The entire team (both JV and Varsity) were very nice to her. I told her it is up to her and her parents.

We came home and relaxed for awhile. Then we walked to the library and got some movies. Chris was home cooking dinner when we got back. He made the Roast. It was Very Yummy! Isabela really like the carrots.

Today, we are going to go school supplies shopping after we get her registered- and I don't know what we will do after that. She starts school on Thursday.