We Wish You A Merry Christmas...

So yay, my Christmas - errrr New Year's - cards went out tonight, which means they're really in the overstressed mail stream tomorrow. They'll arrive eventually, and next year I'll order the cards prior to December 10. They turned out gorgeous, no?

Most Wonderful Year Christmas 5x7 folded card

Create modern Christmas cards at Shutterfly.

View the entire collection of cards.

And for all of you, a special edition of the letter and where we stand this year. Life. Is. Good.

Happy Holidays!

This year, I was so proud of myself. I thought about cards more than two weeks before Christmas. Then I ordered them and discovered that they wouldn’t arrive until only a couple days before. Oops!

This year has been a fun one. Mister Man has moved into first grade, still at the Catholic school, where he is doing really well. With the official Asperger’s diagnosis for him coming in April, we are truly impressed at the improvement he’s had over the last several months. Starting him in Tae Kwon Do this summer – he’s now a purple belt and working towards his green belt – has made a huge difference, and he loves it. He’s also doing “gymnastics” as part of an OT program that has been a lot of fun, although these activities meant we had to give up swimming lessons in September.

Little Miss is also doing gymnastics and becoming pretty decent for a five year old. She’s still in the beginner class, but her cartwheels and handstands are definitely recognizable as such. She started kindergarten in a special Spanish immersion program, meaning that she has a near full day program that is entirely in Spanish except for lunch and library. It’s been an interesting transition for her (and for me – I’d thought she was going to be at the same school with Mister Man until the day before school started!), but with some friends both from preschool and the summer school class she did, she’s been loving it!

They both did t-ball this past summer and enjoyed it, but I think we’ll skip that next year. Games every Saturday and Sunday from April to June was a bit much. We’ll find other ways to occupy our time instead. They also got to go to Disney twice this year, once for a conference I attended (which meant all sorts of special backstage meet and greets and other neat stuff – like being at a Mission Impossible dinner for Robert Irvine on Food Network) and once with my parents in August. I don’t think they’ll ever get tired of it.

My husband is continuing to do the traveling teacher gig between schools, which he enjoys. His coaching commitments have already started, and he’s anticipating a good team this year – at least at the middle school level. He turned 40 this year (at the end of July) and was surprised (in September) with a party to celebrate. That milestone hasn’t stopped him from playing baseball, and he’s signed up for next year already, too. Between that, teaching, coaching and his PA announcing, he’s pretty much booked up, but that hasn’t stopped him from adding some tutoring on the side recently.

I am happy to announce that I am no longer PTO president, which has removed some responsibilities. That said, I'm secretary of the board at Mister Man’s school and in charge of hospitality at Little Miss's. It’s still easier than what I had been doing - besides, I quit work at the end of June to stay home with the wee ones, so have more time (theoretically). I ran my first 5K in NYC in August (with Melisa with one S) and am now learning how to use my new DSLR – slowly.

I hope that your year has brought you peace and happiness!

Current Giveaways:
Professional cookware, courtesy Jewel here
Baby Einstein Discovery Kit here

And So It Begins...

So do you remember back on ohhhh January 5 when I told you about how I had completed one of my goals for the new year? That would be almost exactly two months ago now.

Why don't you go grab something to drink and eat as I give you the update on my saga. We last left off when I had requested a leave of absence from my work - with a resignation letter typed up just in case - and my boss agreeing to a ninety day leave.

The next step was to figure out how. So I read the information on our intranet. While we have two kinds of leave - FMLA and personal leave - they don't differentiate well between the two, and there is no information about how to submit a personal leave.

January 5: I submitted a case to the online HR (it's all centralized now, whee!). I asked whether my situation qualified for FMLA or personal leave and, if personal leave, how I went about submitting it.

January 8: I called the 800 number for HR to inquire about my case, as it had been the three business day turnaround and I'd yet to hear a word. I was told that my case had been assigned to someone who would contact me with an answer. They couldn't help provide me with any info, nor could they give me an estimated turnaround time.

January 12: I received an email announcing that my case was closed and that to submit FMLA, I had to call an 800 number. Well, let's see. That a) repeated what was online word for word b) didn't answer the question of what I qualified for and c) skipped over the question on how to submit a personal leave. I immediately reopened it and requested an update on the specific questions I had.

January 15: I submitted a question to my online case (the only way I had to converse with HR on my case) asking for an update on the status.

January 21: I submitted another request for an update, since I'd yet to hear a word.

January 25: My case is once again marked closed. I am told that they cannot decide what is a personal v FMLA leave and that I should instead just apply for FMLA and see what happens. Seriously? Seriously, this is the solution you give me after almost three weeks of waiting?

January 26: I submit my FMLA claim and am told that paperwork will be processed and sent to me within 24 hours. I was to fill out my section of paperwork, then have my physician complete the remainder of it and return it. (The FMLA came about based on some of the behavior regression we're seeing with Mister Man - with me being at home and getting him into a more regular routine, the hope is that we can help stem this.)

February 1: The FMLA paperwork arrives in the mail. Again, it takes a week to mail something now? I fill out all the paperwork for my side and take it to the pediatrician - who of course is off until that Thursday.

February 4: The pediatrician calls me and asks about where we stand on some of the steps we'd talked about when I'd brought Mister Man in previously. As I was seeing a specialist on February 8, she requested that we hold off on turning in the paperwork until we heard from that person.

February 8: I waste four hours of my time at a doctor who doesn't want to see us. I'm highly irritated.

February 9: We have a massive snowstorm, and I leave work early. When I get home at 3, I try to connect to my work remotely, as I do every day. I can't connect. A call to the help desk later, we discover that I have mistakenly been put on leave and my access has been blocked. I ask my boss to submit a case to online HR (sound familiar?) reinstating me.

February 11: (Note, I am off work here and in Florida.) The pediatrician calls me to chat about our next steps and what I heard from the specialist. She agrees to fill out the paperwork and fax it in.

February 12: From Florida, I call the 800 number for the HR help to find out where my reinstatement is. Again, I am told that the case has been assigned to "someone" and that they will get back to me when they have a resolution. I explain the urgency and need that I am reinstated, to no avail.

February 15: I am still unable to log in from home, so I rearrange my childcare and go into the office. I finally get ahold of the person who is assigned to my case who is remarkably helpful and gets me reinstated immediately. He also actually answers all the questions I have on leaves from the previous closed case. I had given up on ever getting answers to those questions, but now I completely understand.

February 16: I get a call from the FMLA administrator saying that they have rejected the claim as the pediatrician neglected to fill out two sections of it. I contact the pediatrician's office, and I await another call from the pediatrician.

February 17: My boss and I decide that we are going to forget about the FMLA and just apply for a personal leave, now that I know how to do so from the conversation I had earlier this week with the helpful HR guy. We decide to wait until Thursday afternoon to apply for it starting three business days later.

February 18 4:45pm: I head to the pediatrician's office to pick up a copy of the paperwork that I remember the pediatrician said she was leaving for me. When I pick it up, the nurse notices that it isn't the same paperwork that is in the file. She makes a copy of the new paperwork for me. I notice that it has the two missing sections filled in and that it was faxed on the 15th.

February 18 5:15pm: I contact the benefits administrator (they were closed by the time I got home on the 19th) to see where my claim stands. They tell me that it was approved for a leave starting February 22. Ummm hold on a moment - so *I* have to call them to find out that it was approved. And it starts less than a business day later? I make arrangements to move the start date back a week so that I can transition some things at work. I cannot move the end date back a week and am hoping that my pediatrician will send in a note requesting the end date be changed. I then call my boss and let him know that the leave has finally been approved, and we don't have to go the route of personal leave (where my job is not protected).

February 25: I work my last official day (I'm off on Fridays). It feels really weird to be handing so many things over to different people and to say goodbye to those I enjoy working with. I also realize that it takes almost three hours to upload my critical files to a shared drive so they can be accessed while I am off. So much for signing off at 5pm or shortly thereafter.

I never imagined that this would be a two month saga. I never dreamed it would take two weeks to figure this out. Yikes!

March 1: This is tomorrow. This is my first official day of leave where I would be working and can instead settle into a new routine. So what am I going to do? Do I go get a massage? Change the oil in my car? Go grocery shopping? Clean up and organize the PTO room? Help stuff invitations for Mister Man's school event? Get a mani/pedi? Go to the gym and work out? The world is my oyster.

Orrrrr not. Nope, instead on Day One, I will be home with Little Miss, resident sickie.

Eleven weeks, four days to go. Wish me luck!