My Weekend

So this weekend was pretty cool. We had a wonderful stake conference, Catherine made the best lasagna ever (for real) and pretzels, we paid off a lot of our debts, and Gwen got new teeth (pictures will come later, I'm sure). Also, the Winks recently sent us some trail mix and it came in handy this week when I didn't make time to eat before bed. Thanks guys:)

Working the graveyard shift poses interesting problems that I have to deal with. Most people sleep at night and so when I'm out doing stuff, whether that be service or play or whatever, I tend to fall into the trap of thinking I'm on a normal schedule like them. Although I'm getting better I tend to overbook myself and then I remember that I have to work at midnight. This was my Saturday to do list: organize manpower and set up chairs for stake conference, follow up with home teachers to help with moves, play with Gwen, spend time with Catherine, attend leadership meeting, attend adult session of stake conference, find babysitter, eat, shower, oh yeah, sleep before I go back to work at 11:15 p.m.. Needless to say that a lot of that didn't get done. I did help set up chairs, I followed up with HT's, I hugged and kissed my wife and daughter and chatted with them for about 5 seconds, ate some blueberries, showered, and attended the leadership meeting. I did get some sleep before the meeting (3 hrs) but ended up staying home from the adult session so I could sleep some more. I guess that wasn't so bad, we didn't have to find a babysitter and I was refreshed for the general session of conference. Anyway, overall it went better than usual. I'm glad too because the Sunday morning session had a lot to offer and I'm glad I wasn't falling asleep the whole time (that's not to say that Catherine didn't have to tap me on the shoulder a couple of times, I'm human).

Work has been interesting lately, too. I don't know if you've ever heard of employers incorporating a draft for selecting schedules, but on Friday my employer had its annual draft and I got bumped off to the 4-12 shift. Come August I won't be working graveyard anymore. That's good and bad. I'll appreciate leaving the graveyard shift but since I start grad school in September I'm not sure if I'll be able to pull off a job on top of a full load of classes and an internship. I guess I could if I wasn't married, a member of the church, or gave a rats about anything else... The reality is that I probably will end up quiting come September. It's kind of okay, I guess. This last week I started feeling like some of the boys are slipping backwards. I try to work with them but now I feel like their trying to take advantage of my goodness. One of the boys was joking around with me after I had warned them against feeling like I was one of their peers, and I let him know that he wasn't running game on anyone, including me. He stopped but I think they've gotten to comfortable with me so I think I need to step it up and be more aggressive in holding them accountable when they come up short. I'll need to set this pattern before my move to 4-12 when I will be spending 6 of my 8 hours working with them. Anyway, I'll see how it goes this week and keep you posted.

-JP