More Lessons from Me

Part of my job at Target is to go through all the applications that we receive and separate them into "potential" or "turndown". Pretty sure those are self explanatory. We get probably 50-75 a day, so this can be a huge task. They come from people who come in and fill out a handwritten application (which I then get to manually enter into the computer) or people who come in and fill them out on the computers in our store or from people who fill them out online. Not too long ago, I wrote an entry about Lessons for Shoppers, so today I am going to write some lessons from Human Resources.
1 - If you are filling out an application, please actually read the application. Different words have different meanings. The words "Country" and "County" are two different words. I cannot tell you how many applications I have gotten where the address line says Country and the applicant will put whatever random county they live in.

2-Please realize that there are certain things on your application that will send you directly to the turndown file. We are a retail company that is open from 8 am to 10 pm, except during the holidays, when we are open until 11 pm. If your availability is Monday, Wednesday and Thursday from 2pm - 5 pm, you are probably wasting your time filling out the application. And, you're wasting my time making me read and file your application. Especially when it comes to holiday staffing, we are looking for the people who can work the most often. You need to be able to work at some point during the weekend.

3-Be open on your application. If you have some sort of criminal record, please put what it is on your application. If I see you have a record, but in the explanation area you put "I would rather explain this to you in person" or "I was at the wrong place at the wrong time", I'm going to assume that for the first one you need to come up with a creative way to spin whatever it was that you did or for the second one that you still haven't owned up to the crime you committed, so you are going to be turned down.

4-Once you have filled out an application, if you would like to call to check on the status, do so during the day. Saturday night is a very busy time in the retail world and is probably not the best time to call to see about your application. Odds are the person you need to talk to about it will be there during the day and available to at least look it up. At night or on the weekends, even if the person is there, he or she is too busy to go look up an application. Also, please don't call every twenty minutes or we will be tempted to turn you down just so we don't have to deal with you.

5- Once you have been hired and come for orientation, please check all your paperwork and make sure your name, address, any other pertinent information is correct. It takes like a second to fix it at orientation and like 6 weeks to fix it after orientation. Don't know why that is, but it is. And, yes, it's very important that it is correct. The last people you want to aggrevate is the Department of Homeland Security.

Anyway, that's about it. As the Christmas season gets going, we begin hiring seasonal people and these issues come up more and more. Just some helpful information!

Our Weekend

So, our weekend was really good. Friday night, my Mom kept the three little ones (Zoe spent the night with a friend) while Adam and I went to dinner and then to Lifeway. Lifeway is not a kid friendly store at all, so when we're alone we actually go and look at books and music and stuff. We went and ate at Ruby Tuesday. (I had a real hankering for this since I had to cancel our lunch, Trudie) It was really good and then we headed to Lifeway to just look around. It was a nice relaxing evening. Saturday, we started cleaning things out of our house and we got the boys room completely cleaned out and reorganized. So much better. The girls rooms will be next, but they are not nearly the mess the boys room was. The boys room tends to be the abyss of broken toys. Toys get played with and broken and some how wind up in the boys room never to be seen again! We also got all the summer clothes cleaned out finally and drawers and closets reorganized for winter. Ahhhhhhh.... Saturday night I had to work and Zoe spent the night with another friend (this is not usual practice, but she enjoyed it).
On Sunday, we went to church and had such an awesome day! The Spirit was so alive in the service and the sanctuary was packed! Our new pastor brings so much energy and excitement and the Spirit moved in all the services! It was amazing!!!
Now here we are at Monday and rolling along into another week. My work schedule is starting to pick up since the Christmas season is upon us, so I will be working more. The money will be nice, but I'm not really looking forward to it. But, I do like my job.
So, I am going to go get Annabelle down for her nap and try to get some cleaning done before the big kids get home!

Rain, laundry, errands (maybe) and a date tonight!

So that about sums up my day. I am in the process of trying to get all of the laundry done today so I don't have to do it tomorrow! I am now on load #4. I only have 3 left! Anybody got any ideas on how to get people not to get their clothes dirty? Because, this time next week, all of these will be dirty again! :)
I'm thinking I will not run my errands since it is raining. What a perfect day to fold laundry and nap since I haven't had a good nights sleep in two nights. On Wednesday night, Sebastian woke up in the middle of the night complaining about his ear hurting. A little love and tylenol and he went back to sleep on the couch with me. Not the most comfortable place. (yes, I took him in and he does have his first ever ear infection...he is also on antibiotics for the first time in his life. The doctor called him an antibiotic "virgin".) Anyway, last night, we woke up at 1:45 am because he had slept on his arm in a funny position and it was asleep and tingling. So he was crying, which of course woke Jude up since they share a room. Sebastian was inconsolable, so I settled Jude into bed with Adam and brought Sebastian downstairs for the second night in a row. We made so much noise that the cats started meowing because they thought it was time to get up. Which made the dog bark. (the cats sleep locked in our laundry room...the rest of their lives they are outside) So I get everyone settled down..Sebastian on the couch with me and the dog asleep in Adam's chair. Then, I see Annabelle come in the living room. Great! Of course, she thought it was time to get up as well. I finally conceded. I was so tired. All I wanted to do was go to sleep. So I turned on the hour long Dora Saves the Snow Princess, put Annabelle on the floor with a pillow and blanket and laid on the couch with Sebastian. Everyone was asleep before it was over, thankfully. So, I'm going to try to get a nap today. This morning, Adam had no idea any of this had gone on! How does he sleep through this stuff?
Tonight, my mom is going to keep the kids so Adam and I can go to dinner. I'm so very excited. We are never alone, so this will be fun. And, we will probably do the errands I was supposed to do today while we're out tonight. Then I won't feel guilty about not leaving the house in the rain today.

The Earth will keep spinning...

So, to be perfectly honest, I am disappointed in the election results. I'm bothered by the fact that the most powerful man in our nation does not view every life as valuable and worth saving. I am also concerned about how much I am going to have to pay in taxes and a list of other things. But, I also totally know that God is in control. This is not the end of the world. Would I rather have a conservative in office? Yes. Would I rather have someone who is going to control government spending? Yes. Would I rather have someone who is going to limit government control in the lives of the people? Yes. Was I super excited about McCain? Well, um, no. (Of course, if I probably could have won if I had gotten 75% positive coverage in the main stream media. I'm not going there...onto a different subject...)



But, the reality is that God was not surprised by the results and ultimately He is in control. Life will continue on. So, while I am a very conservative person and disagree with the president-elect on just about every "hot button"issue, I am now going to commit to praying for this man. I cannot imagine the pressure of such a position. I cannot imagine how overwhelmed he must feel. No one person can fix all the problems in America (let alone the world, which is, for some reason, what people expect from the President of the United States) so he is going to need the help of the Almighty, whether he realizes it or not. So, I am now pledging to pray for him and to try not to complain too much. (Notice I did not say I wouldn't complain at all!) God is in complete control and He loved all of these politicians enough to send His Son to die for them too. So, I guess the least I can give them is some respect.

Oh, on another note, two of my friends who were running for state offices both won their elections. And, while I couldn't vote for either of them (one was in GA and one was in KY) I would like to offer my congratulations to these two fine men! How exciting!

A Diva, Optimus Prime, Bumblebee, and a Princess

Halloween was lots of fun! Zoe was a Diva, complete with purple hair and a microphone. Sebastian was Optimus Prime and Jude was Bumblebee. Annabelle was, of course, a princess - with pink snow boots. We just went around our neighborhood, which is really big and full of kids. We came home with so much candy! We now have five full buckets of candy. Three filled with chocolate type candy and two full of fruity type candy. You absolutely cannot mix chocolate and fruity candy or it all starts to taste like chocolate. And anything with peppermint in it gets thrown away because it taints all of the candy.

We had lots of fun. Our neighborhood is also very hilly so we all started walking and by the end, I was carrying Annabelle and Adam was carrying Jude. So we were all exhausted by the time we got back to the house. But we had so much fun!!

Zoe's Diva

Annabelle's Princess - notice the snow boots-her choice!

Optimus Prime and Bumblebee
(they had masks, but they couldn't see in them)

Finally back on line...

I've finally got my internet back up at home! Yay!! So, let's see...in the last month, what have we been up to? Well, we went on our first family camping trip. We went with our dear friends and we had lots of fun. The kids did really well - all 9 of them! Yes, we went into the woods for a night, with 2 nine year olds, an eight year old, 2 five year olds, a four year old, 2 three year olds and a one year old. But we had a great time. We decided that the next time we do it, we are going to stay two nights because the time we spent setting up and taking down was too much for just one night.
Then, last weekend, I had our choir retreat weekend, which was so awesome. It was just what I needed when I needed it. It was so refreshing. Thursday night, all day Friday and Saturday morning. It was great. We had a couple of guests that came and it was such an amazing time of just singing and praising the Lord. Also, last weekend, our new pastor and his wife and baby son moved here to Chattanooga.
Today was the 80th anniversary of our church so we had a big special service this morning. It was also our new pastor's first Sunday at our church. We are so excited about what God is doing in our church.
So that's what's been going on for the last month. I'm sure there is more, but I will catch up as I think about it.