Working Momma

Monday was Veteran's Day AND orientation for my new job at UPS :) My mom came over to watch Avery while I attended the 2 hour orientation. It was very BORING - our study guide was full of grainy black and white pictures and spelling errors, the introductory video was even more ridiculous. I was struggling to keep my eyes open during orientation BUT I got paid for it so it was worth it :)

On Wednesday I took Avery to playgroup, I really didn't feel like going but since its my last week as a stay at home mother I kind of felt obligated. Our playgroup toured a fire station this week, a lot of people showed up. Avery instantly fell in love with the fire truck, she called it the "big vroom vroom".

Driving the fire truck

That evening I left Avery with Steven so I could have a girls' night. I drove to Kristen's house and from there Kristen, Allison, and I drove out to Nampa together. The 'party' was at Jeca's new apartment, we ate finger foods, had cider, played Taboo, and chatted. I didn't get home until 1:30am!!

Naturally, Avery woke up super early on Thursday. Quinn came over that morning to give Steven money to get him a PS4. I was dragging ass because of my late night so Quinn bought me coffee :) I love my little brother, I'm sad that we don't get to spend a lot of time together - I have a family to take care of and he has a job and serious girlfriend so our time is pretty much accounted for. Quinn came back to our house in the evening to hang out with Steven before the two of them went to the PS4 midnight release. Steven had his pre-ordered and Quinn happened to get the last PS4 at Walmart.

Friday was a very big day in the Lyon household. It was my first day of work in 3 1/2 years and Avery's first day of day care. I dropped Avery off at New Horizon just before 11 am, Avery's class has lunch at 11 am so all the kids were sitting at the table. Avery didn't want me to go and threw a big fit :/ I left rather quickly, no point in dragging out the goodbye. I told Steven that Avery freaked out when I left so he called day care and had the director check on Avery - she was already over it and playing with the other kids :) I went to my mom's house to wait for my shift to start, I talk a lot when I'm nervous so I talked my mom's ear off the entire time. Dispatch had called me that morning and directed me to meet my driver in the D&B parking lot at 1 pm. I got there about 20 minutes early and waited just in case he happened to show up early. Steven called me while I was waiting and kept me from completely freaking out. I was so nervous - my hands were shaking, I was nauseous, and I wanted to cry.

When my driver showed up he began chatting me up immediately, I was so happy to know he wasn't a hard ass, his name is Dale. He gave me my uniform, I changed in my car while he delivered a package to D&B - I looked pretty ridiculous in brown pants, black boots, and a puffy brown pull-over. We began our route immediately, it was weird driving with my door wide open. I was only scheduled for 3 hours that day and it went by in the blink of an eye. I spent the entire time jogging - Dale told me company policy says no running but jogging is highly encouraged haha. Dale and I quickly fell into a good routine with each other, the moment he stopped the truck I unbuckled my seat belt and got out of the truck, Dale scanned a package and I jogged it to the door, while I jogged to and from the door he went in the back of the truck and got the package for our next stop, we pretty much always made it back to our seats at the exact same time.

We were supposed to deliver to 400 houses that day, there are 2 steps on the truck, which is the equivalent of me going up and down 1,600 steps - Basically 3 hours of work is the same as me going up my apartment stairs 145 times!! That's only the steps in and out of the truck, that doesn't even include however many steps it takes to get to and from a person's front door! I am going to wear a pedometer on Monday for sure!! Needless to say by the end of my shift my shins were KILLING me. It was a very good day though, Dale told me that Linda (the woman who conducted the interviews) specifically placed me with Dale because I seemed extremely capable for the job :) Dale often sets company records for how many packages he delivers in a day and Linda was sure I was the right woman for the job. The 3 best newbies were picked to work today and I was the first of the bunch picked! It was a HUGE ego boost.

When I got off work I told my mom to meet me at Avery's day care, my mom will be the one picking up Avery so I wanted her to see how its done. Steven surprised me by also showing up to pick up Avery from day care. We found Avery outside playing on the jungle gym, she was so happy to see us :) She took Mimi onto the jungle gym and made her go down the slide. Avery's teacher said that she made two friends who she basically hung out with all day, she had tacos for lunch, and she played non-stop all day. I took Avery back to my mom's house, my mom and Steven went to the store, they brought me coffee and flowers, my mom also got my a Starbucks gift card. I love having such a great support group.

I woke up in SO much pain on Saturday morning. I had awful shin splints, my calves and feet were cramping, my back ached, and I had a bad head ache - my body is definitely not used to so much activity. I spent most of the day trying to recover although I did managed to leave the house long enough to have breakfast with the in-laws.

First real snow of the season

By Sunday I expected to feel better but I didn't haha. We went to my parents' house for dinner, it was awesome. Their neighbors gave us a 7-ft fake Christmas tree and a bunch of lights for free :D I'm so excited, we had a fake Christmas tree but I gave it to a military family that moved to Korea right before Christmas. Yay Karma!!

In other news, my childhood best friend is pregnant! Kelly, and her fiance, Luis, are going to be parents :)

Kelly's first pregnancy photo :)

Avery Quinn - 22 months