Busy Busy Busy!

It's been pretty busy for me lately. We took off a week and drove to Tulsa, OK for a wedding for my closest friend's son. Then the next day, we got on a plane and headed out to Phoenix see Rich's new grand daughter. She is an adorable baby and very happy!

They live near Surprise AZ, which is just west of Phoenix. It was nice to be in the warm weather again since we are now getting down in the thirties at night.

Rich took the batteries out of the bikes today so it's officially the end of the riding season for us.

I've been busy at work and the new job is going well. My new insurance started the first of October so I went in for checkups. All my blood tests came out good but my doctor thinks I have a vascular disease. I have problems with my legs hurting when I climb stairs or do any kind of exercise. I was told a few years ago that I was in the early stages of it. My left foot is numb most of the time and I have pain in it most of the time. This disease causes the arteries to collapse, looking like a bead of pearls, creating poor circulation. When they took images a few years ago it was considered mild. I will go back in November and I need to decide if I am going to have the testing done again. It will most likely not be covered by my insurance if they decide it is a pre-existing problem. I have no idea what an angiogram would cost but I'm sure I cannot afford it. It is what it is; I'm not going to worry about it till I have to.

 

I hate to end this on that note but it's midnight and I have to get to bed. On the bright side, I'm healthy as an ox other than that. And I was pleasantly surprised to find out I get 20 vacation days and 5 sick days a year. I thought it was 10 days. Since I started in August I have 43 hours vacation and 1 1/2 day sick for this year. You won’t hear me complain about that, since it was just enough to cover my vacation. Next year will be real nice having 25 days. Maybe we can finally get a bike trip in again.



Bats in the bedroom, revisited.

Last week we had another bat get into our bedroom. I think they are getting in through the window with the air conditioner in it. This makes number three in two years. Needless to say, I have not been sleeping well.

It's a good thing Rich is a light sleeper. It was flying back and forth about a foot above our heads. I never heard it till he woke me up. The flapping noise of the wings wakes him up.

We are getting it down to a science getting them out. Shooing them from one room to the next dark room and eventually through the open door, turning lights on behind us to keep them from going back to where we just chased them from.

The job is going well; I closed my first month end on my own and was told I did an exceptional job. I only had two accruals and only because I had to reject the contracts back to the sales force to write up a new contract. The quantity on the postal receipts did not match the quantity on the contract. We allow for a 2% margin because mail pieces get jammed in mailing machines and damaged so the mailing ends up short. These two jobs were well outside of the 2% range making it bad in the event of an audit. If our mail is not with in the 2% range, we have to submit a revised contract and bill at a lower price.

Now I know why my title is “Billing Analyst”. It’s up to me to make sure all of the billing documents match the contracts, the right client is being billed and all the money coming in is applied to the right client. Our marketing clients are everywhere, some with multiple ownerships. I would bet that every one of you have received a piece of our marketing in one form or another.

Sometimes the checks come from the corporate office for multiple dealers and not the clients themselves, leaving me to figure out where the money goes, how it is split up and which dealer goes under which umbrella. It amazes me how many checks we get with no customer number or any other customer reference other than the corporate address, which is hard to trace back to the dealerships in various states. Since we are prepaid, we don’t even have an invoice number to go on. I send out invoicing showing payments received.

I am hoping now that I have a job, the bike trips will resume next summer. I really miss the trips. Don’t get me wrong, I love the local rides, but I really miss the adventures of the open road.

No more temping.

The Friday before last I was asked to attend a meeting. The meeting was about me.

The head of the department said, "We're starting our third week with you on Monday and I'm hearing all good things. I'm told you're picking things up real fast and we've decided we want you on our team. We would like to offer you the job. If you except, we can get things started so that you can start as soon as your 4 weeks are up with the temp agency."

We talked wages and came to a wage we could both live with.

Corporate America being what it is; I had to apply online, then they had to offer me the job, then I had to submit an acceptance letter and sign a million papers. Then came the background check and I will have to do a drug test on Monday. BUT, I HAVE A JOB!

It's a large marketing corporation with branches all over the country. Since it's publicly traded, I had to sign a confidentiality agreement so I won't mention the name of the company. I start with 10 vacation days and 5 sick days on day one. I can enroll in the 401K on Monday when I go for orientation. They match the first 3% at 100% and the next 2% at 50% and they add profit sharing into the 401K at the end of the year.

My medical will start on Oct 1st. I have a choice of PPO, HMO and a couple other options with dental and vision. I will know more on Monday in orientation. I will have life insurance equal to one year salary.

That’s it for now, I’m off to celebrate!

Three days old.

Introducing; Emma Paige, (last name omitted) weighing in at 7lbs 11 ozs. 19 1/2". Born 08-06, at 11:26 Phoenix AZ time.

Contractions are 4 minutes apart.

A new baby on the way.

Rich's daughter is in labor but it seems to be going slow. She is not due till Aug 15 but they decided to induce because she has gestational diabetes. They don't want the baby to get too big. They are estimating her to be just under 8 pounds now.

She went in last night and they gave her drugs to thin the cervix but it didn't work till late today and they started the drug to start contractions. Still no word. I think I'll text to see how far apart she is.