Nothing like a good 6 hours at work with NO distractions. It has been heaven. I got caught up on so much little stuff.

That is the good.

The bad is that I allocated some work out but no one did what I asked. Between that and so many clients on vacation it leaves me on 7/15 with not ONE of my client's payroll stuff done for the quarter. O.M.G. I was just talking to dh and he was like - "when is the deadline? The 15th?" LOL. No - it's the 31st but I try to get all the easy ones out of the way so I am not too crunched with the procrastinators. Bah. The whole idea that nothing has been done is freaking me out. Oh well, a repeat of April. I am sure we had nothing done by April 15th as we were preoccupied by the big deadline, and we survived.

I think it is my biggest pitfall in a more managerial position though. I start to get antsy that things are not done and I just do them myself. It seems to work out since my manager does the same - LOL. Well he knows I will never get to it - which was nice last quarter with the craziness, but this quarter I think I could have handled it.

Maybe not...

Yeah, I am still waiting for things to slow down.

I have been pretty crabby at work these last months and so I am trying to think positive today.

I got 7 hours overtime this week and can probably push it to 9 hours if I work a little tomorrow. I have sonme mindless stuff I can do while the kids play or watch t.v. in the morning.

So I am going to start a running total of the overtime I am earning. I thought about it and instead of getting bitter about all these hours, I am trying to look at a bright side. So I made almost $200 today - overtime. Nothing to sneeze at.

If I work on average 5 hours overtime a week above and beyond the normal (which is usually no OT except tax season) I can swing that second IRA contribution. The idea is rather motivating. I really value work/life balance but as long as it isn't there might as well embrace the income. My boss is trying to redistribute the work - we are all just so behind. But I am optimistic it won't be like this forever. Believe me if he has to pay me that much overime - LOL. But we'll see.

I am going to create a page to track my overtime going forward. As a motivator. I said this before but I didn't stick with it. But I am not sure I have much choice now... So crazy here...

In other news, tomorrow is Big Monkey's birthday. I had wanted to take him to McDs to meet up with a couple of his friends some night after work and then let him choose somewhere to eat out tomorrow. All he wants is McDs - he asked if I could just take home (we didn't want to go with LM because he is too little for the PlayLand). I guess that would be a hell of a lot cheaper? I think I will take both kids to the zoo or something in the a.m. - if it isn't too hot anyway - haven't even looked at the weather - and for lunch him and I can do a nice indoor playland at McDs. Works. Won't cost me more than gas and a treat or a kids meal.

He is probably getting an oodle of toys - I am scared to look. Off the top of my head dh got him a remote-controlled helicopter and some rocket thing. I forget what else. We'll see. I might have to make more cupcakes too - can take the leftovers to preschool and/or work. He gets a big party at preschool Monday too - so spoiled...

IT is weird to have a 4-year-old. Seems like yesterday he was a newborn! I don't think he is considered a toddler any more. He's just a boy I guess. *sniff*

Which reminds me LM's favorite new toy is a flashlight. He loves them, but somewhere he got a little one and I was showing him how to put it over his fingers and toes to make them glow. We made quite a game of it - fingers, toes, ears, nose. Cute. Now that's cheap entertainment. Today I was asking him how many hands and feet he had, etc. He has gotten the concept of "2" for a while and is one of his favorite words. As he gleefully points out when he sees 2 of anything. So next I asked him how many ears he had and he said "5." Same for eyes - 5 eyes. I guess since he can't see his eyes or his ears he just had to take a guess??? LOL. Silly little monkey.