Monday, November 25, 2013

Clean your backyard first!

So many things I have been wanting to blog about, but once I get the time I am just too tired in the evenings.  It is 333 in the afternoon and Audrey still has not gone down for a nap.  So I figured I would try to blog as she is entertaining herself.  Yes, this blog could very well take me hours this way but maybe it will at least get done.  Now which subject to blog about....

Let's talk about cleaning up your house before you clean up others.  I am in no way trying to tell anyone how to live their life, as my life is not perfect, heck its barely tidy, and its pretty crazy, but it's my kind of crazy so it works for me.  This is just a personal thing I have to get off my chest and maybe advice to help others before they get too far in over thier heads.

I once had a friend who couldn't control her dog.  It was awful.  Her dog always ran away, always tore stuff up, having accidents in the house and always pulled on the leash during walks.  As we were talking I found myself telling her how we trained our dogs to let us know when they wanted to go out... funny side note really, we hung a bell by the door and every time we were ready to take them out we rang the bell.  We did this every time for a while and then one day we were upstairs in the office and we heard a bell ringing, not thinking about the door we continued on what is was we were doing.  Suddenly we both jumped at the same time and said, "The dogs!"  Sure enough Bear was at the door wagging his tail and jumping at the bell by the door.  It worked.... it really worked and it was all Collin's idea...... anyway I explained this to my friend along with how we crate trained.  Yes, Collin and I believe in crate training.  I know some people don't and they think it is cruel but we believe in it and we believe it works.  One day after I got home from work I walked into my house and found that the dogs had busted out of their crates... well 2 out of 3 of them, not only did they bust out but they destroyed the side of our couch and there was suddenly a dent in our stairway wall that wasn't there before.  As I continued to crate them and head off to work I also hired a puppy sitter who came by to play with them and let them out.  I got a phone call one day saying that the dogs put a hole in my wall.  Sighing I let her know that yes I know and I am finding someone to fix it soon.  Once getting home I was shocked!  The dent was now an actual hole.  A hole so big that I could put both arms through it.  After video taping I learned that Rebel was getting out of his crate first and then getting Bear out of his and only about 25% of the time Shelby would join. Shelby was the good lab, my chocolate lab,  Oh I loved my Shelby.  I knew she was not the root of the problem but was convinced the only reason she ever broke out was to scold the other two before they caused anymore damage.  Yes, Shelby was the Princess lab!
The vet believed the pups (Bear and Rebel) were let go too soon from their mother and could have several issues including separation anxiety.  I tried it all pills, sprays, smells, nothing seemed to work they even tore up chicken wire to get to where they wanted to go.  Longer story short I knew all this was going on in my house but yet wanted to take on helping my friend solving her problems.  It doesn't work that way.

If you are struggling to pay your bills but got approved for a new car would you add that extra monthly payment to your income? What if a friend really needed to borrow some money but you didn't even have enough to pay your own bills, why would you lend money you don't have?  A friend of mine told a story or rather a quick scenario about writing checks.... If you look in your bank account and don't have any money and you look in your savings and don't have the money to transfer but man those shoes in the window are killer and you just have to have them, and payday is Monday and if you go late enough on Friday they can't possible cash that check prior to Monday so.... why not go for it?!  What if that check goes through Prior to your pay check clearing?  Oppps more of a mess then you were already in!
Clean up your current mess before you make more of one.

If you can't keep your house clean for more than a day do you really think you should offer to help clean someones else's house?  Trust me with a 1 year old I can't keep my house organized or overly clean so I am NOT going to help you figure out how to keep your house clean or organized!

I once was a manager, or as I was technically considered a Site Senior Supervisor, who was in charge of the entire staff, scheduling, disciplining, and all the management stuff that came with the job.  There were plenty of times I was in over my head.  I always seemed short staffed but I wasn't in charge of the hiring, my upper management did that.  So I was struggling with being down officers and yet trying not to have overtime.  Anyone in a position to make out schedules with a large turnover rate and short staffed knows how hard it is to avoid OT.  One particular occasion I was being told by my company boss that I had to figure out how to stop the OT from happening and I was struggling with the schedule.  The client for the Site that I managed my team came to me and told me we needed to provide extra duties.  I loved this Client and who I considered my main boss, and I loved that we had a great working relationship so I told him "No problem, I would get it covered immediately!"
What was I thinking?!  I was already struggling in my small house, but yet agreed to provide work in the bigger house.  I was now 80 hours short and maxed out on hours!  (yes I accomplished the task, with overtime but minimal OT and both sides of the house were happy!  I went from 80 hours to about 20!)
Anyway I tell you this because it only created more headache for me and more problems when I didn't take care of my own backyard and dove into the front yard as well!
It's just like a retail store.  If your short a lead cashier.... don't train your current cashiers to stock the shelves until you have trained one of them to be the lead cashier.

I was recently asked if I could bake some cookies..... I don't bake for my household, I burnt a pie that was already made and just frozen (it could be the difference between American oven settings and Korea's).  It was awful so I am not going to try and bake for others.  I did offer to buy some though :)

Take what you want from this but I am just trying to stress my worry for those who don't feel the need to take care of their house before taking care of others.  I certainly won't give you advise on much... but that is probably because I have a lot to take care of before I can try to take care of you.  I will tell you to talk to a financial specialist, not me.  Call Molly Maids, not me.  Call a dog trainer cause I failed with mine.  I do feel confident to give you the above advise as I have learned from my mistake of not cleaning up my own mess first in the past and I won't make that mistake again!  (at least I am going to try my best)!

For those of you who stuck through this lengthy personal rant I want you to know that the challenge is going well and I will be doing measurements and weigh in, in 3 days.

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