Gets the Pay Off

This will be the continuation of the blog Putting in the Work. If you haven't read it you probably should before you read this one. So, since you asked Lisa, - Here is the answer!

I think we left off with they wanted me to keep my Team Lead position and also take on the Incident Management Coordinator position both. They told me to come talk to them on Monday. Well, Monday came and I didn't go in to talk to them first thing. I was kinda putting it off. Well, about 10:00am (I think) Rosy called Carlos (my supervisor) and told him to bring me to her office so we could talk. He pulled me into HIS office and asked me what I thought, and what I was going to say. The position used to be his so I asked him some questions I had and and told him I thought I would like to take it but wanted to talk to Rosy first. As we were getting ready to go into Rosy's office she called and said to wait that he needed to speak to this other lady first. So, I went back to my desk and he brought the lady in and talked to her behind closed doors. A few minutes later (which seemed like an eternity to me) the lady left and he called me back into his office. He informed me that the lady had resigned from her position as Case Manager. I was like, "ugh ok". So then we headed to Rosy's office. Right then and there, I was offered a promotion to Case Manager. I was like dumbfounded. I didn't really know what to think. I had applied to be a Case Manager before I started working for Tobosa but was turned down. So, they offered me the Case Management position and decided I could also handle the Incident Management Coordination job as well.

So, here's some background: Case Managment is a collaborative process that assesses, plans, implements, coordinates, monitors, and evaluates the options and services required to meet the client's health and human service needs. So in English - Case Managers are responsible for making sure the client has ALL of the information to make informed decisions. They serve as the go between for the client/family and all of the service providers. Case Managers are responsible for making sure that all the services the clients need are being done. They are the one to coordinate the meetings and write the service plans. Case Managers set up the goals for the clients and then make sure that everyone is helping meet them. The Case Manager is responsible for doing the assessments to see what services the clients need. The Case Manager interviews potential clients and sets them up for service. If a client chooses to get services somewhere else, the Case Manager coordinates all of the transition.

So, to answer your question .......


YES! I took the promotion! I am the new Service/Incident Management Coordinator.

So, this week has been totally CRAZY! I have been trying to learn 2 new positions; train the 2 ladies that will replace me (yes, it took 2 to replace me); and close out everything I was working on. I chose to close out the end of the month for both houses I was running. It would be to much to ask someone to report on the month of work I did, so I will close out the months and hand them over. But I have been working alot. I have come in about 7:00am everyday this week and left between 10:00pm and 11:00pm. But once this week is over that should stop.

So, I am very excited - pretty nervous - and kinda sad/relieved. I am super glad that they asked me. That means a lot that my work is being valued. Maybe I can do good things with this new challenge. Well, I still have some work to do so,

GOOD NIGHT! Love you all!

Putting the work in

I know that it has been a long time since I wrote. Of course, as always, I have a good reason. I have been putting in really long hours at work. This is not unusual for me. I put in a lot of long hours. Even when I am not putting in the hours, I am thinking about work or answering the on-call phone. Well, guess what it! It paid off. I got noticed. Not that this was my intent. My intent has always been to be the best at what I do. My intent is always been to be able to give my all. To learn and to grow. To challenge myself.
My job now is a Team Leader at Tobosa. That job is to supervise clients and staff. To make decisions daily about what to do. I have to schedule the staff and deal with all of their human resource issues. This includes checking their payroll and making sure their clock ins and outs are done. Putting in for their vacation and logging it into the payroll section. It means attending meetings for the clients and working with the whole team to get things done. It means training the staff. I am also responsible for running the household (meaning, paying bills, doing the budget, dealing with the landlord, buying the groceries, and personal items). Being a Team Lead has many more responsibilities. Basically anything to do with the clients and the staff is my responsibility. I have 2 houses, 4 Individuals, and 9 staff that I am responsible for. Along with the responsibilities there are MANY challenges. One of the main challenges is being on-call 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Well, guess what - I no longer will be on-call anymore as of May 1, 2014. I should back up. On Feb 28 (I think) we had an All Staff meeting. In preparation for this meeting I was asked to make a Power Point presentation regarding THERAP. THERAP is the computer program we use. THERAP is huge! It can basically replace all of our existing paperwork. We are only using about 20% of it and between now and July we are incorporating about another 40%. So, I did a presentation to get the staff (who are struggling with embracing it) amped up and to buy into this program. The presentation talked about how far they have already come in learning the system and then to introduce some of the upcoming stages of the program. I also got volunteered to create a trivia game based on out policies and procedures to kinda get the staff involved in the meeting so they were not just sitting there listening the whole time. Well, I did the trivia game on PowerPoint as well. It just seemed to be the easiest way. Well, both were GREAT successes. (I meant to blog about this sooner but just didn't really take the time. Now I wish I had because this post my have to be put into 2 sections.)

I am going to try to put the PowerPoint in here so you can see it but I don't know how that really works. Ok, never mind. I tried but was not successful. So, anyway, everyone loved the presentations. Even the Head Honcho, Joe Madrid, came to me and congratulated me on how great it was. A lot of other administrators did the same thing. Even a month later, Joe still talked about it at several meetings and even over drinks one night. This made me happy. I felt accomplished. I felt like I did something worth noticing. It was like I do all of this hard work and no one ever really sees - but then they did. They saw that I am smart and talented.

There have been other things as well, that have come up in this fashion. I have had several other ideas that the whole company has implemented. My work has been used as examples for others to follow. This came with a price of course. There has been some tension between my co-workers and myself. I am pretty much the new kid on the block - but I am not afraid to ask questions, find different solutions and think outside of the box. Some of my co-workers have been there for like 15 years. They do not like change; they do not like things shaken up; and they certainly do not like the new kid to be the one to put all of this into place. I love being on their team. We work well together.

The other week, the company made a new position. It is titled, "THERAP ADMINISTRATOR". Some members of Management talked to me about taking this position. It is right up my alley and THERAP is something that I am passionate about. The downfall would be that it would put me in an office on the computer all day. That would be my job. Being a computer programmer. I would train new staff on how to use the system but 90% of my job would be a computer programmer. It was not an official offer but they were talking was an unofficial offer. Anyway, I started thinking about it.

So, on Good Friday, the Program Director (the 2nd in charge) asked me to take on a different position. It is the Incident Management Coordinator Position. She wants me to take it on top of my Team Lead Position. That is a lot of work. A LOT! Let me tell you a little bit about this position.

INCIDENT MANAGEMENT COORDINATION: Any time there is a suspicion of Abuse, Neglect, or Exploitation a report must be made to the state. Actually, to 3 different agencies. Even things as simple as staff not making sure the clients get enough to drink; staff letting the clients get too sunburned; medication errors for mor than 48 hours; all the way to abuse, neglect, and exploitation. Anyway, this position gets the reports made by the staff, and sends them to the 3 state agencies within 24 hours. The position then stays in touch with the state agencies and sends them all the documentation that they request and set up interviews for them with all parties involved. This position is also responsible for conducting the internal investigation that the agency is required to do. It is a position with a lot of responsibility.

So, again, they asked me to take this position on top of the one I already have. That is a lot. I talked with them about giving up one house and just keeping one house and then doing the position. I was told to come talk to them in the office on Monday after Easter.

Can you find what is missing?

That's right! There is nothing missing!  I FINALLY got my teeth! They look super natural.  A lot of people don't even notice when they are talking to me. 

At first I was kinda upset because no one noticed my new teeth. But then I took a step back and realized that IT WAS GOOD that no one noticed. This meant that they looked good (and natural).  So, this post is short because I am doing it from my phone and it takes a while to type a lot on this on screen keyboard. 

But I will leave you with this picture I took today. I left the house without my teeth. Totally just spaced them out. I went to work on my only day off this week. Ugh! Anyway, here is what no teeth looks like:

Big difference. Anyway, hope everyone has a great week!

Mornings - YUCK!!!!

As I try to convince myself to get outta bed I just wanted to complain that mornings have not been my friends lately. 

Quick Catch Up

So, I have figured out who to blame for my lack of blogging over the last month. It is my Sister's fault I have not been blogging. (Let me see if I can rationalize this one). Each week I set aside a certain amount of time to be spent on Blogging. That time has been taken up by reading her very LONG posts about NEW YORK!! So, by the time I am done reading, my blogging time is up! Ha. Just kidding. I absolutely LOVE her posts. I enjoy reading them so much.

I have been a little a busy lately. I FINALLY got over my sickness for now. A trip to the doctor and 2 shots and a Z pack had me feeling better in about 2 days. Sorry to say that is not true for the rest of my family. While Mamaw was here, she became ill. Several trips to the doctor and she couldn't seem to get better. My mom also made several trips to the doctor for the same thing before getting well. But finally, I think everyone is on the mend.

Lisa, you asked in your last comment, if I enjoyed my time with Mamaw. The answer is YES!! I didn't see her a lot (because everyone was sick) but what I did get to see of her I really enjoyed. Brennen came over several nights out of each week and got to spend some time with her as well.

Mamaw couldn't get well enough to make the trip home by herself. So, one weekend we took her home. I drove Mamaw and Lucky in her car back to Dublin. Lindsey, Shawn, their kids, and Brennen followed in our car. Once I got her home, I helped her get all set up with the things she would need to take care of herself and helped her get everything settled back in after being gone so long. After we left on Sunday, she went to the doctor on Monday and I am glad to report that she is on the mend as well.

While we were there, we got to see my Sister and Jaxen. It had been so long since Lindsey had seen Carla that neither one of their little boys had ever met or neither of them had met the other's boy. So, we ALL loaded up and went to spend the Saturday afternoon with Carla and Jaxen.

We met up at her house which was under construction (well, painting and floor work - or something). We took a few minutes and headed over to the church to see Nik. (This was our last time to see them before they moved across the country so we had to fit EVERYONE in). Nik was pretty busy doing UPWARD but he did take a few minutes to visit with us and meet Shawn and Aiden for the first time (maybe even the girls? I dunno). Anyway, after some hugging we were bound for lunch.

We went to a pizza buffet. How can you go wrong with that, right? Especially when we had coupons - thanks to Carla. We got to visit over lunch. It was a good time. After getting full, we headed to the park.

Carla led us to this awesome park. We got to play together and just spend some time with each other. We did not get to visit a lot at the park. With 5 children aging from 14 to 1 1/2 years, it is a little hard to visit, but we did play. Here are some pictures:

After the park, we went to the "Neighbors" house to say hi and goodbye and to grab a quick snack for the little ones.

We had a great time visiting. We returned to stay in Dublin that night with Mamaw. We all loaded up into one car and headed home. On the way home, we made a short side trip to Strawn. Lindsey was able to take us by Aunt Barbie and Maymee's house and then showed us where Uncle Adam lived. Low and behold, he still lived there. We stopped in to say hello and were all greeted very warmly by his family. It was good for him and Lindsey to catch up a little bit.

Then home. It was a quick, emotion filled weekend getaway. And let me just say, all of the kids did great traveling. But they were all VERY READY to be home about the last 2 hours of our trip. We arrived safely and all slept hard that night I am sure.

Under the Weather

Well, I am sure EVERYONE can relate when I say..."I am sick". It seems like EVERYONE is sick right now. Luckily, I have been fighting mine off for a little while, but last Sunday it got me. It got me pretty good, because I was sick all of last week. This weekend I did nothing but lay in bed and answer my stinking ON CALL phone. By late Saturday, I was feeling better. By Sunday, I felt pretty good, but woke with no voice. Well, I guess that is an exaggeration. I have a voice (but as my boss is calling me Minnie Mouse) I have to agree that it is very small and very SQUEAKY!!!! So, this post will be short. We are all having dinner at my mom's because......MY MAMAW is in town. YAY!!!! So, more later.

For Today

I just have time for a little blog today. Just wanted to get some things outta my brain and onto here where my family and friends can rejoice, smile, and pray with me. 

1. I had the most awesome dream 2 nights ago. Usually all I dream about is work. But on this morning I woke up feeling so at peace and so happy. Sometime Btwn 3am and 6am my Dad met me for lunch. We never did eat but we sat at the table and just visited and visited. I can't remember what we talked about or what was said; but it was so wonderful.  I usually don't dream about him and unless it is a horrible dream I don't remember my dreams.  But that morning I could tell you what he was wearing, how he looked, and about our surroundings. I woke with a smile on my face and peace in my heart. 

2. I saw the nicest gesture yesterday at Wal-mart. I was sitting in my car finishing up my list, not really paying attention to anything. But then a young man (maybe 20) was walking out if wal-mart and he stopped in the parking isle and talked to an elderly man in a van. I only heard a few words of the conversation. Then the young man got in his truck. The older man rushed off. In a minute the boy turned his truck on and put it in reverse and then didn't go anywhere. A few minutes later the man in the van appeared behind the truck. The boy backed out and the man pulled into the space. As I watched this strange exchange, I notice that the parking spot was the 1st one in the row (behind the handicapped spots). The second thing I notice is that the van has a handicap tag on the rear view mirror. Then I look around. All handicap spots in all of the rows are taken. This young man saw this man struggling to find a spot to park where he could get in the building safely. And gave that man his spot! 

I love to see people being sweet to one another! 

3. Please continue to pray for all 3 families involved in the middle school shooting. My friends daughter, Kendal was shot. She went through another surgery yesterday. She is doing well. They r trying to determine nerve damage now. 

Nathaniel, the boy that was shot I do not personally know him but was talking with some people last night who say that he has undergone several surgeries and that they even removed part of his skull to allow for brain swelling. He is not responsive to anything at this time. They did however, take him off of the ventilator for 30 minutes yesterday and he did breathe on his own for that time. That is good progress. 

The 3rd family is the family of Mason. I can not even imagine what a hard time they are going through. But I am very sure that not one of these famines need our prayer more than the other.  

And lastly, please just keep in mind, everyone that was involved. That they will all find peace.

Now, to see what this day has in store for me.