Quiet Day

Today started out with me waking up roasting hot - thanks November sunburn - around 3:30 in the morning. This is always "fun" because going back to sleep once awake is not an easy thing for me to do, never has been. So after a glass of apple juice, a few pokes and scrolls around on the iPad I decided that 1/2 hour was more than enough time for my body to cool down and I could hit the cozy mattress once again for some Zzz's.

As luck would have it, I did not have any issues going back to sleep and actually slept about 15 minutes into the alarm going off. Up and out of bed and ready to start the day although a little dreary eyed because of the sleep interruption at 3:30. Maybe it's my bodies way of preparing me for when baby is here and waking us up all hours of the night? Dunno, but man is that going to hurt ha ha!

Anyway, I hope the previous 2 paragraphs of "excitement" was enough to knock your socks off and keep you on the edge of your seat because to be perfectly honest, I don't have much else for today. I basically walked into work this morning sat down and work, work, worked. There was nothing really going on to rabble about today - sorry!

Stop! Momma Time

So today I reminded Cicely to get in contact with our HR peeps and get the paperwork going for her time off after baby comes. Everyone has been telling us that she will be required to use FMLA (family medical leave of absence) but I disagreed and had been under the impression we could use STD (short term disability).

I was correct and this is an awesome thing to have verified. Reason being is that with FMLA you can take the time and don't have to be worried about losing your job but the biggest issue is that you do not get paid and have to pay for insurance out of your own pocket. With STD you get paid, keep your insurance and so on so it's much better. I think most just don't know about it or they do get that benefit like we do. The cool thing at my company is that you can also use some of your DTO for any portion of your salary that the STD does not cover - again very cool.

For example back when I ruptured my left bicep tendon and was out for 3 weeks I was paid for 80 or 87% of my salary, minus any benefits I paid out of my check. My 401k contributions and so on were suspended during that time as well and any holidays were not paid. But, because I had enough DTO I was able to use that for any holiday pay and to cover the 13 to 20% not covered by my plan.

Really awesome to be honest. I had no idea how this plan worked up to that point. I will say there is a bit of paperwork and procedure involved but it is by no means very difficult. I was able to do it while heavily medicated and with only the use of 1 arm so I think an expecting mom and dad could manage the burden of paperwork and faxing, phone calls and emails with ease.

I guess the point I am trying to make is that I am ecstatic that we did not lose this benefit because of all the health care bullshxt that is going on in the country. Even more-so for all of us 40 hour+ workers that are losing benefits we have had for a very long time and paid into for just as long. It's nice to be able to use a benefit we have earned vs. hearing about only those we lose or that the "professionally unemployed" are getting more of, essentially coming out of the pockets of those of us sitting in the middle class.

Know When To Fold 'Em

So for now, that will be all for today. time to focus on what is left of it and see what tomorrow brings our way. I have a feeling this will be a pretty mellow week in general. Usually just before the holidays this happens and during the holidays even more-so because so many people are out of the office, out of town and so on.

It's actually really nice because I am not bothered as often and can simply sit in my cube and work, have lunch, hit the gym, work some more and finish out the day. Days like that have to be appreciated because they are not that frequent.

Photo:  Nothing to really photo today, so it had to be the kick-ass new Tommee Tippee diaper repository we picked up for baby's room. I read and researched just about every brand out there and this one ended up being the one for us, for many reasons. I guess we will see how it works out!