Halloween Must Have's!

Halloween is just around the corner... are you ready!? Well if you're not - here are a few of my favorite must have's for Halloween.  Know of something awesome that I missed?? PLEASE SHARE BELOW!

Maybe baby? Someday? Please?!?!

Im starting to wonder if this little lady is ever going to get out... Hubby keeps telling me "don't worry, eventually she HAS to come out"... but I am really starting to question this theory... At this point I think her little butt is so deeply wedged up into my ribs that it may actually be stuck in there... and she has been punching so hard into my insides... that maybe she punched her little hand right through my stomach... or maybe my kidney... and I think they might be holding her hostage... So maybe she won't come out... maybe I will blink and have a 5 year old living in there... boy would I ever be lopsided... Can you imagine a little Izzaq balled up underneath my favorite hoodie?

Alright, maybe Im being a little dramatic... Im sure she is going to come out eventually... and Im not even to my due date yet - so maybe I should settle down a little bit... eat my cereal... work... snuggle my boys... and take a chill pill... but we all know that whole "relax" thing isn't so much in my vocabulary as is "running like a crazy person"... most people would be on their maternity leave by now... soaking in the last bits of pre-baby time they have left... but you know me better than that... the other day someone asked me if I planned to work all the way through my labor, haha... knowing me - if I could I would... but I think the birthing tub could make that complicated, so I guess not... but - Ill be working till I can't anymore, thats for sure... still lots to do, though I am getting there... I am down to 68 orders... and I havn't been there since we went to Vegas - and that was in July... so I am pretty proud of that :) And I just keep chug-chug-chugging away! Well - I hope everyone has a beautiful Sunday morning... Its chilly here... but perfect weather for the car show & wedding we have in the plans today. Have a great day - and send me all the "get that baby out" vibes that you can spare. :)

Recent Finished Crib Bedding

So many awesome crib sets have headed out the door recently... Just wanted to take a minute to showcase some of my favorites :)

Mama Loves..............

Some etsy favorites that I would just LOVE to get into after baby :)
Click the picture to follow the links to etsy.

Sleep? Meh, who needs sleep...

I think I have slept less in the last week than back in my college final exam days. Between all the Zaq stuff going on... getting final things in order for the baby to get here... and working like a crazy person... I feel like I just can't catch a break. Im drowning over here... finding my feet just often enough to gasp a breath of air.

As I type this, its 6:15am... I went to bed at 2:30 am... Zaq couldn't sleep so as he got up, then went in and out of the room & house, I kept getting woken up. Finally at 4:30 he came to bed... and then I tossed and turned until 5:15 before finally caving and getting up... so far in the hour I have made coffee, an egg sandwich, responded to a plethora of emails... and am sitting on hold with paypal... YAY! Just think what Ill be able to accomplish with Im not pregnant and can get back to chugging Red Bull's like waters. Can't wait! Ill have to have a special caffeine free mommy milk stash for my late night benders, haha.

Its now 6:20am... the paypal call went nowhere but in circles and as usual they didn't tell me anything I didn't already know. Heartburn is kicking in from my coffee... and the sun is starting to come up... wow. What a day already. I think that means it can only go up from here right? RIGHT?! Oh man, I hope so... three crib sets on the agenda to finish today and no helper until tomorrow. Then more tomorrow... and the next day... ANNNNND the next day... and somewhere in here I am supposed to make time to birth a child... but we will see, she might just have to wait ;)

A big Thank You.

I wanna say thanks to everyone who has read & shared our post - I really appreciate it... Your support & kind words mean a lot. I can't quite figure out if Im a little more at ease about it all... or just more annoyed though. Reading everyone's personal stories just gets my blood boiling. It's unfair... we're supposed to be protected from things like this from happening... and between the comments here, facebook, twitter, etc... there is WAY too much of it going on... and I really hope that we can find the right lawyer to teach Best Buy a lesson... Cuz' they sure need it... its unacceptable. And from what Im hearing, this is pretty common for them... To think we packed our family with such hope and excitement to be back in Minneapolis working for a local, family centered company just one year ago... there was so much promise for growth and a long future with this company... and here we are now wondering how it is that we even got here.

But, everything happens for a reason right? Well... that's what everyone keeps telling us. So that's what we're focusing on. We're waiting to hear back from the unemployment office... most people are saying of course Best Buy will likely fight it, so we will have to go to court for that as well (or a phone hearing)... But, in the end if that works out we should be fine, then we can focus on the court case for wrongful termination. He has a phone interview on Wednesday with a popular, well known lawyer here in MPLS, and waiting on calls from a couple others. So it's looking good right now... and in the mean time, he has been looking for jobs and reaching out to connections to try to set some things up for a job after Rozzlyn is here and we're situated... So I think as of right now, we're taking all the right steps to come out of this in a more positive place than we started. One can hope...

While we wait? He makes an AWESOME Boppy cutter... we rocked it the other day - and with his help I shipped DOUBLE what I could have on my own... so I will definitely be sad to see him go back to work! Somehow - spirits are pretty high around here, and we have been enjoying our time together... lots of laughs... lots of smiles... lots of fun working together... Keep the prayers, vibes, thoughts, etc coming our way - its all appreciated :)

The other.... OTHER F word... Fired.

I can honestly say I never thought I would ever be in this position. Zaq is a superstar among his peers when it comes to work. I have watched him come in and flip stores with Guitar Center... we traveled the country... the found our ticket back to Minneapolis with an awesome job offer from Best Buy... Perfect timing too, because we were DONE with California... Best Buy started out as such a great opportunity. But like most things, "all that shimmers in this world is sure to fade". All was manageable up until recently. Zaq had started talking about taking 3 weeks off when Ms. Rozzlyn makes her appearance... He had his sick time saved up... and we had some savings... so we were fine... and if something came up where we needed more time, thats why laws like FMLA exist... why not spend some time with baby as a family before the grueling 60 hour work weeks of the holidays begin... poor guy would blink and have a 3 month old before things get back to normal if he didn't. Well, I guess we should have taken some joking a little more seriously... Zaq did the right thing... He started talking to people who had been through maternity leave with Best Buy... One person - "its career suicide"... another person - "I had to take 10 weeks FMLA because of complications and when I came back it was never the same..." and another person... laughed and said, "I wouldn't do that if you want to keep your job." Well - Zaq came home and we talked about it and in the end said - there are laws that protect us from that, Im sure everyone was being dramatic... and if I had anything to say about it... I needed him home that 3 weeks to help with the baby so I could get RockerByeBaby back into a routine with a little baby mixed in. So it was done, 2 months ahead of time he went to his boss and the talked about all the details. Where he got a smart ass giggling comment of "well, then I'd have to replace ya"... shrugged it off, and the boss scheduled in his 3 week baby-cation. No big deal... so we thought. Almost immediately following this, everything started to change. His boss was being short & rude... negative... and constantly bringing Zaq down as if anything he did wasn't good enough. Now let me rewind for a second... Zaq is a "numbers guy" when it comes to stores... its always been his JOB to walk into an underperforming store and make it awesome... and he has been doing the same since he started with Best Buy... Bringing departments like MI & Geek Squad bigger and better than ever before. He hasn't had a single write up since starting with Best Buy... never a bad performance review... no reason to think that he should be being treated that way... To pile it all on, with all the holiday fun slowly creeping its way in to the store, it seemed like more than ever he had been coming home talking about all the crazy customer stories that were going on... Like the guy demanding to return a printer over a year old... and calling zaq a f*cking @$$hole because he wouldn't return it. Well, duh. The guy was holding the receipt in his hands that clearly stated 30 days to return... or the kid that wanted to return a lap top... the one that he "had no receipt for and paid cash for" but demanded a full refund... then told Zaq he would be waiting outside with his "boys" when he got off work. OOOH OOH OOOOOOH!! Or how about the time that some kid came and sat in the aisles of the store for over an hour... after being asked to move multiple times (all while ignoring everyone around him)... finally got up to leave when he friend came... then as Zaq was following them out... he stopped quick and lifted his fist as if he were going to punch Zaq... That was a fun story to hear too. There are OOOOH so many fun stories of where Zaq is getting harassed and poked and cussed at and demeaned... and never... ever... has he lost his cool with a customer, never cursed back, never raised a finger in a threatening face... with so many witnesses to stand behind him to say that... because he was always the guy to get called when a heated customer came in. Zaq was the guy to stand his ground for the company, but keep his cool. Apparently, until a 10 year old their walked into the store last week... The security cameras had picked up a young kid walking around with a PS game, then wandering into random departments... then all of a sudden - no game. A couple guys went and found the empty case, meaning the game was likely in his pocket... Zaq and a couple others went to talk to the kid and talk him into giving up the game. They said things like "give up the game and we won't call your parents. If you walk out with the game, we have to call the cops, your parents, and its gunna be way worse off" The worked on the kid for awhile, then his brother came over... *smacked him upside the head* and said "give them the game stupid!" and that was the end of it. Minimal drama, recovered game... success! Or not... that was just the beginning. Somewhere lost in translation... in the back office of BB, someone had asked how he got the game back... to which he laughed and said "I said give me the f*cking game"... aka - *Im in the protection of my office that I have heard WAY worse and more inappropriate things come out than the f-Bomb... And I am  not going over a 20 minute story about how i recovered a stolen game from a kid* Within a few days someone had filed a complaint with HR stating that Zaq had cursed at a customer... a child... and was now under investigation... two signed statements from witnesses there said he didn't... he wouldn't... and no way were the accusations true. Multiple other people stood up and said I have seen him in WAY worse, more heated customer arguments and he had never cursed... in my head - I was thinking about all the times he has yelled at me for slipping up in front of the kids... there was no way he would throw the f-Bomb around someone else's kid, let-alone in a threatening way. I along with many others, were sure the situation would be squashed, that was HR's job... to protect their company and employees after all, right? Well, I guess not. On Tuesday Zaq got a text from his boss to go into work at 1pm instead of 10am because there were 4 managers on, and they didn't need all that coverage... he said ok, great. "Have you heard anything from HR about the case" to which boss man sad no, not yet. On Wednesday, at 12:30 he left for his shift... at 1:10 my phone rang... it was Zaq. He had gotten fired... *crushed* Boss lied to him, he had found out he was being let go on Monday, and told him NO on Tuesday... Boss lied and said come in late because of coverage, but he had him come in late because they needed another Manager to be there to give him his paperwork and take his keys... Somehow... on a he said/she said case - with witnesses proving that Zaq didn't curse... he was fired. I couldn't believe it... there was no way this was happening. His "baby-cation" was supposed to start in 2 weeks. Our insurance now runs out at the end of the month... and oh yeah, MONEY!! We're gonna need that too. Why didn't we listen to all these people saying don't take the time off, you will get fired/replaced/canned/demoted/etc... WHY didn't we just say "hey, who needs baby time, keep working" I would be willing to personally stand behind that fact that my husband would still have his job right now. And, instead of watching him apply for jobs, I would be watching him get ready for work. I truly, honestly feel like they were just waiting for an opportunity to get him out of the way to have someone new trained in for Thanksgiving/Christmas. Watching my husband in all his years of retail management, I know how hard it is to fire someone. It takes statements, facts, write ups, performance reviews, etc. to put the wheels in motion to fire someone. And even then, they usually end up with written warnings and a slap on the wrist. After all, there was no CUSTOMER complaint... *because it didn't happen* but some pissed off employee gets to hold the lives of our family in their hands?  How is it possible that knowing all of this, he is fired. I have no idea...

So here we are... 3 days later, and its all starting to sink in... Im back to slaving away at the sewing machine, freaking about every order that I have to pass up because my baby will be here any day... I was supposed to get a break... I was supposed to get time home NOT WORKING with my new addition to our family... Now instead I get to work until I pop, then come home, and hand over my baby girl to my husband and get back to work to help keep our family afloat while Zaq looks for a new job. If you want to help out, please just share this post... tweet it, facebook it, whatever... We are not going down without a fight, thats for sure... and the more people that hear this story, hopefully more will stand up. This is unacceptable, and unfair... Best Buy, you'll be hearing from us. You don't mess with my family.

"The Other F Word"

If you havn't already heard me ranting about the awesomeness of "The Other F Word" you're seriously missing out... I am so madly in love with the idea of this movie, I can hardly even begin to explain. About a a couple years ago I bought hubby the book "Punk Rock Dad" written by the punk rock dad Jimmy, from Pennywise. The book was so hilarious, so raw, so real... and so inspiring... that I expect this movie to be all that times 10... The have an amazing cast... "With a large chorus of punk rock's leading men - Blink-182's Mark Hoppus, Red Hot Chili Peppers' Flea, Rise Against’s Tim McIlrath - THE OTHER F WORD follows Jim Lindberg, a 20-year veteran of the skate punk band Pennywise, on his hysterical and moving journey from belting his band's anthem ”F--k Authority,” to embracing his ultimately authoritarian role in mid-life: fatherhood. Other dads featured in the film include skater Tony Hawk, Art Alexakis (Everclear), Mark Mothersbaugh (Devo), Tony Adolescent (The Adolescents), Fat Mike (NOFX), Lars Frederiksen (Rancid), and many others." Im so excited to see this awesome group of guys come together to talk about the trials and tribulations of parenthood... through the eyes of touring punk rock dads. Be sure to stop by and fan them on facebook so you can be the first to hear when it comes out... and while you're waiting... go find a copy of Punk Rock Dad to read... it comes high recommended, I promise :)