Well, here’s the recap for my 1st week back at work.
1. I found out my previous manager switched with another one.  She was kind enough to set aside my goodies while I was gone (as mentioned in my previous blog).
2. I had to be re-trained before they put me back on the phone. It was a lot of reading, got me bored half of the time. Made me want to start talking to customers already.
3. I finally started talking to customers Thursday. Wished I didn’t have to talk to the customers. haha! just kidding. I need to get back to my regular pace, hopefully by next week =P
4. I’ve been so tired after work.I’m normally tired by midnight, I just want to sleep already!
5. I’ve missed DS and DD so much.  I keep wondering what they’re doing every moment I’m not around. I just want to keep playing with them as much as I can before they go to sleep. 
6. DH has been spending a lot of time with our angels.  He’s now experiencing the joy that I had when I had the time when I was with them all day.

I love this week’s “Works for me Wednesday” It’s the 5 ingredients or less edition!
What a great idea!
The recipe I’d like to share is simple, cheap and don’t require fresh ingredients.

Meatball Ramen

Ingredients:
2 Ramen packs
1 lb frozen meatballs
3 tbps sweet and sour sauce
1/2 cup frozen sliced bell peppers
1/2 tsp olive oil

Directions:
1. Empty the ramen packages. Put aside the seasoning mix, you won’t be using all of them
2. Boil the ramen for a few minutes in a pot, enough to make them firm not soggy
3. Remove the water from the ramen
4. Microwave the meatballs for a minute or two and set aside.
5. Heat up the olive oil in the pan and add the meatballs, ramen, bell peppers and sweet and sour sauce.
6. Add a dash of seasoning mix from the ramen mix.
7. Serve and Enjoy!

Yields about 4

Well, I finally came back to work today! It wasn’t too painful. They made me read through some required reading. I was also able to say hi to almost all my co-workers. Good thing I came to work today, they served lunch from Teri and Yaki, ha!

Anyway, I might be off the phone for another day or two. I’m very grateful to have a job still. I know there’s a reason why God still wants me to work for now. And I’ll make sure I make every effort to become a blessing by being there.

Well, the coolest thing about being at work today, my old manager, (yes, I have a new one now, because my previous one wanted to switch back to day shift) gave me some goodies. Guess what? I won some stuff when I wasn’t there! I made it to Winner’s Circle for 2007. It’s a contest for people who collected a certain amount of money for the whole year, yay! The funny thing is that the celebration luncheon was held last March 13, which was my delivery day for DD.

So here was my loot from work!

I did miss my two angels terribly!

Well, I’ve been looking through our receipts lately and I’ve noticed several sweepstakes companies are offering if you fill out a survey from your previous experience. To many people, including DH, they think it’s a waste of time. But then again, if everyone thought it was a waste of time, except you, then that makes you the obvious winner right? Okay, fine, it is unlikely that no one will do it, but, the less people who participate, the greater your chances are of winning. So there, who knows, I might be the next winner of a $5000 shopping spree from Target, ha!

Aside from survey sweepstakes, I’ve also noticed another trend happening with stores. They’ve been giving discount coupon codes for your next purchase if you fill out the online survey. DH was kind enough to do the Gap survey and JC Penney survey for me. Unfortunately, the 20% Gap coupon code was only good for regularly priced items, boo! But with the JC Penney, I was able to use the 15% off towards my whole purchase. Today I saved $8 something dollars using the coupon, yay!

One final thing I’ve noticed lately, is the last Del Taco receipt attached to our take out bag. It said that if you fill out the survey, you can get a free burrito! That would have been nice if I didn’t throw away the bag right away (forgetting that the receipt was attached on it). Hmmmph! This teaches me to pay better attention more next time, before I start throwing things out.

If you have any receipt saving stories, please feel free to share!

Have you ever seen Oobi on Noggin? It’s one of those hand puppets that have popping eyes as a prop. Anyway, DS has been so amused by OObi lately and he keeps making puppet gestures with his hand.

For the last three days, when I’m working on the computer, he would come up to me with his Oobi hand and say “Hello Mommy, I’m Oobi!” Then he would say, “I want potato eyes!” I really had no clue what he was saying so I just nodded my head and said, ok!

Today, when we were in the bedroom, he made his Oobi hand puppet again and said, “I want potato eyes!” Then it finally clicked! He meant Mr Potato Head’s eyes! haha!

I love everything about freshly baked cookies! The smell of it, the chocolate still gooey and melty, the taste of it… yummy!  Unfortunately, I’m also very impatient.  I’ve already tried making the easy cookie recipes. I even bought the premade cookie dough that you leave in the fridge and just scoop out if you want to make some fresh cookies and bake for about 10 minutes.  But 10 minutes still seem too long, then you have to wait another 5 minutes to wait for them to cool down.  Are you kidding me! ha!

Well, DH shared a cool trick which made me cookie happy!  He bought some Chewy Chip Ahoys, grabbed a stack and laid them out on a plate. Then he put them in the microwave for about 15 seconds.  Voila! Warm, gooey and yummy chocolate cookies! Hey, they may not be as good as freshly made cookies, but they are soooo good anyway! Try it, maybe you’ll like it too!

By the way, Chips Ahoy Cookies are on sale at Ralphs this week, 2 for $5.00

It’s almost D day of DS’s 3rd Birthday celebration. We still have so much to do.  And considering we’ve been sick lately, we’re so behind schedule.  And I’ve been wanting to blog for days, but DH been using the desktop for creating a DVD and the internet’s been so slow.  In the few moments I actually get to use the computer, I end up uploading pictures on flickr or check my email. I feel so out of the loop with the blogging world! haha!

I just finished writing down everything we need to finish for DS’s party.  And wow, that shopping list is getting longer each time I look at it!  Well, I’m mentally tired, hopefully I can write more tomorrow.