A lot has been going on. We buried my mother-in-law's ashes this past weekend with her memorial being on Saturday. The weather was nice on Friday when we were outside for the burial. It rained on Saturday.

And then there was yesterday when I had my lumpectomy. I first had to have a needle localization done so the surgeon would be able to take out the tissue in question since there isn't a mass. I'll have to wait about 3 days to find out if it's cancer or not.

Oh, and to keep it exciting, I officially complained about my manager to HR. The email was sent on to the regional manager. He said the boss and I need to have a face to face with a third party there to talk through the issues. I'm not hopeful that there will be real change but I will continue to document the treatment sustained by me and my coworkers.

To end this post on a happy note. Clayton finally got to play soccer. He's looking like a good little player this season!

My son has still not had his first soccer game. There has been so much rain that the fields are saturated and they would get ruined if the kids played on them. I can't believe how cold it has been too.

I flew to Arkansas this week to see my family. The one perk of my job is I can decide at the last minute to fly, and if the flight is open I'm on. I left Wed at noon and came back Friday around 4:30 pm. I hope to take the kids next time.

Work is still just so so. I've contacted someone in HR so the ball is rolling now. I highly doubt anything significant will happen from my complaints, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

Soccer is starting back up tomorrow. Yay! But, I will miss both kids' first games because I have to work. :( The weather is looking nice for tomorrow, too. Poor Kendall will have to play in the rain on Sunday. (which means I will be working in the rain, too).

So, yesterday we had a director from corporate drop in for an informational meeting. I was able to talk a little with her and she offered her business card so we can talk later. I think I might be able to start the ball rolling on getting some changes at work. Specifically, training is the issue. Oh, the gender discrimination is part of that, too. I felt like a prisoner who got a glimpse of the outside when she was here.

Surgery scheduled

My surgery is scheduled for April 25. They will insert a needle into the breast and then the surgeon will remove the tissue around the end of the needle. The sample will be sent to pathology and about 3 days later I will find out if I have cancer or not. So, that's that.

Leading up to that day will be very emotional. We will bury my mother-in-law's ashes on the 22nd and her memorial will be the 23rd. Nothing like doing this stuff all at once. Oh well. I do have to say I'm sort of in a downer mood as I write all this.

I'm under the weather. It's just a cold, but boy, oh boy, I'm feeling rotten. I guess I caught the virus my daughter had. She ended up getting a secondary bacterial infection. Poor thing. She's on antibiotics now and on the mend.

I'm not sure if I mentioned it or not, but I was supposed to have a breast biopsy last week. The radiologist was unable to biopsy due to the location of the calcifications. What that means is I have to see a surgeon now and undergo a lumpectomy so they can look at the tissue under a microscope. If it's all benign, then I will go on my merry way. If it's cancer, then I think radiation therapy is what they do. Of course, I've just been reading the internet, so it's not official to what the plan would be. I was disappointed to find out that I have to wait a little longer to see what's going on.

On the job front, I'm experiencing some gender discrimination. I know I might sound like a whiny woman but a couple of the men have admitted that they see the difference in how the women are treated at work. For instance, the boss never reprimands a man in front of the public, but has no qualms doing so to the women. And more than once, the boss has told the "girls" or "ladies" to vacuum when there were men standing in the same room. We are all hired and expected to do the same duties so the vacuuming comment is demeaning, to say the least. I've been denied training because I don't work enough hours only to find out that a man who works about the same per week as me is offered training. It's hard to believe it's 2011. Don't worry, I'm writing everything down.

So, the other day I was lamenting the vacuuming statement to my mom. She told me there was a job she was interested in at her work in 1984. It would have been a buyer for the company she worked for. At the time, I was 16 and my sister was 18. Her boss told her he would not consider her for the job because there would be some overnight travel and she had kids. Can you imagine if a man was told that? "I'm sorry, Mr. whoever, but you have kids and it's very important that you are around in the evenings to take care of them." My mom didn't fight it. She just accepted it as that was how it was. After hearing this from my mom, I became more determined than ever to report my boss and his actions to someone higher up in the company.