Paychecks and cookies

Yesterday turned into one of those hassle payroll days. I couldn't figure out why one of our salaried employees was showing 40 hours of Reg pay and 48 hours of PTO, but when I created the batch for this payroll his was showing as 48 hour Reg and 48 hours PTO. I was also having a similar issue with a couple of hourly employees, where the batch was showing more hours than they worked. I was on the phone quite a while with our new payroll advisor girl. She is good. And I finally realized her voice sounds exactly like J-Lo! LOL. Anyhow, it's all caused by the stupid way we pay.

We pay twice monthly on the 15th and last day, BUT, for example, the 15th payday is paying from the 1st-15th, AND we have to submit 4 days before the 15, so those last 4 days are "estimated" hours. It's just creating issues, especially when people are showing PTO for those estimated days that haven't happened yet. The best solution would be to do like most all companies do - if you are paying for the time period 1st-15th you get your paycheck on the 20th of each month. Seems like a simple solution. Just change our pay days to the 20th and 5th of each month. But apparently (and I'm sure she's right) my boss thinks people will have a fit because for that first paycheck of the change, they will have to wait an extra 5 days for their paycheck. We are trying to think of how best to handle this issue. Any suggestions? My suggestion is to give them 3 months notice this is going to happen on such and such paycheck, so you have 3 months to get ready financially to wait an extra 5 days for your paycheck (1 time!). Suck it up! Or if waiting still makes you in such a financial bind, we could give an advance that they pay back split up over several paychecks.

It's snowing again this morning. I told dh I needed to go into town for some groceries and he thought I meant the 45 mile drive to the city. He wasn't keen on that as the hwy is having icey conditions. I said no, just into town grocery store and I'll get what I need (10 minute drive).

I want to try to make the Rosette cookies today. Heat oil to 375. Ohhhh...ya, now I remember. My grandma had one of those electric skillet things you could set the dial to the desired temp. Ya, I don't have one of those. Might have to wing it on the stove top, I guess, and find the right temp. Might have to get myself one of those. That probably would have been really handy to have when we were living in the shop with no kitchen.

An ad for our local feed supply store (where I get chicken feed, etc) was on my Facebook feed last night. They have lots of stuff, clothes, tools, etc. Anyway, they were advertising snacks and a 2 lb Salted Nut roll! LOL. DH loves those little salted nut roll candy bars. I ordered a 2lb one for his stocking. Shipping was a flat $7, so I added some BBQ rubs for my son in law.

I also woke up this morning and remembered I need to get our 2 gifts for our out of state friends ordered. I wanted to give them each one of those lovely Corinthian Bells wind chimes. I got those ordered and thankfully they had a "gift" option when shipping and should be delivered to them by the end of next week.

I got my Christmas stamps in the mail yesterday, so now my cards - all 6 of them LOL - are ready to mail. DD was messaging me the other day and showed a pic of envelopes ready to mail out and said she was doing Christmas cards for the first time - all 6 of them LOL! I said I was too and only had 6, haha and that I was waiting on the stamps. She hadn't put stamps on hers yet and decided she should get Christmas stamps too. She joked "do I need to send my parents one? that says see you at Christmas?" I said yes you do, I am sending them one. 

So, yesterday morning Mr Neighbor did not plow his driveway before he and Mrs went to work. When he plows he plows his driveway and our street that is in front of his property. DH plows our street that is in front of our property. So, being nice, dh went ahead and plowed the street in front of Mr and Mrs Neighbors property. The street looking all nice and smooth. Mr. gets home that afternoon and plows out his driveway and what does he do? leaves the berm across the road between our properties. I don't get it. Why would he think we (and neighbors down at the end) would want to drive over that?! DH and I joke if we ever win the lottery we are moving where there are no neighbors.