State Farm: You suck and your claims process is wearing at the core of our souls.

This might be a long one.  No tl;dr.  Details are important, y'all.

Saturday, 10/12/19- K and I are two minutes from walking out the door for the funeral of a dear wonderful woman from our church.  Poised to put my eyeliner on, my cellphone rings.  It doesn't ring that often, so I look and notice it is my love.  I answer.

"I am okay.  I was just in an accident.  The car is totaled."

I found out where M was, took 3 seconds, threw the eyeliner on, threw out a few texts to the parishioners who were expecting us and off and away we went.

Sweet love, the drive to California would have been shorter.  I reach the hill where my love says he was hit and I don't see him.  K spotted the Yaris first.  She gasped.  He neglected to tell me that it was off the road and had gone into the woods.

I parked in a woman's front yard, threatened K not to get out because I didn't need her all up in whatever was going on and I didn't want her hit by a car.  I crossed the road, inspected my sweets for breakage and leakage.  Both were negative.  Once I found out I wouldn't injure him with a hug, I squeezed him tight for a long time.  Then he dropped the bomb-- the guy who hit him was on his phone.

There were no skid marks.  That is why initially I couldn't find the car.

It is now I will admit that I am not proud of the fact that indeed there were some hefty words that fell from my lips.  Not at the guy.  Not at Mark.  At the situation.  I was peeved.  Dude seriously had total disregard for my husband by cresting a hill and probably driving the equivalent of a football field down a hill and only knew my husband was there when he struck his car with his vehicle.  What was he doing?  He was changing a podcast.  He told M that as well as the troopers.

He launched M over the roadway.  The Yaris touched down on the passenger side (turfed the lawn) went through a split rail fence, through the woods, over some saplings and one of the larger ones stopped his continuation forward.

The man hit him so hard that his glasses flew off his face.

Insurance information is passed on.  Since his car is was an obvious total that had to be flat bedded out of the woods, I phoned our insurance -- Allstate -- to let them know of the situation.  They were all over it.  Phoning us daily to see if he was okay.  Do they need to handle the claim?  . . . Very attentive.

It gets to Tuesday, 10/15/19 and we have yet to hear from State Farm.  Again, we have heard from our insurance several times.  Since we purchased a new-to-him 2013 Subaru Forester (later referred to as F2 since I have one we purchased in February) I needed to formalize insurance for our new buy. I explained to our agent office that we have not heard from State Farm and the accident was several days prior.

"I don't think he phoned the claim in.  Certainly they would have called at this point."  She looked the claim phone number up for me, I passed it on to M so that he could phone.  I thanked her profusely.  We seriously love Allstate and our Allstate agency.

M phoned and they said they hadn't phoned us because they didn't have our contact information.  We had the information from the guy who hit my husband.  We had his name, insurance and policy number.  We could have very easily done an internet search and picked it up.  M ended up talking to 5 different people that day who all asked the VERY SAME QUESTIONS.  My husband's stock question to State Farm has become, "DO YOU PEOPLE EVEN WRITE ANYTHING DOWN?"  I ended up being involved in the last call.  When I noticed M's head starting to smoke and he was looking like he was about to have a Sheldon Cooper lunch table explosion, I stepped in.

"How is it that you didn't have his contact information?  Don't you have a crash report?"

The guy said no, but different people say something different every time we phone.

I explained that no one phoned to check to see how he was.  I explained that no one offered a rental.  I explained that there was no attempt to advance the claim on.  He kept insisting that the car be brought closer.  (It was 45 minutes away and in a tow yard.)  After the third time with M telling him he gave the tow yard permission for it to be released to State Farm and that he got all belongings out of it, the guy wanted it closer so that it could be fixed.  M blew a gasket.  "IT CAN'T BE FIXED!  IT IS TOTALED!  DO YOU PEOPLE NOT WRITE ANYTHING DOWN?!"

I continued,  "It was your guy who was on the phone, hit my husband probably driving 60 MPH, launched him over a roadway, through a fence, into the woods where he finally was stopped by some small trees.  It's not okay.  The car is totaled.  It can't be fixed.  We need to get this claim handled."

He told us and I quote, "You guys need to calm down."

Oh. no. he. didn't.

He told us that they needed to get the car moved because they were having to pay storage on it.  Kind of not our fault because they never contacted us.  So glad he was more concerned about storage fees than my husband's welfare.  I believe that I told him that.

I told him that I was so very glad that I didn't have State Farm because the way this claim has been handled has been appalling.  If he needed the title, let us know, we will get everything signed and dropped off or mailed.

The personal injury guy has not contacted M back.  M's initial call was on 10/15.  He has another appointment for adjustment this week.  He has suffered from whiplash and it sure would be great to get payment to Cleveland Clinic rolling along.

We finally got a total loss amount back.  M was so mad that he told the guy we were going through our insurance and hung up on them.  Then I asked my sweets what Allstate said because they could offer us $2000 and not the $4400 State Farm did and then we would be royally screwed.

Silence.

He phoned back, apologized profusely and they are keeping the claim open.  We are now waiting to speak to the Allstate rep so that we can have them review it for a total loss claim amount.

We received a copy of the crash report.  The distraction coding seems to have been changed to "distraction outside of the vehicle" rather than the admitted "phone use."  Yes, well, either he paid the OSHPatrol off or they ended up giving him a break for insurance purposes.  We have phoned them to have that amended and, as with everything else, we have heard nothing.

Sunday, 10/20/19- After an enjoyable day to Cleveland where K drove up and around, she handed driving back over to her dad.  I had forgotten my purse at home, didn't have either my license or my Epi Pen (yellow jacket allergy and they have been bad) so M drove.  We got off the expressway and were waiting to yield just like the two giant yield signs asked us to and WHAM!  Oh yes, F2 got rear ended.  No, I am not kidding.  The replacement car we just financed less than a week before was now damaged.

(She hit us at probably 10 MPH, so it is here that I tell you that we are all okay.)

Once again, I was not at the height of humor or love for humanity.  I jumped out of the car and started knocking on the woman's window with my pointer finger screaming at her about now this is twice in one week, a car we haven't owned for a week and what does she say?  "You weren't supposed to stop. I looked back, you stopped and you shouldn't have stopped."  At this point, my love was at my side.  "There was traffic coming.  I had to stop."  She went on, "This is your fault."

Step back for two seconds.  She rear ended us on an exit ramp as we were yielding to oncoming traffic at a yield.  It was not continuous turn with caution.  It said yield!

I phoned the police.  They were all concerned about which direction I was pointed.  Y'all, I don't know what direction I am pointed on any given day much less a day where my husband has encountered being hit twice in 8 days.  After asking me for the 4th time, I believe she gave up.  The police came.  We were on a ramp.  That was highway patrol territory.  Highway Patrol came out.  We explained to the trooper what went on.  We explained that the woman insisted we were at fault.

He laughed.

He spoke with her.  She insisted it was our fault.  He explained that we could stop anywhere we wanted on the roadway and it didn't give her the right to hit us.  He confirmed his decision by giving her a ticket.  He gave us her insurance information.  Who is it?  You guessed it!  State FREAKING Farm.

I tell my love that I can phone this one in since I was in the car with him.  I do, I get Kevin from Washington State (he is an ex-cop, super guy and you need to give him a serious raise) who I explain the situation of now a second claim.  He finds that the State Farm driver hadn't called the claim in yet, so he processes it with me as far as he can.  He will phone her and if successful, they will back to me in about a half hour or so.  In 45 minutes, Pam from Dallas TX (who is delightful and also deserves a big fat raise) gave me the claim number, rental car information and was a delight to speak with.

The State Farm delightfulness stopped there.

F2 went to the State Farm approved estimate shop that appears to be run by some nasticious troll who has an attitude worse than anything my husband has seen.  (It is here that I remind the gentle readers that my husband is a very kind soul.)  He phoned me during the estimate.  "I don't feel good about this shop.  I don't get a good feeling.  This guy isn't nice.  This is a production shop.  He has no attention to detail and this is terrible."

"You don't have to go there.  They told us that we can go to the shop of our choice.  The shop that repaired for us before is wonderful and you spoke of going there."

M talked with the awful shop guy who was trying to hard sell to him and in the end, contacted State Farm with an appointment to get the car repaired that M never scheduled.  Can I tell you how much fun that has been because State Farm was so insistent that we were going to Backyard Bully Bob's Collision Center that my husband just started chanting on repeat the name and address of the shop we will be having repair F2.  He said that the woman lost her patience with him.

Oh, and fun to add that this State Farm representative is confusing the two claims and thinks she is fixing the Yaris.  "IT IS TOTALED.  DO YOU PEOPLE NOT WRITE ANYTHING DOWN?" was M's response.

BBBCCenter guy never sent the estimate as he said he would.  M said he phoned the shop to tell him had never scheduled an appointment and has chosen to go to a different place.  We believe the guy is withholding the estimate out of spite because, well, that is how this fine trip with State Farm has been.

So, State Farm-- you are the worst insurance company we have ever encountered.  Never have we ever had to phone any insurance company to give our contact information.  Just February, my vehicle was totaled at the shop by our mechanic and their insurance was on with me within hours.  Everything was sorted within a week.  Hooray for Erie Insurance!

Ohio State Waterproofing hit me and K, spun us through an intersection and totaled our vehicle about 12 years ago.  Their insurance was all over it.  Thank you, Cincinnati Insurance!  

My vehicle was damaged at a friend's house by a husband, a strong weed eater and over zealous trimming before a party.  Hooray for Westfield Insurance as they had it handled and easily taken care of!

We have already said, but just to confirm, thank you Allstate for your kindness and caring in regard to questions we have had and advice you have been able to give.

State Farm, Step up and redeem yourself!  Get these two unfortunate claims sorted in a swift manner, please!  You have been absolutely terrible to deal with!

Rearviewmirror: A song for someone I love. Stop putting up with the abuse.

REARVIEWMIRROR
Released: December 31, 1994 COMPOSER: Vedder/McCready/Gossard/Ament/Abbruzzese
ARTIST: Pearl Jam

I took a drive today
Time to emancipate
I guess it was the beatings... made me wise
But I'm not about to give thanks, or apologize
I couldn't breathe, holdin' me down
Hand on my face, pushed to the ground
Enmity gauged, united by fear
Forced to endure what I could not forgive...

I seem to look away
Wounds in the mirror waved
It wasn't my surface... most defiled
Head at your feet, fool to your crown
Fist on my plate, swallowed it down
Enmity gauged, united by fear
Tried to endure what I could not forgive

Saw things
Saw things
Saw things
Saw things
Clearer
Clearer
Once you, were in my...
Rearviewmirror...

I gather speed from you f'--ing with me
Once and for all I'm far away
I hardly believe, finally the shades...are raised...

Saw things so much clearer
(Once you, once you)
Rearviewmirror...

Know that you are good enough.  Know that you don't deserve to be beaten.  Know that I love you.

She's going to kill you if you don't leave her.

* There are several different interpretations to this song.  For my purposes and knowing the situation that I know of, it makes me cry every time I hear it, thinking of the abuse that is endured and not left. 
** Lyrics from www.pearljam.com.

Cyber Monday: Support the Akron-Canton Regional Foodbank and your gift will be matched!

Help to support the Akron-Canton Regional Foodbank on Monday, December 2nd:
            

PW mixer giveaway with 10 cents donated to the tornado relief charity of winner's choice for each comment received.

Go!

Now!

The mixer is a lovely thing, but Ree (the Pioneer Woman) is donating 10 cents for every comment received.  The money will go to the tornado relief organization of the winner's choice.  (Read the details to make sure that I got it all right.)  So far, there are well over 28,000 comments!

Sign up now!

Tales from the Trenches: Remembering to count all of the B.L.T's.

I've never been a calorie counter, but as I said a few posts ago, my metabolism has gone south and the needle on the scale is going in the opposite direction.  I've decided to utilize the My Fitness Pal App.  I didn't do this to be a militant, crazed calorie counter.  I did this to figure something out.  I needed to see if there was more going into my mouth than what I thought.

There was.

My friend Laurie told me that she found that she needed to count every "Bite, lick and taste."  Goodness knows that when I'm cooking, I've probably tasted a serving size just in checking spice and doneness.

I've been watching very close this week.  I've been doing this to see a pattern, to see really what unlabeled foods "cost" calorie-wise and to get that freakin' needle moving in the correct direction.

I'm happy to say that I've moved down about 3 1/2 pounds in the last two weeks of really watching.

I'm sad to say that I've discovered that our 50 minute "brisk" walk each evening is all of 172 calories burned.

:snicker of the upper lip:

I would have liked so much more.

The last two days, I've managed to be under my caloric goal of 1700.  Today it was about 1250.  Yesterday I was probably at about 1400.

I'm not going to starve myself.  I'm also not going to beat myself up over days like Saturday when I was 300 calories over the goal for the day.

Any little bit that can help is a good thing.  I'm trying.

My sister and I were talking today.  I told her that I don't want to be like Aunt Donna.  When she stopped breathing on me, she was face down on the floor.  She was 273 pounds and 5'2".  When I phoned 911 and updated them on the change in her condition, the operator wanted me to flip Aunt Donna over.  I could not do it.  I could not flip her over to perform CPR, but that wouldn't have made a difference in her case anyhow.  (I feel no regret.  Don't worry.  I know that I did everything for her that I could.)  I don't want to be that person that someone can't flip over to try to perform a life saving procedure.  They also had to call the fire department to help them to pick her up because she was so big.

I don't want to be that.

I won't be that.

So on I travel to try to be the weight that I have listed on my driver's license.  Wish me luck!

Have a great night!

I'm never going to be 97 pounds again and I'm okay with that, but . . .

I was 97 pounds when Hubs and I married 16 years ago.  I ordered a size 3/4 dress and had to have it taken in 3" on each side.  I was in college and working two jobs.  Kent is  a campus with bus service, but I found that walking got me to places faster.  When I started college, I lost the freshman 15, I didn't gain it.

Fast forward 16 years.  I am not that 97 pounds.  I'm quite fine with that.  I am, er, many pounds more than that and it would be okay, but I am absolutely telling you that my metabolism is celebrating my milestone birthday a bit earlier than it should.

I think that my metabolism has stopped.  In fact, I dropped my wedding band off at the Mom and Pop jewelers to make my band 1/2 size larger.  I couldn't get it off for about a year and I gave up.  If it was a different ring, I would have cut it off.  Being my wedding band, I was a bit more sentimental.  I was able to get it off and my $20 wedding band cost me $35 to resize it.  Oh well.  I've needed to do it for some time.

I've started doing something I've never had to do-- I'm actually (out of curiosity) counting calories.  You see, before I could do a minor tweak, roll some walking in and voila!  An easy 5-7 pounds would roll off.  Not so now.  My metabolism laughs and adds on a few pounds just to mock me.

Ugh.

We've been walking nearly every night.  We walk about 2 1/2 miles and since glaciation is our friend here in these parts, it is absolutely up and down hill all the way.

I have skirts that are tighter than they were when I bought them.  I didn't buy them with room-to-grow, but they were a little loose.  So sad.  They aren't now.  Pants need pulled up not because they are falling down because of loss, but because they are shimmying because of force.

I'm not really delighted with these changes.

I've been busy taking a hard look at what I eat, how much I eat and when I eat.  Y'all, I spend a lot of time hungry.  My husband would tell me to make sure that I'm eating the right things because I don't want to cannibalize muscle.  I'm with him on that.  I've been paying close attention.

I've also dumped drinking pop (or soda or Coke-- whatever you call it.)  I miss it.  I've come to the conclusion that it is the bubbles, but I've found that my head doesn't have that spacey feel.  I was drinking the dreaded diet pop (or soda or Coke) and it wasn't doing good things for me.

Yesterday, my lunch bag was a little sparse.  :snicker in hunger:  Today I have leftovers of what I made myself for dinner-- whole wheat Israeli couscous with lentils, split peas and orzo, sun dried tomatoes, mushrooms and sweet red peppers.

I've been on the quest to make the waistline smaller.  I've got to change my efforts.  Hopefully, I'll figure it out.

Have a great day!

Ballot number 26

I'm old fashioned and think that the idea of driving to my voting location ON voting day is fabulous. I woke up at 5:20 AM and couldn't fall back to sleep. I decided to go when the polls opened. I was there at 6:25 AM and waited in a line that stretched out into the parking lot. The air was a brisk 30 F, but no matter. I needed to vote. I did vote. After today, I am excited to get this decided once and for all. I would love to be able to answer my phone, watch my TV and to pick up my mail- all free of political commercial or ad.

Toy and donation drive whoas.

Today ends our school Civic Drive.  The Civic Drive was for collecting "new or lightly used toys for children in need."  Allow me to inform all of you that most of what was donated, which was very little, was used.  We're talking extremely used.  There is a Doodle Bear, all doodled, not laundered and without the doodly pens.  The doodles?  Not so artful or purposeful.  Scribbles, really.  There is a stuffed Mickey Mouse that has met his fate with some type of cream colored latex house paint on several areas of his body.  There is a little bitty oven with stickers on it.  Barbie accessories with marker on them and missing parts.  We received all of three new things, at least in the batch that I saw.  (Not all have been collected yet, as I know what K- donated hadn't made it to the PTA room yet.)

Let me decode for the reading public-- "lightly used" doesn't mean whipped to no end.  "Lightly used" is the polite way for saying, "Basically new and out of the box."  Please consider who will be receiving this toy.  K- and I had a discussion about it.  I told her that the toys that are donated may very well be the only item that the child receives for Christmas and I certainly would hate to think that if we were in the same situation, my child's only Christmas gift would be something that Goodwill wouldn't consider selling. 

She gasped.  As well she should.

I have to consider the other side, too.  Perhaps all of you recall the story of K- and the used Christmas exchange book.  Maybe the kids were donating just something of theirs so that their name could be put in the drawing to win a skate ticket pack.  Perhaps the parents had nothing to do with it.  So often, parents know very little about what their children are doing at school.  (I have teachers who would back me up on that statement.) 

We're looking towards doing our annual canned food drive in March.  Last year, we had to toss nearly 80 expired items.  One item dated back to 1999.  On the collection notice that we send, we will be specifying that any expired items will not be counted toward the class total and we will be discarding them. 

Who would seriously want to eat a boxed meal item dating back 11 years?  Well, it could have been longer.  The expiration was back in 1999.  Goodness knows when the item was actually purchased!

Again, I think of the recipients.  For about a year, Hubs and I volunteered at the local homeless shelter.  We directly saw who received items/meals and interacted with them on a regular basis.  In fact, I ate with the ladies every Monday night.  (To earn their trust, I learned that declining a meal that I thought I shouldn't take from them was them viewing me as looking down upon them and thinking that they were icky, as opposed to my trying to conserve food for others.)  I've worked at the church food pantry.  I've picked up from the church food pantry for my brother on numerous occasions.  I've been in the thick of who receives such donations.  I couldn't ever hand potentially inedible items off to them-- ever.  Not to anyone. 

I hate that times that drives come up, people feel the need to donate the unwanted.  Isn't it when donating to church, it is to be the first fruits that you set aside for God?  Well, let's look at donations to the public in the same way.  Let us give them our first fruits and not the leftover table scraps that have been in the fridge for a week.

What would you have done?

Last night, I didn't sleep that well.  They were calling for the potential of overnight tornadoes and frankly, those are the kind that frighten me the most.  I stayed up, watched the radar, knew when the storms were to start and slept a few hours before that.  I woke up at 2:45 AM (body alarm) and soon enough, a tornado warning crawl came across the screen.  It wasn't for my county, but it was for a county south of me that my friend lives in. 

My friend has M.S.  She suffers from neuropathy in her feet and for her to get up and get moving takes about an hour just to get all the right parts going in all the right places.  She can't just jump out of bed and run. 

So I called her at 3:15 AM. 

"Cj, I'm so sorry to call you in the middle of the night, but there is a tornado warning for [your] county." 

I tossed back and forth in my mind for a minute of what to do.  Here's the discussion that I had with myself:
-  Cj has MS.
-  She can't move that well.
-  She's in the middle of the country, on a hill away from close contact with neighbors and there is no tornado siren where she is at.
-  I didn't know if her partner was there to help her.  (Turns out he was.) 
-  She has three dogs to gather up and haul down with her.  She wouldn't leave them upstairs. 
-  I wasn't certain where the location was that the circulation was, but to boot up my computer and give it a run on Map Quest was me losing precious time for her to be contacted.
-  The storm was moving 55 MPH, which is kind of hauling at a pretty decent pace.

On my way to work, I called Cj to see how everything was.  She was at the dentist, but I did talk to her partner.  I asked him not to hate me.  He said that they didn't at all and that his friend ended up calling about an hour after I did for the very same reason. 

"At least you know that there are people who care about you!" 

He said that there was a tornado that touched down south of them and when I Map Quested the circulation location, I found that it was 4-5 miles away from their house.  Moving at 55 MPH, they wouldn't have had much time to act.  Cj's basement steps are kind of condensed and short.  It is difficult for her to navigate them anyhow, but squishy spaced steps are not run-down-them kind of steps. 

Cj e-mailed later (calling me darling) and said that she was absolutely not mad at me for phoning.  She had ear plugs in that muffled everything.  She would have never heard a tornado coming. 

I don't regret having called her.  I told her that had she gone by way of Mary Poppins and I knew that a potential tornado was coming towards them and didn't call and warn them, I wouldn't have been able to forgive myself. 

What would you have done?

Smiles in my day:
-  It looks like our collard greens are coming up.  Spike (our iguana) will be so excited to have garden veggies again.  (You think I'm crazy?  He begs for tomatoes when they are on.) 
-  I functioned surprisingly well, considering the lack of sleep that I had.  Perhaps I need less sleep than I'm getting.
-  K- and I have a date to stuff hundreds of plastic eggs tomorrow for our annual family Easter egg hunt.  We'll stuff to see if I need more.  I can't recall how many I have, but I believe it's something around 400 or so.

Have a great day!

Public Broadcasting needs you!

The U.S. House of Representatives passed H.R. 1 early this morning, which eliminates federal funding for public broadcasting. This is a blow to public radio and television stations across the country and the 170 million Americans who tune in every month.

But we are not giving up.

You have already had a powerful impact in Washington. We heard directly from Members of Congress that the hundreds of thousands of calls and emails in support of public broadcasting have created momentum that may yet save federal funding for this vital public service.

Now the bill heads to the Senate. We need to send a clear message to Washington: Funding for public broadcasting is too important to eliminate.

What can you do today?  Please reach out to your friends and family and encourage them to sign up at 170MillionAmericans.org and at Facebook.com/170Million over the coming week. This is going to be a marathon and we will need any many supporters as possible to prevail in the end.

Note:  Post text taken from  e-mail received from 170 Million Americans.

If you serve it, will they eat it?

I was reading through the comments on my Tuesday post about school lunches. I admit that when K- started school, I was pretty excited since I read the menu from last year and it involved chef salads and whatnot. This year, there is chicken nugget day and pizza day, the rest are a hodge podge of funk.

My beloved cousin, Janeen, vows to change the school lunch offerings before they leave the school that her boys are enrolled in. My question is, if you serve it, will they eat it? More specifically, will kids eat healthy stuff, or is the school providing them the meal most likely to be eaten?

I've been blessed with a child that is by and large a good eater. There are only a few foods that she does not like. She's not a fan of spicy, though a little is okay. She has never liked peaches or green beans. She has discovered that mandarin oranges aren't quite her thing. However, she is in love with fresh fruit or vegetable plates. As she walks by the cherry tomato growing to gigantic heights in our herb garden, she'll go snacking. The collards in the garden for Spike? She pulls some for him and some for her. Meat is admittedly not a complete favorite, though she'll eat small portions of it.

I just don't think that we need to dumb down the food education that schools are giving our kids. I agree wholeheartedly with Janeen's comment about childhood obesity. I don't think that chicken nuggets are low on the caloric food chain.

So, what am I pulling for?
-Fresh fruit plate with yogurt and some granola. K- would dig that.
-Fresh salads with a choice of toppings.
-Fresh veggie plate with cheese wedges
-Baked, non-processed meat offerings. Not fried.
-Fresh sandwiches of quality lunch meat.
-Soup

"Beef and macaroni casserole, crispy chicken leg, corn dog, nachos supreme, chicken fingers, hot dog, chicken nuggets and pizza" is currently on deck this month for the public school system where we are in. Yuck.

I had to laugh about the print at the bottom of the school lunch menu. It was stating how much healthier school lunches are than packed, since the children get a larger variety of dairy and more servings of fruit and vegetables offered than in traditional packed lunches.

I beg to differ. Just yesterday, my child took:
-Curly noodle soup
-Cherry tomatoes and crinkle cut carrots
-Goldfish crackers with a few chocolate animal crackers
-1/2 turkey sandwich on double fiber wheat bread

Really? I think that my lunch sounds healthier. (And yes, I packed far too much.) So, my question is, if you were to design the school lunch menu to feed the masses of children that eat it daily, what items would you want to offer? Many other places are revamping their school lunch programs. What can we do to change ours?

Smiles in my day:
- K-'s interim report card was FABULOUS! I'm excited to report that the supplemental reading course seems to have helped as K- scored in the highest level of reading. The teacher also reports that she is a delight. Hooray!
- Hubs has been transferring the home videos of K- over to DVD. We've been watching and some are hilarious. We are complete dorks and the video footage definitely confirmed that.
- My soup tonight turned out wonderful! I made far too much. Want some? :)

A Negative Spin

I'm normally a fairly positive person, but lately I've noticed that negativity has been pouring from my mouth.

I'm not happy with this.

Oh, it's a little nit-pick here, a nit-pick there. Just general crankiness about really trivial stuff. This habit has come more to light over this past week when one of my co-workers were called out on negative speak. Again, nothing major, but a little bit seems to ooze. She was talking to me about it, called something I said to my attention (with no offense, but just calling attention to it so that I wouldn't have issue with people) and it got me to thinking. How the heck did I get this way?

I've come up with a list of possible triggers. Notice that I'm not giving reasons, but triggers. I'd just like to get back to my sunshiny self. I'm not trying to defend bad behavior or negative speak.

1. I have not been sleeping as well as I used to. -- When Hubs has sleeping issues, I have sleeping issues. When K- has sleeping issues, I have sleeping issues. When there are family issues, I have sleeping issues. I internalize, then I lay awake in the middle of the night praying about things. Oh, the direct line to God is good and all, but if I could get my talking to done with Him before 3 AM, that would be super.
2. April and May are dreadful for any park naturalist. -- This is the final push for school programs. There is also the frog and toad survey that keeps Hubs up and out until after 11 PM traipsing through people's yards counting the frogs that they have. This makes Hubs tired, but wired and he can't sleep. He can't sleep, I can't sleep. See trigger #1.
3. The economy. -- For several months, out-going funds and incoming funds differed by sometimes as much as $800.00 per month. I was watching the cash in our savings plummet. We were still fine, but not as fine as we like to be. About 1/2 of what we wanted to be, actually. We've resolved that by completely banking the income tax check, K- isn't in preschool anymore, so that tuition is being banked, utility costs have gone down, we still stick to lumping a bunch of trips into one and we're just generally being mindful of our spending. We've been successful in pulling the account back around and we're trying to bank more money now to try to offset the dip we might have in the winter.

Which brings me to another point on #3. I haven't had a raise in 3 years. Hubs got a minimal raise this year (county government for parks doesn't generally give huge raises), but we were told that they will NOT be getting raises this next year. It is wonderful to have a raise, but good to be warned. They apologized profusely, but they have a raise freeze next year for the county that Hubs works for, so we certainly know that they have to follow suit. Only seems fair.

In addition, my bosses have always been wonderful in giving us a bonus each year. That bonus two years ago + money that I saved up completely paid K-'s preschool tuition in full at the beginning of the year. I didn't have that cushion this past year and the bonus only paid for one month of tuition and not the 4 or so that I was hoping for. Still very thankful, as I was surprised that we got anything at all.

The economy in general have made customers want more for less-- oh like me. They've even said this past week that it is as much or sometimes more work to sell a $30.00 item than it is to sell a $300.00 item.
5. When you are around folks that tend to spew negative, it rubs off on you. -- 'Nuff said.
6. I love my brother, but I've had to pull back from bailing him out. -- Yes, cost wise is a concern, but he has rested on enabling behavior and I refuse to do it anymore. I was pulling back before, but the turn of the new year clinched it. He needs to keep his appointments, continue to take his medications, provide for his family and GET A FREAKIN' JOB, please.
7. Road rage. -- People can't let you in. They don't want to let you out. They don't want to be nice.
8. Store attitudes. -- People are cranky there, too.
9. I worry that I'm not teaching K- enough or do enough with her. -- Don't you always feel not good enough in some way as a mom?
10. One of my biggest fears is cancer and every newspaper and magazine that I read seems like there are 12 major stories about this. I end up thinking about this, having a pain in the very spot that I was reading about and remain awake and worry about it. Hypochondriac? Um, yes.
11. Allergies have been dreadful this year, and I had a major battle for a month and a half.

Again, these are triggers, not excuses. In effort to spin myself to a sunshinier side of life, I'm going to do something that my internet friend, Rachael does. I'm going to end my post with some good stuff from my day. She calls them "Sparklies" but I'll call mine "Smiles in my day." This way, I will be thinking of and being thankful for good things.

Smiles in my day:
1. We attended a family graduation party today for Hubs' cousin. Though I'll be writing about this on Thursday, we had a lovely time and K- was very good!
2. There is a couple at church that have adopted K- as a pseudo grandkid that she makes treats and cookies for. They made M & M cookies for K- and chocolate covered cherries for me. I'm sharing my cherries with my mother-in-law and the folks at work.
3. My father-in-law has lost 8 pounds! I'm so proud of him!
4. My brother and his family stayed at my sister's house last night until about 9:30 PM. It was nice for them to get out and have a good time. (There was a birthday party-- part of Thursday post-- and they just stayed on.)
5. K-'s graduation picture came in today. So cute! So glad we ordered it since she decided to fly down the aisle to catch up with her friend! She moved so fast we didn't catch her!
6. The sermon today got me thinking about my negativity thing. The message made a positive impact on me and got me moving to make a positive change.

Works for Me Wednesday: Adoption Process Tips

Everyone who stops in here pretty much knows that adoption is near and dear to our hearts. More specifically, we are advocates for domestic county adoption -- they are right in your backyard -- though adoption in general is just a wonderful thing.

Our adoption was through the county just south of us and what we did was Foster to Adopt. What that means is that when K- was born, the hospital reported her birth status to the county, they filed for temporary custody (emergency if memory serves) and she came to live with us. She was foster only at this time. Her first week with us was a flurry of caseworker visits (3 total) and a doctor's well visit. (Required to be done the first week a child is with you.) We had a hearing in mid-January that was optional for us to attend, but we were able to meet K-'s Guardian et Litem. The county was awarded temporary custody, then the move was to get permanent custody. Monthly, we had a few workers stop in to check on K-. We eventually gained permanent custody, despite the timing with the paperwork issue, then onward to adoptive status. Early on, we did have one worker give me a tip. I'm adding the others that we found particularly helpful.

1. Keep track of the birth mother via the public record. -- Every state (I think) has online access to the public record. This gives accounts of arrests, court dates and so forth. I would check the record a couple of times a week. If there was a new entry, I would e-mail our worker immediately.
2. Be seen often. -- An optional court date? Go. A review hearing that you don't have to attend if you don't want to? Go. Hubs and I were determined to have the county see our smiling faces as much as humanly possible.
3. Keep impeccable records. -- When we got K-, she was a day and a half old. Keeping records for her was easy, as I just kept an incredibly detailed baby calendar for her. She had a doctor's visit? I recorded it, for what reason, the measurements taken that day and if a follow-up was needed. All case worker visits were listed. Any milestones were recorded. Any new places or fun things we did were listed. She went to the voting booth with me that year (it was a presidential election) and I placed my voting sticker in there. They knew that we were very involved as a family, I had all kinds of memorabilia and whatnot. No questions asked. The worker was so excited when we were wrapping up our paperwork to move onto ADOPTIVE STATUS! that she actually copied the entire calendar so that she could show her clients.
4. Tackle paperwork like a life depends on it. -- Really, this statement is completely true. Our adoptive worker, the one who copied the calendar, commented that she could be to our house on Monday, give me a stack of papers 2" thick to fill out and she knew that it would be in her box by Wednesday. I pushed papers. My husband said that he was stunned with the intensity that I had when tackling the adoptive paperwork. The sooner I got it handled and back into their hands, the quicker we got through the system.
5. Put your big city girl boots on and talk to everyone that you need to at the county. -- Seriously. The county knew that I made no bones about calling or e-mailing. Usually, I would e-mail, as I knew that they had so many cases and that really, we were a cut and dry case. We had to go through the motions (K- was the 7th child, after all) because really they had it streamlined by the time K- came along. It still didn't mean that it didn't need to be handled. When our Guardian failed to turn paperwork in on time and K-'s permanent custody case was appealed (ARRRGGGHH!), I called the CSB attorney. I don't think that is typical for a parent, but he could see with what extreme seriousness we were taking our case. I spoke to department head to address the concerns that I had with the homestudy. Our homestudy was handed over to an independent contractor and she came, took the information and was lolly gagging on getting the report filled out. I complained and magically, the report appeared.
6. Keep all appointments. -- You only delay the process if you don't keep the scheduled visits and so forth. Sure, it can be a bit of a pain to have people traipsing in and out of your house all the time, but this is a part of it that you signed up for. Look at it this way, it is a built in house cleaning plan.
7. If you choose to call your child a name other than the given name, remember to call them by their birth name when official folks are present. -- K-'s name is not her birth name. There was no romantic reason for us to keep the birth name. We chose K-'s name for a few different reasons, but that didn't mean that we could call her that to the workers or in court. Sure, the first thing that the workers asked when they entered after K-'s arrival was "so, what are you naming her?" (Her birth name was very misspelled and a bit street, as my social worker friend told me.) The pediatrician that saw her the first time asked that, too. However, as much as the workers understand that you are changing the name, the courts like you to refer to the child by their legal name until adoptive status is reached. Then you can call name them mud, if you want!
8. Be extremely appreciative. -- Honestly, these folks are overworked and underpaid. If you are taking a child into your home, chances are that they are only visiting as a formality. Really, they look at your house as a place to hang out, take a deep breath and be glad that they don't have to worry about roaches, fleas or other creepy crawlies, abuse, neglect or other bizarre things. There were times that we found that it was more of a therapeutic dump session for them. During those times, I (it was mostly just me) got a little bit of a window into what their work was really like. It is because of all of these meetings that I'm as hyperspastic about K- as I am. (Hubs, too.)
9. Keep up to date on coursework. -- Don't try to crash all the required upkeep hours in a week. Take classes that seem interesting to you, not ones that you are taking just to log in the hours. Take it as an opportunity to learn. Take it as an opportunity to network with other parents. Give honest feedback. Help the county to know what worked and what didn't with the class. Really, most of the classes that we took were really good.

K-'s adoption day was exactly two days shy of her 1 year anniversary of being with us. Her adoption day? It fell on her very first birthday. I still get weepy just thinking about it.

Truly, I cannot say enough about how much adoption has touched our hearts. Whether it be private, county, domestic or international, know that the children who need homes didn't ask to be in their situation. They are little victims of circumstance. Their parents, for whatever reason, have been deemed as not the best guardian for them. Even if it is not your heart's calling to adopt, please pray for all of the children that need homes. There are so many children without parents, here and abroad, that the number is just shocking. They need moms. They need dads. They need love. Even if fostering is what you are interested in, a positive launching pad stays with a child for a lifetime. You may be the first positive reinforcement in their lives that they ever got. Though sometimes they may not say it at the time, believe me when I say that you will stay in their hearts forever. Fostering is a gift that makes my eyes well in tears. So many stories I heard of from folks who only fostered, fostered so many and were able to see children, otherwise broken and bruised physically and/or mentally, turn around and be productive and wonderful citizens. Please remember these children. They have been through so much.

Works for Me Wednesday: Little Bits of Frugality

We're on a theme this week with Works for Me Wednesday. Kristin has picked frugalness as the theme. I think that I've kind of done a post on this anyhow, but let me think some more . . .

1. We handle doing our own lawn work. I realize that many people do, but we don't hire in the killer spray people, either. The dandelions and assorted weeks happily live, carpeting our bit of earth. That's okay with us. Well, that is until my lovely neighbor decides to share his weed and feed on our front yard. (We really do love him!)
2. We have a little garden. In our garden, we grow many plants that I have grown from seed. If it is something that I have not grown, we stop by roadside stands or Mom and Pop vegetable markets to make up the rest.
3. You've heard tales of line drying. I line dry in the basement in the winter/bad weather days. I dry outside when the weather permits. That includes our sheets, but not the towels. When the pollen settles down, I'll launder all the blankets and hang them out, too.
4. We run to the thrift store for clothing for all of us. Hubs ruins his pants at work by slogging through mud. K- doesn't typically ruin her clothes, but she does have a fondness for making "mud soup." She loves dresses and loves to play in the sandbox. The thrift store (AKA in my house as the all year yard sale) give me an opportunity to buy cute little dresses for about a buck that if trashed, I'm not so sad about it. As for me, my main job at work is display. I'm not really delicate with display. I've burned my hair with halogen lights (it smells horrible BTW), scraped my arms all up with metal Christmas trees and blown out knees of jeans from all the dragging around the floor that I do (among other things). I can get quite dirty doing my job and I'd hate to pay a lot for jeans that I wear the knees out on.
5. We're dinner re-servers. K- doesn't have to finish her dinner at dinner, but if she wants something else to eat later, she needs to finish her dinner before she can have something else. My mother-in-law will attest to the fact that K- can take two bites of this, three bites of that and decide that she wants something else. She had my poor mother-in-law so buffaloed that she seriously thought that K- only wanted junk. I told her that she was giving her a bail out option and too many options on top of that. She started doing what we do and voila! K- stopped doing it to grandma, too.
6. We use the heat and A/C only when needed. Seems weird that I say that, but when my parents turn their A/C on, it is on for the rest of the season. My neighbor NEVER opens his windows-- ever. We have a programmable thermostat that regulates the heat/cold according to the schedule we put in. I'm a fan of the open window, though. When we replaced our windows about 3 1/2 years ago, we put in the kind that will open from the top or bottom. This is helpful with rain. Typically, it won't rain in the windows when they are opened from the top.
7. Coupons and reimbursements. Yet another duh! but I've saved a lot over the years. Just recently, I received a check from Airborne for $65.00 from their class action lawsuit. We had saved the UPC's and receipts to get free Airborne, but it turned out that the lawsuit settlement was more worth our money. Besides, we like Oscillococinum better.
8. Fresh Step Scoop paw prints rebate. We've earned several free boxes of cat litter from just saving the points on the side of the box.
9. Being a My Points member. When we order something online, we run through the My Points site to see if it is a rewardable purchase. I also get their e-mails to click through to websites. It takes very little time. There have been times that I've been behind on the My Points and needed to ditch them because of expiration, but I'm pretty good at keeping up with them most of the time. I've been a member since 1998 (eek!) and have gotten more gift certificates than I can tell you. Typically now I use them for Christmas gifts. I work to save the points for certificates to restaurants, home improvement stores or to put towards more Christmas gifts for K-.
10. Discover Cash Back Rewards. We have been fortunate enough to be able to continue to pay our full balance off on our credit card monthly. By doing this, our interest rate is a little higher, but we earn cash rewards and we don't use the interest rate anyhow!
11. LL Bean Rewards. When you purchase with an LL Bean credit card, you get free shipping (returns, too), free monogramming and purchase rewards. Recently, we purchased boots for my husband with his work allowance. Their most recent promotion was when $50. or more was purchased, you would earn a $10.00 coupon to use at a later date. You could earn only one per day. We purchased each pair of boots on two different days, so now we have $20.00 in credit to use towards our little fire ring that we'd like to purchase. LL Bean is also just a great value in general as their items are guaranteed for life. Hubs called about a rain jacket that his father had purchased for him 16 years previous. It had shredded in the wash. You know what? They returned it. They also returned the sandals that ate big blisters into K-'s feet-- no questions asked.
12. We clean our own carpets. I know that the big boys do a lovely job, but we pull together and in an afternoon, we get the job done and nicely, too!
13. I wash the RAV in the driveway, as opposed to running it through a car wash. Well, I'll give it a run in the wintertime (this past year just once), but I've gotten the washing down to a science, so it isn't too bad.
14. We mulched heavily last year, with some in reserve, so as not to have to do the yearly mulch. We might even be good for next year!
15. I trade plant splits with friends. I've traded plants back and forth with people that I know. My sister has given me wonderful houseplants (she admitted to me a week ago that she gives me parts of her plants so that she can come back to be to replace if she kills hers). In return, I gave my sister more tomato plants than she could possibly plant (that year I accidentally had 80 seedlings), Yarrow, Obedient Plant, Echinacea, Lime Green Nicotiana and Basil. My friend Irina (hey Irina!) who has moved to Montreal (we miss you Irina!) traded me chives, Lily of the Valley, Brown Eyed Susans and Shasta Daisies for tomato plants. Hubs' aunt and uncle have gifted me cast-off's, as their gardens have been well established for quite sometime. Thanks to them we have Goosenecks, Forget Me Not*, Sedum, Rose of Sharon and Choral Bells*. (*Not coming up anymore! Eeek!) They also gave us peonies that came from Hubs' grandmothers garden. We have a whole slew of Day Lilies, Sedum and a large bush that came from my mother-in-law. My friend Cj has gifted me more Sedum (yes, I have several varieties as my backyard is unshaded and can use drought tolerant plants) and Wild Yarrow from her field.

That's all that I can pick out of my brain for now. Good luck on saving! :)

We need to be more mindful of our spending.

Hubs' cousin, Janeen, wrote a post on this very subject. I know that there are corners that I can cut. What have we been doing to save money? Let me share.

1. We have a programmable thermostat. We have it kick back to 65 F overnight (10 PM - 6 AM), up to 68 F between the hours of 6 AM - 8 AM, kicks back down to 62 F from 8 AM - 5 PM, then back up to 68 F between 5 PM - 10 PM. I am able to override if we are at home, but this saves much money. We have blankets that keep us toasty at night and there is no use in keeping the house fully heated for the critters. Keep in mind that for every 1 degree that you turn your thermostat down, you save 3 percent on your heating bill.
2. We purchase only reasonable items in bulk. What do I mean by that? We don't go hog wild in Sam's. We also share the membership with my in-law's. Items that we purchase are:
Gatorade by the flat*
Garbage bags
Boca Burgers*
Water by the flat*
Surf Laundry detergent
45 roll box of toilet paper
Clorox 2

Nutri-Grain bars

Occasionally cereal

Pam spray

Go-gurt (for "yogurt popsicles")

Craisins

Goldfish Crackers

Multi cracker packs for K-'s snacktime at school

Cocoa roasted almonds
We find that we can reasonably use these items. The *'d items are for Hubs. Both K- and I drink the water from the tap, so I don't need all those little bottles. I've tried to break Hubs of the bottled water habit and he won't budge. I buy my spices in bulk in Amish Country.
3. Line drying our clothes. I allow myself one dryer load per week, and that would be for towels. For the first time, I tried to line dry the sheets downstairs. We have one set of flannel sheets for our bed, and those are the ones that I washed. It worked out fine. Clothes have been dry within 12 hours of hanging, so it was faster to line dry than I thought.
4. Coupon clipping. Now, I'm not as good as Jamie, but I'm getting much better. The couponing habit had fallen by the wayside, but I'm glad that I'm back on the wagon again. I have to make sure that I buy what we use, is reasonable and we like as opposed to falling into the trap of "I bought it because I could get it cheap."
5. Multiple trips while driving out. When gas hit above $4.00 a gallon last year, I started making the habit of making the most of my trips. Often, K- and I will remain home for the day rather than running around. If we do go out, 98% of the time it involves several trips that I've been piling up over the days.
6. Curbed the fly through fast food. Even a couple of bucks here and there add up. We were more value menu kind of people, but it does all add up. I keep a stash of crackers in the console for K- when she does get the munchies when we are out.
7. I dumped pop. I love soda/pop, whatever you call it. I noticed the prices just flying on it. Even though I only drank a can a day, I dumped my habit. If pop is on sale by the two liter, I'll buy one and enjoy it. I did buy a few 20 oz bottles last week. It wasn't money saving. It was sanity saving. Not a good excuse, though.
8. I pay my bills online. I know that I should support the US Postal Service, yes? Well, it is much easier to pay online, as I can schedule or have automatic payments pop out of the accounts. Add to it the envelopes, checks, time . . . It is a savings all the way around.
9. I am religious about having scheduled maintenance done on my car. It is due for an oil change every 5000 miles. It is done within 100 miles of the turnover. I have my tires rotated regularly (besides blowing them out by hitting curbs, running over screws and the latest of smacking a pothole.) To do scheduled maintenance is to save money in the long run. I do have the oil changed at the dealership, but Hubs has priced it and it is only slightly higher than it would cost him to do it. We have the 72,000 mile extended warranty, so they'll be able to see that we have not only taken care of it, but they will be able to address issues if/when they come up.
10. I've given my husband a monthly allowance for his CD purchasing habit. Now, I admit that the man is willing to shop at the used CD store (The Exchange) and wait until the CD that he wants hits the used rack. Still, there have been months that he has spent well over $100.00 on CDs priced between $1.00 - $8.00. He has an allowance of $20.00. And yes, I bust him if he goes over. I'm an artist and he is a park naturalist. We're not rolling in money, which is fine. We just need to manage that dough that we do have. To his credit, he has found creative ways of financing his habit. He will trade CDs and movies in that he doesn't use/doesn't like. He'll get a trade slip and use that, too.
11. We've switched to CFL's in the fixtures that they fit in. We did this in the fall. Since it was the same time that energy consumption tends to go up, I haven't seen a real drop in cost but probably will here soon.
12. I've changed our accounts over to be paperless and with transaction rewards. Our bank, Charter One, has Green$ense that pays 10 cents per transaction on your debit card or having payments automatically withdrawn from your account. So far, I've earned a little over $13.00 in just three months.
13. I pay my bills that compound interest earlier than their due date. Why? I pay my house payment and the truck payment a few weeks ahead and that saves on interest, thus paying more towards my account than what I would if I paid it directly on the due date. My friend discovered that she pays $10.00 more on principle by paying her amount due 2 weeks ahead. I've discovered hidden savings, too.

What can I do to save more money?
1. Plan meals by the week again. Plan my meals according to what is on sale. Plan meals that stretch more. Utilize the crock pot more.
2. Stay away from the clearance racks. Again, a buck here and a buck there do add up. Hubs calls me a giftaholic. I stay within the $5.00 and under budget! :)
3. Remind Hubs of his allowance.
4. Use more coupons. Watch for more ads. Take more advantage of price matching. Purchase only what is reasonable to use and not just what I have coupons for.

5. Locate another site that advertises available rebates. I used to go to Mommy Saves Big, but she doesn't have the rebate section of her site any longer. Just this fall, on one trip alone, I saved $60.00 rebating and it was on stuff that I actually use! I was able to get Arm and Hammer Detergent (lasted me over a month), Turtle wax (I need to wax the RAV), Hunt's ketchup, Back to Nature cookies, Lysol cleaners and Pepcid for free. I love the rebates from Walgreen's, but haven't found that they've had items lately that I would use. Typically, I do rebate through them, as well.

What are your money saving ideas? I'm sure that there are more corners that I can cut and I certainly welcome any suggestions!

CPSIA: A letter to Congressman Tim Ryan

http://coolmompicks.com/savehandmade/

The following is a letter that I sent to our Congressman, Tim Ryan.

Please consider helping to change the CPSIA guidelines put forth and to be in effect on February 10, 2009. I am one of hundreds of thousands of moms across the United States that handcrafts items for children. I make organization boards for hair bows. As of February 10, I will no longer be able to sell my Bow B's or it will be a felony.

Please know that the handcrafted market is something that our country was founded on. Ever since our country was conceived, there was handcrafted, homecrafted items for sale or trade. We were built on that! In the beginning, it was basically what supplied the original Mom and Pops.

Furthermore, I work at a locally owned art gallery, - - - - -. (Please link to www. - - - - .com.) One of my boss', L-, makes handcrafted fiber dolls that she has sold since the early 1970's. Another co-worker, A-, makes hand-crocheted baby hats. E-, the [boss'] daughter, makes handcrafted painted wall art suitable for adults and children. Along with myself, these handcrafters risk having a sizeable chunk if not all of their business suddenly illegal for sale.

I find this absolutely unacceptable.

We were not the businesses selling lead laden toys to our children.

We were not the businesses that marketed an ill-designed toy that when ingested metabolized to GHB.

We are not the businesses that put our children at risk. We have children of our own and we would never dream of putting them, their friends or the buying market at risk.

How is it that we should be punished for dangerous items accepted from a market that knowingly poisoned their own children with melamine in formula?

How is it that we should be punished because our country failed us by failing to check each container and each shipment that was received from China for merchandise marketed to our precious children?

I plea to you to please help us to rectify the details of this new law and make it so that the home based crafters can continue to sell our wares in our own country to our own children.

Sincerely,

Amy - - - - -

I would hope that if you find this subject as upsetting as I do, that you would consider clicking on the link above or the Save Handmade button on my sidebar and following their easy-to-use link to contact your representative.

Please understand that we aren't asking for exceptions. We aren't asking to be kept to a different quality standard than commercial crafters. We are asking for reasonable guidelines that enable us to continue to sell our wares to our children in our country.

Smacked with the Panhandle Hook

Let's take inventory of the day.

K- has no school. It was canceled, thus canceling her bowling field trip. She was very sad.
Work for me was called off at 7:30 AM. Hooray! I get paid to sit at home today.
Hubs went out at 7:45 AM to get the cars started. His county was only on a Level 2 emergency, thus making the Park still open.
Takes Hubs an hour to get to work.
Hubs is at work for 45 minutes and they decide to close work. He gets snow day pay, too.
Hubs decides to go by the record store, as the gift certificate that I gave him was burning a hole in his pocket. He found some good loot.
Hubs stops by the bank to deposit a check. Gets stuck in snow drift. Has plow driver stop to tell him "I'd help but I'm busy," but proceed to sit for 10 minutes and tell him how he should "gun it, wiggle the wheel back and forth and throw it into reverse." Nevermind that Hubs was stuck up to the frame and had to dig said vehicle out (the Tercel, since he didn't want to take my 4WD truck-- duh) with a snow scraper. The UPS man helped to push him out but only with the promise that he wouldn't run him over. I'm glad that he stated that, as Hubs would have never thought of NOT RUNNING THE UPS MAN OVER!
I shoveled the drive for Hubs so he wouldn't get stuck.
Neighbor comes and clears the sidewalk and end of drive out with snowblower.
K- and I worked on making Valentine's intermittently throughout the day.
Neighbor comes home from work and gets stuck on nothing at the end of his driveway. We come to help him out. A car is stuck waiting, since their is a car parked on the street across the street from us regardless to the fact that there is a parking ban in effect. We got his soccer mom van into the driveway and continue to laugh that he has a brand new 4WD truck warm, toasty, waxed and clean in the garage. Hubs helped to push the car that was waiting for the neighbor to be unstuck. Oh the wonders of living on a dead end street.
K- wants to come out to play with her friend E-. That's fine since Mommy is going to shovel the driveway-- again.
Neighbor and I tag-team cleared the driveways as the girls played.
We came in, warmed some dinner and K- watched a movie as I continued to enter my name on far too many Bloggy Giveways.
Hubs has been tinkering in the basement, K- is in bed and a knock on the door was for the "man of the house." The neighbors across the street who don't speak to anyone were stuck and wanted Hubs to come push. "This will be his third car from about that same spot today." Hubs dresses in his outdoor gear, is out for about 10 minutes and the neighbor has decided that she will call a tow truck.
That puts me to now. I'm fairly certain that the snowplow will come in the middle of the night, seal our driveway shut with probably 2 feet of road ice/snow and goo, which will send us out bright and early to shovel-- again.
We had no mail.
K- and I have only left on foot. That's fine.
I've done more exercise today than I have in a long time. I'm sure that I will feel it soon. An Advil before bed is probably not a bad idea.
But for now, I have a step stool to continue painting.

Have a great, snowy night!

Edited to add: Apparently the neighbor with the car stuck in the middle of the street couldn't get the tow services to move fast enough for her so she CALLED THE POLICE. They are out there digging her car out now. We live in a city. Not the largest, but by all means not the smallest city. I'm thinking that it was a low crime evening. And, just for the record, the car is still stuck in the middle of the street. Ahhh, putting our city's finest at work one shovel at a time. Yes, a fine use of the 911 system.

Because I had nothing better do to with my life than watch two men, a two truck and a clueless woman try to get the car out of the middle of the street, I can report that they did get the car out from the street. Somehow the tow truck pulled the car straight so that the ladies brother could use a tow rope and yank her into the very small driveway.

Now, aren't you glad that I watched all this? My husband kept saying, "STOP WATCHING!" Nah. It was a low news night. There was lots of snow and I knew it without them telling me. I decided to watch the neighbors and the tow truck driver instead.

La-Z-Boy of NE Ohio-- I'm Mad At You!

Allow me to refresh your memory. I have a damaged couch in my house. It was delivered that way. Here. I'll even link you to see which one it is. Now that you have a full visual, press on and read my anger, please.

I sent an e-mail yesterday afternoon to my local La-Z-Boy showroom to let them know that I hadn't heard from the very service manager that was to call me not only yesterday, but December 23. Here is my e-mail:

From: Amy
Sent: Fri 1/2/2009 5:22 PM
To: C-, La-Z-Boy
Subject: Re: Sofa

Hi C-,

It is Friday, January 2, 2009 at 5:15 PM. I've heard nothing. As of Monday, January 5, I will have had this damaged couch in my home for 1 month. Please help me to get this flipped with a new couch of the same style and color. If you would like to pass this e-mail on to the owner, I would much appreciate it.

My - - - are livid. I am in disbelief myself. I kind of feel like the ball has been dropped. A big ball in the form of a damaged couch in the middle of my livingroom. I have been kind. I have been understanding. However, I do admit that my kindness and understanding are running a hair thin. (Yes, I realize that it isn't your fault.)

Please help me to resolve this situation in a more timely manner. I feel like my other avenue has been exhausted.

Thank you!

Amy

Their response back was this:

Hello Amy,

I was out yesterday and just received your email message. I faxed a copy of your sales order to our service department again and requested that they call you to schedule a service call. I don't believe that a flip will be happening and so at this point why don't we just let service repair your piece like new. You can reach me or our Store Manager.

Thanks.

C-

Can I tell you how much my blood pressure went up at that moment?

So I e-mailed the following:

This is not acceptable. I WILL NOT BE ACCEPTING A REPAIRED COUCH. Dye lots vary and I WILL NOT ACCEPT IT. My - - - paid almost a - - - - dollars for this. This is completely unacceptable and if this is not resolved immediately, I will be contacting the Better Business Bureau. Please direct me to the owner only.

Amy

Can you tell that I was, oh-- a bit irked to say the least? Then I called the store. I was doing deep breathing exercises. I talked to the sales person who admittedly knew that I would not be pleased. I ended up talking to the store manager after I threatened to come up there. He admits that he does not know why it has been such a problem to trade my couch out for an undamaged one, but that I have to go through the hoops to the right people. Apparently, I can't get in direct touch with the owner of the store until I exhaust EVERYONE AT LA-Z-BOY. Believe me, I'm working on it. I think that they'll have my face posted at the time clock, like I'm certain the fine people at Kay Jewelers do. (Oh, a different story for a different time.)

By the way, I've kept the maker, cost and all of that quiet up until now. Here is the e-mail that I sent off to them after I spoke to the store and left a very long message for the district manager.

C-and T-

I have just left a rather exhaustive message for J-on his voice mail giving him a brief of this past month happenings. I will follow this avenue, as per your request, hoping that we get the couch replaced with a new, undamaged twin as soon as possible.

Please understand our displeasure. Please understand our not accepting a second quality couch for a first quality price. Again, the damaged corner is not the only point that is a problem. We have a dye problem along the whole top of the couch that seems to be forgotten in the whole translation of damage. This was brought to the attention of the delivery people. The option given to my husband and me was that we take the couch, service comes out and takes care of the problem. Taking it back to the truck for an immediate replacement was not mentioned in the slightest. By our taking this couch into our home, we were not accepting it, just merely biding our time while we waited for our new exchange. So please, don't be confused by that. Your delivery people did not give us that option. Had they given us the "toss it on the truck for immediate replacement" option, we certainly would have taken it.

Please know that our only option of resolution is a couch replacement with the same style and color. Any offer of repair will be rejected by both us and my - - - , who were so gracious to purchase this for us as a gift. If this is something not in the power of any of you to handle, please feed me through the La-Z-Boy mill to the person who can make this happen. I hope that whoever this is passed along to, that they can actually contact me back. Oh, that has been a true delight in this whole process as well.

Again, if you purchased merchandise from a store that was flawed, you would simply take it and exchange it. Because this is something large and involving shipment, we shouldn't be forced to settle. We shouldn't be forced to settle because this has been in our home for a month and we have been trying to return it for replacement the entire time. I called the store as soon as the delivery men left. Please know that we have been nothing but kind and understanding during this whole process, but I admit now our kindness and understanding have about worn out. This process has been exhausting and incredibly time consuming at a time of year that should have been celebratory and family oriented.

I look forward to an immediate resolution with your company.

Thank you,

Amy

So to La-Z-Boy of Northeast Ohio--

Y'ALL SUCK!

P.S. No, Jesus isn't smiling that I just told them that they suck. Believe me, I could say worse. And, I'm proud that my husband actually thought to ask if I had let my blog people know!

A Hand Up

I'm bothered by something I found online last night. My mom wanted me to check out one of my father's previous employers. Seems as though he has earned himself a stay, federally housed, for 6 months. I decided to plunk the name of an old friend in. We haven't seen him in years. Actually the last we saw him, K- was 3 months old.

His name popped up. So did his picture. Dude is strung out. He was in ja*il for attempting to ste*al a rental car. He had battled drug add*iction in the past. By the looks of the federally taken portrait, it seems as though R- is back on coc*aine again. It's sad. Truly. He has such a talent for what he does. (He is a builder by trade.) I don't exactly know what went wrong. When we were friends with him, he was clean. He had stayed here a few different times. I had made it clear that we would only accept him on a short term and clean basis. He never took a thing from us.

We met R- 8 years ago when we were doing the roof on our home. I had a dreadful sinus infection and fever, my natural curl had gone to frizz from the intense humidity, it was 90 degrees out and Hubs and I were attempting to remove the gutters from the house. No one had arrived to help out yet, but we had prayed that morning together. We knew that the roof was much more of a job than what we had anticipated. Hubs and my dad had gone up the night before and almost fell through the roof. We were so overwhelmed that we had no idea what to do. Our church had been doing the Prayer of Jabez and we had been praying all along as well. We prayed that morning that the Lord would send someone to us. We needed help. I still remember where we were when we said that prayer. Then, as we were working on the gutters, R- walked down the driveway. I thought that he was trying to sell us something, and he said that he was a builder, was going somewhere with family but he would leave his van here of supplies for us to use whatever we needed. He didn't even know us, but left us the keys and walked away. My dad had arrived and they started working on the roof. I went to the store and when I came back, R- was on the roof with them. He opted to stay back and help. He continued to come to our home every day that week until the roof was done. He was there at 7 AM and accepted no payment. He did a beautiful job. He and Hubs worked together and they were forming a great friendship.

Again, I don't know what went wrong. He kind of fell off the face of the earth. (So to speak, anyhow.) When I called Hubs yesterday to tell him what I found, his response was "We can't save them all, Amy." I know and I can't think perhaps there was something else we could do for him. My brother is a standing example of that.

My brother. I love him dearly. He is a bundle load of story all and of his own right. My brother is nearly 2 years clean from a horrible addiction to her*oin, coc*aine and Oxy*contin. As much as we all wanted him to be clean (I never in a million years believed it was that bad), it took a fai*led atte*mpt on his o*wn life for him to realize that it wasn't the best road to travel. He said that when we woke up, he figured that the Lord had other plans for his life. My mother called me that day at work to say that she was dropping my brother off to my house to stay for a while. There was no choice in the matter. I didn't argue, but I did want to know why he was being dropped off. It was a fam*ily interv*ention. I was the link to making him clean. In our neighborhood, he would get nothing. There was no one that he knew. No one knew that he was here. He could dry out. (Or clean up, whatever the case be.) I left work immediately, sighting a family emergency as the reason. I came in with both guns blazing (figuratively speaking of course, since we don't believe in having firearms in the home.) I wanted to know if he had done anything illegal, and if it was safe to have him in my home. Yes. They had explained.

My brother was with us for a few days. He had gone to my sister's house for a few more. We kept close tabs on him. If I didn't hear from him each day, I would run him down. I knew his paths. I beat on windows, went to neighborhoods by myself that I would never have gone to. I looked in ditches. I busted doors in. I stalked my brother, but because he asked us to. He asked that my sister, my mom and me keep him accountable. He knew that he asked three of the noisiest women to keep his butt clean. I reminded him of that. He's never complained once. As a result, my brother has been able to successfully manage his Bipolar diagnosis through legal drugs, rather than self-medication. He has pulled himself around. He has begun to be a model for my niece and nephew to look up to, rather than away from.

Oh, grant you his life is not perfect. He still has a ways to go in adjustment to life. Right now, he needs a job. Their home is in foreclosure and they will need to move from their neighborhood (which isn't such a bad thing anyhow.) They know, though, that we are happy to give them a hand up. I found that giving, giving, giving was something I thought was okay, but it was only enabling. I had to pull back. Now we do give a hand up, but not a hand out.

My brother is afloat, though. He's pulled through. I can only pray the same for R-. I've seen miracles in life happen when drug addict*ion is beaten. It is a choice he has to make for himself. No one else can do that for him, but him.

New Things For a New Year

Hello 2009. You are almost here. In celebration of the new year, we have some resolutions that we are working on as a family. Let me list the things that we've all discussed. I plan on giving an accountability report throughout the year to let you know my progress. Hopefully, all things will be crossed off my list come the close of the new year.

1. I would like to lose 13 pounds. I admit that I'm up 4 pounds this month. Could it be all of the food that I have been consuming? Could it be mother nature at work? Certainly. I plan on not dieting, but rather adopting a different manner of eating.
2. We will eat better. During the last several months, my husband's choice of dinner and every other meal has been a Boca Burger and a bowl of rice. It has made it harder on me with K- and I began leaning on more convenience type foods. I will go back to shopping weekly so that I will be able to get our weekly lot of fresh vegetables and fruits. Not every meal will require meat, but we'll cover it with a protein of some sort. I will go back to my weekly dinner menu. That was an easier way to see. Hubs and I can look over and see what components of dinner that he can eat and he can compliment otherwise. We're not take out kind of people or even restaurant kind of people. Just good ole fashioned cooking and a crock pot please! We are also doing a sugar cleansing of the house. K- will choose healthier snacks if they are available to her. Not that we have tons of junk anyhow. She was doing great, then Halloween came. We haven't been able to pull her out of the sugars since then. Right now, she wants "'Whatever is the sugariest, Mommy." Um, yes baby. We'll break you of that.
3. We will keep a tidier house. We're not slobs. I do admit that I live a dump and run existence from M-W (when I work) and clean the house on Thursday. You see, we have all just planned on sticking together, keeping each other accountable so that we can work on the house together. I would love to not have to apologize for the "pile on the end of the table" everytime someone comes in.
4. I will unearth the studio and make work again. I ceased making my leaded glass photo frames a few years ago so that I could mother my daughter without liquoring her up with lead. She understands that the studio is not a place to be-- period. It is full of sheets upon sheets of glass. There are sharp things, hot things, chemical things, cleaner things and other things that aren't great for her. She now has the ability to work on things independently and that will allow me to be a true artist and get back into working again.
5. I will concentrate more on Mommy School with K-. She is doing well. We've been working on numbers and it just hasn't clicked yet. Like ABC's, she struggled but it just all came together in one fell swoop. I suspect that the same will happen with numbers. We're so close. K- likes to craft things and it helps her with gluing skills and cutting. She does well with her weekly book for school. They memorize it more, but she can still bring them out to me and "read" what it says. Even from the first week! The thought it that will turn to sight reading and I think that it is working!
6. I will be certain that we get that bedtime story in every night. We've been reading Amelia Bedelia. Hubs reads a Star Wars Clone Wars comic with her. We have shelves and shelves of books. Some nights I let time slip past and it gets late. I will stay on top of bedtime to be certain that our book gets in there.
7. I will begin devotional readings again. I admit that I typically do devotional readings in the winter, but am not as good in the summer. I've never been one to generally pick a book up and just read. I never found it entertaining. I do find the Women of Faith devotionals wonderful for me, though. Things are in bits and pieces. If I can't finish one whole chapter in a day, it's okay. I need to do that again.
8. That TV will be turned off even more. We aren't big TV watchers. Even still K- will ask, "Can I watch a short movie? Can I watch TV? Can I watch . . . ?" She will sit and watch the box if the box is on. If the box is off, she will find other things to do. She'll play in her play area in the basement for an hour or so straight just if there is music playing that she can sing along to. More music, less TV. Check.
9. We will do walking in the evenings again. We may need to cheat right now and use the treadmill. Hubs is great about exercise. We have a small trampoline in the house for K- and she'll bounce and bounce away. I'm the one bad about exercise. I've never been a fan. I've said before that I don't run unless I'm on fire and even then you aren't supposed to. I do find walking great exercise and entertaining, too. Hubs did hook up the "tiny TV" (AKA the portable DVD player) for us to use while on the treadmill. See, I have no excuse for exercise boring me to death.
10. It's not about me. Its not. It's something that all of us in our home struggle with. We're working on that in a collective manner. We're praying on that in a collective manner.

How about you? Any resolutions on your plate?

Edited to add: Join in the resolution carnival at 5 Minutes for Mom at http://www.5minutesformom.com/5289/new-years-2009-carnival/