Thursday, May 28, 2009

busy


Gracie is a busy little girl. She is busy making my life fun and interesting. So, seriously how adorable is this picture? Every night before I go to bed I check on all the kids. Every night I find that Gracie has been very busy before she decided to fall asleep. She LOVES all the dolls, babies, and stuffed animals in the house - she has usurped them all; and she must sleep with them ALL. This picture was taken a couple weeks ago, she has since moved on from clumping them all together under her head to now laying them down in a row on a pillow next to her, nicely tucked under a blanket. Since they don't all fit on her toddler bed, she now (after we tuck her in bed) moves all her bedding to the floor so that there is plenty of room for her "sleeping" friends next to her. I am telling you - she is busy. And she is so cute.

Also, please notice the dress up skirt that she has put on over her jammies (the purple satiny thing). Plus she has her fairy wristband on along with a green elastic headband around her wrist. I am telling you; busy, busy, busy all day long.

I love this girl - despite her very two-year-old temper tantrums. I love that she keeps me busy with laughter! And each night I go to bed happy because I have found her sleeping in some funny way.

Tuesday, May 26, 2009

glasses

I get a lot of comments on my glasses. I always giggle a little on the inside when someone does compliment me on them. Here is why - they were $8 - total; frames, lenses, everything (well not everything - there was a small shipping charge). I also giggle a bit because it took me 11 years to get a new pair of glasses. Scott hated my old glasses and I never would get a new pair because I had a hard time "committing" to something new. Then I find $8 glasses online that I couldn't try on and voila! new glasses that we both love. Go figure.

So I thought I would share the information with you all. The website is http://www.zennioptical.com/.

They have several different price ranges and a bunch to choose from. So if you are in the market for a new pair of glasses you may as well try these out - for $8 it is almost worth the gamble.

Note: Aunt Jeanne asked to see a picture of me in my glasses - if you click on the word "glasses" above that is underlined, it will take you to a picture of me in them.

Friday, May 15, 2009

round 'em up

I thought I would post some pictures of the chicken coop that Scott built. He is such a genius - he built it with a removable floor for easy cleanup and a trap door to gather the eggs. We found a home for Betty the Rooster - he will be leaving us in a week or so (a co-worker of Scott's wants him). The other four ought to start laying in June sometime (I hope).

We are going to put a little planter box under the window. Won't that be cute!
The trap door for the laying box. It is pretty great!

Betty the Rooster looking very roostery.

Thursday, May 14, 2009

uhh.....what did you say????


Do you want to hear a funny (and somewhat irritating) story?

Yesterday someone knocked on my door. In my slowed state I wasn't able to jump up and get it super fast, but for a large woman I actually did get to the door in a decent time. It was the typical UPS doorbell-ditch; meaning the UPS man dropped a package at my door and went back to his truck. "Oh, I got a package?" is what I was thinking as I bent over to pick it up. By the time I noticed that the package was not addressed to me and the shipping address was to one that doesn't even exist (although similar to mine) the driver had driven away. Darn!

I thought it was no big deal. I would go in and look up the person, call her, and tell her I have her package. Simple right? Not so much - I couldn't find her. Again no big deal, I would call UPS and tell them of the mistake and to come and get the package. Simple right? Again, not so much! I called the local UPS store and was told they are privately owned and that I would need to call the corporate office. This is where my story becomes humorous; I say this because I am trying to convince myself of the humor, otherwise I think I would just be angry...

So I call the big UPS office. After several attempt to get past the voice-activated, automated system, which never has the option available that you want, I actually get someone on the phone. Wouldn't you know it was someone who hardly speaks English. Now, I am all for immigration (clarification - LEGAL immigration), and I am all for immigrants learning English and getting a job, but I not in favor of hiring them in any sort of customer service field unless their English is flawless. It makes for a very difficult conversation when one party doesn't understand what the other party is saying...wouldn't you agree?

Okay, so on with the story...the man comes on the phone and I tell him of my predicament. These were my words (more or less), "Hi, a package was just delivered here by mistake. It is addressed to someone else and the address isn't my address. I would like someone to come and pick it up please." He then proceeds to tell me that they would be happy to do that and there will be a ten dollar service fee. I stopped him before he could continue (I know, totally rude). A ten dollar service fee?! For whom?! He said they would charge ME a ten dollar service fee to come and pick it up!!!! Can you see the humor here - that is ridiculous! I told him that wouldn't work for me. I explained that I am actually doing them a favor by even calling and letting them know this package was here. I added that this was their mistake and I wouldn't be paying any fee. He persisted. Having to repeat myself to an adult after I have made myself pretty clear never goes well with me; maybe because I repeat myself all day to young children, I sort of expect an adult to understand the first time. This is where maybe the language barrier might have been a problem. My tone started to go from polite to very sternly polite (with a hint of irritation and amazement).

So where to go from here? Well, at that point I told him this, "I will give you my address, put the package on my front step, and if it isn't gone in a couple days I am throwing it away." He responded with a dumbfounded, "What?" I repeated the scenario and then added, "of course when I throw it away, Marie Whatever Whatever her name is and the shipper aren't going be to thrilled with you for 'losing' their package." There was more conversation in between - mostly in broken English and then this. This is the funniest part of the whole story. He says to me the following, "I have a great idea of a way you can get it returned without paying a fee. If you see a UPS truck drive by, wave down the driver and return it him." Are you laughing? I am. Go and look at the picture of me in the previous post - can you imagine me, with that belling, running down the sidewalk, waving my arms, yelling, 'Mr. UPS man I have a package for you, please stop and come get it!' I think he would look at my like I was on drugs or at least totally crazy! Now I never think sarcasm is a good thing, but at this point I just couldn't help myself - it almost came out on its own. I responded with a very snippy, "Oh, your right, I just sit out of my front porch all day waiting for a UPS truck to drive by. That is a terrible suggestion. I live in a cul-de-sac, it could be weeks before I see another driver!"

Again, where to go from here? He stumbled over some hardly coherent English when I finally gave a suggestion of my own, since we were clearly at a stand-still. I told him I would just drop it off at a UPS store because there is one by the grocery story that I shop at. I was thinking he would surely tell me I couldn't since apparently they are privately owned (as the girl had told me earlier), but he said that would be a great idea. What? If is such a great idea, why not suggest that over flagging down a driver? I have doubts about whether it will work or not - I plan on just telling them to throw the package away if they won't take it because that is all I am going to do with it (even though Scott thinks we ought to at least see what is inside - I have guilt issues with opening other people's mail/packages).

I then gave the man some friendly advice along the lines of him telling someone in charge to change that policy. I am pretty sure he either didn't understand me or just didn't want to deal with the situation. Oh, but my favorite part of the conversation was the end where he thanked me for using UPS. I told him I wasn't using UPS - it was a mistake that I even had a package from them. Oh brother, here we go again. I let it end at that before trying to explain this obviously difficult situation to him yet again (oooh, again with the sarcasm, sorry).

NOTE: I am actually pretty good at understanding people with accents. My grandparents had pretty thick accents (they were Argentine immigrants - see, I told you I don't mind immigrants) and I have lived in countries where they speak with very thick accents (Ghana and South Africa). I just don't like it when I am needing help and they put someone of the phone who really can't help me because they don't understand English very well. It is like they are given a specific word-track and any deviation from that turns into a lingual train wreck. Oooh, it bugs me. So much so, that all I can do is laugh!

Monday, May 11, 2009

seven months


Here I am in all my largeness - seven months along. I am starting to doubt my decision to log this pregnancy month by month; I didn't realize just how huge I looked until I saw the pictures...Oh well, it isn't forever.

Tuesday, May 5, 2009

for pop!

My dad requested that I post more pictures of the kiddos. So here are some goodies from the last month... (Dad, you will need to click on the pictures to see them bigger - there were so many that I didn't want to make them much larger)





She just had to wear the tutu (all day)!



Okay, so Scott isn't one of the kiddos, but I thought my mom would like to see his tomato plants that he started from seed. He has been so dedicated and they are really beautiful!

She insisted on the coat and sunglasses - of course everyone needs a coat in 60 degree weather - right!