Remember Me?

I can't believe it's been almost a month since my last post.

((hanging head in shame))

It's not for a lack of content to share with you guys... things have been nothing short of INSANE lately! There's so much to talk about, from school volunteering (can you say new PTA website, Facebook page management/advertising, fall festival planning, computer lab volunteer, reading to the class... the list goes on!) to work to family activities to play dates to church to house improvement tasks... Whew! And of course we can't forget hubs' birthday this weekend and Chase's 3rd birthday (whaaaa?!) in 2 weeks. Lots to do around here!

I promise I'll try to post more frequently from here on out. There are some fun and exciting things happening in our little piece of the world and I look forward to sharing some of it with you all soon (still top secret as the kids don't know yet, but can you think of any fun places with the initials "DW"??). YIPPEE!!!!!

But for today, I want to share some thoughts that have been pretty heavy on my heart lately. It's something we're all guilty of, whether we want to admit it or not. Not sure how much of the Bible you guys have read, but there's a resounding theme regarding judging others, and it can be summed up in a single word: don't. It's that simple. Take a look at a few of the scriptures I've provided below that I've spent time praying and meditating over during the past couple of weeks.

Matthew 7:1-5: “Judge not, that you be not judged. For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you. Why do you see the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when there is the log in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye." 

Luke 6:37: “Judge not, and you will not be judged; condemn not, and you will not be condemned; forgive, and you will be forgiven;" 

John 7:24: "Do not judge by appearances, but judge with right judgment.” 

James 4:11-12: "Do not speak evil against one another, brothers. The one who speaks against a brother or judges his brother, speaks evil against the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge. There is only one lawgiver and judge, he who is able to save and to destroy. But who are you to judge your neighbor?" 

James 4:12: "There is only one lawgiver and judge, he who is able to save and to destroy. But who are you to judge your neighbor?" 

Romans 2:1-3: "Therefore you have no excuse, O man, every one of you who judges. For in passing judgment on another you condemn yourself, because you, the judge, practice the very same things. We know that the judgment of God rightly falls on those who practice such things. Do you suppose, O man—you who judge those who practice such things and yet do them yourself—that you will escape the judgment of God?" 

Ephesians 4:29: "Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear."

Tough Job

When LO attended a local private Christian school for K3 and K4, I served as the "Room Mom" both years and absolutely loved it! I'm passionate about communication and made sure my parents were aware of all of the activities happening in the classroom as well as the various volunteer opportunities available for them to serve. These parents were always on the ball, happy to sign up to help in the classroom, send in items for class parties, etc. My job was Room Mom was fun, relatively easy and a great way to learn which parent goes with each child. ;)

Fast-forward to LO's first year in public school for Kindergarten. I'm serving as the "Room Mom" for her class again this year. We have 21 students, which would mean we have 21 parents/guardians to participate in the classroom.

Yet I'm about to pull my hair out!!!

We have a need for a simple computer lab volunteer. They help turn computers on. And maybe help the kids "point & click" on the right thing during the class. It's a 30-minute obligation.

I've had ZERO parents sign up (besides myself and my co-Room Mom). ZERO.

Seriously? For Kindergarten?? This is the kids' first year of "big school" and I can't get a single parent to sign up to help in the computer lab?? I understand not all parents have the stay-at-home flexibility that I have, but come on. It's like using ONE LUNCH HOUR EVERY OTHER MONTH to volunteer and help out in your own kid's classroom. Is that seriously too much to ask?

Apparently.

This is so frustrating. I have another classroom program (reading to the kids!) that needs volunteers; again, only myself and my co-Room Mom have signed up to help. The sucky thing is you can't bring younger siblings to these volunteer programs in the classroom, so I have to make arrangements for Chase each time I go to help with the computer lab or the reading program. It's a bit of an inconvenience but I don't mind doing it occasionally. Only since there are NO parents interested in helping in their child's classroom, I'm gonna need to do it a LOT more frequently than occasionally.

GRRRRRRR!!!

This is NOT what I signed up for! I just cannot fathom how parents are so disinterested in helping in their child's Kindergarten class. I get that parents work, parents are busy, etc. But the most frustrating part is NONE of them even bother to respond to my emails! Not even just to tell me they work and aren't able to help. That'd be nice to know and so appreciated! But it's frustrating to keep contacting my parents and get ZERO responses from them.

I guess if this is what it's gonna be like, I'll be sure NOT to sign up for this in the future. I just hate that parents' lack of involvement cause parents like me (who love to serve!) to give up and walk away from the opportunity to make a difference in their child's class because they can't get parents to reply to a simple email, to just communicate with me!

Ugh. Thanks for letting me vent. Hopefully this will improve as the school year continues, but I'm not gonna hold my breath.

Seriously, though. What am I missing? What am I not understanding? I'm all for working parents to dodge the bullet of volunteering if they truly can't get away for one lunch hour every other month. And I get that some stay-at-home parents may have younger siblings they can't make alternate arrangements for so they'd be able to serve. But is it really too much to ask for parents to RESPOND to me to let me know this?? I feel like I'm taking crazy pills!!!

Ugh. The End.

How's This for a Post?

So here's my post for today:

Chase bumped my laptop onto the garage floor this morning, thus rendering my hard drive a worthless chunk of metal and what-not. My new hard drive is being overnighted and shall be installed moments after its arrival by yours truly (hard drive replacement #2 for my beloved 4 year old MacBook).

Dumb, idiotic shoulda-known-better lessons for the day: Don't wait a month in between Time Machine backups, and don't leave your MacBook on a kid's chair that sits less than a foot from the ground with a 20-month-old within its reach and not think that (A) he'll knock it over because he's a boy and that's what he does or (B) it won't destroy the hard drive falling such a short distance onto a concrete floor.

That is all.


Posted from my iPhone (obviously)

Seriously?!

Just found out my son finally woke up after his tumultuous afternoon around 7:15 PM and the doctor ordered for him to be extubated. Unfortunately the nurse was busy and needed to get report on another patient so she gave him some morphine instead and decided he'd probably wake up again around 9PM and he could be extubated then instead.

Seriously.

Two extra hours of being on a ventilator that he doesn't need. Two extra hours of that endotracheal tube resting on his sensitive throat right where he was operated on earlier today to remove the irritation caused from him being intubated for almost 2 straight weeks! Two extra hours of TORTURE for my son!!!!!

This is NOT a good day.

Alone Time

It's Thursday... FOUR DAYS until Chase's arrival! Today we had the opportunity to meet with Melissa, the head of CrossBridge Family Ministries, a local ministry dedicated to meet the needs of families with critically or chronically ill family members and to help families in times of crisis. We are so grateful to have them available to us as we head into this journey. Obviously no one can replace our family, friends and church family, but the folks at CrossBridge step in to fill the gap created by our being 3-1/2 hours from home.

Other than that, it's been weird the past few days -- almost like hubs, LO and I are all having some kind of individual meltdowns that is wreaking havoc on our family dynamic. I'm sure it's just satan trying to get in the way and break down our unity and strength before we head into our roller coaster ride. Honestly, I think a lot of it is because we've all been together constantly over the last several days and haven't had any time to ourselves. On top of all of this, LO has turned into a complete little tyrant. She's not listening to either of us, is being very defiant and down-right mean! I know she's going through a lot and this is a big adjustment for her, so we're trying to cut her some slack. But it's really wearing on hubs and I.

So my alone time today consisted of a Walmart run (woot.) and a much-needed mani/pedi. In total, it was about 3 hours of total bliss. Although it was frustrating a bit as I wandered the aisles at Walmart, talking to my friend on my phone, only to have AT&T drop my call TWICE. I finally gave up. I got tired of standing in the bedding aisle when I truly didn't need any bedding -- it was just the only place I could find where I had one whole bar of signal strength! Of course this evening I called AT&T, who referred me to Apple, who then got AT&T back on the line with me to discuss the issue. Still nothing can be done about it though. I purchased a cell phone signal booster thingy that goes inside the house that is SUPPOSED to amplify the signal enough for me to send/receive phone calls from within the confines of our rental house. What a concept! Who thought a mobile phone would be so immobile?? We literally can only use our phones if we're outside or if we keep our head hanging out a window. This has been the biggest pain! Hopefully this solution will solve the issue and we can go back to focusing on bringing our sweet baby boy into the world in four short days!!!

Ack!

Dr. Appointment

Yesterday I had an appointment with the Perinatologist (high risk fetal maternal doctor guy). As I mentioned the other day, I was less than pleased when they called me Monday to remind me about my appointment and also informed me that children are not allowed in the office. This was a big surprise as we've brought LO to almost all of our appointments so both hubs and I could be there. So I was already irritated before I even got to the office.

When I walked into the office, I was even more irritated because there was a 4 or 5 year old boy in the waiting area with his mom. WHAA?? Ya. I proceeded to check in and while I was at it, I mentioned to the check-in lady that I did not appreciate the fact I was given less than 24 hours notice that children are not allowed at appointments. She told me there have been signs posted, but I promise you they were NOT there at my last appointment 2 weeks ago. She said they call people the day before their appointment to inform them about the new rule, and I said that just isn't enough notice for a stay at home mom to find someone to keep their child. I wasn't rude, but the lady most definitely had a bit of a chip on her shoulder. I let it go, figuring I'd share my thoughts on the subject with Dr. Greig when I saw him.

((Note: Hubs met me at the doctor's office and took LO to run errands while I went to the appointment by myself. I'm still quite irritated about this whole thing, but there's nothing I can do about it.))

So after about 15 minutes I went back for my ultrasound. The tech was nice and was checking several things to make sure Chase looked good. Everything she saw was great! I had to specifically ask her to measure his abdomen again, which she did, and confirmed he's in the 61st percentile! Praise the Lord! I was VERY pleased to hear this wonderful news. I also asked for his weight, but she said they don't do weight measurements each time -- usually every 3 weeks.

After the ultrasound, I was taken to a little room to wait on Dr. Greig. Five minutes... ten minutes... fifteen mintues... twenty minutes... almost TWENTY-FIVE minutes later, a NURSE comes in to ask (1) when my last OB appointment was and (2) IF I have an appointment scheduled with the Pediatric Cardiologist, Dr. Horne. I said I saw my OB last week, and that YES, I have an appointment with Dr. Horne next week HERE IN YOUR OFFICE! Seriously? Can they not look at their own schedule to confirm I have an appointment already scheduled? Ugh. Then, the nurse says I'm FREE TO GO! Whaa?? Where's Dr. Greig? Why have I been waiting 25 minutes for Dr. Greig if I'm not going to see him at all? Why couldn't you come in here 20 minutes ago to tell me I won't be seeing Dr. Greig today and save me from wasting 25 minutes of my morning while hubs and LO had been waiting for me in the parking lot??? I was seriously irritated.

Since I'm already on my soapbox, let me continue a step further. After our last appointment 2 weeks ago when they told me my son's abdomen growth was in the 16th percentile, I voiced my concerns to Dr. Greig AT the appointment. The next day, still not overly convinced at what he told me (eat a lot and rest a lot and "magically" his abdomen growth will improve), I sent him an email voicing my concerns over how this percentage could change from 61st percentile to 16th percentile over the course of 2 weeks. Dr. Greig CALLED ME and basically told me the same things he told me at the appointment the day before. Still no warm and fuzzy from this guy. I specifically asked him to confirm for me that this 16th percentile data they saw is in line with what his abdomen growth had been over the past several visits, and he AGREED! So now, magically, 2 weeks later, his abdomen growth is BACK in the 61st percentile. How is this possible?? What it comes down to is a BAD MEASUREMENT at our last appointment. Chase just wasn't in a good position to get a good measurement -- this I know. But WHY couldn't this doctor take the time to admit this? Did he even look over my previous ultrasound results to confirm that a 16th percentile measurement was a bit of an anomaly? Seriously, folks. I'm so tired of dealing with inept people that aren't willing to take TWO SECONDS to do their jobs! I mean, would it have taken him that much time to actually review Chase's growth over the past 14 weeks? Isn't that his JOB as a high risk doctor, to monitor the growth and development of my baby?? And would it have taken THAT MUCH time for a nurse to tell me after my ultrasound yesterday that Dr. Greig was behind schedule and I could either (A) go ahead and leave (without waiting 25 minutes for nothing) or (B) go ahead and wait on Dr. Greig, knowing that it would probably be a good 30 minutes before he could see me? It's called customer service, and it's something that does not exist these days (at least not in our experiences).

Whew. Okay, sorry about all that complaining. I just get so irritated that we keep having situations like this happen to us over and over and over again and it always comes back to the simple principle of customer service/patient care and taking two seconds to think about others. My hope and prayer is that we'll have the excellent care I've heard so much about once we get to MUSC for Chase's birth and surgery.

Eyelid Laceration

My poor child. We spent Sunday afternoon at the Emergency Room after LO had a bit of an accident that morning. Hubs and I were "volunteering" in the Toddler Nursery at our church during the morning worship service. There was one particular child that was all up in LO's business the entire morning--wanting every toy she was playing with, all but sitting on her lap during snack time, wandering into the way while LO was on the swings, etc. She eventually "gently urged" (read: pushed) LO into a table because she wanted the mat LO was standing on. LO hit the table -- head first -- and ricocheted onto the floor, bumping her head a second time. I picked up the offender and moved her out of the way while hubs rushed to LO's rescue. Immediately he noticed the bleeding gash over her right eye. We put a cold wet paper towel on it, grabbed a baggy of ice and headed out.

I called my mom, who happens to be a NICU nurse at a nearby hospital. She said to keep the ice on it to help prevent swelling and that it probably wouldn't need stitches. We stopped by the hospital where she works so she could see it for herself, and because LO was asking to see her Mona.

My mom looked at it and decided it might actually need a stitch or two, and recommended we take LO downtown to another hospital that is equipped with a pediatric emergency unit. We loaded LO up and were on our way. I kept trying to apply the ice for a minute or two at a time even though LO had a fit each time. I hated doing it but I knew it was in her best interest.

We arrived at the ER, checked in, and waited about 10 minutes before we were moved to the Pediatric ER waiting area. We were the only ones in there. Whew! I figured it couldn't be that busy on Sunday morning! A few minutes later, we were taken back to a small room with a crib, were given a tiny little gown for LO, and were seen by a nurse. It was a good 30 minutes before the doctor made his appearance.

He looked it over, we discussed the options, and we decided to let them put some numbing stuff on her eye for 20 minutes so the doctor could get a better look at the laceration, and possibly, if needed, put a few stitches in. After 20 minutes, hubs went looking for the nurse. She said the stuff needed to stay on 30 minutes.

Okay. Fine.

We waited another 30 minutes (keep in mind LO had 2 band-aids over her eye holding this numbing stuff in place, and had to do our best to keep it from oozing into her eye, causing who-knows-what kind of damage if it were to get into her eye) before the doctor and his team of 3 or 4 nurses came in to help hold my precious baby girl down while the doctor took a look at her injury. I was there to hold her hand and whisper in her ear (over her ear-piercing cries) that everything was gonna be okay.

The doctor ultimately decided the laceration was relatively superficial and wouldn't require any stitches. His diagnosis required us to simply put some Neosporin on the gash twice a day for the next 3-4 days.

Sweet.

We will end up paying in the neighborhood of $1,000 for a 3-hour trip to the Emergency Room so a doctor could prescribe Neosporin for our daughter's laceration.

Ultimately, our peace of mind is well worth it. I would've hated myself if we had just taken her home only to find out 2 days later that the wound was infected, needed stitches, and she'd need a round of antibiotics to clear it up.

Here's a pic of our precious girl at the hospital:

Mine!!!

I'm a stay at home mom. Life is good. However, my daughter gets very little interaction with other kiddos her age. The only time she gets to socialize is when we take her to church. Every Sunday morning, for approximately 2-1/2 hours, she gets to hang out with anywhere from 1 to 4 other one- and two-year-olds. It's really great!

Or at least I thought it was.

Just recently, our daughter has miraculously learned the word "mine." Mind you, she did NOT learn that at home, or at a daycare or anywhere else. She learned it from another little person in her class. The proof is that when we mention said child's name to LO, she responds by saying, "mine!" Yet when we mention names of other kids in the class, she simply repeats their names with a smile.

This is VERY frustrating. And quite frankly, it's getting out of control! Every single thing in our house has now been deemed, in LO's opinion, to be "mine!" It's driving hubs and I C-R-A-Z-Y!!! This is not something we approve of, and it's killing me to have to keep reprimanding her (including time-outs) for repeatedly saying this horrible, useless word over and over again.

I hate to admit it, but I know this is just the first of what will be MANY poor habits she picks up from other kids at the church nursery or at her preschool once she starts this fall.

((sigh))

PLEASE Wash Hands Before Serving Food!

For those of you who have been around long enough to remember my first post, today's post is eerily similar to that experience.

On Saturday, hubs, LO and I joined our good friends, D and H and their son C for a trip to the zoo, about an hour and a half away. The plan was to do the zoo during the day, leave around 5pm to hit a local restaurant for dinner, then return to the zoo around 6:30 or so for their "Lights Before Christmas" spectacular! All in all it was a great day, the kiddos had fun, and we got to see a lot of animals, take pictures, etc. The downside? That tiny little hour and a half that we left the zoo for dinner.

We decided to visit a nearby Applebee's that was only about a 5 minute drive from the zoo. I'm going to do a bullet-point play-by-play of this experience because, honestly, it's the easiest way I can think of to share this disastrous event.

• We arrive and the restaurant is right close to EMPTY. The hostess--who couldn't be more than 12 years old--doesn't even look in our direction when she says, "Welcome to Applebee's. How many?" I respond by telling her we have 4 adults and will need 2 highchairs. She gets another 12-year-old to come over for assistance with this seemingly difficult task and the two of them pour over the seating chart (in an empty restaurant, mind you) for what could not have been less than 7 minutes. We all sat down at the entrance and waited. It was like an act of congress to find us a table. They asked if we wanted a table or booth... I'm sorry, did you not hear that we'd need 2 highchairs? Where would you put 2 highchairs at a booth?? So we opted for a table.
• They took us to a tiny table, with one side of it against a wall, so we had 3 sides to fit 6 people. Genius. Oh, and the table was located at the intersection of A) the bathrooms, B) the computer/register thingy the wait staff uses, C) the kitchen and D) the carryout order entrance. Two people almost knocked me over while I was getting LO's highchair ready. Then hubs took LO and H took C to the bathrooms to change diapers. D and I were getting situated when literally 2 different waiters stopped by and tried to take one of our chairs. "We have FOUR MORE PEOPLE joining us!" I snapped both times. A waitress came by to take our drink orders and I said (pointing to the empty chair next to me), "We'll have 2 waters." She walked away!! I stared at D and said, "I guess you and H can share our waters with us!" Unbelievable. After about 3 more people tripped on one of the highchairs at the end of our table, D got up and went to tell the hostess to move us--this table wasn't gonna work. I picked up all of our menus, waters, silverware, highchairs, etc. and moved them to our new table (the same size as the current one, but in a slightly better location and pulled away from the wall so we had all 4 sides to work with).
• Hubs, LO, H and C returned from the bathrooms and we all got situated. Hubs and D both mentioned that one of the waiters had gone into the men's room, was in there for awhile (gross!), and LEFT WITHOUT WASHING HIS HANDS!!!! I was disgusted.
• The waitress came by to take our orders. H asked what comes on the salad (she's also a vegetarian) and when bacon wasn't listed, she ordered her salad, her husband D ordered his meal, then the waitress came to hubs and I. I asked how much a side item was, she said it depended on which one you order. I said I was going to order 3 different ones (since I don't eat meat entrees anymore) and she said she'd have to go find out. Rather than delay putting our order in, I just ordered my mashed potatoes and steamed veggies and some fries (for LO). Hubs wanted an appetizer sampler. He asked to substitute one of the items and she said he couldn't. I piped in and asked, "He can't change out the spinach dip for cheese queso??" To which she responded, "Oh, sure, you can do that." Alrighty then! So our order was finally in. Whew!
• H's salad comes out--covered in bacon. She had to send it back. They brought another one out later but didn't bring the extra plate she had requested. She asked for it again. It never came.
• Literally 45 minutes after we ordered (you know, back before the restaurant started to fill up with customers), they FINALLY brought D and H's food. Hubs and I just waited until they finally brought ours out several minutes later. As soon as the waiter left from dropping off my food, hubs said, "You are NOT eating any of those potatoes on the right side of your plate. The guy that was in the bathroom that didn't wash his hands brought those out and his thumb was IN YOUR POTATOES. Sure enough, there was a freakin' THUMB PRINT plain as day in my potatoes. My steamed veggies? COLD. Hubs' appetizer sampler? COLD. The cheese queso had a nasty film over the top and it was obvious that platter had been sitting out for at least 10 minutes before it was brought out. We were NOT having a good dining experience.
• The waitress came over to ask if there was anything we needed... Hubs was obviously QUITE irritated but told her he wasn't going to deal with her about it; he'd talk to a manager before we leave. So what did she do? Send the manager over. He asked what the problem was. Again, hubs wasn't going to get into it with him at this point (we were still hoping to salvage our meal and NOT embarrass our friends D and H). I simply mentioned the cold veggies and the guy got incredibly defensive! He said, "I'm not trying to argue with you ma'am... blah, blah, blah." So he took the veggies and was going to bring me a new order.
• A few minutes go by. I hand LO a celery stick I pulled from hubs' sampler. I glance at her a few seconds later and immediately pull that celery stick out of her hand. YOU HAVE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME!!!! There was a HAIR on the celery stick!!!!! Hubs looked as though he threw up in his mouth, then immediately grabbed the appetizer platter, my plate of potatoes (which I had already decided NOT to eat for obvious reasons) and went storming over to the bar where the manager was standing. Luckily I had my back to the bar so I couldn't see the "scene" hubs was making. I was actually quite proud of him though. Normally I want to hide under the table when he gets into that "mode" but this time he handled the situation VERY well, especially considering everything we'd just been through.
• The manager of course comped our meals (really? seriously? we didn't even eat a single bite!!!!!), and while D and H finished their dinners (somehow theirs managed to come out just fine), hubs and I left and headed to the Wendy's drive-thru before heading back to the zoo to meet our friends for the lights show.

As you can imagine, it was NOT a good dining experience. I know for SURE we will NEVER be back at that particular restaurant; but now I'm afraid to ever eat in ANY Applebee's establishment. I mean, is not washing hands part of their wait staff training program? ((gag)) I don't know if hubs and I have a huge bullseye on each of our heads or what, but we seem to have experiences like this on an almost DAILY basis in one form or another. I seriously cannot believe how bad "customer service" has become these days. It's atrocious. I'd much rather stay in and cook food for my family that I know is safe and delicious!

Such a Shame!

Last night, hubs and I went out for dinner at a local Italian restaurant to celebrate our 3rd anniversary a few days early. It was just the two of us, and I was really looking forward to a quiet, intimate, romantic dinner for two.

Unfortunately that wasn't what we were in for.

The restaurant wasn't very busy when we arrived. We obviously needed a table for two. Where'd they put us? In a huge 6-person booth. Nice, huh? The added bonus was that the booth was right under a speaker that was blaring music (and not the quiet, romantic kind) throughout our entire meal. We were sitting mere inches from each other, and yet we had to almost yell to hear each other above the noise. Lovely.

Our waitress was a scary lady. Hubs made the comment during dinner that he thought she could totally kick his butt. I agreed.

As you may recall, I've gone vegetarian. So dining out has become a slight challenge. It's really not too bad, though. I just have to ask a few more questions, find out if entrees can be ordered without chicken or beef, etc. And that's exactly what I did. I ordered a bow-tie pasta with sun-dried tomatoes and mushrooms in a garlic cream sauce, minus the chicken, of course. Hubs had the lasagna. I also ordered a Caesar salad for us to share.

Now, one of my favorite things about Italian restaurants? The Bread! So I was anticipating its arrival as soon as we arrived. No bread. Then we ordered. It still didn't come. Our salad arrived. Still no bread. When the waitress dropped the salad off, she said she'd bring out bread with our entree.

What!?

I don't know about you, but when my entree arrives, I want to eat it. But the 20 minutes or so I'm sitting around waiting for said entree? I'd enjoy some bread! Is that so wrong?

Our entrees are delivered by someone other than our waitress. Several minutes later our waitress walks by and we ask her for some bread, which she finally brings after a few minutes.

Ugh.

Nice, romantic, quiet dinner with hubs with at least mediocre service? Not at all what we got!

The biggest problem I had was that when our check arrived, I immediately looked to see if we were charged the full amount for my pasta. And, of course, we were! Why is that? It clearly states on the menu that chicken can be added to any pasta dish for $6. So why is it I was charged the full amount for a chicken dish without the chicken?! I mean, why not give a $2 discount or something just to make an effort!?

I was irritated enough to at least want to kindly make my point to the restaurant manager as we were leaving. Unfortunately, I couldn't find a single soul anywhere near the exit door. No manager, no hostess, no waitress. No one to say, "Thank you for coming! Have a great night! Come back and see us!" It was really irritating that I couldn't share a simple comment with anyone. However, when I got home I promptly sent an email via the restaurant's website to share my feedback.

Overall it wasn't a bad night--it certainly was nice to spend some alone time with hubs. Maybe I'll give us an anniversary dinner "do-over" and cook dinner for us here at home one night. That way I can control the music, candlelight, and the quality of the food and service.

Invisi-whaa?

Okay, this post is all about the ladies. Tell me--how often have you bought a pair of pants that fit perfectly at the store only to find them to be a bit too loose when you try them on at home? I've got several. And it's great when I wash them because they fit nice and snug out of the dryer, but within a few minutes, they're back to being a bit oversized.

Now hubs listens to my droning and complaining and, as most men do, offers to "fix" the problem for me by telling me to put on a belt. Sounds easy enough, right?

Notsomuch.

See, I hate the additional 20 lbs. that are added to my waist the second I put a belt on. I've already got an extra 15 lbs. I carry around without the added "bonus weight" of wearing a big ol' belt.

Well, my friends, I have found the solution! And I'm totally kicking myself for not coming up with this on my own and making millions! It's called the Invisibelt!This handy little gem holds those pants up and does NOT add on the extra pounds of traditional belts. It's available in both clear and black. This is a must-have I've added to my wish list this Christmas, and at only $19.95, it won't leave too big of a hole in Santa's wallet!

Wal-Mart No More!

Who likes going to several different stores to get all of the items on their shopping list? Not me1 That's why I've pretty much been a Wal-Mart shopper. All my grocery and miscellaneous sundries can be found under the same roof.

Until recently, that is. Lately I've had issues when I'd go to Wal-Mart, look down the aisle full of body wash bottles until I find the one I'm looking for... only to find, it isn't there! I cannot tell you guys how many times I've gone to Wal-Mart with my list in hand only to realize at least one (but usually several) of the specific items on my list were out of stock! It got to be so incredibly frustrating, but I'd just deal with it. I'd make the longer drive to Target and pay a few pennies more to get the item I needed.

On top of the whole "out of stock" issue, I've also started experiencing an extremely frustrating trend at the check-out. Now, I've never really been a coupon person, but for the past 2 or 3 months I've started looking online for coupons for the items I needed to purchase, print them, and take them with me to Wal-Mart. Sometimes I'd even build my shopping list around the items I was able to find coupons for. Almost every single time I tried to check out at Wal-Mart, the cashier would refuse to accept one or more of my coupons because they "wouldn't scan." I'm sorry, doesn't it say "75 cents off Bounty paper towels" right there above the little bar code thingy? Couldn't they just--heaven forbid--manually type in the coupon amount? (Shameful side note: I know for a fact this as possible as I used to work as a Wal-Mart cashier during high school). When I inquired about this they of course told me they weren't able to accept the coupon. Period. Needless to say, there were several times I dug through the several bags of purchases to locate the one or more items these unaccepted coupons were for, and have the cashier remove them simply out of principle. SO frustrating!

Last Sunday, it happened again--for the last time!!! I couldn't believe this cashier as she made an incredibly poor attempt to scan my little coupon and quickly refuse to accept it. I was with hubs and LO at the time (normally it's just me and LO) and I complained to hubs the entire way out to the car. There's just NO REASON for that. What ever happened to "customer service" I ask!?

No surprise here, but I jumped on my customer service soap box and sent a scathing email to Wal-Mart about my horrible experiences in their store. That was Sunday night. Today is Thursday, and I've still received no response from them. Am I surprised? Of course not. BUT... I have been inspired by Wal-Mart's complete lack of service to their customers to...



((wait for it))








(wait for it))

BOYCOTT WAL-MART!!!!!

That's right! I've officially decided to never, ever, ever, ever, ever walk through the doors of Wal-Mart stores again. How possible is this, you might ask? I believe it's quite possible! It's already day 4 of my boycott and it's going strong! There's nothing I purchase at Wal-Mart that I can't also find at Bi-Lo, Target, AC Moore, or any other retail establishment.

Should be interesting to see how long I can go without shopping at Wal-Mart. Although I've found that when I commit to something and really put my mind to it, I can do anything. We shall see!

What the HUH???!

Sunday... The church service is over. Hubs, LO and I are heading home. It strikes. The thought of a broccoli-cheddar bread bowl from Panera. Yum. We head to our local Panera. Hubs takes LO to get her situated in a high chair while I order.

"Two broccoli-cheddar bread bowls for here, please."

"We're out of bread bowls."

"Seriously? Out of bread bowls?? It's barely noon!"

I tell hubs, we load up LO and head next door to Brixx Pizza instead. In and out of this casual family dining joint in no time. And the pineapple pizza more than made up for the missing bread bowls.

Monday... Hubs takes the day off for his birthday. We decide to hit one of his favorite spots for lunch: Panera. Only this time we go to a different Panera. We walk in, get LO situated in her high chair, wipe down the table, get out her Gerber raviolis and juice, then hubs went to order our 2 broccoli-cheddar bread bowls. He kinda yelled at me from across the restaurant (it was around 2PM--there weren't many people there) that they were OUT OF BREAD BOWLS!

SERIOUSLY?!

Ya. That's right. Two days. Two Panera's. Zero bread bowls. I was flabbergasted to say the least. What was even more retarded? The Panera guy actually tried to say that because the weather has been getting colder, more people are ordering bread bowls.

So, tell me, is it not common where you're from that the weather starts to--I dunno--get colder in the Fall?? Wasn't this something they could've seen coming rather than be blindsided by the increased and unexpected bread bowl demand? Seriously people.

We finished feeding LO her lunch, then hit the road. That's right! I mean, really, we could've had broccoli-cheddar soup in a real, porcelain-type bowl, but really it was the principle of it all. No bread bowls? We're out.

As you might imagine, I sent a nasty-gram to Panera today via their website. Should be interesting to see what they come back with--if they respond at all.

A Letter to the Westin Hilton Head Resort & Spa

Dear Westin Hilton Head Resort & Spa,

Thank you for hosting hubs, LO and I as we spent our very first family vacation together in Hilton Head. We were very pleased that Priceline was able to step in for us to prevent us from paying an overpriced $189 per night for the luxury of staying at your establishment. Frankly, we're not sure our $64 per night was money well spent.

My darling hubs is quite a strong and capable man. If he wanted to borrow one of your luggage rack thingies to unload our luggage, you should have allowed it. Instead, you sent a very-not-needed bellman along with the luggage thingy who insisted on helping with our stuff, even though hubs had everything well under control. When I had the joy of following your bellman up to our room with LO while hubs moved the car (no valet parking, thankyouverymuch), you sure did take your time. Couldn't you tell LO was waaaaay past due for her afternoon nap? I just didn't have the time to stand by while you made small talk with your co-workers. Seriously. Oh, and the fact that you counted the tip hubs handed you before you walked out the room? Tacky.

While I know you were super excited to have us staying with you, the added luxuries were not necessary. Charging us for the sodas and bottled water we removed from the mini-bar so we could refrigerate LO's milk while waiting for your people to bring us the mini-fridge we requested? Not cool. Although it was quite interesting how the mini-bar was apparently all technology-driven somehow since we took the stuff out, put LO's milk in, then put the stuff back in exactly where it was. And magically you knew all about it, even though we never once allowed your staff in our room. Slick. That other luxury? Standing in my own filth as I took a shower? It was over the top. Really, we're those normal, grounded kind of folks who enjoy shower drains that, well, drain.

Now we certainly loved the fact that you removed those insane mini-bar charges after hubs stopped by your front desk and chatted with your manager. What we really didn't appreciate was the unexpected $14 per night "resort fee" we were charged. Especially since I called your hotel after Priceline booked us with you specifically to make sure there wouldn't be any "hidden charges" such as this. And of course I was told there wouldn't be. What really got us was the little card you enclosed in our check-in packet that explained this resort fee, and how it included "complimentary self-parking" and "complimentary" housekeeping-type services (which I was thinking most hotels typically provide for their guests). For your future reference, Webster defines complimentary as "given or supplied free of charge." The fact that we paid for the luxury of parking our own car and housekeeping-type services (which we didn't once use), but yet it was complimentary, but yet we paid $14 a night for it, although it was free, well, we really appreciate that, too.

Sincerely,

mom2lo

I Lied.

I thought the Pollenex Wall-Mount Microban Showerhead was the answer to my showerhead's mildew-y, moldy yuckiness.

But alas, I was wrong.

Hubs was ever-so-sweet to install his own birthday present (ha-ha!) last night. Unfortunately, I was totally bummed to find out that there was absolutely no water pressure with our new purchase. Phooey!

I returned it to Sears today and decided to make do with the one we've got. I will give hubs some props, though. He impressed me with his mad cleaning skills. I put him to work with a spray bottle of Clorox 2, an old toothbrush and a handful of toothpicks (sounds like stuff MacGyver would use to escape a prison cell!) and our old showerhead was as good as new! At least for another few weeks before I make ask him to do it again!

I Need This!

I had an epiphany today. It happened while I was in the shower this morning (don't worry, this story is most definitely G-rated!). I was looking up at the showerhead and, well, words cannot adequately describe what I saw. Pictures will, though:


Can you see it? Surely you can! If not, click on the images. Seriously. Do it. I'll wait. See it now? The disgusting, nasty, moldiness that is all over our showerhead! It's like all up in the little holes where the water comes out! Eeew! How can a person get clean in the shower when the water is passing through dirty, nasty holes? ((gag))

Now, I routinely force ask hubs nicely about once a month to clean the showerhead and remove any and all of the "goo" on it that most definitely should not be there. I guess I haven't been paying attention lately as much as I should have. I totally think I threw up in my mouth when I saw that nasty thing.

Enter the Pollenex Wall-Mount Microban Showerhead. Oh, baby! Check this bad boy out:


My goodness! "Manufactured with Microban™ antimicrobial protection integrated into the plastic components, this showerhead is the only showerhead in the marketplace that fights mold and mildew." Would you believe this thing retails for only $20.00?! Amazing! I've never heard of Microban antimicrobial protection, but I know deep down that this is a must-have for our household.

The best part? I think I've convinced hubs that he wants one of these for his upcoming birthday! ;) So it's a win-win, right? Really, it should save him the nagging cleaning of the showerhead each month. AND it would make ME happy. I'll go pick it up tomorrow at our local Sears. If only I can remember to slap a big ol' waterproof bow on it for hubs' big day!

Pork Gone Bad

Last night's dinner was a disaster. Ugh. I'm really trying SO hard to only use the ingredients I have on hand. I'll admit I did make a quick grocery run on Wednesday but it was only for milk and a few Gerber foods for LO.

So I was scrounging around in the freezer yesterday and found some pork ribs seasoned with a BBQ rub. If I recall correctly, I had purchased them a few months ago, kept them in the fridge a day or two, then plopped them in the freezer (prior to the expiration date). So they've probably been in the freezer for about two months. And I'm not one of those people that take meat out of it's original packaging and put it in special freezer-safe wrap or what-not. I just throw it in the freezer in the same packaging it came home from the store in.

Now I figured I'd call my fabulous sister to get tips on cooking these ribs since her and her husband make totally killer ribs! She said they typically season them, wrap them in foil like 4 times, then bake them at 250 degrees for a few hours. That way, all they do is toss them on the grill for a quick few minutes and voila! Perfect, delicious, fall-off-the-bone ribs!

Well, I had put the ribs back in the fridge about two days ago to defrost. After talking with my sister, I got them out of the fridge and prepared to put them in several wraps of foil. When I punctured the packaging, I almost gagged at the smell. Is pork supposed to smell funny? I dunno. I googled it. People said it wasn't unusual for pork to have a funky smell. One guy recommended rinsing it. Okay.

So I get over it, wrap it all up in foil and throw it in the oven at 250 degrees. Sweet.

About two hours later, I went to check on them. I opened the oven and suddenly was hit with the smell of... fish? Is that fish that I smell? Gag. It was at that point when I decided this pork would not be part of our dinner. It would be meeting our outside trash can in 3... 2... 1. Done.

Now, what can I make instead? I had some ground beef half-frozen in the fridge, but making meatloaf would take over an hour (note it's about 5pm at this time--hubs is due home any minute), I was too lazy to make meatballs with spaghetti, and nothing else sounded easy or good. I figured I could have hubs throw some beef hot dogs on the grill, but that totally didn't sound good, either.

So what did we do for dinner last night? My solution was the frozen pizza I found buried in the freezer. Whew!

Not really what I had in mind, but it worked!

And I'm happy to say that we've spent ZERO DOLLARS on eating out this entire week! And with the exception of my $13.97 shopping spree at Blooms on Wednesday, we've spent NOTHING on groceries!

Note to self: My shopping list is growing very long since we haven't done any shopping this week. I'm afraid when I do return to the grocery store next week, my total spending will be DOUBLE what it usually is... Who's great idea was this again?

Staying Connected

Okay, I just have to vent for a minute. I do NOT like my ISP. You know, Internet Service Provider. Unfortunately where we live, we have only ONE option for high-speed Internet service: Charter Communications.

Seriously people. I've looked into it. AT&T DSL? Not available in my area. Verizon DSL? Not available in my area. Satellite Internet service? Ya, it's available, but it's butt-expensive and not reliable and quite slow. So we're stuck with Charter.

I've had SEVERAL poor experiences with said ISP. Phone calls, emails, live chats, visits to the local office. If I had ANY choice whatsoever, I would ditch them in a heartbeat.

So why am I complaining about this now? Because. Not once, not twice, but THREE TIMES my connection "mysteriously" disappeared yesterday afternoon alone! We're talking over the course of, say, 3 or 4 hours. Each time, I had to get my lazy self off the couch, walk over to the modem and unplug it, then unplug my AirPort Express wireless router, too.

Wait 10 seconds...

Plug the modem back in. Wait for the lights to show it's working again.

Plug back in the AirPort Express. Wait for the wireless connection to come back up.

Try displaying whatever site it was I was trying to access in Firefox before the connection was lost.

This happened THREE TIMES! I'm telling you, I cannot stand this company. Can you say, "Monopoly!?" How is it they can get away with offering such POOR service to their customers? And are we really considered "customers" if we would drop them the very second another comparable option cane along?

Ugh.

Customer service has gone down the toilet these days, and it's only gonna get worse--resulting in more and more companies going "overseas" for support personnel, which ultimately involves more "huhs?" when trying to get troubleshooting support for that HP printer.

What a wonderful way to start out a Monday. Complaining.

You're welcome.

Par-Tay!

Well I am ever so happy to report that LO's first birthday party was, in my opinion, a HUGE success! We had lots of food (too much, as usual!), lots of family and friends, some really yummy cake and an all around good time! Not to mention that I have several pictures commemorating the momentous occasion. Hurray!

Now, on to the not-so-great stuff. I guess there's really only ONE THING that turned out to be a huge headache. Silly me decided, oh, I don't know, like 3 or 4 weeks ago that it would be fun to have a sort of photo slideshow playing on the TV during the party. No music per se, just lots and lots of pics of LO from birth (pre-birth, actually, since I included some ultrasound pics) to birth (no, we didn't end up with any ill-timed photos showing off a bit more of myself than I'd like--thank goodness!) and throughout her first year--including the birthday pictures and family photo we had taken a week before the party. Sounds like a good idea, huh? A nice conversation starter, if you will? Ya, well, lemme tell ya... IT WAS A HUGE PAIN!!!

Really, creating the slideshow was cake. I used my ever-so-wonderful MacBook (it's so pretty!) and a little program called FotoMagico. Luckily, I had lots of experience working with this software as I had just created slideshows for both Mother's Day and Father's Day to be presented at my church. They came out GREAT! I guess I do need to admit here that there was one teeny, tiny little difference between those presos and this one... While they were around 60-70 photos each, LO's birthday video was, oh, I dunno, like 800 photos. ((shameful look)) Tell me, serously, how is a mommy supposed to weed through pictures of her only child and choose the ones NOT to be included in a slideshow dedicated to her? So hard.

Anyway, I'm thinking it'll be easier to share the steps of horror that ultimately led to a successful (thank the Lord!) presentation by listing them below rather than writing an unbelievably long paragraph or two. So here goes:

1. I did good. I started working on the presentation about 2 weeks before the party. How smart am I? The week before the party I was putting the finishing touches on the video. We're talking 800 photos that I had to manually adjust start/finish, zoom and rotation settings on each one. I'd estimate in all I probably spent at least 3 to 4 hours on this masterpiece.
2. Now the fun begins. The presentation was too large to compose on my MacBook (down to less than 5GB of free space!), so I had to save it to my external HD, which is formatted like 60-40 Mac-PC (some of you may get that, others may not... just keep reading). So I saved the file and was ready to export it to a DVD that I could sling in my DVD player and call it a day. Keep in mind, this is happening the day before the party, because, really, how hard could it possibly be to export a video onto a DVD? I'm using a Mac after all, so it should happen with my eyes closed!
3. Not so much. Houston, we have a problem! It seems as though my formerly-faithful FotoMagico has let me down--BIG TIME. See, it runs the export for about 30-40 minutes, then suddenly, on Step 3 of 4, decides to have a FATAL ERROR. In other words, no export for me!
4. I try it again. And again. And one more time. Fatal error. Fatal error. Fatal error. I send the error log to the folks at Boinx (the people that made FotoMagico--such fun names, right?). Unfortunately our Boinx friends are located in Germany and at the time, it was like 11PM out there. No such hope of technical support for me! I had a secret hope they'd get my email while I was sleeping that night and send me a quick and easy fix the next day. I bet you already know whether or not that happened! Oh, I also tried deleting half the files (for testing purposes) to see if it'd export a smaller (i.e. 400-ish photos) file. No such luck.
5. So insert Plan B here. We decide to buy a little cable that can connect my MacBook to the TV and just run it from there. We stop at Best Buy after dinner and pick up a Dynex Mini DVI-to-Video Adapter (NOTE: I didn't say "APPLE" Mini DVI-to-Video Adapter). We get it home. I hook it up with an S-video cable directly from my TV to my MacBook. The result? Nothing. Absolutely nothing. Are you kidding me? It's supposed to "just work." Why is it not working. I'll fast-forward a bit on this one, but let's just say hubs and I tested and tried 2 different S-video cables, 1 set of composite cables, 2 different TVs, and basically had the same result. The amount of time this fast-forward eliminates from my post? Quite literally about 4 hours. That's how long hubs and I spent trying to get that durn adapter to work. Oh, and the best party? After about 2 hours of struggling, I looked up the reviews for the item on Best Buy's website. Out of 4 reviews, only 1 person said they were able to get the adapter to work. Everyone else said theirs didn't work, they tried a different one from the store, and it didn't work, either. Great, so my daughter's first birthday comes down to the fact that these "Dynex" people make stuff but don't bother to make sure it actually works before manufacturing 80 billion of them. Geniuses. (Side Note: I called Dynex since they had 24 hour support. Miss I-Barely-Speak-English-And-Can't-Pronounce-My-Own-Name's response to my issue? "Oh, it sound like you do all de troubleshooting I can have available to me to tell to you. I give you case number for if you need to call back with problem again later?" Riiiiiiight. Gee, thanks.
6. Around this time I speak with my bestest Mac guru/guide/genius who also happens to be one of my best friends and mentors on the planet. He is such a dear and makes some phone calls for me to his other Mac friends to see if one of them happens to have an APPLE Mini-DVI to Video Adapter. I find out the next morning that he does have a friend with one and is able to get it to me as a back-up. Thank you @tgodby and @NewMacUser!!!!!
   
7. Okay, so back to the story, it's 11:30 PM, and hubs has this brilliant idea (hey, it happens every now and then!). Why not split my ginormous slideshow into smaller, individual ones? Maybe then FotoMagico would be able to export them to the DVD? Hmmm... I would THINK that would work. Okay. So I create a new test file using 100 images. IT WORKS! And it only took about 25-30 minutes! Yippee! Only 7 more files to go! I stayed up 'til almost 1:00 AM exporting these smaller individual files. I then finished the rest of them the next morning.
   
8. Okay, so let's just say I finally have all 7 or 8 individual files I was able to export. Now to burn my DVD. But can iDVD do what I'm wanting it to do? I must check with my bestest Mac guru/guide/genius who also happens to be one of my best friends and mentors on the planet yet again. (Note: He's been on vacation for the week or two prior to this and happened to only be in town ONE DAY -- the day I needed him the most! And he SO came through for me!). So I ask my question. His response is as I expected. "Well, no, iDVD won't be able to do that, but what will work is pulling the files into iMovie and exporting them as a single file to iDVD." (He ALWAYS has a solution for everything!). Okay. So now I've just got to pull the files into iMovie.
9. PROBLEM #12,647: I ran out of space on my external HD! The partition formatted for Mac was full! D'oh! Could anything else possibly go wrong?! I called my buddy again and he's offered to lend me a 1 Terabyte (yes, a Terabyte) external HD. We're golden!
10. While I wait patiently for hubs to return the original crappy cable to Best Buy, stop by my mom's to pick up a table we needed for the party, then stop by the church to get the external HD and APPLE adapter from Tim, I decided to keep looking for solutions. I decided maybe I could move some of my external HD files to my useless PC that is basically empty since I don't use it for anything anymore. If I could move those files over, I could free up the space I needed on my external HD! I powered up my ol' faithful Windows PC for the first time in about 2 months or so. And what to my wondering eyes should appear? An error message stating, "DISK BOOT FAILURE, INSERT SYSTEM DISK AND PRESS ENTER." Seriously!? Oh, ya. I couldn't make this stuff up.
11. I then got the bright idea to move some of the files from my Mac partition to the PC partition on my external HD, freeing up enough space to accomplish what I needed to. This worked, although I'm still not sure if I somehow corrupted my lovely Mac files by putting them in a PC environment ((fingers crossed)). It only took about an hour to move the files (lots of videos of LO--they were HUGE).
12. Whew! I've gone ahead and moved the files and can now try to export that durn slideshow file to iDVD. I call my Mac buddy for the trillionth time in 12 minutes to verify the export file settings so I wouldn't end up doing this more than once. Long story short, it would literally be about 2 hours to complete this process. Yes. And how much time before the party starts, you're wondering? Oh, about an hour and a half. Suddenly exporting to a DVD looks less and less feasible. That APPLE mini-DVI adapter was becoming less of a back-up plan and more of THE plan.
13. Hubs finally arrives. I tell him exporting to a DVD is not gonna happen, and that all of our ducks are in a basket (??) with the hope that the APPLE adapter works. I plug in the S-video cable to the TV. I plug in the other end to the APPLE adapter. I plug in the APPLE adapter to my MacBook. I look at my TV. WHAT A GLORIOUS SIGHT!!! It's my MacBook desktop, broadcasting on my lovely TV! I cried tears of joy (literally) and launched my FotoMagico presentation. It. Looked. Beautiful. In addition, it worked like a charm! Literally plugged in the APPLE adapter and was DONE! That was it!!!!
14. Insert HUGE sigh of relief here. I launched iTunes and selected a lovely playlist that was broadcast to my surround sound stereo via my APPLE AirPort Express, and was FINALLY able to get back to all of the little details of getting ready for my baby's first birthday party. Hallelujah!

Okay, so I guess this post doesn't actually include photos of the party or really, any details pertaining specifically to the party. But this story had to be told. And to satisfy those of you who were expecting to see some pics, here's one that's very near and dear to my heart:
Yes, friends, this is the Apple Mini-DVI to Video Adapter that saved my baby's 1st birthday party. Moral of the story? ALWAYS buy certified genuine APPLE accessories for your Mac. Just think of the trouble and time this would've saved us had we owned this little gem before LO's party.

Oh, and I've got another post in the works about the actual party, including actual party pictures!! So stay tuned! :)

You Gotta Keep it Regulated!

Hey-ya!

So back in May (on my birthday, actually), just 3 days before we were to leave for a wedding in Ohio, I was shopping at Old Navy with LO. When I walked out to our Jeep Grand Cherokee, I happened to notice the driver's window was down.

WTH!?

"I know I didn't leave that window down," I thought to myself. "Somebody must have broken in!"

I immediately thought of the brand-new DVD player attached to the rear headrest that we had purchased to entertain LO on the trip to Ohio. I literally had "installed" it just before heading out to the stores, so I figured somebody really wanted that DVD player and had durn broke in our car to take it!

I immediately called hubs in a bit of a panic and explained the situation. Like the always calm hubs he is, he told me to calm down and said everything was gonna be okay.

Whew!

I checked and noticed the DVD player was exactly where I left it.

Whew!

So we get home from our little shopping experience, and I put LO down for a nap. I then turn to my trusty best friend, the World Wide Web.

After a little googling (yes, I believe that's a word!), I found hundreds of blogs and forums discussing this lovely little defect that apparently all Jeep owners have the joy and privilege of experiencing: the window regulator and motor in our driver's side window had failed.

I found a lovely site where some super-kind man had taken the time to write up instructions--including detailed photos--on how to fix this problem oneself.

Reminder: This happened just 3 days before we were to leave for a wedding in Ohio.

Although hubs is great with car repairs and such, he just didn't have the time to order the part (around $90) and replace it himself (estimated 2-3 hours). SO... we took it to a local “mom & pop” auto repair spot we had used in the past for a quote. This place was a little family-owned business and hubs made friends with them when the clutch went out on our Eclipse a few years ago.

When hubs hadn't heard back from them by the time we met for lunch, I suggested he give them a call to see if they had a chance to scope it out and prepare the estimate we requested. He called around 2:00 PM and they informed him it was fixed and ready to be picked up! So they didn't call with a quote, they went ahead and fixed it and provided us with a bill for $415!!

That sucked.

I happened to prefer the $90 "fix it yourself" option compared to the "pay a car payment to have someone else do it for you" option. Really, I guess in either scenario, I myself wouldn't be the one fixing it, but you get my point.

Now let's fast-forward to today. I was heading to the Jeep after spending some time at the pool with LO and one of my bestest friends. I went to put the windows up and turn on the A/C (it was HOT!) and noticed the passenger window was mysteriously slinking downwards into the door frame.

"Hmmmm..." I thought, "this can't be good."

Turns out window regulator and motor #2 had failed.

I didn't have the gall to tell hubs over IM that afternoon. I went ahead and printed out the instructions and photos for him, and presented him with the opportunity for a fun "project." I handed him the instructions and he was, well, I guess "not so excited" would be a good way to explain it.

The poor guy was outside this evening for well over an hour just taking the inside door panel off so he could shimmy something in there to keep the window up until he could get the part and fix it.

Ye-haw.

As a final note on this here post, I just have to add this little convo hubs and I had earlier:

"Hey, can you come help me for a sec?" hubs hollered from the garage door at me, as I was comfortably lounging on the couch watching "The Baby Borrowers" for whatever reason.

"Sure!" I responded as I hopped up, put my flips on and headed outside.

Hubs had most of the inside door panel off but it was still attached by two little thingiemajigs.

"Can you hold the inside door panel so it won't drop? Oh, and here's the flashlight. Can you point it there at those white things?"

"Sure!"

Hubs then starts prying at the little white guys, trying desperately to get them to turn in whatever direction he was after so the door panel could be fully detached.

I offered a suggestion or two on how he could try it differently, which he did, and he got them off. The door panel was now completely removed.

"Thanks," he said. "I've spent 30 minutes just trying to get those things off."

"Ah. Is that all you needed?" I inquired.

"Ya, thanks!"

"Cool. Can you please let me know if there is anything else I can help with? Perhaps before fiddling with it for half an hour?"

"Okay."

About 10 minutes later, I'm still on the couch (I think I've got a permanent butt-print on this couch of ours) watching TV and surfing the 'net for a Bluetooth headset for my new phone.

"I need your help again," came the summon from the garage door.

"On my way!" I responded.

I walked out to the Jeep, which was parked in our driveway. It was well on the way to dusk (read: it was dark out). The external light above the garage door was on, but with the Jeep door open, and hubs working on the inside panel, he had no light to work with to see what he was doing.

"Can you just hold the flashlight here so I can see this thingy?" he asked.

I thought about it for, oh, I dunno, like .2 seconds and responded with, "Um, wouldn't it make sense to just pull the Jeep in the garage so you can see? You know, with the garage overhead lights on? That might help."

Hubs had a slight look of wonder and awe. "Huh. That's probably a good idea!"

He moved the Jeep into the garage and was able to finish up his task all while I hung out--you guessed it--on the couch!

What fun!!