fun. crazy. life.

So I called to update our credit card info for our automatic payment of our Verizon internet.

I was transferred SEVEN times. To this person who couldn’t help me, to another person who couldn’t help me, to this person could only help me if I lived in New Jersey… Then they couldn’t find my account number. Then they couldn’t find ME. Despite the fact that I have paid them lots of money EVERY MONTH for the last EIGHT years… They have no record of me existing.  Part of me really  wanted to just let my credit card expire and bounce right back to them. Clearly they won’t miss me, since they don’t seem to know who I am.  But instead, being the responsible citizen that I am, I wasted 45 minutes trying to find the ONE SINGLE employee out of thousands who could actually help me.
FINALLY someone was able to update the info I needed. Which took all of 1 minute.

Then, my heart full of dread, I called the company that makes this Hello Kitty boom box.  Ellie got this for her birthday and it just randomly stopped working, so I called customer service.
An ACTUAL REAL LIVE person answered the phone. She told me to mail it to them and they would fix it for FREE and if they couldn’t fix it, they will MAIL ME A NEW ONE! Amazing!!

Feeling confident, I called the insurance company. Who managed to make Verizon look downright speedy and efficient. The insurance is denying to pay any of our maternity/newborn care. Because it was all filed under Husband’s policy number. (Obviously they would deny maternity care for him seeing as HE IS A MAN.) It is very simple fix - they just needed to change things to MY policy number. I tried to explain this to them, but it was apparently MUCH too complicated a concept for them to understand. Seriously - my head almost exploded after having the same conversation over and over for 30 minutes with an women who kept calling me “Honey” and was INSISTING that there had been no mistake.

And there goes two hours of my life that I will never get back.

As you may have noticed, this week has kicked my butt. Despite sick kiddos, I did get a lot of things done.

• Like finally submitting receipts to our flex-spending-medical-account-thing… for the first time since last JUNE. 
• Like cleaning the house like crazy, because looking at the mess was making my eye twitch. (But - my ipod is working again! Its a MIRACLE! So I’ve been cleaning while shaking my bon-bon and counting it as exercise. Multitasking!)
• Like paying bills. Again. (Wasn’t it just the end of the month a few days ago? How is it that time again? Good news is I paid everything this month. Unlike last month, when I forgot to pay the Mastercard. Um, whoops. Luckily, the customer service lady was also a new mom and very understanding.)
• Like doing some planning for the reopening of Eliza Grace (Which I am so excited for. Let me just tell you. Four words: New. Spring. Fabric. Collections. Be still my heart.) AND the launch of another business I’m heading up. You know, in my spare time.

Anyways… I’m taking the weekend off of everything, getting some extra rest and hopefully will be back in full swing on Monday, gearing up for the last two weeks of school and the thousands of extra activities that entails. Ellie has like 3 graduation ceremonies. Seriously? Its only preschool, people!! She’s not winning the Nobel Prize or something!

See what happens? I say I’m done blogging and then I suddenly have stuff to say. I’m done… now.
No, now.
I mean it…..

Now.

Look what Misty gave me:
With this sweet award comes an original Meme.

1. What is something you have learned in the last 6 months?
That sometimes you need to ask people for help. And that’s okay. That sometimes you need to take care of yourself, let your house get messy and let your kids watch way too much tv. And its all okay.
2. Name the last food you tried for the very first time. Did you like it?
I don’t remember! I wish I could share something really cool and interesting, but lately our ‘new’ foods consists of trying a different brand of chicken nuggets.
3. If money, time, responsibilities, and obligations were not considerations what would your life look like right this minute?
I would be at the hospital having this baby.
Oh, besides that? I would be living on the beach. I would have time for myself to do those things that often get swept aside by responsibilities.  I would have lots of time to spend with my family. I would have the time and money to expand my business.
4. Working within your limitations what things could you do to create some of the feelings you would expect to have if you were living your dream life?
Humm… once I have the baby, I’ll be able to start working on my business again which I’m looking forward to. And I hope that I’ll be still taking time for myself even with a new baby. 
5. Is there a current goal on which you are working?
Having this baby as soon as possible. Then losing the 30+ pounds of baby weight.
6. What is one thing you could get up and do right this minute to put you closer to your goal?
If you know of anything that will get this baby out of me, please - please - let me know. Call collect.
7. Is there something stopping you from doing that one thing right this second?
Yes. When I have this baby is entirely out of my control and that drives me crazy!!!!

And now I need to pass on this green & yellow square of bliss & sunshine to five blogs who brighten my daily world and make me smile! There are so many…
DCRmom at Musings of a Housewife
Stie at A Few of My Favorite Things
Jenny at Chased by Children
Ann at Life is Short. Partake in Happy Hour!
and my brother, who almost never blogs, but when he does its always funny.

I’m stuck at home today, since Ellie’s new bed will be delivered sometime between 12:01am and 11:59pm. Actually, they were a tad more specific than that, but I am still not leaving just in case! I can’t wait to get it all set up - I’ll post pictures soon! And of all my other nesting-type projects since I also finished our bathroom and bedroom this week. I’ll have to do a big photo shoot… Naturally, I probably don’t have any “before” pictures, since I never think that far ahead, but I’ll look and see what I can find!
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We’ve been getting ready for Ellie’s birthday party, which we will be hosting at our house on Saturday afternoon. My mom is arriving today and my sisters tomorrow, so we’ll have a full house this weekend. The kids are super, dooper excited and have big plans for the 48 hours their aunties will be here. I hope they weren’t planning on sleeping at all.
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Husband arrives home on Friday.  Yay!! This was his last trip for awhile. He’s been gone a LOT these past two months and we are so excited that he will be home for awhile. We certainly missed him being around! Of course, I’ll have to start cooking again. I am trying to plan the menu for this weekend and I’m stuck on “frozen pizza” and “chicken nuggets” and other daddy’s gone meals. Might need to lay on the couch and watch a little Food Network to get inspired. Hard work, but somebody has to do it
Speaking of the Husband, he just got a Blackberry from work. I am totally not jealous. (which is totally not true) Not only is it now super easy to get in touch with him, but it is just so fun to play with!! I want one!!! Only in pink!
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New pregnancy craving: soda. Not from a can or bottle. Fountain soda. In a paper cup with ice and a straw, like from McDonalds. Heaven. I wish I had some right now.
I’m totally over the whole ice cream craving, although I still can inhale Chex Mix like you would not believe and could eat Mexican food every single meal, every single day. I’m amazed that I’ve only gained 27 pounds so far. Because, seriously, if you added up  the weight of the bags of Chex Mix alone, I’m sure they weighed at least twice that.

Thank you for all of your encouraging words and wishes yesterday! Yes, I did cry and yes, I think it did help :-) 

Grace and I are feeling much better today - her fever is gone and she seems to be fine. Now its just a matter of getting rid of all the energy she stored up while she was sick, since she is now positively bouncing off the walls. And I finally had a decent nights sleep last night, so the world is looking rosy. Amazing how sleep can do that for a mom.

We also figured out why the stupid washing machine overflowed. It was a problem with the garbage disposal. I bet that was totally obvious to all of you, but it took us as semi-new homeowners by surprise. Because naturally when your washing machine has a problem, you should immediately check the garbage disposal. I don’t know why we didn’t see that problem right away. If it had been any more obvious, it would have hit us on the head. Gah! 
Sarcasm aside, problem solved. I meant to take some pictures of the chaos to entertain you all with but I forgot. What with the gallons of water gushing all over the place and you do not even want to know what gushed out during the fixing of the garbage disposal.  Lets just say I am doing a lot of cleaning today and Husband and I had to change our clothes.
There are definate benefits to being married to an engineer who is able to fix stuff.

Did you hear what boy band is staging a big comeback? Have you? HAVE YOU?

They even restarted their website. Did you know that they even had a website? I thought they were around before the Internet was even invented.  And, really, shouldn’t they change their name now? They’re not exactly “new kids” anymore.

Seriously, just try and look at that picture in the article and not snicker. And remember which of those hunky hunks was on the huge poster on your bedroom wall.