The Saga Continues

Guess what came in the mail yesterday??? Oh, my package that was supposed to go to SLC vital records. Don't worry about me sending it out on the 4th of Sept. and the other package, sent 3 weeks later, is already on it's way back to me + a birth certificate. So who here wants to know why this package got sent back to me? The Mailboxes and More guy seems to think it was b/c I didn't write the "to" address right and forgot to write my return address in the top left hand corner. Come to find out... Mr. Mailboxes FORGOT to put the postage sticker on the freak'n package!! What the??? Are you joking?? So I march straight into the store and asked for a refund. The guy starts telling me, "I put the postage on there, it must've fallen off". What kind of lame excuse is that? My gosh, just own up to it. And if it did "fall off" how did the bar code sticker stay on or the "reason package was sent back" sticker stay on? Anyway, when I told him his answer was unacceptable he then started to tell me that it was my fault in the first place b/c I shouldn't have sent it "only" priority mail if I didn't want it lost. What?? I told him that his company needs to pay for me having to send the package AGAIN next day by UPS and that it would be the least they could do. He told me that he's not going to do that and that if I wanted it sent UPS I should've gone through them. So I was trying to tell him that there was no way I was putting another package of mine in his hands if he was too incompetent to even put a postage sticker on my package and he is the MANAGER of a dang packaging place! He wouldn't stop telling me "well you should've done this, you should've done that...blah blah blah" Anyway, I am taking with the owner this morning. I don't think I have ever had such poor customer service in my life.
Oh, it gets even better....

So I went in at a little after 10 am this morning to speak with the Owner. I saw the manager as I walked in and politely asked him if the owner of the store was in yet. He pointed to the lady up at the counter and said, "that lady up there, talk to her". So I went to her and politely told her what had happened and that I would like to be reimbursed for what I had to pay for the manager's mistake. She said, "I'm sorry but that can't be done. You should've come to us and had us send it UPS for you and we would've done it for free." I told her that I didn't understand that b/c what would be the difference of her paying for it or reimbursing me for what I paid? Then I looked at her a little closer and realized that she was the same lady that was in the store yesterday only weird...her hair wasn't short and curly any more, it was straight and in a pony tail. The pony tail was fake! Which led me to believe that they were trying to make her look different so that I didn't recognize her at first. So I looked at her and said, "are you really the manager?" after a lot of stuttering and her trying to back pedal she then says, "well, I'm going to buy the company from the owner" Me:"so you're not the owner?" her:"well I will be in a few weeks". me:"how come when I asked to speak to the owner that man told me to talk to you?? and why did you act like the owner?? You are lying to me and I would like to speak to the owner right NOW!" They then got all scared and told me "fine! here's your money" I told them I still wanted the owner's name and phone #. They started telling me that they did nothing wrong and that is confidential information and they aren't allowed to give me names and numbers (which is a bunch of bull b/c I know perfectly well that they are obligated to give that contact information). The manager started shouting at me and talking over me, changing his story, and getting caught in more lies. When he saw that I wasn't going to let up on this he FINALLY calmed down and apologized and actually understood the predicament he put me in the last few weeks and all of the lengths I had to go to get things settled. I told him that I truly was grateful that he understood and that he apologized but I will need to talk to the owner. I went on to say (politely), "my advice to you would be, if this ever happens with anyone else you may want to stop and listen to the person. That way you could understand what they were saying before you jump down their throat and avoid a situation like what happened here." I smiled and walked out. I will however still be letting the owner know what kind of business is being run here.

I can't believe anyone would try and trick me into believing they are the owner. I thought I was in a movie or something for a moment there. Seriously, who does that??
Anyway, let this be a lesson to everyone... don't go to Mailboxes & More.

Bear Naked Beast

I can finally say that Ella is 100% potty trained as of the last 2 weeks! YAY! Only problem...she doesn't like to wear her panties. So whenever she can, she'll kick her panties off, go potty, then race out of the bathroom like a bear naked beast and hide so we won't put them back on her. Last Sunday we found her hiding in the kitchen cupboard buck naked with the door closed and everything. The way we found her in there was b/c she was giggling so we grabbed the camera and clicked right as we opened the door. Hilarious. The solution for getting her to wear her panties...we got her some Care Bear panties.






In other news...so I've been living with out a birth certificate for the past 25 years of my life (don't ask me how, I just have). Anyway, I've been really working hard to get it and I finally got all the paperwork together that I needed including: a delayed birth certificate filled out by me and notarized, A signed affidavit by my mother saying that she is my mother and notarized, my baptism certificate, my medical records, my church membership records, a copy of Ella's birth certificate, a copy of my marriage certificate, a copy of me and Ella's ss cards, and a $40 check (obviously with my account # on it). I sent it 3 weeks ago priority mail to SLC vital records. I gave it to a guy at "Mailboxes and More" in good faith that it would make it on the right truck and get to SLC. Well it hasn't gotten there and it's been 3 weeks! It's only 1 state away and with Priority Mail it shouldn't take 3 weeks to get there. I've been really stressing that all me and Ella's information is just out there...SSN's, Ella's birth certificate, bank info, our address, just everything you need to steal a few identities. My mom suggested that I talk to a lawyer to see what my options are, type up a letter telling them how much time they have to find my package before I bring a lawyer into it and take my receipt to "Mailboxes" with the letter and give it to whoever is in charge. (I've been calling them every other day to see if my package has turned up). So not only has this cost me a lot of stress, it could cost me and my daughter our identities. I was wondering if anyone knew about this kinda stuff... if it would work or if I'm getting myself into a big mess. I personally think that this shouldn't go unnoticed by the company. Just ridiculous.

On a happier note, I found out what our Halloween costumes will be....



lol. My mom dropped off a box of evening gowns for Joseph and I to take to the thrift store or we could sell them. After my success with Craigs List I decided to see if I could make a little cashito. We were up late one night taking pictures of the dresses and I found this one. It was very "brootiful" and I couldn't resist putting it on. Right then and there I decided Joseph and I were going to be Senior prom King and Queen from Winnitonka High School. (I'm pretty sure Abbie will be the only one who gets this.)

This and That

I had a doctor's appointment today. He says the baby's heart beat is strong and she sounds great. Only thing is, when he measured her he said that she's measuring small. I didn't think much about it at first b/c I had a lot of questions for him that I was trying to remember. But now that I think about it...what??? I can't believe I didn't ask him what that was supposed to mean..."she's measuring small." I worry b/c that's just what I do, worry. But also b/c I don't feel like I've grown much at all. I've gotten big, sure, but a lot of that is b/c I can't stay away from good food. I told Joseph that I feel like haven't grown in the past month and that I worry she's not growing. Then my doctor says she's measuring small. Joseph keeps reassuring me that I worry too much and that she's got a good strong heart beat so not to worry. I go back on Oct. 5th so we shall see. :)

Today Joseph and I went to a thrift store to look for books (well, he looked for books, I just looked for good deals on things I "need".) I found some cute maternity pants that were only $8. I put them back b/c I thought, "$8 jeans from the thrift store?? I'm not paying $8 for a pair of pants." When I got home I got to thinking about it and boy am I a cheap skate! I can't even pay $8 for a pair of jeans that I thought were cute? Best part is, I would've thrown down $30 - $40 for a pair of jeans from Motherhood or something. Does anyone else do that? There's something seriously wrong with my thinking process. :)

Oh Craigs List, how I love you...

For those of you who don't know me, I'm a big pack rat. Not that I like to keep junk, but I don't like to throw things away if they are still in good condition. So I try and find someone to give it to. I was telling Joseph a while back that we should have a yard sale. Only problem is, we don't have a YARD to have a yard sale. But I've discovered the power of Ebay and Craig's list. I just sold a papasan chair that I got back in college and hardly ever used. It's been sitting in our house or storage for 3 years now. We use it as a place to put things that don't have a place... kinda like the chair. Since we never used it, it's in pretty good shape and I sold it yesterday for like $40. Killed two birds with one stone....made a little money and got that chair out of my apartment to make it more spacious. Yay. I'm kinda on this cleaning rampage now where I'm rubbing my hands together thinking, "hmmmm, what else can I sell?" Joseph is gonna come home one day to an empty house b/c I'm getting a little sell happy. lol

In other news....Joseph is doing well. Business is going and so is the Las Vegas heat. The last couple months of summer have really been weighing on Joseph. It's pretty hard to be sitting outside for over 8 hours in 110+ heat. He's really happy to be in the month of September and it only been like 102-105 degrees. Not too long now before it'll finally be in the double digits. Hurray! But he is so good to us for sticking it out and always comes home with a smile on his face.

Joseph isn't the only one suffering from the heat. Poor Ella hasn't been able to go outside b/c it's been so hot. I think if she had her way she wouldn't care, but her momma can't stand it so Ella has to play inside. Last week was like Christmas to her though, it had been cooling down and she got to play on the playground all week long. She loves the slides but scares her mom half to death b/c some of them are way up high and I always worry she's gonna fall off the 8 foot platforms. But what are mom's for if they're not there to worry for their kids? She loves to color and use pens. Today was so cute though, for the first time she would try and tell me what animal she was drawing and would go down the list: dog, kitty, cow, monkey, fish, and then went to Nonie, Grandpa, GG, daddy, mommy, Aunt Ashley....She would tell me which one she was going to draw, do a little scribble, clap, then tell me the next thing she was going to draw.

And last but not least, speaking of worrying, 'lil Carly is doing fine. I always worry when I haven't felt a kick or somersault in an hour or so but she seems to be doing fine. The doctor says that she is sitting pretty low and the placenta is low too. I totally believe it b/c I can't even get out of bed with out feeling her crunching down on my groin. The aches and pains of pregnancy came faster with this one and they're back with a vengeance.

Potty Update

All tuckered out after a long day of potty training.

So the first day Ella did pretty good, just two accidents. Then yesterday I had to run some errands and I think she took advantage of Joseph cause I came home and he was run ragged. She'd tinkled in her pants 2 times in 1 hour. Then he left for work and she did it 2 more times with me! She had to practice running to the bathroom 40 times b/c of it all! By that time she was so exhausted and wouldn't even stand up straight with out throwing a fit. So I looked at the time and we were already 1/2 an hour late for her nap! After nap she didn't have any more accidents. Today was awesome! NO ACCIDENTS! She even started to run to the potty with out me having to prompt her! Hallelujah!! She can do everything herself (pulling her pants up and down, sitting on her little potty, dumping the bowl in the big toilet and flushing) it's just that sometimes I have to prompt her. I think I may have started Ella a little too early but it's helped that she was interested in it and wanted to do it. She's getting things down, it's just longer than the 1 day it was supposed to take. Anyway, she's doing great and things are getting progressively easier. Hopefully she'll have it down pat by the time she needs to go to nursery on Sunday. :)

Potty Training???? Am I crazy??

So I think I mentioned to some of you that Ella was really liking the potty and has been wanting to try it. So I started looking into the whole potty training thing more, knowing that Ella's time was coming. My mom told me of this book called "Toilet Trained in Less Than a Day". She said that she used it when training my 4 other siblings and me back in the day. She said she was a little skeptical at first but when she tried it, it really worked for ALL 5 of us kids! So I ordered the book from Amazon a few weeks ago and have been reading and studying it. In the study they did with all of these kids (to figure out the best way to potty train) the ages of the kids ranged from 20 months to 5 years old. Ella is 20 1/2 months and there is a couple of tests to try on her to see if she's ready. It's to test if she's physically and intellectually ready and if she can control her bladder. Ella passed all the tests so I figured it was time.



So today was the day. We got a "Baby Alive" doll (she really drinks and pees), an Ella sized potty, like 6 different kinds of yummy juices and soft drinks, potato chips, corn chips, My Little Pony fruit snacks, cookies, licorice, ect. (I know, TONS of junk) There's lots of praise and over excitement involved when she goes in the potty but when there's an accident you have to practice running to the potty 10 times from different locations in the house. Yikes!




Anyway, I started at 8 o'clock this morning and for a little bit I was thinking, "what the heck was I thinking??" I was so tired, she was throwing a big fit b/c her first accident was pooping in her pants (GROSS!) and she had to practice running to the potty in poopy pants. It sucked b/c I had to basically drag her but stay positive. My stomach was aching and I'm sure little Carly didn't like her momma dragging a bunch of dead weight. I was sweating, running out of steam, tired, hungry and I felt like giving up. I wasn't even sure if I was doing it right. But, I stuck with it and just like the book said, she finally got the hang of things by noon! She was really cranky so we took a nap break. After nap Ella was totally dry! I was excited. She did have one other accident in the evening and I felt really bad for her b/c she almost started crying. Anyway, I know this was long and boring for those of you who don't care but for those of you who are also trying to potty train, this is a good book to get and very helpful. It wasn't easy and I feel like a train wreck and Ella was really wiped out but I think it paid off.