The Wine Cooler (cont.)

Yes, this is still an open subject in our house. The service company said a check was cut and mailed Wednesday. I should receive a check in 7 to 10 business days. Not holding my breath but will let you know if anything happens. Oh, and I guess I'm supposed to keep the thing too?

Well Put

Dolly Downpour Pics

Here are pics of our backyard during the hurricane "Dolly" rains last week. The good news is that none of the grass was lost. But we do have a slight drainage problem.

The Wine Cooler Saga Continues...

Yes, I am still in the negotiations with the @#$!% wine cooler, if you care to know we are coming to a close. The main company we purchased the thing from no longer carries the product. So the company with the service contract, a company who shall remain nameless but has initials for its name, needs to handle the final paperwork for the agreement that the national office of the store we purchased the lousy energy sucking parasite from (yes it went to the national HQ) worked out with me- last Thursday.

Today, I finally spoke with one of the people who I need to send the necessary paperwork into to get a reimbursement check cut. Or in this case, according to the company- money to purchase a new product. Upon this topic I have no comment.

We should receive a check in 7 to 10 days. I will not hold my breath, but will let you know if anything comes to fruition.

So for now, this is where we are at:
wine cooler $F'ing blanking wasted dollars
spoiled wine $1000
electricity wasted for the past 18 months $2000 at least maybe more
hours spent explaining wine cooler was a POS $320 @min wage
since teachers get their "summers off"
knowing I will not having to deal
with outsourced service center operators: PRICELESS

Daisy Duke look out!

Jessica Simpson look out! Her boots are made for WALKIN'!

Fire Ants

If you have ever visited Texas, you will understand that Fire ants are a part of life- an evil, painful part of life, but a part nonetheless. This summer, Natalie has had her fair share of run ins with these varmints.

Yesterday, after sitting at the table on her feet for a quite some time- she finally got down. Within minutes she fell to the floor yelling that she had a fire ant on her. I came running, since she reacts by swelling, etc. I kept looking for the bite.

Me: Natalie, show me the ant bite so I can put medicine on it.
Natalie: They are all over Mommy.
Me: Where?
Natalie: They are inside my feet! They keep biting me and it won't stop! Help me!
Me: Natalie, you don't have fire ants. Your feet fell asleep because you sat on them so long.
Natalie: NOOOOO! I have ants inside my feet.
Me: No, if you get up and walk around the feeling of ants biting you will go away.

Compliment or Insult?

I went and got a haircut in early July. While there, I asked the hairdresser when I should come in for a color touch-up. She told me to wait until AUGUST!!! So my hair could grow out and get healthier. Are you freaking kidding me? I currently have roots the size of the Green Giant's Big Toe and I am embarrassed to go out in public. To add insult to injury I was on the phone with my mom telling her I finally got an appointment this coming Friday to get color and a cut. THANK YOU GOD. Riley overheard this conversation and when I got off the phone, this is what she had to say:
"Oh Mommy, don't do anything to your hair. I just love it. Your hair is so cozy. If I were a rat I would live in it forever!"

I am definitely keeping my appointment Friday and most likely will now wear a hat out in public.

That @#$!* Wine cooler!

Yes, the war with the wine cooler continues. As of Monday I was awaiting to hear from the store manager as to when and how we would receive our refund for this evil wine cooler. The asst. manager of the store in question (who we all know and shall now remain nameless) told me that she had addressed our problem with GE and wanted us to know that the company was concerned about the service we received. I blew this off. Why? Why did I blow this comment off.

Yesterday I received a call during a workshop I attended - so obviously I could not take the call. This morning I received 4 different phone calls that bordered on the tone of a "collection" call from GE service dept. Of course I did not answer them- I was in the middle of Target. All the calls came in within 10 minutes of each other. This of course pissed me off.

I saw there was a voicemail. I listened and got more pissed. I called the store we were dealing with to report the nasty phone calls that I recieved and to let them know that I did not appreciate the calls... this led to more fancy footwork and to our current situation. LIMBO LAND.

Cooling Down in Texas

When the heat climbs high in the late afternoons we turn to Popsicles to cool down. Here are the girls on our back porch enjoying their cool afternoon treats. And they are being nice to each other too!

Baby Names

NO! WE ARE NOT HAVING ANOTHER BABY.

In a house full of daughters, interesting conversations occur. The latest is the topic of baby names for the girls baby dolls. The conversation went something like this.

In an effort to get Natalie more involved in cleaning up the playroom...
Mom: Natalie, your blue baby doll is crying. You need to come take care of her.
Natalie: That is not blue baby. Her name is Auggieopeia.
Riley: Natalie, you pick some really weird names for you babies. Have you ever thought of using something simple like Courtney?
Natalie: No! Her name is Auggieopeia!

No CROWN!!!

I finally went to the dentist today to see about my cracked rear tooth. I noticed the severe crack back in April/May sometime and kept putting off the ordeal. The last I heard from my previous dentist is that if the tooth was cracked I would have to have a crown and that was a mui grande expense even with dental insurance.

I faced my financial fears and went to a new dentist (since we moved to an entirely different city) and found out that I only need a filing. Hurray!!!!

6 years TODAY!!! Happy Birthday Riley

The Great Topak Tree

Riley created her own costume for a play a group did at summer camp. She did all the painting by herself including the detail work. She played a baby tapir-

and a puff bird.

Home Depot Saga continues...

The wine cooler saga continues. After working with Greg from the San Angelo store on Thursday, I expected a call from the service guys. Well by 2 today I still sat waiting. I called the contact number with the service confirmation number. Well guess what? The GE service office canceled the service order.

Thanks to Jonathon from the mystery service power providers office I have a lead on a service call. At this point though I am fed up with the thing. If I can't get service and the thing is a POS, well then I am fed up and want to return it. While in the local HD store today I ran into a corporate officer and found out that I can return the item because I am unsatisfied with its performance.

So come tomorrow... I'm calling to get rid of the damn thing!

You Say It's Your Birthday?

Today we had Riley's 6th Birthday Party. Since it is July in Texas... we had it in the morning to try and keep with the cooler temperatures. We also borrowed an inflatable water slide to keep cool.

As you can see by the photo below... Riley is quite full of herself and excited to be 6.



Riley wanted cupcakes and since we went with a "beach" theme, Cari made beach cupcakes. The brown are the sand and the blue the water. There were sea creatures, palm trees and sand buckets that had sand in them. All edible of course.



This is more up close.

This is Cari who made the cupcakes. She loves to pose for the camera.

Make a wish!

We went outside to eat and drink.


Here are Charli and Maddie.

Charli again.

Adam and Joseph.

Tim helping to peel wrappers off of cupcakes.

Natalie loved the ice cream. She chose nilla favor. Adam was trying to decide between cake or ice cream and decided to alternate.


The Presents:

a bead kit from Joseph and Adam


A cool purple backpack for school from Cadi and Charli


Mariposa Barbie from Maddie and Jossie.


"Spanish Baby" as Riley named her in the store, from us. That was quite a trick buying it with her with me- especially since she found it at one of the stores at the outlet mall in San Marcos.


We are going to Sea World on Wednesday (her "real" birthday) to have some fun. All in all we had a great time.

Move'em Out Rawhide!

My brother recently accepted a position in the Dallas area and the WhatchaMcCalleys are head West as soon as they close on their house back East. Well they have a contract on the house and now they must find something in Dallas.

Yesterday I recieved news that my sister-in-law, Jill (J-ee-l), answered the call of the Great State of Texas, aka God's country, loaded up her wagon (suburban) with her 5 chillins and headed West out across the great prarie to spend some time with Mike house hunting.

Here is what her email said:
One mom + five children + one loaded suburban = one great big road trip to Dallas!

Thought you might enjoy these...the first one we took for our friend Sydney who's on a soccer scholarship at Bama...the 2nd one is in front of Bear Bryant stadium where the Crimson Tide play football. And the last one is in Vicksburg, Mississippi getting ready to cross the Mississippi River. Please notice in the pictures that Zach dressed himself this morning...we were in such a hurry to leave and we had to make sure the house was spotless that I didn't notice his outfit until we stopped for breakfast!! Oh well! We are spending the night in Shreveport, LA...we checked in, drove down the street to eat, came back, went swimming, showered all the children, and now they are all asleep. Yowzer!!



Left to right: Max, Emily, Abby, Trey, and Zach

Emily, Trey, Max and Zach


Max, Zach, Trey, Abby, and Emily

3046 kWhs Are You @#$! Kidding Me?

For those of you who have known me over the past few years, you may be familiar with my Don Quixote fight with electric usage in our home and astronomical electric bills we have been experiencing for the past two years. This festering issue has followed us to San Antonio. Yes, I still track our kWh usage. I don't look at the $ portion to battle the electric bill because rates go up as many of us are currently experiencing. But you can tell a lot from your kWh usage- that's the true measure of the your electric habits.

Yesterday we got the July electric bill. To our dismay there was another rate increase, however there was an even more perplexing issue that has been haunting us for the past two years. We seem to be using a LOT of electricity. This month the bill said we used 3046 kWhs. This has to be a mistake I thought. In the past year we have left our 1960's home in San Angelo, bought a new energy efficient one, upgraded our washer dryer system for the Whirlpool Duet, etc. We should not be using this much electricity. Even when we were in San Angelo we had something sucking serious energy. With all this energy sucking I have been on a war with everyone- no using electricity except the AC (its a 100 degrees here) between 3pm and 7pm (peak billing hours), turn all the lights off, hanging the clothes out on a clothing line, etc. Yet the kWh keep rolling onward and upward.

Today I solved the mystery. It proved to be a bitter sweet resolution. The evil culprit is our wine storage thing that Tim bought in September of 2006. In the past couple of weeks it has come to our attention that if you touch the top of the unit it is hot. This is a noteworthy sign something is amiss. I also have been taking notice that the thing seems to continuously run. When I say continuously- I mean all the time. I even timed it this afternoon. Within a one hour time period- it only turned off for 4 minutes. It ran the rest of the time! I looked the unit up on the Internet, it is an Everstar. Low and behold it apparently has some problems and no one can locate info on the company Everstar. SHOCK!! I know.

This demanded a solution. I ran to the file cabinet and poured through our receipts- great he bought it at Home Depot. . . even better he bought an extended warranty that does not expire until this coming September. JUSTICE.. I beat the expiration clock - or so I thought. This not a simple piece of equipment- it is listed as a major appliance is expensive.

I went to the local HD store and asked for assistance. Andy at the front desk was a dear and a great help. He showed me the "800" number to call for service. I went to my car and called the number to be informed that there was no such warranty on file and that the warranty was an exchange warranty and must be handled on the "store" level. I went back inside. The store called the "800" service number and spoke with them. The conversation went something like this:
Andy: I have a customer here with an extended warranty and it is needing service.
800#: lalalalala
Andy: Excuse me? Well I have the original receipt here with the original paperwork and yes, it does exist. What do you mean? I have to do what? You do realize that I am the store calling? You want me to what? Okay fine. Give me the information.

Andy got off the phone and explained that the "800" did not believe him and he had to fax a copy of the receipt to them to prove the item existed. WTF? He told me that someone would contact me within the next 24 hours. Well they did. An hour later I received a call from a lady with servicing giving me a contract number and another "800" number to call and book a service. When I described the problem to her she said for me to get it serviced right away because if the wine goes bad they would have to cover the cost of the loss. I called the number right away.

After going through several voice automated selections I was connected with someone from a 3rd world outsourcing answering service for GE. GE is handling all of HD's service contracts now. While speaking with Caesar (the service agent) I explained that the compressor was running continuously and never turning off, while the outside was hot to the touch. He then asked me that if I opened the door was it cold inside. Boy did I pick the wrong answer. Here is Caesar's response: "If it cold inside, it working and we no fix. If cold inside it meet term and condition of working unit and no service by warranty. It must be hot inside for us to send service to you." I asked him to repeat himself and he further explained that only if the unit was not cooling and the wine was spoiled would they send out a service person. I explained that something was wrong for it to run continuously and be using up to an excess of 500 kWh a month.

SIDE NOTE: I figured out how the minimum electricity this sucker is pulling because our neighbor has a house that is approx 600 more square feet than ours and they keep it at 70 degrees or lower and their bill has been for the past 2 months at lease 500 kWh less than hours. And theirs does not have the extra insulation that our house does, and they do not have the energy efficient washer/dryer system we have. Besides that we have similar appliances- almost exactly- including the extra outdoor freezer.

Back to the story with Caesar: Caesar upon hearing the electricity usage told me that I needed to contact the local electric company because the problem was with them allowing that much electricity to go into the appliance. It is not the appliances fault. With this I demanded to speak to his supervisor. A language barrier was evident- unfortunately Caesar spoke better English than his supervisor. She told me that the warranty did not have to be honored unless the machine was completely broken. I told her, fine then say the thing is hot. Ah, but now you are lying she tells me. I yelled at her, but did not cuss that she needed to get someone out there to fix the thing. She then told me that I was receiving my first warning about yelling at her and if I continued to make her feel uncomfortable that she would refuse me service. She also was frustrated that I needed her to repeat herself multiple times to understand her. Needless to say, I hung up with a promise to contact corporate.

After I calmed down, I called the store we bought the thing at. The San Angelo store- I knew they would understand my predicament with the 3rd world outsourcing issue. And I was right. I explained the problem (SURPRISE!) since they spoke English they understood what I was explaining and said that yes, there is a definite problem with the equipment. I am waiting to speak with the store tomorrow- it appears they are having the same problems I did. Until then- I could not stand it anymore. I moved the wine to a different refrigerator and unplugged the damn thing. To make my stomach churn even more... Tim came home and told me that SOB of a wine cooler not only has 1 but 2 compressors- that are the same size as a full size refrigerator. That thing will not be plugged in again!

Suggestions are welcome in dealing with this situation.

Cookn' with Dada

While my Dad was here he cooked his BBQ ribs. I have not had my Dad's BBQ in about 2 years. It is very good.

Here is a pic of his homemade sauce that I love.

But alas, having my Dad cook his wonderful meals comes with a price...



Cleaning up the kitchen- this was a good night. Hahahaha

It is finished...for now.

Dad finished the staining the concrete patios out back and between the 4th of July, Jamey finally having her baby and the Internet being out- I have been a little behind in my publications. So here is a good picture of the porch and a far away shot of the kitchen.

Pending gas and electric bill prices... we have 3 more phases to finish the backyard. One of the phases cannot be completed until fall due to the weather (too hot) and that phase is the completion of the beds around the kitchen. I am going to fill them with knock-out roses. We also have to finish the dry creek bed and put in a spiral patio off our bedroom... all in good time.

Tagged

I was tagged by Jennifer to do this survey. So here goes...

1) LAST MOVIE YOU SAW IN A THEATER? Don't Mess with the Zohan- don't mess with going either wait for it to come out on DVD

2) WHAT BOOK ARE YOU READING? The Memory Keeper's Daughter

3) FAVORITE BOARD GAME? Scategories

4) FAVORITE MAGAZINE? Backyard Living

5) FAVORITE SMELLS? fresh cut grass, Tim's slightly worn shirts- not the icky sweating ones

6) FAVORITE SOUNDS? that still quiet when all the children are asleep

7) WORST FEELING IN THE WORLD? Letting someone down

8)WHAT IS THE FIRST THING YOU THINK OF WHEN U WAKE UP? is it time already?

9) FAVORITE FAST FOOD PLACE? Chik-Fil-A

10) FUTURE CHILD'S NAME? This shop is closed so the question is irrelevant.

11) FINISH THIS STATEMENT—"IF I HAD A LOT OF MONEY would buy a new car and a MAC

12) DO YOU DRIVE FAST? yes, before children

13) DO YOU SLEEP WITH A STUFFED ANIMAL? does my husband count?

14) STORMS–COOL OR SCARY? depends on the storm- most of the time cool

15) WHAT WAS YOUR FIRST CAR? 1969 Limited Edition FIAT Spyder

16) FAVORITE DRINK? Sweet Iced Tea

17) FINISH THIS STATEMENT-IF I HAD THE TIME I WOULD finish building the dry creek bed beside our house.

18) DO YOU EAT THE STEMS ON BROCCOLI? no

19) IF YOU COULD DYE YOUR HAIR ANY OTHER COLOUR, WHAT WOULD BE YOUR CHOICE? Depends on my mood when I go to the beauty shop.

20) NAME ALL THE DIFFERENT CITIES/TOWNS YOU HAVE LIVED IN.

Temple, TX
Lubbock, TX
Fredericksburg, VA
King George, VA
Lynchburg, VA
Boiling Springs, NC
Evergreen, CO
Woodbridge, VA
King George, VA
Salado, TX
Killeen, TX
San Angelo, TX
San Antonio, TX

21) FAVORITE SPORTS TO WATCH? Lacrosse- live

22) ONE NICE THING ABOUT THE PERSON WHO SENT THIS TO YOU? She has a great sense of humor.

23) WHATS UNDER YOUR BED? nothing- its a solid platform

24) WOULD YOU LIKE TO BE BORN AS YOURSELF AGAIN? yes

25) MORNING PERSON OR NIGHT OWL? Night Owl

26) OVER EASY OR SUNNY SIDE UP? neither I don't like eggs

27) FAVORITE PLACE TO RELAX? outside in a swing

28) What happened to #28?

29) FAVORITE ICE CREAM FLAVOR? Chubby Hubby

30) OF ALL THE PEOPLE YOU HAVE TAGGED, WHO IS THE MOST LIKELY TO RESPOND FIRST? I hate to answer these things...

Tag your it: Kaci, Mom, Cari, Angie, Jill, etc

A Cool Card

Here is the card I received from Heather today. She took these pictures of the girls when we went to the River Walk.

Hurray for ME!!

I'm 39 today. Happy Birthday to ME!!!