Thursday, July 31, 2008

Blessings.

Ya know when things seem to be going smoothly and you think, oh yeah we're gonna get there now. Well that seems that is when things get twisted. We did get our insurance check today for all of our stuff, but because of the size of the check, the bank has put a hold on the funds for 5 business days. Ok, I knew they would probably put a hold on at least a big chunk of it, cause sometimes they will let you take a small portion of a large check and you get the rest when the check clears, kwim? I got to take $100 of the money, and it was a pretty LARGE check. Needless to say that doesn't buy a lot of furniture, lol!

But, when I went in today to tell the people that we had our living room suite and a hutch on hold with that we couldn't get the stuff until next Wednesday, they did a very nice thing for us. The owners son goes to the same christian school as our daughter, so we know them, and she told the sales girl to go ahead and let us get the furniture delivered tomorrow if we just give them a post dated check for next Wednesday! People can be really nice and thoughtful when given the chance! And then one of my good friends went to Sears with me and put the washer and dryer we wanted on her Sears card and told us to just pay her back on Wednesday as well. Very sweet!! God has soooo blessed us with good people in our lives, family, friends, acquaintances and just strangers have shown us so much kindness! I have a lot of paying it forward to do, and i can't wait!

I also ordered the kids bunk beds today and hopefully they will be in next week. Moving in this weekend, or that is the plan anyway.

God is good, all the time!

Oh, and I am going to try to start posting pictures. Hopefully it isn't too hard cause I am electronically challenged! So I am going to start with pics of the new house sometime next week.

Tuesday, July 29, 2008

Now we will have $$ as well!

So when it rains it pours I guess. We have been waiting for 4 months to get the rest of our insurance content money "any day". Needless to say we were getting a bit impatient to get it, cause without it we can't buy anything! Of course living without a washer and dryer wouldn't be that bad, would it? I got an email with our insurance man to day to call him, and yep our money is comin'! Woo hoo! I think that now we might actually be able to get our life settled down again. We are so blessed though, God has been so good to us that I can't complain, even if we did move in without a couch or kitchen table, it'd be all right!

I haven't talked that much about the kiddos lately. Not that much to report. Gwen is getting teeth #5 and 6, Gabe is his usual ornery adorable self! Although on the Kayleigh front I have some disturbing news. She will only be 8 in a month, but she is already starting to get a bit of a womanly figure. Not much at all, but just enough to completely FREAK me out! I looked it up on webmd and it said it was perfectly normal. But it hurts really bad to see your first born take one tiny step toward adulthood. I really need to have an age appropriate talk about aunt flo sometime soon, but since I didn't start mine until I was 14 and from what all I have read a good indication of when a girl will get her first visit is when her mom did, I am hoping it is several years before she actually ever experiences it! Man I am never ever going to tell her I talked about this on a blog, it might scar her for life, lol!

Monday, July 28, 2008

We Have Air

So we decided to ditch trying to get an answer from the home warranty people and just paid to have the air fixed on our own. If they happen to come back and say that our appeal is approved we will try to get them to reimburse us, but I am not holding out too much hope. Our realtor is now working on the case for us as well, she was gone for the first three weeks of the ordeal, but it doesn't matter to me anymore, we have air and can move and that's all that matters.

We will definitely be moved in by this weekend, Lord willin' and the creek don't rise, lol!

Thursday, July 24, 2008

I Spoke Too Soon

So apparently Donny did not get the memo about us moving this weekend, lol! I don't know what happened, but some form of miscommunication transpired. Cause I thought we were going to move completely tomorrow, and have told about a hundred people that, and apparently Donny had a different thought. The plan is, I guess, to be here at least another week, trying to get the a/c issues worked out. Will update any more non talking Donny and I do:)

Need a tote?

Cause I got about 40 empty ones in my garage! That is how many my girlfriend and I went through today, putting all that stuff away. It should seriously be against the law to have that much stuff stored away. I am absolutely pooped! There are still about 10 left that have clothes in them that the kids have yet to grow into, and I want to go through them and hang as much up as I can, then hopefully no more totes for a while!

The plan is to move in completely tomorrow! I will just be glad when it is over!

Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Our ENT visit and our bed.

I'll start with Gwen's ear issues. We saw an ENT today because she has been having lots of ear infections, and on the last one her ear drum burst. We weren't even there 2 minutes and he said let's do tubes. Hallelujah for not beating around the bush! First he said this isn't even ear infection season, so it won't get better, it will only get worse. Second she is allergic to amoxicyllin(SP?) and that limits the doctors ability to treat the infections properly, plus you don't want your kids on meds all the time. And third with her ear drum rupturing that starts more complications, so in other words let's just nip it in the bud and do tubes. Yay for a nip-it-in-the-bud-doctor. The end of August is when they will get done.

We got our select comfort bed in today. They told me on delivery day they would call me about 30 minutes before they came to let me know a specific time, the general time was between 9 and 1. It was about 10:30, and I am in the midst of rushing to get 3 kids ready for Gwen's appointment and the select comfort guys call and say they are at my house with the bed! I was like "what, I thought you were supposed to call before you show up", they said they did and left me a message. Well I had no message on my phone. I can't miss Gwen's appointment, so I call my friend Julie, and thankfully she goes over there ,in her jammies, to let them in. What a good friend. And the poor thing ended up getting stung by a bee while she was there. I owe her big time!

Tuesday, July 22, 2008

A Productive Day!

So Donny and I worked so hard today cleaning out the garage at our old house that contained about 30 totes and tons of various other things. It took us 3 loads in our friends trailer to get it all. And whew am I tired. This was the day that I had been dreading pretty much since right after the fire! And it is such a relief to have it over with. Last night I couldn't stop thinking about how today was going to stink, and it pretty much did, but it's all done. Woooohooooo!

The kids are back home from grandparents, and it is good to have them home. I def. enjoy getting some "time off", but I really miss them while they are gone.

So it's more moving the next few days and hopefully we will be moved in by Friday night. Keep your fingers crossed and your prayers coming.

Monday, July 21, 2008

A Pretty Good Day

I moved 2 loads of little stuff to the house, stuff like winter coats, shoes, refrigerator magnets, alot of toys, etc. Which after I look at the rent house it doesn't look like much, but it is all that stuff that takes what seems like forever to move and put away. Got it all put away as well, so hopefully when we move in this weekend we will have most things unpacked and put away, and just have to deal with some totes with nonessentials in them when I get the time.

I also got a pedicure today. Ahhhh, one of my most favorite things about living in this century, and I guess the last one too, is that we have pedicures. Sooooo relaxing. When we just had one child, I went pretty much every month in the summer time, now I am lucky to go once a summer!

The kids are at grandma and grandpa's, they come home tomorrow. I am going to get a good nights sleep tonight, and get a lot done tomorrow, then my never ending days will begin again, lol! Wouldn't trade em for anything in the world though!

Saturday, July 19, 2008

Only Good News!

So after one of the most frustrating weeks of my life, and feeling like I am always complaining and whining and being a drama queen, I have vowed to be only positive. It's either that or go insane!

On a positive note, my in laws are taking the kids for a few days starting tomorrow, so that I can get some major moving done. With the kids gone on Monday and Tuesday, I should be able to pretty much get everything moved, and we plan to be in by the end of the week, if the air is fixed sooner, we will move in even sooner!

Also on a positive note, even though I am not as thin as I want to be, I do have a good tan! I haven't had a tan since I was in high school and hoed cotton in the summer for a job. It does make me feel good about myself.

Will try to post pics of the house asap, and as soon as I figure out how to!

Monday, July 14, 2008

More Frustrations!

Ok, I am back with more frustrations! So ya know in the post about the home warranty issues, I needed to fax some info to them to appeal their denial of our claim. I faxed it last Thursday morning. I called them today to see where they were coming with it and the lady on the phone kindly tells me they didn't receive a fax at all. I swear the second she said that, I could feel my blood pressure shoot through the top of my head. I felt all this anger just wash all over me! And yes it was faxed to the right phone number. I just started crying on the phone with her, and she asked me if I wanted to refax or to send a request to the store where I sent the original fax. I was like whatever, she said she would send the request and I requested very firmly that they call me and let me know when that fax was received, then I very Christian like hung up on her. Bad attitude, I know, but I just could not handle it any more! I have just more than had it with this company. I was just overwhelmed with anger, frustration, hopelessness, etc. ARGHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

So I refaxed it, and immediately called to see if they received the fax, and the lady on the phone kindly told me that faxes don't show up for about 48 hours after they are received. Again, up goes my blood pressure. She explains to me that there is not a person standing there receiving faxes, so there is no way to know if it was received, yadda, yadda, yadda! I ask to speak to a supervisor, she tells me a supervisor won't even speak to me until they received my faxed info. I am like, huh? If I want to speak to a supervisor about something I can't? That went on for a few minutes, with my blood pressure continuing to go up again. Finally she understood that I was asking if I could just speak to a supervisor about how I HATE their company, not about our claim, and then she tells me I can speak to one, which I didn't even really want to deal with that right now. I tell her I just want to know, as quickly as humanly possible, that the darn (I really want to use about a dozen colorful words right here, but being the deacon's wife that I am, darn it is, lol) fax has been received. She tells me that has already been noted on my page from my tearful phone call earlier, to call me when it is received. And honestly, the previous people that I have spoken to have probably put a description of a crazy, demanding, cranky woman on that page as well, but I really don't give a .......darn! Although I have really tried my best not to throw up all my frustration on the people I am speaking to because I know this is not their fault.

I am honestly done with this stupid company. It has nothing to do with whether they are going to pay the claim or not and everything to do with the fact that no one seems to know anything about anything, and in no way are they going to go out of their way to help you. They don't have a time frame for when an appeal might be looked at, they don't know if a faxed has been received, they don't have an email address to send complaints to, and I mean what company in this century doesn't have an email address, really?! I am so tired of getting no answers and a run around, and trust me someone is going to hear about it, and if they don't try to do better, I am going to tell everyone I know to never buy from them! I am so tired of feeling like an evil, complaining witch when I talk to these people. I want to be the nice, kind, considerate, loving person I "usually" am, lol!

Saturday, July 12, 2008

This n That

Not much going on right now. I did get my hair cut and highlighted last weekend, I got more drastic blond and red highlights with the dark color underneath on the back. I really like it. But the cut just wasn't working for me. I liked it, but my hair has a lot of body to it and the way she cut it made the bottom flip out so much I looked like I had wings. So I went back yesterday to get it cut shorter, and I like it much better. But it is definitely shorter. I haven't had it this short in a long time. As soon as I can think of it, I will have Donny take a pic of me and post it on here. Getting ready in the mornings will be so much easier, and that really has been my goal all along.

Not been getting much sleep lately. Gwen just isn't a sound sleeper anyway, but the past few nights have been bad because she has the beginning of an ear infection. I took her to the doc yesterday and he gave us a script, so hopefully by tonight she is feeling better!

We got the Toy Story movies for the kids, Kayleigh has seen them lots of times before, but they are new to Gabe, and he loves them! I am glad, cause those movies are so cute, and so much better than Thomas the Train, lol!

We got Kayleigh a new backpack and her school supplies last night. She doesn't start til after Labor Day, just kind of got a jump start on it.

So that's it for now. Hopefully we will hear back from the Home Warranty people on Monday about if they cover the a/c repairs and then can get on with moving in!

Wednesday, July 9, 2008

Can I retract my last title!

The one that said "Thank God for Home Warranty's". Turns out I was prematurely thankful, lol! The tech that came out Monday to look at the a/c, said it was a blower wheel and it went bad because it was improperly installed. So guess what, our home warranty does not cover when the cause of the malfunction was improper installation! The estimate to get it fixed was $289, not too bad. Not too good either, but considering a/c malfunctions are a crap shoot, and it can cause thousands to fix, not too bad.

Ok, here is where things can get a bit hairy, so hope I get it all straight. Since home warranty people were not paying for the work, we wanted to have our friends company do the work instead of the company we would have to use with the HM (home warranty) people. We get a tech to come out from his company, he says that there is another problem besides just the blower wheel, and that is another few hundred dollars just for the part. Then he proceeds to tell us that you could not tell from looking at the problems that is was improper installation that caused the malfunction. So if you are still with me, this means that if improper installations didn't cause the problem, our home warranty should cover the expenses.

So here is where I get a bit hairy. I call the HM company, tell them the situation, and ask how I can appeal. I have to send in the statement from the other company giving their opinion on the 3problem, they will review it, send another tech out, then decide on payment. This could take 2-3 days, and it may not even get approved, although if it doesn't, what good are the darn warranty's anyway. I ask if we can go ahead and have the work done and pay for it, and then if the appeal does get approved, they just reimburse us. Of course it doesn't work like that.

Then I call the first company to let them know what we are doing and we didn't need them to fix the a/c, and of course they give me grief. Then after she talks to the original tech, he says he had looked at the other part that the second guy said was bad, and he didn't think there was anything wrong with it. And the secretary tells me that if this third guy comes out and agrees with our guy, in which the home warranty company would have to pay, they may send another guy out to look at it, thus delaying us getting the a/c fixed. Did you get all that. I wanted to throw the stinkin' phone at someone! Now we really don't know who is right on what is wrong with the a/c, and honestly will be glad to get a third opinion, even if it means we have to pay for the work ourselves, at least we will know with some certainty who diagnosed it correctly, and we can get it fixed! We aren't living in the house yet, which is good because it is 95 in the shade with a heat index of probably 105, and we would have been without air for a while, yuk!

Just another bump in the road of the house struggle for us. I told someone tonight that I didn't think we would ever move, that we would just have 2 houses forever, and honestly that is how it feels. ~Sigh~ It will all be over soon, I just have to keep telling myself that, or I might go nuts! Would you like to join me?

Saturday, July 5, 2008

Thank God for Home Warranty's

I took a load of stuff over to the new house today and when I walked into the house I heard a really loud banging noise. I thought at first it was the man we bought the house from putting the baseboard trim in Gabes room, went up there to see and no one was there. Then I went downstairs and opened the closet to the heater and air conditioner and it sounded like someone was in there banging on the ducts with a hammer, it was really loud. At first I was kind of scared something was going to explode, lol! But then turned off the air and the noise stopped.

So something is wrong with the a/c. For those who don't know, we have Murphy's law with air conditioners, anything that can go wrong with them will. We have had to replace 2 a/c's in our vans, and last year had to buy a new unit for our house, so this is no surprise to us. We do have a home warranty, the repair people will be out Monday, and hopefully whatever is wrong with it will be covered under the warranty.

We hope to officially be moved in by next weekend, and we really need the a/c for that, lol! Anyway, just a bump in the road. If you are tired of reading about our house drama, trust me I am tired of writing about it. Pretty soon though this will be done, and I will write about even more exciting stuff, like Gwen picking up the cigarette butts off the ground by the country club pool and Gabe's trips to the er, can't wait!

Tuesday, July 1, 2008

Now it's clean too.

Me and a couple of my girlfriends got the house clean today. Have I mentioned what great friends I have? Man am I blessed!

So now it is move in time. Only we don't have any furniture yet because we haven't gotten our content money yet. But as soon as we buy everyone mattresses I think we will move everything and officially "live" there. I hope in a few weeks to be able to post and not talk about buying, selling, painting, cleaning, furniture or insurance.

Gotta go get some sleep right now.