Happy Birthday John!

Today is my sweet husband's birthday. So if you see him, make sure to sing to him really loud. He loves that!

and then there were none

I went out through the garage today to take the trash out and I discovered that Samuel's beloved Toaddy had passed on to the next life. I can't help but feel relief for him. I am sure he is in a better place- anywhere but here is a better place! I am so glad that we are out of the pet market for a while, but how do I break the news to Sam???

random thoughts

moving stinks
I took the boys to the library near our new house for the first time today. We were there for a total of five minutes and then some cranky, nasty old guy started shushing my kids. They weren't being that loud, they were just talking, apparently making any noise at all is not ok for them though. Whatever. And then a librarian snapped at James because he was touching a cart with some books on it. Gove me a break! It made me really miss Sellers library! The staff there all knew me and the boys and the patrons at least thought my boys were cute even if they are kind of loud.

Grandma Hains
My last surviving grandparent passed away last week. She was my Dad's mom. I am sad that she is gone but I am also experiencing a wide range of other emotions. My feelings towards my Dad's side of the family are complicated since the divorce seemed to polarize the adults into two camps; camp A thought my mom was a horrible person and that everything was all her fault, camp B would be polite but strained with mom when no one else was watching. I haven't had much to do with them since then. The funeral is on Friday. I wish I could go and see my cousins, I miss them so much! But I am also glad that I can stay in Philadelphia and sort through my emotions on my own.

Build-a-Bear
While walking through the mall on Monday Samuel noticed that Build-a-Bear now has...ZEBRAS!!! So of course after a day of trying to convince Daddy that he really needed yet another zebra, we took the boys to Build-a-Bear and got Sam that zebra. And since we can't get something like that for Sam and not for James, we let James pick out something too. James was not expecting anything for himself so when we told him he could pick something out too, he got an enormous smile on his face and picked out an adorable, squishy bunny. I will have to post pictures sometime soon. The boys are very excited about their animals and don't talk about anything else anymore.

Zack Noyce, you are my hero!!!

So after my previous post about cable TV frustrations, I received a helpful little tip from Zack. The advice he gave me paid off big time today!

I went to the park this morning with the boys. When I got home there was a Comcast (yes, Comcast) guy walking around my house. I was surprised to see him there because we had an appointment scheduled for tomorrow, but he said he thought he was stopping by just to check things out before the appointment. Ok, whatever. He was glad that I was home and wondered if I would be around for a while so he could call someone to help him out for a few minutes.

6 Comcast trucks, 2 contractors and a Supervisor later, they had replaced our outside lines, our family room cable and cable box, rechecked all of the connections inside the house, promised a refund on all previous service charges (yes, they actually did charge us $28.50 per visit even though they were trying to fix the original installation and none of them actually did the job anyway... but if you really want me to rant you can call me and listen away to your hearts' content) and credited our account because of the problems. They are also sending out a couple of guys to replace some cable lines inside the walls sometime next week - for free of course. Wow! What a turn around!

Comcast has gone from my least favorite company in the world to one that I am actually happy with, provided the cable continues to work of course. =)

Thanks Zack. You are the best!

homeward bound

We bought tickets to Utah this weekend! John and I promised Mom that since we didn't make it out this summer with everyone else (we were busy buying a house and all) that we would come out this winter. We were looking to go for about a week but ended up getting tickets to stay for two whole weeks! Woo-hoo!! I am so excited! Plus they were super cheap - only about $226 per person.

We will get into Vegas on Christmas Eve and then head back home to Philly on the 6th of January. In between Christmas and New Years we are looking at renting a cabin up at Brian Head for a couple of days to do some snow skiing. John is totally hooked!

I just can't wait to see everyone. And I can almost taste that yummy Cafe Rio. =)
If you are in St. George over the Holidays, come visit!

well, that was quick

I regret to inform you that Froggy (James' little toad) passed away today. What was that, like two weeks? That must be some kind of record! I think Lisa's kids' pets lasted longer than that!! James and Sam were playing with their toads and I think James actually threw his toad (how do you explain fragile to a 3 year old when something isn't obviously breakable?) and then was confused when it didn't swim when he put it back in the water. Anyway, James was somewhat chagrined, but his three year old sensibilities were able to get over it pretty quickly. John buried the little toad in the trash can and now we are down to one toad again. Aww shucks.

stupid cable company!!!

Crummy
Outrageously priced
Moronic
inCompetent
Asinine
Slow
Testing my patience

We switched to cable when we moved into our new house. Previously we had DirecTV which I LOVED. However, they didn't provide Internet so we were stuck with Verizon and we just couldn't take the slowness anymore, hence the switch.
Anyway, our cable was installed the day we moved in and has yet to work correctly. We have had 4 separate cable guys out to fix the problem and it still does not work well. The picture periodically goes gray, breaks up, and then we get a black screen for hours on end. Tell me please, why are we paying to watch a blank screen because I haven't figured that out yet! The Internet works well for the most part, but occasionally has its glitches too.
I am so frustrated because you would think that if you were going to run a business that you would run it well, keeping customer satisfaction in mind. But that is just me.
I am currently watching a black screen (a new Olympic event in our household), seething and trying to keep myself from calling this cable company. Because if I call now, they are going to hear what I really think of them and I am not supposed to use that kind of language around my kids.
Has anyone else had similar problems or are we just the lucky ones? Oh, wait, it just came back on. I better go enjoy my TV for the 5 minutes that it is going to work.