Blog Changes

I just thought if I put something "Springy" as my background, I could will Spring to come faster. ;)

Back!

HOLY MOLY! It’s been over a month since my last post.. guess it’s about time for an update! Right now, though, all of my holiday pictures are on Joe’s laptop, so this will have to suffice.

 

Maggie turned 8 months on the 12th! And this about sums her up these days… she is ALL OVER! As you can see, she took a nose dive off of our bed and skinned up her nose. Poor girl. :( The scab is almost off now. She has really taken off in the last few days… crawling all over the house. It’s like she has this radar and anytime I move, she is not far behind. She pulls herself up to everything! I have her to thank for keeping me on my toes… any time now, the “anal-ness” of keeping my floors clean will kick in, I’m sure. She can already spot the cat food from a mile away. ICK!

Oh the tongue. She is constantly playing with it. One day, I’m sure she will be one of the few who is able to reach her nose with her tongue… And yes. My daughter has elf ears. :S She sure is a cute elf, though!

More posts to come as soon as I get my pictures off the laptop!!

She got what was coming to her...

I borrowed this story from my friend Chelsea who got it here:

http://www.minyanville.com/dailyfeed/how-one-ebay-user-got/?camp=syndication&medium=portals&from=yahoo

Reddit user BadgerMatt related a tale about how a buyer backed out of paying $600 for a sporting event. Here's what went down (edited for content):



I had tickets to a sporting event and couldn't attend. I made a 1-day listing and clearly stated that the tickets must be picked up in person within 24 hours (the game was the evening after the auction ended, so there wasn't any time to ship the tickets). A woman won the auction for about $600. The auction had ended at 10:00am and by 5:00pm she still hadn't responded to my emails trying to organize the exchange. Finally, at 9:30pm, I got a one-liner email: "I overbid and my husband won't let me buy these. Sorry and enjoy the game! :)"

I first tried explaining that I wouldn't have the time to resell the tickets (I already got turned down by the losing bidders). She said, "... that's not my problem. It's eBay, not a car dealership. I can back out if I want." I still don't understand the car dealership reference.

I was pretty upset. I was basically going to be stuck with tickets to an event that I couldn't attend. That's when I got the idea to convince her to change her mind.

I created a new eBay account, "Payback" we'll call it, and sent her a message: "Hi there, I noticed you won an auction for 4 [sporting event] tickets. I meant to bid on these but couldn't get to a computer. I wanted to take my son and dad and would be willing to give you $1,000 for the tickets. I imagine that you've already made plans to attend, but I figured it was worth a shot."

At 11:30pm she responded to Payback: "I'll do it for $1,100, no less. I can meet you at the game if you agree. I need your phone number."

At 11:35pm, Payback wrote: "Deal. Here is my number..." (Thanks Google Voice for the throwaway number). She called a few minutes later and made Payback "promise" to go through with the deal. She emphasized that she'd be out a lot of money if Payback backed out. Payback swore he would never do such a thing.

At 11:45pm, the woman emailed me: "Fine. I'll buy them. But you have to drop them off at my house tonight. I'll have the cash ready." So at f***ing midnight I drove to her house across town and met her on the road in front of her apartment building. She was a nasty and rude individual. Things didn't get any better when I told her I wanted an extra $20 for the trouble of driving there at midnight (yeah, pushing my luck, I know). It became very awkward and she literally threw 31 $20 bills at me. I counted them before handing over the tickets. I said, "thanks for the great transaction" as she flipped me off while walking away.

At 10:00am she called Payback to make sure they were still on for the exchange. Payback said that he could no longer go to the game and wouldn't be able to do the exchange. She blew her f***ing top and I swear started speaking in tongues. Payback said, "Ma'am, this is eBay, not a car dealership" and hung up.

I got a rabid email 10 minutes later telling me that I was going to hell and that she's reported me to the local police, FBI, and... the fire department. WTF?

HEY!

Saturday was my birthday. We went out to eat with the family... Mexican food... YUM!! And when Auntie Kelli showed up, she brought goodies for Haylie and Connor! Very typical. Sometimes they're great and sometimes I wonder if she did it just to irritate me. ;) This time, however, she brought Connor a Hot Wheels car and Haylie got stick on nails. She was SO excited! And I was excited too! It brought back memories of my childhood when I used to go to my Nana's house. She would always paint my nails. Or we would go over to the store and she'd buy me some stick on nails - SO much fun for a little girl! Kelli helped her get the right sizes on the right nails, and then Haylie walked all around the table, showing each and every one of us her beautiful fingers. She of course couldn't touch anything. She walked around with her hands extended in front of her, not daring to touch a single thing, for fear she'd break a nail. A few came off in the car when she was buckling her seatbelt, and the world almost ended, but luckily they were easy to put back on and didn't hurt when they got bumped off. We started driving into town and all of a sudden we heard Haylie exclaim, "HEY!! I CAN STILL PICK MY NOSE WITH THESE NAILS ON!" We laughed SO hard! I don't think I'll ever forget that.

Tree Hunting!

So, it’s not all bad when you don’t get the tree of your dreams. We had a BLAST walking around in the snow. Corry came with us and I am really loving having him around. He is such a help with the kids! We love him. :)

The “Tree”

               

Corry looks COLD!

Connor wanted “this tree” and offered to carry it the whole way! What a big strong helper he is! :)

 

Such a handsome boy. ;) I may have to frame this one…

 

And this one.

 

All warm and toasty! My mom got this for us when Haylie was a baby and it just fits Maggie. I love it. Takes me back…

All in all we had a great time getting our tree this year. Even if it’s not the perfect tree. Priceless time spent together, sharing laughs, telling stories, and making memories are what we will remember. Because really… Christmas isn’t about the perfect tree. :)

Our Bush.

This year I was SOOO excited to get our tree. It’s always really exciting, but this year I have these really cool new boots that go up to my calf, and so I didn’t get cold the entire time! You’re probably laughing but I’m totally serious.

So I assumed we would get this PERFECT tree and everything would be great! Well… we found a few trees, but kept walking, just so we could MAKE SURE we picked the best one. Anyway, we walked around for probably an hour and a half before we found this tree.

Kind of funny looking, right? I agree. But we always like to pick a tree that has a little character. So- we cut it down. And brought it home. And I hate it. This is what it looks like in our house:

I feel like it looks like a giant bush. Or a weed. It looked SO cool outside when it was still in the ground… it had snow all over it and it looked like it had a few long branches here and there sticking out… No. EVERY SINGLE BRANCH is sticking out!! 

Ok, so in all seriousness, it’s not that bad. It definitely has character. Maybe once we get the lights and ornaments on it, it’ll look a little better… On the bright side, there’s no way the ornaments can fall off. :)

Happy Birthday Papa!

My dad’s birthday was on Thanksgiving this year, so we had a combined Thanksgiving/Birthday celebration! Didn’t get any pictures except these… oh well. :)

Happy Birthday Dad! We love you. :)