Ahhh, homeownership...

The bottom of the water heater fell out yesterday. That's right - fell out. Water everywhere. Toyroom and the toys therein, soggy. I had the extreme privilege of going to Lowe's after work and buying (as Adam walked me through, step by step, over the phone) a brand spanking new water heater! (yippee) Went with a 50 gallon electric Whirlpool. Then, once I got it home, Adam had the extreme privilege of taking out the old one and replacing it with this shiny new model. A few hours later, we had hot water once more! Thank God I married a man who can handle those kinds of things!! :)

Now for the furnace. Our ignitor is out, so Adam has been (gulp) hand-lighting the furnace whenever necessary. Our current system is to heat the house to about 90 degrees, at which point the furnace shuts off. It won't start back up again, so we let it drop down to the high 60's (unless we're not home when it shuts off, in which case it can get as low as 60-ish) before Adam goes down there with the lighter again. So we sweat for a while, then we shiver for a while, the we sweat again... Or, like this evening, the kids and I get home after a long day of the furnace being OFF and we bundle up like eskimos until Adam can get home to light it again. The joys of owning your own home, huh? Unfortunately Adam's got such a busy week, and he's had other more emergent situations arrise (see above), that he hasn't been able to get to the furnace yet. Poor guy - if it's not one thing, it's another. We've definitely been over-working him around here lately!


And in other new... it's my birthday on Saturday! In addition to a new water heater, I'd love gift certificates!! ;) Like from JA Ross, or my favorite restaurants, or (even better) PAGES IN TIME!

Finally, getting back to normal...

Adam's been working hard around here to get things working like normal again. He (and his buddies at GCC - thanks guys!!) have fixed my laptop - yeehaw! So, I'm back online. It's a wonderful feeling. He also fixed the frozen pipe and our water heater (at least temporarily - we'll need a new one sooner rather than later). He's a pretty handy guy to have around! I wouldn't be able to live "in style to which I have become accustom" without his skills. Lucky me! :)

So, now that I'm back online, I've added my last remaining California pictures - my computer went down while I was at Katie's, so I hadn't uploaded my photos of our last day in L.A. You can see those here.

I've also updated the store website, for the most part. Still have some class stuff and DT projects to add tomorrow. You can check that out here.

Finally, for those of you who haven't had the privilege to see my gorgeous daughter lately, her appearance has changed yet again:

That's right - she lost her other front tooth! This kid is just growing up WAY too fast. Neither we, nor the Tooth Fairy can keep up with her. The poor pixie may have to start moonlighting to supplement her income because of this kid! In fact, we've had to make a special shopping trip to help Abby get rid of all that cash that was burning a whole in her pockets. We went to Build-A-Bear for accessories for "Puppy", of course.

Jacob's also been busy this month - he's still coming off of his post-Science Fair high and is really soaring through 2nd grade. His reading has REALLY taken off - he's into chapter books now and is part of a literacy group at school, studying that parts of the book and having discussions about them. He's such a smarty, just like his dad! Jacob has recently determined that instead of a Scientist who studies liquids, he wants to be a Scientist who studies sharks when he grows up. Sounds to me like either of those pursuits will probably pay the bills.

Take the Quiz

"You're Kate. Like the show's heroine, you are an innovator. Brave, impulsive, and manipulative, you are someone who prefers to take action versus sitting back. You are resourceful and pragmatic. You also don’t fear danger, but willingly face it instead of hiding. In fact, you are always the first to volunteer for Jack’s missions into the jungle. Even though you’re willing to help, you also look out for number one; if something benefits you in the long run, you will think of any means to get what you need and want."

YIKES! Now you take the quiz, HERE.

Kick me while I'm down...

One of the element things in the water heater is going out and we can't get a full tub or shower's worth of hot water. And I'm a fast shower-er - I don't waste time in there. Do what I need to do and get out. Well, now I'm doing it even faster...

When it rains, it pours.

UNITED AIRLINES customer service STINKS!!

Ok, so things haven't been going as planned over the last week or so. First, my laptop broke. That stinks. As you may or may not know, I do a lot of stuff for work on my laptop - update the website, write our e-newsletters, type up our class schedules, email staff, monitor the message board, etc... the lack of computer is slowing me down in those areas. I'm taking this utter failure on the part of my PC as a sign that it's time to switch to Apple. I'm done with the crashing, the viruses, and everything that goes with it. Not only that, but you can do some pretty sweet, creative stuff on an Apple (yes, it appears that my sister is winning me over to the dark side). I'm ready.

2nd, my luggage that I use for work and for attending tradeshows was broken during the course of our flight. UNITED has not been very pleasant or accomodating throughout this situation. I arrived in South Bend at midnight, so there was no one with which to file a claim on the bag. A sign in the baggage area reads that all claims must be made within 24 hours of the arrival of your flight. I called United on Sunday afternoon to report the damage to my bag and they told me that it needed to be inspected by a United representative within 24 hours of my arrival, meaning that I'd have to drive BACK to the airport that day. Not happy. I pack the kids up and drive 30 minutes to the airport. I get to the counter, after having dragged the lopsided bag back inside, along with my children, in below-zero temperatures, from the car. They tell me I'll have to wait 15-20 minutes before someone will be available to speak to me. I wait. 20 minutes later, a woman comes over and asks to see my bag. I show her the damage and she immediately says, "It's missing a wheel? That's not covered - that's normal wear and tear." I'm sorry? No, it's not just a wheel - the entire section of the plate has been ripped off the bottom of the bag. Yes, the wheel happens to attach to that plate, but it's not just the wheel that's missing. And besides, who in the world considers a wheel being violently ripped off the bag "normal wear and tear"?!? We had words. She told me that I could come back for a 2nd opinion from the manager the following day. That's right - a third visit to the airport within 36 hours. So at this point, I've called United's 800 number, followed their directions to the letter, driven and hour back and forth, paid for airport parking and tolls...and they want me to do it again TOMORROW??? I immediately got on my cell and called the 800# again. Have a lovely 25 minute debate with an Indian gentleman (are we surprised that United's call center is located in INDIA??) that got me absolutely no where (unless you consider the scene I made in the airport, causing current United travelers to at least momentarily reconsider trusting those people with their bags). He actually REFUSED to allow me to speak with a supervisor. I had a very difficult time controlling my temper and language at that point. It's a good thing that my children were present to keep me in check.

Monday morning I called South Bend Airport to speak with the manager before making the trip back to the airport. Glad I did, as she wasn't available to see me that day. We made arrangements to meet in the morning before I went to work. Fun! Another trip to the airport, tolls, parking, dragging the bag...all before 8:30am!! Yippee!!!! Fortunately, Manager Melissa knew well enough to at least make me believe that she was going to help me out. She took the bag (did I mention that it's worth $250 and no longer manufactured?) and gave me the name of the man that does their repairs. He'll attempt to repair it, and if he's unable to do so, they'll attempt to find a replacement (good luck). Today is Thursday and I haven't heard from him. Wonder what that means...

Finally - back to Sunday. Adam was at work all day, and I began to clean up after my week away. In the process of unloading and reloading the dishwasher (and rinsing dirty dishes), it became apparent that the sink wasn't draining. Interesting. I look under the sink - water. Bad. I cleaned up the mess and put a jar under the drip and called Adam. A short time later, I left for the airport. When I got home, there was water dripping out of the cupboard doors onto the kitchen floor. I look in the cupboard - lots of water. Very bad. I clean up the mess and put a bucket under the leak. Turns out that the pipe leading out of the house that would normally carry this water out was FROZEN. FUN!!! By that time there was water in the basement - not cool at all. It took most of the day on Monday for Adam to get that situation under control, which I'm very happy he was able to do, as paying a plumber to fix it would have seriously hindered any computer buying plans I might have anytime in the future.

So, I went from Southern California and 75 degrees to the Midwest and -5 degrees, a broken computer, a ruined bag and a frozen pipe, all within 24 hours of each other. What else can I say?

Califonia

As many of you know, I've been in Southern California for CHA-Winter, the biggest scrapbooking tradeshow of the year. I come with a team from Pages In Time to shop for and buy all of the merchandise that will eventually fill our store - it's loads of fun, and very hard work all at the same time. If you are interested at all, you can check out pictures from the show here (warning: by clicking on this link, you will enter a world of scrapbooking to which you may regret having exposed yourself). We got here on Saturday, the show started with some receptions that night and then went full force until Wednesday afternoon. After the show ended, Jeri and I hitched a ride to Downtown Disney (Mark flew out earlier in the morning and Julie got picked up before lunch by her cousin, with whom she'll be staying until she leaves today).





Jeri and I walked thru the shops of Downtown Disney and ate at a little pizza place. We stumbled across a "Libby Lu" store. Can't say I've seen anything like that. I'm fascinated and frightened all at the same time. I can't imagine what happens in the life of a little girl who's exposed to this. On one hand it would be beyond fun and entertaining, but at what point does she begin to expect this kind of treatment?? YIKES! That would be a very scary day...
After that we hung out in the lobby of our hotel as we waited for Katie to get done with work and pick us up. We then spent a good deal of attempting to get all of our luggage, and ourselves, into Katie's Jeep Wrangler. We broke SEVERAL major traffic laws getting from there to Katie's house, including fitting 3 adults across the front seat of the jeep - I was the lucky one who sat on the console in between the bucket seats. THAT was an experience.


Yesterday we walked the beach behind the Montage in Laguna Beach, and the headed south to San Diego and La Jolla. Got to see the seals again and walked downtown through the shops, stopping for Haagen Daz for Jeri (not the first time this week, btw). Then we headed down to the beach again to check out the tide pools and wait for sunset. Unfortunately it didn't pan out too well because of the clouds, but it was still loads of fun. After driving back north to Katie's, we stopped at the mall in Mission Viejo for some dinner and shopping. Good day!

More pictures HERE