Four year old mentality

I heard Miranda giving the dogs a treat, and they obediently waited their turn. She was exiting the kitchen (where the treats are kept) and comes in to where I was scrapbooking, the dogs follow waiting for more.

Miranda: Look, they are learning.
Me: The dogs? What are they learning?
Miranda: That I am their leader.

LOL

Can you believe this?

I have to find a way to get a photo off of my phone and onto here....

So, Kaila wrecks the van. She is driving around the Alpine Loop, up where the road narrows. She had to scoot over to allow room for a passing truck and trailer, and went off the side of the road. The shoulder there is only 3 inches, and it catches your tire and pulls you off the road. I get this photo from one of her coworkers that I know. The van is hanging over a cliff with a huge, steep dropoff. The van is being held up by a small tree.

I am not happy that she wrecked the van, but it could have happened to any of us. I am just glad that the tree stopped it, or else everyone would be coming over for a funeral. It is so scary. I thank Heavenly Father for the tree....

Letter from an 8 year old...

I returned home from work late.. or I should say early because it was 4:30 in the morning. I foun the following note from my 7 year old on 3 sticky notes stuck together on my dresser. She said,

"Dear Mom, I got emberstx (embarassed) at school and I want to move. Or be home schooled. I wold like to be home schooled."

That is the cutest thing ever. Poor baby!! Apparently, she freaked out when she saw a bee at school so all of the kids made fun of her. I am going to go kick their little asses..... they hurt her feelings....

Never buy a timeshare.....

I guess I should not say never buy a timeshare, but NEVER buy one from Miner's Club!! They misrepresented it when we bought it originally, by telling us we could use one week a year, any time we wanted so long as there was a room available. You could reserve them up to 2 years in advance. If you could not use it, you could rent it out... they tell us.

So, we buy it thinking that we would use it. We have a HUGE book full of other resorts we can use. The year after we buy it, they change it and we can only use it during weeks 14-18 and 38-48. So, tell me... who wants to ski the last week of April through the first week of May. Or the end of October through the first week of December? NOBODY!!

If you try to use the resorts in the HUGE book, you spend nearly an hour on the phone getting transferred around, you pay $39 to use your points from last year, and if you are letting someone use it, another $49 for a guest fee. When you actually check in, you pay a $55 housekeeping fee... for them to clean when you leave... and if you want CLEAN TOWELS every day, a mere $14 a day will get you some. Be sure to wash all of your dishes before you leave, or you will be charged extra.

What is my $610 annual fee use for? It is supposed to be a maintenance fee... like maybe housekeeping? What a crock and a scam. We cannot afford to use it, nor can we rent it because the times are so stupid. I hate this place, they are crooks. Miner's Club is a scam!! This is one of the biggest regrets of my entire life. Oh, and I did some research and had a company recommended by several realtors to sell it for us. They charged $600 to sell it, and it is "guaranteed" to sell. ANOTHER SCAM. It is guaranteed to sell, but it make take 10 years to sell it. I want my money back from them, too!!! GRRRRRR!!!!!!

Oh my gosh!!

Teenagers are killing me!!

days off!!

Wow, I think I just set some type of record. Other than when I was on vacation that I had to use or I would lose it... I just had 3 days off in a row!! I haven't done that in a long time. :) I read 2 books, cleaned the carpets, conditioned the leather couches, cooked some stuff to put together quickly later, did some scrapbooking, made it to all 3 hours of church, and helped kids with homework. Wow, is that what being a real mom feels like?

Gotta love it

So, I saw my youngest outside riding her tricycle. She came back in and I told her, "I saw you riding your trike outside. You are getting very good at riding it." She looks as me and asks, "was I speeding?" LOL......

Happy Anniversary!!

Today is our 9 year anniversary!! I am grateful that my husband has been able to put up with me, my hectic work schedule, and my children for the past nine years!! He has certainly secured his place in heaven with his sacrifice!! We are officially poor... but I got him a CD and some chocolates, and he got me some shoes I wanted. We did lunch on Saturday at Red Robin. Better than nothing!! We might do something tonight. I do still have some free movie tickets!!

the dilemma....

So, we have a 4 month old that dies from being shaken, thrown, and punched by the father. It is lying there on life support to preserve the organs while we make a decision. There is a baby lying right next to it that needs a heart to live, and the babys are a match. If we take the heart from the shaken baby, it messes up our case against the father due to the fact that we cannot perform a complete autopsy on the baby. If we don't give the other baby this heart, it will die.

Seemed like a no-brainer to me... but we had to argue about it all morning yesterday. The "give the baby the heart it needs and we will do what we can to prosecute the father" club finally won out. I think that there is enough physical evidence without a complete autopsy to put this guy away for a long time. But, this is a very lenient county so who knows....

media makes me mad

So, I arrested a guy on Friday. The media sees his booking sheet and the charges. This was a delayed rape case. They assume it just happened and it is all over the news with inaccurate facts reported in conjunction with it. That is so annoying. And, I requested he have a high bail as he is faces the same charges and worse in 2 other jurisdictions, and his bail is only $10,000. He can get $1,000 and get out. That is not high!! Work can be so frustrating.

maybe things are looking up?

So, the guy came to cut a carpet sample so they could replace it with the original carpeting. They cut a one foot square out of the room next to Chase's room. :) Soooo, they are now replacing the carpet in the hallway and that weird I-have-no-idea-what-kind-of-room-this-is room next to his for free!! That is where the damage was from the last flood and I was just going to have them replace the padding and clean the carpet. Sweet.

Also, the Yardley's received a fresh bout of beef from their family and didn't have enough room in their freezer for it all. We were the lucky recipients of a lot of beef!! (I had looked into buying half of one to save money, but it was nearly $700 for half!!!) So, maybe things are looking up.

Lastly.... and this kinda irritates me... we have these incentive programs at work for our health insurance. It requires that we do quarterly activities. If you participate in the competition ones... which are more work than the seminars, then you get put in a drawing at the end. I always sign up hubby and do all of his tracking for him so I get the bonus in my check. (They give us $20 for employees and $10 for spouses to participate as a way of reimbursement for the ultra-high deductible we have every year.) Anyway, there is always a drawing for prizes at the end of the competitions for various prizes ranging from water bottles to VISA giftcards. Well, hubby won a $100 gift card in May, and he won another one this time!! He graciously told me I could have it to buy myself an anniversary gift. :)

Fall is in the air....

The crispness in the morning is now evident. Though apple crisp is a good reason to love fall... since it signifies the end of summer... I hate it. I am not ready for summer to be over. I feel like I didn't get to enjoy it very much. :( And I am most certainly not ready for snow.

Enough is enough

So, since July 3 I have had 3 house floods. (A kitchen sink pipe broke and molded out Chase's room, an irrigation pipe burst, and hot water heater flooded right outside of Chase's room.) Of course, the first flood reported to my home insurance has a $1000 deductible.. and they threw away a lot of Chase's things... including his mattresses... then told me my insurance will not cover contents for mold. On top of that was the repair bill also not covered by insurance. The second was only the cost of the repair and no damage occurred except that it happened on the first day of my 2 1/2 week vacation.

Also on that first day, my cell phone broke. It would make no audible noises so I could not hear the guy calling to tell me that it had broken and was filling up the window wells. We got that taken care of. The lawnmower broke. We even tried to borrow one to mow yard, but neighbors were using theirs. Ryan's starter went out on his car. Then the hot water heater busted. I sucked up over 7 buckets of water and tried to dry it out with fans. I am not sure if what I did was sufficient, but I am trying to not have another claim. I will have to pay for the padding to be replaced myself.

I also painted Chase's room myself. They did not bother to tell me that I had to order new carpet for his room. So, we still have not put his room back together. Some of his room contents got wet during the other flood. It is annoying. Then, K*** took the van offroad where I told her to NEVER take the van.... and she put a 4 inch gash in one of the tires. First she could not find the spare, then found it but it was flat, so hubby had to go get the tire, take it down and replace it, and return up there. That little stunt will cause me 2 tires and an alignment. What else? I cannot handle any more. Hence, I worked alcohol shifts all weekend long to try to pay for the "misfortunes." UGH!!!!