it's always something

yes, REALLY

for those of you that have been around awhile... YES, AGAIN... dammit.

YES we are moving again. NO i don't want to... even I know better than to take on a move with 9 month-old twins! but here we go again.

so my life is filled with boxes, packing paper and tape. and again we pack. this time, however, we have two people in the house who not only won't pull their own weight, but refuse to allow us to tape any boxes in their presence! So we wait until they go to bed to tape all the boxes... sheesh...who do they think they are??

unfortunately, the owners of the home we are renting fell into the trap of refinancing a couple years ago when we moved in and now cannot afford the payments even with our rent. so, dangerously close to foreclosure, they put the house on the market a month ago and we've been in Showing House Hell ... sometimes three times a day... oh well. minor, minor issues to complain about.

because really, between the natural disasters and the horrible financial issues going on - there are plenty of bigger things to worry about.

is it just me or is it very scary?

i find myself thinking back to when my great grandmother talked about growing up in teh great depression - i remember thinking how irrelevant it was to me (i was in my teens and, of course, nothing was relevant to ME) we used to giggle when she would stash ziploc bags in her purse and then empty out the salt, jellies, napkins at restaurants, habits she never really left even into her 80's. i wonder if i should have paid a little closer attention to what she learned.

i do remember one story that always stayed with me.

my great grandmother, "grammy", was a waitress in a swanky hotel in pueblo, colorado. she was a single mom, because my great grandad had been killed during a train robbery in durango (i've never learned which side he was on...) so my grammy raised my grandmother and her sister on her own, including having them live at the orphanage during the week so she could work. as the girls got older, they stayed with grammy and one time they were walking along the street and came across a couple people who were 'begging for money'. my grammy gave the people their last money for the week - something like two quarters, equivalent to their food money.  my grandmother and her sister gave their mom a hard time, "what are you doing?? that's our grocery money? what are we going to do?"

my grammy's answer "the Lord will provide"

that night at work, my grammy made the biggest tip she'd ever made.

i've always pulled that story out and dusted it off when i've felt in tough times. i've found myself thinking of it more again lately - no matter where i am, i am certain there are people who don't have a job, who have lost everything in a flood and don't have anything to pack... and i am thankful for the issues i do have. i need to remember to not completely pull in, but be aware and thoughtful of those who may have stickier situations than i do. i believe if our intent is pure, it is always blessed.

it is a bit of scary times right now - but i have family and friends and faith -

and - a new roof over my head with a great window for pictures... i see some scrapbooking in my future!

happy weekend and i hope you have little issues to be thankful for, too!

will's turn

what can i say - we have very photogenic babies (good thing - it would be hard to scrapbook ugly babies ...)

i'm a lover of unconventional photos so love these next two...just because

love that one for the slobber spot on the couch...

but this is my favorite from today -

david and haircuts... not necessarily in that order

so i tend to go about things in a way that makes them more difficult than anyone else could possibly have imagined them. it's my way and i'm good at it.

in contrast, my husband enjoys making everything sound 10 times easier than they actually are.

between us, we usually get stuff done well, starting at opposite ends of the spectrum means all the bases get covered.. and with me.. EVERY base is covered ...

i tell you that to tell you this -

the babies needed haircuts, badly.

chris: "just take this and snip"

me: "its really hard to get them to let you cut it"

chris: "really? because don't you just cut it out of their eyes?"

uh huh.

i get the spray bottle, scissors, paper towel for clippings, comb and put will in the exersaucer.

chris: "mommy's making it all hard, i was just going to grab and snip"

me - handing him the scissors: "here ya go"

chris: "now??"

me: "you seem to know how it Should Go"

yes, that is my husband with a sharp pair of scissors with my baby in the very bouncy jumperoo - he's proving a point.

meanwhile, will is getting a 'real' cut

and not liking it

bottom line is, i think my sweet, optimistic husband realized that maybe there was more to it than "grab and snip"

mommy's way

daddy's way (as indicated by the "what the hell" look on his face...

i win this one.

onward.

will was taking a long nap the other day when i got home from work and david was up and movin' and happy to sit on the couch for me... i got these gems

i love that one because you can see his little dimple...

then my nephew got to him yesterday...

and just a couple more from Father's Day -

(clearly these were taken before the nasty scissor-wielding day)

one more of will - and i wish you a joyful, toothless day like this

 

may - just like that

i {heart} fresh & easy

love this place! i know it must seem silly...

but i knew i was in love when i walked down the very first aisle to see fresh tubs of hummus ($1.49??), tzaziki, freshly sliced melons, peppers... in fact the first several aisles are freshly sliced, packaged, good-for-you food that makes you feel healthier just walking through them!

No added hormones or preservatives or dyes or assorted bad stuffs- and CHEAP ... and don't forget to pick up the $5 off coupon!

All this in a neat package right near our (almost) house...

I'm in love! 

eating healthy meets cheapo prices.

nothing has made more sense since bret and jemaine!

a house divided

no matter your beliefs or affiliation - there seems to be several big issues to be dealt with in the upcoming election. i'm sure we'll all have our fill, and then some, long before november arrives.

i don't talk to many who don't find the current 'state of the union' scary.

chris and i find ourselves asking w.w.b.d?

(what would bartlett do?)

so our house is doing it's homework - slightly with different trains of thought - but the goal is the same... not be so 'worried' about the future.

daily fun

Not so bad a weekend, this one.

Much creativity, which is always good for my soul. Hanging out as a fam, well, most of us or 4/6 of us as it were - also a nourishing one...

Thankful for a very, extremely unusually nice, cool Memorial Day weekend here in the Desert Southwest.  It was actually chilly for a while on Friday! As much as we enjoyed it, the only small, tiny-in-comparison issue with it - the triple digits this coming weekend will seem especially hot... oh well. Someone once said you have to take the good with the bad. So, 57 one weekend, 157 the next. Yes, really!

I was happy to spend some time the previous weekend with my friend, Lori - it never seems to happen enough, and when it does it seems to disappear as quick as smoke from birthday cake candles (and in our house as quick as birthday cake).  I do always come away inspired and very thankful that she really IS my BFF. I say that about many people, in 110% jest, but with Lori it's just always been there - and I can think of few things as sweet and thankful-worthy!

So-gush gush- I also am trying Lori's Picture A Day program (which is a scrapbook person's "program" but we're crediting Lori here becuase I often SEE Lori's pictures of the day) ANWAY - geez...

I took this next couple (and I promise to not get started on this really being more than a picture a day if tehre are two here...) because it sort of fits our last week. Will, for some reason, has been up, up, up at night.
Not staying up, thankfully and yet, but just upset and up. Friday night... midnight, one o'clock, two o'clock, three o'clock, four-thirty and then five-thirty was just up.  UGH. I know how to "teach" babies to sleep through the night, I just don't know how when there is another baby in the room. One of the many challenges of More Than One At A Time. It's more fun than not, but work nonetheless.

So in honor of Sir William -

fun -and true!

And over the weekend - actually Friday when I arrived home from work... this is to prove (if only to myself next Memorial Day...) I snapped these...

(we do act odd here in Arizona when it rains)

if you look closely, you might see little pea-sized hail.

that's that damn sign in our front yard announcing "short sale"

a tad bit of wind, too

and just rain - ahhhh

I am so very clearly in a "lesson" right now, it's painful. I want to stamp my feet and say "I get it already!
Now let me have my stuff back"... but I don't think I really do Get It. At least the way or the extent to which I am supposed to.  I wonder how long I'll be in this place and I think of a group of people wandering for 40 years. Then I think "k... I'm 40... done?". But no.

So here I am - knowing I am where I am, wishing I was not, but not wanting to wish so much so that I miss what I am supposed to get and wind up staying longer.  Which would totally be me.

Slowly things seem to be lining up again, despite my attempts to hurry things up and self medicate with chocolate covered raisins (they're raisins... healthy!) So today I breathe easier and hope tomorrow is forward progress.

The babies are healthy and growing. My love of being a mom is front and center and - very different than my earlier experience.

The job thing seems to be working out and I have a couple other things to keep me busy (and honestly earning a living)

The house thing might, might be settled soon.

Deep breath and out.

Maybe once all this clears, the creative juices will have room to flow more and I can enjoy the things that make me, well, me.

Note to Self  - list to get through this crap When it hits again (not if)

*Seasons of Friends

*Seasons of West Wing

*good friends who talk you off ledges

*a husband who loves you through the thicker times

*kids who love you through

*diet dr. pepper

*bejing beef and taco bell

Speaking of Annoying

I hate - I mean I HATE getting that damn stack of phone books that we don't use!

We have no place for three feet of phone books!

They go right into the recycle bin... what a WASTE!!

Please, please join me in this petition- if you know of something better, quicker, more effective - get it to me!!

thank you for $#*(* $ calling customer service

I love how no one is in "customer service" anymore... and why? Because Customer Service has such a bad connotation!  It's Customer Care (still crappy service) or Customer Associate (just as crappy) or what have you... I was once not a property manager ... but a Tenant Relations Advocate. Gag. My friend Teresa called us Tenant Relations Adversary... love it!! (and more to the point)

When Kyle worked at Discover, they put him through rigorous training in dealing with customers. Many large companies do. Many companies just don't. I remember landing a job at Arby's - my first "real job". I had to watch countless hours of video on dealing with customers. I didn't pay attention that much because, at the ripe ol' age of 16, I already knew all that... and more.  I think some of it stuck with me. Between that and the "common sense" my dad used to verbally beat into our heads and just being a consumer, I started on a path of taking care of customers. (that and probably two of my toughest years as a long distance operator right out of high school - you'd be amazed at how much power and responsibiltiy operators had as apparently EVERYTHING was their fault!!)

All of that to say -

What the hell has happend to customer service? I'm not looking for "the customer is always right" because, clearly they are not.  But wrong or right, the customer always deserves respect. Always.

I could tell tale after tale about the meanie and his manager in the Verizon store, the "are you kidding me" people in drive throughs, don't get me started on Qwest and Cox Communications.... and one day I might even write about the carpet cleaning guy and my grandmother...

I ran in to WalMart to pick up a couple of baby items, dog food and literally a couple things for Adam.  Ran to the check out since Adam was in the car with David and Will. As soon as I stepped foot in to the store I realized I left all 20-something of my various store canvas bags AGAIN in the car. (AGAIN, meaning that should explain why I have 20)  So this time I decided I would help myself remember.

Little did I know (makes me think of Dustin Hoffman in Stranger Than Fiction - "I've done entire lectures on 'little did he know' " )

Little did I know that the clerk would help to Remember this. 

I pulled up the lane in WalMart that still cracks me up "Fast Lane - 20 items or less"... really?    I threw three Lean Cuisines,  (my new plan) two Old Spice body washes (two because they were on sale) , a package of q-tips, a tube of toothpaste, a dog toy (since Jack is freaking out a bit as the one pet left) on the belt and in my cart was a bag of dog food and a high chair.  Ten. Ten items.

My cause recently has been the damn plastic bags so I try to be very vigilant about not using them. Things like this that is such an easy change for everyone to make and would really help out a lot of issues... but another day.

The clerk starts putting my items in a bag and I say "I don't need a bag, thanks - I have like 20 in the car and will throw the stuff in when I get there". Well, one would have thought I asked her to personally walk each item to my home with the look she gave me. Big Pause for effect. "Okay, you mean you don't want a bag???"  "um, no, I seriously have a ton in my car, I just forgot to bring one in".  Roll Eyes, Heavy Sigh.

Ugh - whatever, lady (I use the term loosely) I just need these few items so I can run out to my car where three of my four children are waiting. (I have to keep saying that to myself because it just doesn't really seem real)

So she is stacking up my items - not on the end of the belt/counter... but on the little thingie that you put your wallet, checkbook, drink on! Because apparently it is soooo inconvenient of me to ask her to not place the items in a bag, there is no other place to put them, so here they are in your face, crazy no-bag lady.  No problem, I take them from the wallet holder thingie and place them back in the cart, hold the high chair box where she can use her little gun thingie and then I am REALLY rude. "oh, there is a bag of dog food in here, too" sheesh- now she has to reach over and pull the gun out again.... WHAT was I thinking??

As I am placing the last items in the cart, another cashier walks right by and says "don't you want a bag??"

... "no-I have 20 in my car and I just forgot to bring them in"

Apparently I have offended the WalMart Bagging Gods. That and/or they simply don't know what to do now as their Super Duper Customer Care Representative training did not cover Crazy Ladies who don't want bags!!

So CCR #2 walks over to CCR#1 who turns her back to me as I am trying to pay for my bagless items and I hear "psst pss psst BAG pss psst pss BAG pss oppss fsdal;fjsdl;kajfasd ;lkj ... BAG" all while her thumb is so not subtley pointing at me. 

um - hello - I'M RIGHT HERE!

I did not know it was such a social/retail Faux Pas to ask for no bag. I do it all the time at Barnes & Noble (scratch that, back PB I did it all the time... pre-babies) Please note to you all, however, don't go in to WalMart and tell them "no bag"... I'd hate for you to break the Unspoken Law of WalMart Bagging.

Whatever.

Adam and I talked about it for the first 15 mintues back in the car on the way home.

How sad is that? Negative negative negative. This is After we lamented how bad most drive throughs are.

So this morning I decided to turn the tide.

I am doing contract work for a company and one of the employees has been really helpful. And she knows her stuff. Which can be rare. I swear I bug her all the time yet I always get reliable, friendly answers. And I am pretty sure it causes her no pain. It's not that she has a stress free life - she is a property manager for a huge portfolio and still has the ability to smile somehow.  But she just finds it easier to be nice.

So I wrote about her to a couple people in the corporate office.

Focus on the positive. Everyone knows there is crappy service out there - who doesn't experience it daily? It does me no good to call this lady's manager and tell him/her how rude she was. A) The manager doesnt' want to hear it B) the clerk is going to deny that she was rude C) I'll feel like a jerk for taking time to call and complain D) the manager probably hears so many complaints it will get lost in the mix E) it gives even more energy to a stupid incident.

People used to write to managers about crappy service because it was the uncommon happening. Not the typical.

So I'm going to start writing about the uncommon, the a-typical - Good Service. Well done honest to God Customer Service.  For Crying Out Loud... SERVICE.

I think it is a good plan - maybe it will start things a-changin'

and as soon as i find some Good Service, I'll write about it...

it's late, does it show?

i need to go to bed, but i truly couldn't resist posting a couple of my new fav shots...

i love that he is so in love with his new ride - makes my heart happy. i don't know when he stopped being six, but apparently he did.

  will loves his daddy (and i think the feeling might be mutual)

david is into the abosorption theory in breakfast.

one of the advantages of being six months plus away from pregnancy is that i feel some of my brain returning... which is nice since i was sort of convinced that between twins, two teenaged boys and that recent milestone birthday, it wasn't going to return at all. at least not as one i would recognize. now that it seems to be returning, i can start over in learning about my camera and all the brain gymnastics known as apeture and f/stop and, and, and.. i know what i like in photography and i know what i want my "style" to be. i'd love to get there - and once in a while i seem glimmers of hope...

i am going to bed now - SNL is on and i just don't care - it's not nearly as fun these days as it used to. even one of my all time fav hosts, christopher walken, is completely reading the cue cards to totally un-funny skits.

many amazing people have hit that SNL stage launched by the crazy candygram days, right now it just seems to be in one of the slumps... and i'm just not in for panic at the disco...

i'm taking my snotty nose to bed in hopes of an allergy drug-induced sleep, but not too deep as i am on paci-patrol at night...