Sunday, June 22, 2008

Sunday Exercise

Does wrestling a 3 1/2 year old throughout the entire 8:30 mass count as an hours worth of exercise for the week?

If so, I think I am set.

Monday, June 16, 2008

Land of the Prehistoric Insects

My husband says we live in the land of the prehistoric insects, and I think he may be right.

You know how they have those children's toys that are rubber or plastic bugs and the bugs are huge and you laugh and think they are disgusting. Literally that is what this crazy place has.

3 to 4 inch roaches

Big fat Junebugs

And yesterday, on our way out to lunch, we saw a 3 to 4 foot snake lying dead as we left the apartment complex. HUGE, THICK, MONSTROUS looking thing.

And then of course there are the sugar ants, the fire ants, the lovebugs, the spiders, the wasps, the hornets, and the flies.

I don't remember so many bugs living here, but maybe I just didn't remember a different life. After living in Ohio for 2 years, virtually bug free, I am amazed and astounded that these creatures seriously don't take over the world and get rid of us humans.

Tuesday, June 10, 2008

Hard to Read

I know the lower post is hard to read, and I did try to space out my paragraphs, but for some unknown reason Blogger hates me. Add that to the rest of the things going wrong.

Our Soon-to-Be New Home


Hopefully, if all goes as planned, this will be our new home in 16 days.
I say hopefully, because things have not gone as planned for us lately.
Let's begin with the lovely company of Citibank that will be hearing from me in a letter very soon. I called them a week prior to our Ohio house closing to have them send a payoff amount to the title company. They told me that they were working on it. I called back or emailed every day after, with the response of they were working on it.
The Monday before closing, I called once more, to hear them tell me that they couldn't fax it to the title company because Citibank only faxes to 1-800 or 1-866 numbers. They could fax it to the local Citibank branch that is 5 minutes away, but they couldn't do it that day since the bank would be closing at 4 and it was 3:15 and the fax would take 1 to 4 hours.
I called back Tuesday morning, the day before closing, and get another woman on the phone, who tells me I have to call a touchtone system to request the payoff amount be sent. I tell her that I have been dealing with this nonsense for a week now, and I want her to do it, since tomorrow would be our closing and I wanted to make sure it got done. She says she can't do it, and I have to use the touchtone system. I tell her fine and get transferred to the touchtone system.
After pressing 1 over and over and over again, making my way through the automatic system, I finally get a voice recording stating that Citibank WILL NOT fax to a 1-800 number. OKAY!! Then why hadn't anyone ever faxed the payoff last week, and why did the woman yesterday tell me it could ONLY go to a 1-800 number, and that is why it hadn't been done???????
I typed in the regular number for the title company to see if it would work, and the recorded voice told me the same story of it would take 1 to 4 hours to be processed. Then 30 seconds later, I kid you not, the title company lady that I had been working with calls to say she just received the payoff info.
Because of the delays by Citibank, I had to overnight the signed and notarized papers to the title company, which cost me $40. And we almost didn't close as scheduled on the house, which would have cost us more money.
They will be receiving a lovely letter with my receipts for overnight postage, and a complaint. Well, two complaints actually. They also charged us $25 to fax a one page document. Obviously, no fax costs $25 to send for 1 page, and the fact that they made me fight them for a full week, is not worth the $25 they charged.
Okay, I think I am done ranting. I feel moderately better now.
More pictures will come in 3 weeks or so of the inside of the house above.

First Love

Nicholas has been watching Signing Time lately. For those of you who don't know, there are two children in the shows, named Leah and Alex.

Nicholas: "Isn't Leah pretty, mama?"

Me: "Yes, Leah is very pretty."

Nicholas: "I like Leah mama"

It is the innocence of moments like these, that make me love him more and more each day.