beach

We came to the beach for the weekend. Ahh...it's nice. We ate at our favorite seafood place, Steven's Oyster Roast, on the way in. You know, hit it at 5:10pm when the average age was approximately 65. The hush puppies were a little sub-par, but otherwise it was what I had been waiting all week for. Then Phil mowed the lawn which was much needed. Scary almost. The girls rode their scooters all around and then we took a quick walk down to the beach for a little digging. It was cold though. Sydney and Mollie then put on their bathing suits for about an hour in the house before bed. I guess it made them feel more beach-like:) Tomorrow should be a nice day! It's supposed to be 72 and full sun so hopefully we can spend more time on the beach without freezing.

I totally forgot to post about our Mr. Al concert we went to on Wednesday. I really need to catch up on some pictures, don't I!?

So, I owe them

I guess we figured out today that I do owe money back to the school system. Apparently they started paying me Oct. 27th. Which is insane. I started Nov. 17th and they told me that they mistakenly paid me starting on the 7th so they would take the extra days out of my Dec. check. I assumed they did. Apparently they didn't. And then paid me extra days. My principal, thank goodness he was fired up enough to get involved, was so angry. B/c they kept harrassing him about my start date and when he gave it to them they screwed it up.
So I told them just to take it out of my June paycheck. I could work 13.5 hours and just add 30 min. to each day or some days, but who would that be helping? No one. I just can't believe they screw stuff like this up!
And I should really probably pay more attention to my pay stubbs and how much I'm supposed to be paid, hmm....;)

hand washing woes...and other issues

Okay, didn't take me long to decide to vent these frustrations. I'm basically getting tired of people being incompetent and getting away with it.

My first short issue is with the payroll dept. at the county office of our school system. I have never changed the amount I will be working by more or less. I fill out forms to take days off appropriately, etc. I have always been a 20% employee and worked 8 hours a week. My lead secretary and principal agree that this should not be an issue. However, payroll thinks that if they continue to pay me at the rate they are paying me I will be overpaid. How is this possible if they are paying me correctly and how do we figure this out? We still haven't. Here is the email the secretary got from payroll a month or so ago:

"According to Ms. Greene work schedule, she will be working total for 196.5 hour. Pre-audit have been complete, it determine she will be overpay $428.68 if she work as 196.5 hours. She need to work 13.5 hours more to increase her work to 210 hours, she will be pay correctly. Please talk to your principal and Ms. Green to see if school can increase and Ms.Greene willing to work 13.5 hours more or not. If they all agree, please send me her update work schedule. Thanks in advance for all your help."

If this makes any sense to you please enlighten me. The only solution I can come up with in this budget crisis is to fire this person.

My second issue:
Long story short, I will not be buying any more new appliances from Best Buy. Phil can take his Reward Zone points and either shove them or use them on something like a DVD or Wii game.
Here is the log I have been creating of my issues. Feel free to not read it, but know that I am getting impatient in my old age and have been really irritable from having no working dishwasher for 2 weeks and know the Geek Squad repairman for our area so well that we should probably exchange Christmas cards...

Refrigerator
Last Spring:
1.Compressor or something went out that was causing it to be hot on the side, part ordered (Sterling)
2. Sterling installed the new part
In the last few months:
3. Clips that hold door closed broken, parts ordered
4. Sterling was supposed to come, had an emergency, couldn’t make it, rescheduled appt.
5. Sterling came out to fix it, we had another broken piece on a drawer, part ordered
Part back ordered
Lots of calls to let me know it was in and someone would call me about a repair

Meanwhile…
Tuesday, March 31
Realize that clean light is still on dishwasher. We’ve always had problems with it running warm/moist, stinking after it had been emptied and reloaded.Then we realize that the door will not stay latched. It will still run...whether the door is closed or not. And it won't.
We report it to Best Buy, they schedule for Saturday April 4th. We always mention the smell to the Geek Squad, but for some reason they don’t address it, just the door latch issue.
**this is our 2nd dishwasher of this model. We bought a new one in October and it was dead on arrival. We returned it and purchased a new one in November.

Wed. April 1st or Thursday, April 2 a technician calls to try to narrow down the issue and says he will order a new door latch and reschedules the install for April 11th.

Thursday, April 9 the Geek Squad calls again to discuss having the refrigerator part installed. I ask them if they can come on Saturday the 11th with the dishwasher install. They could not find a record of anything related to the dishwasher. She said she would see what she could do. This is the last I hear of the fridge issue until Monday the 13th.

Saturday, April 11th Ronald comes to our service appt. He does not have the part. We later get a call from the Geek Squad asking us to call back to the 800 number to schedule service again because they scheduled us with the wrong person and that Sterling has the part, not Ronald. They schedule for Monday.

Monday, April 13th (yesterday)
8:45am Ronald calls to tell me that he will come between 1-3pm. I asked him if he had the part. He said no. I said because they sent someone out Saturday who also didn’t have the part and they were supposed to send someone with the part today. He says, yeah, that was me. Let me call and try to figure this out.

9:10am Another Geek Squad representative calls me to reschedule the service because Sterling as the part on his truck (didn’t we know this?), but he’s not in today and he lives in a gated community so no one can get it off of his truck (really? Is this in the manual to tell people this?). I let her know all of our issues and that I am not happy with the incompetence I am seeing in their organization. She also says that the lady we talked to on the phone on Saturday apparently created a new work order for the DW and that’s where Ronald came in a second time. Not okay.
She also finds the refrigerator information and says she will get them installed at the same time. Super. I ask for a number I can call to speak to someone about how happy I am. She gives me the 1-888-Bestbuy number and tells me to press 0 for a customer service representative. I am not confident this will get me anywhere.

2:56pm I get a call from a 1-800 number and answer it and it says it is the Geek Squad and asks me to press 1, puts me on hold, asks me to enter my secret code (never had a secret code before) or wait on the line. While I’m waiting I get call waiting from the Geek Squad. Seriously?

3:01pm I answer the Geek Squad call again and get the exact same thing. I try to seriously calm myself down and just talk to him about that this might be for my refrigerator because I’ve already spoken to someone about my dishwasher today. He is acting the whole time like I called them. He looks everything up and says, “okay ma’am, I just want to let you know that your part is scheduled for service April 14th in the afternoon. Like maybe 4-6ish. Uh, that’s tomorrow”. I said, really? That’s great. They’re already coming to fix my dishwasher then (I hope) and that is what we were trying to do. Super.
There are a lot of parts of this company that are obviously not connecting!!!

When Phil worked at Gateway out of the store back in like 99 or 2000 or something there was a guy there who is now the sales manager at the Cary BB store. So he called in a favor. He got the guy to agree to give us a new dishwasher. A different one. And they'll take the other one back. Even though we did not have the extended BB warranty and this was just under the 1 year Frigidaire warranty. So we had to pick out a new one from there instead of running to HHGregg or Sears or anywhere else like I wanted to. We went last night. But I made Phil buy the 5 year warranty just in case. We got a new LG one and it was a lot more expensive than the other one so it better freakin' work!!!

So I wasn't surprised when at 9am this morning Sterling calls to say that he's on the way with our parts. He said they had him down for the afternoon, but he didn't know why, so could he come now? I was like, are you kidding? Sure, come on. I'll just skip the gym again and get this damn thing over with!!! No dishwasher = a little more eating out. Worse food for me which adds pounds. Sure I'll skip the gym...
So Sterling fixed the dishwasher door latch and told me to just keep the bag with the old one to turn over to the people who come next Monday to take it away and bring us our new one.
And our part for the fridge was replaced. It was just a plastic drawer clip thing so it wasn't that big of a deal.
So, sorry about all the complaints. I have them off my chest now:)

Easter then Thanksgiving...?

Okay, not really, but I've had a lot of frustration in my life lately. Namely with appliances in my home which apparently got the 7 year itch. Even though we have not had them that long, we've just lived here that long. So instead of bitching (which I will do later), I have comprised this list of what I am so thankful for!

• Our health and that of most of our family
• I am getting a new dishwasher
• Supposedly our refrigerator part will be fixed tomorrow along with our dishwasher that is going back
• my washer and dryer still work and they're 10 years old
• I have a home. And it has a basement and tornado season is upon us (with a bar in it)
• I like my car and all of our cars work
• our microwave and stove have all of their original parts
• I have 2 beautiful children and I am so thankful that I they were given to me at the blink of an eye as I know this doesn't happen for A LOT of people
• I do have a wonderful, patient husband who mostly listens to me. Oh, and he says I'm still his trophy wife even though I told him she's on backorder...
• I am able to mostly stay home with my girls
• I have my Mom and my sisters so close by, I love that for me and the girls as well
• I have awesome friends. Some I don't get to see as often as others and I still think they're awesome!
• My computer works even though Vista permanently slowed it down
• I have great tennis shoes that don't hurt my feet
• I work with great people and am thankful that I was able to have this little position for this year!
• Both Phil's and my parents are involved in the girls' lives b/c I was never close to my grandparents
• Phil's grandma who thinks I always need some pound cake even when she's too tired to make me some
• My gym was taken over by the previous owners about a week before Peak fitness declared bankruptcy.
• I got to eat lunch with some K and 1st grade teachers today b/c it was a workday
• Sydney gets to go to the school I wanted and I hope it's for the best
• I think God really watches out for us...

Happy Easter!

So...short version
Thursday: Planet Child Easter egg hunt, lunch with my friend Liz, babysitter so Phil and I could go to the last regular season home hockey game.
Friday: zoo (it rained 1/2 way through and I ended up dripping)
Saturday: The girls and I went to visit with my cousin Laura, Aunt Nancy, and most importantly, baby Keira! Cookout that night with my Mom and Dad, neighbors James and Michele and Michele's brother, wife and their daughter Teagan who is a little older than Chase and precious! Chase got a stomach bug and was unable to attend. We were so disappointed. But the food was so delicious.
Sunday: The Easter bunny left cool baskets on the front porch on account of our "no bunnies allowed" sign on the front door. Sydney was pretty worried that he would come in the house. We went to 9:30 Mass (girls were a disaster, the result of candy+hour of Church, have to plan that better next year) and then hit the road. We went to Dobson to Phil's Aunt's house for an awesome lunch and egg hunt. More about that later. It was really well executed including tickets and prize tables, haha. We got back at 9pm. Long day.

Now I'm exhausted and going to clean up the whirlwind damage to the living room from this morning. Pictures to come later on!

fun stuff!

We all had a really fun weekend around here and I'm now enjoying my Wake Co. Schools Spring Break!

Friday night we had our friends Jennifer, Andy and the kids bff's Matthew and Lindsay over for pizza and hanging out until bedtime. It was a great time.

Saturday morning Mom came over and Phil and I headed down to the Morehead City area for a wedding for our friends Allyson and Russell. Allyson went to college with Nancy and they sit behind us at football games (we all have lifetime rights and season tickets so...we're stuck together for life!) The wedding was in Swansboro and the reception was at the NC Aquarium at Pine Knoll Shores. FANTASTIC!!! I can't believe they do events like that there and it was amazing. Dancing and eating and drinking around all the poor fishies;) We stayed at a hotel in Atlantic Beach that was in the middle of major, I mean major renovations. Like, here is the lobby view Sunday morning:

Poor Allyson and her mother had no idea when they blocked the rooms here that it would still be at this stage of renovation and the wedding guests were the only people in the hotel. It was fun and interesting. We got a discounted rate though, and still paid $109 a night. With a missing end table, no hot water in the shower and no hair dryer. It was worth the good time though!

So Dad ended up coming up to hang out with Mom and the girls. They took them to Chickfila for lunch Saturday, Kohls to buy new pj's, and to the park to play! Sunday they went to Red Robin for lunch. They definitely had a great weekend also. Sydney played outside so much that she wanted nothing to do with us when we got home. Just wanted to play some more with Emily, our neighbor who is 6.5.

Yesterday I had to work b/c it was a snow make up day. Today actually was too, it ate into the Wake Co. spring break which was NOT a popular thing for the parents and teachers around here. This whole week was supposed to be break. I ended up subbing for a K class in the morning b/c their teacher and TA were on vacation and couldn't make other arrangements (or didn't).

Today the girls and I went to Greensboro to the Children's Museum there to meet up with my friend Audra from high school who I had not seen in 3 years! She has a 4 year old daughter Karlie and she and Sydney were in Heaven together. They had about the same attention span while Mollie would have spent hours in each little station. They lasted about 4 min. in each:) We had a nice Chickfila lunch before heading back out of town. I had to make a mental note to take Mollie back there when Sydney is in school all day so she can stay and pretend as long as she wants!

(LeAnne, maybe we should take she and Eliza there!)

So that brings us to this afternoon and Mollie's Kinderdance recital! Very informal recital, but Ms. Mary is awesome! It was sooooo cute! Here is a really short video from it, I have a few more I'll have to see if I can get smaller or something;)

Disappearing Marshmallow Brownies

Today's cooking adventure...
I have made these before and they were to die for!!
Sydney and I were going to cook some treats today during Mollie's nap and we had mini-marshmallows and chocolate chips so we decided to make these. Well, I forgot that the recipe calls for butterscotch chips which we didn't have. Some reviews for the recipe said that some people didn't have them either so they just used double chocolate chips or 2 different kids, or peanut butter chips (holy yumm0) or something. So I decided to just double the chocolate chips.
Well then I got down to the eggs and you needed 2. Phil is really into making eggs every morning so I thought, "we always have these!" And we had 1. So then I looked up egg substitutions and saw some different options. I decided to use the 2 tbsp. of cornstarch option and added 1 tbsp of water to help it mix better (not sure why I thought of the water). We mixed it all up and instead of making it in a 9x13 pan I used my Pampered Chef bar pan and thought maybe they'd be more like a bar cookie instead of a brownie.

This is turning out to be quite an experimental recipe...

I cooked them at the same temp. it called for (350), but lowered the time from 20min. to 15 min. since I knew they'd be thinner in the bar pan. Perfect amount of time.
They were a little gooey so I let them sit for a little while then cut them. They were hard to cut because they were so gooey, but
OH WOW, THEY TASTE SO GOOD!

And there were a lot of "scraps" that Sydney and I had to take care of, bummer.
Here is a pic. of our masterpiece. The regular ones are a lighter color b/c of the butterscotch.