I can handle anything

I'm an Army wife. My husband is deployed. I have a very curious, inquisitive, rambunctious, and obnoxious two and a half year old. I have a wonderful Mommy's-girl, 7 month old {{when the heck did that happen?!}} who only wants to be near me. And I am currently baking another, that is sure to be the worlds next soccer star. I've dealt with a number of household emergencies since my husband left, even managed some on little to no sleep with sick children. I'm pretty awesome and I can handle anything...

However, nothing will turn me into a screaming, running 9 year old faster than a spider. Any spider. Yes, even daddy long legs. It's pretty sad. I've been known to vacate a room for hours waiting on J to get home. When that isn't an option I try any means possible to kill it without getting anywhere close to them {{did you know sliding a phone book across a laminate floor will kill a bug?}} Lets not even discuss the amount of time it takes for me to build my courage up to actually go through with killing them. It's also very sad. Through out this deployment I've been working on the length of time it takes to kill them. It totally freaks me out {{especially when they drag their dead bodies around by one working leg - EW!!}} But, after all, I don't have a choice {{besides when I lose sight of them and they are running free in my house, it just creeps me out that much more}}.

A few weeks ago, after killing the sixth disgusting, hugemongous, gross, brown house spider, my nerves had enough. I called an exterminator. The sweetest older woman answered the phone. I told her why I was calling and though she couldn't give me a guarantee I wouldn't see more, she told me I would see a lot less than I had been seeing {{Good enough for me!!}} I also asked her if they would knock down all the webs and kill the spiders on my porches. I thought nothing of her answer, "I'm sure we can do that." Then she said they'd be out the next day and we got off the phone.

I know this is totally sexist, but I was expecting a big burly man with his butt crack hanging out to show up at my door the next day {{aka John Goodman ala arachnophobia}}. So, imagine my surprise when my doorbell rang the next day and who stood before me was NOT a big burly man ready to take on and rid me of my house spiders. No, it was a five foot tall, seventy year old great grandma of three... Apparently, I didn't need a man...

I needed Betty White...



{{BTW, before I get hate mail for being an ageist, she did a GREAT job! She even knocked down all the webs on my porches. I merely find it quite humorous that I was out-womaned by a seventy year old woman.}}

The Blue Screen of Death

I have always been overly attached to my cell phone. An attachment that got to a whole new level during J's last deployment. If I was ever without my phone it most surely ended in a panic attack {{what if he called?!}} This deployment has been a little different. I'm still attached to my phone {{it even has a name}} but this time around, most of our conversing has been done on FB or through Google phone. I have both the apps on my phone but it's just soooo much easier to chat on a full size keyboard and so much easier to protect the camera from a two year old when it's able to sit flat on something, so I like to use the laptop more than my phone.

I have been having some issues with it lately and even told J recently that I need to back up the data so we didn't lose it all when it died for good. It's been crashing a LOT. It would freeze up and restart or the screen would go to a crazy, hot mess and all I could do was take the battery out, unplug it, and try again. I feel like I'm a relatively smart individual and for most things I am really good at figuring it out when I don't know how to do something. However, the thought of downloading something that could make it worse, resetting the system and losing everything unintentionally or doing worse harm to the computer kept me from Googling how to solve this issue. There are just some things you leave to professionals.

Yesterday, as I knew it eventually would, the computer got worse. It was doing the crazy-screen thing and randomly restarting when I asked too much of it, but it was also showing the Blue Screen of Death {{doomiest voice possible}}. Ok, that's a little dramatic. But it happened a good eight times. It would flash to this blue screen full of computer gibberish and at the bottom it said, "Crash Dump," Then it would restart and go to the crazy, hot mess screen {{these are computer terms, I checked}}. Let's talk about how frustrating it is to be in the middle of doing something INSANELY important {{like shopping}} and having your computer Blue Screen of Death you. Not only did it happen while I was online window shopping, but it also happened while I was blogging {{*gasp!*}} and it didn't even save. Things were serious. When the laptop restarted after that {{maybe the 9th time of the day}} I quickly Googled the number for Toshiba Support and made the phone call.

A woman named "Brenda Williams" answered the phone, catching me quite off guard as I had expected to spend at *least* twenty minutes on the phone with a machine before getting to speak to a live person {{the nerve of these companies having LIVE people answer their phones!}}. I'm fairly certain her name wasn't Brenda Williams. I'm actually fairly certain she's never even met anyone named Brenda Williams. Brenda Williams might have had the job at one time, before it was outsourced, but the lady I spoke with was most definitely NOT a Brenda Williams. She had very thick accent. I had to ask her to repeat things several times but she was very nice and very helpful. She assured me they could fix my laptop, that they could do it remotely so I wouldn't have to wait. She even gave me a {{small}} discount when I choked on my dinner when she told me how much it would cost to fix. After deciding I didn't really have a choice, I paid the nearly $200 {{I couldn't blog!! It was an emergency!!}} and she connected me to a technician remotely who spent the next three hours solving all of my computer problems.

I have been really concerned about taking it somewhere and having people go through all of the stuff on our computer... namely certain pictures I sent to my husband from the last deployment... So being able to watch Creepy "Tom" {{hey come on! It's creepy to watch your computer being controlled by someone who no doubt spent the rest of the night watching me through the camera!!}} was kind of... nice?

Then as he finished solving my Blue Screen of Death, I thought about those pictures. They were taken a while ago. Before kids and breast feeding...

Maybe we could have traded...

I will do anything to keep from doing dishes

See?

Remember this from my last post? The tutorial was very easy to follow and I'm Bug is in LOVE with her "sand castle" {{that kid is SO cute!}}

ugh! Now for the dishes... womp womp

Inspiration

Since J left and I found out I was knocked up again, I have been suffering from some serious lack of motivation to do anything. My house is clean enough, the girls are fed, work is getting accomplished, but other than that, everything else is just sitting. It's not all from a lack of motivation. Between the kids and the dogs, some days I feel like I'm fighting an up hill battle trying to make a nice clean home. Pretty much every time I accomplish one task, one of my children {{be it furry or not}} destroys something else. It's very frustrating and in my case motivation-killing.

However, now that we know that baby3 is a little girl, we have to do some serious rearranging of the upstairs of our house. Right now, we have one child in each bedroom {{us in the master, obviously}} and we use our large upstairs bonus room as a family/man room and an office. Well, that won't work now. We have decided the best way to accommodate three girls is to put them all into the large Bonus {{which conveniently has three walk in closets}}. Then J will have his own man room and I'll have a proper Mama-cave. The room is big enough to last the three of them until J can retire and then we'll be on to bigger things {{and houses}} anyways.

I have been having fun planning a nice girly room for our little princesses and thought I'd share some of my inspirations for their room.

Color Palette

Source

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Wall Decor

Source {{LOVE!!}}

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I want to do something fun for each girls name, above their bed.

Curtains

Source

Maybe some ombre ruffly curtains to match their color palette?

Something Fun

Source

One of the BEST things we have done for Bug {{and eventually our subsequent children}} is enrolling her in the Dr. Suess book club {{a GREAT gift for any child!}} She loves to read and LOVES getting the books for her in the mail. We signed her up when she was 18 months old, so she has developed quite the collection. I want to turn what is now the office, into their reading/ color area. It'll have book shelves, a black-board wall, a small coloring table and hopefully a nice little place for them to curl up with their books.

Lot's to do... and I can find motivation in the fact that when it's all said and done, this mama will have her own hiding space!

So there I was...

The week after J left... miserable, emotional, reclusive and any other adjective that you would describe a normal newly alone mom of two under two. Life was crazy. The kids were crazy. Pretty much the norm for the beginning of a deployment, except I had been feeling really out of sorts and very not my normal, let it roll off my back, self.

After enough eye twitching events occurred that week, I decided to do what every girl does when they feel more like a female version of the hulk, than their usual self... I took a pregnancy test. And like any girl who takes a test and sees two lines, I took four more.

Huh. That's interesting. Pretty sure I've stated here, very clearly, just how *done* I was being pregnant {{maybe once or twice}}. So you can imagine my complete and utter surprise at seeing two lines, four times. I had this moment when I was staring at the tests where I seriously considered calling the manufacturer. It says to call with questions, "Hey, um... could four positive tests be wrong?" Probably not... Then I did what I'm sure many of the other moms have done when they have a teething four month old, an defiant two year old and a husband deployed seven thousand miles away: I cried... For days.

Ok, ok. Tell me now what an awful person I am. People try for years... Spend thousands of dollars... Every child is a blessing... I'm not denying any of that... But until you are standing on the high dive, about to jump into the three-kids-under-three and a soldier-husband who has been gone a week and has already said the words "the next deployment" - pool, You can't judge me or anything I say.

The first few days weren't great. I honestly NEVER in my life thought I'd be here {{payback's a bitch... I am the first to say, "Don't you know what causes that?"}}. My first pregnancy was AWFUL. I threw up all day long every day, the whole pregnancy. The second wasn't much better and I'm not too ashamed to admit that my initial shock was selfish questioning if I would be able to handle it all, again. Plus, can I mention the fact that I had *just* gotten down to pre-pregnancy weight from 2.0?

It took a good week. I wallowed in self pity on my couch waiting for the crippling morning sickness to kick in, totally cutting myself off from everyone. Then I put my big girl panties back on and accepted our little gift for what it is and found the bright side of having another baby... even if meant having three kids, three and under.

J has been AMAZING through the whole thing. As soon as I told him he was SUPER excited!! He was so happy he told everyone he worked with and I quickly was getting congratulations from people, when I wasn't feeling so celebratory. Some women would be annoyed by this, but it actually helped me. It took a while, but now I am OVER JOYED at our pending arrival!

I made the decision to keep the baby under wraps until we knew the sex. I knew we could stop a lot of well-intended, yet hurtful comments, by waiting until there was no gender question.

So last weekend, we went down and had our gender scan. J was able to listen over the phone and watch the scan via the internet. It made me SO happy that he could be there, even though he wasn't in the room...

And so... Ladies & Gentlemen... I introduce to you

16wk - Baby Girl #3. Due 11/2 {{five days before 2.0's first birthday}}

A Crappy Moving Story & PSA

This is a VERY long story {{as most of mine are}} but it is also a VERY real story. It's not just a friend-of-a-friend story either. I cannot stress this enough, This REALLY happened to my own mother. I am telling this story to you all because so many readers are military and in that are regular movers.

This story starts when my Mom used Movers.com to get a shipping quote for her household goods from NOLA to San Francisco, CA. My mom had made a mad dash to CA after a phone call notifying her my grandmother was in the hospital after having a stroke. She had been away from CA for a few {{rough}} years and she was ready to move home. Coincidentally, the fact that my Grandmother needed someone to speak for her happened right at the same time and my mom listed her Algiers Point, LA home {{*sniff, sniff* goodbye Mardi Gras flop house!}} and started looking for work in CA. The house sold quick enough and in an attempt to make things better on herself mom set up movers to meet her at the house over a weekend, right before her closing date. She took time off of work and went to NOLA to pack up her stuff. She had a suit case of some clothes but the majority of her belongings were to be shipped via the Van Lines. My mom used Movers.com who put her in contact with a company called Real Van Lines and they gave her a moving quote and met her promptly on the day she asked them to.

The day of packing went very quickly. They even quickly packed all of the items in her fused glass studio. It was a lot of very expensive equipment and glass. The day went so well, My mom was appalled when they closed the gate of the truck and told her she owed them $1800 more than the quote for "packing materials" that were not included anywhere on the original estimate. Knowing she didn't have the time for them take everything off the truck {{and that extortion is illegal}} my mom wrote a check for the full amount asked for and decided she would deal with all of it once back in CA. This was in February 2010. They were supposed to deliver the goods in April.

My mom tried to contact the moving company through every means possible after she got back. Phone calls. E-mails. Certified mail. Movers.com. But weeks kept passing and she heard nothing back. From ANYONE. In a last ditch effort to get the moving company to contact her she cancelled her check for their services.

Now there are VERY few things that will get a conman more mad than when he expects to rape you of your hard earned dollars and then you go and cancel your little ol' check. Suddenly, the owner of the business was available to talk and couldn't imagine why she had such a hard time getting a hold of him, but he SURELY didn't have any record of all of the times she says she tried to get in touch with him. Then he told my mom that her stuff would not be delivered on time due to their 'disagreement' and because of this it would need to go to long term storage. Long term storage was expensive. Now to get her stuff to her it would cost her $11,000.00. That would be *almost* double what she wrote the check for when they packed it up.

Folks, my mom is not a sit-around-and-mope kind of person. This isn't one of those stories where I'm going to complain because these people were assholes to her and she did nothing to counter it. My mom put together a packet of all the receipts she had, all the emails, the voice mails, all of it. She took it to the Department of Transportation, filed a complaint and then had to wait. LONGER {{I'd like to say again the majority of her belongings - EVERYTHING she owned was on this truck somewhere}}. The DoT tracks down this company and fines them for 1.)Changing the price of the estimate once the truck was loaded. 2.) For not delivering when they promised. They also told the moving company that what my mom was willing to pay {{the original check amount}} was fair and that they needed to take it and return her stuff. That's it. That is all they had the jurisdiction to do. Give one fine per infraction. They also asked that they show them my mom's container but the people at the warehouse couldn't supply it.

After the chat with the DoT the company immediately closed up shop, moved to GA and changed their name. This is legal, apparently. There are laws that make it ok for businesses to shut down and open under a new name in a new place and then protects the "new" business from previous fines. My mom went to the police department. The one in NOLA had no jurisdiction because her stuff was taken out of the state. The new state had no jurisdiction because it came from another state. It's not a FEDERAL problem because its an inter-state issue. Atlanta police can't even take a damn report from her over the phone because apparently, they don't do that "long distance". BBB. No jurisdiction. Office of Consumer Protection. NO FLIPPIN JURISDICTION!! Out of desperation to just get her stuff back she consulted a lawyer who told her it would cost more than what her stuff was worth to get it back. Money she didn't have.

For some time after this there was no contact between my mom and the company. She tried several more times to just get them to give her an itemized bill so she could pay it and get her stuff back. But they never did. At the beginning of last summer they told her, her stuff was going to auction, but then they didn't do the necessary things people are supposed to do to sell "abandoned" shipping crates. My mom asked for auction dates, no response. No response. NO RESPONSE. These people STOLE every LAST THING IN HER HOUSE.

I want you to look around your house right now. Think about all of your family photos, trinkets, memories, I'm not talking about the stuff. Look at all the things that would be WORTHLESS to other people {{aka trash}}, but are completely priceless to you. Think about how sucky it would be to have someone STEAL it. Right in front of you. And there ain't dick you {{or anybody else for that matter}} can do about it. Those people put her stuff on that truck knowing she'd never get it back.

Obviously, if it's been done to one, it's been done to others. You can go to ripoffreport.com and do an advanced search for "Real Van Lines" or "State Movers" and find some disgruntled customer reviews who have had very similar experiences to my mother {{some even military families}}. You can also do a search for both of those company names or "moving schemes" on the Atlanta Fox News website. You'll find a nice consumer report about these people. You can also Google "Israeli Moving Scams" and find out some more information about how these people work.

I encourage everyone to share this and spread it as much as possible. Make people aware that this happens. This has been a two year process and the sad truth is my mom's stuff was probably gone before it was ever supposed to be delivered and there is NOTHING that can be done about it.

MOVING TIPS:

If you're moving please, please, please DO NOT USE movers.com. These people suggested the company my mom used and then NEVER {{NOT ONCE!!!}} contacted her regarding this situation.

Read reviews on the van lines you're using. You'd be surprised about how much you can find out by the reviews people post.

If it's a government sanctioned move - please let Transportation do the planning. They have the ability to put pressure on businesses that regular citizens do not.

Before people come and pack up your stuff, take pictures of EVERYTHING in your house. The proof is the pictures and if you have high dollar items these will help you get the most back, IF {{IF!!}} your insurance will cover it.

Double check that your homeowners, renters or whatever kind of insurance will cover your things in the move.


Now I just need everyone to share this story. Maybe it will help someone or reach a hitman.

In the mean time, I'll just say we are firm believers in Karma.

A Very Backyard Photo Bomb

Have you ever had one of those moments in a store when you see something you really don't need but absolutely have to have? Of course you have. It happens to everyone. My problem usually then becomes, "If I get one of those, I'll need two of those. If I get two of those, I'll need to plant five of those. If I plant five of those, then I'll need to get some of that, too." It's a downward spiral. The whole giving a mouse a cookie thing. Anyways, Most days when I have those moments I get what we call "Analysis Paralysis" {{aka a walking zombie in a hardware store trying to figure out cubic yards and square feet}} and I will usually leave the store empty handed with a headache. Today when I had the urge to splurge on something kind of unnecessary absolutely fabulous, I totally gave in.

My first problem is that we got the swing set put together {{btw, total pain in the a$$. Probably not worth the *awesome* deal we got vs. the amount of time and energy going in to figure out the missing ((and extra)) pieces. What's important here is that Bug is SUPER happy.}} I'm one of those people who likes to get things done. Once a project is started, I'd rather just finish it and be done with it. With the swing set in {{and looking awesome in a not so awesome looking yard}}, I really felt like I needed to start tackling my yard projects. The main yard project is going to be to sod. But {{here come the but-if-I-do-that's}} the dogs have done a number on our yard and before we can sod, we'll need to put up a fence to keep them off of it. What's the point of putting sod down if they're just going to destroy it like they've done to our weeds? Those are big jobs. Ones that I most definitely won't be able to handle on my own. So, I picked the smallest two jobs on the list and spent my BEAUTIFUL afternoon filling Bug's sandbox and creating a flowerbed.

{{The kids playing after a day of asking if we were done yet}}

{{Before: Sand pit the dogs like to dig in}}

Step One: Assemble gorgeous blue fountain and LOVE it!

Step Two: Add Soil

Step Three: Plant Flowers

Step Four: Mulch & VOILA!! {{Needs a border but I LOVE it!}}

The next project will be to make a Victory Garden on the empty side of the screened in porch {{can be seen behind Bug in the picture under Step 2}} and add a compost bin. I've never tried to plant anything so the garden {{and the composting}} will be an adventure. It was a lot of work, but sitting on the porch when I was finished listening to a water feature and my two year old play in her sand box was totally worth it!

Stay tuned for whats next...