My Sears Rant

What is it with me and rotten customer service???

Three weeks ago we had to buy a new refrigerator and a new dishwasher. And considering my experience with broken dishwashers in the past, I was reluctant to deal with Sears again. But we gave them our money anyway.

Our appliances were to be delivered yesterday. Yesterday came and went and no appliances showed up. Two guys trying to sell us windows and siding showed up (which was weird; we don't exactly live in a door-to-door sales area), but no appliances. Which wouldn't be that big of a deal, except our old refrigerator was going to be hauled away today.

So here I am, old avocado refrigerator gone and no new refrigerator. Luckily we have a back up refrigerator (only in this family would we have a back up anything-honestly, I don't think the men in this family are able to throw anything away). But Sears doesn't know that, so we are getting a partial refund for the inconvenience of living with food on our counter and hand-washing dishes for a week. I can deal with that.

The best part was being forced to shave down our condiment collection down to what could fit into one refrigerator. Did I mention the men in this family have a hard time throwing things away? And they love tasty food? So much that I have eleven varieties of mustard? Four varieties of olives? Three pickles? Two flavors of shaved ginger! And I can't even count the bottles of hot sauce.

Now look at how cute this is: F has a new buddy. She picks little things up off the floor and brings them to her Grandad. He always says, "I don't want this! I'm not the garbage can!" But he will hang on to whatever little scrap she gifts him with. And this morning I left her crying in the kitchen while I took out the compost. When I came back inside, she was snuggling on her Grandad's shoulder, like she found the greatest, bestest Teddy Bear in the whole world. When M and I were trying to squeeze the "back up"refrigerator through the door leading into the kitchen, Grandad called to F to, "come here; get out of the way!" and she ran to him and climbed up into his lap to watch. When she snuggles with him, you can tell she truely loves him. You can see that us living here and making him miserable is totally worth it!

Escape to the Pond

After a long day in the car with M, Grandad needed to have the house to himself for awhile. We escaped down to the pond, but we couldn't escape the heat.

My Pathetic Doberman was so hot that we decided to help her cool down.How about some swim lessons? Now that's a doggie paddle! E working on her ability to wrap her daddy around her finger: Birthday Suit Baby (its too hot for clothes): Don't take pictures of S! In this picture, M is teaching IJ the proper way to do a crawl stroke: And S found this cool rhinoceros beetle (who was probably munching on our benches):

Toothless Wonder

I told you he was getting ready to lose another tooth!

My Pathetic... Pool

We just can't keep a pool from going flat. Every year we have to buy a new one. But why? My kids don't seem to care if the pool can't hold air.

It's 90 degrees today. In the shade. I hear its going to get hotter by Wednesday. Ugh.

So here they are, my crazy kids enjoying the flat pool in the hot sun (in their underpants): F pouring hose water on her head:Thirsty kids:Poor Man's Slip n' Slide:
IJ, who is getting ready to lose another tooth:The bestest brothers:And Pretty Toes:F loves her "pretty toes" that got painted when we were visiting friends last week. She points to her feet and says, "tohs?"

One Expensive Week

Some families go on vacation to Disneyland. Some go to Europe. Some tour the National Parks across the US. We go to our Hometown. For one whole week, the kids and I stayed at the motel, swam in the pool, ate at Denny's, and played with our friends all day. All so the boys could participate in a Taekwondo Camp. Normally a belt level consists of two months of classes with plenty of time to earn stripes for their belts and time to memorize the test questions. We did it all in one short week (except memorize test questions. I couldn't do that to my kids. The questions are long, hard, and there are five of them. We do it in three weeks, but not in two days).

After lodging, meals, gas, etc. these turned out to be the most expensive belts in our collection. But if you write it off as vacation, well, we did alright. And we are doing it again in two weeks! But this time I get to bring home a new kitten!

Pond Scum

Look who joined her brothers in the Pond Master Club!The Pond Master Club is the group of kids that can swim out to the center while wearing a life jacket. The members have code names. S is Swimmer Man. E is Sea Dragon (and sometimes The Long-Haired Octopus). I don't know what IJ's name is.

When I'm not unpacking boxes, I'm thinking about the upcoming school year and what subjects I want to teach. This week my focus has been science. I've decided that one of our major themes will be Discovering Our New Home. But why wait until September? Here is one discovery: Rough-Skinned Newts!

And this is my little Scientist-In-Training examining the sample he took from the pond: And depositing his find into a sample bottle: The boys have learned about water skaters, water boatmen, blood worms, and the composition of pond detritus.

My Oreck Rant

Last year we bought two, no make that three, Oreck vacuum cleaners. An upright for my old house (with a free over-the-shoulder vacuum), and a set (canister and orbiter) for down here. The vacuum cleaners for down here were supposed to be heavy-duty and specifically for filthy dirty old SHAG carpeting.

Within the first week of owning my upright, I had to take it in because I sucked up a marker lid. One would think an expensive vacuum cleaner with a 21 year "service" plan could handle a marker lid. Within a few months I had to replace the belt. The roller brush and another belt burned out within a year.

We burned the canister out in six months. Seriously. The filter clogged and melted the motor. I just took it back to the store where we bought it and the manager swapped me out for a new upright that was worth half the price of the canister, brand new. Of course when she swapped me, she didn't tell me she was giving me a cheap vacuum. So I called her today.

I'm the pit bull of the family when it comes to getting my money back and getting warranties honored. Honestly, why don't companies just tell us up front that we are buying shoddy merchandise the day we buy it? Why do I have to waste my time on the phone arguing with people who are going to get paid the same whether they honor their product or not? I remember when our hard drive crashed and we lost all our baby pictures of IJ. I was on the phone for hours bullying people at the call center in India. But we got a new hard drive.

The manager at the Oreck store where I bought my vacuums was good. She played the "I'm a good guy because I'm working with you instead of playing hard like the guys at the other stores," trick. She played the "I call tell you are a good mother and your kids are so cute," card. She even tried the "if you are going to invest this much money in a vacuum, you would think you would care enough to check a filter so its all your fault" line.

But I played better. I had the "my husband's job was cut and I was forced to move into my father-in-laws house with shag carpet," the "My husband did all the vacuuming and he burned it out while I was three hours away taking care of my children-how was I to know the filter needed changing? the filter should last longer than three months" and the "I invested over two thousand dollars into your store-you aren't actually losing any money in this swap and you tricked me." And I cried.

Oh, I had so much fun. The secret to getting your money back is to find the weak spot of your opponent. Some people care about your approval and don't want you mad at them. Some people don't care if you are mad, but don't want to see you suffer because they really do have a heart under their tough exterior. By the end of our conversation, this woman confided that she had lost her home in foreclosure, had to fire most of her employees, had to close early every night so she could go work a second job, and had worked in an orphanage and that's how she knew that I was a good mom.

She gave me two years supply of vacuum cleaner bags for the new upright, a years supply for my old upright, and when I told her I was going to contact her district manager to let them know how kind she had been to me, she threw in a package of bags for the over-the-shoulder vacuum. Hah!

Cub Scout Camp

We made it! One week of living out of suitcases with four kids in tow... and now we are home. Only we have been living out of suitcases for weeks now with the move, so home is still a strange concept for me...

Cub Scout Camp was hard work for me with a baby and 3 year old tagging along, but I'm pretty sure the boys had fun. Even though it rained the first two days. And I really enjoyed getting to see my dearest friends one more time. The boys had many fun activities that we are going to reproduce here at home. The theme of camp was Lost on Treasure Island (or something like that), so the boys all made things that could help them survive on and get off the island.

S making a tie-die shirt:Roasting biscuits on a stick:Archery:BB Guns:Cannons out of an electric lighter ignitions and film canister:And paper rockets:The girls liked looking at the animals, but that was about it. I'm amazed they survived the 4 1/2 hours every evening. I barely did.

Our Fun Fourth

Like I mentioned earlier, we worked most of the Fourth. But we did take a little time to play down at the pond. M did most of the playing. He threw IJ in the water:He baptized F, ogre style:
He took the little kids for rides on the paddle board:He raced IJ across the pond, paddle board verses swimming:He shot me with the water guns (and I shot back- which eventually led to him chasing me and throwing me into the pond):And S finally got the nerve to cross the pond on a noodle (with a life jacket):The other highlight was the fireworks, of which I have no photos. The pictures always turn out bad anyway. Twice we had fireworks misfire and land at the feet or on the lap(!) of the audience. One of our outdoor rocking chairs has the scorch marks to prove it.

Sunday we worked even more, unpacking and getting the rest of the heavy furniture back inside. Here is our Book Nook (no more orange carpet!) and a future reader, F:After sleeping under the stars for three nights, I was very happy to stay up past midnight reading trashy vampire romance novels in my very own bed. The kids and I are headed back to the ol' place for a week of camp today.

IJ has been missing his old home. I asked him what we was missing. His answers were the tightness and noise of the old house, and My Pathetic Doberman barking at everything. Um, those things are what I don't miss the most!

The blog will be dark until I get back...

Our New Home

Yesterday, Friday, was the Big Carpet Day. On Thursday night, we had to remove all furniture from the rooms that were being carpeted. But every other room in this house is stuffed with unpacked boxes and furniture too. So I came up with the great idea of camping outside. In style! We drug our mattresses and rocking chairs around the camp fire and roasted marshmallows in comfort.S, our easily confused comedian, turned to M and I and asked, "Do we now live outside?"

Marshmallow Master!

We had so much fun camping the first night, we are planning on camping until the novelty wears off. The kids sleep in the tent and F, M, and I sleep under the stars. When the moon sets late at night (or early in the morning) we can see the Milky Way! We wake up cold and covered in dew, but a quick trip inside for hot cocoa solves that problem.

In years past, we held an annual family reunion barbecue on the 4th of July. This year we are skipping the large party and focusing on moving our furniture. And we can't move our furniture without L's significant other. We are happy to have him and his son come down for the weekend.

"Home is where the couch is"

[look closely on the couch for a cute surprise]