Seriously?! Thursday

I’m linking up with From Mrs. to Mama today for her Thursday post.  I found her blog through someone else’s blog that I read, who also links up to this weekly post.  I checked out her blog as well, and just became one of her newest followers too!  I’m not sure if I will link up with this posting every week, but today is a start.   :)

Seriously?!  CSN stores through Amazon.com.  I don’t think I will ever deal with them again after this mess.  They listed a Graco Snugride car seat base in beige.  That’s exactly what I needed.  I ordered it, and when they sent me an e-mail to confirm the order, it said “tan” – not what I ordered.  And yes, there is a difference in the colors.  If I really wanted the tan one, I could have ordered it directly from Amazon for $10 cheaper and no shipping!  Long story short, they said it was a mistake on their part, I requested to cancel the order, but somehow it already shipped out (before I even confirmed the order?!), and they refused to contact UPS to have the item returned to them before it reached my doorstep.  I was told I would receive a full refund of the item cost and the shipping I had to pay, and would not have to pay to ship it back to them.  Today’s e-mail said I would only receive the refund for the item.  They got a response to that, and I’m hoping they cooperate as they said they would, and I won’t have to contest the charge with the credit card and report them to the BBB. 

Seriously?!  Our health insurance.  Again with the refunds.  We were owed $96 on a claim.  They sent us the check.  I didn’t take it to the bank right away, but once I did, I got another $96 check.  We were confused, so we looked into it.  The first check bounced, and they were replacing it.  Problem is, my bank charged us a $12 fee for a bounced check.  How does a major insurance company bounce a $96 check (due to insufficient funds!), seriously?!  Now we’re back and forth with them to get the $12 refunded as well.  All this makes me tired!

Seriously?!  This weather lately.  Crazy storms and tornadoes in places that don’t usually get hit by them (Philadelphia, Allentown??), and even the temperature.  It didn’t really feel like we had a real spring.  It felt like it went from cold, to chilly, to now super hot!  Those nice temperature days were few, and when we did have them, it rained and rained and rained.  The rain makes it feel chillier.  Then today it was just about 90 degrees here!  My AC is on in the house, but for some reason our upstairs doesn’t seem to cool down as much as it should.  We’ve made it better, but still not great.  I’d rather summer than winter, but I can’t stand the heat right now.  We have a lot of things to accomplish outside, and between the rain and heat, it’s not getting done as quickly as it needs to be done.

Seriously?!  I’m 36 weeks pregnant today!  This is not a rant one, but just unbelievable.  When thinking about it in weeks, the weeks seem to fly by, but when I think back to October when we found it, it seems like so long ago.  I’m not so sure I’m ready for the delivery part, but I am ready to not have this huge belly in the way anymore.  I can’t sleep well (up anywhere from 4-6 times a night for the bathroom – seriously?! – now every 1.5 hours), I can’t bend over and pick things up, I can’t even get up and down from sitting very well anymore. 

Seriously?!  Taco Bell – or, rather, the lady at Taco Bell.  I wanted to get their current Big Box meal for Hubby, but he wanted some substitutions.  Before ordering, I checked the prices of things to make sure his substitutions were the same price as what is supposed to be included.  According to their menu, all prices were the same.  I asked for my first substitution, no problem.  As I started to ask for my second substitution, she already was giving me a look like I was a royal PITA, and then told me no, due to the price.  I tried pointing out on their menu that it was the same price, but she still refused.  I think she just didn’t want to deal with the substitutions…

I think that’s all I’ve got for now, thanks for reading my rants!  Today feels like Friday.  I don’t have to worry about one more work day or anything, but it feels like a Friday.  Hubby and I do have stuff to do outside, but this heat is unbearable!  At least I don’t have to cook today!   :)

Favorite Kitty Pic Friday!

<table style="width:auto;"><tr><td><a href="http://stephscreativelife.blogspot.com/"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHe-niZhfEaKY6MAUwqTd_3c5MQp501sz1jPEA_seJhPXG5ie1W1Z5sDhRHez3qg8fxQ1pmHfTRhFpjhGosOx733H7zggKjzU-ITHwvDXF6GRfizjAP5E2LfAOUqKJ60KARciSZzt74vM/?imgmax=800" /></a></td></tr></table>

It’s Friday again!  I hope some of you have been having better weather than we have here.  It’s been raining/storming for a week now!  This weekend was supposed to be beautiful according to the forecast on Tuesday, but changed to include yet some more rain as of yesterday.  I’m not sure what the forecast says now, but I am tired of the rain.  Our lawn is in need of a mowing and trimming, the weeds surrounding my flowers around the patio are starting to really take over and look like a jungle out there, and we still need to put down our spring weed and feed on the lawn as well.  Hopefully we can get some of it done this weekend, and the rain either holds off or disappears.
Here’s my choice for this week.  It was taken just last night after Hubby and I finished snapping some pregnancy photos.
 My big momma’s boy, Jasper.  He can be so bad sometimes, but I absolutely love him (even though he did not want to take this picture and isn’t as happy with me as I am with him).  Sorry for the glowing eyes – I wasn’t sure of the best way to fix it.  Since he’s a big momma’s boy, and we have no idea how he will react to the baby or even to us once the baby is here, I’m trying to give him all the love and attention I can now, so he realizes he is loved and I will do as much as I can even after Bean is here, so he knows he’s still cared for, still my fur baby, and still momma’s boy (except that he will just have to share me). 
I hope you all have a great weekend, and get to do something more fun and exciting than yard work!  If you’d like to participate in this post, grab the button up top, create your own post, and link it in the comments below.  I’d love to see some of your favorite kitties!

Thursday Thoughts

1. I have a sick kitty.   :(   He’s been having sneezing fits since yesterday, and you can just tell he doesn’t feel well.  My poor baby, I feel bad for him.  I don’t think it’s time to call the vet yet, since he’s still eating some and drinking, but once I see that he’s not eating, I will put out the wet food (they can smell it better and will eat more when they are sick) and call the vet to see if he needs any antibiotics.  See, not feeling well:

Hubby put his blanket in the corner by the bookshelf in the office, and I know Jasper likes blankets, but this is a little unusual for him.  It doesn’t help that it’s chilly, and and the heat hasn’t been on yet.  2. Speaking of heat and chilly weather – I’m so tired of the rain now!  I know we had quite a dry summer here, and needed some rain, but I’ve had enough of it now.  I have outdoor things to do – fertilize/weed kill the lawn, plant my daffodil and tulip bulbs so we can finally mulch the planting bed around the patio, and I’d like to use my brand new fire bowl some evening before winter hits and make some s’mores.  We’ve had some nice days, but the nice days have either been too warm to plant the bulbs (I was waiting until the temps got cooler and stayed consistent – now that we’re there, I feel like I can’t get enough dry days to plant!), or busy with other tasks and errands, and lately we’ve gotten a late start to dinner, so it gets a little too late to sit outside around a fire for a couple hours.  I was supposed to have a baton lesson today, and that got rained out.  Tomorrow is supposed to be nicer, but windy, so I can have the lesson tomorrow, but the wind might be too much for a fire.

3. Oh, and as I was typing this post, the heat did get turned on.  Everyone is warming up, and so far I haven’t heard the clicking from the vent in the bedroom.  I don’t think it’s quite cold enough for the clicking to start yet.  Yet another stupid issue with our brand new house – the vent coming up through the garage/family room wall, running along the floor of our bedroom and coming to it’s opening in the back of the bedroom is made of aluminum, and expands and shrinks when we use the heat.  So, the result is we hear a clicking/pinging sound on really cold days when the heat kicks on.  When there’s no heat blowing, the vent “shrinks” since it runs through the one garage wall, and gets very cold, and then when the heat blows it starts to warm up the vent causing the metal to expand, which creates the noise.  Kept me awake and irritated soooo many nights last winter.  We were told that it sometimes is an issue in these houses, and they need to fix it by cutting into the garage wall, replacing the aluminum duct with a plastic flexible duct, and fix up the garage wall again.  If it’s a known issue, why don’t they make these houses with the flexible duct in the first place???  But no, I have to deal with the noise and have them cut holes in my home to find the problem and fix it.  My issue is that I don’t think the expansion problem is coming from the garage wall area, but where the duct runs between the family room ceiling and bedroom floor.  If that’s the issue, they might have to cut open my whole family room ceiling!  Really not looking forward to dealing with all that this winter…

4.  Back to my sick kitty – if you’ll notice in the above pictures, he is quite a tubby cat.  We have tried switching to light food, and now even strictly measure out his daily amount of food.  We don’t regulate the food bowls overnight, because if we did, we wouldn’t sleep at all!  But we are trying to get his weight down, and I don’t think we have been successful yet.  So, I saw this fun little toy, and thought it would be a super success!:

Not so much…  I figured I’d fill it with some of his regular kibble (not treats, as if he needs anymore of those ever!), and make him work a little for his food.  He’d get some much needed play and his food would be the reward.  He would still be able to eat a lot of it from his regular bowl, but I was trying to incorporate some mental and physical work into his feeding.  He hasn’t figured it out yet…  He looks at me like I’m playing a cruel trick on him.  Maybe someday he’ll finally figure it out.

5. I have things to do that I just don’t feel like doing.  I have to hem a pair of costume pants for one of the girls in the baton group.  I offered to do it so I knew it would get done and hopefully come out well, but I really never feel like hemming pants…  It’s tedious and boring.  I don’t want to fertilize the yard.  It needs to be done, and seems pretty easy, but I just don’t want to do it.  The basement and garage need some major cleaning, and I really don’t want to do that!  I have some crafts I really want to finish up, but I’m at a tedious and boring part of the process for some of them, so I keep pushing it off.

6. Along the lines of crafts, I made these on Tuesday as well: 

Swirly Blue Chandelier Earrings:  I have not added these to my Artfire site yet, because I have to figure out their cost and selling price.  There we go again with the tedious part of a craft that I really dislike to do!  Hopefully by tomorrow I will have them priced and added.  The ear wires are a different style for my typical selection, but I really like them and think they make this pair look more elegant.  The blue beads are leftover from my Beachy Blue set, and I bought the swirly chandelier parts a while ago, but just got around to using them.  Look for them there soon though!

7. I’m a little disappointed about some things.  I have yet to make a sale from any of my shops, and I hate to admit that to anyone reading this, but I don’t get it.  I think I make/create some cute stuff, and my jewelry and other crafts are priced right around what other people charge, if not less, but yet still no takers, no orders…  The stuff on my Cafe Press shops are slightly expensive, but I promise I don’t mark them up a whole lot – most of the cost for them is Cafe Press’ base cost for the item.  I even have my Breast Cancer Awareness items that I’m donating profits to the American Cancer Society, but sadly no takers on that stuff either…  So, I hate to do this, but I’m going to be a little shameless here – go check out My Style Crafts on Artfire, My Style Crafts-Photography Gifts on Cafe Press, and My Style Designs on Cafe Press (currently all breast cancer awareness designs on this shop with ALL profits going to American Cancer Society – changed from a portion as stated before) – if you like anything, buy it!  :)  Christmas is coming.  ;)   If you have any questions or would like to make any special orders, feel free to contact me!  I love to craft a whole variety of things, and I have some cute ideas for future projects, but struggling to get my dance business going, and not working otherwise, it gets hard for me to spend money on more supplies when I haven’t gotten any returns from previous projects.  It just makes me feel disappointed that I can’t seem to get anywhere with this stuff, and I have no idea why.  I know people are looking at it – if you have comments about anything, please send them to me!  I don’t know how to better my products or services if I get no feedback!

I think that’s all for today…I’m very tired because I hardly slept last night.  Jasper woke me up with a sneezing fit, and then there was just no going back to sleep after that.  So, at 5pm, I say goodnight!

Our Patio!

So, we waited all summer for our patio, mainly due to figuring the whole thing out, picking stones, getting a permit, and the landscaper’s schedule, but it was finally finished a couple weeks ago!  I absolutely love it, and I’m glad we still have some time to enjoy it yet this year before winter sets in.

I have progress photos from each day something was worked on and completed:

Day one:  The stones were brought to the house and the base was spread over the grass.  We had the patio built up, not dug into the ground because we have a sloped yard, and the water would have run onto the patio if we would have had it even with the rest of the yard.

 

 

 

This little area might look funny, but we had a plan for it – you’ll see in the finished product.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Day two:

The border was put in place, the border stones were laid out, and the main stones were starting to get laid out.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The kind of crappy wooden step was finally gone!  He had to cut the thing off because of how it was bolted to the house, but we saved the step mainly for wood, since we did pay like $180 to have the thing put on when we bought the house!

View from the upstairs out onto the patio:

 

 

 

 

 

 

We picked EP Henry stones, Village Square style, in the pewter blend laid in a random pattern with charcoal brickstones for the border.

Day three:  Patio stones are all laid out and sanded in place!  All that’s left is the drain off to the side, the stone step to replace the wooden ones, and finish off the planting bed around it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Day four:  Original step design was put in place, but luckily not glued in place.  It turned out a little to shallow, and we were afraid of falls happening on it when coming in and out.

 

 

 

 

 

 

See how small it is?  I have small feet, and my shoes hung over the end of the step when I stood on it!  We re-designed, picked up more stone, and created a much nicer, larger, and safer step:

Day five:  new step in place!  Fix-ups done!  Planting bed edged and ready for flowers!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 And finally, the finished patio!  Plants planted, pergola set up, table and chairs set out, grill in place, and that little circle area filled in:

 

 

 

 

 

 

We have 2 butterfly bushes, Belgian mums, day lilies, and icicle pansies currently planted around the patio.  Once the weather cools down slightly and stays cool, I have tulip and daffodil bulbs to plant, so in the spring we will have those growing, the icicle pansies coming back, and the butterfly bushes.  I may have to get other annuals for the summer.

Unfortunately, today’s weather has been very rainy and windy.  The wind blew 2 of my chairs around, one of which landed on one of my mums and crushed it.  It also managed to blow the grill over, which landed on one of my butterfly bushes.  The grill is dented in the rear, and we’re hoping that’s the only damage, but we won’t know until we use it.  I tried to fix up the mum, but I don’t know if it was too broken to snap back, and the butterfly bush was pretty crushed, but I’m hoping and thinking it should be ok.  We’re at the end of its blooming season, and in some areas they can be cut down all the way to the ground for winter, and grow back in the spring.  So hopefully that will sprout new branches and be ok.  It’s amazing how the wind we’ve had today, which is nothing compared to some days, caused so much destruction, but when we had 70 mph gusts last week for a bad storm, NOTHING HAPPENED!!!  It just doesn’t make sense.

So now I’m headed out in this crappy weather to do some grocery shopping, or we won’t have anything to eat after today.