Christmas Love

I would love to send all of my blogging friends a Christmas card next month.

If you are interested in receiving a card from moi - please send me an email with your address to redhoodoos at gmail dot com.

I hereby promise not to stalk, send bombs, give your address to anyone else, or tape cat fur to the card (sorry Janell - sometimes my cat obsession just eeks out in odd places).

Also - I think it would be fun to do a Christmas gift exchange with each other. Let me know if you're interested and I'll post something early this week.

If you are interested in a gift exchange - let me know the following:
1) Would you want your identity to be a secret until the time your person receives the gift from you? Or would you like it to be known from the start?
2) Should there be a gift $ limit? If so, what amount do you think it should be?

YAY - I'm finally starting to feel the Christmas spirit!!

Beware of Wesley Berry Flowers!

I'm sending an email and posting about an experience I had - to warn you of a horrible company that I think defrauded me.

The company is WESLEY BERRY FLOWERS. Don't go there!! Whatever you do - stay away from this company.

Here is my experience...

A few weeks ago I googled florists and found this company. Their website is very professional and looked pretty legitimate. It's at http://www.wesleyberryflowers.com/

Have any of you ever heard of them?

I called customer service and ordered flowers and a dozen cookies. I wanted them sent to someone in a hospital out of state. I gave them my credit card. The money was taken out of my account the same day.

The next day I received an email from this company saying that they didn't have my item in stock and it wasn't delivered. Huh? An email? A day later?

I called them and asked what they were going to do. "I will request a refund for you. You will receive a refund in your account in 10-15 business days."

What?!! Why did they even take the money out of my account if they didn't have the item in stock? Couldn't they have found this out sooner so the recipient could still get her flowers before she checked out of the hospital?

So I've been silently fuming the last few weeks. Each day I check my account. Each day the refund is not there.

I decided to call them today. Clearly, I was not happy. I was ready to tell them of their poor customer service.

As a side note - it really takes a lot to get me mad. I am a pretty easy-going person.

I called a few minutes ago and spoke with a woman in their customer service department.

Me: Poor you. You had to take this phone call. I'm not happy at all.
Her: Sigh. Were you just speaking to someone? (I thought this was fairly 'telling')
Me: No.
Her: Sigh. What's the matter?

I explained the situation. Told her I was unhappy that they debited the money out of my account if the item wasn't even available. blah blah blah.

Her: Just a minute. Click - she put me on hold. I wait. MAAM - Your money will be taken out within 24 hours.
Me: You mean it will be put back 'into' my account, right?
Her: Oh yes, that's what I meant. Thanks for calling. BYE.
Me: Wait!
Her: Click.

She hung up on me.

I was sooo not done with that conversation. I didn't hear one "sorry for the inconvenience". Not even a simple "sorry". Nothing but rudeness. I was calm throughout the entire conversation. Never once was I rude to her.

I called her back because now I was as mad as a hornet. I wasn't going to be calm anymore!! Someone picked up the phone and hung it up again.

!

I am just astounded. I got online and found that I'm clearly not the only one who has had problems with this company. There were pages and pages of complaints.

I will be calling a manager on Tuesday morning if there is not a refund in my account.

It's not the money that upsets me. It's the way I've been treated. They took my money. Didn't send the flowers and then told me it would be 2-3 weeks before I would get my money back.

I don't understand why some people/companies can't be honest and forthright.

So beware of this company. Tell your friends to beware. It is a nationwide online florist. I hope I see my money on Monday - but I'm not counting on it.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

On a happy note - have a great Sunday!

Making lemonade out of lemons..

It happens every year. Whether we like it or not - we can all expect to get older. Unfortunately, it's that time of year for me. If I'm still blogging next year you will get to hear (er, read) my whining, kicking, and screaming because it will be the year of the big 40! Holy cow - 40! (But I don't want to talk about that.)

At the risk of sounding doom and gloom - it seems like something bad happens every November. Seriously, every year in November there is an incident of some sort.

One year I hit a dog. Another year it was the Driver's Ed incident (which was really the last week of October, but I'm counting it). One year I was called to work the shift for a girl who was murdered the night before (this was a horrific experience for me). Last year was the mother load of multiple bad incidents. Go here to be truly entertained! (It was technically my first blog post).

It is seriously uncanny.

So every year I usually brace myself and just wait for the events to unfold. I tend to get pretty discouraged during the month of November. But this year I'm going to try to have a positive mindset through it all. Of course I can't control everything that happens, but I can control my responses to the events. I can be grateful.

So far this month, there have been a couple of incidents. Nothing major, and I really hope this is it! I can handle this.

Yesterday at 6:00 am I received a phone call from my husband and son, who were stranded in our season's first big snow storm. They couldn't make it up the hill that goes up our mountain. Cops were patrolling the hill and we were worried that they would close it to all traffic (as they often do in the winter). But hey - positive mindset, right? I drove down in a sturdier vehicle, picked them up, and brought them home! No roads were closed. It all turned out okay! They made it home safe and sound.

I was hoping that was going to be my only "November Incident" this year. But alas - I had another one this morning.

This morning, I was driving to pick up Connor from swim practice. I took a freeway exit and headed for the left turn lane when I heard a pop and a hissssss. 30 seconds later my back tire was completely flat. Fortunately, I made it through the light and I pulled into a parking lot, and just sat there trying to figure out what to do.

I really tried to find the good in this incident.

The Good News - I have a husband who can fix anything!
The Bad News - he left his cell phone at home.

So, I called his desk. No answer. I had him paged - Victory Was MINE! He would leave work to rescue his wife who was in distress.

While I waited, and while looking for the positive in this little issue - guess what I found?



My camera!! I soooo launched into blogging mode.

This is how I felt about having a flat tire:



Luckily, my dear husband came to my rescue. (Except that he wasn't too thrilled about me taking his picture doing manly things...) And luckily my son found another ride to school.




Todd messed around with the tire for a while before telling me the bad news - we didn't have the tool that he needed to get the spare.

But he had a great idea! Let's take the tire off of the car and drive it to Big O. They can patch the tire and then we can drive back and throw the tire on the vehicle.

Except that the tire had a gaping hole in the side and couldn't be 'patched'.

But as luck would have it - I had 4 snow tires in the back of the car.


I was actually going to have them installed on Saturday - but hey - there's no time like the present! So off we drove to Big O on this beautiful Thursday morning.

And here I am again - a happy camper!

I'm sooo hoping that this post is the end of my infamous bad November luck for 2008. But if not, I'm sure blog land will be the first to know!

Jan's Awesome Giveaway!

Did you vote?

Todd and Creature are sooooo in the DOG HOUSE!

Yes, it's another cat post - AND IT'S AN ANGRY CAT POST!



I am the angry elf.

I realize that after this post I may lose both of my readers - but please find it in your hearts to allow me to rant about the conspiracy that has been brewing, BEHIND MY BACK, in the walls of my own home.

First, behold the cutest cat in the world. Surely there has never been a more lovable feline.

Even the biggest cat hater EVER has to admit that he is downright adorable.

For years I have lovingly cared for this cat. He adores me. He follows me everywhere I go. We have an understanding. When I come home, I call for my cat. I hear him jump off of my bed and he runs down the stairs. He rubs against me and purrs. He loves his mommy. (Yes, I just said that. Please don't mock me.)

But he has betrayed me.

Because this guy bought catnip.

Oh, he may look sweet. Handsome. Innocent. But don't let that cute face fool you. He has beguiled my cat into thinking that HE is the cat's meow.

Todd has used this past weekend to his advantage and has gained major brownie points with my cat. He has spent the weekend feeding him catnip drugs. Today he came home before me and laced Creature's cat food with it.

HOW CAN I COMPETE WITH THAT?

Now, when I come home - he doesn't come running. When Todd calls him - Creature scampers to his new master. He stares at Todd with eyes full of anticipation for the never-ending catnip.

I just want you to know that I am not happy about this.

There is no point to this post. There is no moral. There is no ending question in an effort to get comments. This is it.

I am an angry elf.

Grateful

Wonderful Kitchen Ditcher left a comment on my blog and said "You are so blessed with your family Red." That made me beam from ear to ear - because she is so right.

Aren't we all lucky to have loved ones? People that mean the world to us?

Here are some random photos from the busy last two weeks.

Connor's first swim meet (He's the swimmer on the far right)

Connor - I'm so proud of you~!

Larissa's Choir Concert. She's the beauty in red/black.

She is such a sweetheart.

Creature snuggling with Elora. He can't decide if he's a cat or a human. Children and animals love to be around Elora. So do I.

I had to laugh at Elora's socks...

They just don't look comfortable to me! LOL.

My amazing husband.

Finally, here is a portion of a letter from my missionary son, Darren.

"I realized also that I haven't always been the best son and that it has taken some real patience to raise a child like me! Yikes! I think I get it now... I thought I had it back then.

To my Moms! As far as support and love I've never seen better examples of unselfishness and forgivness than I have seen come from both of them. I sure pushed them to the limits! But I really can't believe how much I am missing them. Of all the "things" I thought I would miss I didn't really understand just how much my family means to me.I find that I am not catching myself saying, "gee, I wish I had spent more time working" or "I should have gotten in one last 'Halo Night' with my friends." Instead I find that the things I miss most were the ones I spent the least amount of time with.

I wish we had had more game nights, more time to fish, more trips through the mountains picking berries, more fun times feeding the squirrels at Bryce. My family(s), and just how lucky am I to have two of them! Mean everything to me! I wish I had helped out more, spent more time working on cars or making the burden lighter for my parents."

I am so thankful for my family.