PHone PHrustrations!

Isn't it interesting how when things in our lives work right we hardly even notice them, but when they quit working they become so noticeable? Apparently on Saturday our home phone ceased to function correctly. Usually we figure out that we have a problem when the Internet won't connect, but for some reason the DSL continued to work. My mom and sister spent all day calling me, wondering where I was and I spent all day wondering why they didn't call. Finally, in the evening I called them on my cell phone and discovered that something was wrong with my phone. We have a portable phone with one hook up but three bases and three hand sets. One of the bases got ran over by the vacuum cleaner and one of the phones has disappeared, but we still have two. Unfortunately the handsets get left off of the bases and then they run out of battery or get under the couch cushions and accidentally get turned on when someone sits on them. In other words, I felt like there was probably a problem with the phone this time and I couldn't blame the failure on the stupid phone company and there inept ability to repair the phone line adequately a month ago. On Monday I went to Target and bought a new phone. Another one with one hook up, three handsets, three bases - $59.99 on sale. I took it home and low and behold the phone still had no dial tone. I decided perhaps it was time to contact the phone company. Since this kind of thing is what I have a hubby for I immediately called him and asked him to call and request a repair. Being the wonderful, loving man that he is he did it without complaint, later in the evening after he got home from work. Of course, when you call any business now you do not actually get to talk to a person. You get to carry on a conversation with a voice that asks you random questions and then tells you to speak your answer into the phone, but when you speak the voice starts talking again so the voice doesn't understand what you say. The first thing you usually hear upon calling Qwest is "For some reason, we are experiencing a high number of repair calls and there may be a delay in your service". This is a polite way of saying, our repairmen are mostly a bunch of idiots who don't know what they are doing and therefore we have to keep repairing the same mistakes that we supposedly fixed last month and so we have quite a backlog. Eventually, hubby got a repair scheduled for sometime on July 1st, the next day. Hooray! The repairman arrived in the late afternoon (after driving up and down the street for about 20 minutes) and wasn't at all deterred by the vicious attack dog (Poky) who met him at the door with me. After about an hour and a half we receive a call from him that our phone is now working. I always find this humorous because of course it is working, you are calling me on it. At the same moment, the son and I were trying to sign on to the Internet to work on some health. Three tries and no connection. I check the modem box - flashing lights everywhere. STOP that repairman! Too late, there he goes off down the street. Perhaps everything just needs reset. Unplug, unconnect, turn off, re-plug, re-connect, turn on - same results. Once again I call the hubby, he calls the phone company, try these things when you get home, we'll send someone out tomorrow. Tomorrow, July 2, arrives. About 10:00 I receive a phone call with a "message concerning our phone repair." The repair has been completed and everything is working now. If we have any more problems please call this number. I run to my bedroom to check. Still flashing lights. Perhaps everything just needs reset. Unplug, unconnect, turn off, re-plug, re-connect, turn on - same results. Good thing I wrote down that number! I call the phone company. (Hubby is trying to work and I am capable of talking on the phone once in a while.) After speaking to the voice and pushing a multitude of buttons and listening to how valuable I am to Qwest and a sales pitch for every item they could possibly sell me I get to talk to a real, live person. I ask "Was the repair call I receive regarding the old repair or the new repair?" Who knows. I explain the situation and the real person says hold on while I test the line. More sales pitch and valuable person propaganda. The line appears to be working fine. It must be something to do with the DSL line. Let me connect you with the Internet repair department. More of the valuable customer spill and information on how to sign on to the Internet and get help at their website. I would love to sign on to the Internet and I would definitely love to get help. Now I decide to do a hand off to the eldest son to discuss the technical aspects of the problem because that's what I have sons for and I'm tired of listening to the same message over again. This was a very good decision since the son gets to run around the house and stand on his head and connect and unconnect cables for the next 20 minutes. The final determination is that we need a new modem because apparently ours is fried. I get the phone back to discuss the financial portion of the deal. I can get the modem from them for the low price of $59.99 (think I already spent that amount on this problem this week). I query why we need to purchase the modem from them. The original modem didn't come from them. I receive a lengthy lesson on car repair and how important it is to use parts from the maker and not facsimiles thereof. I see. "How long will it take to arrive?" "3 to 5 business days." Hum, not good. We have health to do and we are going out of town on the 4th. I express my concern. "Oh, I am so glad you told me about your concern. You can just go to Best Buy and buy a modem right now." How convenient. I would have liked to know that 15 minutes ago at the beginning of this discussion. That is what I will do. I get off the phone and eldest son says, "I don't think it's the modem. We had a brand new modem (that we bought when we bought the original one and thought we needed two but really only needed one and so never used) and I tried it too with the Internet tech guy and it didn't work either. He said it must be bad too, but I don't see how it could be since it's brand new." Interesting twist. This is the same modem that I will get in my hot car and drive to Best Buy to purchase. I don't really want to do that if it isn't going to fix the problem. I know. I will call the phone company again and see what they suggest. What a good idea! At least I'll try a new phone number. More voices, more buttons, more valuable customer garbage then finally a real person. I explain my situation. "Hold on and I will check your line to see if it's working." "It's working. I'm talking to you on it." "It will just take a couple of minutes. Let me check it." Now I get -upgrade to a faster Internet speed and get 2 months free. I should be getting something free since I'm not getting what I'm paying for! Real person comes back on "It appears the line is working fine. Let me connect you to the DSL department." Been there, done that, but sure let's do it again. I wish the phone company just had elevator music when they put you on hold. DSL person, "Have you...?" "Yes." "Have you...?" "Yes." and so on and so on and so on. "I need to test your line to see if it is working correctly. You need to hang up and I'll call you back in about 2 minutes." Great. No body's thought to test the line before. Half an hour later. "The line seems to be working fine. I have one of our computer specialists on the other line. I am going to bring him on and he is going to help you try one more thing. Here he is." "Thanks." "I'm going to stand on my head and count to 200 and hit this box with a ding dong wrapper and see if that helps. I need you to unplug your modem and I'll tell you when to plug it back in." In case you haven't guessed that's not what he really said, but what he actually did worked just as well as I think that would have. "Plug the modem back in." and we'll carry on some casual conversation while we wait to see if anything happens. "Umm, nothing. Well, it's possible that something didn't get hooked back up correctly after the repair yesterday. I will put in an order for a repairman to come out. He can be there very late tomorrow. Is that OK?" "I guess it will have to be. We are getting ready to leave town and my son has an online class he needs to work on before we go but I guess we can go to the library to work on it." "Well, actually you need to be home to greet the repairman tomorrow and although I don't think he will get there until late he may be there early so you will need to be there." "O.K." X-nay on the library-a. "By the way, what happened to the repairman that my husband scheduled to come out today? Did he come?" "Let me check. No, apparently no order was ever submitted on that call." "Perhaps I could get the repairman there in the morning tomorrow.How about between 9:00 and 1:00." Just lovely. I know this story has dragged on long enough and obviously my computer is once again working since I am posting a blog. The repairman came about 11:00 and "completed a very easy repair." Apparently there are two connections in the box out in the alley. One for the phone and one for the Internet. Somehow the Internet one was left unplugged following the first repair. Imagine that. I am so glad I am one of Qwest's valuable customers and I get to enjoy their company on such a regular basis. Does anyone have a new phone carrier recommendation? By the way. We now have 5 working land line phones, 4 cell phones, and a "fast enough" DSL connection and no one wants to communicate with me. What's with that! The son did get some health done though so that is a plus. I am grateful today for Phones and computers - that all work at the moment. A blog - where I can vent and feel better. Vacation - that I get to go on tomorrow!

Random thoughts on dish washing

In our home we have a nightly rotation for washing the dishes. It starts with the oldest, the hubby, and then moves down according to age and then starts over every 4 days. This is not advanced math. Every 4 days it's your night to wash the dishes. However, it seems like this is sometimes a difficult concept for the male members of my household to grasp and they are experts at playing dumb. "I didn't know it was my night." "You didn't tell me it was my night, how was I suppose to know?" "I'm pretty sure I washed them just 2 nights ago." and so on and so on and so on. And then there's the exceptions to the rule such as if we eat out on someones night to wash dishes do they wash the dishes the next night or does that count as their night? This question has a different answer each time it's asked depending on whose night it was to wash the dishes. Also, if one or both of the girls come to dinner should they have to join the dish rotation? The boys say absolutely, the girls say guests don't have to wash dishes. Anyway, for some reason it often seems like the dishes don't get washed according to schedule and no one seems to be able to agree on who should wash them. Since I am apparently the family member who is bothered the most by a kitchen full of dirty dishes it seems like I am found washing LOTS of gross dishes more often than I would like to admit. This gives me time to ponder and reflect on this necessary chore. When I wash dishes I like my water HOT. As hot as I can stand it. This is wonderful in the winter time when my hands are always cold, but not so fun during the Arizona summers. Luckily there is an air conditioning vent that blows directly down on the kitchen sink. I also can not stand floaties in my water. If the water gets dirty I have to empty it out and start again. Hopefully Arizona never has to ration water, because dish washing would be one of the first things to be given up in my household. I don't mind washing cups, plates, bowls, or silverware but I don't like to wash pots and pans, especially if they have sat for any length of time. My hubby would choose to wash every pot in the house before he would agree to wash any type of silverware. You would think we could make this work to our advantage, but we haven't seemed to figure out how yet. I guess we don't understand the idea of teamwork. Speaking of teamwork, I seem to remember washing and/or drying the dishes with my brother a lot when I was growing up. It seems like the rule was if the dryer caught up with the washer the dryer got to stop and the washer had to do both jobs. Maybe that's just what my brother told me whenever he was the dryer. Actually, it seems like he spent more time snapping dish towels at me than drying dishes so he probably never did catch up. We didn't get a dishwasher until I was in high school because my dad always said he didn't need one. He already had 2 dishwashers, my brother and me. My kids think that joke is about as lame as I thought it was when he said it. We have a dishwasher, but it doesn't work and I can always think of things I want more than a new dishwasher. It seems to me that you work just as hard with a dishwasher rinsing all the dishes, loading the dishwasher, washing the stuff that can't go in the dishwasher or doesn't fit and then unloading the dishwasher and drying off all the stuff that's still wet. Maybe when all my kids leave home I'll feel differently and get one. That would really make them mad. A memory my Aunt Ruby used to like to share concerning me involved dish washing. She and my Grandpa were staying with my brother and I while my mom and dad were gone on a trip. She washed the dishes and neatly hung the dish cloth over the faucet to dry. I walked by about that time and told her, "That's not how we do it at our house." I took the cloth, walked back about 15 steps, wadded it up into a ball, and threw it into the sink. I then dusted my hands off and happily walked away. Washing lots of dishes at one time has led to the discovery of one of my greatest talents. I am an amazing dish stacker. I can make dish towers almost as high as the ceiling if the case need be. This one is a very modest tower, but represents some of my balancing skills.

Jekyll and Hyde

Sometimes I think my 16 year old has a split personality. At times he can be so agreeable,cooperative and down right fun to be around and other times - well, not so much. We are planning a family trip to Utah and he is not very excited about going, to put it mildly. One of his young men leaders, who has moved away, is going to be in church one of the Sundays that we are going to be gone and he is convinced that I planned this trip, at this time, just to make his life miserable. He thinks if he has to be miserable that his mom should be too and he spent most of Sunday being a pain. Now, I know I should just ignore him and not let him bug me, but that is easier said than done. He bugged me A LOT! Then today he is a totally different child. He did Health with very little prompting and no assistance from me. He happily changed the laundry for me, more than once, and without me even knowing one time. It is like a day and night difference. I wish I knew who or what to thank for this transformation because I really like it!

Message to my children - I hope when you have children and they don't want to come and visit me that you still make them come anyway, because I will want to see them even if they are miserable.

4 blessings to be thankful for today
A son - who did health happily and by himself.
A daughter - who goes shopping with me and tells me when I don't need things and lets me buy things even when I don't need them.
A daughter - who is willing to take care of some of my responsibilities so I can go on vacation.
A son - who thinks I have good date ideas and only makes fun of me a little bit when I suggest ideas that aren't so good.

The hubby's strategy for feeling cool

So, I'm sitting next to my hubby in church today and I look down at his tie and I'm trying to figure out why all the cartoon characters are in little round balls and what is that funny looking green plant in between each ball? As I look closer I realize he is wearing a Christmas tie complete with holly and ornaments! You've all heard of Relief Society activities billed as "Christmas in July". Well, I think he was going for "Christmas in June" and definitely hoping for the cooler temperatures. I say, anything is worth a try. It is so HOT here. The air conditioning in the nursery room at the church was working right today though so that was a nice bonus. For about the last month we've had to push the over-ride button to get it to come on and that is suppose to last for 3 hours, but only lasted for about half an hour and then we'd have to push it again. Sometimes we'd forget and then all the sudden we would start getting really warm and have to push it and then wait for it to cool off. Not fun!

The 3 things I am thankful for today are Kids - I get such a kick out of the little kids in nursery and their personalities. They are so willing to let their feelings show and not at all afraid of acting silly. It's fun to have people to be silly with me. They make me so happy! The Gospel of Jesus Christ - I often become complacent about this great blessing and begin to take my religion for granted. I have enjoyed reading the blog of my daughter's roommate and son's girlfriend and seeing the church and all its blessings through her newly baptised eyes. It reminds me to appreciate what I have been blessed with. Air Conditioning - I can't imagine what living in Tempe must have been like before air conditioning. It's just way to hot to not have a cooling system to make life bearable.

The Curse of Party Food

I usually consider myself an OK cook. I definitely don't do fancy, but the stuff I make is usually edible, unless of course you ask my 16 year old son, then it's just disgusting because pretty much all food that doesn't come in a fast food bag is disgusting in his opinion. Anyway, back to the subject at hand. I do know how to cook and am quite capable until someone asks me to cook something for a party. Then strange things begin to happen and something always seems to go wrong or the food just doesn't end up tasting as good as it usually does. I was supposed to make 2 pineapple upside down cakes for a going away party tonight for a family in our ward. Now, I don't usually make pineapple upside down cake, but I know what it is suppose to look like and I had a recipe so I wasn't too worried. The recipe called for 1 cup of brown sugar and my 1 cup measuring cup was dirty and I didn't feel like washing it so I decided to use the 1/3 cup and being the math whiz that I am I filled it up 3 times and poured it into the melted butter, just like the recipe said. It looked like there was too much butter for the amount of sugar and I double checked the recipe and the cube markings to make sure I had used the right amount and I had. It wasn't until the first cake was in the oven and I was making the second one, that I realized the cup I had used said 1/4 instead of 1/3. I should have filled it up 4 times. It was amazing what a difference that fourth fill up made with the second cake. The first cake turned out fine and you couldn't even tell that I had made a mistake, but it is just frustrating to me that stuff like that always seems to happen. It didn't really matter though because there was lots of cake and we came home with almost as much as we took. I guess we know what we are taking for Sunday dinner at the in-laws tomorrow for dessert. My sister in law called to tell us we were having enchiladas. The hubby asked what we should bring and she said "Can you bring tacos." Does that make sense to you?? I thought it was kind of humorous. Tonight I am grateful for Breakfast Burritos - Usually I am not a big breakfast burrito fan, but my hubby bought me a bacon and potato one today from my sister in law's church food sale and it was yummy. A husband - that puts gas in the car for me so I don't have to do it and have a heart attack while watching the price numbers go around and around. Peer Pressure - usually this is not something to be grateful for, but today it got 3 of my kids out of bed and at the temple doing baptisms by 6:00 AM. Thank goodness for positive peer pressure.

Ant Island

For the past few mornings this is what I have seen in the cat's water dish when I have gone outside. It took me a while to figure out what it was, until I noticed that it was moving. It is actually a pile of about 100 ants climbing on top of each other trying not to drown. Apparently the ants in our yard get a little dehydrated while they are carrying off the cat food and have decided to try to collect water as well. As you can see, it hasn't been that successful of an attempt. My hubby informed me that an ant will actually sacrifice its life to build a bridge to cross water if it means that his companions will be able to cross safely. The bridge building endeavor seems to fall apart about a quarter of the way across the bowl. I think ants are pretty interesting creatures. It amazes me how they can be so small and still carry relatively large objects, such as cat food. It's also unbelievable to me how quickly one ant can let hundreds of ants know when they have located a food source. They have that communication thing down without the help of computers or cell phones. Talking about ants has reminded me of a funny story. At least it's funny now. A few years ago, about this same time of the year, a group of ants decided they wanted to invade my house. Every day I would find them crawling under my front door and into my abode. I would spray them with ant spray and they would be gone until the next morning. This went on for a few days and I was getting pretty tired of it. One morning, in my frustration, I grabbed the ant spray and really went after them. However, something didn't look quite right. In my haste, I had grabbed the PAM cooking spray and thoroughly coated my entry way floor. What a Mess! I guess it could have been worse. I could have coated my cake pan with ant spray. Here's my list of things I'm thankful for today. Water - I'm glad that I have water that comes out of my tap and I can just turn it on and get some anytime I want. I'd probably drink a lot less if I had to risk my life every time I tried to get a drink. Crock pots -I love my crock pot. It is so fun to put a whole bunch of raw food in a pot and ignore it for 8 hours and have dinner when you open it. Way cool!Sons - that are willing to happily go haul chairs from the church and set them up for a party the ward is having tomorrow at a member's home. Sometimes they are so agreeable and I love it.

The Communication Age

I think it is interesting that we live in a day and age with so many advances which make communication easier and yet I seem to have a harder time than ever communicating. My sons left the house today at 11:30 to go to lunch with the sister, the roommate and the girlfriend or is that the girlfriend and her roommates, or perhaps the sister and her roommates, or maybe the adopted sister, the sister, and the roommate or just the girls... At 3:00 I queried, via a text message, if they were coming home anytime soon. 10 texts later I still didn't have an answer to my original question. I don't really care if my kids aren't at home. However, the number 2 son had promised me he would use some time this afternoon to do online Health and I was curious who to plan on for dinner. Apparently the two sons had parted company and no decision could be made until they talked to each other which I guess was impossible to do until they reconnected. Why do we all have cell phones? (The answer to that question today was so the hubby could forget his at home and call and offer to treat me to $1.00 Arbys roast beef sandwiches for lunch if I would bring it to him. Pretty good reason, in my opinion, but probably not the original, intended purpose.) When it got to be 5:00 and I still hadn't heard from the sons I decided this would be a good night to worry about myself and let them do the same. The hubby came home and was willing to use his Chili's gift card (that he got from work a long time ago) and my movie gift card for a wild night on the town (a late anniversary celebration). We'd show those non-communicative boys! We were just finishing up dinner about 7:00 when I received a phone call from the youngest wondering where we were and informing me that I needed to be home before 9:00 so he wouldn't be home alone when his brother went on a double date. Gee whiz, plans I knew nothing about! I wasn't very nice and told him I'd think about it and if we didn't make it home to lock the doors and turn on all the lights. After I let him stew for a few minutes I called back and asked if he wanted us to pick him up to go to the movie with us. No, they had it all figured out and he was going with his brother since they were all going to the girl's apartment to play games and the sister and the roommate would be there too. Aw, more information - this communication thing is getting easier. We went to see "Get Smart" and I enjoyed it a lot although I wouldn't recommend drinking 5 tall glasses of water right before seeing it if you have difficulty laughing and controlling your bladder at the same time. I just wish they could make a movie without throwing in the non-essential hand gestures or cuss words here and there. It would have been a better movie, in my opinion, without them. The movie made me want to find a collection of the old TV series and watch it again. I remember being thoroughly entertained by the show as a kid. Can you believe my 23 year old daughter didn't even know the movie was based on a TV series? When we got out of the movie I called the young one and asked if he wanted to be picked up. Yes, he did, but not for half an hour. This "forced" the hubby and I to dig through the change in the ashtray in the van and stop at McDonalds for an ice cream cone. 15 minutes later another phone call informed us that he had changed his mind and he was staying. We took a rather scenic, long trip home through all the road construction. Apparently, I retire to my house too early in the evening. Who would have known there is so much activity on the roads at 10:15 at night. I guess these road construction workers know how to beat the Arizona heat. I definitely had a fun evening, however impromptu. This non-communication thing has its perks, along with its frustrations. My oldest daughter and I decided today that we need to use our blogs in a more productive way. We decided that we could use them as a gratitude journal to record things we are thankful for. I noticed she fulfilled her part of the bargain so I guess it is time for me to step up to the plate. Today I am grateful for Gift cards - one of the greatest inventions ever created. How fun is it to get something or go somewhere for free?! Light bulbs - and a son to install them for me so I don't have to. These were the big, long fluorescent ones that are a pain to put in and I always seem to manage to crack the plastic covers while I am at it. Thanks son! You know who you are. Let there be light! Clouds - it is amazing to me how a change in the weather can lift my spirits. Today the sun that usually shines brightly down on my bed in the late afternoon was a beautiful orange shade thanks to the smoke filled clouds on the horizon. Sorry to those people who had to evacuate their homes because of the smoke, but the clouds made the evening sky absolutely beautiful. and last of all a CELEBRATION - my son-in-law passed the written part of his test to receive his pilot's license today. CONGRATULATIONS! Way to Go!

Celebration!

It's time to celebrate! Today my youngest son received his AIMS test scores in Math in the mail and HE MET THE STANDARD. This is a test he has to pass in order to graduate and knowing his love/hate relationship with math - he loves to hate it - I was a little concerned at how he would do on this particular test. Needless to say, I was relieved to know that he won't have to take it again. Hooray! Hooray! Hooray! The mailman made my day! Way to go my highly intelligent son!

The Sudoku sickness has spread

A couple of years ago my eldest and I discovered Sudoku and I became a little addicted for a while. I got a calendar for Christmas 2006 with a Sudoku a day and I pretty much did one a day for most of 2007. My kids keep me in puzzles now and I go in phases where I Sudoku a lot and then not so much. My habit, at the moment, is to do the puzzle in the paper every morning in pen, which as I have mentioned before is a challenge for me. My oldest son caught the sickness sometime in 2007 and usually has to do one a day. He likes to Sudoku in bed and his brother likes to complain about it. My husband has never been that interested, but on a plane trip to Seattle last December he actually tried to steal my Sudoku book from me. My daughter bought him his own easy Sudoku book for his birthday in April (at his request) and a monster was born.
Now it is hard to find him at home without his Sudoku book in hand. He even took notes for a funeral talk in it because it was the closest paper he could find. If he makes a mistake he says "Oh, I ran into a road block." I try to tell him there are no road blocks thrown into Sudoku puzzles, but the easiest way to start a fight in our home at the moment is for me to comment on his Sudoku ability. He received a few more books for Father's Day along with some special race car pencils to Sudoku with and he was a happy dad. Last night I went into our bedroom and actually caught him doing online Sudoku on the computer. Who would have thought?? Even I haven't got the sickness that bad. Well, today he comes home from work and begins to share his lunch time near catastrophe with me. Guess what it was? He got his lunch, pulled his Sudoku book out of the bag, opened to the page he was on and ... here it is... HIS PENCIL WAS MISSING! I am happy to report it was only a near catastrophe because he managed to finish the half done puzzle in pen without making a mistake. I bet someone would have lent him a pencil if he would have asked, but it probably wouldn't have had race cars on it. Actually, I'm glad he has something to do while I write on my blog. However, this online stuff has got to stop before it interferes with MY computer time. What's next? Is he going to want a blog of his own sometime soon too?

25 years!

Today the hubby and I are celebrating 25 years of marital bliss. I guess we would both say that there have been a few days interspersed here and there that weren't so blissful, but for the most part it has been a pretty wonderful ride. Marriage isn't easy but I don't think anything that is worth a lot ever is. Marriage takes work and attention. It is easy to loose sight of how important our marriage is and sometimes we let it get pushed to the back burner. Earlier this year, we took a class offered by the stake that reminded us to put our relationship first and foremost. It was amazing how quickly our marriage improved when we were focusing on it every day. I am glad that I fell in love with him 25 years ago and I would marry him again in a minute. I love you my handsome husband. It's hard to believe that I have been married for more years than I was single.

Our kids made us a delicious dinner of steak, twice-baked potatoes, fruit salad and brownies and ice cream. They surprized us with dinner a few years ago when it was our anniversary and I loved the idea of them all working together and getting along while they accomplished a common goal. When we were trying to decide what to do this year I requested dinner, made by them, again. They are good kids and are four of the reasons why I'm glad I married their dad.