Title?

So if you scroll through my archives (which I'm sure you all do multiple times a day) you will see that I often give a shout out to great products, services (like Brian at OTB) or retailers (Costco). But I don't think I've ever used my blog as a rant on bad products, services or retailers. Which is a shame if you ask me because truly, before I try anything I go online and try to read about what other people are saying about it...like are they happy, was it everything they expected, has this product entirely changed their life, you know the usual stuff :)

WELL, I am so SUPER annoyed with AT&T I can't resist. My phone broke. The screen is black. I had this super neato phone that I got at Costco (swoon, I love Costco) they were selling it with a coupon for only $10 regularly $115! What a smokin' deal. Well the phone LOOKS cool but has never been a real champ of a phone. It doesn't get the best reception (which truly, I've never thought AT&T has the best reception) and the buttons are pretty weird, they look cool, but it turns out they aren't really that functional....not a huge deal since I am a pathetic "texter" anyway.

So anyway, I bought Matt a new phone for Father's Day, early so that I could steal his phone and replace my broken one ;) Well, when I get said new phone, they INSIST that I buy a "protection package"....sounds like a good idea right....yeah, except it only covers the phone if there is a software issue or internal battery malfunction. No coverage if it is damaged by Matt...or Ryan (let's be honest here). SO BASICALLY I am buying protection so that if the phone you are selling me turns out to be crap all on it's own you will give me a new one....SO IT'S PROTECTION from you selling me a crappy product? AND I GET TO PAY EXTRA?!?! Awesome. I buy it anyway and go on my way. Annoyed. Not annoyed enough to rant about it on my blog....that comes later.

Then I find out yesterday that I had bought the phone one week later it would have been $100 cheaper. Yum. That tasted good with my breakfast (thanks Chris Uno for calling me and eagerly reporting this fact!). Annoyed. But hey that's technology....what can you do?!

Well it turns out the phone I "stole" from Matt totally sucks. Honestly, not sure how he has been using it. Seriously. It's a problem. As in it sounds muffled when I talk to people (if I have EVER talked to you, you know I'm like one of the loudest talkers known to man) and they can't hear me. The buttons are stupid and weird and I can't find anything and its dumb and I hate it. So my dad says isn't your phone fairly new...like only 8 months old? Why yes, yes it is! Call warranty. Cool.

Just spent an hour with them on the phone. They transferred me all over Timbuktu (and I think it literally was Timbuktu because I'm quite sure I wasn't talking to anyone in America) and will not be sending me a new phone. They will only send me a new one if they can repair my old one. Like with a software up grade. Oh good, so the warranty on this phone is only good for software issues. Good thing I didn't have to pay extra for that!! Since I'm pretty sure you can't hack into a phone that isn't a smart phone!! And the worst part is that they keep transferring me to some one who can help me....I end up talking to a dude in billing who has no idea why we are even on the phone....we said good night and hung up. Whatever. I'm annoyed. Less annoyed as I finish this post. And kind of sorry to all those that have to read it. Matt isn't home to listen to me rant and I OBVIOUSLY can't call anyone to complain about it since my malfunctional phone will probably push me over the edge. So I will get over it by posting this LONG post on my blog.

Summary. I don't recommend AT&T I have never been satisfied with their service. Customer service and phone service. (The only reason we have them is because we get a awesome discount through UPS). So, if you are thinking of switching carriers...think about NOT switching to AT&T. You won't be happy in the long run.

In other news, I have been wanting to throw a shout out to Publix. I love that store. Not as much a Costco ,but a lot. I'm starting to think that they may drug their employees as they truly are the happiest people on earth (probably the only real competition is the people who work at Disney). I would grocery shop everyday if it was always at Publix. The free cookies. The stickers. The car carts. The carry-out service (which is a Publix service and they explicitly ask you not to tip them). The woman who runs to get Ryan a new box of Goldfish after he dumps an entire box all over the floor in front of her check out and then she only charges me for one. Love that place. Seriously. One time I said excuse me to one of their stock boys and he was like "oh excuse me ma'am, this is Publix where shopping is a pleasure, not an inconvenience." And he was serious. Seriously. And shopping there is a pleasure. (For those who don't know, the tagline is: Publix. Where Shopping is a Pleasure.) Never has a tag line meant so much.

Sorry for all the time you have wasted reading this post. Next time I will post about something fun. Like our trip to Florida perhaps....

Peachy

So it was Mother's Day yesterday. Which was wonderful. Matt and Ryan did a great job making Mother's Day special. My own mother invited us over for dinner that night and asked us (me) to bring dessert. She wanted peach cobbler...I wanted pie (I love pie) so I decided to make both.


If you know my mom, you know she would make this


If you know me, you know I like to bite off more than I can chew. And therefore I would decide to make peach cobbler from scratch, even though I have no idea how to.




If you know the peach growing season (which you do if you live in the peach state) you know that peaches are ripe in August and September.

If you watch this video you will see what would be possible with RIPE peaches.

If you ask me, I can tell you that when you attempt this with UNripe peaches, you will be completely unsuccessful. Blanching unripe peaches is like trying to peel a mango with a spoon.

If you live close by and went to the store at 10:30 on Saturday night, you would see me, in my pajamas....buying this.....

Like mother, like daughter I guess.

Love you mom!

Chickens

I'm making some drapes. For the dining room project. Which means I had to go to the best fabric store in Atlanta. But it was actually IN Atlanta, so we had to drive all the way downtown. I dragged my friend with me and convinced her that she should also make some drapes for her dining room! We pull up to this store in a somewhat sketchy part of town and what do we see....

Examine the picture closely. THOSE ARE CHICKENS. Yes, when we are walking in we noticed some chickens in the parking lot. Weird. Then when we walked out almost three hours later (they had A TON of fabric and it was tough to make a decision) we noticed these beauties eating the chicken feed placed out for them. Evidently someone at this store is feeding these chickens. And they are HUGE. Like probably the biggest chickens I have ever seen. They have clearly been living it up for a long time in this parking lot. Ahhh...only in Georgia!!

In other news. Ryan's tube surgery was a success. The worst part was having to keep him from eating all morning. After the surgery we could feed him and he quickly returned to his normal self!

UPDATE on the office dilemma. I would happily post some pictures of my office now but I am simply too lazy. It is cleaned out and organized!! Matt made me cave a buy a filing cabinet but I am going to use some of Ci's ideas for my day to day work stuff (thanks for all the sweet links Ci) We also moved the office upstairs and the playroom downstairs....it makes more sense and I'm not sure why we didn't do that in the first place.

Solutions

So do you ever think that you get a real insight into people's lives? That you might know them better than you really do? All because you stalk their blog? Not that I am a huge blog stalker, but the folks that find themselves in the sidebar can rest assured that I read their posts. AND because of this, I feel like I am up to date in their lives and other goings on more than I may actually be...I mean we don't all regularly talk on the phone and its not like I get a ton a pictures emailed to me, but I see the photos to go with the stories and I feel like I have a real glimpse into your day to day life. And then I think, could this ever be used to improve my life??? And I think it can. All of you bright and intelligent blog readers who have it all together need to help me come up with some solutions for my latest problem.

Office Storage
I work from home. In a home office. And I live in that home too. This means that my work and my personal life very distinctly collide in this one room. I would post a picture of my office but I am actually too embarrassed (this is a big deal as I don't embarrass easily) But as I type this post I can see a pool toy (we haven't been to the pool since December) a video tape from 2007. A 401K statement, some coupons, blank CDS, an insurance EOB, patient reports, pictures from the inside of Matt's knee from his surgery, headphones, children's books, dictionary, batteries, highlighter....ummm actually this is all stuff ON THE DESK! So as you can clearly see (well you don't see since there is no picture) I have a little organization problem. Matt wants to buy me a big filing cabinet. WON'T WORK. I tell him. We already have a filing cabinet. We don't use it. I need some organization ideas. Easy ones. Where do all of you keep all of the things you have to keep but have no use for (ie. immunization records, software CDs, retirement notices...PLEASE don't say a FILING CABINET) And where do you keep all of the stuff that you are using everyday? This is probably the bigger problem. I have work projects and I don't want to FILE the things I need away, I want them easily accessible. So enjoy this glimpse into my life and please send over your ideas.

In other news. Ryan is getting tubes tomorrow. I am nervous excited. More nervous than excited but I am going to be happy when his ears don't hurt anymore. He has so much fluid in there and they haven't been able to stop the continuous infections. So hopefully this will be the solution we are looking for.

Also, I have an excellent story coming. But I need the most excellent photo. Which is not on my camera. Its funny.

Accountability

Do other people give themselves deadlines? Am I the only one? Whether I do or don't things seem to get done at the same speed. Putting a deadline on it just makes me realize it has taken me longer to do whatever task then I thought it would. I once read something that said "I love deadlines. I especially love the sound they make as they go whooshing past." I laughed.

So basically if you are checking back to see my dining room project (which you all should be since I instructed you to) I'm getting to the point....I'm not done. I will say that I negotiated with the foreman (myself) in that I deserve more time since what originally was a one can of paint project has morphed into a FOUR can of paint project, and obviously has become larger than I thought. I have been working my tail off but as of yet nothing to report. The foreman suggests a deadline of MAY 15th. I believe that I can work under these time constraints but I guess only time will tell. HA!

In other MOST exciting news. I've been a mom for over 18 months now (sooo experienced ;) and I had one of my most exciting mom moments yesterday. Ryan and I went to the pediatrician to get his LAST dose of immunizations until he is 5. Hallelujah. But I cried getting shots until about 2 years ago, so when we go back in 3 and a half years, I'm sure it won't be pleasant. Ryan has been quite sick lately and has a ear infection that they can't seem to clear up. We had to go to the pediatrician for 3 days in a row to get rocephin shots, and that still didn't work. He still has the infection (this is going on 3 weeks) and we will be seeing the ped's ENT in one week. It's look like he will be getting tubes put in his ear. Since I lost count of how many ear infections that he has had I'm exciting at the prospect of not having to go to the doctor on a monthly basis (I actually know all the people that work at the office...no seriously....its sad).

A while ago we went to the aquarium with our ward play group. The girls in our new ward are so fun! We both had a good time although Ryan seemed to be trying to keep up with the bigger kids and had zero desire to sit in the stroller. This would have been fine except when he isn't in the stroller he acts like it is his job to get away from me as far and as fast as he can. One of the highlights was the park outside the aquarium. They had such cool stuff. This really sweet slide and stuff. I tried it out but I don't have a picture of it.

Ryan chasing some pigeons at the park outside.

Ryan has never taken a pacifier. He gave it up at like three months, sadly. I think he might have slept better if he would have taken one. But I bought a bunch of paci's before he was born so we have a bunch around. He thinks it's hysterical to put them in his mouth and play with them (hence, they are "around" and not stored away with all the other baby stuff). He puts them in and then pulls them out and screams BABY. I think its funny too and we both laugh.

Happy Easter

Horticulture

While attending BYU my bishop worked in the horticulture department, specifically in the soils department. His office was in the basement of the Widsoe along with all of the other plant enthusiasts. I certainly remember thinking "what the heck could these people be learning about for four years!" There were maps of soil and test tubes of soil....so much soil....

Well since moving to Georgia (I will say I noticed NOTHING until I moved back here after college) I have become quite the plant enthusiast myself. I guess that implies I that I am enthusiastic about the plants living here....that would be incorrect. While I find it AWESOME that you can actually grow a garden that consists of more than root vegetables, (seriously, carrots rule but it's nice to have some variety!) the regular foliage is severely lacking. If you refer back to this post from a LONG, LONG time ago, I was first frustrated with the tree situation. Well now it's the grass. Grass is like a MAJOR thing. A major thing that I spent my life taking for granted. It's green, it's soft, it smells good. You just want to sit down in the summer and enjoy yourself. NOPE. Little did I know. There are MANY varieties of grass. Mostly separated into cool grass, and warm grass. I grew up enjoying the wonderfulness of Kentucky Blue Grass. A fantastic specimen that is soft and luscious. I now look out the window to see Bermuda Grass. A horrible weed that people like to use for a lawn. It's scratchy. SOOO scratchy. It gets everywhere. I don't know what the deal with that is, but its horrible. You sit on the grass (if you have to and you aren't scared about what might be lurking underneath the thick, intertwined, spiky surface) and when you stand up, you are covered in little pieces of grass. AND for all of that fabulousness, you get to do EXTRA maintenance. Bermuda grass needs to be edged because otherwise it spills out and looks like a big weed (coincidence? I think not!).

So basically, as Matt is taking care of our lawn this Spring. I appreciate the effort. And it surely looks better than it did before. But I don't know that I will ever be able to truly enjoy it. (And if you are wondering Kentucky Blue Grass will not survive here, I already checked.)

Too lazy to get my camera, but stay posted because I have pictures from our trip to the aquarium. (I know the suspense is killing you)