Walmart Tire & Lube.

Well I said I’d be back for the Sunday Edition and you all will be glad that I separated it from the week’s end review. This was one of the craziest Sundays ever. Remember how I mentioned that I must be Job and God was testing me? Well I don’t think he wanted to end the test on Saturday.

David and I got up and I knew that I needed to get an oil change. My car is overdue and I can’t afford to let it get too bad and then hurt my car. We also were going to take a look at some things at Sam’s. Walmart is next door. I said, “Hey isn’t Walmart’s car place open on Sundays?” And of course it is so we took it there to get the oil change. Simple enough. They told us it would be 15-20 minutes.

[11:00am] I (thank the Lord!) brought Sophie’s stroller in and had her in it. We browsed around and went up and down the aisles. After about 15 minutes we went back to check on my car. David went to ask at the desk. “Well Mr. Greer there’s been a situation.” A fat guy standing there looked at me and said, “Oh that’s never good.” And so the fat guy was right. . . . “When he went to get the oil cap off he twisted it too hard and it broke. We have to go to O’Reilly Auto and get you a new one.” Annoying enough. I was getting frustrated but we waited for a bit. About 20 minutes later David asked again. “Sir he had to go get cash and he’s on his way to get the cap.”

[12:15pm] I was getting ansy because I had a client that I could, under no circumstances, reschedule (that’s a long story). I had to be at this client’s in Highland Park (Dallas) by 2:45pm. I had not showered yet, no make up on, no lunch. At this point Sophie had fallen asleep. I strolled her up and down the aisles so that she would stay asleep.

[12:45pm] I go to the counter myself after saying to David–oh honey don’t worry we aren’t paying for this oil change! (They had told him they would give him half off.) I asked the girl at the desk again what the status was. “M’am he’s just left to go get your oil cap.” I said, “You told me that 20 mintues ago. Are you kidding me? I’ve got a baby and I’ve got to get to work you need to step on it. And by the way, I’m not paying for this!” “M’am I understand I need to call a manager to see if we can give this to you for free.”

Meanwhile David got on his cell and called the main store number and asked to talk to a manager. He told him we were in the Tire and Lube and having a horrible experience and they were wasting our day. He said, “I’ll be right there.” (He was somewhere in the store.) 20 minutes later he shows up, after an employee called and had him paged to the Tire center. (There was another older man next to us who was now also angry as his oil change was taking over an hour.)

[1:15pm] David said the manager he talked to was Greg. So was the manager that the girl paged. Coincidence? Doubt it. So when Greg pranced up I said, “We talked to you on the phone 30 minutes ago, where have you been?” He looked at me like I was nuts. He also looked like he just got out of high school. He didn’t apologize or offer us anything. He went behind the counter. By this time Marvin (we got to know our Walmart moron) had come back with the oil cap. Whew. Finally. He walks up to the girl as I’m standing there. “This oil cap doesn’t fit. Not even close.”

[1:30pm] Karen Campbell lives pretty close to us and she was ever so gracious to come get us. We got home by 1:45. We left the car there. I made it to my clients on time. I called David on my way home around 6pm (my client was a 3-hour lesson) and he told me that around 4:30pm David called and they said to him, “Oh yeah we never did do the oil change we couldn’t get some cap off without possibly breaking it. You’ll need to take it where you got it changed before . . .”

So my car is still at Walmart because they close at 6pm. And it’s still not had an oil change. I’m really a happy camper about it all. I get to pull David out of work so he can take me to get my car tomorrow all for nothing. I actually said to the manager, “You need to hire someone besides Dumb and Dumber over there . . . ” as I walked out the door.

Fun Times.

Well my week was a rough one. Just one of those weeks, struggling with everyone else in this economy and doing what we can to get by. Work is very slow for both David and I and I kind of “unraveled”, if you will, at week’s end and was hoping a fairy would sweep me up and take me to a far away place . . . . to top the wonderful week off my car window on my passenger’s side was broken when David was doing the yard. We just found the window shattered all over the street and just 5 minutes before it hadn’t been that way as I had just gotten home. David thinks a rock hit it while he was edging, which sounds like the most likely thing. Anyway, I know God tests us and I think that I was Job last week. I know others are far worse off than us and so I can actually thank the good Lord for the wonderful people in my life and what I do have–a great husband, wonderful family, a beautiful daughter, four fuzzy dogs and my coffee maker.

My in-laws went to St. John last week for a whole week. David and I could have gone but I couldn’t bring myself to 1) leave my sweet Sophie for that long and 2) put my blubbery butt into a swim suit. So we opted out. (We went to St. John last January with the whole family, so I know how marvelous it is!) However they brought us some fun gifts back. T-shirts (my favorite!) and a cute little onsie for Sophie. Then, Sophie’s favorite, a little Caribbean doll we named “Aunt Vie” See Aunt Vie has this little shack, literally, on the far side of the island and she makes the best food you could ever want. Seriously, if you go to St. John find Aunt Vie’s Shack! Anyway, so when we give Sophie the doll and she smiles really big and then she likes to hold onto her and chew on her dress.

Yesterday was a big day for everyone. Tracy had her big Mary Kay debut party and Andy had to work so she had no one to help her set up or get ready . . . and she has a 15-month old. So around 9:45am Tracy comes walking in our door and has Kelton in tow. David ever so graciously babysat both Kelton and Sophie while Tracy and I ran errands and then had her party. David watched them until around 4pm. Kelton put Sophie’s jelly sandals on and had fun with those.

However, to top off the busy day David and I had a BBQ planned to be held at our house at 6pm. David’s parents and Aunt (Margret came down for her 2-week summer visit from Michigan), Tracy, Andy, Kelton and then the Greer’s long-time friends Karen and Richard Campbell were all on the guest list. So while at Tracy’s party I get a text message that says: When are you coming home we have a messy house? Little Kelton is a busy little bee and I walked in around 4pm and each toy that Sophie owns plus all of our alphabet refrigerator magnets covered our entire living room. It was funny and I’m thinking: Oh my time is coming!

We tidied up the house while David still watched the kiddos. David was really cut out for kids. It’s rather cute and handy for me every day around 5:30pm! Kudos to my hubby and his Daddy of the Year Badge! The guests all came and David fired up our grill and cooked hamburgers and hotdogs. Margret cooked her yummy cheesy potatoes, Susan made yummy watermelon and cantelope salad as well as pasta salad and Karen and Richard brought ice cream and toppings! I had me some Reisling, a bottle we had since our wedding! Andy brought David some Dos Exis and we all had a nice little get together!

Today has just begun so I’m sure a story will come of that . . . so stay tuned for my Sunday Edition!

Why don’t friends with kids have time?

Someone posted this on facebook and I had to share it because it’s so great. Click the image to enlarge and read.

Army Crawl.

Sophie’s almost there and my freedom is just about to be snatched away! I got a few cute little videos of her crawling over, or rather army-crawling, to the other side of the room and then to Amos.

I’m really happy that Amos is ok with her. Back a few years ago Amos was severely afraid of toddlers and kids. They seem to terrorize him because he’s so big and he’s such a wimp. He’d run for shelter with his tail tucked. He just lies there now. I was afraid he’d hate Sophie but he was so calm and cool with her grabbing his big ole paw today.

Here are two different videos . . .

Happy Birthday, America!

Well we went to Austin for the July 4th weekend to stay at my mom’s. It was David, me, Sophie, Tracy, Andy and Kelton. It was a busy weekend but it sure was fun. Sophie did her first night of sleeping all way through without a dream-feed and she slept from 6:45pm-8:30am the next morning! It was so nice!

We BBQed out on Saturday evening in Mom’s nice, newly-landscaped backyard! She’s got a heck of a set-up and it’s perfect for these little get-togethers! She’s got a hammock too and I swung back and forth in it with the kiddos for a bit. They both giggled and giggled.

Our trip to and from Austin was pretty easy, as far as Sophie goes. The traffic was terrible! We stopped a few times on the way home but overall Sophie did great, sleeping much of the time or talking to us.

It was a nice weekend for some relaxation! God Bless America!

Where is Waldo?

Can you find the Jack Russell in this photo?

I find it funny that my dogs sun in this heat. They always have. Oh and yes, that is Jake with his cone of shame. Poor guy. Even Sophie laughs at him. She will be lying on the floor and she stares and laughs, literally. It’s cute. And Kelton walked up to Jake’s crate and did the baby sign for “hat” (tapping your head with your hand). Tracy and I started cracking up, “Yes, Kelton Jake has a funny hat on his head!”

Well we are leaving for the weekend to go to Austin and see mom, David and the rest of the fam there. I’ll post more after the weekend. Mom hasn’t gotten wireless internet so I can’t log on there. Ho-hum.

Have a great 4th of July, be safe!!

What’s next?

Hmmm. Where to begin. This has been a crazy week, eh? I mean loads of celebrity deaths and heat waves abound. I don’t know if I can handle much more! Things are just crazy! Good news is that the only death over here is that of some bugs, we’ve had loads of bugs and I’ve murdered them all. Good bye bugs you did not sell over 1 million records labeled “Thriller” so you hold no value. . . .

Thursday Tracy and Kelton spent the night at our house so we could price and organize more stuff for the garage sale to start early Friday morning. Kelsey came over to watch both babies while we were in the garage on Friday. She also watched them Thursday afternoon while we ran some errands. I bet that wore her out! Which brings me to the latest . . . Kelsey, our new nanny. I have had her for about 3 weeks now (maybe more) and we really like her! She’s great. First of all she lives literally 2 minutes from me, if that. She does dishes, laundry and vacuuming as well as babysit! She knows a whole lot of sign language and she uses it all the time with Sophie! She’s great and I’m glad we found her!

I got Sophie a bathing suit and a little baby pool that is just darling–looks like a hippo and even has a shade over it, but she hates it. She cries when I put her in it and now even cries if we go near it, literally. So we’ll try swimming later for her. But her bathing suit is the cutest thing ever. I did get some pics of her in that.

The garage sale went alright. We sold lots of stuff. It was hot and tiring, I will admit. We still have lots of stuff left over so we are going to try to craigslist some of it and then we will donate the other stuff leftover. I’m ready to get my garage back. It’s been filled with stuff for months now!

David and I tried to get some video of Sophie as she rocks back and forth like a little speed demon and it appears that she’s going to just launch off of her blanket! She’s a scootin’ and I know she’ll be crawling soon. I’m not too worried or too encouraging as I like her still immobile! I just know everything will change once she’s gettin’ around–yikes!

This next week is our birthday. That’s Thursday, the 2nd. I’ve taken the week off, even though I technically didn’t have any clients anyway. But I’ll be mommy all week, just me and Sophie until daddy gets home in the evenings!

I ♥ Daddy.

Ok. Yesterday was Father’s Day and we celebrated at Grandma and Grandpa Greer’s house. We got lots of pictures, just some random shots of the cutie pie and a few of David and I too. I don’t think we have one single picture of the three of us except for in the delivery room! Wow, that’s kind of sad! I haven’t made a slideshow in a while so here is one from Daddy’s Day.

Cousins.

Friday Tracy and Kelton spent most of the day with us in Arlington! They came over around 10am and we put the kiddos in their jogger strollers and went for a hot but good walk/run. After that I took a nice shower and the kids napped for a bit. Then we put in the “Baby Signing Time” DVD to let them watch for a bit. Yes, no TV but I let Sophie see this a couple times a month. Kelton has never seen our DVD so he was interested in it.

David got home around noon-ish and mowed the yard. Kelton watched Uncle David the whole time as he plowed over the grasses in our lovely backyard. He was quite intrigued by the mower.

Later that evening we met up with a very good friend of the family (started with David’s family) Karen Campbell and her son, Richard. We met at UNO’s in Sundance Square in Fort Worth. It was a nice dinner and Grandma and Grandpa Greer took Sophie home with them afterwards and she stayed the night. Little girl has been taking a long time to get to sleep lately. No fussiness but just lies in her bed for up to 2 hours talking, kicking and playing. We didn’t leave Ft Worth until 8:45, which is waaaay past her bedtime anyway but apparently the report was that she slept on the way home but then talked in her bed until almost 11pm! Whoa–that’s just nuts! She hasn’t been to bed that late since she was only weeks old! Anyway . . . she had a good time over there and was a little sweet pea, as usual.

Tomorrow is Father’s Day and we are going to David’s parents’ for lunch and some of his Grandpa’s yummy broccoli cheese soup! I can’t wait! We’ll be back tomorrow with a fully report! Happy Father’s Day to all you dads out there!

Psuedo-mom.

Well we had a fast-paced, fun-filled last four days! David’s company had a camping trip (guys only) and he left Thursday evening after work. Sophie and I were all by ourselves that night. I discovered how much I hate going across our house in the dark, alone. I kept waking up one of the dogs to force them to go with me to Sophie’s room. Funny they were all snoozin and I’d say, “Noah, come on . . .” he’d look at me and lay his head back down. “Noah! Come on, get up!” He’d finally get up and then I had to hold his collar and make him go half-way with me. Finally he came with me and we looked in on little girl. She was sleeping peacefully.

Friday morning my mom came into town and we went to pick her up from the airport around 10am. Then I went to get my haircut with my mother-in-law and Tracy while mom watched Kelton and Sophie at our house. I decided to go completely new do. I’m no longer a homely girl. Ok. So I still wear my t-shirts and jeans daily but at least it takes me more than 10 minutes to get dressed now! I had so much thick, wavy hair that it took her 2.5 hours to cut and style it!

Kelton stayed at my house on Friday night along with mom and David (stepdad). It was so funny because Kelton literally thought I was Tracy unless Tracy was there. With my haircut he was sure I was Tracy. How do you know he thought that, you ask? Well he’s going thru his separation anxiety stage right now and if Tracy puts him down or walks out of the room he cries and instantly is fine when she comes back and picks him up. He also hugs her and wraps his arms around her neck while she’s holding him. He doesn’t really do this to others unless you pick him up after a nap. Anyway, Tracy wasn’t there when I got home from my haircut and as soon as I walked in he ran to me and hugged my leg, then tapped his chest–his little baby signs saying “help” which he does when he wants to be picked up. So I picked him up and he gave me a hug. I tried to put him down and he started crying just like he does with Tracy. He wouldn’t even go to mom he’d just cry and want me to hold him again. It was funny. I kept calling myself psuedo-mom. It was cute and funny! Ah, the joy of twins!

Saturday my mom and stepdad left to go back to Austin around 3pm. So Sophie and I were alone again Saturday night. Sophie had a little bit of a rough night that night. Over the past few days she’s been eating like a little piglet, so I’m thinking she’s going through a growth spurt. She’s taking 6-8 ounces of formula 5 times a day plus baby food 2-3 times a day! Anyway, Saturday evening we met the in-laws, Tracy, Andy and Kelton at Cheddar’s for dinner. Sophie had some peas (baby food) and I think she got sick from it. She didn’t go to sleep until 9pm (she usually is asleep between 6:30-7pm) and then woke at 10pm screaming and then she threw all of her formula and peas up. Then she woke again at midnight and cried more. That time I fed her and she then slept until 7:30am on Sunday morning. She seems totally fine today so she could have just been having a bad night. Maybe she missed her Daddy . . .

David got home around 1pm today. He was a little sunned and sweaty. He hadn’t showered in 3 days. Camping, eh? But he said he kept catching the biggest fish! They had a fishing guide and I think he had a good time with the fishing and all. Good thing he can sleep anywhere. I was worried he didn’t get eough sleep but apparently he crashed well each night.

Well to all you single mothers out there–I have a profound respect for you! Just with about 30 hours of single-motherhood myself I sure did miss David and his wonderful help! I’m a blessed person with the wonderful husband and family that I have!