A Slice of Life

Ok, I know there is a way to do this, but I can't find it so I thought I would blog it and hopefully somebody will see it. I am taking in an exchange student from China. I am looking for a phone plan that I can afford so that he can call home. I found a bunch, but don't know how to tell if they are legit or not. I found one that sounds a bit too good to be true, but then again, I have never needed to call outside the country, so I am totally clueless here.

All of these plans ask for a credit card up front and I don't want to do that until I know they aren't some scam. I would just look at the BBB, but all I have is their name and no other info. Searches there are generally not working.

Help?

School starts in three weeks. Does anybody have plans for their first days of peace and quiet? Or plans for the money not being spent on daycare? Possibly cleaning the house?

I don't know if I am excited for it or not. I love not having that "go go" schedule and all the running that goes with it. I also like the weather that comes with summer vacation, and it seems as if once school starts, it all of the sudden changes. I am not a fan of late fall, winter, and early spring.

I plan on settling into my new house, and just getting organized. What is everybody else going to do?

Ok, my school suppies are bought and all labled and packed in the proper backpacks. Is anyone else ready? Have you found the greatest deals that you would like to share? Do you have any weird things on your childs list?

I shopped Walmart all the way and for all three kids got away with $80.00. Not bad since one is in Middle school and his supplies are more expenisve like a calculator (they even sepcifiy the model) and a Gym Uniform. Things like that.

One of my girls need TWO packs of twisty crayons. Last year she didn't even go through one regular pack. I don't get why we have to spend so much on crayons for that convenience. And 48 pencils. How many of you get to the end of the shool year and then your child brings home 40 half used penicils. I hate that.

So who else is ready?

Last month I went through yet another ordeal with the wonderful award winning (that is what they say, not me) customer service from Time Warner. After going to the office of the pres, I finally got my bill fixed once again, and was supposed to receive a credit for the time and trouble it took to get there.

Well, the $20.00 credit IMHO was not nearly enough to make up for that, but at this point, I am finished wasting my time on the phone for NOTHING! I am starting to want hourly pay for the time I have to sit on the phone.

This time I added the DVR to my service because I would like to actually see the shows that I miss but am paying for. I got a month of it free, plus once again, the $20.00 for my time and effort.

I finally did get through to somebody at the office of the pres in somewhere who had no clue as to where to direct me so she had to call me back. Her name was Pat and she assured me that she would look for me and call me back. She did call me back and is trying to locate my file to actually give it to somebody who can do something.

In the meantime, I did receive a call from somebody named Penny from the Milwaukee office who did assure me that before she called me, she had already made the necessary adjustments to my bill because they did in fact mess it up AGAIN. I told her that was great but that I also wanted my $20.00 credit that I never got. So she did do that.

I almost told her I wanted credit for today also, but I am happy to say that I do have somebody in the office of the pres looking into my file, and I now have a name of somebody to go to at that office who actually DID return my phone call very quickly, as did Penny from Milwaukee.

So I guess in the end, everything for now is fixed, but there went another hour of my time. I can't wait for ATT to be available in my area. Feel free to add links to your TWC blogs if you would like because I do plan on sending printouts of mine to them.

http://community.myfoxmilwaukee.com/blogs/MrsTracy/
2008/03/14/Can_anyone_guess_this_company

http://community.myfoxmilwaukee.com/blogs/MrsTracy/
2008/01/05/Time_Warner_does_it_again

Ok, so I am watching Idol for like the third or fourth time, and here the final people are singing "Shout to the Lord"  How cool is that? We have to listen to them sing all different kinds of music and this is the first time I have heard a Christian song on the show. And it is one of my favorites so that is what made my ears perk up. I think it was from last nights fundraiser, but even if it was just put out there for the dollars to be donated, I don't care. It was put out there. Ok, I care a little, but in the end, it was awesome.

People tell us that we need to be more tolerant of different types of music, lifestyles, dress...... Many things. But the one thing is that whenever anything Christian is mentioned, people say that it is just wrong for people who don't believe in it or like it to be subjected to it, and here it is right there, out in the open on Idol.

I was listening to the radio last week and the DJ was talking about a night where there was a guest band who played and they were playing Christian music, and there was another song on that same night that was Christian.

I am glad that the producers of Idol didn't discriminate against that type of music. I think it is awesome that they put that out there to the many people who watch, and I am also willing to bet they get almost no complaints.

So Kudos to the producers of Idol!!!

Ok, I knew this was going to come sooner or later, but tonight my son came into my room and said he had something he needed to show me. In his hand was a folded up piece of paper that he very slowly gave to me. And this is what it said.

Dear Jake:

I saw you in the hallway today and it was love at first site! I couldn't stop looking at that handsoe soccer sweatshirt in class.Whe should meet sometime! Lets meet at the school store on March 6th at 2:50. Ps. Make sure you wear your soccer Sweater

Love

Secret Lover and there were three hearts around it.

I honestly didn't know what to say and was quite shocked, but it was sooo cute and funny. Now he is complaining because I am blogging about this and he doesn't even know that I put the contents of the letter on here. So let the games begin I guess.

I did ask if he met with her today and he said no he did not because he has to hurry out the door to catch his ride, and he didn't want to go there anyway. I really wish I knew who this girl was. I think I am more anxious to find out than he is. But he still is NOT allowed to date.

  WORDS

A husband read an article to his wife about how many words women use a day...

30,000 to a man's 15,000.

The wife replied, 'The reason has to be because we have to repeat everything to men...

The husband then turned to his wife and asked, 'What?'

The Silent Treatment

A man and his wife were having some problems at home

and were giving each other the silent treatment.

Suddenly, the man realized that the next day, he would need his wife to wake him at 5:0 0 AM for an early morning business flight.

Not wanting to be the first to break the silence (and LOSE), he wrote on a piece of paper,

'Please wake me at 5:00 AM.' He left it where he knew she would find it.

The next morning, the man woke up, only to discover it was 9:00 AM and he had missed his flight.

Furious, he was about to go and see why his wife hadn't wakened him,
when he noticed a piece of paper by the bed.

The paper said, 'It is 5:00 AM. Wake up.'


Men are not equipped for these kinds of contests

WOMEN'S REVENGE

'Cash, check or charge?' I asked, after folding items the woman wished to purchase.

As she fumbled for her wallet, I noticed a remote control for a television set in her purse.

'So, do you always carry your TV remote?' I asked.

'No,' she replied, 'but my husband refused to come shopping with me,
and I figured this was the most evil thing I could do to him legally.' LOL!

I am looking out my window and the snow in my front yard is so pretty. Glittering in the sun, no footprints or anything in it. It is too deep to let my kids in it. They can't even walk through the yard.

Everybody is complaining about the snow and I am sick of shoveling it and not being able to just go out and enjoy my yard. So, what is everybody going to do when it is gone and we can sit outside with a drink or in front of a fire, or just under a tree with a book.

Do you have your plans made yet? I do. I plan on spending as much time outside with my kids as possible. I plan on cutting my grass every week and loving it. I plan on taking long walks after dinner, and taking my kids to the park to play in the hot sand.

I am longing for summer so that I can open my windows and cook on my grill without freezing. I want to hear the birds chirping. Well all but that nasty little woodpecker who likes my rain gutter above my bedroom window. Maybe he will find a new place to make noise. But other than that, all other birds are welcome.

Anybody else care to share their sunshine plans?

Ok, so we had this snow day that started out pretty weak and people were talking about how stupid it was to call off school, but yet it is still snowing. My husband worked from home today and because of the weather, I had the day off too.

I pretty much wasted my day and took it as a lazy day since I don't get those very often. I had a chance to read, take a bubble bath, I made myself some great lattes. And I did a very little bit of cleaning and all of the laundry.

What did you do today? Did you go to work? How were the roads. Did you do something special with your kids? Or were you lazy like me?

Right now, I am bored out of my mind because I can't go anywhere and I am running out of things to do. I'm thinking an early bed time is appropriate. There isn't even anything good on tv. Right now American Idol is on, but then that Truth whatever it is called show is on. I don't think I can bring myself to watch it, so bed is going to be the better option.

I am looking for pictures of Casting Crowns on Photobucket and the first pics that come up look identical to the stage and the clothes that they were wearing when they were in Milwaukee in November.

So I looked at the picture details and the picture was taken on the same day that they played in Milwaukee. From the angle of the pics, the person was sitting not too far behind me.

I tried to see if there was a way on photobucket to e:mail or IM the person but eventhough there was a tab on the pic that said e:mail, it didn't do anything. I just think it is so cool that the first pic that showed up was on taken in Milwaukee and that person was almost right behind me.

This could go under Entertainment, Music, or Faith. I figured more people would read it if it was under entertainment.  Maybe someone who knows how to use photobucket can tell me if there is a way to message the photographer who posted the pic?

Ok, so my son comes home from school today and tells me that one of his favorite teachers quit along with the principal. Ok, so they have been gone and didn't even finish out the semester. That can't be good, but at the same time, as a parent, I feel that I would like to have some questions answered.

We have been trying to get in touch with this particular teacher because of some grades and with the semester ending, we are trying to get one grade up just a bit. He hasn't answered, and now I know he is gone, but where did all of his e:mail go? I think someone should have responded with something.

Why is my son telling me this and not the school? Shouldn't they tell the parents first if they are going to announce to kids that their principal and a teacher are no longer going to be working there with no explination? Apparently I will get a note sometime soon, but I think I should have gotten that so I could talk to my child about it. Am I wrong here?

I know they don't need to know the details, but they do build relationships with their teachers so a simple, they resigned doesn't do it for me. So do I call the school or the school board or what do I do? The kids were told that they resigned, but you don't do that before the semester ends AND there are usually contracts involved.

Last week, the kids were afraid that something happened to one of the teachers because he lived in Racine and thought he was affected by a tornado. I just hope that they explain as much as they can but also enough to make the kids understand that they are ok.

I am just so amazed right now because the teacher was my son's and a favorite too. Amazed and sad.

Ok, this one is going to be lenghty, but then again, isn't it always when dealing with Time Warner? Here goes

Yesterday, I came home, turned on my TV and there was a message where the time usually is in  the cable box that says something like please call time warner for payment. So I am totally wondeing what is up because I did pay my bill and with all of the credits they have given me over the past year because of the crummy service, I should be ahead.

So I try to sign on to my computer so that I can go to my bank's website for payment verification while I am on the phone telling the billing people that not only do I NOT owe them any money, but that I never got any notice I was past due, AND eventhough I have been requesting for some time now that they start sending me paper bills, I have not seen a bill either on paper or via the internet in quite some time now.

I called the billing area and tired to use the automated service to see what they say I owe, but it dumped me right into that black hole of their holding area for 20 minutes before somebody answered. I started out my conversation by telling the who I thought was a billing person that I am quite irritated so please excuse my attitude, but something is wrong, and if I could get onto my internet, I can verify every payment made for the entire year.

I also explained that I was on a promotional rate of $99.00 per month for my three services and that my total bill was to be about $107 per month, but since I don't ever see my bills, I send the 107 and here and there 120 just to be safe.

He told me that he could not help me with any promotions, but it looked like I was being charged 117.00 and some change per month and that I have been short on my payments so there was the 5.00 late fee every month. Then I find out that while I was holding for billing, when I fell out of the black hole and finally got someone on the line, I was transferred to a customer service rep. He told me that he could change my billing over to paper and send me copies of the past year's bills. Then he re connected my service so that I could get on and go over my payments. Then he told me that he was going to have to transfer me to the "promotions" area and while I was mid sentence, he had already transferred me.

So now, I am on hold again. 15 minutes or so later, a woman answers the phone and I think I am talking to someone in the area that he referred to as "promotions" but I have in the past been told it is called "Customer Retention" So I go on about this promotion and how I am being billed $10.00 more a month than I was quoted, and that it was causing late fees, and I was disconnected with no notice and I called to talk to someone in billing, got customer service and was now in some "promotions" area because I was just blindly transferred.

So this woman tells me that she is in billing, and that there is no "promotions" area, so I used the correct term and called it "customer retention" and she told me that didn't exist either. I was like, I know I talked to someone in July, I have the phone number on my list, and I was put into this package because it was what AT&T was offering at the time, and after taxes, my bill would be no more than 107.00. I was also told that all of my services would remain the same.

The billing person then told me that NOPE, that department didn't exist,and that she could not go to my past bills for some reason and that she would have to transfer me to customer service. I told her NO WAY! I pressed the billing option in the beginning of my phone call, and ended up waiting 20 minutes to be transferred to customer service, who transferred me to a department he referred to as "promotions" which ended up to be billing and now the billing person is telling me she can't help me with my bill??????

I told her that it was time for a manager to get involved now. She told me she could get a team lead, but that they wouldn't be able to help me either. Umm, I said manager, not team lead. Huge difference. So then she insisted that the department I wanted didn't exist and that the furthest she would go would be a team lead so finally I said transfer me to sales.

I knew they would answer quickly because their job is to make you happy and sell you something. So letting you sit on hold forever is not an option for them. I finally got the sales rep  on the phone and apologized both for my attitude and that I already knew I was in the wrong department but that I needed someone to help me and that if anybody knew about a promotional department or retention department, they would.

The woman (Lisa) was very nice to me. She listened to everything I said, told me not to let the people tell me no when I asked for a manager, and that they should have been able to help me.

So I explained everything and she within a minute of me finishing, told me that she saw the problem. Apparently the package I was put into did NOT include all of the channels I already had so there was an extra 5.00 a month going on the bills I never saw and that was causing me to be carrying over a balance. Another thing was that in quoting my montly charges taxes and all, she forgot to add in my call waiting which was supposed to be free for three months, but then billed. So now we are up to the extra 10.00 per month.

Because I had been sending an extra 14.00 here and there, I wasn't always carrying over a balance so I didn't always get the 5.00 late fee. She then told me that yes there was a department called "customer retention" and they are the people who can offer you specials if you are trying to leave. I told her that all I wanted was for the money I had been charged as a result of the woman's mistake to be credited back to my account and then I would happy.

She did try to get a manager in the customer retention area or whatever it is called and apparently he was not available so she got her manager on the phone and the three of us did finally resolve it. I was credited back the money that I didn't know I was supposed to be paying due to the mistake of the rep who quoted me and my not recieving bills or late notices. Then she reversed the late fee, and gave an extra 20.00 credit for my trouble.

When it was time to hang up, she did ask me if I was satisfied and didn't want to leave the call until I was. I did thank her for the time spent with me. She could have been selling products and I am not sure if they work on commission or not, but she didn't push me off like the others.

So now my bill is all straighted out, I even got an extra $20.00 and it only took an hour and a half on the phone and a request to talk to someone in the wrong department.

So here is the kicker. My cable and internet were disconnected yesterday which would have been January 4th. Today I get my mail and there is an envelope from Time warner. It is a FINAL DISCONNECTION NOTICE. It was done on January 1st and it specified that if I did not make payment, my service would be disconnected on January 11th at 10:59 a.m.

Ok, so here is my problem. This was my only notice or bill. The amount they tried to make me pay was $179.00 on this notice and they disconnected me on the 4th of January when their letter told me January 11th. Now I think I want credit for being disconnected yesterday. But do I really want to wait on hold an hour for a 3 or 4 dollar credit?

Today I was invited to chaperone a field trip for my 1st grade daughters class to go bowling. Of course I said yes because I hate to miss out on that. So here it is. ALL 75 kids were there and the whole bowling alley was taken over by these little people.

While it was fun, it was super duper noisy. Everytime my daughter got a spare or strike, I swear the whole city could hear her screaming and feel the ground shaking from her jumping up and down. But at least she wasn't the only one so it wasn't too bad.

But then, they turned off the regular lights and on went the black lights and the colored lights that circle. The whole place went wild. It took them a minute to discover that the lights made anything white look neon on them. Then they really went wild.

But we only had time for almost two games. My daughter broke 100 her first game and was in the 9th frame with 94 when they shut the lanes down. She was not happy with that, but got over it quick when we told her that she was done for the day and now on vacation.

I love field trips.

Just over a week left. Are you ready?

Are the gifts bought and wrapped? Did the cards go out? Is the meal planned? Are the cookies baked?  Did you schedule time for church?

Are you planning on meeting with family or friends? Did you remember to do something nice for somebody you don't know?

Do you have any wonderful traditions that you plan on passing down to your kids?

Our Christmas started with one of the best gifts that one could get. We got to meet my husband's son who is now 17 that he hasn't seen since birth. It was wonderful to see how the kids seemed to blend together so naturally. I got all I want for Christmas and they day isn't even here yet.

For those of you who are too stressed out. just relax and remember that it isn't all about the gifts given or recieved. Have a wonderful Christmas!!!!

My son has had to do alot of projects for school this year and many of them included research.  I remember when I was in school, we were assigned a paper, then we went to the library and checked out books regarding our topic, read them, and then wrote a paper. Then we had to do a bibliogrophy at the end.

Well, my son has all these things he needs to get done and I find myself saying "just google it" The only actual book he used for this particular project was a cookbook of mine because part of his project is about the dinner table in Italy. My book is not only full of recipies, but every section has info about the region and the set up of the meal itself.

So now I find myself asking this question. How does he do a bibliogrophy when he used only websites? I am not sure how I feel about this type of research because there are many things out there that are not reliable, plus, instead of reading, they just punch in a few words and all they need to know is right in front of them. How is that research? But at the same time, I also find myself thinking that I wish it would have been that easy when I was in school.

So what are your thoughts on this? Would you rather have your child do some good old fashioned reading and research, or is this better?