Driving Miss Crazy (Episode 4)

The scene:

7:15am, still dark, moon out, stars twinkling, Orion visible in the morning sky.
Truck is in reverse, I look over and Breanna (a.k.a Miss Crazy) is trying to bend the laws of physics and see the sky out of her window with the window still rolled up.

"You can still see the stars this morning."
(She acts irritated that I interrupted her star viewing with (of all things) WORDS)
"Science class ruined stars for me"

"How so?"



I dont recall her explanation but somehow finding out about gases, and the fact that we can see the light from stars long dead... having that KNOWLEDGE irritates her. She mentioned something about the stars in her head, and I told her that the stars in her head could all be alive and made up of bubble gum if she wanted them to be. She explained how that would interfere with her liking things to be logical. My response:


"Being angry at Science for explaining the stars to you is not logical"



Remainder of trip to school....silent.

Driving Miss Crazy. Episode 3

Another episode...remember Breanna is in red, I am in green; for those of you behind in the episodes:
Pilot
Episode 2

-This episode takes place Thursday morning driving Breanna to school-
-Drive begins with an unusual long moment of silence-
I am exhausted
Me too
I have a stupid song in my head. Zazu (see above video) singing Lovely Bunch of Coconuts
Sorry, I sing that whenever I am bored....along with:
"A monkey went to sea sea sea
To see what he could see see see
But all that he could see see see
Was the bottom of the deep blue sea sea sea"
Poor monkey
You'd think he would have seen a boat or a fish or a bird
Or seaweed...
How could he see the BOTTOM of the deep blue sea sea sea?
I don't know
Must not have been too far from shore
That would explain not seeing any fish
Why? He could have seen minnows
Minnows in the ocean!?! They live in salt water!?!
They are just baby fish
They are?!?!
-This is where I TRY to stifle my laugh-
-Breanna is at this point speaking rather loudly and acting as if I just confessed to a hidden family secret-
I thought they were a species...a BREED! (said with lots of righteous idignation in her voice)
-I lose my stifle ablility and roars of laughter escape me-
You poor thing, I guess it never really did come up did it?
-Breanna has a look of outrage on her face-
Noooooo! When I was little you just told me to go catch "minnows" when we were at the lake, nothing about them being baby fish!
-me: still laughing-

This is where she gets out of the vehicle, I profess my love for her and wish her a fabulous day and she closes the door and starts shaking her head and spouting gibberish as she waves good-bye and walks toward the school.

Not sure what was crazier, the fact that we were analyzing that silly song or the whole not knowing that minnows were baby fish. God, I love being the mom of a teenager!

Driving Miss Crazy (Episode 2)

Breanna and I have had this conversation or versions of it more than once while driving somewhere:

"I want to get my belly button removed"
"Wwwwwhyyyy?"
"It served it's purpose, I don't need it anymore."
"It still has a purpose. Are you trying to be Kyle XY?"
She blathered on about after being born the belly button serves no purpose.
"It's new purpose it to collect lint."
More blathering
"Okay, I'll make a deal with you. I will pay to have your belly button removed as soon as I have saved up the money to have my wedding venue built."
"SWEET!"

This conversation reminds me of when she was but a wee child. I remember when she would accompany me to the store and would say "Mommy can I have that?" and point to whatever her object of desire was at that moment. I would say "Yes, honey, someday." and strangely enough that always made her happy. (the item would usually end up being a birthday or Christmas present) Funny how sometimes just giving them hope is really all that a child needs.

Driving Miss Crazy

I love my time in the morning when it is just Breanna and I in the car driving her to school. The conversations should be recorded and maybe even YouTube’d.

Most of these conversations are utter silliness and are done while we are both laughing hysterically. It does not take much to set us off into hysterical laughter, but it is better than a cup of coffee for waking me up.

Last Thursday morning was one of those days. She headed to the car with a project board, and it is one of those that folds in three and so I ask to see it...and she denies me.

She DENIES me!

So I grab the back of her hoody and we battle on the way to the car.
She unlocks it, but I have the key fob…which means I have the power.
So I lock the doors.
She pretends to show me peeks of it, and finally she gives in.
Once we start driving, this is what follows that:

(Breanna quotes are in RED while mine are in GREEN)

“Why didn’t you want to show me?”
Which she blathers on about her artistic abilities and not liking to show her work to people, which I explain that I am not “people” and then the fun begins with her laughing and shouting:
“Help! Help! Rape!”
I thought I heard, and so I questioned “Help! Help! Hooray!?"
“No RAPE!"
" Help Help RAPE!"
" I said NO."
" No means NO "
"RAPE! "
"How would 'Help! Help! Hooray!’ get anyone’s attention?”
More silliness followed but it then led into:

“So, are you going to buy me coffee?”
I ponder and state “I have 4 cents in my checking account” while waving 4 fingers in her face.
“So, are you going to buy me coffee?”
“4 cents. (more finger waving) Which means I am broke. That is so little that they could not make it into one coin; they have to have 4 separate coins so you can see it.”
Then she stated something ‘off’ about a dime being smaller than 4 cents ….

“Hey remember that video I showed you of that weird group Lordi?”
“Yeah”
“Lordi is coming to Ozzfest!”
“We’re going to Ozzfest?!?!” (proof teenagers only hear what they want to hear)
“Nooooo, Lordi is going to BE there.”
“Hey who is that band that you used to listen to that wore the masks?”
“Dir En Gray?”
“No”
“Insane Clown Posse?”
“Maybe, I don’t know”
(Lots of discussion about her thinking it is one of those two and me doubting it)
She finally states “Slipknot!”
“YES! That’s it! Lordi looks like Slipknot mixed with Star Trek; one even reminds me of the Borg!”

Out of nowhere…literally, there had been a moment of silence and then she shouted:
[NOTE: THIS CONVERSATION HAS EDITED FOR CONTENT]
“Gummy Bear [EDITED]!”
"[EDITED]"
"[EDITED]"
"[EDITED]"
"[EDITED]"
" A gummy bear [EDITED]?"
“Yeah!”
Without any enthusiasm I could only respond with “Wow. It's [EDITED] honey.”
Because of a lack of proper response coming to mind; though I find the thought of her confusing it with [EDITED] very amusing, I realized I needed to change the subject. I then led into the question about colors and flavors of gummy bears and how she and I both like the clear ones that taste like pineapple....

She switches gears and goes into her rendition of Carlos Mencia's skit about Easter that goes something like: "Hide the eggs! And if anyone asks, eggs come from rabbits!"

We arrive at school, she gets out. I ask about her school ID, shout words of love while she unloads her school project and head to work with my head spinning.

Here are some links to help you “understand” our conversation (but really, you don’t HAVE to click on them. Consider yourself warned):

The Lordi Video
Dir En Gray
Insane Clown Posse
Slipknot
Ozzfest
Star Trek
The Borg
Gummy Bears
Carlos Mencia...Hide the Eggs! (this one is funny)

That was last Thursday. last Friday we bickered about whether or not I shake my leg when I am angry. I say no, she says yes. I say she is projecting her own attributes onto me.

So, just an ordinary morning with Breanna. How was your drive to work?

A great day

The day started out with me accompanying Breanna to Core Class 101
at Granger Community Church. Mark Beeson did a stellar job as always and
I could see that Breanna was truly paying attention. I was impressed by her
decision to attend the class and take her next step toward church membership.

The first session lasted an hour and 45 minutes and I will not forget the comment
that Breanna said as we walked out in the hall. "Whoa, I never really understood
that before." The first session, Mark takes 35 - 45 minutes and summarizes the bible
from Genesis to Revelation and truly explains salvation, or substitionary atonement.
I wont forget that comment because:

a) I thought she already understood that
b) (and the reason for "a")she spent two years going through CCD classes (her father's family is Catholic)

It amazed me that my assumption was wrong...and that two years of CCD teaching (which I know she retained because I have heard her repeat the teachings to other people) did not help her to understand the gift that Christ gave us.
--------------------------

After core class we ran into my pal Amanda who found the interaction between Breanna and I worthy of a reality show...I am not sure if that is a good thing or not. Amanda also had to make me feel rather ignorant by showing me that I really CAN send a text message on my phone.

However, my regret of the day are a couple of comments I made while Breanna and Amanda were speaking about parents - fathers in particular that probably made no sense and probably sounded really BAD to anyone (like Amanda) who did not understand the background of the comments.

Completely out of context and it is not meant for you to understand them at this particular moment, but the comments were:

"I sware it was the month that he was cute"
"He served his purpose"

Almost as soon as I uttered the second one, I thought...what the H, E, double hockey sticks am I saying!?!?

Breanna and I have had conversations about her father, (for those who do not know, my husband is not her father but has been in her life since before she was 2) some of them lighter than others.

She once asked me how I could have ever found her father attractive, and as a flip comment
the "I sware it was the month that he was cute." comment came out of my mouth.

Which of course brought up the deeper question of how I only dated him for roughly a month and ended up pregnant. I was not even dating him any longer when I found out that I was pregnant. Which brought up me explaining that her father and I met when I was very confused about life and love and was heartbroken over someone else and quite frankly I was full of emotions and needed an outlet for them and at the time basically her father unwittingly played proxy for that person in my life. I claimed to and believed that I loved him and engaged in a physical relationship with him. Finally I woke up to what I was doing and we mutually ceased interacting....for a while.

Which of course brought up the...was I a mistake question that children of unplanned pregnancies inevitably will have. I explained that though she was not planned, she was not a mistake. She was a surprise. If I did not want her, I had options. I could have put her up for adoption or had an abortion. I chose to have her and keep her because I felt that she was meant to be in my life and not once did I doubt that. Hence her father served his purpose in my life...to take part in creating the gift of my beautiful Breanna.

I never claim to have always made good choices in my life, but deciding to give birth to and raise Breanna was one of best.
----------------------------

Breanna enjoyed talking to Amanda and gave her extra points for liking her snake and decided to hang out with her for a few hours to help set up some things for services later as well as be co-conspirator to freaking out Lindsay by surprising her with the snake. Apparently mission was accomplished and Breanna had a great time hanging out with Amanda. While I went and visited my friends Paul and Jen.

---------------------------
I gathered my daughter and her snake...

(by the way, in case you had not figured this out, Akuji went with us today
because Breanna had heard that Julie had wanted to meet him and she loves to show him off)

...and we stopped by the mall to pick up snake food (a mouse) and had some fun conversation about things she learned in Core Class that relate to her current life, such as "Voting creates division" which has really affected a club she has been trying to get started in her school. It opened a door for me to offer to offer (yes I meant to say that twice) my suggestions which ended up with her wanting to know if she could ask her club sponsor to let me be a guest speaker at their next club meeting. I don't care for public speaking but if someone wants me speak on a topic I am comfortable with, and that person has my unconditional love...I think I could bite the bullet.

We also had a conversation about how I think that left solely up to men, the world would not have made as much forward progression as it has. Not that men are not important to the progression but I have found many personal examples in relationships and in the workplace where the women have been the catalyst for change...just an observation.
-----------------------------
.....and then I dropped Breanna off at work.

Lost no more!

Several weeks ago, early November, Breanna lost her snake. She had left a clip off of his cage. We tore the house apart looking for him...we tore it apart again. We had to stop looking. She has been heartbroken over it ever since. The slightest mention of him would bring a scowl to her face and you could tell it made her sad to think of him. She loved that snake. She covered his cage with a black cloth. Over time she believed him to be dead. She mourned him.
(My belief had always been that he got out of the house and was living a happy life in the cornfields nearby. Dave believed he would show up sooner or later)

Last night I had a really weird dream in which every roof in our house was just springing leaks left and right and rivers of water were coming from our ceilings. Same dream, I was laying in bed and looked up and spot Akuji and grab him and run to put him in his cage but it is filled with mud and a big intruder snake is there so I grab it and I have a snake in both hands and I start yelling for Dave to come help me get the cage cleaned out...I don't remember anything after that.

This morning I read the pets section in the classified ads and there was an ad for a snake similar to Breanna's...there are rarely EVER ads for that snake in the paper. I was going to tell Breanna my dream but then decided not to since it would probably depress her.

Dave and I were doing laundry and when I went downstairs to put in a load of whites, I noticed that there was a white sock by the sub pump so just as I bend down to grab it I spot something odd near the sub pump well and I was in awe. It was Akuji. My heart starting beating like mad, but I remember moving real slow and saying Dave's name. I was certain that if I touched him he would move so fast I would never catch him, or that...he would not move at all. So I gently placed my hand on his "back" and wrapped my hand around his body. He was SOOOO cold. I thought he was dead. I picked him up and as soon as I lifted him off the ground, he turned around and looked at me with those cute little red eyes and stuck his tongue out as if the say....oh, it's you.

Dave had not quite figured out what was going on until I turned around with my hands full of our scaley, beautiful friend. He looked stunned! The first thing we both do is start screaming Breanna's name and I run for the stairs. She gets to the top of the steps seconds before me and I am just saying her name and she is saying "What? What?" because she is not thinking to look for a snake she does not see it until I shove my hands in her face. She now has the stunned look, grabs him up and "hugs" him saying "OH MY GOD! OH MY GOD" and she just goes and sits down and is crying and hugging her snake all at the same time and saying thank you to me over and over again.

It has been a grand reunion. Breanna has not put him down. I know some of you may find this silly, but we really love our animals here...even the no legged ones. It was a very emotional moment for us.

Let me tell you this: I don't know that I would have SEEN Akuji if it had not been for the dream, and the newspaper ad keeping him on my mind today. To be quite honest, my laundry room is not particularly the cleanest and right next to the sub pump well, and where most of Akuji was laying next to, were two red tool boxes...for those who don't know him, Akuji has quite a bit of red in him.

Godwink?

Breanna...Another Milestone

Well ladies and gentleman, here it is:

She is allowed on the road.

(accompanied by another driver of course)

I am very proud of her. She made a perfect score on her written exam. So, we celebrated by going to the big - and always empty - parking lot at the softball complex near our house and I put her behind the wheel of a very large weapon of death...the Explorer. She was scared pink. Yes, she was pink most of the time, but she did good. She did not hit anything. So after making her follow a route in the parking lot, having her park between two lines and ATTEMPT backing out of a parking space, I let her drive home. She did well, except when she parked the truck, half of it was in the grass. Not bad. So we went to Hacienda to celebrate (thanks, Kathy)!

On the way home we were driving past the same park so I stopped the truck and told her to drive, she said NO! It was not a familiar road and it was sprinkling which she said deemed the roads unsafe because they become slick immediately after rain begins falling. So, I continued forward and tried again...she said NO again because of a "sharp turn" ahead. Hogwash! But I did not press the issue. When we finally came to the point where she had driven from earlier she asked me to stop because she wanted to try again and get to park the truck WITHOUT having ended up half way in the grass. This is the result:

A very proud moment....good job Breanna. I am very proud of you. For this and for many of the other decisions you have made over the past two weeks...including the new haircut...I love it, and I love you...(this sappy momemt brought to you by Brer Rabbit, makers of molasses and syrups)

BREANNA! Happy "sweet" 16 !!!

No one knows her the way that I do...I am sure everyone can say that, but my relationship with her is special. Most of the world sees her hard, brightly colored candy shell, but I see her mushy chocolatey insides. Yes, I am comparing her to an m&m. A red one to be precise. So, this will probably wipe all previous posts from view, but I want to share a photo montage of her life thus far. I will not caption the pictures...nor will I explain them. This is more for her than anyone else and I don't have enough space on the entire internet to describe all of these pictures properly.

Happy Birthday Beanie Jo!!!! My Butterfly, I Love you.

A bit more traditional costume

....if you can ever call Breanna traditional, it would be at Halloween.
This is how she went to school today.
She was not happy about me taking a picture of her,
but I gave her the argument that as long as she dressed up for Halloween
I would be taking pictures - hence the look on her face.

Of course, I only include the next photo so that you can see the full effect:

These pictures do not do this "costume" any justice. You cant see the belts or the accessories or the boots very well. But she somehow got it all. The scary thing is that all of the garments, are either hers or mine from our everyday wardrobe. Nothing she is wearing was purchased as "costume"; it all naturally fell together in her head.

Fun stuff in the life of Breanna

Breanna has some fun things in her life...these are what she shared with me recently.


#1 Breanna has a friend named Zeke. Zeke had a dream.

This is Zeke (on the right):



Zeke had a very important dream one night. So important that Zeke woke up and made himself a note so that he would not forget his very important message. This is the important message Zeke did not want to forget:



Translation of Zeke's very important message: "800 nipple hands are need to start a revolution"

- For the record...I like Zeke.



#2 There is an Italian foreign exchange student attending Breanna's high school. His name is Carlo-Andrea. Everyone calls him Carlo. This is Carlo:

Ignore the flower (forgive him, he knows not what he does).

According to Breanna, Carlo does "tricks" - I however see it as Carlo just having fun.

According to Breanna this is Carlo being "cute" :


(Yes, he is speaking in Italian...the English translation is: "Dad, are you there? Can you do it? Get connected!")

...and this is Carlo being "schmexy" (again, according to Breanna) but saying the same thing.


-For the record...I like Carlo too.

Thanks to both of these young men for amusing my daughter...and in turn...ME, which is truly what is important, humoring ME, it's all about ME.

CANTON HOUSE (blatant advertising)

So, Breanna's career at McDonalds has come to an end. She turned in her hat and much hated pants on Saturday.

Her new career is at The Canton House.

What is The Canton House? Only the best Chinese restaurant on this side of town! It is conveniently located at 25590 SR 2 (aka Western Avenue), South Bend, IN 46619 and you can call for carry out at 574-232-8182

Some of you are thinking "WOW, I did not know that they were open!"

Well, great news they are, they have new owners but the egg rolls are still homemade as is everything else (which according to Breanna means they can add things to your dish if you request it)

....and the new owners are EXTREMELY CLEAN...Breanna has to test the Ph level in her cleaning water...and she even has to clean window sills! (YAY! No BUGS!) Apparently they are planning on redecorating...the old tacky wallpaper needs to go. The owners are a nice young married couple, Andrew and Carol Lee...and kinda fun from the little interaction I have had with them. Breanna says that they use a squirt gun to take care of any "behavioral problems" with their staff. (She has not yet personally experienced the Chinese water torture first hand but she is amused by it)

If you go in while Breanna is working, she claims she will buy you a round of egg rolls (group limit of 6 people - she makes just over minimum wage and works part time, so it's not like she is rolling in the dough, she is just trying to drum up business here)

SO, since the re-opening of the Canton House seems to be South Bend's best kept secret, help me to spread the word (and keep Breanna at a job she seems to like)...TAKE YOUR CLAN TO THE CANTON HOUSE!

Ohhh, and don't forget the fortune cookies!

How to Scare the Crap Out of Your Teenager:

Step One: Ask teenage daughter if she will watch her sister while you are at work the next day.

Step Two: Confirm with younger child that they want their sister to supervise them the following day.

Step Three: Have your spouse catch your teenager still awake and talking on the phone at 5:30 a.m.

Step Four: Decide with spouse that you will take younger child to daycare instead of leaving them home with sleep deprived teenager.

Step Five: Get ready for work, get younger child up (explain why, she can not sleep in today) and dropped off at daycare.

Step Six: Call teenager around 12:45 p.m. to see if the packages you had been expecting have been delivered and (while she is hauling the large heavy packages off the front porch) inquire about how her sister is doing.

Step Seven: Try not to laugh while teenager, having not seen said child will/might/could respond with "I don't know, she is not up yet" to which you respond "Okay, well thanks for bringing my packages in, I will see you later this afternoon", say farewell, and hang up.

Step Eight: Wait - Precisely one hour and four minutes

Step Nine: Answer your ringing cell phone to the cries of your panicked teenager who can not find the sibling they have been looking all over for during the past fifteen minutes and bask in the glory of what is either a lesson learned or a great prank on your smart aleck teenager...

Step Ten: ...either way, prepare for retaliation.

Attention Corporate Office for McDonalds!

A recent post from fellow blogger(and Connections Pastor extraordinaire) Mark Waltz titled Sad Service Sightings compelled me to post about my own recent (?) poor service. I question whether or not it was recent because I think it was almost a month ago but I still find myself thinking about how AWFUL it was on a semi-regular basis, so much so that when I took my daughter to the doctor last week she was talking about poor service and my blood boiled and I started sharing the story with her. She was mortified FOR me! So, here is the story:

One fine evening I decided to go to McDonalds. Not my favorite restaurant but we were hungry, I did not want to cook, and it was close by. This particular restaurant on the West side of South Bend has never had the BEST customer service, but at least it was usually better than the KFC next door which NEVER gives me what I order, but I digress. On this particular day my husband and I ordered Quarter Pounder Value Meals, Paige ordered a hamburger Big Kids Meal and Breanna wanted fries and a yogurt parfait and a soda. Not a difficult order. We paid our money at window #1 and here is the order of events at window #2:

8:31pm - Window opens, young lady sticks an ice cream cone in my face.
I look at her and state "I did not order a cone"
to which she replies "it says cone"
"I ordered a parfait" (cone is still in her hand, she is pointing it at me)
"it says cone"
"I ordered a parfait"
"It don't matter no how, they cost the same" (she pulls the cone in, goes further into the store and re-appears with the parfait, hands it to me and mutters something about it costing the same anyway and window closes, I sit stunned and bewildered at why she would choose to argue with me about what I ordered)
8:33pm - I hand the parfait to my husband and ask off hand "why, if I ordered a cone, would you give it to me before the rest of the order?" He shrugs, we wait.
8:34pm - same girl comes back to window and opens it and just stands there looking at us, not saying anything so I take the initiative and told her that we had a larger order. She says "Oh" and mutters something else about a cone and closes the window. We watch as she haphazardly fills our drink order and then begins to hand us the FOUR drinks individually! (Do I look like an octopus? Do you see 4 drink holders in my console? Come on! This is my pet peeve! More than one drink, you should assume or at least ask if I want a carrier) So, I ask for a cup holder and she begrudgingly takes the drinks and places them in one and practically shoves the thing at me. Then, she disappears.
8:36pm - still waiting
8:38pm - still waiting and being blatantly ignored. We had no chicken products, this is standard stuff that we ordered. Burgers and fries. Good thing we hadn't ordered a cone or it would have melted. I notice a woman and child pull up, park and walk into the store.
8:40pm - I make eye contact with another store employee who is at the front counter - with her tush/backside/fanny ON the counter, her back to the store, slurping a drink (apparently on her break) and when she sees me motion for assistance she talks to someone in the back that I can not see...obviously the girls who is supposed to be taking care of us. So at this point I am being ignored by TWO people. (I notice that the woman that parked earlier is placing her order and watching the girls that have been ignoring me.)
8:41pm - Girl who was at window #1, and took our money, wanders into the window #2 area and makes eye contact and I make a motion to her and now I am being ignored by THREE
people.
8:42pm - I motion to the girl lounging at the counter - and I mean, I motion BIG - both hands making the universal "come here" sign. She begins speaking to the invisible entity in back and mimics my same motion and continues to ignore me.
8:44pm - Girl who gave us the parfait and drinks returns with a bag and shoves it at me and retreats from the window. The burgers in the bag are barely wrapped, the fries are half full and worst of all there is NO CHILDS TOY! At this point I have been waiting for 10 MINUTES AT A FREAKING DRIVE THRU and the order is INCOMPLETE.
8:45pm - I motion to lounging girl again and she mimics me AGAIN! THAT'S IT! I pull up one car length - throw my car into park and storm into the store. When I get to the counter all the people who ignored me SCATTERED! I ask for the manager and the one person in the store not involved in this fiasco states that she will be right up - and she was. I begin to explain to the manager that I had just received the WORST service I have EVER received in my life. I am fairly forgiving to fast food places because you get what you pay for, but this was reprehensible. I don't remember my exact diatribe but boy was I angry - I did not yell but boy - I must have looked pretty angry judging the looks on everyone elses face. I also explained that when a child orders a child's meal the child expects to get a child's toy! The cost of which is added in to the cost of the meal! I pointed out all of the key players (or whatever you want to label them) and she apologized, found a toy for me, said that they would be dealt with,
8:51pm - and I left. The lady who I had seen enter the store earlier walked out behind me and told me how glad she was that I had come in. She was witness to the antics of those girls from inside and how they were talking about me. She was offended by how rude it was to behave that way in front of OTHER customers. She was just as appalled at the poor service even though her own service had been fine.

I ponder, still, writing to their corporate office. I also pondered printing the names of the offenderss in this post but I would not want to embarrass their families. Then I think: my teenage daughter, who works at a McDonalds, has been taught since a very young age the importance of customer service. She can spot poor service from a hundred yards. Where did these people LEARN that it is okay to give such poor service?

For all people out there who deal with customers: No matter how much you hate your job you DO NOT take it out on your customers. Customers should think that you are having a great day and that you at least LIKE your job. If you hate your job, or are having such a bad day that you can not pretend to like your job then you need to save your employer and your customers some frustration by quitting or asking to go home for the day until you can adjust your attitude.

For all employers: I would rather be short staffed than have my customers experience poor service.

I still wonder if I should write to their corporate office. Bad service leaves a lasting impression but I want to end on a good note:

Prior to my poor experience with this particular store. I visited that same establishment during a weekday morning to get nothing more than a large Diet Coke. If I could have ordered an I.V. drip of caffeine somewhere, I would have but Diet Coke was easier to procure. Anyway, a fabulous man named Jay Swift took my money from me at window #1. He said Good Morning as if he meant it, asked how my day was going, took my cash, gave me my change and told me to have a blessed day. The lady at the next window was pleasant and had a smile on her face and if I could have read her name I would print it here. That left enough of an impression on me that I actually shared my PLEASANT experience with my daughter later that day. So, as you can see, good experiences are shared by me as well...just with fewer words.

Happy Birthday Breanna

Our day began at 6:30 a.m. where I strolled into Breanna's room and lay down next to her sleeping self. In a Gilmore-esq way I began reciting the story which was a historical retelling of the day she was born that started something like: "At this time, 15 years ago I was on my way to the hospital to be induced...."
She whined about being awakened and at one point during the whining I recall referring to the stretch marks that she gave me as a gift 15 years ago... which she counted. Anyway, she received jammies and a kick-butt bath/spa set and the best of all a bag filled with tic-tacs, gum, altoids, and deodorant. Attached to the deodorant was a ribbon with different denominations of money tied to it - total of which will not be disclosed. Also, reminding her that she is going to be sent to Chicago on an overnight shopping trip next weekend with the kids from the the GCC high school ministry LIFELINE http://www.gccwired.com/listTemplate.asp?pageid=26 (someday I will figure out how to make the link and the word all one entry)

So, now we are off to visit her grandfather in the hospital and do a mini celebration with him.

Coming Soon:

A picture of Breanna dressed as a nun blowing out candles on a twinkie cake... check back next week for this and other interesting tid bits...until then, enjoy an eyball picture

This is the ONLY picture I have of a RIGHT eye. And of course who else would it be than the one and only, Mr Right himself - my husband David. (The other 65 eyeball pics I have are of the left eye. If you are willing, and I haven't taken your eyball picture before I would love to add you to my collection, or if you were not happy with your last one - please let me know)