Discrimination?

I am pretty irritated right now. I am going to have to vent a little and if I am off base with this then I am sure someone will let me know:)

I was alerted to a new water park opening up in my area. I was informed that they were having a reading program that you could sign your kids up for and they would receive a voucher to get into the park for free.

So I signed up. I filled out their on-line form one for each of my kids. The form asked for our school name. I listed ours as home school. Funny that I had a feeling this was going to be a problem.

I waited and waited and never received anything. Until about a month ago .

I received an email from this water park saying that they had such a great response to their reading program and the vouchers had been mailed out and had to be used by the 3rd of July.

We had not received our vouchers, assuming this was an error, I sent them an email, in response to their email letting them know we had not received our vouchers.

Their response was that they were going to check into it. That was two weeks ago. I just sent them another email and they responded with this email:

We have no record that you signed up. Do you have a copy of what you sent?

That's it. No Dear Mrs. Jones. No signed Mr. Sneedly. Nothing. Just do you have proof that you signed up.

Okay seriously, this is ridiculous. First off they got my email address when I signed up! They sent me an email saying that the vouchers had been sent out! Could they not track that down? Also what is the big deal? Is this really worth losing potential customers? And if you are going to respond to my email at least have the decency to put your name on it so I can respond to a person!!!

I kindly wrote them back, noting some of these facts, as well as asking them if my kids did not receive their vouchers because they were not part of a traditional school, but a home school.

It will be interesting to see how they resolve this. I will be sure to release the water parks name as soon as it is resolved.

Kristen

Question...

Why is it that it takes 6 hours for the Polyurethane/stain to dry when applied to wood, yet it dries almost instantaneously on your hand, arm, leg , etc?

Also, why is it that the same polyurethane/stain has a warning on it that it can spontaneously combust if left on rags, yet it is fine to rub it all over the very combustible wood? What if you were using rags made from say, hemp or some other woody material would that still be a risk?

Just wondering.

Kristen

Running With Scissors

So yesterday I had a near fatal, near accident.

See, I had finished with cleaning all the carpets, and I was doing some repair work on this one pesky area rug that insists on curling at the corners. I had read that if you tape cardboard triangles to the corners it will stop them from curling. (in case your interested the corners now stay down but the sides are curling up, go figure.)

After completing my tape job I took the tape and scissors into the laundry room to put them up on the shelf, but I was moving quickly and ran into the carpet cleaner that I had left in the middle of the laundry room. Stubbing my toe and beginning to fall forward I remembered the scissors in my hand and began to worry that I was going to stab myself in the eye. It plays back in my mind in slow motion. It goes kind of like this- walking quickly, trip on vacuum, beginning to fall, scissors!, catch myself at the last minute from falling on scissors.

I didn't fall on the scissors. But it got me to thinking. How safe is the "safety position" when carrying scissors. My mom taught me and in turn I taught my children this position, you know the hold-the-scissors-by-the-sharp-part-position. But really why is that safer than holding them by the handle while walking? And why do they have to be at your side with the handle pointing down? Would holding them over your head be that much more dangerous? And who thought of this position? And did they do experiments to see if it was, in deed, safer than carrying them over your head?

I got to thinking that maybe it would be better to teach your children to drop the scissors in case of a fall. I think that would be much safer. You may hit a toe but your vital organs would be safe.

I can see it now, we could even think up a song. You know like the stop, drop, and roll chant in case you catch on fire. But maybe it could be stop, drop the scissors before you fall.

We really would need someone to do some experimenting and see which way is safer.

Anybody?

Kristen

Much Accomplished

Carpets in entire house clean. Dog bathed. Comforters washed. Second side of shelves about to be stained. And it is a beautiful day here in Chicagoland so I am going to be at the pool by 1!

Woo Hoo!

Keith and Brandi have taken some fantastic pics of the kids. Check them out here. The picture of Jake and Josh melts my heart! But the picture of all the cousins with Joshi and Kyle at the restaurant, hilarious!

I'm off!

Kristen

Week On

Okay so the kids are still gone, but my playmate has gone back to work :(

We had so much fun last week!! Mike is a great person to hang out with!

So my plans for this week are:

clean the carpets in the entire house
stain shelves for school room
put together new desks for school room
install new shelves in school room
plan school for second week of July
lay in the sun at the pool (everyday?)
finish my book and begin new book

Today I cleaned all the carpets on the lower levels of the house, put the first coat of stain on the shelves, and laid out in the sun at the pool. Oh, and I read a good chunk of my book.

Also, something different from last week, I cooked dinner tonight!!! I didn't do much cooking last week but am vowing to get back into it this week. Tonight it is grilled potatoes, carrots, and onion with kosher salt and olive oil, chicken breasts with Emril rub (grilled of course), and oatmeal peanut butter cookies for dessert. Yum!!

Not too bad for the first day!

Kristen

A Week Off

What a vacation week so far!

The kid left on Tuesday for AZ. Half are being spoiled at my mom and dad's house and half are being spoiled at their Aunt B and Uncle Keith's house. And I mean spoiled! When I talk to them they are having so much fun they could care less about what we are doing!

And I am glad.

Mike decided last minute before the kids left that he would be able to take a week off of work while the kids were gone! Woo Hoo!! He really needed a break even if he didn't know it! I know it's hard to take a break from something you love but you still have to renew!

So we have been just hanging out together, having so much fun, and taking little afternoon, night trips and adventures with friends. Very fun.

Tuesday (the day kids left) we just hung out then decided since it was dollar movie Tuesday we would go and see two dollar movies. I made it through the first one but as we were eating dinner I realized I couldn't do the second.... needed to sleep. So I pooped out and we went home.

Wednesday we went mini-golfing with friends. And yes the rumor is true I did hit three cars with one ball. I am much more powerful than I look. After go-carts, which Mike and Terri lapped me on the track, we then had a great dinner and some fun card games. I will skip talking about the scores here. It really is unnecessary.

Then last night we met some other friends for dinner and a comedy act at the Roundhouse. Unfortunately it was not what we expected. But it was almost free so that made up for it. It was great just being with fun people. We decided to hit Denny's after that which was hilarious. Haven't been to Denny's since I was in college. Got home after one a.m. which is really late for me.

So there is a recap of the week's events so far. Miss the kids a ton but am really enjoying my one on one time with my guy. And I love the fact that my kids are making one of a kind memories with their awesome relatives!

And yes, B and Keith, when your boys are 12, 9, 7, and 5 I will take them for a week as well.

Two at a time :)

Kristen

Faith's 12th Birthday!!!

I just finished the Wicked cake!!!

We asked Faith what she wanted for her birthday and she said she just wanted to go and see Wicked with her best friend! So we got the tickets and we are going tomorrow on her actual birthday.

No brother's, just her best friend, Sarah, and me. We are going to have a blast in Chicago!! (Thanks Paula for watching the sibs.)

To go with her Wicked birthday I made her a Wicked cake. Her and Sarah are spending the day today doing girl stuff and tonight some neighborhood friends are coming over to have dinner and cake.

I will post more pics later.

Kristen

Swim Pics '08

It's that time of year again!!!! Yea!!! Today was our third day at the pool and the coldest. Way too cold for me! (Notice the boys blue lips) The boys were hamming it up for pics. but my tween-ager, Faith, I had to beg to get a swim pic of. As you can see she wasn't thrilled. kylee was too busy swimming with her friend to stop for a picture but I did get one.

Oh, and Joshi took the lovely pic. of me. Thanks son.

Kristen

17-year emergence

Kentucky is having their 17-year emergence of these little guys this year. And just in case you haven't had the pleasure of meeting one of these little guys they are Cicadas.

Il had their emergence last year and living in the suburbs we weren't really affected so much. As a matter of fact when we found one last year it was a treat.

But where mom Jones lives in Kentucky, not so much a treat! These guys are soooo loud!!! And everywhere. My bug-a-phobe Faith didn't leave the house the whole first day for fear of running into one. Which wasn't a hard thing to do, since they were swarming everywhere and looked like little birds flying around.

I thought they were cool and considered catching one and bringing it home for the boys to see, but decided that may not be the best idea.

Faith's desire to see granny's horses over ruled her hate for bugs and she eventually did go outside.

And when they returned from seeing the horses Kylee had a tick crawling up her neck.

That was the end to the outside adventures for my city girls.

Also wanted to thank all of you for praying for my mom in AZ. She is home from the hospital as of last night and doing really great! She is going to have to be on dialysis for some time but she is feeling much better!

Kristen

A Tale of Two Walmarts

The Walmart in Glasgow, Kentucky is different in a lot of ways. But here is a brief dramatization to explain the major difference. For your own enjoyment you may want to do a thick southern accent for the Walmart employee in Ky.

Walmart Chicago suburbs today-

Chicago Walmart employee- "Hi, How are you today?"

Me- "Good thank you."

silence while doing her job.

Chicago Walmart employee- "That will be $27.89."

Chicago Walmart employee- "Thanks have a nice day."

Me- "You too!"

I leave.

Walmart Glasgow, Ky last week-

Glasgow Walmart employee - "Hi There! How is the weather outside today?"

Me- "It's nice."

Glasgow Walmart employee- "OH MY GAWD!!! This Peach has my name on it!! Can you believe this peach has my name on it???!!! Can I have the stick'a off a your peach?"

Me- "Sure."

Walmart employee removing tag off my peach and sticking it on her name tag- "My name is Zimmer, ya just don't see my name on peaches!!"

Me- "No, I'm sure you don't."

Glasgow Walmart employee Zimmer- "Oh artichokes, you know these things have little spikes on them, so be careful. You would be surprised at the people who don't know they have spikes. How do you eat your artichokes?"

Me- "Oh, usually with butter or mayonnaise."

Glasgow Walmart employee Zimmer- (with a dreamy look) "I wonda what they would taste like friiiiiied?"

(Just a note here, you have the zucchini, mushroom, potato, okra, pickle, green bean and even the twinkie can we just go ahead and leave the poor artichoke unfried?)

Glasgow Walmart employee Zimmer- "Okay that will be $20.56....Oh My GAWD she looks just like that girl, that one actress. Ya know that one actress?"

Me- "No."

Walmart employee Zimmer- "The one lady, from Joan of Arc, she looks just like her but miniature ya know?"

Me- "Okay, thanks bye now."

Walmart employee Zimmer- "Okay bye now, have a good day." (speaking to the next customer) "So how's the weather outside?"

Kristen

Mom's Head

We are home!! Had a busy week in Kentucky and am so glad to be back home to my boys!!! All three of them!

I just had to post a picture of mom Jones' head. You really have to see it to believe it.

The girls and I cooked and cleaned and ran errands while we were there. I don't know how much help we were but it felt good to see mom and know that she was okay.

And as a side note the GPS got me there in about 7 hours and home in about the same. And I didn't get lost!

Also, found out last night my mom is in the hospital. She is back in for some dialysis treatments. So prayers would be great! We want her to get the treatments and be released soon! The hospital always seems to mess up her meds and make her worse so she needs to get out of there quick!

My kids were all so glad to see each other, they ran out the door to their friends,and even took the boys with them!

I am exhausted from my 2 hours of sleep last night and 7 hour drive, so I am going to go and zone.

Kristen