Taxes and Other Unnatural Disasters

It's tax time - Yay! ...or not! A lot of people who filed with Educational Credits and some other types of credits, got thrown for a loop this year. Because our government is stupid (sorry, but hey! I only speak truth), the IRS couldn't accept Education Credit Form 8863 until February 14, 2013. Anybody who filed prior to that date with that credit had their return held until the IRS could receive it. At the same time, the IRS was cracking down on fraud, so a larger number of returns were pulled this season than in previous seasons. Now if all of that wasn't enough, some tax preparers (H&R Block being the largest, and Jackson-Hewitt and Turbo Tax having smaller numbers of affected people) were using outdated 8863 forms and the IRS's system was reading them as blank, but it wasn't caught until about the first week of March. The IRS had to manually fix those forms, and it caused a delay of epic proportions. People were confused, angry, and in despair, and regardless of what others may think, poor people (and some not-so-poor people) rely on their tax returns for a variety of reasons, so no judging!! 

Our tax return was caught up in this mess, and it was a horrible experience. I would call the IRS to find out what was happening and every time I got a different answer. Some of the people flat lied, and others were rude, and you couldn't trust anything any of them said.  And H&R Block wasn't much better, although less rude. I finally found out what was wrong by doing a Google search. Once I knew, I called H&R Block back to see what they had to say. They acted like they didn't have a clue what I was talking about. A few phone conversations down the road, they promised to call me with progress reports or just to check in and let me know they were "there" for me. None of that happened. I called corporate offices and spoke to a lady who was very nice about filing a complaint and requesting my filing fee be returned to me for unsatisfactory service - they do have a 100% satisfaction guarantee. She explained that a regional manager would be contacting me within 3-5 business days - that never happened either. And I wasn't alone - hundreds of thousands of people who were affected by this and no one was getting any answers. H&R Block finally posted an announcement on their Facebook page, if you can imagine that, and people were furious. Finally in a letter from the C.E.O. of H&R Block on their blog about the middle of March, was posted the real story and accepted responsibility. That should make the class action suit against them easier to do. Week before last, I got $30 back from H&R Block and a hopeful request for me to continue to use them for our tax needs. I don't think that will be happening.

When we got our taxes prepared with H&R Block on February 12th, afterwards we went to Joplin to pick up my husband's new computer, and then we went to Sears to take a look at refrigerators. We found one on sale and it was such a good sale that we decided to put it on layaway, thinking that in 2-3 weeks we'll have out tax money back and can pay it off early. We thought wrong! Every two weeks until we finally got our return on March 28th we had to make a payment on that refrigerator. During that time when our return wasn't received and we didn't know what was happening and then when we knew what the problem was but not when our money would come, we were under such stress! We are in that group of po' folk who use their return to make major purchases (like a refrigerator) or pay off bills, or remodel the house. We were really sweating it, because that bi-weekly payment was killing us. We're talking a $2000 refrigerator @ $300 every two weeks!

Finally on March 28th, we got our money so on Tuesday April 2nd, we took a trip to Joplin and paid off the refrigerator, and bought a new microwave that matched but they couldn't deliver the 'fridge until April 11th. So I had to wait another 10 days to get it. In order to just pay one delivery fee, I had them put my microwave for delivery with the 'fridge - no biggie, right?

Isn't it pretty?

So, this past Thursday Sears came with my new appliances...or so I thought. My refrigerator came, but my microwave was not on the truck. The delivery/installation team was super nice and wonderfully efficient until it came time to install the water line. No compression fitting was to be seen anywhere and it was a necessary little part that allows the water line from the refrigerator to pair with the line running to the water source. Long story short (I know, too late!) Sears is sending a fitting they found in the store along with my microwave this coming Thursday (April 18th). Until then, I have a beautiful new Samsung refrigerator that doesn't dispense water or ice. 

Lot's of room, and a freezer underneath!

Now, back to that letter from H&R Block hoping that they will see us next year for our business: They sent me a crappy $30 when it cost me $220 to file, never did anything they said they would as far as informing me of what was happening, or contacting me, and acted like they didn't know anything was even wrong when I called even though it was all over the news, internet, and papers. No, I'm not going back, but those aren't the only reasons. For the last three years, their service has gone down in quality. I can no longer count on getting the same preparer, let alone an experienced one. This year the woman doing our taxes told me she had just completed her 6 weeks of training on January 21st... :o  I'm fairly certain they hire new people every tax season because other than the owner, I haven't seen anyone I recognize from previous years, and for the last three years, our preparers has had to ask the owner how to do the Education Credit Form. We actually discussed NOT going to H&R Block this year, but then decided to go ahead, thinking it was cheaper than going to a CPA. Wrong again! My boss got his and his son's taxes done at an accountant for less than we paid. So, no, I'm not going back, and it's not just because of one little screw up. Are they solely to blame for the fiasco? No, the IRS didn't help the situation by lying to people, and we already know it's pointless to even attempt to have respect for most government offices, so decisions often come down to "who will jack with me less?" The government will always screw things up - that's a given. Choosing a company to do business with that you can respect is important, and who can respect a company who can't own up to a mistake?

Now I want to close this on a happy note. Remember back this summer when I lost my glasses (see So Much for Karma)? Well I finally got some new glasses. They aren't the same ones, but pretty similar, so I can see good again and they're pretty  :)

Hail Hath No Fury...

I know - it's supposed to be "Hell hath no fury..." but that would ruin my little pun because I'm talking about hail. Last Sunday we had a nasty storm blow through and with it came hail. Now, I live in the Midwest - Kansas - and we are known for large hail, hail the size of golf balls and baseballs. But in the 16 years that I have lived here, the biggest hail I have ever personally seen in our community is about the size of a grape - still rather impressive for a girl from Southern California. 

What I saw hitting my house and bouncing off of my glass french doors, deck, barbeque grill,and everything else, was golf ball size and larger - about the size of a nectarine. I've talked to people who have lived here their whole lives and most of them say they've never had hail that large around here in their lifetime. The picture of the hail with the penny is one I grabbed from the front porch - in a hurry! I didn't want to get beaned and earn myself a possible concussion, so I just grabbed what was available with the door open just a couple of inches. It's not one of the largest ones by any means, but I wasn't going to risk stitches in my head, know what I mean? The other picture is from my front yard. It's hard to see it, but it looks like a bunch of white toadstools just popped up. Some of these were hitting so hard that they exploded on impact.

That Sunday evening my husband was working (he started back with the city Police Dept. in January), I had an assignment due, and a bunch of laundry to finish before school and work the next day, so I and my youngest stayed home from church, otherwise my truck would have been outside during the storm and not safely under our carport in the back. Tucker, as the only member of the family at church that evening, said that several of the stained glass windows got broken and almost all of the storm glass covering the stained glass got damage, and all of the cars in the parking lot have dents all over them. My husband drove his patrol car under the carport and thereby saved it from a lot of damage. All of the other cars except for his and one other had broken lights, glass, and dents all over the place.

The next day driving to work showed a town that looked like it had been through a shootout and lost. We have a few dozen instances of holes in our siding, just one broken storm window, a couple of damaged screens - not nearly as bad a lot of people. Some of these houses with siding look like they were peppered with automatic gunfire. Houses with wooden siding look like they have been sandblasted - most of the paint is gone on the west and north sides of the houses. There are broken windows everywhere, which are being boarded up, and overall there is a lot of roof damage, with blue tarps seen on numerous roofs.

By Friday, our town was inundated with contractors - cars and trucks with ladders attached to them and so much advertising on the vehicles, you'd run the risk of having an accident trying to read it all. We got no less than 8 forms of advertising on our door, and several more in the mail just on Friday alone. There are warnings all over the local news channels and in the papers advising people to thoroughly vet contractors to avoid being scammed. 

We have State Farm and our adjuster came out this morning and met with the contractor we selected and together they went all over the house and the roof. Apparently our roof is totaled, as is the roof on the carport. I found pieces of roofing material in the yard last week so Bobby went up on the roof and did find damage, but he wasn't sure to what extent. I guess it's bad, lol. The adjuster has determined that our roof will be replaced, along with our metal garage door, my french doors on the deck, all of the screens on the west and north sides of the house, the broken storm window, and the siding on the west and north sides of the house. However, if a match cannot be found for the existing siding, then all of the siding will be replaced. The contractor told us that siding manufacturers change the colors and styles every few years, and ours is old enough that most likely we'll be looking at all four sides of the house being done. My problem is that I didn't want to go with vinyl siding again, but insurance will only cover materials that are comparable to what is currently existing on the house. I guess if we get another damaging storm go through that ruins vinyl siding that was just replaced, they might have to rethink that policy. Homes with that concrete-type siding didn't get any damage at all to it. It's definitely worth thinking about.

That Time of Year

Here we are again - December. The Christmas season is upon us. It's that time of year that some people try to avoid at all costs and others embrace. I love Christmas, and I believe in saying "Merry Christmas." I'll say "Happy Holidays" if I'm referring to the holidays as a group, and while I object to the Politically Correct Police who are trying to take Christ out of Christmas (and everything else!), I don't flip out if someone says Happy Holidays to me.

This year Christmas is going to be pretty slim around my house. Bobby ran for Sheriff but lost, and the next day was told to turn in his equipment, "and oh, by the way, can you submit a letter of resignation?" They want that letter so that they don't look like the bad guy and hopefully are able to wriggle out of any unemployment obligations. Bobby refused to submit a resignation letter, however, so now we're waiting for unemployment to get back to him with a decision. Almost 4 weeks! I don't make enough to keep us afloat, and although Bobby is trying to find work, there's nothing yet. I may have to try to find something part-time too...

Today is my birthday and with all of that on my shoulders and what is looming ahead, it's been a rather depressing day. Not because I won't get birthday gifts or a fancy dinner out, but because two people that I really wanted to hear from on my birthday were no-shows. How hard is it to text someone birthday wishes? How long does it take to send out an email? In this day of advanced technology and social media overload, video calls on your phone even, why is it so hard for people to connect? In actuality, it isn't difficult to connect, not really. It's all about "me"; "I'm so busy", "things are so crazy right now." They're excuses because we are so wrapped up in ourselves and our busy lives that we flat didn't think about anything else. Oh, we might have had a thought drift through but we quickly put it out of our mind by saying "I'll call later when things settle down" only, later never happens. I know what I'm talking about because I have caught myself doing it on occasion. When the guilt becomes overwhelming, we post something on Facebook - we could do better, but at least it's something...I guess. On the upside, though, my BFF since fourth grade texted me and that seriously improved my day :)

So, I won't be able to give fancy gifts this year, but I can give my time and of myself by saying "Merry Christmas" and meaning it, calling or contacting people important to me and letting them know I care, and helping out where needed. We don't have a homeless shelter here, or a soup kitchen, but I can definitely find some way to donate my time and skills. 

Our lights are up and we're a bit late getting the tree up, but that's happening this week, so we're ready for the season.  Bring it on! 

Signs, Wonders, and Unconventional Messengers

God's Messengers come in all forms it would seem. Have you ever had a complete sign-from-above moment? I have been struggling over the decision to change my degree program to Graphic Design or to stay on the Web Design and Interactive Media program. My problem lies with the last part: media. I just finished Intro to Audio and Desktop Video is coming up. Looking at the rest of the classes I have yet to take, I am seeing a heavy emphasis on media and very little web design. Actually, almost every class I've had that dealt with web design really revolved around the media aspects of web design. I'm just not that into media. I don't want to create Interactive CD Roms or mobile applications or interactive kiosks. I'm pretty sure I was told that these two programs share a lot of the same classes (but WDIM has more web courses). I know I heard that from at least two different counselors, waaaay back the first couple of times I questioned whether I was in the right program or not. But now I have a counselor who is really listening and wants to help me get the most out of my education instead of classes that are a waste of my time (and money!).

So anyhoo, Sunday evening was our church's trunk-or-treat. While I was talking with my friend Rhonda who was passing out candy she let me try a piece of Dove chocolate (milk chocolate with cinnamon graham cracker pieces), which was wonderful by the way! I put the wrapper in my pocket, thinking I would throw it away later when I was near the trash can. I forgot about it until we were about to leave and I felt it in my pocket when I put my hand in there to warm it up. I suddenly had the idea that I should open it, and then remembered that they put messages on the inside of the wrapper when I saw the white rounded square. I opened it carefully and smoothed out the wrinkles and read the message. A message that I'm sure is on hundreds of thousands of little pieces of chocolate, but this one was meant for me. I showed it to my husband and said "Look! It's just for me and now I know that I should change!" My husband being the wonderful man that he is, says "That's okay, Hun, I was just teasing - I love you just the way you are."  "No, you don't....What??"  

Moving on...I sent my counselor an email and completed the forms on Monday morning. I had to take a course that works for either program until the transfer is accepted, and since classes started Monday, we had to work fast.  So now I am in Intro to Communications 101, otherwise known as Speech - Yay.  Oh well, it had to happen sooner or later, better to get it done and over with now.

After wrestling with the decision and flipping back and forth, and asking God for guidance and direction, the answer came in the form of a wrapper on a heavenly little piece of chocolate that otherwise would have been thrown away. The God of the Universe is altogether amazing and wonderful, and because he knows what I like, he chose to give me my answer in chocolate. Okay, so it wasn't in the smoke of a burning tree, or spelled out in the night sky with stars, but does an answer to prayer or a message from God really have to be big and spectacular?  Not at all  :)

Find a Happy Place

Do you ever have those moments when you wish you could open a secret door and step out of your crazy-busy life and into a quiet serene place? A place where you can sit and enjoy a cup of coffee in peace and quiet without the phone going off or people asking you where the mop is (mess alert!) with the dogs barking in the background while kids are asking what's for dinner? My personal time-out space would be large, yet cozy, with a comfy couch, a super hi-tech programmable machine that would produce whatever kind of coffee or tea drink I choose, and a full length window with a remote so that I can sip on my drink and look out at the beach or mountains, etc. The only sounds would be from whatever I'm watching in the nature-window; waves, rain, birds, streams, etc. I could go on.This summer has been so busy that I have my personal time-out space very meticulously mapped out and decorated in my mind. Things have been so hectic and just weird, that I want to slip through that secret door a lot.

This summer was so hot and dry that almost everybody lost if not all, at least part of their lawn. The trees lost well over half of their leaves so that now, there's hardly any left to turn red and fall off. We had a shrub die because no matter how much water I put on it at night, the full strength of the sun all day was just too much for it and it got fried. A lot of people lost plants, trees, flowers and whole yards of grass. My dogs didn't even want to go outside. Everyone became nocturnal. I would go out at 10:00 pm to water and would see other neighbors out watering and doing other outdoor chores. It had an almost eerie feeling to it to see so many of us out there at night like that. Almost as if some horrible event had taken place and it wasn't safe to go out during the daylight. Or we were all vampires...

My youngest son (8) decided he wanted to play football. But he doesn't want to play flag football, he wants to play tackle, and our town doesn't offer tackle so we have to go across to a town in Missouri (30 minutes away) for the games. We have two practices a week (Tues. and Thurs.) and games on Saturday. Practices (held at the middle school her in town) started the 2nd week of September,  and we had our first game on the 29th of September. There are only 6 games and we have had three so far with this coming Saturday's game being the 4th. So, I have two more weeks to go of this crazy schedule I'm on. Monday and Friday are the only days without something, but even then it isn't an evening off because I have class that I have to try to fit in amongst it all. Practice wouldn't be so bad (even though it is 2 hours long) if I could watch some Netflix or Hulu or read a book on my phone, but my little man expects me to watch him practice. He asks me if I saw him do this or that and if I say no, he actually accuses me of not paying attention. So, I have to watch - closely!

But he's having so much fun, so I don't let on how tired I am of it all. I know he will be sad when the games are done and there are no more practices. He looks so cute in his football uniform! And I really am glad he's playing. This is the first time he has stepped out and done something on his own, without his brother. He's the youngest and he is used to following. Until just recently, the last year or so, he wouldn't eat or do anything that his older brother didn't like. He's kind of quiet and in his way, shy, so this football thing is really big for him. This summer, the boys did archery with a friend and Sully really enjoyed it, and he went every Tues. and Thurs. even when Tucker didn't. So it would seem he is growing up, coming out of his shell...my baby.

We had a tornado hit a big chunk of town September 7th and it took out power lines and trees and left us without power for two days. The people in charge of the storm siren (which didn't go off 'they say' because they received no official warning from Springfield) are saying it was microbursts. The people that saw it hovering over the parts of the county and town that mysteriously have damages, and heard the rumbling and shrieking wind say something quite different. I was one of the people who saw it and heard it. I happened to be alone at the funeral home when the storm hit and shortly after I saw the swirling mass of clouds go over the Post Office, the power went out - everywhere. I've been through several tornado warnings since living here and it was the first time I have heard that odd sound. Honestly, the movie Twister got it right. It does sound like that. 

It took out power all over town and parts of the county. The police command van was out with a loud speaker telling people to conserve water and where to go if they needed shelter. My kids were scared because suddenly all of those disasters they had seen on TV became very real. And even though we were nowhere near being a real natural disaster area, it brought the concept home to them. Our block alone had four trees down and our neighbor had one fall on her house. We were blessed that nothing fell on our house. It took the roof off of the dorms at the community college which is just three blocks west and south of our house. There were huge chunks of the roof debris all over town.

It certainly was an eye-opener! Just two of the many things I was very thankful for: my smart phone so that I had communication and access to news and weather and other invaluable information, and that we bought a gas stove when we remodeled. I had to charge my phone in the truck, but no biggie. We read a lot, played some board games, and went to bed early. It really wasn't so bad.The real bummer was that I couldn't use my Keurig :(

So Much for Karma

I have proof that Karma doesn't work. Last Saturday after seeing soon-to-be--year-old off on a Missions trip with church, I went to WalMart to get coffee (Donut Shop) and creamer (Natural Bliss-Sweet Cream) and something for breakfast. As I walk into the store, I take my sunglasses off and put my eyeglasses on. As soon as I walk in, I see a shopping cart sitting there, empty except for a little old lady purse (you know what they look like, lol) and nobody around. Since WalMart did away with greeters, there was nobody around to help, so I grabbed the cart by the back end and pulled it to the Customer Service desk and told them where I found it, etc. So, then I go about my shopping, and as I am walking away from the checkout, I take off my glass, slip them into a pocket of my purse, and slip on my sunglasses, pushing them on top of my head. When I get to the foyer, I put my purse on my shoulder and grab my bags and proceed to walk to my truck. After a pleasant drive back home, 3 minutes later, I pull into the drive and turn off the truck. I immediately take off the sunglasses and put them in the little cubby-hole and reach into my purse to get my glasses. They aren't there. I turn out my purse - nothing. I climb around and under everything in the truck looking - nothing. I go back to WalMart because by now I'm pretty sure that when I put my purse on my shoulder and reached over to grab my bags, they must have fallen out. I try to park close to the same place, and I scan the parking lot on my way in. I then scour the foyer area. I check with customer service and nothing there either. Somebody had picked up my glasses and instead of turning them in, either kept them or threw them away. See? If Karma was a real thing, someone would have returned my glasses instead of keeping them so that they can put their own lenses in them...grrr.

Saving The Finder

I'm jumping on my soapbox over yet another good television show not being given a chance. My family watches Bones, and when we saw the episode introducing Walter Sherman as The Finder we loved it and couldn't wait until the new show came on. It's a great show and my boys absolutely love Walter, played by Geoff Stults and also starring Michael Clark Duncan. Fabulous show; warm, funny, quirky...they've cancelled it! Of course they sabotaged it first by having a 3 or 4 week break in the middle of its season and then moving it to Friday night when it came back on and then they put it on just before Fringe. See what I mean? It's like they want it to fail!

Of course there is a petition and a campaign on Twitter and Facebook to get it back and you can find all of that info here: http://www.savethefinder.org/

My idea is if Fox doesn't want it, then sell it to another network who does. At the very least they could put it on during the summer when there is nothing but garbage on anyway. Not all of us vacation all summer long - there are plenty of people who will be home watching re-runs or DVD's because there isn't anything good on. 

I want to see viewers win for a change! I'm tired of networks taking off good shows the family can watch and replacing them with absolute garbage. I'm fighting back. I've signed the petition and I post and retweet #savethefinder and #TheFinder and others as much as I can. There's also a blog, http://keepthefinder.wordpress.com/ If you haven't seen it they are still showing the re-runs Sundays at 10pm Central. Watch it. Love it. Save it!

Summer Kick-off

Even though it isn't officially Summer yet, Good Ol' Days is Fort Scott's Summer opener, as I've blogged about before.  You wouldn't know it isn't Summer yet, it has all the earmarks: it's always hotter than blazes, all the usual bugs are out (and I don't mean just the winged or multi-leg variety), and folks lose all sense when it comes to attire. 400 lb specimen wearing lime green spandex shorts, yellow tank top with arm holes so big why bother, black bra plainly visible, and zebra pattern flip-flops with rhinestones on the straps - yup. It's Summer, alright! 

I made a decision that I was not going this year, even though Dock Dogs was coming back (I love watching those dogs jump into the water!). My husband had to work this year and I just did not feel like walking around in the heat with all of those sweaty bodies while my boys dragged me around looking for slingshots and marshmallow shooters that they aren't going to get no matter how much they beg....and beg...and...yeah, you get it.

I've been seeing just a few lightning bugs for a couple of weeks now, and this last week I heard the first locusts of the season. We had some really hot weather in the early weeks of May and if that is any indication, we will have an atomic summer! We had a pretty mild winter with only one snowfall of a little over 2 inches which immediately melted off by later the same day. That means the bugs will be bad :( Heck they are already bad! The fleas are terrible and the usual stuff from the vet isn't working past the first couple of days.

Wow, I didn't realize it's been a month since I updated!  I finished up with a class on writing for multimedia which was intensive and I had to create a mock-up of a mobile application and then went into College Math 1 (Algebra), which is where I'm at now. It's going a lot better than my Elementary Algebra class went. That instructor was horrible! I've got a much better instructor this time, but it's still a struggle and having a bad teacher set me back a bit. My next class is Screen Design - don't know anything about it, but it sounds interesting! In my Typography class I got to do a movie title sequence storyboard which was really cool. We had to pick a movie from the 1970's we hadn't seen and design a title sequence. We had to indicate movement or atmosphere, etc., using only typography and whatever Photoshop effects we were capable of creating. It was a real challenge, but it was really fun, and of course everything we create goes into our portfolio, so it needs to look good. I picked House of Dark Shadows, which I had never seen. The only Dark Shadows I remember seeing was the TV series remake with Ben Cross & Joanna Going - 80's or maybe early 90's - but this was with the original soap opera cast. It came out pretty good and I got full points for it, so it will make a nice addition to my portfolio. Totally funny too that about a month later the word came out that Johnny Depp was starring in a remake of the movie. I want to see it, of course being a huge Johnny Depp fan, but I usually wait until they come out on DVD. Movies are so expensive anymore that unless it is something truly special, we wait.


I'm still having fun with Instagram; I find myself seeing everything from the viewpoint of "that would make a great photo!" and since I always have my phone with me, I can usually get that great pic. So, with that in mind, I will leave you with a shot of my lunch  :) By the way if you're ever in Fort Scott, you should definitely stop by the Nu Grille to eat!

Moments Like These

I may or may not have mentioned that my husband goes a little, what we like to call, "Clark Griswold" when he gets frustrated with a project that doesn't go according to plan. It is also referred to as "kicking the Santa" on occasion. If you don't know what I'm talking about, then you haven't seen Christmas Vacation with Chevy Chase as Clark - our family's favorite cult movie. He goes berserk on a Santa and reindeer display when the lights don't light. Anyhoo, my husband has these moments from time to time...here is an example of one. As I have mentioned, we are in the midst of hell - I mean a remodel (LOL) -  and things don't always go as planned. This was a re-wiring project of the light switch to accommodate the two new can lights in the hallway. I honestly don't know what he was trying to do, but he got frustrated and hit the offending area with the hammer - problem solved. Of course this created a new problem in which he had to repair the section of wall with new drywall, meaning that he also has to texture the entire hallway to match. We originally were just going to re-paint the walls after doing the ceiling in the hallway. Looks like plans have changed.

We have however reached the painting stage in the living room and family room -YAY! About a month or so ago we picked out our colors. The living room was a no-brainer: Cyprus green with a white trim. We did however have problems agreeing on a kitchen color. We both wanted some real color; no white or off-white or variation of beige. Since the rooms are now opened up together they needed to coordinate and because red apples are my kitchen theme, it also needed to go with a deep warm red - what I call country red. Not a problem with the living room color- green is the compliment to red on the color wheel. I wanted a muted rosy-melon color that I saw on a paint card, but Bobby didn't like it so eventually we settled on a mild (or so we thought) yellow (Behr: Cornmeal). It wasn't what I wanted, but I thought I could live with it. Well, after priming the walls and painting the colors on I decided I couldn't live with it after all. It looked like Greenbay Packer fans lived in my house - nothing against Greenbay, of course - they're awesome -  but c'mon! It was just so much yellow and wow was it ugly! So, Monday morning we chose a different color: a lighter version of the Cyprus, cucumber-something from True Value. It looks so much better! It goes with my apples and my new cabinets that are being installed today and I am now much happier. Now I just need my new stove...

new paint, new light

new paint

Makeup Mishaps and Dumpster Divers

A while back I bought some of that Almay Smart Shade makeup and I really like it. It adjusts to your skin tone and according to the advertising it gives a perfect color match. I am using the Light -Medium and I've been using it for maybe six weeks now. I have my little routine where after I put on my moisturizer I let it fully absorb before I put on my makeup - foundation first, well after concealer if necessary. Yesterday morning was no different except maybe the humidity level in the bathroom, so after brushing my teeth, etc. I started to put on the foundation. I typically start with my forehead, and didn't notice anything unusual until I moved down to my nose and applied more. The color came out a little darker than usual, but I blended it in more and moved on. When I applied the makeup to the right side of my face I knew something was wrong. The more I blended it, the darker it got until it just wouldn't blend anymore. I don't know why, maybe just thinking I got a blob of unmixed color, but I went ahead and put it on the left side of my face...and it was worse. It looked like a self tanning episode gone awry. I began to wash it off of my hands and had a moment of panic because it didn't seem to be coming off. I got more soap and then it started to come off so I proceeded to wash my face, happy that it all washed off. After re-applying my moisturizer, I decided to try it again to see if it was just a fluke or if I needed to throw the rest of it away. This time I shook it up a little first to see if that helped, and I guess it did because it didn't happen again.I tried it on my nose first, just in case but nothing unusual happened. It was almost like I dreamed it all. I say "almost" because my husband was there to witness the whole thing. The only thing I found shocking about his behavior is that he didn't try to take a picture. Men! This morning I was cautious while applying my makeup, but nothing happened, so I guess it was just a fluke...hoping, here!

In other news, it is that time of year again in my community; City-Wide Pick-Up. Not to be confused with City-Wide Yard Sale which happens twice a year in Spring and Fall, also known as stuff swap (keeping it PG here). Pick-Up is a phenomena that happens once a year here and if you put your stuff out on the curb, the city will come haul it off for free. Great deal, right? What makes this even more fantastic is the people who go through the stuff you leave out at the curb. Looks a lot like cockroaches swarming over scraps in the trash out back of your favorite restaurant. Can you still call them dumpster divers? I think so.These dumpster divers get to make a mess of your neatly piled junk and make off with the broken flotsam of your life while you get to lie in wait and secretly video them. Yippee! Unfortunately for us, it was broad daylight when they swiped our junky old dog house. We saw them driving off and no time to grab the camera. Darned it!