Valentines Day is Monday...oh no! It's a NATIONAL HOLIDAY here in Bristow. The first year we lived here I didn't know how ridiculous it got here. I did not send my children $75 boquets of toys, candy and flowers. I heard about it from Shelby when she got home that day because she was the ONLY kid in her class that didn't get a special delivery. I was speechless. So, last year I forgot to pre-order from one of our local shops. The night before I remembered, so I picked this up at Reasors. I pulled off some of the candy bars and put stuff on there they liked and took this to the school for Shelby. Still LAME becuase she didn't get a DELIVERY!!! Ok, here we are, third time, surely I'll get it right this year. Well, I forgot to pre-order last week and Monday is the big day. What's a mom to do? I saved these vases so maybe I could whip one of these up again...or just hang my head in shame that I blew it again. Maybe one of the ladies in town will have mercy on me Monday morning if I'm really nice and tip really good???

Just yesterday I was about to go out and take a picture of our overflowing, commercial size, metal dumpster, when the trash truck drove up - WOO HOO! With the bad weather trash pick-up has been delayed and boy did we have some trash! After being snowed in for 2 weeks and cooking 3 x daily for up to 8 people - we had some serious waste. Which reminded me of Christmas 2006 (see above photo). I went out and took a picture that night becuase we had sooooo much more trash on our curb than anyone else. Notice 3 dumpsters full, PLUS all the other trash. We laughed so hard that night. You have to understand south Tulsa neighborhoods...you would get mean letters in your mailbox if you didn't mow your grass every 4 days. We had a next door neighbor named Mr. Wilson - yes really - and when Sam the menace moved in we had a few meetings with Mr. Wilson. One day I walked out and Mr. and Mrs. Wilson were vacuuming the acorns off of their lawn, with a shop-vac, like it was totally normal. During the time we lived there, Sam had to offer up several apologies to Mr. Wilson for his boyish deeds! By the time we moved Mr. Wilson really liked us and told us we were some of the best neighbors he had ever had. He tried to screen prosepective buyers for our house(others who would vacuum their lawns).

Hank is traumatized and so am I!!! This is half of one of his lower teeth and get this...he just lost another half of a top one. What's going on here? He cracks two teeth within 12 hours of each other. They were both filled (see the dark spot). Last night we thought he bit down on an uncooked grain of rice just right, but today he was eating something soft. I married him for his nice smile and straight white teeth - what will happen to us now? Not really, but this is a major problem becuase he thinks they will have to be pulled. I can't take him out in public missing half of his teeth:( One thing I do know for sure; that he is going to the dentist and then following up with his doctor ASAP.

I have a theory on customer service. They make the automated menu so hard to drill through and the people sooo hard to understand that you decide it's simply not worth your time and you just take it! I have allowed charges to go through on my credit card just so I wouldn't have to deal with the frustration and I believe others have done this too. I think that is the plan. Hank deals with it so much more than I do, that I truly feel sorry for him. Technical support is all overseas now. The conversation I just had went something like this, once I finally got through to a person. I was calling SIRIUSXM radio. "oh we are sorry that our system automatically billed you for an extra year when you clearly had your account set up to pay annually."
I'm thinking "then why did I get billed for 2 years?"
Customer service: "um, hold on..."
Customer service: "one moment please"
Customer service "ok then, one moment"
Customer service "we will credit you for all months subtracting the one month this year you have already used it, becuase you had a credit balance then we will blah, blah, blah and she kept spouting all of this nonsense out about how she was going to only charge me for one year at a time.
IF you are a linguist you can kind of sort out what they are saying through the thick accent on the other end of the phone.

This is why Hank jumps up and down and tells me don't EVER order a FREE sample of ANYTHING off of the internet because they always charge your card the very next day and it's next to impossible to get that stuff taken off. I have done it with a travel service, acai berry, the other day I got a free credit report for a $1 processing fee only to be charged $85 dollars.

I PROMISE Hank I will resist the temptation to ever do this again!!!! If I do, you can take away my computer privileges.

Sam's friend, Levi, was so bored he played dollhouse with Stella. I hope his friends don't see this! I sat there and watched him carefully buckle the bunny mommy into her seatbelt in the Polly Pocket car! He is the youngest of 5 kids so Stella is the little sister he never had:)

Trouble makers...and one with a bad case of hat hair.

this would be such a beautiful picture of the horses running through the snow if it didn't look so unnatural for Joe to have his turnout coat on! If you are wondering about Ginger...I bought her one and when I went out to feed one morning she had herself all tangled up in it and almost broke one of very expensive legs. The coat was too big:( I had to call Hank up at the house and have him help me get it off of her. I never bothered to order another one as she is the fuzziest, fuzzball of a horse I have ever seen. If anyone is looking SHE IS FOR SALE!!!!! She's a beauty:)