"Oh My G*d! What is that? Is it a bird?"
"No... I think it's a bunny..."
"Are you sure?"
"Yeah, it's a bunny... see here's a foot. Oh wait over here is another one. Do you want me to saw them down so you can have lucky rabbits feet?"
"No!! Absolutely not... just clean this up will ya?"
So... last night one of my furry children decided to give me an early Christmas present. In her defense I do like bunnies. I am always exclaiming oh look at the bunny when I see one run through our yard.
However, that said, I would have preferred that said bunny stay in one piece, and alive, instead of the way in which it was eventually presented to me.
Maybe we need to work on our communication skills......
Saturday, December 23, 2006
Wednesday, December 13, 2006
Part Four - The Conclusion
So, where does all of this end? As it turns out the forgery charges that Jane was charged with were for a credit card that she had stolen so she has yet to be charged with anything relating to their checks.
Detective D. called Hobby Lobby but they do not have video cameras and several of the other places the check amounts were not big enough to prosecute. So, at this point Detective D. says the only way to charge them is to get one of them to confess to taking and/or using the checks. Fat chance huh?
Thus far Jane has shown up for all of her preliminary hearings so she has not been thrown back in jail. Who knows what will become of her and her son now that her husband is safely behind bars. And speaking of her husband, he is in jail with no bond, but there is a bond review hearing set for the 18th of December. We can only hope the judge in that matter is smart enough to realize a flight risk when he sees one.
And as for Jack and Jill? Their house is now locked up like Fort Knox whenever they leave. Jill has lost a little piece of that country innocence and trust in people and that makes her sad. Right now they are not out any money as all of the Big Bank stuff was finally rectified. However, what they are out is possibly more important.
It has taken Jill two or three days in total to deal with all of this. That is two or three days of personal time that she does not get to use this summer to be with her son. And that, that angers her the most of all.
In the end it comes down to what Mark Twain once said:
If you pick up a starving dog and make him prosperous, he will not bite you; that is the principal difference between a dog and a man.
Jack and Jane attempted to help out their fellow man and were in turn "bitten" for their troubles. Next time an opportunity presents its self for them to help someone they may be much more skeptical and less willing to help. I'm not sure if that is societies loss or theirs. I guess only time will tell.
Detective D. called Hobby Lobby but they do not have video cameras and several of the other places the check amounts were not big enough to prosecute. So, at this point Detective D. says the only way to charge them is to get one of them to confess to taking and/or using the checks. Fat chance huh?
Thus far Jane has shown up for all of her preliminary hearings so she has not been thrown back in jail. Who knows what will become of her and her son now that her husband is safely behind bars. And speaking of her husband, he is in jail with no bond, but there is a bond review hearing set for the 18th of December. We can only hope the judge in that matter is smart enough to realize a flight risk when he sees one.
And as for Jack and Jill? Their house is now locked up like Fort Knox whenever they leave. Jill has lost a little piece of that country innocence and trust in people and that makes her sad. Right now they are not out any money as all of the Big Bank stuff was finally rectified. However, what they are out is possibly more important.
It has taken Jill two or three days in total to deal with all of this. That is two or three days of personal time that she does not get to use this summer to be with her son. And that, that angers her the most of all.
In the end it comes down to what Mark Twain once said:
If you pick up a starving dog and make him prosperous, he will not bite you; that is the principal difference between a dog and a man.
Jack and Jane attempted to help out their fellow man and were in turn "bitten" for their troubles. Next time an opportunity presents its self for them to help someone they may be much more skeptical and less willing to help. I'm not sure if that is societies loss or theirs. I guess only time will tell.
Part Three - The Aftermath
So after the phone calls stopped coming it became evident to Jack and Jill that the only thing they could do now was just sit back and wait for whatever came next. As it turns out, they didn't really have to wait long.
Shortly after the last text message was sent they got a phone call from Detective T. He informed them that they had looked for Jon long enough and were now bringing in the U.S. Marshalls to assist with the search. Their reasoning was that the marshall's spend all of their time tracking people and would be able to put more man hours into it and inevitably catch him sooner.
Detective T. then asked if it would be alright for the marshalls to contact Jack & Jill to gather as much information as they could. Of course Jack & Jill agreed and later that afternoon they spoke with U.S. Marshall P. and gave him all of the information that they had about Jon.
A few more days passed and then Jack and Jill were surprised to see a story on the local news.
November 1, 2006
Des Moines police, Polk County sheriff's deputies and U.S. marshals spent the early-morning hours searching for a man wanted on what they said is an outstanding warrant.
Authorities said they are searching for Jon Doe of Warren County. They would not say what the warrant is for or whether Bridges is dangerous.
Officers were searching an area around the Iowa State Fairgrounds.
While they were disappointed that no arrest had been made Jack and Jill were glad to see that progress was being made in the attempt to capture Jon. At this point Jill didn't really care whether they charged him with the theft of her checks or not.
She was more concerned with the fact that this man knew where she lived and that it was a secluded area . For the first time in the four and a half years that she had lived in their house she was afraid to be home alone after dark. She would rush home from work and lock the doors, concerned that he would try to come back and use their house as a hideout. As far as she was concerned she just wanted to see him put behind bars so she could stop looking over her shoulder.
The next day she received a phone call from U.S. Marshall S. He informed her that he had found her two books of checks. They had been searching a house looking for Jon when they came upon them. He said he had looked under the bed and seen them rubberbanded together. Unfortunately they did not search the rest of the house for the passport & birthcertificates as all they were really looking for was Jon, it was just a fluke that they found the checks.
Still she felt glad to have them out of circulation just the same. The U.S. Marshall told her he couldn't tell if any of the checks had been used and Jill could not remember the exact numbers that had been stolen. Either way, at least Jill knew that from this point forward they could not write any more checks. As it was she had yet to be notified by anyone that any of the checks had been used so she was hopeful that maybe they realized the accounts were closed and never used the checks.
HaHa!! Isn't Jill so funny??
Her first brush with the bad check recovery system began just two days later. On November 4th she received a call from M*astercheck. When she called them back she was informed that they were calling in regards to a bounced check. Since this was her first theft of checks and actually the first check that had EVER bounced with her name on it Jill was a little green in this area. The people on the phone were very nice and told her that she needed to fax them a copy of the police report along with a notice from the bank showing when she closed the account.
They also agreed to fax her a copy of the check so she could give it to the police detective. However, later that day Jill opened up her mailbox and found a letter from M*stercheck. Attached to the letter was a picture of a canceled check written on her big bank checking account. Check number 1130 had been written to Hobby Lobby for $135.61.
While this made her perfect little maybe I got off easy scenario not work so well, what most bothered Jill was the fact that the check had been written on 10/19/06. See as you may remember from earlier in our story (I know it's been a LONG ass story and you may not remember that far back!!) big bank will not call when a check hits the bank. They will only send it back lost/stolen and then you have to wait to be contacted.
This means that unfortunately any surveillance video that they may have had of Jane writing the checks is probably long gone. Making it almost impossible to actually prosecute her for this crime. Great customer service huh?
The next day Jill again opened her mailbox to another surprise. (Yes I'm aware it was a Sunday, the mailman/woman is new and still adjusting to the route so the mail didn't get there until 6:00 Saturday night and it was cold and Jill didn't want to traipse outside and get it.) Inside the mailbox was the letter from M*stercheck (apparently they had called when they put the notice in the mail) and a notice from C*pital Recovery. Check number 1134 had been written to Pizza Hut for 42.38.
So just as before Jill called the company and explained to them what was going on. They told her the same information she had already heard. They would need a copy of the police report and a letter stating when the account had been closed before they could turn the incident over to their fraud department.
On Monday morning Jill opened up the paper and was somewhat disappointed to see the following:
November 6, 2006
Alleged abductor eludes authorities
Jon Doe, the target of a Des Moines manhunt, is also accused of assault. U.S. marshals consider him armed and dangerous.
U.S. marshals conducted a manhunt through Des Moines Saturday night for an accused kidnapper, failing to locate a man on the run who should be considered armed and dangerous, authorities said.
Jon Doe, 30, is wanted in Jasper County on charges of second-degree kidnapping. Bridges is accused of kidnapping and assaulting two adults in rural Jasper County in September, a spokesman said. A warrant for his arrest was issued Sept. 25.
The U.S. Marshals Service joined the investigation about two weeks ago, spokesman Mike Powell said. Sources tipped off deputy marshals to the vehicle Jon was driving and his general location Saturday.
Deputies saw Bridges driving at Southwest Eighth Street and Davis Avenue about 8 p.m., Powell said. Jon fled in his vehicle, sparking a chase through the south side of Des Moines.
"Early in the pursuit, it was questionable whether or not we should even continue ... fearing that it might be too dangerous given that area," Powell said, citing narrow streets and a populated neighborhood.
Police backed off several blocks and eventually found Jons' abandoned car around Southwest Fourth Street and Thornwood Road. Jon had jumped out and had run on foot, Powell said.
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; the Des Moines Police Department; and a canine unit joined the search. Officers followed several leads, Powell said, including stops at several locations mentioned by sources during interviews. The search was called off about 11 p.m.
Jon is described as 5 feet 9 inches tall and about 150 pounds. He has brown hair and brown eyes.
"He should be considered armed and dangerous in more ways than one," Powell said, noting an investigation into a firearms violation and Jons' propensity to flee.
The U.S. Marshals Service is investigating possible drug and firearm charges, Powell said. It will not charge Jin for eluding police or violating traffic laws stemming from the chase.
While she was glad that they were still hunting for him she would have been much happier if they had been able to actually CATCH him. The next morning Jill received a phone call from one of the U.S. Marshalls. They had found Jack's birthcertificate in the car that Jon had ditched on Saturday. Further proving that Jon and Jane were the people who had broken into their safe.
Later that morning Jill made copies of the notices she had received and also wrote up and explanation of what she knew so far. It appeared as if Jane had been using a fake ID as there was an ID number on the checks that was not Jill's old or new ID number. It also appeared as if she had gotten in the phone book and looked up someone will Jill's last name and just the first initial because that was the phone number that was on the checks. (Can you tell she must have done this before?)
Jill then took a two hour lunch and dropped the copies off at the Sheriff's office. The detective was out until Monday but since the checks had been written three weeks prior Jill was fairly certain one more week was not going to hurt anything. She also got a copy of the police report while she was at the sheriff's office. Once she got back to her office she proceeded to fax letters and copies of the police report to both of the check collection agencies.
By that weekend she had received no more notices and was hoping that maybe all they had written were the two checks. (You know where this is going don't you?) Monday morning (we've made it to 11/13 now) Detective D. called her to let her know that he had received the papers that she had left the previous week.
He mentioned to her at that time that since the checks were written in the city he may have to turn the case over to a city detective. However, he said if he did so the chances of anything getting done about it would be pretty slim because they have SOO many cases. So, he was going to speak with his boss and see if he couldn't keep it in the county office.
The next day Jill returned home from work to find a notice from Big Bank stating that her account was overdrawn because they had paid a $30 fee to M*sterchek. At this point Jill became angry. How could they have paid a fee to this company out of her new checking account when the only information this company had was her old account?
Jill immediately called Big Bank and was informed that when they close an account because of lost or stolen checks they do a lost/stolen transfer. So, any checks are returned but any electronic withdrawals are rolled from one account to the other. WTF? So, Jill had to explain to this person at big bank that this was an error because the fee was for a check which she didn't write. The person on the phone processed a fraud report and told Jill that she would take care of it. At that time Jill also asked her about the two other companies that had contacted her and whether she could make sure they could not do the same thing. The person on the phone assured her that would not happen. She lies...
The next night Jill answered the phone and was confronted with a woman from Gl*bal Payments who wanted to talk to her about a check she had written to NAPA for $79.40. Jill politely informed her that she could talk all she wanted but she didn't write a check to NAPA (by this point she was becoming a little cynical). She then explained the rest of the situation and got a fax number to fax the police report to.
On the 16th Jill just had a bang up day. First she received a call from big bank stating that her account was REALLY overdrawn. At first she was caught off guard until she realized that in all the commotion she had forgotten to deposit the money for her home equity loan. So they had withdrawn it from funds that weren't there. She told the woman on the phone that she would go right then and make the deposit and questioned as to whether this would make everything alright. She was assured that if she went and made the deposit that day the account should be fine. She lies... (are you seeing a pattern here?)
When Jill returned home that evening she was faced with two more notices in her mailbox. There was a second notice from M*astercheck about a second check to Hobby Lobby, this one for $156.67. There was also the notice from Gl*bal Payments regarding the NAPA check. She called M*stercheck to confirm that she didn't need to refax the police report and then made a note to make sure she faxed Gl*bal Payments the next day.
By the morning of the 17th Jill was pretty fed up with all of this bad check crap. She faxed Gl*bal payments their information and then faxed Detective D. the newest statements. Finally she decided just for fun she would jump on the Big Bank website to make sure that things had been taken care of. That is when all the real fun started.
At this point she noticed that there was more money in the account than there should have been. After looking into the detail she was horrified to discover that the M"astercheck charge had not been reversed, they had paid another charge to a company called Ch*ck Recovery, and they had bounced her home equity payment.
She immediately picked up the phone to call them and then re-considered. She knew that she was not going to get ANYTHING accomplished on the phone. So... off to the bank she went. It took two hours to get everything straightened out. Since Big Bank is a national chain there is nothing that can be handled within the branch. The banker has to call the corporate number and then they walk them through filling out forms on-line.
The man who was helping Jill had to call three different phone numbers and explain the situation to three different people. Not to mention she had to first get him to understand that while these companies may have legitimate charges they are charges for forged checks and so no, she was NOT going to pay two $30 charges plus two $33 dollar overdraft charges simply because they linked two accounts that they shouldn't have.
Finally when it was all over they had to close the account completely and open another one that was in no way linked to the first. So Jill is now the proud owner of her THIRD big bank checking account in a month. The only really helpful thing that came of her two hours at the bank was she was able to get copies of all of the checks that had tried to clear her old account. In total there were 9.
The perpetrators had gotten away with approximately $731 and it didn't appear that there was anything Jill could do about it. Just the same Jill faxed the copies of the checks to Detective D. for good measure. She also noticed that one of the checks had her SSN on it. This disturbed her greatly. Jon & Jane had not taken her Social Security card but apparently had written down the number from it.
On Saturday she got another notice from Gl*bal Payments regarding a second NAPA Check for $147.90 and by Monday the social security number incident was really starting to eat at her. When she got to work she got on-line and pulled all three of her credit reports. Luckily there was no activity on any of them.
On the 24th she received notice from S*curity Check, LLC about a $28.09 Kum & Go check and then on the 25th she received two notices from Big Bank. One said they had accepted her dispute of one of the $30 charges. The other one said they were denying the dispute of the other $30. Now please explain to me how they can treat two charges for the same thing in two different manners? After a month of dealing with this shit Jill's blood was just boiling.
On Monday the 27th Jill had to go out of town for training so she was not able to fax anyone regarding the notices she had received the previous week. When she returned home she got on-line and checked out the current inmate listing at the county jail. Imagine her surprise when she saw Jane's name on that listing. It said she was charged with two counts of forgery.
Jill looked for Jon's name but could not find it so she assumed Jane must not have known anyone was looking for her and was out and about going about her business. The one thing Jack and Jill were surprised about was that Jane was only 19. Apparenly heavy drug use must take a tole on your looks because she looked at least Jill's age or older. So, while it wasn't Jon behind bars Jill was certainly happy to see Jane there just the same.
unfortunately by the next morning someone had paid $1,300 to a bail bondsman and she was let free. Many people questioned why they would let her bond out of jail. Jill had only two answers for them. Number one, she's not a flight risk. She's never run from the law before so they can't hold her as one until she does. Number two, they may be hoping she leads them to Jon. As a 19 year old kid it may have been possible that she wouldn't be smart enough to lay low and stay away from Jon for awhile. Since he was who they really wanted they may have been trying to set her up.
Once at work Jill sent three more faxes, an appeal to Big Bank, the police report to S*curity Check, & the remaining notices to Detective D. then she waited. She must have checked the jail listings 20 times that day. Each time was the same. Jane was still out and Jon was not yet in.
It took three more days for the law to catch up with Jon & Jane. They were caught together proving Jane's theory that Jane had probably lead them straight to Jon.
December 1, 2006
A man wanted who was involved in two high-speed chases with police and wanted on kidnapping charges is now back in jail.
Members of the US Marshals and Polk County Sheriff's Violent Fugitive Task Force arrested Jon Doe Friday night at a home in West Des Moines. Does' wife, Jane was also arrested. Investigators say she was an accessory and helped hide Jon from the authorities.
Jon was wanted in Jasper County on second-degree kidnapping charges. He is now in the Polk county jail. Investigators say they aren't ruling out more charges against other people they believe helped Bridges avoid arrest.
Unfortunately drug money runs deep with these two. By Monday someone had paid an additional $650 to another bail bondsman to get Jane out of jail. Jon, however is another story. He is now being held without bond where Jack and Jill hope he stays for a long, long time.
Shortly after the last text message was sent they got a phone call from Detective T. He informed them that they had looked for Jon long enough and were now bringing in the U.S. Marshalls to assist with the search. Their reasoning was that the marshall's spend all of their time tracking people and would be able to put more man hours into it and inevitably catch him sooner.
Detective T. then asked if it would be alright for the marshalls to contact Jack & Jill to gather as much information as they could. Of course Jack & Jill agreed and later that afternoon they spoke with U.S. Marshall P. and gave him all of the information that they had about Jon.
A few more days passed and then Jack and Jill were surprised to see a story on the local news.
November 1, 2006
Des Moines police, Polk County sheriff's deputies and U.S. marshals spent the early-morning hours searching for a man wanted on what they said is an outstanding warrant.
Authorities said they are searching for Jon Doe of Warren County. They would not say what the warrant is for or whether Bridges is dangerous.
Officers were searching an area around the Iowa State Fairgrounds.
While they were disappointed that no arrest had been made Jack and Jill were glad to see that progress was being made in the attempt to capture Jon. At this point Jill didn't really care whether they charged him with the theft of her checks or not.
She was more concerned with the fact that this man knew where she lived and that it was a secluded area . For the first time in the four and a half years that she had lived in their house she was afraid to be home alone after dark. She would rush home from work and lock the doors, concerned that he would try to come back and use their house as a hideout. As far as she was concerned she just wanted to see him put behind bars so she could stop looking over her shoulder.
The next day she received a phone call from U.S. Marshall S. He informed her that he had found her two books of checks. They had been searching a house looking for Jon when they came upon them. He said he had looked under the bed and seen them rubberbanded together. Unfortunately they did not search the rest of the house for the passport & birthcertificates as all they were really looking for was Jon, it was just a fluke that they found the checks.
Still she felt glad to have them out of circulation just the same. The U.S. Marshall told her he couldn't tell if any of the checks had been used and Jill could not remember the exact numbers that had been stolen. Either way, at least Jill knew that from this point forward they could not write any more checks. As it was she had yet to be notified by anyone that any of the checks had been used so she was hopeful that maybe they realized the accounts were closed and never used the checks.
HaHa!! Isn't Jill so funny??
Her first brush with the bad check recovery system began just two days later. On November 4th she received a call from M*astercheck. When she called them back she was informed that they were calling in regards to a bounced check. Since this was her first theft of checks and actually the first check that had EVER bounced with her name on it Jill was a little green in this area. The people on the phone were very nice and told her that she needed to fax them a copy of the police report along with a notice from the bank showing when she closed the account.
They also agreed to fax her a copy of the check so she could give it to the police detective. However, later that day Jill opened up her mailbox and found a letter from M*stercheck. Attached to the letter was a picture of a canceled check written on her big bank checking account. Check number 1130 had been written to Hobby Lobby for $135.61.
While this made her perfect little maybe I got off easy scenario not work so well, what most bothered Jill was the fact that the check had been written on 10/19/06. See as you may remember from earlier in our story (I know it's been a LONG ass story and you may not remember that far back!!) big bank will not call when a check hits the bank. They will only send it back lost/stolen and then you have to wait to be contacted.
This means that unfortunately any surveillance video that they may have had of Jane writing the checks is probably long gone. Making it almost impossible to actually prosecute her for this crime. Great customer service huh?
The next day Jill again opened her mailbox to another surprise. (Yes I'm aware it was a Sunday, the mailman/woman is new and still adjusting to the route so the mail didn't get there until 6:00 Saturday night and it was cold and Jill didn't want to traipse outside and get it.) Inside the mailbox was the letter from M*stercheck (apparently they had called when they put the notice in the mail) and a notice from C*pital Recovery. Check number 1134 had been written to Pizza Hut for 42.38.
So just as before Jill called the company and explained to them what was going on. They told her the same information she had already heard. They would need a copy of the police report and a letter stating when the account had been closed before they could turn the incident over to their fraud department.
On Monday morning Jill opened up the paper and was somewhat disappointed to see the following:
November 6, 2006
Alleged abductor eludes authorities
Jon Doe, the target of a Des Moines manhunt, is also accused of assault. U.S. marshals consider him armed and dangerous.
U.S. marshals conducted a manhunt through Des Moines Saturday night for an accused kidnapper, failing to locate a man on the run who should be considered armed and dangerous, authorities said.
Jon Doe, 30, is wanted in Jasper County on charges of second-degree kidnapping. Bridges is accused of kidnapping and assaulting two adults in rural Jasper County in September, a spokesman said. A warrant for his arrest was issued Sept. 25.
The U.S. Marshals Service joined the investigation about two weeks ago, spokesman Mike Powell said. Sources tipped off deputy marshals to the vehicle Jon was driving and his general location Saturday.
Deputies saw Bridges driving at Southwest Eighth Street and Davis Avenue about 8 p.m., Powell said. Jon fled in his vehicle, sparking a chase through the south side of Des Moines.
"Early in the pursuit, it was questionable whether or not we should even continue ... fearing that it might be too dangerous given that area," Powell said, citing narrow streets and a populated neighborhood.
Police backed off several blocks and eventually found Jons' abandoned car around Southwest Fourth Street and Thornwood Road. Jon had jumped out and had run on foot, Powell said.
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; the Des Moines Police Department; and a canine unit joined the search. Officers followed several leads, Powell said, including stops at several locations mentioned by sources during interviews. The search was called off about 11 p.m.
Jon is described as 5 feet 9 inches tall and about 150 pounds. He has brown hair and brown eyes.
"He should be considered armed and dangerous in more ways than one," Powell said, noting an investigation into a firearms violation and Jons' propensity to flee.
The U.S. Marshals Service is investigating possible drug and firearm charges, Powell said. It will not charge Jin for eluding police or violating traffic laws stemming from the chase.
While she was glad that they were still hunting for him she would have been much happier if they had been able to actually CATCH him. The next morning Jill received a phone call from one of the U.S. Marshalls. They had found Jack's birthcertificate in the car that Jon had ditched on Saturday. Further proving that Jon and Jane were the people who had broken into their safe.
Later that morning Jill made copies of the notices she had received and also wrote up and explanation of what she knew so far. It appeared as if Jane had been using a fake ID as there was an ID number on the checks that was not Jill's old or new ID number. It also appeared as if she had gotten in the phone book and looked up someone will Jill's last name and just the first initial because that was the phone number that was on the checks. (Can you tell she must have done this before?)
Jill then took a two hour lunch and dropped the copies off at the Sheriff's office. The detective was out until Monday but since the checks had been written three weeks prior Jill was fairly certain one more week was not going to hurt anything. She also got a copy of the police report while she was at the sheriff's office. Once she got back to her office she proceeded to fax letters and copies of the police report to both of the check collection agencies.
By that weekend she had received no more notices and was hoping that maybe all they had written were the two checks. (You know where this is going don't you?) Monday morning (we've made it to 11/13 now) Detective D. called her to let her know that he had received the papers that she had left the previous week.
He mentioned to her at that time that since the checks were written in the city he may have to turn the case over to a city detective. However, he said if he did so the chances of anything getting done about it would be pretty slim because they have SOO many cases. So, he was going to speak with his boss and see if he couldn't keep it in the county office.
The next day Jill returned home from work to find a notice from Big Bank stating that her account was overdrawn because they had paid a $30 fee to M*sterchek. At this point Jill became angry. How could they have paid a fee to this company out of her new checking account when the only information this company had was her old account?
Jill immediately called Big Bank and was informed that when they close an account because of lost or stolen checks they do a lost/stolen transfer. So, any checks are returned but any electronic withdrawals are rolled from one account to the other. WTF? So, Jill had to explain to this person at big bank that this was an error because the fee was for a check which she didn't write. The person on the phone processed a fraud report and told Jill that she would take care of it. At that time Jill also asked her about the two other companies that had contacted her and whether she could make sure they could not do the same thing. The person on the phone assured her that would not happen. She lies...
The next night Jill answered the phone and was confronted with a woman from Gl*bal Payments who wanted to talk to her about a check she had written to NAPA for $79.40. Jill politely informed her that she could talk all she wanted but she didn't write a check to NAPA (by this point she was becoming a little cynical). She then explained the rest of the situation and got a fax number to fax the police report to.
On the 16th Jill just had a bang up day. First she received a call from big bank stating that her account was REALLY overdrawn. At first she was caught off guard until she realized that in all the commotion she had forgotten to deposit the money for her home equity loan. So they had withdrawn it from funds that weren't there. She told the woman on the phone that she would go right then and make the deposit and questioned as to whether this would make everything alright. She was assured that if she went and made the deposit that day the account should be fine. She lies... (are you seeing a pattern here?)
When Jill returned home that evening she was faced with two more notices in her mailbox. There was a second notice from M*astercheck about a second check to Hobby Lobby, this one for $156.67. There was also the notice from Gl*bal Payments regarding the NAPA check. She called M*stercheck to confirm that she didn't need to refax the police report and then made a note to make sure she faxed Gl*bal Payments the next day.
By the morning of the 17th Jill was pretty fed up with all of this bad check crap. She faxed Gl*bal payments their information and then faxed Detective D. the newest statements. Finally she decided just for fun she would jump on the Big Bank website to make sure that things had been taken care of. That is when all the real fun started.
At this point she noticed that there was more money in the account than there should have been. After looking into the detail she was horrified to discover that the M"astercheck charge had not been reversed, they had paid another charge to a company called Ch*ck Recovery, and they had bounced her home equity payment.
She immediately picked up the phone to call them and then re-considered. She knew that she was not going to get ANYTHING accomplished on the phone. So... off to the bank she went. It took two hours to get everything straightened out. Since Big Bank is a national chain there is nothing that can be handled within the branch. The banker has to call the corporate number and then they walk them through filling out forms on-line.
The man who was helping Jill had to call three different phone numbers and explain the situation to three different people. Not to mention she had to first get him to understand that while these companies may have legitimate charges they are charges for forged checks and so no, she was NOT going to pay two $30 charges plus two $33 dollar overdraft charges simply because they linked two accounts that they shouldn't have.
Finally when it was all over they had to close the account completely and open another one that was in no way linked to the first. So Jill is now the proud owner of her THIRD big bank checking account in a month. The only really helpful thing that came of her two hours at the bank was she was able to get copies of all of the checks that had tried to clear her old account. In total there were 9.
The perpetrators had gotten away with approximately $731 and it didn't appear that there was anything Jill could do about it. Just the same Jill faxed the copies of the checks to Detective D. for good measure. She also noticed that one of the checks had her SSN on it. This disturbed her greatly. Jon & Jane had not taken her Social Security card but apparently had written down the number from it.
On Saturday she got another notice from Gl*bal Payments regarding a second NAPA Check for $147.90 and by Monday the social security number incident was really starting to eat at her. When she got to work she got on-line and pulled all three of her credit reports. Luckily there was no activity on any of them.
On the 24th she received notice from S*curity Check, LLC about a $28.09 Kum & Go check and then on the 25th she received two notices from Big Bank. One said they had accepted her dispute of one of the $30 charges. The other one said they were denying the dispute of the other $30. Now please explain to me how they can treat two charges for the same thing in two different manners? After a month of dealing with this shit Jill's blood was just boiling.
On Monday the 27th Jill had to go out of town for training so she was not able to fax anyone regarding the notices she had received the previous week. When she returned home she got on-line and checked out the current inmate listing at the county jail. Imagine her surprise when she saw Jane's name on that listing. It said she was charged with two counts of forgery.
Jill looked for Jon's name but could not find it so she assumed Jane must not have known anyone was looking for her and was out and about going about her business. The one thing Jack and Jill were surprised about was that Jane was only 19. Apparenly heavy drug use must take a tole on your looks because she looked at least Jill's age or older. So, while it wasn't Jon behind bars Jill was certainly happy to see Jane there just the same.
unfortunately by the next morning someone had paid $1,300 to a bail bondsman and she was let free. Many people questioned why they would let her bond out of jail. Jill had only two answers for them. Number one, she's not a flight risk. She's never run from the law before so they can't hold her as one until she does. Number two, they may be hoping she leads them to Jon. As a 19 year old kid it may have been possible that she wouldn't be smart enough to lay low and stay away from Jon for awhile. Since he was who they really wanted they may have been trying to set her up.
Once at work Jill sent three more faxes, an appeal to Big Bank, the police report to S*curity Check, & the remaining notices to Detective D. then she waited. She must have checked the jail listings 20 times that day. Each time was the same. Jane was still out and Jon was not yet in.
It took three more days for the law to catch up with Jon & Jane. They were caught together proving Jane's theory that Jane had probably lead them straight to Jon.
December 1, 2006
A man wanted who was involved in two high-speed chases with police and wanted on kidnapping charges is now back in jail.
Members of the US Marshals and Polk County Sheriff's Violent Fugitive Task Force arrested Jon Doe Friday night at a home in West Des Moines. Does' wife, Jane was also arrested. Investigators say she was an accessory and helped hide Jon from the authorities.
Jon was wanted in Jasper County on second-degree kidnapping charges. He is now in the Polk county jail. Investigators say they aren't ruling out more charges against other people they believe helped Bridges avoid arrest.
Unfortunately drug money runs deep with these two. By Monday someone had paid an additional $650 to another bail bondsman to get Jane out of jail. Jon, however is another story. He is now being held without bond where Jack and Jill hope he stays for a long, long time.
Monday, December 11, 2006
Part Two - The Crime
The next morning (We've now made it to Wednesday, October 18th) Jack and Jill were getting ready for work when Jill spotted something shiny on the floor of their office. She walked in to take a closer look and noticed it was a butter knife. Still not catching on to what was happening she picked it up and carried it across the hall to the bedroom.
Jack, what is this butter knife doing on the floor of our office?
I don't know, maybe the dogs... wait. Where are your checks?
They are locked in the drawer of the desk right over.....
It was at that moment that Jill noticed that the drawer was cracked open. She walked over to the drawer and noticed that it had apparently been pried opened. She took out both boxes of checks and dumped them on the bed. The first thing she noticed was that the last book of checks was missing from her big bank checking account.
Lots of things flashed through her mind as she tried to contemplate what to do next. Jack had already gone downstairs and was attempting to call Jon & Jane on their phones with no luck. Finally Jill got out the phone book and had him call the Sheriff's office. She didn't feel it was an emergency situation that required 911 but she still wanted an officer there to take a police report.
About an hour later (yeah... their kind of slow in these parts) an officer showed up to take their statements. Jill was kind of expecting some sort of CSI stuff but instead she got Barney Fife. He looked at the drawer and then noticed that there was a file on the floor. The file, they determined, was the ultimate tool that was used to break into the desk. Since both surfaces were uneven the officer informed her that they could not get finger prints from either of them.
Then Jill walked over to the fire safe. Things on top of the file cabinet had been moved. She informed "Barney" of this but he assured her that they couldn't have broken into that safe and that it was also not a finger printable surface. After examining the room "Barney" gathered both check boxes for possible finger printing and then wrote down all of the details they had about these two.
While they didn't know their last names Jill felt confident in the fact that they knew enough details about them to allow them to be found. It was during this information mining process that the truth about Jon started to come out. Jill knew that he had been in jail from January to April. What she didn't know, that Jack apparently did, was that he was a convicted felon.
During this revelation period Jack also informed the sheriff that Jon had shown him a loaded .38 that he kept in his vehicle. Finally, another piece of information leaked out. Jack thought it was possible that Jon was wanted for some offence in another county. He told the sheriff that Jon had told him that he had paid someone off or something and that the charges had been dropped but he was not 100% sure whether this was true.
After taking all the information down "Barney" informed them that the theft of checks is actually a very minor offense. Since they (and by they he of course meant Jack because Jill did NOT give them permission) gave them permission to enter the house all they really had them for was 5th degree theft. Basically the value of the book of checks and the damage to the drawer. MINOR amounts.
So, he told them that until they used the checks they probably would not be getting any follow up calls. Once they used the checks a detective would probably call them to begin a fraud report. Jack & Jill thanked "Barney" and he headed out to his squad car to begin writing his report.
It was at this point that Jill decided she should probably find out if any of the small bank checks were missing. Since there was not a pad in there saying what the last check should be she called the company she ordered the checks from. They were very helpful and told her what number should be her last check. It was, of course, missing.
Luckily "Barney" was still in the driveway so they headed outside to give him the remainder of the information. Jill then quickly packed up her things for work and began the process of closing bank accounts. She went to small bank first because it was closer and because that's where all of her money was.
They were VERY helpful and nice about the whole process. They took down a list of items that were outstanding, made a copy of the officer's card along with the police report number, and then set up her new checking account. They told her that if any of the stolen checks came into the bank they would make a copy of the check before they returned it and promptly give the copy to the officer and to Jill.
From there she headed off to big bank. The process at big bank was just as smooth but Jill did not get the feeling that they would be as helpful. They did close her account and open a new one and they did change the automatic withdrawal information for her home equity loan. What they would not do, however was make copies of the checks and send them to her. It was up to her to contact them. All they would do was send the checks back marked lost/stolen.
Finally at about 11:30 Jill finally made it into work for the day. Although she was not productive in the slightest and spent most of the day talking with people about what happened or fretting over it. As she was sitting at her desk around 3:00 her cell phone rang. She was very surprised when the man on the other end of the phone identified himself as a detective who wanted to talk to her about the theft.
After all, the officer that morning had told her that she would not hear from a detective until the checks had been used and as of that morning when she was in both banks none of them had. After he identified himself Detective T. told her that he thought he knew Jon's last name and that if it was the same Jon, he was looking for him for something else.
He asked Jill if she would be available the next day to look at a photo line up and see if Jon's picture was in it. As luck would have it, she had already made arrangements for someone to come and fix their broken garage door the next morning (so they could lock up their garage and house like Fort Knox) so she was going to be home for a few hours.
He told her he would call her before 10:00 to stop by and then told her the most disturbing piece of news.
If Jon shows up at your house this evening do not speak to him. Call 911 immediately. If this is the same Jon we have been looking for you should consider him dangerous. Please don't take any chances.
Nothing like making a girl feel safe huh?
For the remaining two hours that she was at work all Jill could think about was the fire safe. Why hadn't she opened it when "Barney" was there. What if they had broken into that too? As soon as she got home from work she headed straight upstairs and moved everything from the top of the fire safe. It opened, no key needed and she saw that it had been damaged.
It looked as if they had taken the file and pried it open because there were large groove marks in the plastic around where the lock was. At this point she could tell that there would be no way to repair it and it would need to be replaced. She also noticed that her passport and birth certificate along with Jon's birth certificate were missing.
Jill immediately went downstairs and called the number on "Barney's" card. A receptionist answered and told her that an officer would call her back. When the officer called he took down the newest missing items and said he would add them to the police report.
That night Jill's phone rang. It was Jon & Jane. They were returning her phone call from earlier that day. Not wanting to give away that they knew what was up Jill played dumb and just said she had called because Jane had left her brush and Jon had left some tools at their house. They told her that they would probably not be around for awhile but that they would be in touch later. She wanted to keep the lines of communication open so that hopefully these people could be caught but it was VERY hard to play dumb when she just wanted to jump through the phone and ring their necks.
The next day Detective T. called Jill around 9:00 to tell her that he and another detective would be over within the hour. Jill told him that would work fine. When they got there they briefly asked her what happened and then they looked in the office. They agreed that none of the surfaces were fingerprintable and so their best bet was if there were finger prints on the check boxes.
After that they asked a few questions about what Jill knew about Jon & Jane they brought out two photo lineups. Each one contained about eight people and they told her to look over them and let them know if she saw the people who had been at her house. The first one was of the men and Jill had NO trouble picking out Jon. His face just jumped out at her.
The second lineup was of the women. This one was a little bit harder. She had not really paid all that much attention to Jane as she had only talked to her a couple of times but she picked out a girl who looked like her. The difference was the girl in the picture looked younger, had a thicker face, and different color hair.
After she had identified both of them the Detectives informed her that she was, in fact, correct on both people. It was at this point that some more details about Jon started to emerge. Apparently he was wanted for felony kidnapping, adults not children, and he was a fugitive from justice. They asked if Jack would be interested in trying to get Jon to a central place so they could arrest him.
Jill informed them that Jack had already mentioned that possibility to her and also told them about the conversation that she had with them on the phone the night before. When the detectives left they repeated to her that if either of these people showed up she should call 911 immediately. She told them she would and that Jack would be in touch if he could arrange a meeting.
After the detectives left Jill headed to the D.O.T. Since Jane now had her birth certificate and passport it was possible that she could go to the D.O.T. and get a new license with her picture but Jill's information on it. So, trying to curb off any identity theft, Jill went and had her license number changed and a flag put on her account so that no one else could get a copy of her ID.
Then when she got to work she had to try to get ahold of someone to cancel her passport. The first piece of information she found stated that she had to mail in a form stating that it had been canceled. Jill knew that could take weeks to process and she wanted something with MUCH more speedy results. So, after a little more looking she located a phone number.
When she called the phone number no one answered. She left a message and waited. Two hours later she had still not received a return phone call. So, she began calling every 10 minutes until FINALLY someone answered. By noon she had her passport canceled. One more hastle off her list.
That night Jack received a text message from Jane saying that Jon had been arrested for kidnapping and that she was going to rehab. She requested that Jack leave her alone and stop calling. Then about 15 minutes later she sent another text message saying that Jack needed to stop being such a nark and calling the police on them.
Jack immediately called Detective T., who did not answer, probably because he was on the phone with Jill. See earlier that evening Jill had noticed one more item that was missing. Her old 35mm camera which had been sitting in a case on top of the fire safe was no where to be found. She quickly checked her digital camera and noticed that someone had taken it out of the case and placed it back in a different manner but at least it was still there.
So Jack called Detective D. who told him that as far has he knew Jon had not been arrested but he would check in on it. He also told Jack that there was no way for Jon to know that Jack and Jill had called the police and that they were most likely just feeling him out. He told him to play dumb.
So he sent a text message back stating that he had no idea what she was talking about and why would he have called the police on them? He got no response. Later that evening Detective D. did call him back and confirm that Jon had not been arrested and that they must just be trying to feel them out. He told Jack to let him know if they heard from Jon again.
On Sunday October 22nd as luck would have it Jon called again. He called Jack's cell phone from a restricted number and did not give any details about where he was. All he would say was that he was staying with family and trying to lie low. He gave Jack some song and dance about how the charge that he thought was dropped wasn't and so he was trying to hide out. (As if he thought if he hid long enough everything would just go away.)
Jack played everything off really well and tried to set up a time to meet with Jon but he didn't really fall for it. He just told him he would call him back later. As it turns out Jon did try to call one more time later that week. Jack missed the call but returned a text message to the phone number only to find out that Jon had been there but had left.
After that... the lines of communication went dark.
Jack, what is this butter knife doing on the floor of our office?
I don't know, maybe the dogs... wait. Where are your checks?
They are locked in the drawer of the desk right over.....
It was at that moment that Jill noticed that the drawer was cracked open. She walked over to the drawer and noticed that it had apparently been pried opened. She took out both boxes of checks and dumped them on the bed. The first thing she noticed was that the last book of checks was missing from her big bank checking account.
Lots of things flashed through her mind as she tried to contemplate what to do next. Jack had already gone downstairs and was attempting to call Jon & Jane on their phones with no luck. Finally Jill got out the phone book and had him call the Sheriff's office. She didn't feel it was an emergency situation that required 911 but she still wanted an officer there to take a police report.
About an hour later (yeah... their kind of slow in these parts) an officer showed up to take their statements. Jill was kind of expecting some sort of CSI stuff but instead she got Barney Fife. He looked at the drawer and then noticed that there was a file on the floor. The file, they determined, was the ultimate tool that was used to break into the desk. Since both surfaces were uneven the officer informed her that they could not get finger prints from either of them.
Then Jill walked over to the fire safe. Things on top of the file cabinet had been moved. She informed "Barney" of this but he assured her that they couldn't have broken into that safe and that it was also not a finger printable surface. After examining the room "Barney" gathered both check boxes for possible finger printing and then wrote down all of the details they had about these two.
While they didn't know their last names Jill felt confident in the fact that they knew enough details about them to allow them to be found. It was during this information mining process that the truth about Jon started to come out. Jill knew that he had been in jail from January to April. What she didn't know, that Jack apparently did, was that he was a convicted felon.
During this revelation period Jack also informed the sheriff that Jon had shown him a loaded .38 that he kept in his vehicle. Finally, another piece of information leaked out. Jack thought it was possible that Jon was wanted for some offence in another county. He told the sheriff that Jon had told him that he had paid someone off or something and that the charges had been dropped but he was not 100% sure whether this was true.
After taking all the information down "Barney" informed them that the theft of checks is actually a very minor offense. Since they (and by they he of course meant Jack because Jill did NOT give them permission) gave them permission to enter the house all they really had them for was 5th degree theft. Basically the value of the book of checks and the damage to the drawer. MINOR amounts.
So, he told them that until they used the checks they probably would not be getting any follow up calls. Once they used the checks a detective would probably call them to begin a fraud report. Jack & Jill thanked "Barney" and he headed out to his squad car to begin writing his report.
It was at this point that Jill decided she should probably find out if any of the small bank checks were missing. Since there was not a pad in there saying what the last check should be she called the company she ordered the checks from. They were very helpful and told her what number should be her last check. It was, of course, missing.
Luckily "Barney" was still in the driveway so they headed outside to give him the remainder of the information. Jill then quickly packed up her things for work and began the process of closing bank accounts. She went to small bank first because it was closer and because that's where all of her money was.
They were VERY helpful and nice about the whole process. They took down a list of items that were outstanding, made a copy of the officer's card along with the police report number, and then set up her new checking account. They told her that if any of the stolen checks came into the bank they would make a copy of the check before they returned it and promptly give the copy to the officer and to Jill.
From there she headed off to big bank. The process at big bank was just as smooth but Jill did not get the feeling that they would be as helpful. They did close her account and open a new one and they did change the automatic withdrawal information for her home equity loan. What they would not do, however was make copies of the checks and send them to her. It was up to her to contact them. All they would do was send the checks back marked lost/stolen.
Finally at about 11:30 Jill finally made it into work for the day. Although she was not productive in the slightest and spent most of the day talking with people about what happened or fretting over it. As she was sitting at her desk around 3:00 her cell phone rang. She was very surprised when the man on the other end of the phone identified himself as a detective who wanted to talk to her about the theft.
After all, the officer that morning had told her that she would not hear from a detective until the checks had been used and as of that morning when she was in both banks none of them had. After he identified himself Detective T. told her that he thought he knew Jon's last name and that if it was the same Jon, he was looking for him for something else.
He asked Jill if she would be available the next day to look at a photo line up and see if Jon's picture was in it. As luck would have it, she had already made arrangements for someone to come and fix their broken garage door the next morning (so they could lock up their garage and house like Fort Knox) so she was going to be home for a few hours.
He told her he would call her before 10:00 to stop by and then told her the most disturbing piece of news.
If Jon shows up at your house this evening do not speak to him. Call 911 immediately. If this is the same Jon we have been looking for you should consider him dangerous. Please don't take any chances.
Nothing like making a girl feel safe huh?
For the remaining two hours that she was at work all Jill could think about was the fire safe. Why hadn't she opened it when "Barney" was there. What if they had broken into that too? As soon as she got home from work she headed straight upstairs and moved everything from the top of the fire safe. It opened, no key needed and she saw that it had been damaged.
It looked as if they had taken the file and pried it open because there were large groove marks in the plastic around where the lock was. At this point she could tell that there would be no way to repair it and it would need to be replaced. She also noticed that her passport and birth certificate along with Jon's birth certificate were missing.
Jill immediately went downstairs and called the number on "Barney's" card. A receptionist answered and told her that an officer would call her back. When the officer called he took down the newest missing items and said he would add them to the police report.
That night Jill's phone rang. It was Jon & Jane. They were returning her phone call from earlier that day. Not wanting to give away that they knew what was up Jill played dumb and just said she had called because Jane had left her brush and Jon had left some tools at their house. They told her that they would probably not be around for awhile but that they would be in touch later. She wanted to keep the lines of communication open so that hopefully these people could be caught but it was VERY hard to play dumb when she just wanted to jump through the phone and ring their necks.
The next day Detective T. called Jill around 9:00 to tell her that he and another detective would be over within the hour. Jill told him that would work fine. When they got there they briefly asked her what happened and then they looked in the office. They agreed that none of the surfaces were fingerprintable and so their best bet was if there were finger prints on the check boxes.
After that they asked a few questions about what Jill knew about Jon & Jane they brought out two photo lineups. Each one contained about eight people and they told her to look over them and let them know if she saw the people who had been at her house. The first one was of the men and Jill had NO trouble picking out Jon. His face just jumped out at her.
The second lineup was of the women. This one was a little bit harder. She had not really paid all that much attention to Jane as she had only talked to her a couple of times but she picked out a girl who looked like her. The difference was the girl in the picture looked younger, had a thicker face, and different color hair.
After she had identified both of them the Detectives informed her that she was, in fact, correct on both people. It was at this point that some more details about Jon started to emerge. Apparently he was wanted for felony kidnapping, adults not children, and he was a fugitive from justice. They asked if Jack would be interested in trying to get Jon to a central place so they could arrest him.
Jill informed them that Jack had already mentioned that possibility to her and also told them about the conversation that she had with them on the phone the night before. When the detectives left they repeated to her that if either of these people showed up she should call 911 immediately. She told them she would and that Jack would be in touch if he could arrange a meeting.
After the detectives left Jill headed to the D.O.T. Since Jane now had her birth certificate and passport it was possible that she could go to the D.O.T. and get a new license with her picture but Jill's information on it. So, trying to curb off any identity theft, Jill went and had her license number changed and a flag put on her account so that no one else could get a copy of her ID.
Then when she got to work she had to try to get ahold of someone to cancel her passport. The first piece of information she found stated that she had to mail in a form stating that it had been canceled. Jill knew that could take weeks to process and she wanted something with MUCH more speedy results. So, after a little more looking she located a phone number.
When she called the phone number no one answered. She left a message and waited. Two hours later she had still not received a return phone call. So, she began calling every 10 minutes until FINALLY someone answered. By noon she had her passport canceled. One more hastle off her list.
That night Jack received a text message from Jane saying that Jon had been arrested for kidnapping and that she was going to rehab. She requested that Jack leave her alone and stop calling. Then about 15 minutes later she sent another text message saying that Jack needed to stop being such a nark and calling the police on them.
Jack immediately called Detective T., who did not answer, probably because he was on the phone with Jill. See earlier that evening Jill had noticed one more item that was missing. Her old 35mm camera which had been sitting in a case on top of the fire safe was no where to be found. She quickly checked her digital camera and noticed that someone had taken it out of the case and placed it back in a different manner but at least it was still there.
So Jack called Detective D. who told him that as far has he knew Jon had not been arrested but he would check in on it. He also told Jack that there was no way for Jon to know that Jack and Jill had called the police and that they were most likely just feeling him out. He told him to play dumb.
So he sent a text message back stating that he had no idea what she was talking about and why would he have called the police on them? He got no response. Later that evening Detective D. did call him back and confirm that Jon had not been arrested and that they must just be trying to feel them out. He told Jack to let him know if they heard from Jon again.
On Sunday October 22nd as luck would have it Jon called again. He called Jack's cell phone from a restricted number and did not give any details about where he was. All he would say was that he was staying with family and trying to lie low. He gave Jack some song and dance about how the charge that he thought was dropped wasn't and so he was trying to hide out. (As if he thought if he hid long enough everything would just go away.)
Jack played everything off really well and tried to set up a time to meet with Jon but he didn't really fall for it. He just told him he would call him back later. As it turns out Jon did try to call one more time later that week. Jack missed the call but returned a text message to the phone number only to find out that Jon had been there but had left.
After that... the lines of communication went dark.
Saturday, December 09, 2006
Part One - The Background
I have been trying to write this story for over a week now and have been finding it a lengthy process. Therefore, I'm going to break it down into three parts so that you can read it a little easier and I can make sense of it a little easier. Hopefully all three parts will be posted by Sunday or Monday.
The time has come when I feel secure enough in the case against our perpetrators to give you all a few more details. I will not use names... because after all everyone is innocent until proven guilty right??
So sit back and get comfy and let me tell you a little story. It may explain a little of why I've been absent lately.
Once upon a time there was a man and a woman, we'll call them Jack & Jill, and they lived in a big farm house in the country. On October 9th there was a man and his "wife" (for the purposes of the story we will assume she was his wife... who knows if that is true), we'll call them Jon & Jane, who were driving along when all of the sudden they noticed that there was something wrong with their vehicle.
So, being in the area they decided to pull into the driveway of Jack & Jill because Jon used to know Jack. (Or worked with him on a jobsite once or something.) Anyhow, they knew nothing about cars but remembered that Jack liked to work on cars and were hoping he could help them to fix whatever was wrong with their vehicle.
Jack, however, was not home when they pulled into the driveway. Jill answered the door and immediately got a strange feeling about this man at her door. However, his car story seemed plausible so she called Jack on his cell phone and he told her he would be right home. While she waited she headed out to the car in the driveway where she discovered that Jane was also pregnant and due a week ahead of her.
Taking pity on this pregnant stranger and her husband Jill left to run an errand while Jack stayed behind to help with the vehicle. As it turns out the radiator in their vehicle had a leak. Jack attempted to help them plug the hole but with no luck. When Jill arrived back from running her errand Jon & Jane were still in the garage with their vehicle running.
About an hour after Jill got home Jon & Jane finally left. Their radiator was still leaking a little but they thought they could make it home. So... imagine their surprise when 45 minutes later they pulled back into the driveway. For the second time that evening Jill had this strange feeling that something just didn't seem right. After all, it is not like they drove 5 minutes and turned around. What were they doing for that 45 minutes?
However, since it was late and Jill was tired she decided not to ask too many questions and so Jon & Jane parked their vehicle next to the shed and came inside to wait for their ride. After a little chit chat about babies, etc. their ride showed up and they were off on their way.
The next day their vehicle stayed parked in the driveway but they did not show up to claim it. Then on Wednesday Jack called Jill at work to say that Jon & Jane were going to be at their house that evening trying to fix the vehicle. When Jill showed up Jon was out in the garage with Jack.
Sometime around 7:00 or so Jack came in and said he needed to talk with Jill about Jon & Jane borrowing his jeep. He told her that Jon's ex-wife had been admitted to the hospital and Jon needed to get to the hospital to pick up his son. Once again Jill was very uncomfortable with what was happening but Jack had already committed the vehicle so Jill sort of went with the flow.
Jack & Jon worked on Jon's vehicle for a little while longer while Jane came in and sat on the couch next to Jill. They talked for about an hour about babies and families and animals. Jane told Jill all about their dog and where they had been living and about her sister who had just twins so she was getting all of their baby stuff, etc.
Once they got ready to leave Jill felt a little more comfortable having had a conversation with Jane and feeling like she knew her a little better. They assured Jill that they had insurance and both had valid drivers licenses. They left the keys to their vehicle in the garage and told her that all of the vehicle information was in the glove box. Jill would later kick herself for not looking for that information and following her gut feeling about these two.
That said, the next day (we've made it to Thursday the 12th are you still with me?) Jill was VERY relieved to get a call from Jack saying that the vehicle and Jon & Jane were back safely in the driveway when he arrived home from work. Jill had to work late but Jack assured her that he would just be in the garage working on the vehicle.
She inquired about Jane and the children as she did not want them alone and unsupervised in her house and was told that only Jane was there and that she would be outside with them. Feeling somewhat comfortable in this knowledge she continued to work. While she was at work Jon and Jack were busy taking the radiator out of the vehicle to try to take it somewhere and get parts.
About 7:30 Jill left work and headed home. She picked up some food and got home around 8:00. Jack came in to eat while Jon & Jane headed out to get parts for their vehicle. They showed back up around 9:45 and Jack went out to give Jon some basic instructions on how to put the vehicle back together. So, imagine Jill's surprise when Jack came back in and told her that they would once again be driving his vehicle home.
At this point they were driving out of the driveway so there was not much she could do. The whole next day at work she pondered what she would do if they did not show back up. Finally about 4:00 she received a call from Jack stating that their vehicle was fixed and was gone from their house and he was just meeting them at their friends house to pick up his jeep.
Hurray Jill thought, this whole nightmare is over and not one bad thing happened!! (Dun, dun, dun.....) You see where this is going don't you?
On Saturday night Jill was exhausted and went to bed early. About 10:00 she heard Jack yelling on the phone and came down to see what the commotion was about. Jack told her that he had called Jane's cell phone trying to get ahold of Jon and Jon had totally flipped out on him. He was going out to the garage to get Jon's tools and Jon was going to come and get them.
About 15 minutes later his phone rang again. It was Jon. Some words were exchanged and some how it was decided that they were going to meet at a gas station by Jack's house to "discuss" their difficulties. Since Jack had been drinking Jill drove him to the gas station the whole time assuring him that if there was any fighting she was leaving and he could gave fun in jail.
There was no fighting, although Jill felt the whole time as if there was something illegal going on. It just didn't make sense to her what was happening and she had a feeling that Jack was not telling her the whole story. Finally after about 5 minutes she went to confront them but Jack headed her off and got in the vehicle and told her to go home.
On the ride home Jack informed Jill that they had asked him if he had a credit card that they could use to register a hotel room to sleep in. He told them no and so they asked if Jill did. Luckily Jack had SOME part of his head screwed on straight when he told them that there was no way in hell Jill would let them use her credit card to register a hotel room. After all... why didn't they just pay with cash? Something didn't make sense.
The rest of the weekend was very uneventful and Monday came without Jill so much as giving it a second thought. As far as she was concerned Jon & Jane were on their way and she would not have to see them again. On Monday night Jack was helping his dad burn leaves while Jill was at home watching TV.
About 8:30 Jill heard the dogs barking. She looked outside but did not see anyone. So, imagine her surprise when Jack showed up at 9:00 and informed her that Jon wanted to come over and work on another vehicle. And imagine her even greater surprise when Jon pulled into their driveway from across the street where he had apparently been lying in hiding while waiting on Jack.
So now Jill's weird shit-o-meter was starting to go off. Things were just not adding up. First they wanted to work on a friend's vehicle. To which Jill promptly said no. She was not letting anyone she didn't know hang out in her garage while she was asleep. Then all of the sudden it was Jane's jeep they wanted to work on and the only people that would be outside would be Jon & Jill.
At this point it was raining and according to Jack they were moving in the morning and needed to get the Jeep in working order so they could use it to haul their things. Feeling defeated and outnumbered Jill gave up and went to bed. She cracked the bedroom window so she could hear anyone coming and going and laid down.
A little after 10:00 a vehicle pulled in which she assumed was the one they were going to work on. Then about 15 minutes later she heard yelling. She got up and looked out the window and noticed Jane standing next to the vehicle obviously quite upset with Jon. She was yelling but Jill couldn't quite hear what she was yelling about.
Then after about 10 minutes she started walking down the driveway and then down the road. Jon sat in the driveway for another 10 minutes or so and then headed out in their vehicle. Jill crossed her fingers that maybe they would just leave and not come back.
No such luck. About 12:00 she heard a vehicle pull in, around 1:00 she heard another and assumed it was the mystery car coming to finally get worked on. Around 6:00 she heard what she thought was the final vehicle leaving so imagine her reaction when she got out of bed at 6:30 and noticed that Jon & Jane's vehicle was parked next to the garage.
Jack's explanation for this was that they were either still in the garage or they had left it and would be back for it later. So Jane got ready for work as usual. When she got outside she noticed something VERY strange. The garage windows had all been covered. It was dark outside for heavens sake, why would they need to cover the windows?
Jack came out and opened the garage expecting to see them inside working on another vehicle. However, the garage was empty and Jon & Jane were no where in site. It is at this point in the story where Jill KNOWS something about these people is off. Her first thought was to go inside and call the police/lock the door.
HOWEVER, what would she tell the police? These people who have done nothing to me are acting strangely can you come and check it out? So she suppressed her negative feeling and headed off to work. When she got home from work the vehicle was gone but when she walked into the house she had an overwhelming feeling that something was not right.
In the bathroom she noticed two used towels and a brush that was not hers. She immediately called Jack and asked them if Jon & Jane had been in their house. It was at this point that she discovered that they had actually been sleeping in their car that morning and that's why it was in the driveway. According to Jack that was because they were moving and just need a place to crash for the one night.
Sometime that morning they had called Jack and let him know what was up and also asked if they could use the bathroom to get cleaned up. Being the sucker that he is he told them that they could enter the house to use the bathroom. It was at this point that Jill blew her top. It was bad enough that they had been outside when Jack & Jill were at work but entering their home when no one was there crossed a line.
Jill told Jack, in no uncertain terms, that Jon & Jane were NOT allowed back at their house ever again. There was something about them that creeped her out and she was done ignoring that feeling. After she got off the phone she walked around the house and took a brief inventory of major items in the house. Jack's wedding ring was there, all of their jewelry appeared to be in place, all major electronics were as they should be, etc. Some of the baby things in the office looked like they had been bumped but that could have just been by the cat. Nothing appeared to be missing.
So Jill decided that maybe her feeling was wrong. Maybe they did just need to use the bathroom.
The time has come when I feel secure enough in the case against our perpetrators to give you all a few more details. I will not use names... because after all everyone is innocent until proven guilty right??
So sit back and get comfy and let me tell you a little story. It may explain a little of why I've been absent lately.
Once upon a time there was a man and a woman, we'll call them Jack & Jill, and they lived in a big farm house in the country. On October 9th there was a man and his "wife" (for the purposes of the story we will assume she was his wife... who knows if that is true), we'll call them Jon & Jane, who were driving along when all of the sudden they noticed that there was something wrong with their vehicle.
So, being in the area they decided to pull into the driveway of Jack & Jill because Jon used to know Jack. (Or worked with him on a jobsite once or something.) Anyhow, they knew nothing about cars but remembered that Jack liked to work on cars and were hoping he could help them to fix whatever was wrong with their vehicle.
Jack, however, was not home when they pulled into the driveway. Jill answered the door and immediately got a strange feeling about this man at her door. However, his car story seemed plausible so she called Jack on his cell phone and he told her he would be right home. While she waited she headed out to the car in the driveway where she discovered that Jane was also pregnant and due a week ahead of her.
Taking pity on this pregnant stranger and her husband Jill left to run an errand while Jack stayed behind to help with the vehicle. As it turns out the radiator in their vehicle had a leak. Jack attempted to help them plug the hole but with no luck. When Jill arrived back from running her errand Jon & Jane were still in the garage with their vehicle running.
About an hour after Jill got home Jon & Jane finally left. Their radiator was still leaking a little but they thought they could make it home. So... imagine their surprise when 45 minutes later they pulled back into the driveway. For the second time that evening Jill had this strange feeling that something just didn't seem right. After all, it is not like they drove 5 minutes and turned around. What were they doing for that 45 minutes?
However, since it was late and Jill was tired she decided not to ask too many questions and so Jon & Jane parked their vehicle next to the shed and came inside to wait for their ride. After a little chit chat about babies, etc. their ride showed up and they were off on their way.
The next day their vehicle stayed parked in the driveway but they did not show up to claim it. Then on Wednesday Jack called Jill at work to say that Jon & Jane were going to be at their house that evening trying to fix the vehicle. When Jill showed up Jon was out in the garage with Jack.
Sometime around 7:00 or so Jack came in and said he needed to talk with Jill about Jon & Jane borrowing his jeep. He told her that Jon's ex-wife had been admitted to the hospital and Jon needed to get to the hospital to pick up his son. Once again Jill was very uncomfortable with what was happening but Jack had already committed the vehicle so Jill sort of went with the flow.
Jack & Jon worked on Jon's vehicle for a little while longer while Jane came in and sat on the couch next to Jill. They talked for about an hour about babies and families and animals. Jane told Jill all about their dog and where they had been living and about her sister who had just twins so she was getting all of their baby stuff, etc.
Once they got ready to leave Jill felt a little more comfortable having had a conversation with Jane and feeling like she knew her a little better. They assured Jill that they had insurance and both had valid drivers licenses. They left the keys to their vehicle in the garage and told her that all of the vehicle information was in the glove box. Jill would later kick herself for not looking for that information and following her gut feeling about these two.
That said, the next day (we've made it to Thursday the 12th are you still with me?) Jill was VERY relieved to get a call from Jack saying that the vehicle and Jon & Jane were back safely in the driveway when he arrived home from work. Jill had to work late but Jack assured her that he would just be in the garage working on the vehicle.
She inquired about Jane and the children as she did not want them alone and unsupervised in her house and was told that only Jane was there and that she would be outside with them. Feeling somewhat comfortable in this knowledge she continued to work. While she was at work Jon and Jack were busy taking the radiator out of the vehicle to try to take it somewhere and get parts.
About 7:30 Jill left work and headed home. She picked up some food and got home around 8:00. Jack came in to eat while Jon & Jane headed out to get parts for their vehicle. They showed back up around 9:45 and Jack went out to give Jon some basic instructions on how to put the vehicle back together. So, imagine Jill's surprise when Jack came back in and told her that they would once again be driving his vehicle home.
At this point they were driving out of the driveway so there was not much she could do. The whole next day at work she pondered what she would do if they did not show back up. Finally about 4:00 she received a call from Jack stating that their vehicle was fixed and was gone from their house and he was just meeting them at their friends house to pick up his jeep.
Hurray Jill thought, this whole nightmare is over and not one bad thing happened!! (Dun, dun, dun.....) You see where this is going don't you?
On Saturday night Jill was exhausted and went to bed early. About 10:00 she heard Jack yelling on the phone and came down to see what the commotion was about. Jack told her that he had called Jane's cell phone trying to get ahold of Jon and Jon had totally flipped out on him. He was going out to the garage to get Jon's tools and Jon was going to come and get them.
About 15 minutes later his phone rang again. It was Jon. Some words were exchanged and some how it was decided that they were going to meet at a gas station by Jack's house to "discuss" their difficulties. Since Jack had been drinking Jill drove him to the gas station the whole time assuring him that if there was any fighting she was leaving and he could gave fun in jail.
There was no fighting, although Jill felt the whole time as if there was something illegal going on. It just didn't make sense to her what was happening and she had a feeling that Jack was not telling her the whole story. Finally after about 5 minutes she went to confront them but Jack headed her off and got in the vehicle and told her to go home.
On the ride home Jack informed Jill that they had asked him if he had a credit card that they could use to register a hotel room to sleep in. He told them no and so they asked if Jill did. Luckily Jack had SOME part of his head screwed on straight when he told them that there was no way in hell Jill would let them use her credit card to register a hotel room. After all... why didn't they just pay with cash? Something didn't make sense.
The rest of the weekend was very uneventful and Monday came without Jill so much as giving it a second thought. As far as she was concerned Jon & Jane were on their way and she would not have to see them again. On Monday night Jack was helping his dad burn leaves while Jill was at home watching TV.
About 8:30 Jill heard the dogs barking. She looked outside but did not see anyone. So, imagine her surprise when Jack showed up at 9:00 and informed her that Jon wanted to come over and work on another vehicle. And imagine her even greater surprise when Jon pulled into their driveway from across the street where he had apparently been lying in hiding while waiting on Jack.
So now Jill's weird shit-o-meter was starting to go off. Things were just not adding up. First they wanted to work on a friend's vehicle. To which Jill promptly said no. She was not letting anyone she didn't know hang out in her garage while she was asleep. Then all of the sudden it was Jane's jeep they wanted to work on and the only people that would be outside would be Jon & Jill.
At this point it was raining and according to Jack they were moving in the morning and needed to get the Jeep in working order so they could use it to haul their things. Feeling defeated and outnumbered Jill gave up and went to bed. She cracked the bedroom window so she could hear anyone coming and going and laid down.
A little after 10:00 a vehicle pulled in which she assumed was the one they were going to work on. Then about 15 minutes later she heard yelling. She got up and looked out the window and noticed Jane standing next to the vehicle obviously quite upset with Jon. She was yelling but Jill couldn't quite hear what she was yelling about.
Then after about 10 minutes she started walking down the driveway and then down the road. Jon sat in the driveway for another 10 minutes or so and then headed out in their vehicle. Jill crossed her fingers that maybe they would just leave and not come back.
No such luck. About 12:00 she heard a vehicle pull in, around 1:00 she heard another and assumed it was the mystery car coming to finally get worked on. Around 6:00 she heard what she thought was the final vehicle leaving so imagine her reaction when she got out of bed at 6:30 and noticed that Jon & Jane's vehicle was parked next to the garage.
Jack's explanation for this was that they were either still in the garage or they had left it and would be back for it later. So Jane got ready for work as usual. When she got outside she noticed something VERY strange. The garage windows had all been covered. It was dark outside for heavens sake, why would they need to cover the windows?
Jack came out and opened the garage expecting to see them inside working on another vehicle. However, the garage was empty and Jon & Jane were no where in site. It is at this point in the story where Jill KNOWS something about these people is off. Her first thought was to go inside and call the police/lock the door.
HOWEVER, what would she tell the police? These people who have done nothing to me are acting strangely can you come and check it out? So she suppressed her negative feeling and headed off to work. When she got home from work the vehicle was gone but when she walked into the house she had an overwhelming feeling that something was not right.
In the bathroom she noticed two used towels and a brush that was not hers. She immediately called Jack and asked them if Jon & Jane had been in their house. It was at this point that she discovered that they had actually been sleeping in their car that morning and that's why it was in the driveway. According to Jack that was because they were moving and just need a place to crash for the one night.
Sometime that morning they had called Jack and let him know what was up and also asked if they could use the bathroom to get cleaned up. Being the sucker that he is he told them that they could enter the house to use the bathroom. It was at this point that Jill blew her top. It was bad enough that they had been outside when Jack & Jill were at work but entering their home when no one was there crossed a line.
Jill told Jack, in no uncertain terms, that Jon & Jane were NOT allowed back at their house ever again. There was something about them that creeped her out and she was done ignoring that feeling. After she got off the phone she walked around the house and took a brief inventory of major items in the house. Jack's wedding ring was there, all of their jewelry appeared to be in place, all major electronics were as they should be, etc. Some of the baby things in the office looked like they had been bumped but that could have just been by the cat. Nothing appeared to be missing.
So Jill decided that maybe her feeling was wrong. Maybe they did just need to use the bathroom.
Thursday, December 07, 2006
Some sort of Justice...
On December 1st at approximately 11:00 PM the law finally caught up with our perpetrators. The rest of the story will follow soon... I promise...
Monday, December 04, 2006
Jake's Jeep
I present for your viewing pleasure... or actually your viewing horror. Jake's Jeep....
Yes, he walked away from this...
No... I don't know how...
According to him a deer ran out in front of him, he swerved, hit the gravel, over corrected and tipped it over onto the drivers side in the ditch. He didn't want to call a tow truck, so a farmer pulled him out.
As you can see the front end is now held together by very attractive stripped tape. The roof collapsed down an he had to hook a chain to the bar between the windshield and the door to pull that bar up enough that he could drive it home.
Neither door opens, and speaking of driving home... I have NO idea how he drove an hour home with a windshield that looks like THIS!!
In the end he is damn lucky that the thing that is hurt the worst is his pride. We have spoken here before about his driving record so I won't go into it in any further detail except to say that we have only had this jeep a year and a half. He really liked it and is very sad to see it go.
However, with the baby coming and his driving apparently not getting any better I do not think that we will be able to get him another jeep for awhile. For the mean time when you come to visit us the part of Jake's vehicle will be played by a small cheap car or truck, depending on what we can find. That way if he wrecks it again we are not out much money.
Yes, he walked away from this...
No... I don't know how...
According to him a deer ran out in front of him, he swerved, hit the gravel, over corrected and tipped it over onto the drivers side in the ditch. He didn't want to call a tow truck, so a farmer pulled him out.
As you can see the front end is now held together by very attractive stripped tape. The roof collapsed down an he had to hook a chain to the bar between the windshield and the door to pull that bar up enough that he could drive it home.
Neither door opens, and speaking of driving home... I have NO idea how he drove an hour home with a windshield that looks like THIS!!
In the end he is damn lucky that the thing that is hurt the worst is his pride. We have spoken here before about his driving record so I won't go into it in any further detail except to say that we have only had this jeep a year and a half. He really liked it and is very sad to see it go.
However, with the baby coming and his driving apparently not getting any better I do not think that we will be able to get him another jeep for awhile. For the mean time when you come to visit us the part of Jake's vehicle will be played by a small cheap car or truck, depending on what we can find. That way if he wrecks it again we are not out much money.
Friday, December 01, 2006
Contractions, Contractions, and oh yeah... some belly pictures
I have updated the baby's site, over there to the right, and so I'm not going to regurgitate the same stuff about all of my fun contractions here that I have written there. I'll just let you browse at your leisure.
I am, however, going to post some belly pictures for your continued enjoyment. When I was in the hospital on Wednesday (see, you haven't gone over and read the other site yet have you and now your are lost. Go on... I will still be here when you get back and then you will feel all in the loop again) Katie asked how long it had been since I had taken belly pictures and I realized that it had been 8 weeks.
Not knowing whether he was going to stay in for another few weeks or decide to be born shortly I decided that I should take these.
Yes, I'm aware that I only look half with it. Please keep in mind that this was after a day of contractions and stress and such so I'm allowed to look out of it!! :-)
As before I've also decided that you should see the full girth from the front so here you go.
Finally, here's the standard comparison picture. And no, I'm not going to give you one of the two frontal pictures. Wasn't it scary enough the first time around?
The main difference I notice in these pictures is not the difference in the size of my belly or the fact that you can see that I'm starting to gain a little water weight in my face. It's the roundness of my belly. Sometime in the last 8 weeks I have began to carry around a basketball instead of a slightly flattened volleyball.
Now, all of you just cross your fingers with me that we will have at least two more weeks of belly pictures before the little man decides to make his grand entrance.
I am, however, going to post some belly pictures for your continued enjoyment. When I was in the hospital on Wednesday (see, you haven't gone over and read the other site yet have you and now your are lost. Go on... I will still be here when you get back and then you will feel all in the loop again) Katie asked how long it had been since I had taken belly pictures and I realized that it had been 8 weeks.
Not knowing whether he was going to stay in for another few weeks or decide to be born shortly I decided that I should take these.
Yes, I'm aware that I only look half with it. Please keep in mind that this was after a day of contractions and stress and such so I'm allowed to look out of it!! :-)
As before I've also decided that you should see the full girth from the front so here you go.
Finally, here's the standard comparison picture. And no, I'm not going to give you one of the two frontal pictures. Wasn't it scary enough the first time around?
The main difference I notice in these pictures is not the difference in the size of my belly or the fact that you can see that I'm starting to gain a little water weight in my face. It's the roundness of my belly. Sometime in the last 8 weeks I have began to carry around a basketball instead of a slightly flattened volleyball.
Now, all of you just cross your fingers with me that we will have at least two more weeks of belly pictures before the little man decides to make his grand entrance.
Tuesday, November 21, 2006
Where have I been?
Nesting people... nesting.
Who would have thought that all of those people weren't kidding when they told me I would have this uncontrollable urge to have things in perfectly pristine order right this minute or everything would be ruined and the baby will surely be irreparably damaged?
So, for about a week and a half now I have been cleaning out drawers and cupboards. The DAV people came and took 5 boxes, 2 bags of clothes and an end table today. I think I will have more by next week.
I have washed every piece of clothing that we have for the baby up through 12 months. I have washed all of the hooded towels and wash cloths. Receiving blankets and other blankets. I have sterilized every plastic toy that we have gotten second hand with clorox wipes and placed them all in their sorted little cubes.
On top of all of that Jess has been over trying to get the baby's room in order and I have been trying to keep up on the regular household cleaning. I have discovered that cleaning up after my husband is a lot like shoveling your driveway in the middle of a blizzard. You move some things and it looks nice for a little while but inevitably more stuff just piles in the same place as before. WOULD IT PLEASE STOP SNOWING ALREADY??
So... I hope all of you are well and hopefully in another week or two I will have nothing left to clean, or I will be so big and uncomfortable that I will just give up. Either way... I hope not to be away for too much longer!!
Who would have thought that all of those people weren't kidding when they told me I would have this uncontrollable urge to have things in perfectly pristine order right this minute or everything would be ruined and the baby will surely be irreparably damaged?
So, for about a week and a half now I have been cleaning out drawers and cupboards. The DAV people came and took 5 boxes, 2 bags of clothes and an end table today. I think I will have more by next week.
I have washed every piece of clothing that we have for the baby up through 12 months. I have washed all of the hooded towels and wash cloths. Receiving blankets and other blankets. I have sterilized every plastic toy that we have gotten second hand with clorox wipes and placed them all in their sorted little cubes.
On top of all of that Jess has been over trying to get the baby's room in order and I have been trying to keep up on the regular household cleaning. I have discovered that cleaning up after my husband is a lot like shoveling your driveway in the middle of a blizzard. You move some things and it looks nice for a little while but inevitably more stuff just piles in the same place as before. WOULD IT PLEASE STOP SNOWING ALREADY??
So... I hope all of you are well and hopefully in another week or two I will have nothing left to clean, or I will be so big and uncomfortable that I will just give up. Either way... I hope not to be away for too much longer!!
Tuesday, November 14, 2006
Crib Assembly 101
My first rule of advice... never send an amateur to do a professionals job.
Last night Jake and I decided we were going to put the crib together. Sounds easy enough. When we picked it up from Matt & Danettes we were shown the handy little instructions on the bottom of the board that goes under the mattress.
Looked simple enough and pretty straight forward. So last night, upstairs we go. We pull out those handy instructions and the first thing Jake notices is that there are two support beams to hold the mattress up. We only have one. So we call Danette.
She looks in her basement. No luck. She looks in Bryce's room. No luck. We hang up with her promising to continue looking and get back to me.
So, I call the car dealership that has my jeep thinking maybe we loaded it into the jeep and just never unloaded it. They send someone out to check the back of my jeep. In the time I am waiting I somehow get transferred to someone's voice mail so I hang up.
As I'm getting ready to call back Danette calls. She has spoken to Matt and he only remembers there being one support beam when they took the crib apart. So, I head back upstairs where I discover that in fact there are two support beams, but since the crib had been previously assembled one of them was left attached to the front of the crib so that is why we only had one loose one.
Feeling rather stupid I decide I should at least call back the car dealership. So I do and I play dumb. Oh... it's not in my jeep. Okay, well thank you for looking.
After I get off the phone with them Matt calls. I sheepishly admit to him that no, no parts are missing, we just didn't know where to look. At this point Jake comes back upstairs and within 10 minutes we have the whole crib put together.
Really, just as simple as everyone said it would be.... once we became smarter than the furniture that is!!
Last night Jake and I decided we were going to put the crib together. Sounds easy enough. When we picked it up from Matt & Danettes we were shown the handy little instructions on the bottom of the board that goes under the mattress.
Looked simple enough and pretty straight forward. So last night, upstairs we go. We pull out those handy instructions and the first thing Jake notices is that there are two support beams to hold the mattress up. We only have one. So we call Danette.
She looks in her basement. No luck. She looks in Bryce's room. No luck. We hang up with her promising to continue looking and get back to me.
So, I call the car dealership that has my jeep thinking maybe we loaded it into the jeep and just never unloaded it. They send someone out to check the back of my jeep. In the time I am waiting I somehow get transferred to someone's voice mail so I hang up.
As I'm getting ready to call back Danette calls. She has spoken to Matt and he only remembers there being one support beam when they took the crib apart. So, I head back upstairs where I discover that in fact there are two support beams, but since the crib had been previously assembled one of them was left attached to the front of the crib so that is why we only had one loose one.
Feeling rather stupid I decide I should at least call back the car dealership. So I do and I play dumb. Oh... it's not in my jeep. Okay, well thank you for looking.
After I get off the phone with them Matt calls. I sheepishly admit to him that no, no parts are missing, we just didn't know where to look. At this point Jake comes back upstairs and within 10 minutes we have the whole crib put together.
Really, just as simple as everyone said it would be.... once we became smarter than the furniture that is!!
Tuesday, November 07, 2006
Starting with a Bang
So, yesterday began my 30th week of pregnancy. In honor of this momentous occasion I decided to end my day with a bang. You know like the bang that the front of my jeep makes when it hits the back of a very large dodge truck.
What's that? That expression is not supposed to be taken so literally? Well now you tell me!!
Yes, you read that right, at 30 weeks I rear ended someone. You know at this rate I might be able to catch up to Jake in the worlds worst driver category. What is my excuse? I have none. Call it a case of Monday head up ass syndrome.
I was coming down a hill about 5 miles from my house and at the bottom of the hill was a car turning to go into a workout place. There were several vehicles lined up behind the car and I just didn't see that they were stopped until it was too late.
As for damages, my jeep is obviously worse off than his truck. I think there are some scratches on his bumper. The truck sits so high that I ended up going right into his tow package. So my bumper is cracked, my grille is cracked and something funky is going on with my horn.
When I push the button to lock my doors it makes this sad sort of whimper. About how I feel each time I look at the front of the jeep so maybe it's a sympathy whimper. It is drivable but Progressive has this quick fix program that I fully intend to take advantage of so that hopefully it will be fixed within a week or so.
Then the problem? Coming up with the $500 deductible to fix it. I just paid my $330 deductible to the doctors office today for the delivery fee. (His website is updated if you are interested in how the appointment went)
Oh yes, and last but certainly not least... the little man. As far as I can tell he is fine. I am obsessive about pushing my seat belt down below my belly about 10 times on my way home so from what I can tell it was appropriately positioned. Of course when I got home he was not bouncing around so all sorts of things were running through my head.
Luckily we rented a fetal doppler at the beginning of the pregnancy so I immediately pulled that out and let me tell you, any thoughts I had of sending that back before the end of the pregnancy were quickly thrown out the window. I called the doctor just for good measure but he said as long as the baby is moving and I don't have any regular contractions, bleeding or loss of fluid he should be fine.
It's amazing that while I know he is probably safe in his fluid home right now I so wanted him to be here so I could look him over, check for cuts and bruises and watch him breath. One of the worst parts of the whole thing is knowing that I just have to trust that he is fine, I can't see him to know.
So anyhow, one damaged vehicle, one fine little man... I think I'll take that outcome over anything worse any day.
What's that? That expression is not supposed to be taken so literally? Well now you tell me!!
Yes, you read that right, at 30 weeks I rear ended someone. You know at this rate I might be able to catch up to Jake in the worlds worst driver category. What is my excuse? I have none. Call it a case of Monday head up ass syndrome.
I was coming down a hill about 5 miles from my house and at the bottom of the hill was a car turning to go into a workout place. There were several vehicles lined up behind the car and I just didn't see that they were stopped until it was too late.
As for damages, my jeep is obviously worse off than his truck. I think there are some scratches on his bumper. The truck sits so high that I ended up going right into his tow package. So my bumper is cracked, my grille is cracked and something funky is going on with my horn.
When I push the button to lock my doors it makes this sad sort of whimper. About how I feel each time I look at the front of the jeep so maybe it's a sympathy whimper. It is drivable but Progressive has this quick fix program that I fully intend to take advantage of so that hopefully it will be fixed within a week or so.
Then the problem? Coming up with the $500 deductible to fix it. I just paid my $330 deductible to the doctors office today for the delivery fee. (His website is updated if you are interested in how the appointment went)
Oh yes, and last but certainly not least... the little man. As far as I can tell he is fine. I am obsessive about pushing my seat belt down below my belly about 10 times on my way home so from what I can tell it was appropriately positioned. Of course when I got home he was not bouncing around so all sorts of things were running through my head.
Luckily we rented a fetal doppler at the beginning of the pregnancy so I immediately pulled that out and let me tell you, any thoughts I had of sending that back before the end of the pregnancy were quickly thrown out the window. I called the doctor just for good measure but he said as long as the baby is moving and I don't have any regular contractions, bleeding or loss of fluid he should be fine.
It's amazing that while I know he is probably safe in his fluid home right now I so wanted him to be here so I could look him over, check for cuts and bruises and watch him breath. One of the worst parts of the whole thing is knowing that I just have to trust that he is fine, I can't see him to know.
So anyhow, one damaged vehicle, one fine little man... I think I'll take that outcome over anything worse any day.
Wednesday, November 01, 2006
Ummm.... yeah...
Police search for a wanted Warren County Man
That's him... they still haven't caught him yet so I'm not going to give you the whole story just yet... but um.. yeah...
Wednesday, October 25, 2006
Unleashing Your Inner Packrat
So, less than three months to go and we are finally getting the last of our junk into the attic to make room for this little man. Throughout the entire process I have continually been amazed by how much CRAP we managed to pack into that closet. Granted it is about three feet wide by nine feet long... but still...
The other thing that has amazed me about packing up all of this junk is the difference of opinion that Jake and I have about what should and should not be packed away and stored. After high school I moved to the dorms, then to an apartment, then to my trailer and then to here. Somewhere in all of that I realized that no... I don't need that old swing choir costume or those old syllabuses from English 101.
So, what I have kept are pictures and major projects or papers from classes I have taken. Scattered in there are a few odd items of clothing that meant something to me, like the three toned leather jacket covered in stains that I saved from my mom's junk/goodwill pile more than once and wore from junior high through high school, much to her dismay.
Jake, however, has moved once and only once in his adult life. He came from his parents house straight to the house we live in and all the junk from his closet there came with him here. NONE of which he seems willing to part with. Now I realize that one persons junk is another man's treasure but I think we crossed the line when we packed up his old wrestling shoes and "protective" gear into one of those totes.
Oh yes, you read that right. His reasoning was one day my son might want to... no hunny, your son is NEVER going to want to see your old "protective gear" or your old shoes. Yet still... into a tote they went. I suppose in the grand scheme of things since his parents didn't keep any of his old school papers or anything from vacations that I could find these are probably his only memories of his high school days so a few totes of crap won't kill us.
However, what might kill us is his incessant need to keep EVERYTHING that may one day be needed for something. While cleaning there were a few things that I managed to wrestle from his grubby little hands and convince him that he REALLY didn't need to keep. The problem then becomes the time between when I throw it away and when the garbage man gets to our house.
Case in point. He has an old cloth portable CD player case. We do not own a portable CD player. We have no plans of purchasing a portable CD player. Yet, after the trash man came I noticed, stached away on the back porch, the portable CD player case.
His theory is someday we might need this. My theory, if we need it we will buy it!! So for now, I will just continue to sneak meaningless items into the garbage and play the no hunny... I have no idea where that went card. However, if he decides to start packing away food items.... I'm drawing the line!!
The other thing that has amazed me about packing up all of this junk is the difference of opinion that Jake and I have about what should and should not be packed away and stored. After high school I moved to the dorms, then to an apartment, then to my trailer and then to here. Somewhere in all of that I realized that no... I don't need that old swing choir costume or those old syllabuses from English 101.
So, what I have kept are pictures and major projects or papers from classes I have taken. Scattered in there are a few odd items of clothing that meant something to me, like the three toned leather jacket covered in stains that I saved from my mom's junk/goodwill pile more than once and wore from junior high through high school, much to her dismay.
Jake, however, has moved once and only once in his adult life. He came from his parents house straight to the house we live in and all the junk from his closet there came with him here. NONE of which he seems willing to part with. Now I realize that one persons junk is another man's treasure but I think we crossed the line when we packed up his old wrestling shoes and "protective" gear into one of those totes.
Oh yes, you read that right. His reasoning was one day my son might want to... no hunny, your son is NEVER going to want to see your old "protective gear" or your old shoes. Yet still... into a tote they went. I suppose in the grand scheme of things since his parents didn't keep any of his old school papers or anything from vacations that I could find these are probably his only memories of his high school days so a few totes of crap won't kill us.
However, what might kill us is his incessant need to keep EVERYTHING that may one day be needed for something. While cleaning there were a few things that I managed to wrestle from his grubby little hands and convince him that he REALLY didn't need to keep. The problem then becomes the time between when I throw it away and when the garbage man gets to our house.
Case in point. He has an old cloth portable CD player case. We do not own a portable CD player. We have no plans of purchasing a portable CD player. Yet, after the trash man came I noticed, stached away on the back porch, the portable CD player case.
His theory is someday we might need this. My theory, if we need it we will buy it!! So for now, I will just continue to sneak meaningless items into the garbage and play the no hunny... I have no idea where that went card. However, if he decides to start packing away food items.... I'm drawing the line!!
Monday, October 23, 2006
A Lesson in Trust
So.. where have I been?
Trying to find my identity....
Oh wait no that's right... I've been trying to KEEP my identity!!
I'm unsure how much more I should put on this blog right now while our case is open, although I don't think the perpetrator (who probably doesn't even know what that word means) even knows how to use the internet let alone find this blog.
However, let me just say for now that I have had a HELL of a week and I'm hoping it all goes away VERY soon!!
Trying to find my identity....
Oh wait no that's right... I've been trying to KEEP my identity!!
I'm unsure how much more I should put on this blog right now while our case is open, although I don't think the perpetrator (who probably doesn't even know what that word means) even knows how to use the internet let alone find this blog.
However, let me just say for now that I have had a HELL of a week and I'm hoping it all goes away VERY soon!!
Shameless Plug
Okay girls. This is a shameless plug to try to save all of us with little butts to diaper some money. I just discovered this website called 1800diapers. Maybe I'm behind the times here and you all know about this already, who knows. However, I think this will probably be where I order all of my diapers from.
I went to Sam's Club in our area and wrote down prices of diapers and all of the prices are the same as they are there. HOWEVER, if you order over $45 worth of stuff, they will ship it to your house for free. Well in most cases a large case of diapers can be around $35 so if you order two it comes right to your door. No lugging the little ones out into the cold to attempt to buy diapers!! (YEAH!!)
Anyhow, I figured since you a lot of you have little ones, I knew some of you might be able to benefit from this. They also have formula and wipes but I'm not sure how the prices compare. If they are the same as what you are spending now some diapers and formula will get you over the limit and then you can have them shipped for free. (Woo Hoo!!)
So, if you go there, use my referral code would ya? I could use the extra savings and it saves you $2.00 off your first order. HEHA8288
I went to Sam's Club in our area and wrote down prices of diapers and all of the prices are the same as they are there. HOWEVER, if you order over $45 worth of stuff, they will ship it to your house for free. Well in most cases a large case of diapers can be around $35 so if you order two it comes right to your door. No lugging the little ones out into the cold to attempt to buy diapers!! (YEAH!!)
Anyhow, I figured since you a lot of you have little ones, I knew some of you might be able to benefit from this. They also have formula and wipes but I'm not sure how the prices compare. If they are the same as what you are spending now some diapers and formula will get you over the limit and then you can have them shipped for free. (Woo Hoo!!)
So, if you go there, use my referral code would ya? I could use the extra savings and it saves you $2.00 off your first order. HEHA8288
Tuesday, October 17, 2006
A shopping we will go...
A shopping we will go...
A shopping we will go...
Hi ho the dairy oh...
A shopping we will go...
And what did I buy on my little adventure you ask...
Tomatoes
Sugar Cookies
Ham
Powdered Donuts
Turkey
cinnamon Rolls
Milk
Brownies
Salad
Frozen Pizza
Pears
Jake's only comment... um yeah... she's pregnant...
A shopping we will go...
Hi ho the dairy oh...
A shopping we will go...
And what did I buy on my little adventure you ask...
Tomatoes
Sugar Cookies
Ham
Powdered Donuts
Turkey
cinnamon Rolls
Milk
Brownies
Salad
Frozen Pizza
Pears
Jake's only comment... um yeah... she's pregnant...
Thursday, October 05, 2006
Belly Pictures
Okay, so I was looking back and it has been eight weeks since I last gave you belly pictures. Can you believe how quickly time flies? Eight weeks!! So, I figured it was just about time to give you some more. (Still hoping to buy some good will from my sketchy blogging :-)
First up, the ever popular side view... Oh... and no wise cracks about the pants. They happen to be VERY comfortable!!
First up, the ever popular side view... Oh... and no wise cracks about the pants. They happen to be VERY comfortable!!
Next up... we remove the shirt... (Okay... get your minds out of the gutters... just the part that covers the belly!!) Please don't be blinded... yes... the belly does need some sun. No, it's not likely to get any between now and January. A couple of shade lighter and I'll just blend right into that door won't I?
Finally.... someone mentioned to me that maybe I should take some pictures from the front since most people never carry the same way twice. So, starting this week I will begin with the front shots.
And yes.... I'm AWARE that this picture makes me look HUGE!! But thanks for thinking it too!! Nothing like making a girl paranoid! :-)
I also did the comparison shot again with me at 17w3d and me at 25w2d. I don't think it's as dramatic as the last one but it does show a little bit of an outward trend...
So... there you have it. It's a good thing I'm not shy huh?
Theme for the room
Do I have a theme you ask? Ha... do I have a theme... we have had a theme for over a year now. Yeah... I'm a little over prepared. The theme is jungle animals. We picked it when we didn't know if we were going to be able to find out the sex of the baby. Also, we wanted something that could grow with the child.
Originally our idea was to do a mural with jungle animals on the walls BUT now that the developers are getting closer and closer and we don't know how long we are going to be in our house we have decided not to put a bunch of money into a room in a house that may or may not be standing in five years. Good plan huh?
So the colors, even though it's hard to tell in the pictures are actually a dark khaki with a green stripe. MUCH better than the lavender!! The green is sort of "jungly" according to my sister, but the color is called tree tops and since the theme is jungle animals, I guess we picked well.
As for the bedding, it is a set that I found last year on ebay. Unfortunately for us, it is now discontinued so that is the only place to get pieces. Luckily I was prepared and I have all of the essential pieces already. Here is a picture of part of the comforter....
Originally our idea was to do a mural with jungle animals on the walls BUT now that the developers are getting closer and closer and we don't know how long we are going to be in our house we have decided not to put a bunch of money into a room in a house that may or may not be standing in five years. Good plan huh?
So the colors, even though it's hard to tell in the pictures are actually a dark khaki with a green stripe. MUCH better than the lavender!! The green is sort of "jungly" according to my sister, but the color is called tree tops and since the theme is jungle animals, I guess we picked well.
As for the bedding, it is a set that I found last year on ebay. Unfortunately for us, it is now discontinued so that is the only place to get pieces. Luckily I was prepared and I have all of the essential pieces already. Here is a picture of part of the comforter....
For the walls we are framing these 
in black frames with white backgrounds and hanging them. They are basically 4.5" tall wall paper stickers.
We also have these
which will be hung on the walls somewhere..... I'm leaving that decision up to the decorator. But let me tell you they are absolutely ADORABLE!!
Now all that we need is to finish with baby showers and get everything put together. Oh yeah... and about a million other things that have nothing to do with his room!! :-)
Wednesday, October 04, 2006
Baby's Room
Okay, so we've established that I'm a horrible blogger lately. Can I pacify you with pictures? Well let's just see shall we?? First up... the baby's room.
I didn't take before pictures of the baby's room because... well.... I'm a bad mom and all of such things. However, I do have a picture that was taken in that room about a year ago and that room did not change much over that year, so that will have to do.
Notice the large accumulation of baby crap to the right and the junk stacks to the left. All of that junk to the left along with much, much, much more is what I have been putting into totes over the last couple of months and hauling up to the attic. Someday soon I hope to write about that experience....
Do you also notice the lovely color of the walls? See I told you, not a very manly shade of purple... so it had to go!!
And here is the room now.
Obviously the room is no where near finished, which is why I have not posted pictures up until now. The stripe and the woodwork still need some touching up, if I was really ambitious I could have taken a close up picture of that... but that would require me to show off my flaws, and we really don't need that... now do we?
As of right now our last shower is scheduled for November 12th, so our plan is to put the baby's room together sometime after that. We figure waiting till all of the showers are over will let us know what we are working with and that way we will not have to move things around or take things down. I am all about doing things once and only once!! :-)
SO... look for actual nursery pictures sometime in early December. I know it seems like a long ways off... but trust me, 5 months ago I found out I was pregnant and now that seems like yesterday, so it will be here before you know it.
I didn't take before pictures of the baby's room because... well.... I'm a bad mom and all of such things. However, I do have a picture that was taken in that room about a year ago and that room did not change much over that year, so that will have to do.
Notice the large accumulation of baby crap to the right and the junk stacks to the left. All of that junk to the left along with much, much, much more is what I have been putting into totes over the last couple of months and hauling up to the attic. Someday soon I hope to write about that experience....Do you also notice the lovely color of the walls? See I told you, not a very manly shade of purple... so it had to go!!
And here is the room now.
Obviously the room is no where near finished, which is why I have not posted pictures up until now. The stripe and the woodwork still need some touching up, if I was really ambitious I could have taken a close up picture of that... but that would require me to show off my flaws, and we really don't need that... now do we?
As of right now our last shower is scheduled for November 12th, so our plan is to put the baby's room together sometime after that. We figure waiting till all of the showers are over will let us know what we are working with and that way we will not have to move things around or take things down. I am all about doing things once and only once!! :-)
SO... look for actual nursery pictures sometime in early December. I know it seems like a long ways off... but trust me, 5 months ago I found out I was pregnant and now that seems like yesterday, so it will be here before you know it.
Friday, September 29, 2006
So...Um... Yeah...
HELLO?? Is anyone still out there?? I think I may here an echo.....
I guess if no one is there I wouldn't entirely blame you. I, myself, have been pretty much non-existent on all of your sites as well. In fact as it is I am SO far behind on reading that I may just have to scrap the idea of getting caught up and just read from this point forward. Which is really a shame because some of you have some very interesting things going on in your lives that I would love to read about.
As for me and where I have been... um... yeah... that's a good question. I'd kind of like to know the answer to that myself so let me know if you figure it out okay?
No really, I have lots of reasons for being gone but I'm not sure that any of them really add up to a "good" excuse. I can pretty much sum up my absence in one word... overwhelmed.
First and foremost work has been crazy. I really under estimated how hard it would be to keep my personal life at home. In the past I have never really had a problem with it but since I carry this little man everywhere I go, he is sort of hard to not think about. Consequently my work performance has sort of slipped.
Basically I'm behind, REALLY behind. I tried to be a hero this summer by sticking it out and being here but I wasn't really doing any chargeable work since I was so sick. So, that angered a few people because they think that if I'm not going to be doing anything I should be taking personal time instead of just spacing off. I see their point, really I do, but if I had done that I probably would have been gone for 6 weeks this summer!!
So, since I didn't really get anything done this summer I am finding these last two tax deadlines to be rather taxing. (HeHe... see I can still joke!!) My main place to blog has always been in the mornings or at lunch here at work. However, since I'm behind taking 30 minutes or an hour to do nothing but play on the internet just doesn't seem feasible.
Then there is my next issue. I'm TIRED. Like most of the time I'm just barely keeping my eyes open when I get out of here. Consequently I'm lucky if I am EVER here on time because I have so much trouble getting out of bed in the mornings. So that compounds problem number one even further.
Once I get home from here I mostly just want to sleep or relax on the couch. Last week I spent most of my evenings getting things ready so we could paint last weekend. Yes I painted, no I don't anticipate the little one to come out with 12 fingers... but I will let you know.
So, I can't blog at work, and when I get home I'm either running around trying to get things ready for the baby or I'm lying motionless on the couch. So, you ask... why not go to bed earlier. Oh... if only it were that easy. See... I don't sleep. At least not well.
My mind does not shut down until 9:00 or 10:00 at the earliest. So even though my body feels like it has been hit by a truck, my mind is still going 100 miles a minute. Then... once I do fall asleep I only get to sleep for about 2 or 3 hours before I have to get up and pee. AND... yes, I have tried limiting my intake of fluids in the evenings, it doesn't help.
So, once I get up then it is a complete crapshoot as to whether I will be able to fall back asleep or not. Sometimes it takes 5 minutes, sometimes it takes an hour or more. Oh, and did I mention that when I am asleep it's not really a restful sleep? My sleep is filled with all of these really strange dreams. Which leads me to believe that I am not getting the deep sleep that I obviously so desperately need.
Finally, lets tack on the stress. I am a highstrug person by nature and lately I have been feeling EXTREMELY overwhelmed. I feel like there is still so much to get ready for the baby and so I'm thinking about that constantly. So, I find myself thinking about that when I should be working, and then I stress about whether I'm going to make my bosses angry and they are going to fire me and people we are NOT a one income type of family right now.
Add to that all of the stress I have with Jake and I think I really need a few tranquilizers. What about Jake you say? Well, it's nothing and it is everything all in one. We are just approaching this from two very different angles. He thinks that the baby will get here and we will just fall into our lives and adjust. I on the other hand want our lives to be adjusted right now. And god damn it... I'm the pregnant one... adjust already!!
Basically it boils down to things I don't really want to happen when the baby is here. Like all night fishing trips (yes I realize the fish bite better in the later hours... no... I don't care), and drinking during the week, and the occasional smoking he does (he's in construction... EVERYONE smokes in construction), and the lying around on Sundays. I want everything to be fixed right now and he thinks that once the little one is here it will fall into place.
I don't know who is right but I do know that these same things happened before I was pregnant, so it's not that he's changed anything... it's just that I've changed how I look at them.
So... let's recap shall we?
1) I'm behind at work
2) I don't sleep and when I do it's not well
3) If I'm not too exhausted at night I'm trying to get stuff ready for the baby
4) I'm stressing myself out about LOTS of stuff
So... there you have it. That is where I've been. And this post has just taken be 30 minutes to write and I'm at work. SHIT... falling behind again... gotta go....
I guess if no one is there I wouldn't entirely blame you. I, myself, have been pretty much non-existent on all of your sites as well. In fact as it is I am SO far behind on reading that I may just have to scrap the idea of getting caught up and just read from this point forward. Which is really a shame because some of you have some very interesting things going on in your lives that I would love to read about.
As for me and where I have been... um... yeah... that's a good question. I'd kind of like to know the answer to that myself so let me know if you figure it out okay?
No really, I have lots of reasons for being gone but I'm not sure that any of them really add up to a "good" excuse. I can pretty much sum up my absence in one word... overwhelmed.
First and foremost work has been crazy. I really under estimated how hard it would be to keep my personal life at home. In the past I have never really had a problem with it but since I carry this little man everywhere I go, he is sort of hard to not think about. Consequently my work performance has sort of slipped.
Basically I'm behind, REALLY behind. I tried to be a hero this summer by sticking it out and being here but I wasn't really doing any chargeable work since I was so sick. So, that angered a few people because they think that if I'm not going to be doing anything I should be taking personal time instead of just spacing off. I see their point, really I do, but if I had done that I probably would have been gone for 6 weeks this summer!!
So, since I didn't really get anything done this summer I am finding these last two tax deadlines to be rather taxing. (HeHe... see I can still joke!!) My main place to blog has always been in the mornings or at lunch here at work. However, since I'm behind taking 30 minutes or an hour to do nothing but play on the internet just doesn't seem feasible.
Then there is my next issue. I'm TIRED. Like most of the time I'm just barely keeping my eyes open when I get out of here. Consequently I'm lucky if I am EVER here on time because I have so much trouble getting out of bed in the mornings. So that compounds problem number one even further.
Once I get home from here I mostly just want to sleep or relax on the couch. Last week I spent most of my evenings getting things ready so we could paint last weekend. Yes I painted, no I don't anticipate the little one to come out with 12 fingers... but I will let you know.
So, I can't blog at work, and when I get home I'm either running around trying to get things ready for the baby or I'm lying motionless on the couch. So, you ask... why not go to bed earlier. Oh... if only it were that easy. See... I don't sleep. At least not well.
My mind does not shut down until 9:00 or 10:00 at the earliest. So even though my body feels like it has been hit by a truck, my mind is still going 100 miles a minute. Then... once I do fall asleep I only get to sleep for about 2 or 3 hours before I have to get up and pee. AND... yes, I have tried limiting my intake of fluids in the evenings, it doesn't help.
So, once I get up then it is a complete crapshoot as to whether I will be able to fall back asleep or not. Sometimes it takes 5 minutes, sometimes it takes an hour or more. Oh, and did I mention that when I am asleep it's not really a restful sleep? My sleep is filled with all of these really strange dreams. Which leads me to believe that I am not getting the deep sleep that I obviously so desperately need.
Finally, lets tack on the stress. I am a highstrug person by nature and lately I have been feeling EXTREMELY overwhelmed. I feel like there is still so much to get ready for the baby and so I'm thinking about that constantly. So, I find myself thinking about that when I should be working, and then I stress about whether I'm going to make my bosses angry and they are going to fire me and people we are NOT a one income type of family right now.
Add to that all of the stress I have with Jake and I think I really need a few tranquilizers. What about Jake you say? Well, it's nothing and it is everything all in one. We are just approaching this from two very different angles. He thinks that the baby will get here and we will just fall into our lives and adjust. I on the other hand want our lives to be adjusted right now. And god damn it... I'm the pregnant one... adjust already!!
Basically it boils down to things I don't really want to happen when the baby is here. Like all night fishing trips (yes I realize the fish bite better in the later hours... no... I don't care), and drinking during the week, and the occasional smoking he does (he's in construction... EVERYONE smokes in construction), and the lying around on Sundays. I want everything to be fixed right now and he thinks that once the little one is here it will fall into place.
I don't know who is right but I do know that these same things happened before I was pregnant, so it's not that he's changed anything... it's just that I've changed how I look at them.
So... let's recap shall we?
1) I'm behind at work
2) I don't sleep and when I do it's not well
3) If I'm not too exhausted at night I'm trying to get stuff ready for the baby
4) I'm stressing myself out about LOTS of stuff
So... there you have it. That is where I've been. And this post has just taken be 30 minutes to write and I'm at work. SHIT... falling behind again... gotta go....
Thursday, September 21, 2006
Mistake?
Have any of you been following or heard anything about this story?
Third preemie dies after drug mistake
I heard about this for the first time on the news last night and I can not get it out of my head. Maybe I'm just overly hormonal but this story makes me angry beyond belief. It makes me angry and it makes me terribly sad. How do you call what this hospital did a mistake?
In exchange for killing these peoples children the hospital is offering to pay for counseling and provide restitution. How do you put a monetary price on these people's little miracles?
What angers me even more is that this has happened before at this very same hospital. In 2001 they did this same thing to two other patients, their only saving grace there was that they both lived.
Now I know shutting down the hospital is probably not the answer, but SOMETHING drastic needs to happen. They are killing people's children!!
The only thing further I can think to say is that my heart aches for these families and it makes me want to keep this little man inside of me just a little while longer to know he's safe.
Third preemie dies after drug mistake
I heard about this for the first time on the news last night and I can not get it out of my head. Maybe I'm just overly hormonal but this story makes me angry beyond belief. It makes me angry and it makes me terribly sad. How do you call what this hospital did a mistake?
In exchange for killing these peoples children the hospital is offering to pay for counseling and provide restitution. How do you put a monetary price on these people's little miracles?
What angers me even more is that this has happened before at this very same hospital. In 2001 they did this same thing to two other patients, their only saving grace there was that they both lived.
Now I know shutting down the hospital is probably not the answer, but SOMETHING drastic needs to happen. They are killing people's children!!
The only thing further I can think to say is that my heart aches for these families and it makes me want to keep this little man inside of me just a little while longer to know he's safe.
Wednesday, September 20, 2006
3 years
Isn't it amazing what a difference three years can make? Three years ago on this day I was nervously running around like a crazy woman getting makeup and hair done. Taking pictures and eventually walking down the isle to start my new life.
This year on our anniversary we have just that much more to celebrate. In just under four short months (as long as he's on time... PLEASE don't be late) we will welcome our little boy into our lives. So this year for our anniversary, even though he's not here yet, the little one wanted to give his daddy something special.
Happy Anniversary Jake!! I know that we've had our moments, but I can't think of anyone else I'd rather have those moments with!!
This year on our anniversary we have just that much more to celebrate. In just under four short months (as long as he's on time... PLEASE don't be late) we will welcome our little boy into our lives. So this year for our anniversary, even though he's not here yet, the little one wanted to give his daddy something special.
Happy Anniversary Jake!! I know that we've had our moments, but I can't think of anyone else I'd rather have those moments with!!
Tuesday, September 19, 2006
Future Cowboy?
And last night makes four....
Yes that's right, at one fifteen last night (or rather this morning) we once again chased livestock.
Have I mentioned to anyone that during the previous FOUR years that we have lived at this address we have not ONCE chased livestock and now since I have been pregnant we have done it four times? I have? Okay... just checking.
Last night it was cows. Lots and lots of black cows. In the dark, on a busy road. Makes for a great combination doesn't it? I awoke to hear them making a lot of noise and imagine my surprise when I looked out the window and saw a cow standing in my front yard. I believe my exact phrase was, "Holy Shit!!"
No you can no use that word, yes mommy is sorry, I'll have to do better next time.
So, at one fifteen Jake jumped out of bed and ran downstairs and I immediately called my parents. After all, they are their cows and if I have to be awake to chase them, so do they!! Of course my dad's response was, well open the gate and put them in. Gee thanks dad!!
Sorry, 2 of us 21 of them, you're going to have to get out of bed!! By the time I made it downstairs the cows were gone. I know this sounds unlikely but trust me, it's not all that hard to loose black cows in the pitch black night.
While Jake stood in the yard shining the spot light around I jumped in my jeep. He found one cow by our garage and for a minute I thought maybe I was loosing my mind and I had panicked for nothing. Did I just wake my parents up for one cow?
I drove across the street and down the lane and didn't see any more. Then I drove down towards the neighbor's house and was greeted by 20 sets of beety little eyes. These cows are not nearly as tame as the others so I wasn't entirely sure what to do. I parked across the road in an effort to sort of head them off and block anyone from flying down our road and making a cow/car sandwich.
At this point luck must have been on our side because the cows immediately turned around and started heading back towards home. (Which if you know anything about cows... NEVER happens!!) I turned around and followed in my jeep with my brights shining on them, hoping that anyone who came from the other direction would see me and slow down before they had 800 lbs of cow in their grill.
In another stroke of what I can only call pure luck they all stayed together and walked the fence row back towards our house in an orderly fashion and not ONE car came down the road while they were doing it. Once Jake realized what I was doing he quickly went to open the gate to the pasture only to discover that it was already open and that is how they escaped.
He shook a bucket of corn and then hid behind their feed bunk so they would come into the pasture. By the time my parents arrived all but one of the cows was safely back into the pasture. At this point I felt sort of bad waking them up but looking back I know if I wouldn't have called them the cows would have ended up on the highway or 3 miles away!! :-)
As it turns out, their hired man had come down to check on the cows yesterday afternoon and had apparently not gotten the gate latched properly. So when they came up last night to eat they saw an open gate and took the opportunity to explore.
Needless to say, their adventure has turned into my VERY, VERY long night!! It was around 2:00 when my parents left and close to 3:30 before I was able to fall asleep again.
Do you think maybe this boy is destined to be a cowboy?
Yes that's right, at one fifteen last night (or rather this morning) we once again chased livestock.
Have I mentioned to anyone that during the previous FOUR years that we have lived at this address we have not ONCE chased livestock and now since I have been pregnant we have done it four times? I have? Okay... just checking.
Last night it was cows. Lots and lots of black cows. In the dark, on a busy road. Makes for a great combination doesn't it? I awoke to hear them making a lot of noise and imagine my surprise when I looked out the window and saw a cow standing in my front yard. I believe my exact phrase was, "Holy Shit!!"
No you can no use that word, yes mommy is sorry, I'll have to do better next time.
So, at one fifteen Jake jumped out of bed and ran downstairs and I immediately called my parents. After all, they are their cows and if I have to be awake to chase them, so do they!! Of course my dad's response was, well open the gate and put them in. Gee thanks dad!!
Sorry, 2 of us 21 of them, you're going to have to get out of bed!! By the time I made it downstairs the cows were gone. I know this sounds unlikely but trust me, it's not all that hard to loose black cows in the pitch black night.
While Jake stood in the yard shining the spot light around I jumped in my jeep. He found one cow by our garage and for a minute I thought maybe I was loosing my mind and I had panicked for nothing. Did I just wake my parents up for one cow?
I drove across the street and down the lane and didn't see any more. Then I drove down towards the neighbor's house and was greeted by 20 sets of beety little eyes. These cows are not nearly as tame as the others so I wasn't entirely sure what to do. I parked across the road in an effort to sort of head them off and block anyone from flying down our road and making a cow/car sandwich.
At this point luck must have been on our side because the cows immediately turned around and started heading back towards home. (Which if you know anything about cows... NEVER happens!!) I turned around and followed in my jeep with my brights shining on them, hoping that anyone who came from the other direction would see me and slow down before they had 800 lbs of cow in their grill.
In another stroke of what I can only call pure luck they all stayed together and walked the fence row back towards our house in an orderly fashion and not ONE car came down the road while they were doing it. Once Jake realized what I was doing he quickly went to open the gate to the pasture only to discover that it was already open and that is how they escaped.
He shook a bucket of corn and then hid behind their feed bunk so they would come into the pasture. By the time my parents arrived all but one of the cows was safely back into the pasture. At this point I felt sort of bad waking them up but looking back I know if I wouldn't have called them the cows would have ended up on the highway or 3 miles away!! :-)
As it turns out, their hired man had come down to check on the cows yesterday afternoon and had apparently not gotten the gate latched properly. So when they came up last night to eat they saw an open gate and took the opportunity to explore.
Needless to say, their adventure has turned into my VERY, VERY long night!! It was around 2:00 when my parents left and close to 3:30 before I was able to fall asleep again.
Do you think maybe this boy is destined to be a cowboy?
Tuesday, September 12, 2006
Still Here...
I would like to apologize for my extended absence. Things here are just a little hectic and will probably continue to be so for another week. But hey... all the more time for you to gaze lovingly at my little man (oh wait... maybe that's just me that does that).
Anyhow, on Friday we have a big tax deadline so my days have been full of last minute tax returns and changes to tax returns. On Saturday Jake's dad got married, so all last week we spent our evenings preparing for that and then all weekend we had company and wedding stuff going on.
As for the rest of this week, I will be trying to finish about 5 different returns and in the evenings there is lots of family stuff since his sister is leaving on Friday. AND... somewhere in all of that we need to pick a theme for the little man's room so that we can paint (hopefully next weekend and not this weekend!!)
SO... rest assured we are all alive, just VERY, VERY busy!!
Anyhow, on Friday we have a big tax deadline so my days have been full of last minute tax returns and changes to tax returns. On Saturday Jake's dad got married, so all last week we spent our evenings preparing for that and then all weekend we had company and wedding stuff going on.
As for the rest of this week, I will be trying to finish about 5 different returns and in the evenings there is lots of family stuff since his sister is leaving on Friday. AND... somewhere in all of that we need to pick a theme for the little man's room so that we can paint (hopefully next weekend and not this weekend!!)
SO... rest assured we are all alive, just VERY, VERY busy!!
Friday, September 01, 2006
Ultrasound Friday
This morning we had our 20 week ultrasound. They are not common practice in our doctors office but since we wanted one they obliged. They also told me today that they are going to try to get the insurance company to pay for it, since I'm not gaining any weight, so that would be a double bonus.
Luckily they got us right in at 8:00 and as soon as she put the ultrasound wand to my stomach my eyes started to tear up. I think I cried for the entire 20 minutes that they baby was on the screen. First they started up at the head and starting measuring to make sure everything was the right size and shape.
What? What's that? You're glad that everything looked great but tell you the sex already? Well Geez... just for that.... maybe I won't tell you at all!!
Let's see... Profile picture #1. The head is at the bottom left and the legs are tucked up top to the right.
Luckily they got us right in at 8:00 and as soon as she put the ultrasound wand to my stomach my eyes started to tear up. I think I cried for the entire 20 minutes that they baby was on the screen. First they started up at the head and starting measuring to make sure everything was the right size and shape.
What? What's that? You're glad that everything looked great but tell you the sex already? Well Geez... just for that.... maybe I won't tell you at all!!
Let's see... Profile picture #1. The head is at the bottom left and the legs are tucked up top to the right.
Profile Picture #2... much the same as #1
Would you stop scrolling down madly. I will tell you when I get around to it!! You're as bad as Jake!!
Is that the boy parts?
No sir that's the cord.
What about that? Is that boy parts?
No sir... still the cord. I'll let you know when we get there...
Here's the face. The head is in the upper left and the one hand is by his head. The body is diagonally down to the right and if you look really close you can see the ribs.
This is supposed to be another picture of the face, but I think it just sort of looks like an alien baby.
The baby did not feel the need to cooperate with this woman's measurements this morning and kept moving all over. At one point the baby was practically standing on its head.
Here are the feet. Yes, that is two feet. The one on the left is a side view of a foot and the one on the right is the bottom of the other foot.
And this sir...
Yes, THAT would be the boy parts!!
So... we are having a wonderful, adorable, little boy!! Whom I'm pretty convinced is practically perfect in every way!! (But I might be a little biased!!)
We got to see him moving all over and we got to see his feet, and his frog legs and his heart just a beating away. 158 beats per minute this morning. We also got to see him swallow and wave his arms around!! I am just smitten!! I'm overwhelmed with emotion right now as I never knew I could love some one SOO much whom I have never met!!
Today, is DEFINITELY a good day!!
Thursday, August 31, 2006
Is the world ending?
This morning on the way in I passed three gas stations selling gas for $2.35 per gallon. (well technically 2.36.. why is everything 2.359, 2.589??? Do they think we don't notice the 9/10 of a cent??)
Anyhow, since I filled up on Saturday when it was 2.49 and I thought that was a good deal a 15 cent drop in one week makes me think something is up.
Is an asteroid headed for the earth and no one has told me yet?
Anyhow, since I filled up on Saturday when it was 2.49 and I thought that was a good deal a 15 cent drop in one week makes me think something is up.
Is an asteroid headed for the earth and no one has told me yet?
Wednesday, August 30, 2006
And the OCD sets in....
My morning....
Up at 5:52 to pee. No, I can't wait any longer, yes I know my alarm goes off in less than 1/2 an hour. Yes, this pisses me off...
Alarm goes off at 6:21, hit snooze (I was just out of bed after all...)
Alarm goes off at 6:30, hit snooze
Alarm goes off at 6:39, hit snooze
6:42, alright... I'm getting up already. Stumble down stairs. Undress, weigh self, notice that I have gained a pound. Ponder whether I am okay with this as I get in the shower....
Turn on the water, pull lever to move water to pull down shower head, attempt to drown the gnat, then the other gnat, oh yeah... and that one over there too. (Where the hell did all these little winged creatures come from?)
Put shower head back in holder, begin to wash hair when I notice a moth on the back wall. Ponder for a few seconds whether I am okay with this. Decide I am not as it starts to crawl towards me... attempt to drown the moth.
7:02... finally make it out of the shower, 3 out of 4 bugs successfully annihilated. Head upstairs. While picking out clothes notice that Jake has left a glass and a container from his frozen dinner on the headboard. Pretty sure I'm not okay with this. Decide to empty dishwasher and then come back for them.
Head downstairs. While applying toner and moisturizer to my face solve problem at work. So that account is used for this... and that's why we don't make an adjustment... Ahhh...
Head to kitchen. Get distracted by grocery sacks lying on floor from grocery trip on Saturday. Put away remaining groceries husband promised to put away and has obviously not gotten to. Grab plastic sack to put pop cans in that I had rinsed out. Begin to rinse out the rest of the pop & beer cans that are sitting on the table.
7:20 Jake gets out of the shower. "So what have you accomplished this morning?"
Receive stare of death as he, in his half awake condition, shoves food into a sack for lunch.
7:25.. start emptying dishwasher as Jake enters our ONE bathroom. (Yes, there may have to be a port-a-potty invested in come November or so!!)
7:30... Jake... I need to go to work.... he exits bathroom as I begin to make my lunch. Pack lunch then head to bathroom to curl bangs. Remember that I need to grab my computer, head to living room to get computer. Shut off TV, shut off lamp, feed fish, grab pizza box off of stove to take outside and throw away.
Remember that I didn't brush my teeth. Put computer down, brush teeth, feed other fish, remember that the glass and plastic container are still upstairs on the headboard. Fight HUGE urge to go upstairs and get them as it is now 7:40 and I will be late enough as it is.
Grab lunch, keys, computer, and pizza box. Slip on shoes and notice that there is a cupboard in the kitchen that did not get shut. Head into kitchen, shut cupboard and head to car.
So, how was your morning?
Up at 5:52 to pee. No, I can't wait any longer, yes I know my alarm goes off in less than 1/2 an hour. Yes, this pisses me off...
Alarm goes off at 6:21, hit snooze (I was just out of bed after all...)
Alarm goes off at 6:30, hit snooze
Alarm goes off at 6:39, hit snooze
6:42, alright... I'm getting up already. Stumble down stairs. Undress, weigh self, notice that I have gained a pound. Ponder whether I am okay with this as I get in the shower....
Turn on the water, pull lever to move water to pull down shower head, attempt to drown the gnat, then the other gnat, oh yeah... and that one over there too. (Where the hell did all these little winged creatures come from?)
Put shower head back in holder, begin to wash hair when I notice a moth on the back wall. Ponder for a few seconds whether I am okay with this. Decide I am not as it starts to crawl towards me... attempt to drown the moth.
7:02... finally make it out of the shower, 3 out of 4 bugs successfully annihilated. Head upstairs. While picking out clothes notice that Jake has left a glass and a container from his frozen dinner on the headboard. Pretty sure I'm not okay with this. Decide to empty dishwasher and then come back for them.
Head downstairs. While applying toner and moisturizer to my face solve problem at work. So that account is used for this... and that's why we don't make an adjustment... Ahhh...
Head to kitchen. Get distracted by grocery sacks lying on floor from grocery trip on Saturday. Put away remaining groceries husband promised to put away and has obviously not gotten to. Grab plastic sack to put pop cans in that I had rinsed out. Begin to rinse out the rest of the pop & beer cans that are sitting on the table.
7:20 Jake gets out of the shower. "So what have you accomplished this morning?"
Receive stare of death as he, in his half awake condition, shoves food into a sack for lunch.
7:25.. start emptying dishwasher as Jake enters our ONE bathroom. (Yes, there may have to be a port-a-potty invested in come November or so!!)
7:30... Jake... I need to go to work.... he exits bathroom as I begin to make my lunch. Pack lunch then head to bathroom to curl bangs. Remember that I need to grab my computer, head to living room to get computer. Shut off TV, shut off lamp, feed fish, grab pizza box off of stove to take outside and throw away.
Remember that I didn't brush my teeth. Put computer down, brush teeth, feed other fish, remember that the glass and plastic container are still upstairs on the headboard. Fight HUGE urge to go upstairs and get them as it is now 7:40 and I will be late enough as it is.
Grab lunch, keys, computer, and pizza box. Slip on shoes and notice that there is a cupboard in the kitchen that did not get shut. Head into kitchen, shut cupboard and head to car.
So, how was your morning?
Wednesday, August 23, 2006
Luxury or Necessity?
The following is an e-mail conversation I had with a friend on Monday:
"So, how was shopping on Saturday?"
"Well, I ended up spending $150 on Saturday. But I bought a lot for that (I think). I bought: 1 pair of Tommy capri’s, 1 pair of Tommy shorts, 1 pair of Jones New York capri’s, 1 long sleeve zip up, 1 pair of jean capri’s, 2 jean skirts: one long and one short, 1 pair of khaki pants, 1 plain red shirt, and some gap khaki shorts for my husband. I think I am going to go back and buy these khaki capri’s that I saw but didn’t buy. I am pretty happy with my buy’s. I bought a purse a couple of weeks ago and then I decided I just didn’t need it so I returned it and decided I needed all of these clothes instead and I even had over $100.00 left over."
Gasping for air and almost falling out of my chair....
"YOU SPENT OVER $250 ON A PURSE???"
"Jake has spent that kind of money on two things. A gun and a bow and arrow. ONE time purchases. Not re-occurring like you need a purse every year type of things. I think once... a long time ago... my mom bought me a purse for $70 and I about shit a brick...
This one I think I got for $30 or $40 and I thought that was EXPENSIVE!! I need a new one... but I just can't justify it..."
"Well deary guns and bows are not always so “one time purchases” they break, or get lost/stolen, and they need all of these accessories to make them work. I spend a little more on a purse and it could last me years. Although it never does because I am sick of it way before then.
I don’t think that I spend money foolishly on things I see my friends spending money on. I don’t have hobbies or other expensive likings so I justify it. Although I am becoming a Pottery Barn snob too."
So, in the effort of fairness, I went back and looked. I did a search for everything that we have spent more than $200 on in the last 4 years. (Yes, I'm a geek and I have all of my finances in Quickbooks. It comes in handy for situations like this!! :-)
A Lawn Mower.... Um... not thinking that counts....
Movies... see... she was right about the movies. Although I bought about 50 movies last Christmas, so individually... not even close to the $200 mark
Jake's Bow...
Jake's Gun...
Power Tools...
Jake's Scent Blocker Suit...
Shall I continue?? I'm back to 2004... I know, we are boring people...
So, what is your weakness? (Or are you cheap like me?) Designer Shoes? Name brand clothing? Expensive toys (that would be Jake's)? French perfume?
Mine? I pay $100 every year for a new pair of tennis shoes. Living dangerously aren't I?
"So, how was shopping on Saturday?"
"Well, I ended up spending $150 on Saturday. But I bought a lot for that (I think). I bought: 1 pair of Tommy capri’s, 1 pair of Tommy shorts, 1 pair of Jones New York capri’s, 1 long sleeve zip up, 1 pair of jean capri’s, 2 jean skirts: one long and one short, 1 pair of khaki pants, 1 plain red shirt, and some gap khaki shorts for my husband. I think I am going to go back and buy these khaki capri’s that I saw but didn’t buy. I am pretty happy with my buy’s. I bought a purse a couple of weeks ago and then I decided I just didn’t need it so I returned it and decided I needed all of these clothes instead and I even had over $100.00 left over."
Gasping for air and almost falling out of my chair....
"YOU SPENT OVER $250 ON A PURSE???"
"The one I am carrying right now is a $250+ purse and you went bonkers when I bought it too. You think I am bad, my mom is carrying a Louis Vuitton that was $1000 and no I didn’t accidentally add one to many zero’s. The only up side to that is my uncle bought it for her as a gift because he knows that she has wanted one for a long time. My husband spends an assload on his golf clubs and golf and his truck accessories so my thing is purses. Besides, I don’t spend money on things that most woman do, like salon visits or manicure’s and pedicure’s and my vehicle is paid off. $250.00 isn’t even a car payment. I told you I am a purse snob! You can’t say that you weren’t warned."
"Dear lord... you are giving me heart palpations just thinking about it!!!"
"Oh come on! I am sure that you have let Jake spend that kind of money on something similar because I know that you wouldn’t! Well maybe you would for 50 movies or something.""Jake has spent that kind of money on two things. A gun and a bow and arrow. ONE time purchases. Not re-occurring like you need a purse every year type of things. I think once... a long time ago... my mom bought me a purse for $70 and I about shit a brick...
This one I think I got for $30 or $40 and I thought that was EXPENSIVE!! I need a new one... but I just can't justify it..."
"Well deary guns and bows are not always so “one time purchases” they break, or get lost/stolen, and they need all of these accessories to make them work. I spend a little more on a purse and it could last me years. Although it never does because I am sick of it way before then.
I don’t think that I spend money foolishly on things I see my friends spending money on. I don’t have hobbies or other expensive likings so I justify it. Although I am becoming a Pottery Barn snob too."
So, in the effort of fairness, I went back and looked. I did a search for everything that we have spent more than $200 on in the last 4 years. (Yes, I'm a geek and I have all of my finances in Quickbooks. It comes in handy for situations like this!! :-)
A Lawn Mower.... Um... not thinking that counts....
Movies... see... she was right about the movies. Although I bought about 50 movies last Christmas, so individually... not even close to the $200 mark
Jake's Bow...
Jake's Gun...
Power Tools...
Jake's Scent Blocker Suit...
Shall I continue?? I'm back to 2004... I know, we are boring people...
So, what is your weakness? (Or are you cheap like me?) Designer Shoes? Name brand clothing? Expensive toys (that would be Jake's)? French perfume?
Mine? I pay $100 every year for a new pair of tennis shoes. Living dangerously aren't I?
Old McDonald... I am not...
I have come to the regrettable decision that I am just not cut out to be a farmer. In fact, I fear for the safety of livestock were they to permanently live at my house. Why is this you ask?
Last night I got up at 12:45 and I could hear the cows making all kinds of noise. Wanting to avoid a repeat roundup situation I slipped on my sandals and traipsed outside to see what the problem was.
You want to know what the problem was?
Huh?
Huh?
Do ya?
Well join the club because I'm still wondering the same damn thing!! All that tromping through wet grass at 1:00 in the morning and the only thing I could find was a bunch of cows screaming at each other from different sides of the fence.
Makes you want to throw objects at their heads doesn't it?? (See, I told you I would fear for their safety!)
So back inside I went to remove my wet socks and stumble through our darkened bedroom trying not to wake up Jake in my quest for new, dry socks all the while cursing those stupid cows and their stupid noise making.
This morning when I got up there were still four or five of them standing on the feeder cow side of the fence bawling at the other cows. So, I counted. All 14 that belong with the bull are with him. So, best I can figure these feeder cows are in heat and were calling to the bull for some sweet midnight loving. (Crap... family site... kids, that just means.. well hell.. I don't know, ask your parents!!)
Speaking of parents, hey Mom & Dad, you can come get your #$^& cows now!!
Last night I got up at 12:45 and I could hear the cows making all kinds of noise. Wanting to avoid a repeat roundup situation I slipped on my sandals and traipsed outside to see what the problem was.
You want to know what the problem was?
Huh?
Huh?
Do ya?
Well join the club because I'm still wondering the same damn thing!! All that tromping through wet grass at 1:00 in the morning and the only thing I could find was a bunch of cows screaming at each other from different sides of the fence.
Makes you want to throw objects at their heads doesn't it?? (See, I told you I would fear for their safety!)
So back inside I went to remove my wet socks and stumble through our darkened bedroom trying not to wake up Jake in my quest for new, dry socks all the while cursing those stupid cows and their stupid noise making.
This morning when I got up there were still four or five of them standing on the feeder cow side of the fence bawling at the other cows. So, I counted. All 14 that belong with the bull are with him. So, best I can figure these feeder cows are in heat and were calling to the bull for some sweet midnight loving. (Crap... family site... kids, that just means.. well hell.. I don't know, ask your parents!!)
Speaking of parents, hey Mom & Dad, you can come get your #$^& cows now!!
Thursday, August 17, 2006
Skywalk ramblings...
When I got into work today after my doctor's appointment (I'll post about it on the baby's site..) I rode down in the elevator with some woman. She seemed normal enough when I got into the elevator. Here's the conversation that followed...
"Hi, how are you today?"
"Good"
"So how did you decide to wear that heart necklace today?"
Noticing that she is also wearing a heart necklace it seems like a normal enough question, "I have warn it every day for 10 years. My husband gave it to me."
"Oh really. So, are you from Iowa."
"Yes."
"Is your husband from Iowa?"
"Yes"
"So, does he beat you?"
What?? Huh?? Did I just hear her right?? "Um... no."
"Oh really, because I've noticed that there seems to be a trend of violence among Iowa men."
"Well, I guess that depends on where you are in the state. We do have some hicks here..."
"No, I think it's pretty much all men here. So how did you get so lucky not to have yours beat you in 10 years."
Thinking maybe I can just joke with her to lighten the mood I try out this line, "Well, I started early. Beat some sense into him starting when he was 15."
She didn't laugh. I think she thought I was serious. "And he didn't beat you back?"
"Um... no." By this point I was beginning to be very uncomfortable. I just wanted to get away from her but she kept walking right beside me.
"Well you must have gotten really lucky. I've just been really un-impressed with the quality of Iowa men. They seem to all be very violent here. Maybe it's your culture."
"Um... maybe."
By this point maybe she got the hint that I didn't really want to talk to her so she started to speed up. As she walked away this was her parting comment, "Well, have a nice day. Good luck not getting beaten by your Iowa husband!!"
As soon as she was out of earshot I called my friend Katie. "So did you say anything back to her."
"I couldn't. She was OBVIOUSLY crazy. I was afraid if I angered her she would attack me!!"
So.... how was your morning??
What is the strangest random comment or conversation you have ever had from a total stranger?
"Hi, how are you today?"
"Good"
"So how did you decide to wear that heart necklace today?"
Noticing that she is also wearing a heart necklace it seems like a normal enough question, "I have warn it every day for 10 years. My husband gave it to me."
"Oh really. So, are you from Iowa."
"Yes."
"Is your husband from Iowa?"
"Yes"
"So, does he beat you?"
What?? Huh?? Did I just hear her right?? "Um... no."
"Oh really, because I've noticed that there seems to be a trend of violence among Iowa men."
"Well, I guess that depends on where you are in the state. We do have some hicks here..."
"No, I think it's pretty much all men here. So how did you get so lucky not to have yours beat you in 10 years."
Thinking maybe I can just joke with her to lighten the mood I try out this line, "Well, I started early. Beat some sense into him starting when he was 15."
She didn't laugh. I think she thought I was serious. "And he didn't beat you back?"
"Um... no." By this point I was beginning to be very uncomfortable. I just wanted to get away from her but she kept walking right beside me.
"Well you must have gotten really lucky. I've just been really un-impressed with the quality of Iowa men. They seem to all be very violent here. Maybe it's your culture."
"Um... maybe."
By this point maybe she got the hint that I didn't really want to talk to her so she started to speed up. As she walked away this was her parting comment, "Well, have a nice day. Good luck not getting beaten by your Iowa husband!!"
As soon as she was out of earshot I called my friend Katie. "So did you say anything back to her."
"I couldn't. She was OBVIOUSLY crazy. I was afraid if I angered her she would attack me!!"
So.... how was your morning??
What is the strangest random comment or conversation you have ever had from a total stranger?
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