Money – Jacob and Marcia

A check from Google

Somewhere over on the right hand side of this page, there are some advertisements. We have them on this website and a couple of others. It’s a program called “Google Adsense,” where you put Google ads on your page and if someone clicks on the ads, they pay you a little bit of money (on the order of a few cents). Once your account balance reaches $100, they send you a check.

We started putting adsense on our websites when we put this website up in September 2006, just before we got married. It took just over 5 years to accumulate a balance of $100, and on December 27, 2011, Google sent us a check:

(click for larger version and to see the exact amount)

So, while we’re not quite killing it like this guy, Google supplied us with a little bit of money we wouldn’t have otherwise had. Thanks, Google!

Not that I want to sound whiny or anything, but that was disgusting

So a year and a half ago, a month before Mar©ia was born, there was a great baby shower. It was fun, my sister put a lot of hard work into it and it was awesome. Lots of people showed up. I felt loved. There were some much needed gifts and we appreciated them, we still do. One of them was a Fisher Price Cheer for Me! Potty.* We left it in the box. Not because we didn’t want it, but because a newborn does not need it yet, and it takes up less space in the closet when still in the box.

For the past weeks (months?) Mar©ia has been curious about mee using the toilet. She likes to walk in the bathroom while I go, she seems excited to hear my pee hit the bowl, and wants to look in there after I stand. I narrate what I am doing and am trying to be candid about the fact that this is just the way we do it when we do not wear diapers. Sounds kind of like this, “First I lift the lid, then I pull down my pants and underwear and I sit down. Listen, that is my pee. I pee in the toilet. Right now you wear a diaper and that is where you pee. I do not wear a diaper, so I pee here. (If I have to poop, I talk about pooping in the toilet too, same basic phrases.) I am done peeing (pooping). I will use toilet paper and wipe so I don’t drip on my clothes. Now I pull up my pants and flush the toilet with this handle. I can watch the pee (poop) go down the drain. Now I wash my hands with soap. I am all done, now it is time to get out of the bathroom.” She is curious and I am happy to have her learn.

Mar©ia has also been doing OKAY about telling us when she has pooped. She in the last couple weeks has said “poop” to mee, I take her to change her diaper and she has only peed, then in a couple minutes after changing her diaper, she poops. She tries to help clean her bottom when she has a poopy diaper, not that it really helps, at all. She will grab a diaper or say diaper and go right to the changing station. Most of the time she is cooperative. I am glad she stopped trying to get away EVERY time we had to change her.

I am not saying that she is ready to be toilet trained. Time will tell. But she is interested in learning about it. So, Monday I got out the box with the training potty. I figure it won’t hurt for her to become familiar with it.

I told Mar©ia that we were going to open the gift from the baby shower for her. She came over got excited and I got through the tape on the end.** She started to reach in and at first I let her. Then I noticed that it looked dingy. There was dust and scuff marks. I figured it would be no big deal if it had just been on display and I wiped that off. Then I noticed there were some other “stains” on it that took more elbow-grease to wipe away, so I left the rest. I pulled the box out of her reach and pulled out the toilet. Sure enough, there are scratches on the lid and seat where they have been worn. The paint is worn off the handle where it has been “flushed.” There are urine spots on the inner rim of the seat. There are “stains” on the underside of the seat, which I can only assume is poop. The removable bowl is grimy looking. Obviously this has been used with some kid and returned to the store, which they then put back on the shelf!***

There is no way I am letting her sit on a stranger’s pee/poop. There is no way my friend would be comfortable even knowing that this seat came used. If you are reading this story, I apologize; please do not puke on your computer. I almost did when I opened it. (Pregnancy can have that effect on a person.) We decided the thing to do is take it back to the store; we still have the gift receipt.

I called the store to explain what happened and to see if the gift receipt is still acceptable. There are no notes on the gift receipt with an expiration date, or anything to indicate there would be a problem, however it is 18 months old, so I wanted to check. The lady on the phone said that they will not take it back if it is over 90 days old. My “only option at this time is to call the company”, Fisher Price.**** I almost laughed, that is ridiculous.

I rolled my eyes and did what any other person would do, if they had the “connections,” I asked one of my friends that works at this store and is a little more in the know, and a whole lot friendlier, for advice. I explained the whole situation and she told mee how to go about it. So later after we were fairly certain it was a different service desk person, we went in and exchanged it for a new, never-been-opened-clean one. And we made sure they took note of the used-ness of it and mark it down, I hope they do not try to re-sell that thing, again. It is just nasty!

After we got it home and opened we realized that a few things were missing from the dirty one. There was no instruction manual or warranty card, the sound system (it plays songs and cheers when peed in) was missing, and the splash guard was missing (which may come in handy if our next one is a boy). It was obvious that whoever did this had had the potty for a while since they could not remember how it was packaged, they had the parts disassembled, whereas the new one came mostly assembled other than the sound system had to be attached and the back had to be inserted.

*This was a fun gift because at Girls Camp I was so grossed out by our toilet options that I took a bucket and an emergency preparedness toilet seat with bags to camp. I may have been made fun of (maybe not) but I had a clean place to sit, free of bugs, when I had to go.

**The friend that got this normally would only have purchased the perfect-never-been-opened box, but it was the only one on the shelf, and was led to believe that it was just a display model that was put back in the box and taped closed.

***What makes a person so dishonest to use a toilet, even a training kind, not clean it and then return it as if there is nothing amiss? I really do not understand. And what possesses a store to let that go back on the shelf and be resold? I know they want to make as much money as they can, but com e on have some decency! I can only assume it means they do not look over the items that are returned to make sure they are good before selling them again. (My friend that told mee how to go about the return told mee another gross story about how someone came back mad because a diaper disposal system they had purchased came with a dirty diaper already installed…that means it was on the shelf with a dirty diaper inside it! She said she wishes she could make all the returns people check over the items before they let the products go back on the shelf.)

****I have yet to understand why I would need to call Fisher Price and have them do anything with a product the store allowed to be returned, with poop and pee still on it, and returned to the shelf and re-sold. I can only imagine the person on that call telling mee that they cannot do anything about it because it was not used when shipped to the store in the first place. And I would agree. I have not called Fisher Price, I do not know how their customer service is, and they may be wonderful for all I know. I would like to believe that since they make stuff for kids.

Quick rant

So, not that I want to get negative on here or anything, but I think I will for a few minutes.

Our water bill is due the same day each month (this is not the negative part). I most of the time remember when that day comes up. Not always though, sometimes the date occurs to mee a few minutes before the office closes. Today was one of those days. We made it over in time, so no late fees charged. Yay!!!

The electric/gas bill on the other hand cannot pick a regular day to be due (this is the infuriating part). I never know what day of the month it will be from month to month, It gets moved around and on occasion has left us with the bill being due twice in one month. It does not happen often, but it has happened. I liked it when it was due about a week after the water bill was due, and I had a good shot at remembering to get them both paid on time. This last one arrived and I looked at the bill, and saw “15” of the month. Well, when it occurred to mee this afternoon that today is the 15th, I grabbed the bills and set out to pay them, only to realize that when I saw the “15” it was really a “12!” Great I get to pay a late fee, and it is no where near another bill due date for us to be able to remember to pay it on time. And, it gets even worse knowing that the bill does not get printed the same time each month, so there is no way to know that it will be arriving in the mail at a set time either.

How rude!

Not bill related, but while I am on the whining kick…. We went to St Louis a few weekends ago* and had a couple of interesting retail experiences.

The first experience: we went to the customer service counter and waited, and waited, and waited, and waited, and waited some more. Finally, we walked over to one of 4-8 employees, standing around, not helping anyone. We asked if that person would be able to help us out. She said she would page the customer service representative to the counter and told us to walk over there. We did as we were asked (told). We waited another at least five minutes, after the page was made. We saw the form sitting on the counter that we would need to fill out; we decided to be proactive and start filling out the form. We figured if it took that long just to get a person to help us, we would be sitting “forever” waiting to get the paperwork going. As I was filling in the last part of the form, we saw the customer service representative walk up to the counter. Yay, we were going to be assisted. Not! Another customer that walked in the door at the same time that the employee walked up to the counter was asked if she needed any help. (In my head: “Are you ——- kidding mee?”) CSR got on the computer and looked up some information for her and then walked away from the counter, still not acknowledging our presence, despite the page being for us and we had clearly been sitting there for quite a while, with no assistance. We almost walked out. At that time, the CSR returned to the desk and asked if we had been helped. No, that is why we were still sitting and waiting for her. She took our paperwork, typed on the computer** and got us on our way. I was a bit surprised that they had her as the CSR, not only for her inability to be helpful, but in regards to her hygiene. She had what looked like left-over chewing tobacco wedged in her teeth (she was not “chewing” at this time), and her finger nails were caked with stuff under them. I only hope it was not contagious, since she was after-all touching lots of things other people would purchase and take home. If I wasn’t ready to walk out while waiting for someone to help us, or after the CSR attended a customer that had just walked in the door instead of the people who were waiting and had had her paged (us), then the lack of cleanliness was almost enough to make mee do it. But I was feeling stubborn-ish and did not want to let my waiting be in vain.

The second experience: I was in need of locating a new brassier. I knew the size and style, I just needed to find one. Because this was a positive experience, I don’t mind telling the name of the place, the Motherhood Outlet Store. I found the item, I walked up to the cashier and she asked if I had tried it on first. I told her that I had not, since I was just at another place and found the item same style and size and tried it on, and it fit. She encouraged mee to try it on anyhow. And because we had just this summer given a seminar on fashion (of all things we could have talked about), and in the presentation we gave strong instructions to always try on clothes you will buy, I decided I should try it on. I did, and it did not fit. She told us that the clothes they have marked a specific way tend to have something wrong with them, sometimes it is a rip or a stain, and sometimes it is simply mislabeled. This time it was mislabeled, or miss-sewn, it was not a “uniform” or “symmetrical” fit. So, while we were unable to make our purchase there, we would gladly return there if the opportunity/need arose.

As we walked out of there we reflected on how the two experiences were so different, and how we would be much more inclined to return to the second store with ease, and be very hesitant to even step back into the first. We have considered, yet have not done this, writing letters to the head quarters for each of the stores telling our experiences and telling them why or why not would we be willing to return.

* I will post more about that soon-ish (I love that ending “-ish”)
** Much more better is that she mistyped part of the info, so we had to figure it out when we got home from the trip

The post you have all been waiting for (well, some of you)

Our last post indicated that we were working on securing a mortgage. We did it!!! Hooray for us!! And (finally) thank you taxes! We qualified for the first time homebuyer’s tax credit. We have a home to call our own, we are very excited about this.

Monday the 14th of June (Miss Emily’s birthday) we closed circa 2:45pm (when all was signed and done). We walked straight over to the post office to mail out our “address change” cards to many people. This is why we asked for any addresses if people wanted one…. This is what it looks like:

annhousepageone

Okay, so it looked a bit different, because on what we mailed out had our actual address. However as previously stated, we are not posting our address on here. If you need/want our address, we can email it to you, but only if you ask, otherwise we don’t know we need to get it to you, and if we do not have your address you are responsible for getting it to us.

And for those who were/are unaware that there is a second page to the card, this is what it contains (unaltered):

annhousepagetwo

So there you have it folks!!! We are very excited and (as one of us likes to put it ) “a little bit terrified.”

It was kind of a sneaky maneuver to announce our news this way. Especially since I (Marcia) went camping with our young women for the rest of the week. We acknowledge that. We had good reason for it though. Originally we had set the closing date for when I was going to be camping, as soon as we realized that, we changed it for the day before I left. We also wanted to be sure that we had everything finished with purchasing the house before we announced the pending arrival of Copyright 2010. (And just because I want to explain my taking so long in making this post) We have been packing/unpacking/moving/cleaning/etc for the last half of June, and only this morning did we finally get around to setting up my computer. There, I said it, and I feel justified! And I am pregnant, so don’t make mee cry.

? ? ? F A Q ? ? ?

We get asked many questions with both of these big events happening in our lives. We have decided to do an FAQ (frequently asked questions) list:

Q: When are you going to move?

A: We have moved all of our belongings out of the house we rented and into our new house. We had our family help us. This process was started while I was at camp. I thought that was good timing, and because I have not been too incredibly useful, I figured it would work out better if I could just pack and have as much ready before hand and let them work while I was out of town.

Q: Are you all moved in?

A: That is a tricky question. All of our stuff is in the house, however much of it is still in boxes. We have been sleeping here and unpacking. I would not say we are “moved in” yet, I am not sure what the true definition would be for us to be in that state. Though because most of the boxes are in Copyright’s room, we have to be un-packed enough by the time December comes around.

Q: When can I come see your house?

A: Never, the date is past. We held an Open “empty” House the evening we closed. So I am partly kidding about the “never” part. We will not be holding another “open house” and we do request that if people want to come see it, that they set up an appointment (I hate the Tuesdays), so as to allow us to be home, and hopefully a little more moved in. We are after all living here now. Be considerate about it.

Q: How much work do you have to do on the house? (Also stated as: now you get to have fun fixing up the house)

A: Actually we don’t have to do any work on the house other than unpacking. We did have to get a fridge, stove, washer/dryer, and that is about it. The good people we bought it from gutted the house and made it like new with new cabinets, paint, toilets, roof, plumbing, wiring, everything really! We did get to pick out the carpet for the living room and flooring for the kitchen and bathroom.

That said, there is a detached garage with apartment space above it that needs quite a bit of work before it’s really useful, so that will be fun, but it isn’t something we have to do before we can live here.

Q: Did you buy the house because you are having a baby?

A: No we are having a baby because we now have a house. Joking. We pretty much decided to buy the house before we knew about being pregnant. This is a house we saw about a year and a half ago when it was in foreclosure, we loved it, we talked to the bank about making an offer. Then we were told some one else made an offer and that offer was accepted. Some months later (just over a year ago) we were presented with the opportunity to buy the same house, and it had been “gutted” and was in progress of being fixed up (when it was in foreclosure, the people trashed the house, on top of apparently not taking good care of it at all anyhow). We thought it over and agonized and had to turn down that offer. We did not feel like we could live in a “construction zone.” Earlier this year as Jacob was at the university in his office, he had a visitor and we were again offered the house, this time all the work would be finished and it would be move-in ready. We verbally expressed interest February, talked over details in March, signed a contract in April, and closed in June. We knew about the baby in March and test confirmed in April.

Q: I thought you never wanted to have children. (not really a question, and mostly directed at Jacob)

A: All bark and no bite. He claimed that until it happened he reserved the right to say that. In reality, we are very excited. And of course there is a bit of anxiety in the unknown. Will our baby be cute? Who will the baby look like? When do they toilet train? They don’t already know how to tie shoes? Things like that. However any person that said that to mee, doesn’t really know mee.

Q: When is the due date?

A: December 2010. Doctor’s office says the 7^th based on LMP. I say the 6^th based on ovulation.

Q: Is that a really sonogram or is it photoshopped?

A: It is really a picture from my uterus. Should it really be called a picture, it is an image created by sound waves aimed at my uterus.

Q: Are you having a boy or a girl?

A: We don’t know for sure. Based on biology and time and the moon and the stars aligning and the atmospheric pressure we suspect it will be a girl. However we have to wait about ten more weeks before my doctor will check it out.

Q: What do you want to have? (generally this immediately follows the last question)

A: A healthy human baby. I know they mean sex of the baby. Really though, I will be happy as long as everything goes well. I would love a son or a daughter. I would definitely be disappointed if it was not human.

Q: Do you want to find out the sex of the baby? (a number of people say gender, however there is a very important difference in the words, and for some odd reason it falls under my pet peeves category-sex is male or female, gender is masculine or feminine)

A: I would be okay with either knowing or being surprised, a surprise could be fun, though so could knowing and planning. Jacob wants to know. We will find out if we can. We really are planners and like to be prepared.

Q: Have you been sick at all? (directed at mee since no one suspected, except in hindsight, and we only told doctors and we were surprised at how people had finally stopped asking when we were going to have a baby)

A: Jacob responds with, “Have you not been sick at all?” I have had lots of not feeling well. I did really well with not vomiting, though there was lots of nausea, still is some, though not as constant. Then I got a sinus infection, drainage started and the vomiting commenced. I could probably win a contest for puking on command. Is there a super hero yet?

Q: Have you had any cravings?

A: Hmmm, cravings…. Not too many cravings. Mostly I have aversions. Sugar is the biggest offender at this time, unless it is counter balanced with other healthier foods. I can’t eat lettuce, and the vinegar in most condiments gives me issue. Yesterday I really wanted garlic bread, it was delicious to mee. One day I wanted potato chips (I don’t like potato chips, I like corn chips) in three flavors BBQ, Cheddar, French Onion; I did not get them, but I could taste them in my mind, and I wanted them. Early on I had a strong craving for Chef Boyardee canned ravioli; that stuff is nasty and I refused to listen to that craving.

Q: Are you (or “you are”) going to have fun shopping for maternity clothes?

A: If I liked shopping maybe that would be appealing. However I am short and it has never been fun to shop for clothes, for mee. Also, last year I lost over 60 pounds, and I did not get rid of those clothes (I know you are never supposed to keep “fat clothes” but I did). And there were some of those clothes that I like, and frankly I don’t want to spend money on temporary clothes. And there is the fact that we now have a mortgage to pay, and I don’t think there is a shopping spree in the future of our budget.

If we remember (or any other questions start to come up) other questions we get asked we will answer them.

We are so excited

So, yesterday was a big day for us. We were able to secure more “stuff” aka paperwork, exchange money for goods, etc. in order to be able to own a mortgage. Yay for us!

We (Jacob joined mee last night) went to Wally World again and obtained two more carts full of boxes. We went some time after midnight, and the really good boxes appear for availability around 1a.m. (so I guess it could be considered this morning).

We have been married for just over three and a half years, and have many times tried to set a scripture study habit. We have tried to read from front to back, to have a different topic each day of the week, to do some other things that did not prove to be keep-ables. However yesterday, we finished reading the Book of Mormon, in its entirety, together!!! The strategy this time, was that I wrote (actually I typed it on the computer and printed it out) each chapter and had them in a jar, that we have been drawing at random for each day, sometimes more than one chapter if it happens to be quite short. Honestly, it has been very fun to go about it this way. We already have studied all the stories in there through out our lives, and so as we have been reading this way we end up jumping all over the place. This keeps all the stories fresher in our minds. And as an added bonus, we had the privilege a few weeks ago to attend the annual Seminary Vs Bishopric Scripture Bowl. There is a Jeopardy style portion and a match the scripture with the content portion (for the first time in 10 or so years, the bishopric beat the youth in the jeopardy portion, though they youth won big time with the memory portion). Anydangways, the point of telling about that event is that as we watched them, it seemed as though we had “just read that story” about each of the stories! It was a really nice feeling.

And totally not from yesterday, but a few weeks ago…. A bit of back story. We have two cars. We only drive one car. We have had the other car on the donut for a number of months, because we needed to buy a new tire. Then another tire when flat. And the battery probably needs replacing. And some other thing that makes us “afraid” to drive it out of town, or over 35-40 mph else-ways a couple wheels may fall off. So, it is sitting on the donut, and the wheel with the flat tire that needs replacing, has been leaning upside the porch. One day I went out to do something, and noticed that it was gone, and there was no plant life growing in its place just yet, so it was a fresh disappearance. This morning I wanted to use my hand trowel thing, and it was no where to be seen. I had suspected it missing when the wheel went, though I did not look for it until today when I wanted to use it. Now we are left with two questions: How do we (or even just “do we”) buy a new wheel? and Who steals a wheel and a trowel? All I can figure is that some one must have had a greater need for it than us. And If you see a new plant display in a Honda wheel…well, if I see one, I will laugh. I think we have been laughing about it too much to find a way to be upset over it.

I got a new bracelet

And boy am I glad we pay for mee to have nice insurance. (I would like to not have to pay so much, but still glad we can have it.) Playing volleyball tonight I happened to attract the volleyball with the left side of my jaw. I seem to attract the ball to my self often. Just like any other time, I thought I was fine. Then I opened my mouth and tried to close it again. I was wrong. The right side of my jaw was bad. Very tearful. I waited till our next between plays and “sneaked” out of the game. My plan was to get a drink of water and cry in solitude till the pain subsided. And with my luck, in walks our friendly doctor friend who asked how I was, and what I was feeling. He called over to the ER for advice and suggested we (Jacob and I) go over. So, over we went. They had mee sit in a room and answer health history questions, and then after about half an hour sent me to get an x-ray of my head to check for broken bones or dislocated jaw. After 20 more minutes they came back and told me I am not broken, just bruised. That I need to take Tylenol, keep ice on my jaw, and stay away from chewy foods for a couple/few days till I am not hurting anymore, also to lay off volleyball for a while. And of course if my jaw gets more painful or if I start to swell, or anything else really bad, to call and follow-up, either there or to my dentist. The worst part of it all was when they would ask mee “On a scale of 0-10 how bad does it hurt?” I did not know what to answer, and there were no charts around telling mee what the varying numbers meant. At least not until after they had already taken all my info and had mee sitting and waiting for x-ray. They need to make more (and bigger) copies of that chart and have them all over the place. Or perhaps make wallpaper that is just the pain-ranking-chart repeated. That would be helpful!

It has been replaced

Anybody remember this post? Well, I do, every time I want to do laundry.

Last week for Family Home Evening we ate at a place that we like, we may even love it (though we do not call it home, so it should have been called Family out evening). After we ate we decided to walk around a nearby store and see what we could see. Not really interested in spending any monies, we just wanted to walk off some of what we had eaten. Out of the blue, Jacob was pointing and telling mee to “Look!” It was the basket that I have not been able to find in this town for over a year. We bought two. And sooner rather than later they will be marked with our name so that if any leave our house for some reason, they will be able to come back home.

We still are not sure how the old basket walked off, or why, but we have replaced it. However, if it returns to us, we will welcome it into our home again, just as before. No questions asked, at least not too many questions asked.

Mother Nature is trying to make amends with mee

She was so unkind to me temperature-wise for so long. Today, though, was beautiful. It started with walking in the cold-cold to me, to most it was probably bearable. Then while Jacob was teaching, I worked on a Scripture Mastery project. And for our Family Home Evening we grilled hamburgers outside and pick-nicked in our yard. We listened to the Junior High track meet. Way to go Daniel D! Jacob said he heard that you placed. It was nice, until the sun went down and I started getting goose-bumps.

And because there has only been one guess on the quiz from last week, I am leaving it up for one more week.

Oh, I also wanted to share a lesson in keeping the Sabbath day Holy. Yesterday as we were leaving church the gas tank light came on. We decided that instead of purchasing more gas on Sunday we would hold out and trust we would be blessed for it. Even though Jacob had a home teaching appointment to drive to last evening. And I would need to drive across town early this morning before I could get gas. So after I did my walking thing this morning I went to start the car and it hesitated, but still got me over to Hy-Vee so that I could pay the electric bill and get a 15 cents/gallon off of my gas purchase. And then I was almost unable to start the car again to get to a gas pump, it was on what fumes were barely there still, but it made it to the pump, and I was able to fill up at $2.74/gallon. That is the best we have paid for gas in a long time.

This is not fair

So last spring/summer we had the back door open for fresh air, a lot. A mouse came in, so we got traps and caught it in just a couple days.

This fall another mouse dared to enter the house. We set the traps again, and it was caught with-in the hour of setting.

We had one still set along the wall, just waiting in hopes that we would not catch another.

We went out of town for a week, and the trap was empty.

The temperatures dropped, a mouse came in for a snack. It died.

We went to pick up more traps (because even though it says reusable, let’s be honest here, I am not un-clipping the mouse and using that nasty thing again!) just in case we need them. The temperature outside keeps dropping, and I don’t want to be outside!

The price of the traps this time was $6.88, I think-once I find the receipt I will know for sure. This evening we were at the store getting other supplies in that area of the store, and passed the traps display, and this is what I saw:

IMG00315mouse traps

It is the original price again. It makes me so stinking mad!!!!!

We figure that because the outside temperatures dropped, many people were having trouble with the mice coming in, and the store (or rather the people who run it) decided that they might as well make extra money off the people who already have enough problems in their lives. And now that the traps are in less of a demand, the price has dropped back to the original rate.

Now, if I can just think of how to make this work to my advantage…. Any ideas?

Category: Money