Tell me how I'm supposed to breathe with no air

This is the tune I've been singing to myself for a week. That's right. A week. It took about 5 seconds after getting home from work Monday to realize that somehing was very wrong with our air conditioner. But yet it has been over a week and still no air.

Here is the short of it....we have a home warranty which is great until you have something that needs to be fixed pronto. They don't do pronto. But the upside is that with them you pay a flat $50 deductible everytime something happens. The alternative was to buy ourselves a new unit at the going rate of $4600. So you can see the motivation we had to wait for our air.

The warranty company picks the people to come and do the work. Well, the person they picked took about 30 seconds to tell us it had been struck by lightning. Shawn and I took that at face value because what do we know about air conditioners??? After telling people at work the diagnosis they started saying...that does not sound right. Get a second opinion. So we did. The 2nd opinion stated that it was out due to wear and tear. Right.

Warranty company will not pay for storm damage or "acts of God"
Homeowners insurance will not pay for wear and tear

So we have two diagnoses and two companies that we pay to insure our house. This should be easy right??? Wrong.

Homeowners still has a $1k deductible and will not cover wear and tear. Even though company #1 says lightning we are pretty sure that they do not know what they were talking about (apparently this air man was a professional photographer very recently and has done just about everything under the sun....none of which he was good at). So when the homeowners insurance sends out their adjustor they will quickly realize that it was not lightning and therefore will cover nothing.

So our best option is the warranty company. Know that we are not trying to beat the system. I can't help it that the warranty company deals with sketch people who just wanted me to pay them cash for a new unit.

So we have been battling Warrantech for over a week at this point. Shawn figured that we have logged about 40 calls with them. We have been nice and ugly. At one point I told a girl that I refused to get off the phone until I had an answer....so we just sat there for a while. And I have been drafting a letter in my head that I will send to the president of the company.

I should note this....our upstairs does have a separate unit. But I don't like to point that out b/c it makes my complaints not seem as valid. But they are valid b/c upstairs is just a bedroom. There is no kitchen, living space, or any of Olivia's stuff. But I told Shawn that we should be grateful that we have that...a lot of people wouldn't. Shawn and I debated calling again at lunch to check the status of the parts that sketch repairman is waiting shipment on. But we decided we didn't want to set ourselves up for dissapointment and have prepared ourselves that for the 9th night in a row we will not have air.

How much does it cost to go to the lake???

An extra $100 if you are part of our crew and didn't realize that the KY Lake is so shallow in some areas that your pontoon will drag bottom. And then the nasty marina man had the nerve to insinuate that we "should have known" that every cove you enter coming from the north has a sandbar. Really?? Really???? I am sorry Mr. Marina Man but where we come from in Arkansas the lakes are several hundred feet deep. Ok. Rant is over. There is a rental pontoon with a brand new prop and I'm sure we are better for it. Whew....glad I got that off of my chest:)

But yes, outside of the extra dough we had a fabulous time on the lake! Both of my brothers came for a visit along with my brother Philip's girlfriend Shellie. All of us plus a couple of friends from work and we were set.

Most things these days are adventures b/c it is usually Olivia's first time for everything...lake included. So there is always the tiny bit of me thinking....I hope she does ok with this. No one wants to be stuck on a boat in the lake with a miserable baby...myself included! But she was great and seemed to really like it. There was one minor glitch of a forgotten binky, but that was taken care of by Shawn (who was I think secretly terrified at being on the lake without the binky). So we made our slow way back through the no-wake zone to dock and get binky (I think it might be a harder day for him than it will be her when the binky goes away).
One thing that goes along with our boat draggin bottom in the shallow lake is that feet also drag bottom when you get in to swim. I swim in lakes fairly often but for some reason had the creepers this time about all the possibilities of what could be in there. I resolved to never let my feet touch the bottom and made one incredibly inappropriate comment about the possibility of bodies being at the bottom. I meant it with all reverence and just did not want to come across one with my feet.

Big thrill of the afternoon? A leech. On our boat.

Before moving to KY I had never encountered wildlife like I have here. And I'm going to put the leech in the category with wildlife for right now.
It was disgusting. And somehow Philip convinced Shellie it would be a good idea to put it on her finger and let it attach. Bless her, I don't know how she will recover. Nevertheless, we threw the leech back in the water and all checked our privates when we got home to make sure we had not acquired any more unwanted wildlife.

I think it's ironic that even people who are clean and try to (in general) avoid germs will jump into the lake like it's a chlorinated pool (and I myself fall into this category). I mean this is basically a big bathtub full of thousands of people's germs as well as scary wildlife. One of my brothers tried to defend the lake water by pointing out...doesn't it all flow into a river and therefore cycle out the dirty water? Not fast enough my friend, not fast enough.




We are fixing to leave the house. We have packed everything but the kitchen sink. And we have one very excited duck on our hands.

Prior to the realization of missing binky/past naptime saga.

Stephen, Philip and Shellie. Prior to the leech incident otherwise Shellie would not be smiling.

And she is asleep....

We think we are alone in the water....

Until this...

And this....

This picture is a tribute to the missing sibling Kathryn. Please know Kat that our empty arms and bunny ears means we missed you bad:)

Happy birthday Shawn!!!

Happy Birthday Shawn!!!!!

You are an unbelievable father and husband and we love you soooooo much! Have a great day....and don't worry...34 is like the new 26:)

Florida....very long post:)

So I have been a bad blogger.

At least that's what my dad informed me when he pointed out that I had not posted Florida pictures yet (apparently on my last post I promised that I would post Florida pictures very soon for the grandparents). Since that post both grandparents have seen the Florida pics in person....but I will carry out and post anyway.

Quick update....lots has happened since my last post. Our computer has crashed and we are on to a new one (which mostly accounts for the delay in my posts) and we are now the proud owners of a computer complete with Windows Vista...I swear I'm about to jump on the Mac bandwagon, the "king of pop" has passed, Governor Sanford has apparently found his "soul mate" in Argentina...but don't worry, he promised to try and fall back in love with his wife, my position at the university has come to close and I am now a (tempory) stay-at-home mom.

On to Florida....

I now know the moment of panic that every parent feels when their child begins to cry on a flight. On the return flight from Florida we had not even taken off when Olivia started really letting loose with her cries. She was hungry. And sometimes I want to cry too when I'm hungry. Fortunately for us she ate and then fell asleep about 10 minutes in and slept for the rest of it. I asked my brother Stephen what he would have done if she had screamed nonstop for the whole trip. He said that he would calmly get his ipod out and listen to it as loud as he could. Thank you for your support and help Uncle Steve. My main concern with flying was that it would hurt her ears. And not for a second did she act like anything was bothering her. I did force either the pacifier or bottle in her mouth though the whole time we were going up and again when we came back down.


Welcome to Disney World Stephen...we are so glad you are excited to be here!

Olivia, on the other hand, is thrilled to be here. It makes no difference to her that we only slept for about 5 hours...she is ready to go.

She is soooo excited about Animal Kingdom! Please note the disney themed onesie and hairbow.

Not loving Animal Kingdom.

And she's back. She remembered that Disney is the happiest place on earth.

Best part about our hotel? You can "check out" a goldfish for the night. True story.

The one requirement for your checked out fish was that they must be taken downstairs at 11am and 7pm for feedings. I wonder how many goldfish don't make it back to that counter? And would I have been liable if something had happened to it?

Family self portrait take 1...

And 2....

And we're done...

Even at Olivia's young age we have committed to not be the parents who buy anything in sight and whatever their child demands. But you need to know that her eyes lit up when she saw baby Simba. She squealed, smiled and Simba provided us with quite a break.

So this was technically taken after the trip. But look....her first pair of shoes!!!


I will say that vacationing will never be the same as it used to be. It's amazing what a difference a tiny 14lb little girl can make! So yes, it was different. But not bad. We were so glad to have Stephen with us. He is a brave soul to travel with all of us...and he even acted like he had fun:)

So for those of you that might be considering traveling with a small one....here are some tips for you...

1. FYI....even though children need sunscreen...be aware that they might rub it into their sensitive eyes. Here is an example....the first day when we were heading to the pool I coated Olivia down with sunscreen. I mean I covered her naked body with it so that even if her little swimsuit were to move then the sun could still not burn her. In doing that I also covered her face and hands. Well, by the time I get to the lobby with her to meet Shawn and Stephen she has red splotches all over her face and her right eye was almost completely closed and watering terribly. OH I panicked!!! I ran back up to the room with her and washed her face and hands with a washcloth and it almost immediately went away. She was not the least bit bothered by this. But I felt absolutely horrible.

2. No matter how late babies go to bed...they somehow still wake up at the same time in the morning. For example, we tragically did not get to our hotel the first night until 1am. I naively thought she would just sleep the whole time we were traveling and then we would just transition her into bed at the hotel. No. She was up. But the best part is.....she was STILL awake the next morning at like 6am

3. Small children may not share your thrill at all times for Disney World, the pool, ocean, etc.

We had a great time though! We completely messed up any routine that she had and she kept her game face on (for the most part). And while she was a good little flier. I will admit that it made both Shawn and I wonder if we had been a little ambitious in our Europe trip. So we might be cutting out one of the places we were planning to go while we are there.

Show us where you live Friday!

Grandparents.....I will be posting soon about our Florida trip!

So Kelly at Kelly's Korner is doing Show Us Where You Live Friday again. Today's room is Laundry Room/Playroom/Bonus Room....whichever you choose. Unfortunately our laundry "room" is actually a laundry closet. If we ever build I will have the biggest laundry room ever in it:) We have no playroom yet...although technically every room in our house seems to be a playroom and is covered with Olivia's "play gear". So I opted to showcase the bonus room. When we bought this house a few months ago this is the ONLY room that we did not paint...or do much of anything to. But we have really enjoyed it. It's upstairs and has been perfect for my parents/in-laws/and anyone else that comes to visit. There is a full bathroom and a ton of closet space. So when we do have guests we don't have to trip over each other and they don't have to be bothered by my precious child if she were to happen to wake up during the night....which she would never do:)


This is our bonus room and what you see when you come off the stairwell. I laugh now b/c when Shawn and I first saw the headboard on this bed and the nightstand sitting at a sidewalk sale that Pier One was having....we frantically called my mom asking if $125 for both pieces was good. Ha! It was our first furniture purchase together right before we got married. The rug came from Urban Outfitters and is much cuter up close.

This is a random little shelf I refinished and stuck random things on. Told ya we didn't do much up here!
TV corner. The nesting tables it is sitting on are great and I got them for $10!!!

This is the hallway area that leads to the bathroom and the doors off of it are huge storage closets that we love!!!
Bathroom...nothing special...but it works! And is great for our guests!!!

After doing this post I've decided I might put a little more effort in this area of our house:)

Florida Bound!!!

I opted out of Kelly's home tour today b/c the room for today was....bathrooms. And I decided that my bathrooms are not worth posting:)

But the great news of the days is we are Florida bound after work!!! You would literally think we have never been anywhere by our excitement. But since I got pregnant last May and we decided in July to move...there has not been much time for travels. So needless to say we are very excited. It's also Olivia's first plane ride...we wanted to break her in gently before taking her to Europe in July:) Here's hoping that she loves to fly!

I hope everyone has a great weekend. And we will have lots of pics to post after our trip.


This one is kindov blurry b/c I took it with my phone. She is definitely in the grabbing, touching, eating your face stage!

I

Travelling + Baby = LOTS OF BABY GEAR

OK. So I knew when we had our baby that it would mean additional tacky...I mean sweet....stuff all over our house. I knew it would mean car seats, bouncer, swing, bumbo seat, bassinet, extra laundry, etc, etc. And I admit that it has even exceeded my expectations. What I didn't think about was the travelling. As you know we are travelers. We love to travel and knew we would introduce baby O to it very soon in her life. We are starting small by taking a trip to Orlando later this week. We got super cheap tickets on Southwest. And we are flying direct from Nashville to Orlando. So even with the worst case scenario....it will only be an hour and a half in the air. But as I started organizing this trip in my head last week I realize....even with all of the baby stuff we have laying around the house....it's not enough!!! We needed a bag for our stroller, a bag for the car seat so we can check it, an umbrella stroller, a parasol for her umbrella stroller....you like how I threw that last one in? That was definitely optional. I will discuss this more below. So I frantically get on babiesrus.com (thankfully I still had gift cards from baby presents) and start ordering. The thing that bothers me about this is that Shawn and I are minimalists when it comes to travelling. We haven't even checked a bag in a couple of years. I'm thinking those days might be coming to a close:)

So nevertheless...I have ordered baby gear, planned out feeding on the plane in my head, and think we are ready to go!!!

Back to the parasol....I got a really great Maclaren umbrella stroller at a place called Surplus City. Maclaren strollers are great and REALLY expensive. Let's just say I got this one for very cheap. So I got on their website to look at stroller accessories and what do I see???? Baby parasols for the stroller! I got very excited and decided I def needed one but postponed buying it for a few days. So when I actually go to buy it I guess every other mom in the US did too. They were all back ordered and out of stock. I panicked. You know how you want something...but then when it becomes almost unachievable you want it even more??? That is what happened. Here's how bad it was. I frantically leave work and run home to get a better look at the colors on the stroller b/c I found one parasol that was in stock. It was in crimson and I needed to make sure it would match. Now let me tell you that just the week before I had completely reprimanded my sister for wanting to leave work early b/c she was panicked about trying to buy a dress that was flying off the racks. And now I have done the same thing. So I ordered the crimson. Only to get an email from the company that night saying...."We are sorry but we are out of crimson. However, we have black if you would like to order that." Are you kidding me? Of course I want black. It's basic and will match anything. Why was that not an option in the first place!?!

And there is some logic to the parasol. We have opted to go to Orlando/Disney World in the middle of June. We may be crazy but that is the choice we have made. If I think that the sun is getting to her or she is too hot it will be a miserable day. So I'm hoping the parasol will solve that problem....and it's cute.

Oh, one more crazy thing I have done. I have craftily "made" (actually my mother-in-law did) a onesie into a Disney world outfit and am having a bow made to match. What is wrong with me and how did this happen???? Just kidding...I love it all!

Happy travels this summer!!!