Friday's Fabulous Five

1. PERSISTENCE!!! 

Holy crap! I have just spent the last FORTY-SEVEN minutes on the phone with the bank, talking to FOUR different people about charges on my account THAT SHOULDN'T HAVE BEEN THERE! And I'm not talking about like 25 dollars - I'm talking about $225.50! What the ---???!!! All three of the first people I talked to tried to say, "Well, that's because of this and that." I'd ask them, "Well, what happened to the money I deposited?" or some such. "Ummm. Can you hold for a minute? I'm going to transfer you." Get transferred to the next person, only to have to repeat the entire problem OVER AGAIN. The second to last person, I got so fed up that I was literally YELLING at her for about 3 minutes as she told me that she could only refund $35! Having her go through each line of my account --- as she is telling me that after transferring $831 in that account and a $8.03 transaction, there is only $51.04 available. UUUuuuurrrrrrgggggg. I was mad. The next guy I talk to, I tell him the exact same thing that I have talked to the last THREE people about and he immediately says, "Oh, I see what your talking about. Let me take a look at that . . . . Oh, I'll take care of that for you." 

I have learned a valuable lesson today. Key Bank has at least 4 tiers of customer service. The bottom three are filled with incapable, non-problem-solving, irrational, retards. Also if you need anything, keep yelling. There are tricky ways that banks manage to make money - which have nothing to do with investing and such. Many companies I have dealt with over the past 9 years of growing up have taught me that the best money maker in these companies is inconvenience and hassle for customers.

So today, I am thankful for persistence. If I had believed the first three people that tried to tell me it was MY oversight, I would have just handed over $225.50 of my money to said retards.

2. Second fabulous thing today is the blessing of tough love. (This is related to number one.) Whenever I have an experience like I had today - the kind where you are pretty sure that the person on the other end of the line is either knowingly screwing you out of your money (and therefore a thief) or they are not mentally capable of holding the job they have - I am reminded of an experience I had about eight years ago. There had been some unexplained charges on my Zion's bank account and thus I'd overdrafted my account, assuming the money was there. I had called my mom, crying, after I had realized what had happened, asking her what I should do and telling her to help me get it fixed. Now, all of these charges were a really big deal for a college student living off of about $25 dollars a month! I was really worried and didn't know what to do. My mom told me that it was my account and I was going to have to learn how to grow up and take care of it. I argued with her for about 5 minutes about how I didn't know what to do and I didn't know what to say, crying all the time. She just said, "I'm sorry. But it's time to grow up." Growing up wasn't the easiest process for me and I didn't like the prospect of having to be assertive with someone I didn't know. All in all, I learned to take care of it myself - thanks to a loving mother who knew the value of pushing me from the nest. Thanks Mom! Without you, I never would have learned to take care of myself, or anyone else, for that matter!

3. I have successfully completed two of my three nightgowns and they are ADORABLE!!! Do you want to see? Of course you do!!! So I'll show you . . . just kidding, I have to finish the ruffle on Hazel's first. I should be able to post a picture by tonight. I don't think that the dresses are going to happen --- but I keep dreaming, because they would look so beautiful on Sunday morning!!! :)

4. My baby! She is the cutest little thing that ever lived! (With the exception of my other 2 babies!) She LOVES to take baths! Ever since she learned to sit anyway, she has loved taking baths. Over the past two weeks or so she has run into a dilemma, however. What happens when you sit in the bath? You get wrinkly hands, right? Well, she HATES wrinkly hands. As soon as they get pruney I see her start looking funny at her hands, rubbing her fingers together. She then starts trying to wipe them off, splashing all over. She then starts alternately rubbing her fingers together again and holding them up for me to see saying, "Owey. Owey." I laugh and she goes back to playing again for about a minute and then repeats this little ritual of trying to viciously wipe off the wrinkles. It makes me laugh so much! 

As she got out of the bath, I wrapped her in her hooded towel, she reaches up and says, "Hat!" As I got her dressed, putting her arms in her sleeves, she said, "Om. Om." (arm) She is such a sweet little talker! She makes me SO happy! I LOVE being a mom to all my sweet little ladies!

5. I have an incredible husband!!! He works so hard for us! The past month he has been so insanely busy - often staying at work until 3:00 in the morning - all to earn more money for our little family. I love him so much and I appreciate the sacrifices that he is willing to make so that I can stay home with our girls! He is my best friend!