Working

Dave says to Christopher, "Hey, when are you going to start working to make money?"

Christopher responds, "When you start working, Daddy!"

DON'T FLY DELTA!!! or American either

Okay, so this might end up being a lengthy post, but I am seriously ticked!  Here's my sad, sad story right from the beginning.  Last summer my mom's family had a family reunion planned up in Canada, where she was born and raised.  It was held at my grandpa's house, and all my aunts and uncles and their families were coming.  I was so excited to see everyone, and for Christopher to meet more of his extended family.  Plus, to make things even better, my grandpa lives on a farm.  Every little boy's dream!  Haystacks to climb, corn rows to play hide and seek in, a tree house to make forts in, a scary garage, and tons of cousins (I guess they'd be second cousins, or first cousins once removed or whatever - if anyone knows how that goes, let me know! i can never remember) to play with.  I was stoked!  But, if you haven't already guessed, we didn't get to go.

We needed to be in Utah for a funeral right when we were supposed to be leaving for our trip.  I was bummed, but knew we needed to be in Utah instead of Canada.  As we thought about it, though, we thought we might be able to make it to both.  Our flight from DFW had a layover in Salt Lake, where it headed on to Great Falls (we were going to rent a car and drive across the border).  We thought, hey, what if we just caught our connecting flight in SLC, since we'll already be there?  We called up Delta.  That's where we went wrong.

Apparently, if we wanted a flight from SLC to Great Falls, we would have to pay somewhere around $2,000 for the tickets.  Can you believe that??  We asked for customer service, and tried to explain the situation.  The lady explained that we can't just catch the connecting flight, but would have to purchase entirely new tickets, which would be significantly more expensive - even though it would be a much shorter distance to travel.  We explained that there was a death in the family, and asked what she could do to help us.  NOTHING!!  Why, I asked her, does Delta have customer service reps if they can't do anything more than the regular people on the phone?  Why did I have to get transferred five hundred and sixty six times (okay, maybe more like 10...) for you to tell me the exact same thing that 10 other people have already said??  Why is it that you would tell us to contact Delta headquarters when you know it's Friday night, and no one is there, AND we have to leave on Monday!  You know no one will be in before we need to leave!!  Do you know what she said?  "I'm sorry ma'am, I'm just following protocol." Arghhh!  Shouldn't there be protocol for such circumstances as these?  Apparently not.  So, we kept the credit from the tickets we had already paid for.  Our consolation prize was that, when we used the money in the future, we wouldn't have to pay the $50 re-booking fee.  Whoo-hoo (note the sarcasm).  We were ticked, but got over it.  Our lives went on.  Until a couple of days ago.

David has a friend's wedding to go to in May.  Time to fly again!  Christopher, Naomi, and I went up to my parent's house last September, and used up the money from our Canada tickets on that trip.  Dave still hadn't used his money, and he had to use it by May, or else it would disappear.  So, I got online and found a good flight to and one from Utah.  Then, with apprehension, called Delta.  They informed me that if I booked on the phone I would be charged a $25 fee, so I should pay online.  I made sure I could apply the credit from the previous flight, then went to book his tickets.  As I navigated through the site, I remembered why I hadn't done it this way in the first place.  Delta's site has never been able to pull up etickets for me.  So, after trying for 30 minutes, I call Delta back.  Here's where it gets funny.  Delta's has a voice recognition system, which sounds like it would be nice.  Unfortunately the system is not programmed to understand your selection with children screaming in the background.  Think overly cheerful female voice, "I'm sorry.  I did not understand your selection.  Please try again".  Finally I get someone to talk to, but I can't understand him!  His accent was so thick, that I really and truly could not understand anything he was saying to me.  Now, I have nothing against immigrants (I married one, for crying out loud!), but if an English-speaking person can't understand you, then maybe a career in which your main responsibility is helping people on the phone isn't for you!  Just a thought... He finally transferred me to tech support.  They tried finding Dave's ticket with his eticket number, and couldn't.  So, they transferred me to customer service.  They informed me that they could book my tickets for me, but that there would be a $30 service fee.  I briefly explained the situation, and she said she was just following policy.  That sounded eerily familiar, so I asked to speak to someone who could actually help me.  (that's really what I said - I was really fed up at this point).  Her supervisor gave me the same spiel everyone else had.  I gave her an earful, and finally just gave in and booked the tickets.  And the worst part?  They wouldn't take the $30 out of the ticket (the original were more expensive than just the trip Dave's taking to Utah, so there was still money left over).  I had to give them my credit card number so they could charge it!  I told the customer service lady that for $30 she could loose me as a customer forever, and that I would tell everyone I know to NEVER fly Delta, OR, Delta could be kind, pay a measly $30 to keep me happy, and things would be just dandy.  Can you guess what she said?  I'll tell you.  "I'm sorry ma'am.  I'm just following policy."  So, here's what I say, "DON'T FLY DELTA!!"

Was that long enough for ya?  Here's some more if you're still reading... Don't fly American either!  I'll start with our first bad experience with American.  We were living in the San Jose area (California), and flying up to visit my parents in Washington for Christmas.  For some reason (I can't remember if it was work, or just that the tickets were cheaper), we were flying out early Christmas Eve morning.  We left our apartment at 5:00 a.m., or so, and arrived at the airport at 6:00 a.m.  Our friend dropped us off, and we went to check in.  The guy couldn't find our flight at first, and then announced to us that it was actually taking off as we spoke.  Ahhh!!  The flight had changed from 7:30 a.m. or so, to 6:00 a.m. without telling us! I guess that's a good reason to check the flight before you go, but still, we wouldn't have been able to get to the airport on time if we had checked it that morning.  We set the alarm with the right amount of time to get there by 6, not 5.  We had even checked the night before!  So, we got on standby.  Missed the next flight, and the next.  Finally by the third standby flight we got on.  Keep in mind that Christopher was 15 months old and still taking two naps, and he couldn't ever sleep anywhere other than his crib.  So, we had gotten him up and left the house at 5, and by about 1:00 in the afternoon, we were finally getting on a flight.  On Christmas Eve.  The flight itself was about four hours, and we had already used up most of our new toys and games, and he was tired.  After the flight, we got our bags (thankfully nothing wrong there!), and my dad picked us up for the two hour drive from SeaTac to my parent's house in Bellingham area.  As you can imagine, we were pretty wasted that night.  Atleast we made it there for Christmas, right? :)

The next American fiasco was when my parents came down to visit last year when Naomi was born.  They were stuck here for about 3 days because of flights getting cancelled.  I don't remember exactly how it all went, so Mom, you'll have to post a comment about that one.  Crazy, though.  I think Dave drove to and from the DFW airport 3 or 4 times (he was pretty sick of that drive).

The most recent American fun, was with Dave's parents who came to visit this last week.  They were supposed to come on Friday, but their flight was cancelled because of all American's safety issues they had going on.  Come on, people!  The Willsons ended up coming on Sunday.

So, those are my crazy airline stories.  I feel better now, after venting. :)  If you're still reading, what horrible airline stories do you have?  

Tornado Alley

I guess it's kind of ironic that my last post was about loving thunderstorms, and last night we got woken up to the tornado sirens at 4 a.m.  Nice!  We actually woke up to the crazy storm a little while before the sirens actually went off.  So, that's a good thing that we weren't startled out of sleep by the siren.  Maybe we're bad parents, but we didn't get the kids up out of bed.  We looked at the doppler and turned on the tv to the news.  The warning actually expired about 5 minutes after the sirens went off, so I'm glad I didn't wake up the kids.  I was very glad that we don't have any trees near the upstairs windows (or the downstairs ones for that matter), or we might have had branches through them.  We didn't even lose power, but I know a lot of neighborhoods did.  The town just south of had some really bad damage.   Check out the Bergen's blog (a friend of a friend) to see pictures.  So, I'm grateful we are all safe and sound, even if we did loose a little bit of sleep. :)

Thoughts on Thunder Storms

Last night we had a pretty good thunder storm going.  There were even a couple of claps that shook our windows pretty good.  I love a good thunderstorm - especially since the kids sleep right through them!  My favorite part is falling asleep to the sound of the rain falling on the roof.  Ahhh...how peaceful and relaxing!  I started thinking (dangerous, I know), and realized that, although Dave has deepened my love for a good storm with his enthusiasm, I have always loved them.  

I grew up in Eastern Washington, which is in the rain shadow of the Cascade mountains, meaning that we didn't get a whole lot of precipitation, at all.  See all the brown on the map?  I was down in the southeast corner, next to the Oregon border and Columbia River, if you know the area at all.  I grew up in a hot desert, a lot like here, except without the humidity.  Dry, hot, hot summers, windy, windy spring and fall, and cold, dry winters.  So, whenever we would get a storm in, my brothers and I would kneel up against the back of the sofa, and look out the big, 

picture windows.  We would sit mesmerized by the rain and lightening.  We would count the seconds in between the lightening strikes and the thunder, and try and guess how far away it was.  We would also remember the stories about how my grandma has been struck by lightening (not directly, I think) three times.  She's alive and healthy, but now, whenever a storm rolls in, she turns off all the electricity and stays away from the windows. :)  From what I remember, as a little girl, she was standing under a tree that was struck, then doing dishes when lightening hit a telephone pole or something and arced into the dishwater.  I can't remember the third one at the moment.  Crazy, though, eh?

So, my love for a good spring or summer storm has deep roots in my childhood.  I'm glad that here we get the chance to experience the beautiful sound of rain on the roof at night.  Even if it does mean we have to be prepared for a tornado. :)

First Steps

Naomi took her first steps the other day.  Sunday to be exact.  Yay for her!  Sunday afternoon I just said, "Naomi - it's time for you to walk!"  She's been wanting to for a long time.  The only way she wants to get around is by walking, but has needed help.  You know - the hand up above her head, holding onto someone's fingers.  Very cute, but bad on the back :)  So, I sat her down with Dave a couple of steps away from me.  She was having a hard time, so we gave her something to hold, which for some reason seems to make it easier.  She took three little steps from Dave to me.  She giggled the whole way, and was so proud of herself.  That, of course, got us laughing, which she thought was great.  More, more!! (one of the words she knows.)  So she kept at it.  At first she would only go from Dave to me (she's going through a bit of separation anxiety at the moment, and is a little clingy), but once she realized the fun wasn't stopping, then she was game to go to both of us.  I'm so proud of her!  I know this opens up a whole new level to the things she can get in to, but she's so much happier after a developmental leap.  Plus, I love watching her excitement as she learns new things.  Go Naomi!

Pictures like I promised

Here are the pictures I promised.  I think they're pretty much in chronological order.  Enjoy!

A Puppy

One more thing about this last month...we got a puppy!  Crazy, I know.  We named him Scout, and he's a yellow lab.  Think "Cottonelle" commercial.  I'll post pictures of him along with all the other ones too.  He's super cute.

A Post

Apparently there have been rumors floating around out there that I'm pregnant - since I haven't been blogging a lot lately.  I would just like to say that I am NOT pregnant. :)  I've just been a slacker on the blogging front.  I've been trying to balance everything I've been trying to do, and since blogging isn't a necessity (although it is something I want to do!), it has moved to the back burner.  What I want to do is maybe blog every week or week and a half or so.

So, here's what we've been up to since Valentine's Day.  I had a crazy month in February with Young Women's.  I put together an uplifting lesson about Jesus Christ for each day in March from the first Sunday (I taught the combined lesson that first Sunday) through Easter.  Hopefully it helped the girls have a more meaningful Easter, and draw closer to their Savior.  So, anyway, that took up a good portion of my time to get it ready.  Then I also had my lesson to prepare, and the Beehives were in charge of the combined mutual activity the first Wednesday of March.  So, the last couple weeks of February were a little crazy for me.  I made it through, though. :) 

Naomi turned one on the 17th.  I can't believe it's already been a whole year since she was born.  Time sure does fly, and she's getting big fast.  I know everyone says that, but they change so much in the first year!  I'll post pictures of her party.  We had that on the Saturday before Easter, which was also very nice.  I'll post pictures of that too.  We spent it with family, and Christopher loved searching for eggs and candy.  Naomi just loved putting anything she could find in her basket.  She's a collector, that one. :)

My family got to come and visit for a few days last week, which was a bunch of fun.  We spent a day in Dallas, went to parks, the Heard, played games, and had a lot of fun.  I wish they could have stayed for longer, but I'm glad they got to come.  (We missed you Jeff!)  They left Sunday night, which means they missed all the fun with the tornado warning on Monday afternoon.  Luckily our 72-hour kits were all ready to go, and I was ready with a bunch of blankets in the closet.  Crazy!  It was actually kind of scary - the siren at the elementary school went off, and it was raining and blowing like crazy.  At first the dish was out, so I couldn't even watch the news to see what was going on.  Luckily it came back on after a couple of minutes, and the funnel didn't ever touch down, so everything was okay.  A good test run, though. :)

Our recent fun was a surprise birthday party for my good friend, Melissa last night.  April fools!  We had a fun night at On The Border, with good Tex-Mex and great friends.  Holly spearheaded the operation, and did a great job inviting everyone and putting it together.  She posted about it, and put pictures up.  You can check them out here. 

So, that's my month in a nutshell.  I'll get those pictures posted too.