One one thousand, Two one thousand, to Hospital Corners

It is a very rare occurrence, here in Northern California, to experience a lightning and thunder storm. Last night we were blessed with a two hour show plus an encore presentation early this morning. While lying in bed waiting for the kiddos to wake and come snuggle for cover, I found myself counting... One one thousand, Two one thousand, Three one thousand and so on, between each beautiful lighting bolt and crash of the corresponding thunder roll. I then, with the utmost confidence in my scientific research, reported to my husband how far away the storm really was. This took me back to my wonderful memories of spending my summers in New England. More times than not, we had to disembark our water play to run for cover and wait out the mid-afternoon spontaneous storm. I loved being at my grandparents' home with wonderful screened-in porch. I would sit with my grandmother, Gamee, sweat would be running down our faces from the instant humidity, while playing Scrabble and we would count the seconds within the storm.The storm would last for about an hour and then the sun would shine and we would go back to the outdoor activity of the day.

Last night's storm took me down my memory lane and my wonderful reflections of my summers on the Other Coast. I would give anything to get to experience just one more summer in Larchmont, Guilford, Carmel (pronounced like the candy treat, not the posh CA seaside town), Marblehead, and NYC. I want to go back and have Gamee show me again (for the 100th time) how to make a bed with hospital corners. Swim in Long Island Sound, wake up in the upstairs quarters of the Corinthian Yacht club, spend a week at the quirky but delightful Allen A Resort in Wolfboro, NH. Spend endless days in Carmel with nothing on the day's agenda but tennis and relaxing. How will I ever be able to create such timeless memories for my children? This world is such a different place these days and the West Coast is just not the same as the East Coast.

A frustration cry like no other!

So I few weeks ago I started the blog back up again. And then..... I went silent again. The reason being was I was waiting for our new Ipad to arrive so that I could easily type one of these zany posts at a moment's notice instead of scheduling the computer time with the kids. It took a few weeks but the Ipad has finally arrived and I am in heaven! I have been liberated from typing all my emails from my Iphone.

So to officially start off the new season of the blog, I will tell a pointless story of my experience yesterday. It won't make a difference in anyone's lives but it was a moment for me that just made me sob.

After much discussion with my Dear Husband, we decided to try our hand at Turbo Tax again this year, even though we are filing a bit differently this year with my home business, I purchased Turbo Tax from Amazon. It arrived and I looked at the Turbo Tax software for several days with dread of having to sit down and do the taxes. (I am a the go-to one in our home for anything technical) I took the kids to school and stopped at Starbucks on the way home for a Chai Latte to rev up for the multiple hours of tax preparation I had ahead of me. I took it slow to be sure I entered everything correctly and made sure I deducted everything I could from the home business. It took about 3 hours and by that time, it was time for me to go get the kids at school. I decided to print and eFile the taxes the next morning. So yesterday, after the kiddos were nestled in at school I sat down at the computer to complete the quick process of printing and filing the taxes. Little did I know.... I didn't get back out of my chair for over 2 1/2 hours. Printing went great. Nice and quick Then the big snafu! I could not process my $19.99 payment for our state eFile. Every credit card I used, didn't work. Something was wrong with Turbo Tax. Great! I called the 800 # and finally got a live person after 20 minutes. He tried to help me for a total of two hours. Nothing he did work. He chuckled several times that my computer and Turbo Tax just don't like each other! Not funny! Nothing was wrong on my end. Everything had gone super smooth and all my other laptop work had been just fine. Then the moment came! I by mistake hung up my cell phone. The Turbo Tax guy had never taken my phone number just in case we were disconnected. I called the 800# back and sat on the automation hold for about 10 minutes and then just began to sob. And sob. And sob. I haven't had a frustrated sob in years. I've cried - yes- but not a sob because I had no other choice and was so darn frustrated. So, I pulled up my 'Big Girl Panties' and made an executive decision. I chose the option for another $29.99 + the $19.99 eFile fee to have the processing fee automatically taken out of our return. It was killing me that I had to pay a total of just about $50.00 to file my taxes. But being the resourceful one I am.... I said, "Damnit Jessica, send the software back to Amazon because clearly there is something wrong with it." So I did! I expect a full refund from Amazon which should offset the $50.00 processing fees plus a few extra dollars to treat myself to a Starbucks or two for all my troubles. I took the Turbo Tax Customer Service into my own hands and won! Interesting side note.... I know the guy at TT had my email info because we talked about it at least 5 times. He never emailed me to try to reconnect our broken call. I am sure he thought it was a godly intervention that got him off the hook with me.

Lame story but it just goes to show that you should never expect something to just take a few minutes! Then you are doomed from the beginning. Cheers!

Update: Just after I pushed the button to publish this post, I get an email from Turbo Tax stating my case is closed and please take a survey. Did they read my blog? Was that the godly intervention again! Hmmm.... The survey should be fun to take!

Tests & Trials of Pinterest

So I have been working my way thru all the great ideas on Pinterest. So far I wasted a whole day cooking Chicken Teriyaki in the crock pot which did not come out good. I actually went back to Pinterest and deleted the post. On the flip-side I made the most amazing grout cleaner of all times. I was a miracle right before my eyes. While it was processing, I went thru the storage area under my kitchen sink and throw away any and all commercial grout cleaner I had. I was just dumb-founded by the amount of dirt that raised up out of my grout. I knew it was dirty but I thought it was permanently stained for life. Oh no.... the grout came back to how it look 118 years ago when it was first installed. Amazing! That is my only words for it. Once I figure out the process, I will link the recipe from Pinterest to this post for all to share in the joy.

Yesterday I tried a great idea for ridding of ant in the kitchen. I went to the store and bought the borax and then came home and made the concoction. It's didn't work. It attracted LOTS of ants but all the ants stayed clear of the nice little cotton pads soaked in Borax and sugar, spread nicely through out my kitchen. It was a major bust so I too went back to Pinterest and deleted the post.

I will continue my Pinterest quest of finding new remedies and continue to post the results!

And here we go again!

After a two-year lapse I am back at thinking about my blog and what to do with it or where to take it. Since I find myself having plenty of time perusing Pinterest on a daily (or as my husband would say,"hourly") basis, I decided to dig out my ole' blog and fire it back up. I don't have a direction or a theme, it's just a written snapshot, at any random time, of my crazy wonderful life.

It's been 4 years since I was laid-off from my well-paying corporate job. It has taken me four years to grow comfortable with my new way of life as the primary caregiver to my kids during the day. Don't get me wrong.... I have not missed my corporate job one bit. Not one tear has ever shed. The one thing I took for granted while I was working though, was the power of a lunch break. I could run an errand by myself, make a phone call or just sit in my own space and think. I lost all that when I began to stay at home with the kids. It took me four years and my youngest to finally go to school full-time to find myself again. It is a work in progress every day but it is exciting work! I am learning to say 'no' and scheduling myself first. I am learning to embrace the time my kids are at school and not feel guilty for not signing up for every volunteer job in the classroom. I am beginning to know where I want to turn this cruise ship called, "my life" but just have to figure out the best route to take. After being college-educated and working in the corporate world, I know finally what I want to do when I grow up, other than being just a mom. Now I just have to figure out how to create the career and draw a salary from it.