Marking it on my Calendar ...

It doesn't happen often but my husband was right .... heeheee!  He actually saved my day and I'm very grateful!  As most of you know I work from home and my internet connection is my lifeline!  Wednesday of course after being gone 2 days for the holiday my internet modem/wireless router started to actually shut it's self down.  Then it would restart and repeat!  NOW if I'm on a call with someone that means I loose the client or potential client YUP NOT good!  

So I get on the phone and call Century Link, I get a nice girl but she is from India and I can't understand a word she is saying to me.  Our 2 hour call could have probably taken an hour.  So she tells me "Well let's monitor it and see what happens".  YUP she wanted me to just wait and see if what she did makes it stays on.  I had to say AGAIN I work from home I can't just hope and pray it works!  So of course as soon as I hang up it goes dead!!  I call again get a nice man this time thankfully I can understand and another 1 1/2 hours we try to hard boot my system and down again it goes ... UGH.  He tells me I need a new system.

I head to Walmart thinking I'll just pick one up.  WRONG I find one ask one guy is this what I need yes it is!  It's $79.99 ok not what I was wanting to spend but I can do this!  But then I get a feeling to ask again another guy and of course he says NO you have to have this one that has Modem / Wireless together and they only have one that comes from the company (Century Link).  $99.99 is the price I almost die, it's after Christmas and I have missed 2 days of work (I'm a contractor I don't get paid for holidays) and then had to clock off early and not rolling in the money this week.  I get home and Rick says you spent a $100!  UGH yes ... You need to call the internet company.

So I get on the phone a THIRD time and get a young kid who was so nice but he wanted to be my friend and tell me about his car problems!  I so wasn't in the let's be friends mood!  I try to order the new modem / wireless that I can break up on my bill for 3 months.  Come to find out that since I earlier increased my internet speed this day I can do two orders in one day? Come again?  He tells me this PLUS their policy is they don't put the order in for THREE days!  Since the 1st is a Holiday it won't be on their books until the 2nd and I may not see the new modem until the 4th or may the 7th!!

I wanted to cry!  SO Rick had the idea to look on the internet.  COME to find out they had a STORE in the MALL!!  YOU got to be kidding me!  YUP I go to the store walk in and walk out with my modem. WITH my account charged!  YUP Rick saved my day by finding this store that NO ONE at the company told me about!!  So I can now return the one to Walmart to get my $100 back!

After an hour on the phone AGAIN with a nice girl from India again I got my Modem / Wireless set up! UGH so Century Link is not on my top list for their tech support!!

This is what my old one looked like.

It lasted 5 years not bad!

Me setting up the new one!

An HOUR on the ph w/ Tech Support and it's done!

I'm pooped now!  LOL Have a happy Weekend!

A Fun Week Working From Home .... (PINT Style)

The Invasion of the temporary command post!

So 2 days of no internet or phone and I thought I might loose my mind :). I was very lucky that my dad is working 3 days in the office now so I was able to take over his command post for the day. It was weird working in someone else's space, but it worked! I'm back home with a temporary line that they finally ran to the house last night, only after Rick called and got angry for the 2 days straight! So I'm back and I'm trying to get everything back in line, so hopefully be on later tonight.

Dad's command center.

See Rick other people's desk look worse than mine!

Dad's expensive chair that wasn't the most comfortable.

Yes I brought my robe too, my parents house is always cold!

Yes that's mom's little pig in the kitchen with nice sayings for the day!

Now why I hate going to my parents house, this is what stares at me!

Go to dad's office to find Black licorice.

Head into the kitchen for cookies in a jar

Get some Coffee and oh yeah Reese's pieces.

Other side of the counter a bag of Rice Crispy Treats!

A stocked full fridge

Yes 3 jars

one of chocolate covered espresso beans, chocolate cover cheeries, and chocolate

Salted Nuts

Fruit Snacks (at least low in fat)

and oh yeah at least some fruit!

Yup they are trying to kill me with goodies!

Big Truck and Digger Machine why must you do this to me?

I interrupt this WWW for a little update of what is happening at our house. For the last 2 months they have been doing construction. The power company bought the empty lot next to our house to put some water shed thing, cool whatever. Well then they have some new pipe line that is going from a few blocks from our house to like 3 towns over. So the workers have been working next to our house as their staging area (starting at 5am) for the 2 months. No big deal doesn't effect my life ... or so I thought.

So today(Tuesday) they started on our street, digging up and putting the new pipes in. No worries you won't be able to leave your house for the day. That's cool I work from home, Me and my little island, I'm all good. I have coffee, radio and my internet ... what could go wrong right? That is until I'm in the middle of setting up a spreadsheet when my internet keeps saying not responding? What does that mean, really I just paid the bill! Almost in tears and panic I see that my modem light is not on. Unplug, scream a little, some tears and nothing! Then Rick comes out to ask what all the screaming is about, what are you talking about I'm crying silently ... LOL then he gives me the "third eye just appeared on your forehead" look and points out the window! That would be a bunch of construction workers cussing!

Yup! The locator people didn't mark correctly and they just ripped out a few blocks worth of phone, internet and TV! Rick headed out mind you it's early around 10am, this can be fixed right? No problem we'll get Quest out here and we'll be just fine! Several phone calls later by 5pm I give up hope of anything happening that day.

Oh did I mention I washed my cell phone last week? So anyone who has tried to call or text that is why I haven't call or text back! Since I had time on my hands I dug out and found an old phone, thankfully since I don't have a home phone for an emergency now. With time on my hands, and a DVR of nothing I want to watch I get to cleaning. I reorganized the cabinets, made a roast, baked a little, did laundry and tried not to freak out too much!

Quick calls to dad and I set up my command post for Wednesday at his house, thank the lord he is computer geek extraordinary and is easy for me to bring my passwords and I'm ready to rock and roll! So sorry if I don't come by to say hi, my friend let me borrow her computer to type this up and tomorrow (today when you're reading it) I'll be at Dad's Command Center and I doubt when I get home I'll have internet yet again!

Some pictures to show our fun times!!

The lot next to me

Staging Area #1 :)

Yup dirt piles and pipes!

This is what my driveway looks like!

The other side of my driveway

The worker with the lovely mouth

The whole and spot where my cables should be!

Do a little dishes

Clean some cubboards

So there it is my lovely world! Pray I have internet tonight or it's another drive up to dads and getting up at 4:30am is not my favorite time! Yes maybe God was telling me to take a slow day and I did get some rest :).

Is it Friday yet?

Today started with a request for me to drive to Seattle to deliver some drawings, no problem it's early it shouldn't be any problem. This is where Murphy's law comes into effect, I really think it may have been created just to explain the items that go on in my life. By 11:30 I'm pacing around because I know how traffic gets later on a Friday. I think I may be making them nervous, good since I'll be the one in a car all night long. Finally a little around 1:20PM they give me the go ahead to leave. Here's the Murphy's law the vehicle I was going to use is gone, so it's my car to the rescue. On a plus side the mileage reimbursement is up to 58 cents, so at least that will cover my gas up there.

Hop in the car and look down of course old pal Murphy keeps striking today! No gas, I must run back in the office and borrow the Costco card. Well I guess I should call dad since he's watching Caden and I probably won't be able to be home by 4:30pm like I was planning. He would like to get some items done so will I wait for the gas line he heads my way to give me Caden. Thanks to my wonderful husband who calls to remind me I can use the carpool lane now that Caden is with me! What a genius that can maybe help me get there and back a little quicker. So I'm off to Seattle of course the traffic isn't too bad getting there, it's the going home that will suck. Being the multi-tasker that I am I call Qwest to find out why my Internet isn't her like promised. After being told oh so nicely that it looks like something happened and now it won't be available until the 10th!!! WTF ... I was promised it would be up and running by today. After getting no where with the girl I asked to talk to a manager of course she informed me that she already talked to a manager and this is all they can say. REALLY did I ask you what she would say, no I asked to talk to her now put her on the phone! Finally the manager comes on the line and really isn't much help and doesn't want to help. So after raising my voice of such a little bit I reminder her I've been a loyal customer for over 15 years and should receive better customer service then this! After her giving me oh so much attitude she puts on the Loyal Customer Service who gives me 1/2 off 3 months but still can't get me the Internet. So here I am with out Internet to do my 2nd job yet again for a 3rd week in a row. I am the most flaky person they have, really I can't handle this I've never been a no show or a call the day off to cancel. In all the time I've been working the only time I've called in is when I was very sick or with sick kids. I have no real excuse here except my stupid computer died 2 weeks in a row and then hey why not have my Internet die the 3rd week.

I get out of the parking garage get a message from my boss asking if I could do one more stop! Yikes I'm now just leaving Seattle and I'm literally sitting in traffic not moving and I need to make it to the next place in 45 minutes before they close the doors. Well since I'm just sitting there I guess I try to figure out a plan B. I give my dear and good friend Anngie a call to ask or beg if I could borrow her laptop for the weekend. She's such a great person even though she's been worried about her non-anti virus and still was a sweetie and let me borrow it. Since my next stop is in Auburn I can swing by and pick it up also. I also start on plan C, hey I may be in this traffic until it's time for the next job to start why not work all angles. I call around and find out how much a wireless card would be for Rick's computer since he lost his. Wal-mart of course has the best deal and hey they're in Auburn also, I'm making this a full service trip! I finally start moving and make it to the place with 30 seconds to spare, the lady even had her coat on ready to roll out! Phew I can make it to Wal-Mart pick up the wireless card, and meet Anngie to borrow her laptop as a back-up also.

I get back on the freeway to get stuck right in the mix of Friday Afternoon traffic, I think I see a car I passed before I got to Auburn. Really I don't think the line has moved! The sea parts and I'm booking, you know doing 25 miles an hour it's great. Moving pretty good and then guess what I hit Fair traffic, WTF. I have a sign on me to just give me all the crap? I give the other host family a call to polity tell them I'm going to be a 1/2 hour late. I make the rounds and pick the boys up and head home.

You know with the 2 back-ups you would think I would be set for the 2nd job. Well that is where you forget who's life we are talking about. Yup it's my life and I install all the software and get Rick's machine up and running, phew I don't have to use Anngie's machine. I take about 3 calls and guess what, yup it disconnects me. I reconnect take another 2 calls and it does it again. Grrr .... I reconnect and don't even get all the way back on the site before it does it again. Well the 4th time and I IM my boss and let her know what's going on, she tells me to disconnect. Yup I'm scoring big brownie points. I try logging onto Anngie's machine, nope I can't get any connection. So it looks like I'm off for another night. Just a great side note it took me until Saturday to finish this post with all this great disconnecting.

What a whirl Wind of a few days ...

Well it looks like we're all settled into are new roles, ok maybe not settled but coping? Are first night was a little rough. I don't know how these parents do it and can understand how hard it must be not to control the environment your child is in. It's going to be a trial and error with the language barrier but I think we're doing pretty good. We had a few items he wanted you know like an extra blanket, I know why would one want that. Plus did I mention our internet has died again?

So let's see a recap of the past few days, since I know mylife is so comical that you couldn't miss out on a minute of it right?

Well Wednesday started off with a fload of emails from the host place with some items he needed like the blanket. Poor kid is in a foreign country with a little knowledge of the language and in a strange persons house. I mean strange in the most loving way of my family, because to others strange may be a stretch of the word. Ok by stretch I may be stretching it ... LOL I just crack myself up. So I think we made it thru the request and helped everyone feel like at ease. My dad even came up to try to fix his laptop, with no luck. The host people ended up coming over and staying for a few hours. They got his internet work (I'm not even going to talk about that). And he was able to live chat with both his mom and dad. My dad took Cole for a drive and to pick me up some milk, don't I have the best dad? So I first whole day was a little rocky, but I think we'll make it out on the better end.

One thing that the host people asked is that our student go visit the other student instead of going to my daycare lady. I was trying not impose on them, but I guess they alreay cleared it with them. After I dropped the boys of at daycare I swung over and dropped him off at their house. Very busy day at work, the receptionist is gone so I'm doing her job and mine which is always fun. But hey I think I look good in several hats, just not usually at the same time. I was able to get out a 1/2 hour early to pick up Roy and run quickly to Target to pick up the chips they told us to bring. Of course we run in and get in a line, it never fails the line I choose is the problem child. The lady in front of me is buying things off her registry, well they didn't give her the 10% off and the manager gets called over. Instead of setting her aside and starting my to ring up my chips and the diapers, they continue to talk right there. Plus the lady wasn't moving an inch from her stuff and got very heated with the manager mind you still right in the lane. Even when the guy wrung up my items, she still stood there. Now I totally understand why she's upset, but just move your butt 3 inches so I can run my card. Darn where is my wagon when I need it. So after gently bumping her with my butt, hey I asked nicely to move well as nicely as I could thru gritted teeth! We hop in the car of course now I'm running tottaly behind and still need to grab the boys to go to the silly BBQ. Ok from my previous post you know my hubby is NEVER on time. So of course the day I'm running behind (not my fault this time) and he only has 1/2 before he gets back to work. So of all days for him to be on time today was not the day! So we get there 20 minutes late, get in the long hot dog line, I rush each boy to fill their plates and oh yeah drop off my chips (the ones I had to bring) to the PILE that is overflowing on the table and oh yeah under the table also! I run Rick in real quick to see the daycare and Cole's new room, he then has to rush back to work leaving me with 3 boys to finish eating and to tour the facility. It was a crazy windy so my napkins and the empty of bags of chips (the ones that I HAD to bring and made me late) kept flying over to this lady who was getting very grumpy at me. So after the 3rd dirty look I decided I better move before I hit her boiling point especially since we're at a Christian School. I take the boys to see the daycare room which of corse is full of toys and I had to pry Cole, I mean gently ask him to pick up the toys and move towards the door. When then headed to his PreK room where they give us a piece of paper with a scavenger hunt. So picture this I have Cole running around (since he of course ate a cookie full of sugar), Roy trying to hide behind the door and Caden in his sun stroller (at least it wasn't the big stroller) trying to keep everyone together and looking for these 10 items! Yup I lost Cole's attention the first 3 minutes, Roy slipped out the door and went in a corner and Caden was not happy about being put in the stroller any longer. I then have to bolt over to were Cole is dumping the scissors everywhere, leaving poor Caden in the middle of the room. I turn around to see a little boy pushing Caden in circles. And then I run back over there to grab my son and the mother says a snipe comment about me leaving him and walks away. Hello the room is as wide as a small bedroom and he was less than 4 feet away from me on the other hand your child was less then a inch for you and you proceeded to let him do that to my son. Oh yes you know it I make friends were ever I go, I can tell this mom and me are going to be great friends! After the explosion of scissors and maybe a few markers I gather everyone up for our family picture. Roy got a big smile that he got to be part of the picture. Then we head for the door, where sticky hands Cole grabbed another mini brownie. Oh yeah this is going to be a fun night.

I get us all load for the short drive home and then unload quickly. Roy heads right to his room and closes the door, poor guy I think we may scare him. After a quick bath I try the internet again, no luck it's dead and yeah now so is my computer! I call Qwest to switch services and see is there any way I can pay extra for speedy delivery, no such luck no internet for the next few days. After 1 hour on the phone I'm exhausted and def because of course everytime I get on the phone Cole decides it's time scream to get my attention. At one point the guy asked me how many kids I have, then he made the comment about how he would only want one. Oh just you wait buddy, one can make plenty of noise. Yup I use to be that believer also and I'll be the first to admit I use to say "my kid will NEVER do that" oh yeah I think God is paying me back for those comments and the looks I may have given parents before I was one!

Well the lady for the train table came, one less thing in the living room all I need now is a toy box for all the toys we had to move to put Caden in Cole's room. I keep finding ones on craigslist but they keep going so fast, I may have to break down and buy one. I told Cole it was time for bed and I think Roy thought him too because he went back into his room and shut the door for the night. Well it's finally quiet around the house I should use the time to watch my movie that came but I'm too tired to move.

I'll try to post tomorrow but with no internet, we'll see what happens.