smartening up

Today I spent over an hour on the phone with our internet provider.

Jay asked me to do this last night: "Please call and figure this out."

Okay.

Sigh.

We have two accounts:  A home phone, and a business account for business phone and internet.  

They put us on paperless billing for the business account, so we had no paper bill, and the bill is due next week.   The phone menus provide me no option to pay the bill and the website doesn't allow me into the sensitive billing section either.  Jay has no idea about accessing that.  I tried that before, trying to sign in from his side and no way.  He normally writes a check, shoves it in an envelope, slaps on a stamp, and voila.

Whee.

All about us trying to send them $203.42.

"What's the name on the bank account?"

"Same as on the bill. Plumbing, LLC."

"What?"

(Sweet Jesus)

It is done.  At the end, they accepted a phone payment from me and said paper billing is being restored.

Hallelujah.

And my phone complains relentlessly that the memory is full, and it is photos clogging it up.

I plugged the cord into the computer and it transferred all 2 million, 500 zillion photos over to the computer.

Previously they had been sent one by one over email. And then saved, one by one.

Talk about your painstaking process.  Ei yi yi.

So.

Old phone photos:

An example of how kids eat at meals vs. snack time:

When the neighbors were trying to back their boat into their driveway and a car hit them.

The police threw some kind of powder onto all that leaking gas.

Us in the 80s:

Merry Christmas, Kari!

My great grandma, grandpa--holding my sister-- mom and me.

Aunt Nita

This photo my cousin's wife took cracks me up SO MUCH.  It's the rowdies hanging on the side of the pool and the way the cow is peering at them that makes it just fabulous.

Sam and the kids about 2009

Okay that's enough for tonight.

So much love always, Val

 

in the kitchen

Last night heard this guy laughing in the kitchen during the evening.   I'm not fully over to day shift, still have an evening shift on Thursday and afternoon on Friday, but there he was.

The kids were in the kitchen for hours.  Why the kitchen? We have a living room AND a family room on each side of the kitchen.

Nope.

The kitchen is where we always choose to be.

I love you, buddy.

Love, Val

02/02/2022

This is an old picture, but today she and I paused in the dining room at 2:22 pm to note that it was 2:22 on 02/02/2022.

That's a cool date.  I remember 1-1-11 also.  Goodness, gotta have fun where we can.

We heard the groundhog saw his shadow, so six more weeks of winter.

Whatever.  We'll be here either way.

On a -6 degree night, some random summer pictures to enjoy.   I love you all.

And a few of Mexico in February because why not?

Good night guys.  Love, MOM, aka GRANDMA

 

february

 

February arrived bright and blustery, wind rattling the windows of this old, drafty house.  Yesterday was warm enough to have the family room windows open while the varnishing was finished.  Today that would be impossible, but here they are all done and out of the way, fumes and all.

Today I started working days, after eleven years of pm shift.  Eleven YEARS.   Late in the afternoon I went over to Heidi's to see them, and Joe asked, "So how was that, day hours?"

"Pretty damned divine."

I was missing him too--saw him every day for years, but now it has been a while.

The kids were surprised, showed me their tablet games, and we colored pictures, sat together at supper, made a trip to the  cold office so they could do stunts, but were not out there long enough to bother turning the heat up.  Heidi and Joe like it cool anyway for use of the exercise bike and treadmill.

This little buddy kept saying how much she misses me, which is a bit heart wrenching to hear. Things are going well. She has a preschool she enjoys. But change is hard, and we did used to have fun, arguing and playing, watching movies and drinking "Cherry Limenade."

This little girl looked so TALL today!  What are they feeding her at daycare? Wheaties??

I helped her with her supper and it was so nice to be there hearing her opinions.  She doesn't throw the strawberries anymore, just puts them back on the plate if she doesn't want them.

February? Days of longer sun and hope?  You do seem like a friend this year. Thanks for showing up.

Love, Val