Hurricane Ike Photos!!

I just HAD to share one of my phone calls with you guys from this morning. I laughed so hard that I had tears in my eyes!!!!!

Caller: My computer will not power up at all. I have one monitor that will not turn on either. No errors, just no power.

ME: You have already attempted to reboot the system?

Caller: Yes and there is nothing, no green lights or anything.

ME: OK, we have had several machines have to be replaced I will contact local support and get them to come assess the damage to your workstation.

Caller: Oh, I have a note here that says my workstation was affected by Hurricane Ike, Is that why my system won't power up??

ME: (Stiffling laughter) - Yes, ma'am. Someone should be there shortly to replace your CPU as well as assess any other damage to your workstation.

Caller: Oh, ok! There isn't anything you can do to get my system powered up? (Remember, I work Downtown, she is in the Greenway Plaza area (about 20 min away)

ME: No ma'am. You will need to wait for local support to stop by your workstation. Most likely they already know about it, since you had a note advising you of the damage.

I think that last statement FINALLY hit home and a light bulb came on and she got off the phone!!!!! ROFLMAO

Anyway, received a lot of pics and emails today .......thought I'd share those as well :)

These are pictures of Galveston Island, Surfside Texas Crystal Beach, Port Bolivar and the Houston area.

http://www.tpicks.com/pictures%20people%20have%20sent%20me.html

The short - but eventful - life of Ike

In its brief lifespan of only 13 days, Hurricane Ike wreaked great deal of havoc. Affecting several countries including Cuba, Haiti, and the United States, Ike is blamed for approximately 114 deaths (74 in Haiti alone), and damages that are still being tallied, with estimates topping $10 billion. Many shoreline communities of Galveston, Texas were wiped from the map by the winds, storm surge and the walls of debris pushed along by Ike - though Galveston was spared the level of disaster it suffered in 1900.

http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2008/09/the_short_but_eventful_life_of.html

(Picture #21 is about 4 blocks from the building I work in!! - It's the JP Morgan Chase building before it was boarded up)

I have a friend that works in that building and she sent me these as well:

(I was trying to post them, but this isn't working so I've uploaded to an album in my profile called IKE) I live here and I'm amazed at all the glass on the ground!! Just WILD

Alive and Well in Houston after Hurricane IKE!!

I really don't have much time, but I wanted to get something posted as fast as I can to let anyone who was worried about us here in Houston know that we are all fine!!

As you know we were moving Thursday and Friday, so Friday the cable guy was suppose to come and hook up the cable and internet. They cancelled all installations till Sept 26th ... so no internet at the new house till the 26th!

The blessing: The house we moved from STILL has NO power right now!! AND the neighbor behind us, their HUGE tree fell into our backyard so there is no fence in the back at all anymore.

The new house: Lost power for about 4 hours on Sat morning. No water for 3 days, but mom had me fill a bathtub up on Friday night so we had toilet flushing water and brushing teeth water at least :) We have Sparkletts delivery so we had plenty of drinking water!

My mother, who lives on the north side of Houston (Spring) is still without power since Friday night. Phone service goes in and out as well, so it's hard to let family members know if you are OK or not. I've been lucky that the company has business continuity and we were invited to stay here if we needed to OR for the family they provided hotel rooms! All Blessings!!

At this point the schools have pretty much been closed for the week and I'm off from work for the rest of the week....we've been here pretty much since Thursday......I got here Sunday and we've just been kinda dealing!

NOW, I'm going to go home and set up all my furniture that got just thrown in the house on Friday when we were trying to beat IKE ....we finished moving stuff at 4PM Friday and by 7PM we were being rained on by IKE.....we pretty much moved the entire 3 bedroom house in ONE day! My mother helped us out .... and that is another BLESSING!!! I love my mother!!!!

I'll see about getting pictures posted BUT if you go to http://www.chron.com/ (local newspaper site) there are slideshows and such you can see from Galveston. Look for the before and after shot of Crystal Beach....just sad all those homes are GONE! KEMA is a place we used to go a LOT .... doesn't look like we'll be there anytime soon!! :(

Like I said I'll try to get back here sometime this week, but not sure if I will be able to. Just wanted you to know that we are OK. A little dishelved, but alive and together!!! GOD Bless :)

Another bout with ID-10-T Disease!!

My oh my oh my!!! This disease is running RAMPANT through the world!!! ROFL

Last week I sent a message to our electric company, Cirro Energy, in order to have our service transferred to the new address. I received an email from them yesterday advising that they need $400 deposit in order to set up new service at the new address.

Now, we have had Cirro Energy the entire YEAR that we have lived at the house we are moving out of. They had sent me a notice to "re-new" my service with them which I had just done LAST month!! During renewal I signed up for the fixed price for the year.

So naturally, I call Cirro. I said to them, why do I need a deposit to transfer my newly renewed service from one address to another. The guy says to me, Due to account history we will now require a deposit. I ask what do you mean by account history. He says to me, well, you had your lights disconnected for a day in May and then again in July. So, calmly, I asked him so in order to keep my service at this address were you guys going to bill me $400 for the next year?? He says No ma'am we wouldn't charge the deposit on existing service. So I say, then why am I being charged a deposit to MOVE my existing service to the new house??? He says well, this would be considered new service. So I ask, what happens to the year of service I just renewed? He says well, that renewal is for that address only. So I'm just trying to clarify......

If I stay in this house then my service continues with no issues, but if I decide to move then I have to pay $400 to have my service moved with me. He says "Yes" I said thank you very much.....I will be calling a different service provider!!! LATER!!

My brave lil guy!!!!

Hey all!

I'm so proud of my lil man!! Once we all got home and got some sleep Sunday morning, he slept WONDERFULLY in his bed! He was up at the crack of dawn and advised us that he had eaten some breadsticks and his throat was kind of sore! He then tells us that he's so glad he's out of the hospital AND that he's glad he had his surgery. He can breathe better. Later on he was singing and he says to me "Mommy, listen, I can sing better!!!" He's referring to the slight change in his voice. The nasal sound he used to have is completely gone and he sounds crystal clear now!!! His throat of course is sore at times, but for the most part he has made a complete turn around and seems like a completely different little boy!!!!

I have to admit, hearing him say that he's glad he had the surgery done sure makes me feel a whole lot better as his mom and having to make the decision to have it done. If I'd known he'd have so much relief I would have done it 2 years ago when he first started having the problems with his sleep apnea.

He even did well enough in the hospital to get sent home with no c-pak!! (sp?) I was going to see if I could post the videos of his sleeping before his surgery and then record him now after surgery, but the videos were giving me a hard time so I scrapped it....just trust me....he even retains his color while sleeping. His lips used to turn purple while he was asleep from the lack of oxygen. I'm just so thankful that everything worked out like it was suppose to!!!

Now Sunday afternoon since he was feeling so much better. Mom and I packed up the kids rooms (chest of drawers and toy chest) and all my husband and I clothes and everything that was in my closet and all the dishes that weren't being used from the kitchen as well as all the dirty clothes and filled up her car and our SUV and moved it all over to the new house. Set everything up where it was suppose to be and brought all the empty boxes back to the old house. While I'm at work today and my daughter is at school, hubby should be filling the boxes up again with other stuff. Computer desk and movie shelf and so forth. When I get off we will drop that stuff off so that way come Wednesday when we get the rental truck with the dolly we can move the beds, computer desk, bookshelves, and chest of drawers, oh and the kitchen table as well. So we should be done with the old house no later than Thursday morning!!!

Hopefully, I'll be online at the new place by Thursday, but if not then I'll be here at work :)

I'm still going to have to work out a prorated amount of rent for Sept with my old landlord....I figure we can do that from the deposit he's suppose to be giving back to us.

I don't even wanna talk about the hospital bill. As most of you know I'm a contractor at this company for 2+ years now. Part of putting off the surgery was to wait on insurance. At the time I thought I would only have to wait 1.5 years, but when I hit the 2 year mark I decided no longer can wait and once we had him looked at by the Ear, Nose and Throat guy he said the same thing. Can't wait any longer. They were trying to re-schedule because the hospital said they did not want to leave us with such a huge bill. I thought to myself, so then don't!!! Just don't charge that much!! hehe, yeah right!! Then they said they wanted half.....again...yeah right!!! At the time for the outpatient procedure that would have been about $1800! That would have been half! I said look....I have put this off for 2 years. I'm not an idiot, I know what kind of insurance I have.....I'm expecting a big bill, can you just work with us here!?!? She says OK, what can you pay today, I said $300! They said let's talk to the doctor!!! ROFL

Dr. Albright says if we put it off, no more than a week, the child is suffering! The hospital says OK, take the $300 and let him have the surgery!! AT this point I have NO idea what the bill has jumped to and I'm seriously not stressing about it. I figured once they get what they can from the little contract insurance I do have, then they will definitely let me know what I owe them. I figured I can pay $20 to $50 a month and they will be happy with that!!! At least they will have to be!!!!

Tonsillectomy

For those of you that were wondering......I just popped in for a sec.

KJ surgery went very well. Afterwards though he is having issues with his oxygen levels...nature of his sleep apnea so the hospital ended up admitting him to the hospital and he will prolly be here all weekend. Right now he is still on an oxygen mask when he sleeps, but when he's awake the machine only goes off every once in a while. (It sounds an alarm when his oxygen falls below 92)

Poor guy has got it down to a science....when he hears the alarm when he's awake he immediately grabs his oxygen mask and puts it on his face and takes a few deep breaths to get the oxygen.

At this point I'm just relieved to see him getting better. I was really scared when he was in recovery, I guess cuz the nurses were making such a big fuss after him and watching him.

I have to say that IMMEDIATELY sounds a ton better!!! He is prolly getting the BEST sleep he has had in 3 years being in here!!!

My Nightmare!!

You know...the devil just never ever quits!!!!!

We were all excited and ready to go with this new townhouse. I get a call at work on Friday from the rental lady advising us that we were declined because we are showing as being evicted from our house 2 years ago. I was so angry! She says to me, call this number and see if we can't get it straightened out. The address they were giving for eviction was the same one we showed as a forclosure!!! The rental company will work with foreclosure's but will not work with evictions. Hence, this is where all my drama begins!!!

I then call the people at Resident Data. This is the company the rental company uses to check credit reports and such. They are telling me that they show the loan on the property was closed as an eviction. I ask them how could I possibly be evicted from someplace I was not living??? The loan company was called the DAY we moved to be advised that we were out of the house and that the repairs it so desperately needed could be taken care off before placed back on the market! We had been talking to Wells Fargo the entire time because we started out wanting a loan to fix the house. They tell me I have to contact Wells Fargo.

So hence, more drama! I contact Wells Fargo and they proceed to confirm that this was indeed a forclosure on this property and not an eviction. I then proceed to ask her to please put that information on the company letter head and fax to the rental company. They are holding the apartment and I'm not sure if they will hold it for 7 to 10 business days for a mailed letter to get to me. She says sure no problem. I then ask if she can also fax me a copy.

Well about 1 or 2 PM I still haven't received this fax so I call Wells Fargo back. The first idiot I talked to tells me that a forclosure and an eviction is the same thing and there isn't anything I can do to change that. That is just how it gets reported. Needless to say I hung up on her. The next idiot was no better. He insists there isn't anything they can do, I will just simply have to wait the 7 to 10 business days. I ask for his supervisor, and he transfers me to a voicemail. I called back yet again!!! This time I asked for a supervisor right off the bat. I politely explained to them I refused to go through the entire story again just to have them tell me they can't help when clearly the first lady thought there was a way to help!! So with much convincing and dropping a few "lawyer" and "BBB" comments he finally decides to transfer me to a supervisor. I politely remind him that it would be wise not to patch me through to a voicemail!!

Whoo hooo, I finally get a real live manager on the phone! I go through the ENTIRE story again and guess what, he frikin READS the dang letter out of my file notes that was supposed to be faxed to me!!!??? I was floored that he read it to me word for word, now I'm really wondering what was the other 3 idiots problem!!!?? OK?? He tells me that he's going to copy the letter into a document and print on their letterhead and fax to the rental company. The rental company finally gets this fax and the lady faxes it to the Resident Data place. I now have that managers name and number!!

Now the entire long weekend passes while my family and I are wondering are we really going to have someplace to live or are we going to have to start looking all over again!? And then when I start looking how many other places are going to pull up this eviction???

So finally, Tuesday, I called the rental company again and they tell me that Resident Data has still not cleared the file as approved. I then call Resident Data and they tell me that they have the letter, but the letter doesn't say that the eviction was reported in error. All it said was that this property was indeed forclosed on. So I call Wells Fargo, the manager directly, I kept that number just in case!!! hehe I have to leave him a voice mail. When he calls me back I tell him what Resident Data wants and ask him if I can call him back with them on the phone, he says sure.

I call Resident Data back and I get this chick that really doesn't want to help but I get her to hold anyway so I can call the manager from WF again. He doesn't answer!!! I was like UGH!!!!! So I get her to leave exactly what they want on his voice mail and I hang up. I decided to try back a few minutes later and guess what, he answers!!! So this time I make him wait while I called Resident Data back. NOW, I've got all the people suffering from ID-10-T disease on the phone can you guys PLEASE fix this issue!!!!

They go back and forth for about 3 minutes about the wording on the stoopid letter when I finally just cut in and said, You know, why is this so hard??? She is TELLING you that it is NOT an eviction can't you just type that up in your stoopid system and be done with this crud??? No, it has to be in writing. They are fighting over how to word a stoopid letter while my family and I are waiting to see if we are gonna have a frikin place to move into!!!! Resident Data wants the letter to say that it was filled in error as an eviction. WF is saying it wasn't an error because we never filed an eviction!!! Come to find out it's reported from the dang COURT system!!! HELLO! WF sent a constable to make sure the property was indeed vacated and of course the city put it down as an eviction!!!!

At this point I gave up on the townhouse. There was just no way they are going to not rent this townhouse out for 15 days to wait on paperwork from Wells Fargo to fix the reporting error. I called the rental truck and changed it to next Wednesday!! And went and took me a break from the phone. As soon as I get back to the phone the rental lady for the townhouse called and I just told her I know you can't hold the townhouse and if someone wants to rent it I completely understand. She says, Sweetie, I just got an "approval with exceptions" from Resident Data!! My heart just skipped a beat cuz at this point I had just given up on that place!!! She said she didn't know what the exceptions were cuz the manager had to get that information, but she'd call me back before I left work.

She called me back around 3:30 and says. You sitting down? I'm like yeah. She says, If I type up the lease can you come sign it today?? I was like

HECK YEAH!!!!

I'm not sure who's heart GOD touched, but I'm truly grateful and so glad that I am getting better at this! I used to get so mad with these people that I'd start cussing them out and then of course I'd get hung up on and still no issue resolved. I've learned that if I use big words very calmly that it tends to get things done and if you do it right, they realize how dumb they are all by themselves!!!

It's sad also, that Wells Fargo has brought me to posting about them twice now! And this time I have not been a customer of theirs for almost a year!!!

I'm just thankful GOD saw fit to work it all out for us and get me in contact with all the right people. So we pick up the keys tomorrow, but we decided to wait till after KJ's surgery to actually move everything, specially since the truck rental was already moved to next Wednesday!!