Squeaky Wheel

Prior to moving into the house, Ray and I made a trip to Sears to purchase a washer and dryer (exact model is not pictured above). Now, I'm not one to get excited about doing laundry and don't need or require anything fancy. As long as my clothes come our clean, I'm happy. We did do a bit of shopping around but came across a GE front load washer and dryer set that was on sale for about a hundred dollars off each appliance. Sitting on top of the display was a sign that stated you would receive a $100 mail-in rebate with the purchase of a GE washer and dryer. This was the clincher and the reason we went with this model instead of doing more comparison shopping. The sales guys said that he didn't have any rebate forms and that there computer was down so he couldn't give us the form. He instructed to go to GE's website and print the form from home. Long story short is that I filled out the form, mailed it in and received an e-mail today stating that the model numbers were not valid. I made a trip to Sears this afternoon and spoke with the sales guy who made the sale...it was infuriating. He said that the rebate must not have worked for our model and reminded me that I received a great sales price!!! Hello!!! Those would not have been purchased without the extra $100 incentive! I spent over 45 minutes in the store and ended up speaking to the manager. She took down all of my info and said she would call me this evening with a resolution. I have to say that I was quite surprised when my phone rang at 6pm. The manager said we would receive a $100 Sears gift card in the mail by the end of the week. No, it's not what we were originally expecting, but I'm happy that the situation has been rectified.

Where in the World is Heather & Mark Grace?

That's right; Mark Grace took me on a very unexpected trip to Paris! Oh Mark, you are such a romantic to suprise me like this!!! It was my first time to France and was such a world-wind trip that looking back it feels like I was never even there at all. Here we are by the Eiffel Tower...for a moment I thought I was going to know how Katie Holmes felt when Tom proposed to her on the top...but that moment was not meant to be for us.

An Inspiration to Bloggers Everywhere

Perez Hilton has been a huge inspiration in my blogging endeavor. Check out this clip of him appearing on the Martha Steward Show. He's got to be pretty smart to be making a living being a professional celebrity gossip blogger! I was excited because I've had almost 3,000 hits on my blog to date...but Ray was there to remind me that it was the same 8 people that check my blog every so often! Thanks for being there to bring me back down to earth.

Book Review - The Energy Bus

My sister Suzanne recommended The Energy Bus: 10 Rules to Fuel Your Life, Work and Team with Positive Energy to me a couple weeks ago. She has not read the book herself...yet, but has said it has been creating quite the buzz. I'm always looking for a good read so I ordered it online from Amazon along with the other book from the author (The No Complaining Rule). I really enjoyed reading this book and ended up reading it in a couple sittings. It's a cute and inspirational story about a guy named George who is having trouble in his work and personal life. Long story short is that he ends up with a flat tire and has to take the bus to work for 2 weeks. The bus driver, Hope, gives her positive two cents each day on the ride to work and goes over the 10 Rules. If you are looking for a good, inspirational, uplifting story about getting positive - this is the book I would recommend to you. The author also sends out a great weekly e-newsletter on staying positive. I've read quite a few books on the topic and this is my favorite by far.

Goodbye Old Friend...Hello New!!!

It was with great sadness that I had to put my faithful blow dryer to rest today. It has been with me through good hair-days and bad. It's been such a great run...I've had it since High School - well over ten years. However, like everything in life - all things must come to an end. The diffuser on old boy hasn't been able to stay on without assistance for years due to being dropped repeatedly and going with me on all of my worldly travels. I have bought 5 blow dryers over the past couple of years and ended up returning each for various reasons - blows too hard resulting in frizzy hair, air too hot or not hot enough, & bad diffusers which is important with my curls...but today I met my match! We were at Bed Bath and Beyond and I knew at first sight that it would be a match made it heaven - 3 heat settings, 2 speeds, ceramic with ionic technology and 3 different diffusers...and it's pink. The picture is not the exact model; mine doesn't have the cord keeper feature...they didn't have that model. I tested it out tonight and it truly "blew" me away...sorry old friend, but my hair has a new love!

Success!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm so excited to be wired in once again. After a month and a half of having no internet access at home and only 2 channels to choose from on TV, we have DSL and satellite TV set-up!!! Now I'll be able to get caught up on my shows and just in time for the new television season. The house is coming along and last night was the first night we and the dogs slept here at home. Since there has been so much activity at the house, it was best for the dogs to be out of the way. You never really realize how much stuff (and crap) you have until you pack & unpack everything. It's been quite the process because Ray had his stuff and I had my stuff in storage in Arizona and then we had our stuff coming from Canada. We have more stuff than we have room for in this house - and mutiples of nearly everything (beds, dishes, appliances, etc) and who can really use 3 ironing boards??? I still need to check into whether or not we can have a yard sale here in our development - otherwise what do you do with all this extra stuff?