Thursday, November 28, 2019

So much to be thankful for!

Happy Thanksgiving 2019! There's so much in my life to be thankful for...

I have an amazing husband who loves me and treats me well. He is supportive and kind. I've never met someone so generous and willing to help...not just me, but everyone around him. We enjoy our time together and Johnny makes me smile every single day. I've never been so happy. He is the love of my life and I couldn't imagine spending my forever with anyone else.

I have two pretty great daughters. They're teenagers now and while there's a lot of bickering and typical teenage attitudes, they're really good kids and I'm so very proud of the young women they are becoming. I'm thankful for the school they attend and the many opportunities that are available to them for choice of classes and extracurricular activities (more so than at their old school) and I'm proud of how well they are doing in school. I'm also very thankful that they're overall healthy kids and I hope that is always the case. Oh and I'm truly thankful to have primary custody of my children and no longer fighting with XH over everything anymore. I'm thankful all that drama is behind us.

I am thankful for my family. My mom is truly wonderful...and she has always been there for her loved ones through everything. She is also the inspiration for how I raise my own children. I can't say enough good things about her. And my dad is always there when we need him...and likes to spoil his girls. My sister also strives to take care of her loved ones and always tries to be the person in your corner. She never fails to makes me laugh and her gif game is strong. ;) I also have very involved grandparents who have always had a prominent place in my life...as well as close knit extended family members. This is also the first Thanksgiving that my Uncle Billy will be home for. He's back home after living in California for 30-some years. He retired from the Navy a short time ago and finally made it back home. So I'm thankful for that as well. :)

I'm thankful for the roof over our heads. Johnny bought this house back in 2006 and the girls and I have been living here since 2013. I love the town we live in and I couldn't ask for a better location. We have plenty of room and I've enjoyed being able to make it "our" home.

I'm thankful that we have a nice vehicle that gets us to where we need to be! Last year was spent dealing with a multitude of vehicle issues which led to finally trading in our previous vehicle for a new car. Johnny likes that it's sporty looking, but I'm just glad it's reliable! I'm also thankful we were in a position to be able to get new tires this week.

I'm even thankful for our pets. While they can drive me crazy sometimes...they also provide countless hours of entertainment, snuggles, and happiness.

I'm thankful for Johnny's job and my own job as a law enforcement transcriptionist. I'm thankful for the ability to work from home and to make my own schedule around the needs of our family. It's been a wonderful opportunity and I'm so glad that I found it. I'm thankful that we are able to pay our bills and provide food and all the necessities of life.

I'm also thankful that I'm getting my child support again...especially now that I have a senior. It helps us to be able to get the extra little things...like the "Class of 2020" sweatshirt AND sweatpants that Aubry wanted and a bigger senior ad in the yearbook. And with two daughters in high school, there are more dresses for school dances, more activities (and the $10 here and there to stop for food on the bus ride home), etc. We always make sure the kids have what they *need* but it also helps to be able to say "yes" to some things they *want* as well.

I'm also thankful for the little things in life. Netflix and Amazon Prime...so Johnny and I can binge watch shows together. We also recently discovered that the Dog Whisperer is on Disney+ so I'm thankful for that! Pajama pants so I can be comfy. The pressure cooker I got from my grandma so I can make quick and easy meals for my family. The Kitchen Aid Stand Mixer I got from my grandma so I can make cookies and not wear out my shoulder holding my old hand mixer. Our new carpet cleaner to clean our floors and upholstery.

There are SO many things to be thankful for...the big and the little things! Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Wednesday, November 27, 2019

Recipe: Chocolate Chip Cookies

I'm making chocolate chip cookies to take to my sister's house tomorrow for Thanksgiving. This is my favorite recipe! I like my cookies to be more cake-like and these taste wonderful. :) I'm also not much of a chocolate fan, so I usually make some of the cookies without chocolate chips and add sugar sprinkles on top instead. I also like to crush up candy bars like Butterfingers and add them in place of chocolate chips. You can use whatever you feel like! :)

And on a nostalgic moment... This is the first dessert I baked for Johnny back in June 2012 shortly before we got back together. I know the way to a man's heart! ;) 

Chocolate Chip Cookies 
Ingredients:
1/2 cup unsalted butter
1/2 cup shortening 
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar
2 large eggs
2 tsp vanilla 
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
3 cups flour
1 bag chocolate chips 

Directions: 
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. 
Mix butter, shortening, brown sugar, sugar, eggs, and vanilla.
Sift together salt, flour, and baking soda. 
Gradually add flour 1 cup at a time and mix well. 
Stir in chocolate chips. 
Drop spoonfuls of batter onto cookie sheet. 
Bake for 8-10 minutes. They should be just starting to darken on top when you remove them from the oven. Cooking them too long will make them too crispy. 
Let the cookies sit on the pan to continue to heat for at least 3 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack. 

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Thursday, November 21, 2019

Customer service is important!

A business that has good customer service is beneficial for everyone. I mentioned Amazon's great customer service in this post concerning the way they make up for mistakes or shipping promises that hadn't been met. Because they are so good at compensating for any problems, it makes me want to shop there even more. I feel confident that I'll get what I'm paying for...or they'll make up for it if there are any problems. I keep going back because they ultimately provide peace of mind in my shopping experience. I encountered some more good customer service, so I thought I'd share. This is in no way a paid review or endorsement of any kind.

Today's good customer service experience came from Discount Tire. Johnny ended up getting a flat tire the other day on his way to lunch. So...time to get new tires. BLAH. We have a Discount Tire just down the street...so we started looking around their website. Shopping for things like this is always super fun because...well because I'm frugal and Johnny is not. :P But we finally compromised and I picked the tires. ;) 

Anyway...I ordered them online, set the date for the appointment, and then it said I had to pay in store. Then I got a call the next day saying we would need to go in and put at least 10% down before they could order them. Johnny had already left for work, so I told him I'd have to take it in the following morning. Then I get another call back saying that they just realized the tire we ordered had been discontinued. Um...then why is it on your website?! He did say in the voicemail that he'd try to find us a deal on a different set of tires. Since Johnny was already at work, I decided to wait until he got home to decide what we want to do. 

I went back on their website and started looking at similar tires. While I was looking at a set that I liked, I found that they have a link where you can submit a link for price matching. I found the $72 tires on a different site for $60.78 per tire (including shipping) so I submitted the information. I kept waiting to get the email response, but then I got tired of waiting so I went ahead and called. I spoke to the guy who'd left the voicemail and let him know which tires we wanted and that I'd found them online for a cheaper price. He said that they could definitely honor that price and they'd just have to change it manually in the store. He didn't even ask for the information about the website or anything (although I already have it printed out to take with me to the appointment). 

So...the point of the story is that even though there was a problem, a better solution was found in the end. With their price-match guarantee, I was able to find a better deal. And because of that, the next time I or someone I know needs tires, I'm going to recommend them. While they may have made less money on my purchase than they would've without the price match, they also earned future business. It's focusing on the long game instead of the short play...that's how you win.   

There's the old saying that the customer is always right. Well...not really. There are a lot of times when the customer is wrong about something. BUT...the customer IS always the customer. And if you want to keep that customer, then keep the customer happy. And if you keep the customer happy, they can bring you other customers as well. 

I attended a required customer service training session at a previous job. I didn't even have a customer service position, but it was required for everyone. I'll always remember the video that talked about "just give 'em the pickle." No really...that's the entire premise for the video. The idea was to find something that your business can provide the customer to make them happy...and he just happened to run a restaurant. After a customer complaint about being charged for extra pickles, it created the policy to "just give 'em the pickle." It's the same concept as price match guarantees, promotional credits for items that were not delivered by the stated time, etc. It provides the customer something that keeps them happy...and will likely keep them as a customer. 

Like I said, I'm not getting paid for this "endorsement" at all. I simply had a good experience and felt compelled to share that experience with others. That's what good customer service will do for your business. 

Tuesday, November 12, 2019

Holiday weekend ended with a...scratch!

Johnny didn't sign up to work the holiday weekend, so we were able to have three whole days together! The girls went to the football game Friday night because Aubry was working the concession stand. Aubry had to work on Saturday so Ashlyn watched the puppies while Johnny and I went to his mom's old house to get some more of her stuff out of there. Then the girls went to a WSU game with my mom and grandparents on Sunday. After the game, they spent the night at XH's parents' house...mostly because Aubry wanted to see her boyfriend who lives out there. :P

So...Johnny and I had a lot of quality down time together. We didn't get as much done around the house as we'd planned, but it was nice to have some time to ourselves. Sunday night we ordered delivery from Applebees and continued binge watching How to Get Away with Murder on Netflix. ;) It was a nice "date at home" night. :)

And then Monday night I ended up in the ER. I'd let the dogs outside to go to the bathroom. Neko is a little jerk and won't come back inside when you call for him...he just stays where he is and shivers until you go out and pick him up. It was dark, but I could see his eyes glowing out by the fence...so I didn't take a flashlight out with me. Well, when I bent down to pick him up, I misjudged how far away I was from the bush and one of the branches poked me right in the eye. We spent almost two hours trying to flush my eye out with water and eye drops at home before I gave up and asked Johnny to take me to the ER.

They gave me some numbing eye drops and then some dye to get a better look at my eye. And just as I suspected, I had scratched my cornea. Unfortunately, the numbing eye drops only last about 5-10 minutes...and a scratched cornea is PAINFUL. It feels as though you have a rock in your eye and every time you blink or even move your eye when it's closed, it hurts. And then, immediately after they shined the light in my eye, I got a hemiplegic migraine. My face instantly went numb along with my right shoulder and arm. Then the headache came over me. After they treated my eye with an antibiotic ointment, they also gave me a shot of Phenergan and Toradol for the migraine. Then we came home and since I couldn't see and my eye was still in so much pain, I just got an ice pack and went to bed.

I had to follow up with my eye doctor today. He said that I have two pretty bad cuts on my cornea; one at the top and then one right in the middle. He gave me a contact lens to wear until my follow-up appointment on Friday. He said it'll act as a bandage to protect the wound and help it heal. It basically eliminated the pain associated with my eyelid moving over the cut...so that was good! Then he prescribed me some antibiotic eye drops to use four times a day since it was a stick that had gone in my eye.

So tonight I've finally been able to keep my eye open for more than a few seconds at a time and I can even sit in a room with the lights on and not have to keep my eye closed. The sunlight still bothers it a lot though. Luckily corneal abrasions heal quickly! Especially considering I'd picked up a file for work before all this happened and have a deadline to meet!

So...that was my eventful start to the week. :P

Sunday, November 3, 2019

Brand Spankin' New Carpet Cleaner!

First, this is NOT a compensated review. I bought this carpet cleaner because we desperately needed to clean the carpets. :P

We have had a LOT of dogs in this house (and kids)...and some were not so potty-trained. Unfortunately, when we got the Chihuahua puppies, they started marking by the sliding glass door where the previous dogs had gone before. And when Bandit was so sick a few months ago, there were several messes in the living room as well. We talked about hiring someone to come in and clean the carpets, replacing the flooring, etc. We priced flooring and decided to get a carpet cleaner for now and then hopefully replace the flooring in the dining and living rooms next year (or whenever we can afford it).

So I researched different carpet cleaners and found one that I thought I would really like and that had good reviews. My decision was solidified when I found this deal that offered 5 monthly payments instead of paying a large amount up front. I could fit that into the budget a lot more easily than $200 all at once!

So...the Hoover SmartWash is what I chose. It is super easy to use. You fill the clean water tank with warm water and fill the dispenser in the back with detergent. Then you just plug it in, turn it on, push forward to wash, and pull back to dry. You can't go to slow forward or it will automatically switch to dry. It's also better to pull back slowly to dry in order to get as much water out as possible. Then when finished washing, remove the soap dispenser to rinse with the same forward and then back to dry motions. After that, press the "dry only" button and keep going until water is no longer being pulled from the carpet. It only took about an hour for the carpet to dry after I was done.

I will say there is definitely a lot of suction with this carpet cleaner. I had vacuumed the floor really well with our Dyson pet vacuum, but there was still SO MUCH dirt and hair pulled up from the carpet that I didn't even know was there. I feel like our floors are so much cleaner just based on that fact alone! But you can also see the difference. This photo is from just one pass using the carpet cleaner. You can see a definite line between the left and the right side of the photo that hadn't been cleaned yet.

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One of the best things about this carpet cleaner is that it is very easy to clean. All of the compartments lift away. The dirty water tank opens completely and is easily cleaned out. It has a screen that needs to be cleared during each cleaning. The front cover lifts away which can be rinsed out. The brushes are also easily lifted to be rinsed out and cleaned as well.

I only have a few minor complaints about the new carpet cleaner. There's no notification when the clean water tank is empty and the cleaner just makes a louder noise when the dirty water tank is full. The blue wash should turn red when the clean water tank is empty and the green dry should turn red when the dirty water tank is full. It's a minor complaint...but it would definitely add to the "smart" of the SmartWash name. Another minor improvement would be some sort of a handle on the bottom portion of the dirty water tank. It would just make it easier to empty if there was a logical spot to hold it. But...those are just minor improvements that could be made.

Overall...it's a great machine and I'm very pleased with my purchase. :)