Ups and Downs

Today was a pretty good, but the day certainly had it's ups and downs...

While Bella was napping this morning, a delivery man stopped by to deliver our new soft vertical shades for the sliding glass door in the family. The shade wasn't supposed to be manufactured, let alone delivered until late March. Levolor quoted me a date of March 17th for manufacturing, so needless to say, I was very surprised by today's delivery. We spent a lot of money on our window treatments because only two windows in our entire house are of standard size. We chose Levolor products because of the quality, the look and the price. This is the second time we've had to replace the shades in the family, but this is one of the only window treatments we open and close on a frequent basis. Add dogs and a very curious infant into the mix and you can only begin to imagine why we've had to replace it. Long story short... Levolor has AMAZING customer service and if we need to purchase any additional window treatments in the future, you can bet that they will be Levolor.

The delivery man rang the door bell, which caused the dogs to bark, which caused Bella to be woken up abruptly. She was not a happy camper and had a mini-meltdown while getting dressed for the day. We overcame the mini-meltdown and were out the door for the afternoon... or so I thought.

I had forgotten her lunch bag and so I had to run back into the house to grab it. The alarm was set and I deactivated the alarm, grabbed the bag and set the alarm again. Apparently somewhere in the process of re-entering the house, I set the alarm off. I did not hear an audible alarm and I had no indication that I had set off the alarm. A few moments later and after listening to a voicemail message from ADT, I learned that the alarm had been set off. I pulled back into the garage, called ADT and began the process of canceling the alarm. We have had three companies monitor our house in three years. At first we had Brinks, then Broadview and now ADT. Customer service with Brinks and Broadview was great and we had no complaints. ADT is a different story. It took me nearly 8 minutes to get through to someone to cancel the alarm. Usually when an alarm is set off, the monitoring company will make several calls to ensure everything is okay. If the company cannot confirm this, then law enforcement is contacted and sent out to the home. Eight minutes is a LONG time! What if our house had really been broken in to? Our house would have been wiped out in eight minutes! Luckily I was able to cancel the alarm and went through a series of procedures to troubleshoot the system. Fortunately, our alarm system appears to be working just fine... unfortunately, we will most likely receive a notice from Hillsborough County for yet another "false alarm." Bummer.

Bella and I met some friends for lunch and it was a really great afternoon. We also stopped by Buy Buy Baby and Babies-R-Us after lunch for a little shopping. I'm proud to report that I did not purchase one item at either store. I practiced some major self control and I am quite proud of myself. I also saved $10 at Babies-R-Us on an outfit I had purchased for Bella that went on sale. I dread having to make returns at Babies-R-Us because they make it so difficult. I prepared myself for the worst, but hoped for the best. I am pleased to say that Babies-R-Us price matched the outfit and credited my bank account $10.

We went out to dinner once Ian got home from work and had a nice evening. Bella is so funny at restaurants and enjoys putting on a show for people. She enjoyed the chicken fingers, french fries and salad we ordered for her. It's crazy to think that in another month, she will be eating what we eat, all the time.

Today wasn't entirely great, as I received some bad news about a friend of mine. A mutual friend of mine informed me that he had gotten himself into some trouble and today he agreed to a plea bargain. The whole situation is very complicated and I really don't want to get into details. He will be sentenced in June, and he's looking at a minimum of 5 years in federal prison. I am really disappointed in this friend, but I still feel sorry for him. Okay, that's enough about that.

I'm looking forward to the weekend and we have some fun things planned. The highlight of our weekend will be Bella's friend, Taylan's, 1st birthday party at Gymboree. We also have some chores around the house to do and we could use a little rest and relaxation, too. Speaking of rest, it's time for me to hit the sack. Goodnight all!

Love always,
Ian, Kim & Bella