Welcome to a monthly Fly on the Wall group post. Today 11 bloggers are inviting you to catch a glimpse of what you’d see if you were a fly on the wall in our homes. Come on in and buzz around my house. At the end of my post you’ll find links to this month’s other participants’ posts.
You may be aware that it was Valentin.e's Day last weekend. Hope you had a nice one. Mine kinda got mixed reviews. Hubs, as always, did well. The boys? Not so much.
College Boy: Mom, Valentine's Day is a bullshit holiday thought up by companies just to get our money.
Me: So I guess you're saying I shouldn't be expecting a card?
College Boy: I forgot the card but I bought you some chocolates. They're in the Walmart bag on the kitchen counter.
Me: And a very lovely Valentine's Day to you too.
~ and ~
Me (on phone with PurDude): It was Valentine's Day a few days ago, I thought I might hear from you.
PurDude: Yeah, you know, I've been so busy with classes I didn't even know it was Valentine's Day.
Me: Did you get my card?
PurDude: Yes, thank you, Mom.
Me: Well, that might have been a hint . . .
I was in the bathroom having just gotten out of the shower and was getting dressed.
Me: OUCH.
College Boy (comes over to the door of my bedroom): Are you OK?
Me: Yes, I'm fine.
College Boy: What happened?
Me: Nothing. I don't want to tell you, you'll just roll your eyes.
College Boy: You're hurt, I won't roll my eyes.
Me: I was putting on my sock and lost my balance, I grabbed the counter but caught it at the corner. I grabbed it so tight I put a divot in my palm.
Silence.
I look out of my bathroom and College Boy is walking away shaking his head.
Me: You said you wouldn't do that.
College Boy: I'm not rolling my eyes, I'm shaking my head . . . {{and under his breath}} AND rolling my eyes.
I am NOT a horrible picture taker.
PurDude is just naturally this fuzzy . . .
We were having a snow day and I decided in the afternoon to sit in my big comfy chair in my room and read for a while.
I got myself situated and comfortable and pulled out my electronics. Tap, tap. Nothing. Tap, tap. Nothing. That's weird, why won't it turn on. Tap, tap. Nothing.
I look up and there's College Boy rolling his eyes.
College Boy: Mom, you do know that's how you turn on your phone. And you're holding your Kindle.
Damn. I hate when he's right.
I was texting with PurDude trying, as always, to get him to come home.
Me: I miss you. I'm going to email you a pic of the cookies I just made to entice you to come home.
PurDude: Just mail me the cookies.
Me: You're a really smart kid, but you seem to have a problem understanding the concept of enticing you to come home.
College Boy asked to borrow my car one night. He was going to work, then out to dinner with friends and wanted to take my car. I agreed but went through all of the instructions I always do: no drinking and driving, watch your speed, no texting and driving, don't listen to the music too loud to stay aware of what's going on around you. I know he's a grown adult, but I also know I'm still a bit traumatized from the time he and his friends lit my car on fire.
At about 8:30pm, I hear a text come into my cell. The conversation went like this:
College Boy texts: Hi I'm texting and driving to let you know I really like your car stereo.
I text back: You're trying to kill me, right?
College Boy texts back: You're onto me.
Purdue basketball has been having a good season. It's been a lot of fun watching the games. Although they didn't maintain the ranking, at one point they were even in the top ten.
We were watching on TV when Purdue lost to Iowa. Hubs looked down at the Purdue sweatshirt he was wearing and commented that he was disappointed that his lucky sweatshirt had not worked.
Last month they were playing Iowa again on a Sunday afternoon. Hubs came down wearing his "lucky" sweatshirt. I took one look at him, shook my head and said "no." He knew exactly what I meant, went upstairs and came down wearing a Purdue t-shirt. Purdue lost again. I stood up, grabbed one of those long fireplace matches and started walking upstairs.
Hubs: What are you doing?
Me: Going upstairs to set fire to all your clothes, of course.
We were watching on TV when Purdue lost to Iowa. Hubs looked down at the Purdue sweatshirt he was wearing and commented that he was disappointed that his lucky sweatshirt had not worked.
Last month they were playing Iowa again on a Sunday afternoon. Hubs came down wearing his "lucky" sweatshirt. I took one look at him, shook my head and said "no." He knew exactly what I meant, went upstairs and came down wearing a Purdue t-shirt. Purdue lost again. I stood up, grabbed one of those long fireplace matches and started walking upstairs.
Hubs: What are you doing?
Me: Going upstairs to set fire to all your clothes, of course.
If College Boy is going out locally and we know he's going to be drinking, we ask him not to drive and just call us for a ride home. He was going out on Friday night and was going to call us for a ride. I wasn't feeling well and was going to bed early so we told him to call his dad's cell.
Of course he called mine. Since Hubs was 2 floors down in the man-cave, I called him on his cell and told him College Boy was ready.
The next morning we were talking and Hubs said something about College Boy calling him the night before.
Me: He didn't call you, he called me.
Hubs: No, he called me.
Me: No, I called you.
Hubs: Well, someone called me.
Me: {{blink, blink}}.
A fly on the wall this month would have seen me make some of my own memes.
Well done? Or "don't quit your day job"?
Anyone hear me hang up the phone then sit down and let out a scream while pulling at my hair this past month?
Many of you know that PurDude came home in December without his brand new luggage. It took me two days but I actually tracked it down in Chicago and got the airline to send it to us. It arrived destroyed. The airline would do nothing about it unless we drove the luggage back to them at the airport, which we eventually had to do.
I literally spent PurDude's entire vacation fighting with the airline. First to find the luggage, then to get it to us, then to reimburse him for the charge. While it was missing, their Customer Service Agent told me they would pay for a few days clothes. He bought them and I sent in the claim.
I sent email after email, made phone call after phone call and tweeted daily. They finally told me (via twitter) that the claim would take up to 14 weeks to process. All I was asking was for them to acknowledge they had received the claim so I knew it was in the queue. Long after PurDude was back at school I was still making daily efforts to get someone at the airline to respond.
On day 38 they called my house. The conversation went like this:
Rep: I want to talk to you about the damaged luggage, we don't have a claim for it.
Me: You forced us to drive it to the airport and either exchange it for a bag we didn't want or let you "assess" it for 3 months while we send him back to school packed in paper bags. What I need now is for you to acknowledge that you received the claim for the clothes we purchased.
Rep: Those claims are backed up. They can take up to 20 weeks to process.
Me: I just need to know that you received it.
Rep: Sorry, that's not my department.
Now click on the links below for a peek into some other homes:
Menopausal Mother
Someone Else's Genius
Spatulas on Parade
Searching for Sanity
Never Ever Give Up Hope
Go Mama O
Someone Else's Genius
Spatulas on Parade
Searching for Sanity
Never Ever Give Up Hope
Go Mama O
Broccoli and Loaded Potato Crockpot Soup
Printable Recipe
Ingredients:
3 medium baking potatoes
1 can (14 oz) vegetable broth
1 1/2 cups half and half
2 green onions, chopped
1/4 cup chopped red pepper
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1 cup French onion dip
1 TBSP chives
1/3 cup bacon bits
1 cup broccoli florettes, par cooked
1 cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese
Directions:
*Wash and pierce potatoes. Place on microwave safe dish and microwave 5 minutes. Turn the potatoes over and microwave 5 minutes more.
*Allow to cool until you can safely touch them (can do this part a day in advance and just put potatoes in the fridge), then peel and chop into about 1 inch cubes.
*Put potatoes, broth, half and half, green onion, red pepper, salt and pepper into crockpot. Cook on low for 4 hours, stirring now and then.
*Stir in the onion dip, chives, bacon bits, broccoli and cheese. Cook 1 more hour, stirring occasionally.
awesome as always! I love your memes. Conversations with kids are the best aren't they? You don't know whether to hug them or kill them :P Thanks for the laughs, a great way to start my Friday :D
ReplyDeleteGlad you enjoy reading these because I never get tired of writing them!
DeleteThanks for all the Friday morning laughs. I can relate to almost all of the situations. And...I love potato soup. A win-win all the way through. :)
ReplyDeleteSo good to know I'm not alone in some of these situations!
DeleteThe eye roll, head shake and walk away...seems our boys are similar here as well.
ReplyDeleteHi mom I'm texting you while driving! LOL makes you want to reach out and smack him.
Yes, and he did it just to get me. And I knew it!
DeleteThe shirt/fire comment is my favorite! I feel the same way when my son wears our team shirt and they lose....and lose...! Your memes are funny too---good job. Excited that you posted a crockpot recipe. I use mine a LOT now and this sounds yummy. Adding it to my collection. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteLet me know what you think when you make the soup.
DeleteYour son needs to work on presentation of chocolates too - in the Walmart bag?! Ha ha! Oh my, what a pain with the airline! So frustrating...
ReplyDeleteYeah, in the Walmart bag on the counter was actually more than I expected, I'm sorry to say!
DeleteMy sister is queen of the eye roll, just saying
ReplyDeleteI have never had an airline lose my luggage, now that I have said that, I expect the next time we fly it will happen, just saying
Sadly, the more you travel the more it happens.
DeleteThank you for the recipe - this is soup weather and I'll be giving this to my husband as a suggestion. Alana ramblinwitham.blogspot.com
ReplyDeleteHope you and your husband enjoy the soup!
DeleteI can't believe you're still having trouble with the airline, that seems to have been going forever now. I think it's time you opened a can of whoop ass on them...
ReplyDeleteI can't even tell you how frustrating this has been but we got a check from them last week, it's finally settled.
DeletePurDude is coming home next month and I booked him on a different airline. Phew!
Wise decision.
DeleteI am surprised you did not get results after tweeting re the lost luggage. Maybe you were being too nice??? I ALWAYS get almost instant results when I do that. With the telephone company I had a rep call me within 20 minutes of my tweet after months of trying to get the right person to contact me. He bent over backwards to send me my $800 refund which they initially said they did not owe me.
ReplyDeleteI got results, but they just kept telling me the same thing over and over again, which is basically that they'll do what they want when they want and despite it being their fault, I needed to accommodate them. Some companies get "customer service", others do not,
DeleteLOVE your sons' sense of humour
ReplyDeleteHATE the bureaucratical BS you're getting from the airline.
That's all.
The humor in the household sure does help to deal with the airline's bureaucratic BS!
DeleteWell, there you go! :-)
DeleteThat's crazy and one of the many reasons I don't fly! They make it such an impossible ordeal. I haven't flown in over 20 years, (Gawd, did I just write that!). I wouldn't know where to begin.
ReplyDeleteI need to fly because I'm just not someone who can spend hours in a car, but flying is such a nightmare these days, and for the most part the airlines really could care less about the passengers.
Deletehave to try that potato soup, I usually roll my eyes at my hubby. Your boys just crack me up!!!! Great to know that the airlines are so helpful...grrrrrr
ReplyDeleteAt this point the eye roll is one of the few things we all have in common around here!
DeleteI always enjoy being a fly in your house. Fun. This luggage situation is ridiculous. Ridiculous. This soup looks delicious!!
ReplyDeleteThe luggage situation is FINALLY over. They've replaced the bag, reimbursed the fee and paid for the clothes. Cannot believe how difficult they made that.
DeleteYour boys give me soooo much to look forward to as they grow.
ReplyDeleteI can't believe the luggage debacle! People are dumb.
Those boys certainly keep me on my toes.
DeleteAnd the airline? Don't even get me started.