This week has been one of the most difficult weeks to go through pertaining to my job.  I have come face to face with the biggest challenge and most heart breaking situation anyone could even imagine.  Due to confidentiality, I cannot disclose on a public blog what is going on.  Just know that I would deeply appreciate your thoughts and prayers as this week (and following weeks) continues.

blogger changes

Blogger has yet again changed how it works and I dislike it.  I used to be able to make nice, symmetrical posts and now the changes they made are so difficult.  I tried for 2 days to get these pictures up of the fence.  The picture loading is a pain and then trying to find places for text is just as bad.  Now I see the final post has weird frames around some and some sentences are centered and whatnot. 

Be patient as I try to figure this out. 

finished fence



The north side of the fence.  Very long and never ending, or so it seems.

The fence goes along side the trees.  We cut the branches up high on the fence side and left them low on the street side.

This is the view from the street.  The trees are large and help hide the fence.

This is the east side of the garage.  There is a walk-in gate on the left and a drive-in gate on the right.

This is another view of the outside on the west side of the house.

tired

After working on the fence for 10 hours yesterday, I am so tired today.  So tired that I woke up at 7am.  Haha.  It rained again last night and we still have one side to finish up.  Maybe 2 hours and we'll be done.  I'm so excited!  Probably head outside after a bit.  Once the fence is done we have lots of mud piles to clean up.  Either way, I think we will be totally completed today.

fence

I haven't had time to post pictures of the fence, but have had time to rant about Lowe's. Again, that's another story which isn't finished yet. The posts finally arrived on Monday evening. We've been going to town put them up...one...by...one. It's very time consuming, but we're hoping to be completed by this weekend sometime.

This is where we were at on Tuesday night when we quit. Last night we did another couple of hours, so we are much farther down the long stretch.

I cannot wait until this fence is done!!

Lowe's

I have been royally frustrated with Lowe's. They have screwed us over and over with this fence. It all started when we went in and ordered all the supplies and lumber, then paid for it. All items were on hand and paid for. So that means they were ours, right? Well, they called us the day before delivery and said they only had 11 of 45 posts. Mike was upset because his brother was coming up on Friday to help with the posts. He went to Lowe's and talked to them and they said this shouldn't have happened. They arranged to get the posts from Sioux Falls.

The next day, the delivery truck called 15 minutes before leaving the store and said they only had about 200 of 750 pickets. Again, we were upset, made several phone calls and were told that there was nothing that could be done and hopefully the pickets would be in on Tuesday of the next week, or Thursday at the latest. They said they would call. Well Thursday night came and we still hadn't heard anything from them so Mike called them. The employee knew nothing and couldn't find the pallets of pickets. When the pickets came in they were supposed to set them aside with Mike's name on them. After the employee couldn't find them he asked to speak to the manager. With a little digging, they found the purchase order and looked up the order to learn the truck never showed up.

Several more phone calls and no luck. The truck with the pickets never delivered. The next day Lowe's called us and said they had found about 200 pickets. Mike went in and got them (even though we had already paid for delivery). This morning we went out to start putting the pickets up, but quickly realized the pickets were bad. They were really rough, too short, or very knotted. The entire load was bad. Mike and I think they were pickets that someone else had already returned as "bad" because when we ordered pickets, they said they would suggest ordering 1/3 more because there will be bad ones. So of course we had to load up the trailer again with the bad pickets and take them in.

Dropped them off at Lowe's this afternoon and we wanted the bad quantity to be added to our order. We got to the truck and realized they had refunded us the money versus putting them back on our order. So we had to turn around and repurchase the pickets. As I'm watching this I'm realizing that it's more expensive because we had a coupon for 10% off our entire order originally and now we had full price. I pointed that out and complained about how everything that is happening is really inconvenient, etc... They ended up giving us 10% off.

Lowe's is apologizing for everything and say our names are at the top of their priority list, yet they have offered nothing to us. I think they owe us something, whether they give us some money back, or a gift card or something. I mean we paid for this stuff and they turned around and sold it before they delivered it to us. Ugh, this is so frustrating!

Right now, Lowe's does not get good reviews from us.

volleyball champions

10 hours of volleyball, 2 hours of travel, 14 games played consumed our Saturday. But it was well worth it because they won the championship!

The full team with their medals.

Miss Shaylee who played a major role in the winning of the games. Her serving streak was phenomenal.

The games were so intense. Point by point and very close. I thought I was going to have a heart attack!

tidbits

• I think lately I do more tidbits posts that anything. I'm busy, what can I say?!
• I survived the interview in Madison and got complimented on a job well done. Also got told the reason I was chosen is because I am that good. That was nice to hear.
• We're building a fence. A 6 foot privacy fence. And it's taking tons of time.
• Bob is peeing and pooping in the house on a daily basis. I cannot wait for this fence to be done, so we can just open the door to let him out, not to mention, train him to go to a door when he needs to be let out.
• I'm thankful for a carpet cleaner.
• Easter was low key, but good. More work on the fence.
• Shaylee sprained her ankle in volleyball practice last night. I'm hoping it is better by Saturday since there is a tournament, but considering she can hardly walk on it today, it's not looking good.

nerves

My nerves are going to be the death of me. Our Head Start program is going through a federal review this week, which happens every 3 years. I was told yesterday to come to Madison today for a meeting at 1pm. There will be 5 of us within this area answering questions to a review team member. I'm seriously about to puke.

tidbits

• I went to Walmart today for a quick visit and within 5 minutes, I had 3 different people compliment me on my weight loss. It feels so good to hear those positive things because it helps me to see the hard work is paying off.
• I haven't been able to walk/run for 5 days now. I think I pushed myself too hard the last time and now my knee is hurting me. The knee that I have had surgery on two other times. And the pain isn't getting better, so I'm really hoping I didn't screw it up again.
• Tonight we took the bikes out and let the dogs run beside us as a test to see how they do off the leash. They did great. Bob felt the need to run in the middle of the road for awhile, but at least they didn't stop in other people's yards.
• We have typical teen hormones raging in our house, with both girls. And of course, no other kids do chores. Ahem.
• The locates for the fence have been called in. We will start the fence project on Friday. Actually, Mike will start the project on Friday and I will be painting the outside of the house.
• This weekend I pressure washed the whole outside of the house and focused on the paint that is flaking off. I have to paint the window frames, door and garage frames and all the cement blocks on the bottom side of the house. It will be a lengthy project, but needs to be done because the paint was flaking off badly.
• On Saturday, Mike's brother will be coming to help with the fence. It will be a 6 foot privacy fence and will be wonderful for the dogs and for us.
• Lots going on lately and just staying super busy with outside house stuff with all this beautiful weather we are having.