Smorgasbord of updates!!!

First of all, HAPPY 2ND WEDDING ANNIVERSARY to my wonderful hubby!!! I love you SO much - you'll never be able to comprehend it! The best two years of my life!

We are off to a dinner tonight to celebrate!


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Weekend update:

Friday started off with a bang at work!


Flashback - Christmas 2005: Our wonderful student worker Katie gives all of us in the office a cute little Christmas pail with lotions and potions - great girly stuff. We love her for it and immediately start using it. The cute pail is back this year on my desk as a decoration.

Fast-forward - Friday: I get to work to find a gift bag in front of my office door. "How nice," I think. "Must be from my Secret Santa." Get settled and open my gift. "Oh my - this cute little pail with lotions and potions looks awfully familiar. Hmmm." Closer examination reveals that in black magic marker "To: 'Mildred'" (an alias has been used for my protection!). I was shocked and amazed. I happened to know who Mildred's SS was, so I called him in - just in case by chance someone is still selling these items and said SS wanted me to make a delivery to Mildred. Sure enough, as I suspected, Mildred was caught in an extremely distasteful display of re-gifting gone wrong. I was kind of outraged in a sense. Mildred is quite the character - known to be ridiculously cheap as well as lude, deceitful, and forgetful. Need I say more? This display fit her to a tee. Oh, and it gets better!

On the rush to a meeting I place the gift in Mildred's box with the "To:Mildred" facing out. Co-worker sees Mildred confusingly bring gift back to her office. When I returned to the office, I sent Mildred an email explaining, "I accidently must have opened a gift bag that was supposed to be for you from your Secret Santa, as 'To: Mildred' was written on the tissue paper. I mistakenly thought the gift was for me since it was found in my doorway, but your SS must have wanted me to deliver it to you. Sorry it is not in the gift bag anymore." She replied with a brief - "no problem."

Hours later, Mildred comes into my office and snoops around while I am on the phone with a student (another one of her fabulous habits.) After finishing the call, Mildred proceeds to look me in the eye and tell me "Oh, you know that gift. It wasn't a SS thing. It was from the Religious Studies Dept. SISTER brought it down and put it in front of the wrong door." I cannot believe I didn't laugh right in her face with that one! It would have been one thing to have just let it go, or to even laugh it off while "coming clean." But, she had the audacity to not only lie to my face but to think that I would not know exactly where that gift originally came from. Oh, and to include a nun in your coverup lie - nice touch, Mildred! So, Katie, I am sorry to inform you that Mildred did not enjoy her Christmas present from last year.

Regifters out there: remember who you received the gift from, and do not regift to the same circle of people. AND, make sure your name tag is not still on the gift! Hence, this great pic I found on google!

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Friday 6:00: We love Fox 6 and Katrina Cravy!!!!

Can't even go into all of the details on this one... In a nut shell, we bought a product from an infomercial in August 2005. They billed us for 4 of the product, so we cancelled the entire order and were told that we'd receive a full refund. Refund never posts to the credit card and items are shipped. Packages refused and more complaint calls are logged assuring of a refund. Monthly or bi-weekly calls continue from then on, along with massive frustration and irritation from being put on hold and being lied to. I couldn't take it anymore, so last month I contacted the Better Business Bureau. I also contacted Katrina Cravy at Fox 6 who does excellent work with recovering money in consumer issues like this. She sent a letter to the company, who in turn sent us a letter saying that we would receive our money "shortly." On Friday, guess what was in our mail? Yes - a check for $313.70!!!! Persistence pays off!!!!! Now, I get to call the station and let them know. Maybe we'll be on the news or in a promo! Woo hoo, again!!!
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Christmas Parties:

Friday night we had a great time with our Young Married Couples Bible study group. Brad and Jami had us all over for appetizers and desserts. They have a beautiful house and we had a great time of fellowship.

Saturday night brought Jason's work Christmas party which was held at a newer restaurant in town that has a microbrewery. His two bosses took over the company earlier this year, so this was the first Christmas party that they organized. The dinner was nice, but the fun came when the bald cap came out and spouses were asked to sit across the table from employees. Spouses were given black cases, told not to open them, and suddenly a computer screen appeared announcing,

DEAL OR NO DEAL!!! (sorry image is not posting!)

One boss was Howie Mandell, one boss was "the banker." We had great fun playing rounds with a top prize of $100 - yes, real money! Then, suddenly the low winners from the first round were given the opportunity to play with a $1,000 board! One employee left with over $400 and another with over $300! Jason was bold and waited until he was down to his case and one other case. He traded cases, and won $75! When I played, I was my "safe" self and took the deal at $52. I had $75 in my case, but was still pleased with $52! So, now we can go out for our anniversary! :-)

We had a nice time and were happy that the game was added to the festivities - it made it a great deal of fun!

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Well, I think that covers it for now! Stay tuned for an update after I contact Fox!

~Amber