Electric bill..... What? O_o

I'm going to complain. I'm going to rant... maybe.
I just got my electric bill. I just had a WTF moment. I just hyperventilated.
I have Ohio Edison as my electric provider. Ohio Edison is owned by First Energy.
I opened my bill today and I see my bill is $125.80. I think "holy crap, my kids are using too much electricity!".

As I examine my bill, I realize that this is not the case. We only used $69.25 in electricity, which is slightly high, but its been hot. This is where the WTF moment came in, right before my self righteous indignation  took front and center. Where did the rest of the bill come from? I proceeded with my examination.....

I'm being charged an extra $56.55.
$4.00 for a "customer charge", $4.58 for a "cost recovery charge", and $47.97 for a "DISTRIBUTION RELATED COMPONENT".WTF is that? According to my bill, a "distribution related component" is "a charge (including taxes) for moving electricity over electric distribution lines to your home or business. Formerly, Delivery Charge".

Annnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnd....... Cue self righteous indignation.

They're going to charge me for distribution???!! Hey, Ohio Edison, you're OWNED by the company that provides my electricity. You're the only company I can HAVE for electricity.You want me to pay for YOUR company to bring YOUR company's electricity into my house, and then you want me to pay for the electricity too???!! AND you want to charge me for being a CUSTOMER??!! You're almost doubling my bill!

I repeated the above speech to customer service. Its explained to me that the "distribution charge" is similar to a rental fee. First Energy is providing electricity to me through Ohio Edison's power lines and I have to pay a fee for that. FIRST ENERGY OWNS OHIO EDISON. I'm using First Energy's power lines. Does anyone understand this other than me? O_o
Basically, the customer service rep gave me a "that's how it is and everyone pays it" speech and hung up on me.

Everyone is broke. Money is tight EVERYWHERE. Everyone is in debt including our own government.
Evidently, this justifies raising the prices on everything from food and gas all the way to electricity. Even after pondering over it for hours now, I still can't understand why First Energy/Ohio Edison would create such a ridiculous charge with the economy the way it is.
I guess the theory must be that they already raised the electric prices, why not go all out and take every dime?

Crowdtap and Old Navy Shorts!

First off, I want to thank Old Navy and CrowdTap for providing me with wonderful opportunities to share products and brands with my friends and family.

Recently, I was provided (by CrowdTap and Old Navy) an Old Navy Style Council coupon booklet that included 4 coupons. Each coupon was good for a free top, a free pair of shorts and a free accessory of our choice (including shoes, jewelry, hats, scarves, bags, etc.)

I invited a couple of my friends and I dragged my mum along for the fun of it (she's never shopped at Old Navy O_o). We had a lovely lunch at Chipolte and headed to the nearest Old Navy store to cause mayhem and destruction.... err... I mean.... to have fun and check out the shorts ;)

The Old Navy Staff was wonderful. Not only did they go above and beyond the call of duty, they had wonderful suggestions and recommendations. The whole staff treated us like royalty even though we were probably being a pain in the ass. It was absolutely wonderful.

We had fun trying on outfits and critiquing each other's choices. It was really fun to give "thumbs up" or "thumbs down" to each other while we were trying things on. My mum and I had some fun with some of the accessories since we're a little crazy. We had all the girls laughing (store staff included).

All in all we had the best time. We had girl time, and we got to shop. Everyone was exhausted when we were through, but I'm pretty sure they still had enough energy to call around and rave about Old Navy. I would gladly do it again anytime.

I picked a lime green top with black cut-off shorts and a pair of wedge shoes with my coupon. Then I HAD to buy a hat to match it because it was so adorable. I don't think anyone walked out of the store without buying a little something extra. The only thing that upset me a bit was that my Old Navy store doesn't carry jewelry.... but I think I have enough anyway!

This was a great opportunity for all of us and we all agreed that it was the most fun we've had in a very long time. Thanks CrowdTap and Old Navy!

**Disclaimer: Products were provided by CrowdTap and Old Navy. 

I did not receive any monetary compensation and all opinions in this blog are mine and mine alone.

What happened to Jalapeno poppers?

  
  Now, I'm usually not a picky person, but there are some things in life that make me picky. My latest complaint is jalapeno poppers.

  I had a strange craving for some cheddar cheese jalapeno poppers. It came out of nowhere. It struck me hard and fast, and of course I was left reeling since I haven't had poppers since I was a teen. Hell, I haven't had many deep fried ANYTHING since I was a teen. But the craving was there none the less and I had to do something about it.


  Skip to the grocery store. Freezer section. I grab a box of TGI Friday's poppers. I take them home, I cook them.... I'm thoroughly disappointed :/
They're not very popper-y. They're not really spicy at all. I was left feeling like I ate a deep fried hunk of green pepper with cheese. This did not fulfill the craving. I had to try again.
Skip back to the grocery store. Freezer section. Another brand, another disappointment. I tried 4 different brands of poppers at this point and they weren't what I needed. Don't get me wrong, they didn't taste BAD. They were just missing that "bite" that I was craving.


  Some people don't like spicy or hot things, and I understand that. I happen to have a large tolerance for hot-n-spicy, but its not exactly what I was looking for. I'm looking for that nice "whoa this has kick" taste. I don't want to burn my face off, but I want to feel like my poppers aren't sissies. xD


  Last night, to my surprise, I was browsing Wal-mart. Its family movie night, and I decided that pizza rolls were the way to go. Next to the pizza rolls, I see something called "Snapps SnackBites". I'd never seen them before (not that I pay much attention to things around me most days), so I decided to check them out. I noticed they had "Cheddar Cheese Pepper Bites". Thinking they may be just what I need for this week-long craving, I grabbed a box along with our pizza rolls.

  I get home, and I inspect the box. These aren't jalapeno poppers. They're some kind of diced jalapeno and cheese mixture that's been breaded. I'm thinking "this can not be good", but I put on my big girl panties and I toss them in the fryer anyway, refusing to read the ingredients or nutrition information because I know I'll chicken out. Two minutes later and they're done. They LOOK like jalapeno poppers. They SMELL like jalapeno poppers. Do they taste like jalapeno poppers?

  I tentatively put one in my mouth and bite down. They have "THE TASTE", that "bite" I was looking for! The texture was different, the cheese wasn't the highest quality (kinda tasted a bit like cheez whiz), but it had that flavor I needed to satisfy my weird popper craving. Why, oh, why can't real jalapeno poppers taste like this?

  Anyway, I still haven't looked at the nutrition information. I'm scared. As if deep fried jalapeno poppers aren't bad enough for you, I'm terrified of what this cheez-whiz-ish concoction contains. All I can say is that my popper craving is gone and they satisfied me. I doubt my arteries will thank me, and I'm sure I'll be doing a lot of extra Pilates to make up for this.... but I'm no longer hovering in the freezer section of my grocery store like a mad woman.


  I understand that food companies have to cater to all kinds of different tastes. I also understand that not everyone has the same tastes as me. What happened to jalapeno poppers? Are they genetically engineering less spicy jalapeno peppers for these food companies? Have my tastes changed so very much? There's different hot levels of hot sauce, why can't companies make different hot levels of other things so everyone can enjoy them?

U by Kotex Tween

  I just had a wonderful opportunity (thanks to the lovely ladies at modernmom.com) to share this wonderful product with my friends who also have daughters!


  If you're a girl, you know getting your first period isn't the funnest experience... And if you're a parent, you know that its hard to find the words to talk to your own daughter about it. Girls are getting their periods younger and younger these days and I can only imagine the experience is scarier and more uncomfortable the younger you get. Kotex has created a product just for tweens "sized just right." U by Kotex Tween products are smaller, have colorful designs and are just all around awesome. The combo packages that we received came with 12 pads and 12 liners. 

  The pads have wings (a big need for young girls for the additional protection) and are "extra absorbent", promising to absorb like Kotex heavy flow pads. They're also shorter and narrower to better fit young girls' bodies. Both the pads and the panty liners have bright multi-colored wrappers and featured cute prints on the pad themselves. The glittery package features reassuring messages, tween-friendly myths and facts, and an information booklet on the inside. U by Kotex Tween has really thought this through and made a tween friendly product that confronts your period with style and fun.

  I honestly wish they would have made products like this when I started my period. Back then, you didn't have very many options. As a smaller girl, I felt like I was wearing a diaper that wrapped from my belly button to my spine xD 
These products makes the whole "process" of having your first period seem more glamorous and fun. And definitely less scary.


  They also have a website which you can check out that has lots of resources 
(helpful interactive calendar, video, advice, etc) and information for YOUR talk and advice about puberty.  And here's some helpful information that I pulled from the Kotex website: 
 

                                                              Click to enlarge


  I got to host a small get-together with 5 of my closest friends that also have tween daughters and are unsure of how to handle the TALK. Our products came in lovely black gift back with a pretty pink tissue paper. There was a packet with information in each bag with tips and advice on how to approach the subject, as well as a Q&A pack to help answer any questions your daughter might have. I also purchased several things that would come in handy, such as: notepads, pens, and extra U by Kotex Tween products.


  Lucky for us, our daughters all got invited to the same birthday party, so we got to talk freely. As we sat down with our coffee and our Harry & David cookies, we discussed first period stories (horror or not). My favorite story belonged to a friend (April) who's niece just had her first period a few years back WITHOUT the talk. Seems she was 11 years old and her mum thought she still had lots of time before she had to talk to her about it.
Not knowing what to expect, the poor girl had been hysterical. When her mother came into the bathroom and saw what the problem was, she gave the girl a pad and explained to her what it was for. The girl shakily opened the pad, and promptly burst into tears over the "Have a happy period, Always" slogan that was printed. (That would probably make me cry too, jus' sayin'.)


  None of us are very confident in our abilities to have this discussion, but we've all had bad experiences, so we knew what NOT to do. We grabbed our notepads and pens, and we got to work making lists. Our first list was positive ways to start the conversation with our daughters. Our second list was a "what to do" and "what NOT to do" list for our daughters including tips that we've learned ourselves. Like "not wearing white pants close to school close to your period" and "always keep products handy in your purse, just in case". 


  As we put these special lists in our gift bags, it occurred to us that they seemed mighty empty. Emptiness is not a very good way to celebrate womanhood, so we went shopping! ^_^
We loaded up in my Suzuki, and headed to Wal-mart to get goodies that would help our daughters through this rough time. Our purchases included small bottles of Excedrin, Midol, cute make-up bag for our daughter's purse/bookbag, deodorant, lip gloss (we all love to be pretty), wet wipes, new underwear, little heating pads, nail polish, small diaries, and of course Lindt chocolates among other things. We then proceeded to head to a small local store to pick up low-cost tiaras, and pocket calendars.


We put together "emergency" kits with the make-up bags for our girls to take with them. Each one had pads and liners, lip gloss, a little disposable heating pad, the Midol and Excedrin, wet wipes, and a spare pair of underwear. We arranged all the stuff we bought in our bags, then we printed out helpful informational sheets and pamphlets, tied them with a ribbon and put them in the bags as well. We're calling our bags the "Welcome to Womanhood Bags".
  
We finished up by discussing exactly what to tell our daughters. Do we just have the period talk? Do we have the sex talk at the same time? Do we have the sex talk first? Do we tie them down and talk to them whether they like it or not? By the time we finished discussing, arguing, and list making, we all felt confident that we could talk to our daughters about their period without traumatizing them xD




Check out my bag and the lovely cookies (which I forgot to take a picture of xD)!

 

****I would like to take a moment to thank the ladies at ModernMom.com and Kotex for this wonderful opportunity. I'm sure I wouldn't have done so well talking to my daughter, or had as much fun planning the talk without the resources they've provided. Thank you so much! ****


**Disclaimer: Products were provided by Modernmom.com and Kotex. 
I did not receive any monetary compensation and all opinions in this blog are mine and mine alone.

I'm awake, I swear I'm awake.... *snores*

  Thanksgiving was lovely. If you discount the fact that I was too exhausted to walk after everyone left, it was good.

 If you discount the fact that my dear mother tried to kill me, it was awesome. 
I mean it. She tried to kill me. I'm still trying to figure out what kind of person loads the dishwasher with EVERY sharp object pointing up. There I was, loading the dishwasher, not thinking about it too much because I was tired.... and then.... she STABBED me. Not literally of course, because she had already gone home, but I know she meant to do it. I was putting a spoon in the silverware part when got stabbed in the meaty part of my palm (below my thumb). It probably wouldn't have been so bad if the blade of the steak knife hadn't gone under my thumb ring and stabbed me, but because it did I couldn't get the sucker out from under the ring without cutting myself more. That's right around the time that I looked down and realized that I could have died.

 I'm sure you think I'm exaggerating, but imagine how you would feel when you looked down and realized that there were 12 knives sticking blade up in your dishwasher, and every single one seemed placed for maximum damage. All I had to do was trip and I'd have had a blade through most of my organs. Thanks mom. Happy Thanksgiving to you too. >.>

 Hope everyone else had a great Thanksgiving. <3 

Is it really time for Thanksgiving? O_o

  Evidently, the week has just flown by me. Tomorrow my little-big brother will be here to start helping with the cooking. YES. I can cook. Of course my mother is making the pies and other deserts. But only because everything I've ever tried to bake has gone into the oven beautifully, and come out looking like a charred turd. I blame my oven. It couldn't possibly be me. My cooking is way too good for my baking to be so very terrible. Evidently, I didn't inherit the skill from my mother. I'm not sure I inherited anything from my mother other than a really twisted sense of humor (THANKS MOM! Its all your fault I get funny looks at the grocery store!).

I'm not sure if I'm ready for all this cooking. I'm not sure I have enough booze for Thanksgiving. I'm not sure my family has enough booze to deal with me either xD

Weekend! Yay!

  So.... its the weekend. Finally. 
I love my weekends. I literally do nothing. I sit like a lump and complain if anyone asks me to do anything that even remotely sounds like work or chores. And I usually pity the fool that asks for a weekend ANYTHING, because if you're ruining my Saturday, I'm not being polite about your opinions on what colored furniture you should have in your basement.

I finally finished my order for Shutterfly at 5am. I decided to buy photobooks for a few people and order my Christmas cards. I got some prints too, but at 5am, I can't be very sure that I ordered anything more than the same print over and over. Oh well. I'll share my 2 favorite pictures of my children. One is because they're insane, and the other is evidence that I'm not the one abusing them :/

  And of course, I included these pictures on my Christmas cards. I'm not one to claim my children are anything other than the mean, hateful, abusive kids that they are. A very good example is what my son and daughter did this morning. I woke up at 10 am to Jacob beating Morgan with a PS3 controller, and of course Morgan has to get even, so 10 minutes later she junk punched him when he walked out of his bedroom. Gotta love them kids xD


At least I have my Saturday. Tomorrow I'm obligated to actually do things. I have to do shopping for Thanksgiving dinner. I've been putting it off, but I've decided to finally do it. Don't get me wrong, I'd tell my family they're having Ramen for Thanksgiving and they'd probably just shut up and like it. I just don't like Ramen.


I'm thinking that its a Subway night. I don't like cook on Saturday, so we usually eat whatever leftovers we can find or we order something or I toss something in a pot and pretend like its a meal. Subway sounds good. I'm a little upset that they don't have the $5 foot longs around here anymore (Go team Chuck? xD). But I like Subway, and thus we shall have it. Because I said so.

A new day, a new layout

   Finally finished the layout. Its nothing fancy, but it suits me. Not quite sure why I decided on a Bleach theme, but I like it. Hopefully it is easy to navigate and read. I'll be getting the rest of the pages up soon. If anyone reads this and has a tip, leave a comment so I can make my layout more friendly.


   Today was a blah day. I woke up late, so we had to rush, and then I spilled coffee all over myself. Although, the highlight of the morning was when I stood on my porch in my coffee covered pajamas and screeched at the bus driver. 

   I hate my kids' bus driver. There has never been a meaner, more nit picking bus driver on the planet. Now, I realize that my kids are far from perfect, but if you're going to try to kick one of my kids off the bus for looking behind them, you probably deserve to be screeched at. 

   My son, Jacob sits in the back of the bus. He brought me home a letter yesterday saying that his behavior was up for review and he may get kicked off the bus. The list of offenses included: "Looking over shoulder when asked to stop repeatedly", and "Getting an attitude and being disrespectful when written up". To be fair, I made sure of the facts before I got angry (I called the bus aid). Jacob was on his butt in his seat, and he wasn't actually causing any trouble. Who are you to govern where my child looks. lady? And what harm comes to a child looking out the rear bus window? Once I was sufficiently upset, I sat down and had a talk with my son. I asked him to give his bus driver a message for me.... mostly my son just said "I can't say that mom!", but after the offer of pizza as a reward, he agreed to tell his bus driver my message. 


   Call me a bad parent if you'd like, but I took great satisfaction in seeing the look on the bus driver's face when my son stood at the curb and told her very loudly "My mom says she's going to kick your ass if you don't stop being mean to me and my sister for no reason!" The woman looked like she peed all over herself. Then she had the nerve to start yelling at me about how he was never permitted to ride the bus again because "cursing on the bus" is against the rules..... 
This is the part where I ended up screeching on my porch in my pajamas. My son had not been on the bus when he cursed. He was actually in my front yard, so the rule doesn't really apply. Take that, you mean bus driver! 

   AND I get pizza for supper! xD 


   Normally, I wouldn't react this way, but my kids have had the same bus driver since they started school (Jacob is 10, and my daughter Morgan is 8) and this lady has always had a problem with my kids. I remember incidents last year where she would take things away from my daughter and refuse to give them back. Once thing that sticks out in my mind was a rock. My daughter is a dedicated artist and she loves making things. This particular rock was one of several that she has on her dresser. She searched high and low for the smoothest, roundest rocks, and then she painted them to look like lady bugs. She was taking one in to school for show-and-tell that day, and the bus driver decided that she must have "stolen" it. Even though my daughter's name is on the bottom of this rock, the bus driver confiscates it and writes my daughter up for stealing someone else's property. I'm very sure there are tons of kids that paint lady bugs on rocks by the name of Morgan that ride that bus, right? <insert eye roll> I just don't have the patience to deal with people like that.


   Welcome to my life.

BLARGLEARGLE

Waiting for my kids to get off the bus, decided to write a little. 

Its raining. Normally I love the rain. I love the wet, earthy smell. Today, not so much. Its cold. I hate the cold. I don't want to leave my house if its cold.... Hell, I don't want to get out of bed when its cold. People think that I'm weird because I hate the cold so very much because I was born on Christmas eve. Like the day I was born is somehow supposed to make me like freezing weather better. It sure didn't make me like Christmas any better, but that's probably to be expected when you're 5 years old and everyone tells you your present is "for your birthday AND for Christmas". Cheapskates. I'm sure being a "Grinch" is expected of someone in my position. If not, then I'm starting a trend. And someday, the Grinches of the world will unite to take over the entire universe! DUN DUN DUNNNNNN! 


 But I've wasted enough time for now. I have grand plans to finish the look of my blog today. I'm sure it won't turn out TOO bad. Photoshop, here I come!

Day One

 So, I'm writing a blog. I'm not sure if I even care if people read this or not, I just think it will be nice to keep some sort of record of life around here. I'm not quite finished with the design, so please don't take this as the final product, its just what looks pretty for now. I need to find a Kris-ish background that makes it easier to read.
If you're reading this.... there is no turning back. 
Like s'rsly, yo.

One of the things you'll discover is that not only am I twisted, but those around me have twisted me. I swear I was normal once, but since meeting my husband, I've somehow turned into a degenerate, perverted shell of the bucket of sunshine that I used to be. 

So. Onward to the blogging. 

As I danced around my living room today (pretending to dust), several thoughts occurred to me. Thought number one was I am a hell of a dancer. Thought number two was along the lines of "where did the dog come from?". Shortly after my second thought, I was on the floor. 
To explain, I'm the proud mother of a female Boxer. Her name is Rukia. She also happens to be the neediest, clingiest dog known to man. If you need to use the bathroom, she will literally whine until you come back. I can't get out of bed without stepping on the poor dog. Anyway, I stepped on the dog..... I know. I'm terrible... But I can't take all the blame. What kind of dog stands under someone that is dancing around like a drunken stripper?
 As I lay sprawled out on the floor, cursing, I realize that my "accident" has been witnessed. My new mailman was evidently in the process of searching for my mailbox to cram my mail into when I fell, and he had a perfect view of what happened.... It was officially the first time I've ever seen a mailman laugh. Stupid dog.


To add to my day, my mailman brought me goodies. I love my mail. I get great stuff in my mail. Like, awesome stuff. Today, Todd's cell phone case finally came. Todd would be my spouse. Because I'm such a nice wife, I ordered a fitted cell phone case for his Omnia 2 in a really pretty blue color.... his favorite color. Imagine my surprise when he broke it within five minutes of having it in his possession. Go figure. 


I suppose that's it for now because I have to load the dishwasher and do the other menial housework that everyone hates to do. I'm sure I'll have more to say later or another day.