Friday, January 29, 2010

It's Friday....and I am thinking about my friends.....

So, last Friday at this time I was preparing food and cleaning house......My sister is a Scentsy Consultant and she asked me to host a party. I sent out about 65 invitations, not really knowing what do expect. I had about 20 or so RSVP's and the way my Grandmother taught me was to over compensate where food is concerned. I love to entertain, I love to feed people and I love to make people feel at home.....

At 6 O'clock my friends started to arrive, by 7 O'clock.....I had a very full house. I ended up with about 30 of my friends and 23 of their children running and giggling through the house. It was a great party....with great food, drinks and conversation. Do you ever have those out of body experiences? I don't know if I am saying that quite right.....but I looked around my house at all of these people(mostly women...because the guys were hiding in the man room) and all I could do was Thank God, thank him for blessing me with the most amazing friends a girls could ever ask for. When I was younger I had no appreciation for "Girlfriends". I thought girls were stupid, full of drama and backstabbing demons. I thought I had it all in my 20's.......(looking back at pictures I was beautiful-I had no idea that I was beautiful, but I was)....Here I am in my 30's-knocking on 40's door and I am overweight, gray, tired and wouldn't trade it for anything. Women are like wine they get better with age.....(Although there are a few exceptions to this....Some turn to vinegar and are sour...those we throw away). I truly love my friends and as I sit here today I am wishing I was having them all over tonight to do it again!!!!


Oh and if you were wondering.....the party was a complete success. My sister did over $1000.00 in sales. What that means for me? I got over $150.00 in free products and 9 1/2 off items. I loooove my house to smell good....so this is fantastic for me...also I was able to get some birthday shopping done. Visit my sister's website if you would like to host a party or just order some smell goods. https://nrcourtney.scentsy.us/home Wooohoooo!!!!! I can't wait for everything to come in.

Fight the urge...let them merge!!!

My question today is......we as parents teach our little ones to share, be polite, use good maners, be courtious to others....right? So why is it that while we are bringing our precious children to school we are not courtious, don't want to share or be polite? What I am talking about is the mom that is on her cell phone waiting in traffic, blocking an intersection, ignoring her children, refusing to make eye contact with the person trying to turn in front of her.....Hey mom...get off your cell phone, pay attention to your children and use a little common courtesy......it is no fun waiting in traffic during carpool...but really, do you think if you let ONE car go in front of you the world is going to end? Do you not let that car in because "You were there first?" Think about what you are teaching your children....so when little Suzy is at home tonight and she doesn't want to let Sam take a bath before her...and you are exhausted from working all day and you just want your children to get along and be courtious....Remember this morning in carpool.....Fight the urge to be a total DOUCHE BAG and let them merge!!!!

Thursday, January 28, 2010

Part Brag....Part Warning

So..McHusband is McAwesome! He is the most hands on dad...he is the one that does homework with the girls and takes them to the mall and tucks them in every night that he is home. He has been working 7 days a week, 12 hours a day....he finally gets a night off and he takes his girls on a date...we go eat a fabulous meal at A'Mazin's and my oldest daughter(who wants to be a chef)would like to have Creme Brule for dessert so McHusband offers to take them to L'Auberge to have dessert....my younget then preceeds to say "This is the best night ever....none of my friends ever get to go to L'Auberge on a school night!" After dessert we let the girls play in the Arcade...and I swear you would have thought that we brought them to DisneyWorld.


McHusband and I have our own way of communicating....I might tell him that I hate him.....but really what I am saying is I love your guts and can't live without you. When he calls me an ahole...he is really saying... You are my best friend and I love you! It is very twisted but it works and I can't imagine sharing my crazy world with anyone but him.

I know what you are thinking.....okay where is the Snark in that?????

Wait for it, wait for it.....and now

Not only is he the best dad and husband ever....he is also a super talented guy, that is always willing to help his friends(and mine)....and is usually every one's first call when they need help or advise....while this is really nice...it can really get on my nerves!!!! I love that McHusband is so talented and sought after......however when I start feeling like he is being taken for granted or is unappreciated, well I am not having that. Keep that in mind, okay. You have been warned.

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

It's a small world after all!

What has prompted me to start "My Snarky Corner"

Do you ever wonder how the world can be so big...yet seem so small? Take for instance. I follow several blogs and yesterday I go to one of them....it's one of those awesome mom blogs..you know the ones that have the cute pictures of their kids and their lives....the ones that make you feel completely inadequate...yeah that one! "Awesome Mom" is doing a complete remodel(down to the studs)on the home of my childhood memories. I was all ready to see the pictures of all her and "Awesome Dad's" hard work...when instead I was hit right smack in the face with this!


Crash Landing
I have had the "opportunity" to deal with some very poor business practices lately. I am no business genius, but I find myself giving business advice to total strangers/business owners. Unfortunately, I have been the victim consumer in the situations.

I bought gift cards for my family to The Landing restaurant for Christmas just 4 weeks ago. When my parents went to redeem theirs on their special night out, they were denied and told there was a new manager and that they were not honoring them. Then they were told to call the number on the card to see if "there was even a balance on there." Confused my parents left and went elsewhere to eat. You can imagine how upset I was so I marched myself down there at 8 o'clock PM in my painting attire (thank you very much) and demanded an explanation. The harried manager/owner, Rachelle, came over to me and proceeded to dump on me her business woes and how she was cleaning up the prior owner's mess. For 20 minutes. No joke. She kept telling me that she did not actually buy the business The Landing and that there were "no assets" to be transferred so they could not lose more money on patrons' gift cards. She said she was just renting the building...

HUH?!

I was so angry and shocked. I had given these to my family for Christmas!! They had not used them!!

Then this woman had the nerve to get in my face and tell me to stop rolling my eyes at her and that I was being "hostile." Crazy. I still had no clear explanation or apology or a way to get my money back (it is a significant amount).

Another manager came out and had some class and clarity. He explained to me that the previous owner of The Landing, Josh Rogers, had walked out. Done. Finito. And this woman Rachelle and her husband agreed to open a completely new restaurant in its place to keep the employees employed. The owner of the property wants it to remain The Landing in some way to remain a landmark, so that's why the name is the same. Interestingly though, the new owner Rachelle is on facebook for the restaurant acting like it was just closed for repairs and to get a new menu and that The Landing is now open...lies.

Well, ok then. I get it. Still stinks but ok. I then told the woman that she should not treat future customers like this if she wants her business to succeed. I mean, I know way too much about her business and how the past owner left her with a $2000 trash bill...not for me to know. Anyway, I am sure she was tired and stressed about how her restaurant was about to fail just one week in.

Apparently the former owner is to blame but SOMEBODY owes me DINNER or MY MONEY!!! sheesh. Hey Josh Rogers.. when are you cooking me dinner?!

Now....as soon as I picked my jaw up off of my desk...I called "Awesome Mom" and we talked about what happened and I explained to her that I know Josh and this is NOT Josh...I asked her if it would be okay if I sent the above Post to Josh and she said sure....I called Josh and told him what I tripped over and would it be okay if I sent him the post.....Josh is an upstanding guy...one of the good ole boys...and of course I knew he would not want his name tarnished in this way. I gave "Awesome Mom" Josh's phone number and email and this is the update.....

Tuesday, January 26, 2010
Crash Landing...the updated saga
So I have a family member who knows the previous owner of The Landing and she spoke with him about this today. He DID in fact sell the business to these new people of Rachelle's The Landing and in the sale the gift card balances were addressed. And as I suspected, the guy is a good guy and sent me his contact info to make it right. Well well...that's refreshing and disheartening at the same time because that means the new owner was LYING to me. boooo.

My husband spoke to him (previous owner) and he actually offered to refund the money. Nice, but I kind of feel bad for taking the money because it's these new peeps who owe me, right? I cannot believe these new owners are telling these sob stories when it seems they can only blame themselves. Hmmm what to do? I normally don't get all controversial and loud, but I really feel there are tons (according to new owner) of gift card holding patrons who were cheated. Cryin shame!

The moral of this story is........you can't treat people like that....you can't talk trash about people like that...you can't tarnish someone's reputation like that...cause you never know what "Snarky Mom" is lurking around the corner!!!!