Holly’s Happenings

Today’s mail was filled with the usual items, bills, bills and more bills…LOL! I also got a FUN package that I’ll tell you more about later, a letter stating that our health insurance is going to be canceled in one week because we forgot to sign something and a bank statement.

First topic, letter about the insurance being canceled. The last piece of paper that I signed for this insurance was in April, over 7 months ago! I immediately got on the phone to find out WTF was going on and the person I need to talk to about this matter wasn’t available and I was sent to their voicemail. I left a very detailed and polite message and hung up the phone. I then called back and asked for this persons supervisor, figuring that if the person I needed to speak to wasn’t in, their supervisor might be able to explain. Once again, I was sent straight to voicemail and once again, I left a very detailed AND polite message. I then went online and looked up an email address so that I could send an email trying to find out what is going on. I mean, for God’s sake, it’s Friday afternoon, no one is available on the weekends, Thursday is a holiday and they’re saying my policy will be canceled on Friday. That gives me a grand total of 2 freakin days to try and keep my insurance policy from being canceled. Am I the only one that sees something wrong with this scenario? So, I sent out a very detailed AND polite email in hopes that between the voicemail messages and the email that someone would get back with me today, to at least acknowledge that they’ve heard from me. I mean, how difficult is that? Apparently too difficult, because it’s been 2 hours now and I’ve heard NOTHING!

But, the other piece of mail brought GOOD news!! Yes, I’m talking about my bank statement. The last time I had checked my checking account, I had a grand total of $1.51 in it. I figured I’d just let it sit there and draw me a penny’s interest every quarter….LOL!!! Imagine my surprise when I opened my statement today to find that my account no longer had $1.51 in it, instead it had MORE! So now I don’t have to fret and worry about how I’m going to pay one of the bills that was due yesterday, which is a HUGE relief!

So, even though I’m really ticked off about the insurance thing, the balance in my bank account made me feel better….LOL!:D

We decided that tonight was time for dinner out!  We haven’t eaten out in forever, so it was much over due!  And with the discovery that I made a little while ago (which I’ll post about after this), we’ve decided that it’s going to be something other than the restaurants we typically go to!

With that decision being made then comes the chore of figuring out something that the four of us can agree on.  I tell you, between myself and the kids, we’re the hardest bunch to please when it comes to going out for dinner, especially when we decide against our typical spots!  Applebee’s was the first option that my daughter brought up, but unfortunately with the fact that I don’t eat red meat or chicken, the options for me from their menu are few and far between, and frankly their veggie pizza sounded revolting!  Then my son brought up Smokey Bones.  Now, although I don’t eat BBQ, they have a couple of salads that I absolutely love.  But my daughter voted that one down because there wasn’t anything she’d eat.  My husband brought up Olive Garden, and as good as that sounded, I have a problem buying dinner entree’s that I can cook myself…LOL!  Finally, I brought up the place that I’ve been wanting to eat for a VERY long time!  I am a self proclaimed crab leg addict, I could eat the things for every meal, every day.  At first everyone was saying EWWWWWWWW, but then I pulled up their website and everyone got to looking at their options.  After some minor arm twisting on my part, we finally all agreed, Red Lobster was the winner.

So tonight I will finally get my crab leg craving satisfied!  Hubby and I used to go out to dinner for my birthday at a restaurant called Joe’s Crab Shack.  It was my all time FAVORITE restaurant!  So once a year, I was “allowed” to be a crab leg fiend.  But they closed up a few years ago and I haven’t had my crab legs since.  I guess I’d better get ready, cuz they’re threatening to go without me if I don’t hurry up….LOL!

I like putting fun things in my kids stockings, you know, the things that they never think about putting on their wish lists? This year is going to be no exception! Since the kids are older I have to get more creative since they’ve out grown many of the different types of stocking stuffers I’ve used in the past!

Since the kids are into electronics and they both recently got new cell phones, I’m thinking I’ll get them some fun cell phone accessories for their new phones! My son would love an awesome case for his phone and I heard him asking his dad about Bluetooth headsets, so since the price has really dropped on those lately, that would be a great stocking stuffer!

My daughter is into this “all things cute and pink” stage, which is weird for me because she’s always been a major tomboy! So I’m going to grab a cute pink cell phone case as well as some cute charms for her cell phone!

Yup, it’s Friday!  Can I hear a great bit WHOOOHOOO???  It’s been a fair week, nothing horrible happened, but it’s also been a semi stressful week as well!  My son’s first high school grade card came this week with some extremely bad grades.  (Who know there was such a grade as an F-?)  I get a letter yesterday from my daughters school that she has 2 missing assignments and 2 late assignments in her reading class, which is very rare for her, she’s an honor roll student.  We also discovered that the clarinet I bought for her in eBay a few weeks ago is a MAJOR piece of junk!  Her old clarinet is VERY old, like 15 years old, and she was having a difficult time with it, basically it needs a complete overhaul.  So I went on eBay and got her a brand new clarinet, thinking that it HAD to be better than what she had, even if it wasn’t a top of the line instrument.  WRONG!  Pads are already falling off the new clarinet, we’ve had to glue 2 of them back on.  On top of  that, the upper register notes are VERY difficult to play, even for me, so there’s obviously some sort of air leak going on.  Fortunately, I contacted the seller I bought it from and they are more than willing to exchange this one for another, so I need to get it shipped out to them sometime in the next week.

I did manage to get my Christmas shopping started this week, which is amazing because I’ve always been a last minute shoper when it comes to Christmas shopping!  I ran up to Michigan and met my mom and sister at Kohl’s.  They were having a sale and on top of that my mom had a coupon giving her an additional 30% off the total price of her purchase.  I snagged up a cute corduroy winter coat for my daughter for  $17.50 and some jeans for less than $7.  Mom grabbed some shirts and sweaters for the kids as well as a winter coat for my son, so she’s getting her shopping started as well!

I’m hoping to get the house in order enough over the next couple of days that I can start getting out my Christmas decorations either this weekend or the beginning of the week.  I’ve accepted the fact that I won’t be able to put my Christmas tree up for a few more weeks, but that doesn’t mean I have to wait to put everything else up now, does it?  LOL  Hubby will, of course, have a fit when I start putting my decorations out, he always does!  I just hope the dogs don’t chew up my decorations!  If they do, then I’ll just move them outside to the shed until Christmas is over…LOL!

Yes, I’ll be the first to agree that the jolly old guy makes the Christmas holiday special as well as making kids scream with glee! But when it comes to finding great deals on my special holiday gifts, I’ve found a different source! So Santa, as much as I love you, I’ll take care of the gifts for my family and friends this year and give you a break for a change!

Other than my traditional day after Thanksgiving, wee hours of the morning shopping dash with my mom and sister, I’ve decided that I’m going to do my Christmas shopping online this year! And why wouldn’t I when CouponChief.com offers me the ability to shop at my favorite online retailers with some of the best discounts available?

For instance, one of the items that is at the top of my daughters “have to have” list is an iPod. With the help of CouponChief.com’s Apple Coupons I can get a heck of a deal on either shipping or a refurbished iPod. At the top of my son’s list is a new computer since his is currently on it’s last leg!! CouponChief.com gives me several options to save money on a new computer with coupons from HP and Dell.

So no matter what type of gift you plan on purchasing your that special person in your life, CouponChief.com is sure to have a great discount for it! I highly recommend that you check them out before you start your shopping, because as fun as it is to find that perfect gift, it’s even more fun to save some cash in the process!!!

THIS is the she I am referring to

Today is the big Michigan - Ohio battle at her school and even though she asked a few weeks ago if it would be OK if she decided she liked Ohio from now on, which made me want to PUKE, she decided that she was going to dress in Michigan colors today.

I think it’s awesome that schools do stuff like this with the students!! I think more schools should take the time to do things that are “out of the norm” with the kids, it gives them something fun to look forward to and allows them a break from the normal day to day routine that can get boring and tedious!

As for me, well, this is what I say. You can take the girl out of Michigan, but you CANNOT take Michigan out of the girl. So even though I now live in Buckeye country, I’ll always be a Wolverine at heart!

GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO  BLUE!!!!!!!!!!!!!