Seriously We're In America

Have you ever dealt with customer service people in different countries? Does is frustrate you as much as it does me?!
I recently found out that the bank that owned our car note, was bought out by a new bank. Let's call this bank," Bank A". While I was with the previous bank, I NEVER had a problem with customer service, online payments, or mailed in payments. All was smooth sailing for five years(two different cars, I have not been paying on one car for five years!). Anyway, since my former bank was bought out, I have had to create a whole new online account with Bank A. Should be easy right? NO. It took me over half a hour to create a simple online profile account. Seriously to set up my email, password, and car info took over a half hour. How insane is that? Anyway, when I went to pay my car note, the website wouldn't accept my payment. I tried three times, and it kept sending me the same "call customer service" note. After contemplating through my mom's laptop on the ground, I opted to pick up the phone and call customer service. When I let the phone ring about 20 times before the automated menu finally picked up, I started to get worried that maybe I was being scammed.
After I went through the prompted menu, and finally got to someone in customer service( my cell phone, said I had been on the phone for almost 7 minutes) I was a little shocked to hear someone with an Indian accent, but spoke perfect English, pick up. While this lady was friendly and attempted to help me to the best of her ability.... she ended up getting one of her coworkers yelled at. After explaining my situation to her, ( my car note was due the next day and the website wouldn't let me pay), she told me that I could pay over the phone with out having to pay the $15 service fee. Great, I was more than happy with that. But of course, she had to forward me to the billing dept. Well, she ended up transferring me back to customer service. After reexplaining what was going on, the second lady, which barely spoke English, she got a little bit of an attitude and told me that I had to pay the fee. I told her I would not pay $15 to make up for their mistake. It wasn't my fault the the website wouldn't let me pay online. The first lady had even told me that they had been having major problems with their website. I asked to speak with her supervisor, and she refused! At this point my temper was about to get out of control. After telling her for the second time that I wanted to speak to her supervisor, and she refused again, I lost it. I in a not so polite way told her to let me speak to her supervisor, or I would be reporting her and taking my business somewhere else. Where would I report her? I don't know! But at this point this little Indian lady didn't want to mess with me any more. She finally transferred me to her supervisor and after another ten minutes of waiting, I was finally able to speak to someone who could help me.
After explaining me whole ordeal for a third time, the supervisor politely explained what would have to happen. I would have to pay for the service charge on the phone call, but I would be issued a check in the exact amount and would have said check in my hands in five business days. I was okay with that. Had the second lady explained it was me, I would have been okay. But she didn't.
All in all, I was on the phone for over 30 minutes. And I still can't log into my online account with Bank A. Thankfully my car will be paid off by the end of the year!

More Changes

While we were in Oklahoma, we ran into some problems with the house that we'd put an offer in on. As we pulled into our drive, we found out that we didn't get that house. While we are disappointed, we had way to much to focus on, so we finished packing, cleaning and moving into my parents house.
Knowing our disappointment and crazy scheduled life, Brandon's mom decided to start looking for house to help us out. Somehow Carol found a website that I had never heard of, and sent us about 8 or 9 houses to check out via the web. With a huge snow/blizzard coming to the area, we shopped online and waited for the weather to pass before actually looking at any of these houses in person. We really liked one house, but after driving past it, decided that the neighbor's were a little unkept. On to the next one. With yet another snow storm coming into our area, and 8 inches of snow already on the ground we headed to check out another house. I'll admit I was a little skeptical of this house online. I knew the area that it was in, and when I was growing up, it wasn't the nicest place. Plus all the pictures online made the house look super narrow, and we have ginormous furniture. And it wasn't really on the side of town that Brandon insisted we be on. We thought we'd just go ahead and take a look at it, and ended up really liking it. So we made an offer the next day! Within a day and a half we had heard back from the owner, that she would agree to our offer and heard from the bank that we would be closing by the end of February! Talk about a whirlwind!
Once again, we were kinda lucky because the bank had almost all of our information. We just had to get them extra detailed information about Brandon's lovely law school student loans. As of now we are still set to close on Feb 28. After closing we'll head back to the house and start ripping up flooring to replace with a dark brown wood flooring and get new carpet in the bedrooms upstairs. We'll also paint and clean up a bit and hope to start moving in on the weekend following closing!
I'll get some pictures up as soon as I can!

A Baby On the Way!

No! I am not pregnant! Both of my sister in laws are pregnant, but I am not!

I was so excited to find out this past fall that my brother and his wife, Sarah will be expecting their first child in April. I was doubly excited to get to cohost her baby shower.
We decided to have her shower at the church that my parents and I attend. It worked out perfectly. I was a little torn on how to decorate for the shower but love the colors that I ended up going with. There was a great turn out, and Sarah got tons of great stuff!
I along with the rest of my family, especially my boys cannot wait for Mr Jaxson Edward Bearden to arrive in early April!

I Bet God's Laughing

We just returned from a trip to Norman, Oklahoma. Normally, these are happy, fun, and laughter filled trips. This one was a little different. On Monday night, January 24, Brandon's Maga (grandma), left her Earthly home and went to her forever Heavenly home. While we will greatly miss Maga, I know that as soon as she entered the gates of Heaven she had God in stitches!

I first met Elaine only five months after Brandon and I started dating. I was terrified the entire trip to Norman, and as soon as I walked in the door, her first question to me was, " I know you grew up in church, but what do you believe?" I was a little shocked, but left that trip in love with Brandon's maga. Shortly after asking me that questions she asked if Brandon and I wanted to go to the local Indian Casino! Over the years, Brandon's grandma, became my grandma. I love her and could talk to her like I had known her my entire life. She is by far one of the funniest women I have ever known. You never knew what was going to come out of her mouth! Brandon and I often say that Daniel is just like his Maga, he beats to his own drum, just like her!

It was awesome to think Monday night after we recieved the phone call, that at that very moment, Maga was seeing God face to face. It was an awesome thought, that turned that very sad moment into a joyous moment. I think that thought changed Brandon's and I's perspective for the entire trip. While we will miss Maga, we know that she is absolutely the happiest and healthiest that she has ever been. She's walking hand in hand with her Savior and she with her husband again. Throughout the funeral we were able to shed a tear of sadness, but still have a smile on our face and in our hearts.

I will always tresure the love for her family, her love for life, her love for her country, and her love for God. I will never forget the moments or conversations we shared, and she will be remembered every year espeically on May 9th. She shared the same birthday day as her first born great grandkids- the twins!