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!

Changes

The beginning of a new year always brings new changes to peoples lives. I just didn't expect to have all these changes to happen at one time.

Before Christmas Brandon and I decided to really start looking into buying a house. Luckily we didn't have to search for a real estate agent. Since my dad builds houses for a living, we are just using is real estate agent. So bright and early on Sunday December 26th, Sherrie sent us a long lists of homes to start searching through. Little did she know that I had already been searching every day for weeks. So when she sent the list of houses in our range, I was being a complete house snob. You see, I grew up in construction. I've always been looking at houses, floor plans, and interior decor. Most little girls dream of their weddings when they are little, but I dreamt of my house. And to put it nicely, I am very particular. So when Brandon liked a house that I had already decided wasn't worth my time, I was a little in shock.
We set up a time to go and visit this bank owned home. We brought both of my parents along, for sanities sake, since we had the boys with us too. The house was almost 4,000 square feet, and super cheap. I instantly fell in love with the house and started thinking about all the possibilities that we could do. We had my dad call and get estimates on repairs. The grand total on interior and exterior repairs totaled at close to $25k. We thought we would go ahead and put in an offer just to see what the bank had to say about it. This house had sat on the market for almost 6 months with no offers. But in Howard luck, someone put an offer in at the same time as us. Talk about a nail biter. The longer we sit and wait to hear from the bank, the more ideas I come up with and the harder Brandon and I fall in love with this house.
So we are currently just waiting to hear back.

Next change:
After having a disagreement with our rental company, Brandon and I have decided to move out of the house that we are renting. We have to be out by the end of the month, and aren't really sure what's going on with our living situation. We are currently going to rent a storage unit and stay with my parents until we hear back from the bank on the house we offered on. I am under a ton of stress from this move, because the rental company came and put a for sale sign in our front yard, so not only do I have to pack, but I have to pack and keep our house clean in case they want to show it before we leave. We have a lot of other stuff going on between now and the end of the month which also worries me!

Next change:
With Brandon's job, we have the privilege of attending dinners with the partners from his firm, and other attorneys in the area. In December Brandon signed us up for the Springfield Bar's yearly dinner where they swear in the new members to the board. From what Brandon had told me from the get go, this wasn't a super fancy dinner. So I was planning on wearing some black slacks and a pretty top. As the date got closer, I asked Brandon to ask his office manager what she would recommend to wear. She responded, not super formal, but cocktail attire. OH NO! I have no cocktail attire. I've gained weight and really anything that I had that was dressy, doesn't fit. GREAT! I was already in a panic with trying to pack with the boys in the house, and now I have to go shopping hours before the event and attempt to find a dress on my own.
Luckily, my dad was able to come over and watch the boys so I could run to the mall and start the dress hunt. Luckily I found two dresses on clearance at Dillards. SCORE!
I ran home got the boys packed for a night at my parents house, fixed my hair, shaved my legs, and finished my makeup. I drove like a speed racer to my parents where, I got dressed and headed out the door within about five minutes. I forgot my cell phone, and was supposed to meet Brandon in the parking lot of a strip mall, but couldn't find him. I was in my dads truck and he didn't know it, so we apparently kept driving around each other looking like complete idiots. We made it to the dinner on time, and had a good time chatting up with other attorney's from his office. We headed to Steak N Shake after the dinner was over, because fancy food just doesn't fill this girl up!
While I was completely stressed that day, we actually had a really good time that night. We woke up the next morning and started packing again!


It's just a day in the life of this crazy house!!

Snow Day!!!

Living in Missouri, we experience all four seasons. Sometimes all in one week. This week, we had our first real snow of the season, so the boys and I got all of our snow gear on and headed outside. It was a wind chill of -8, so we didn't stay outside very long, either time we went out but the boys had a blast sledding and exploring in the snow.

Success Camp

I've mentioned in previous posts about lia sophia. Before moving to St Louis I had never heard of lia sophia jewelry. Actually it wasn't until we had already lived there for over a year, did my dear friend Carrie invite me to a party she was having. I'm not big on house parties or direct sales, but decided why not. Brandon kinda pushed me out the door and encouraged me to take some time out of the house.

I didn't know anyone, but Carrie. I felt a little out of place and didn't really have a lot of money to spend. I sat through the party, played the game, and fell in love with the jewelry. I'm also a person that loves my diamonds and can't wear anything but real gold or I break out in hives. So while I loved this gorgeous jewelry I was looking at, I didn't know how or if I would be able to wear it. After looking at the hostess benefits, and some serious arm twisting by one of Carrie's friends, I decided to have a party.

All the way home, I thought about what the lady said. She even showed us her 1099. We were needing money, I was needing time out of the house, I wanted/needed to meet people, and I loved the jewelry. By the time my party rolled around, Brandon and I had agreed that I would sign up to sell lia sophia. I was a little freaked out by my starter party. I seriously knew a hand full of people in the entire St Louis metro area. So thankfully my mother in law also loves the jewelry and invited several of her friends to attend. Carol actually stayed after the party (which was held in our part of the house; the basement!) for two hours asking my advisor questions. Little did I know that Carol was planning on signing up to help me out!



Anyway.... every January our "region" holds a massive training event in Chicago. Last year I went and drove to Chicago from St Louis with black ice covering the roads the entire way. As valuable as the training was, and as awesome and encouraging as it was to be in the same room as ladies that were making $100,000 to 3 million dollars selling jewelry was..... it was not worth risking my life again to drive 5 hours in the middle of winter. So when August rolled around and it was time to register, I talked to Carol and she said we could fly as long as I could drive to St Louis. YEAH!! I looked forward to this trip until the night I left for St Louis.



Our flight left STL at 6:15 in the morning I so I was up and ready to walk out the door by 5. Impressive for me for two reasons 1. I am not a morning person AT ALL. 2. I was up until way past in a complete panic about the weight limit of my suit case and painting my nails.... you have to have priorities and I thought that was one! Anyway, we arrived at Lambert Airport on time, got checked in and headed to the Admiral's Club. Carol travels a lot for work, so this is one of the benefits that she gets and shared with me. I've always wondered what was behind those doors... and it's pretty cool. While we were waiting to board I saw Phyllis from the television show The Office too. (She along with several other castmates are from the St Louis area)

Carol and I had a great visit on the plane, landed safely in Chicago and headed to the hotel where the training takes place. We immediately got checked into our room, dropped off our stuff and headed into some training events. We learned a lot of vital information that day, had a nice birthday meal for Carol that evening and had a great time visiting with each other.

Saturday morning we woke up and heard from the keynote speaker and continued with vendor shopping, a couple of training classes, and a chance to look at the new line jewelry. We ended the day with a cocktail attire yummy dinner and awards ceremony.

Sunday we packed up and headed to our last bit of training. The leaders that were there did a couple of funny skits, we had some good entertainment and finished everything up by lunch time.

We hightailed it back to the airport shuttle and we were on our way back to St Louis. I was happy to get home, but so happy to have attended this weekend for so many reasons. I am really hoping to re-kick start my business. It's something that I love, so wish me luck!