Sweet Victory!

For months now I have been battling back and forth with the landscaping company that planted our grass, shrubs, and tree when we built our house. They planted this tiny little tree in our front yard that never stood up straight. It always leaned to the side and it didn't bud with many leaves. It was pretty pathetic looking. Once Spring came and neither the sun or watering it to the gazoo didn't help the little tree perk up, I called the landscaping company since our yard was still well under the 1 year warranty. I asked them to come out to look at the tree and to stake it up so it wouldn't be leaning over. They never came. I called again. They never came. I called again. They never came. You get the idea.
About 2 months ago we were in the middle of one of Tulsa's lovely tornado storms, and the wind got pretty nasty. I turned around from my desk to look out my front window and I could see our pathetic little tree bending all the way over in the wind. I just knew it wasn't going to hold up. As soon as I thought it, it snapped right in half!
The next day I called the landscaping company again, and told them what had happened to our tree. I did a lot of leaving messages for the person that was supposed to work with Simmons Homes warranty issues. She had a problem with calling people back.
This person finally had her assistant call me back to tell me that they were not liable for replacing the tree since it was broken in a storm. This is where my stubborn and strong-willed personality starts to really kick into high gear. I told her assistant the tree breaking in the storm was not the whole story and she knew that, and she could take yet another message for her boss to call me back to talk about it further.
I then called the warranty contact person at the Simmons Homes main ofice and asked him about the situation. He said he showed that they should have already came out to take care of my tree. I said that it looked like someone wasn't doing there job to make sure things were followed through. I told him that I was not going to pay full price for a brand new tree and I get a wimpy tree, that broken because people neglected to take care of the tree before the storm. Interesting how none of the other trees around our neighborhood had problems in the storm? Interesting that our tree is probably the littlest tree that has been planted in the neighborhood?
After that phone call, followed by a handful of other phone calls to the landscaping company, I guess they got the hint that I wasn't going away. Because as of this week they FINALLY called me back and said they were BRINGING ME A NEW TREE!!! They brought me a hearty red bud tree, and they put stakes around it so it would hold it up until it has grown more.
It was funny because when the young men were digging our half there tree out, he told me that because this part of the tree was still alive, they would still use it again somewhere else. I asked him if they were going to plant it in someone elses front yard of their new house? He said probably so. I told him that I hoped they would let it grow to by a full tree first before planting it in someones front yard that they paid full price for. He just laughed.
Needless to say, I haven't been that impressed with the landscaping people. But in the end, the points were given to the stubborn big pregnant lady! Victory is sweet!


This is the half there tree after the top half broke off.



Here is our new red bud tree.

Is it really July?

If you are anything like me, you are finding yourself wondering how we are already into July 2010!? Most days are such a busy blur that I'm not really sure what I've been doing with our time. Our home has been very busy getting ready for baby girl #3, but we have also been trying to do some fun things with the girls this summer.
This past weekend we celebrated 4th of July, and being the tired and hot pregnant momma that I am, forgot to bring my camera along on our adventures. So I have ZERO pictures of our 4th of July weekend. How wrong is that!
Robert had 4 days in a row off from work. The girls were so excited to have daddy around more. Partly because I've been a little on the slower side these days, daddy is much more fun to be around. Whatever the reason we took fun advantage of having him around. We got our yard work done, jumped on the trampoline, baked cookies, went to the zoo with some old friends, took the girls to see Toy Story 3, and then took a road trip to Bartlesville to see an amazing fireworks show that some other friends of ours put on.
I wasn't really prepared for how big of a deal the fireworks were going to be. They had a bunch of acres of grass and they had the whole party and show set up on their land. They had food, drinks, music, and then everyone found a spot in the grass to sit and watch the fireworks when it got dark. Right before they started the fireworks, they welcomed everyone, had a prayer, and one of our friend's sang the National Anthem while a huge flag was lit up hanging on their barn. We all stood and sang together and saluted the flag. It was a really neat little program and it helped us take a minute to remember why we really celebrate this special day. (For my Aunt Laurel's peace of mind- I do remember why we celebrate the 4th of July.) :)
Since I had Robert home with the girls, I was able to sneak away one night with a good friend of mine to a movie I've been dying to see. Twilight: ECLIPSE. It was a lot of fun and it didn't disappoint. In my opinion, it was the best of the movie series to date! You gotta go see it.

Here are some other things we have been up to around our house-

I made this cute little hanging decor for the baby's room. I'm not a huge crafty person, so I was proud of it. :)

I've been driving my husband nutty with going up and down the attic to bring me storage bin after storage bin of old baby stuff. It took a lot of sorting out what I could use and what I couldn't, then washing and hanging them, but look at all the cute little outfits that I got out it!
It was fun to see the little cute outfits that I remember dressing my other girls in. It seems strange when I hold up little newborn outfits that I will have a daughter that small again.

My handy hubby built these great storage shelves in the baby's closet so I could start organizing all the baby stuff in baskets. It was a great help!

Again, handy hubby put these shelves up for me to put more baby stuff on. Rob was wondering why I have such an obsession with baskets? Hello- look how cute they are and they keep things organized. Need I say more?

The girls have been playing tea parties, and waitress to their stuffed animals a lot these days. It is fun to watch them pretend play together.

Of course the girls and I enjoy baking chocolate chip cookies whenever it isn't too hot to turn on the oven. Sorry for the blurred picture, my husband is great at many things, but taking pictures is not one of them. :)

I helped be in charge of our church's Primary activity this month for the kids. We had fishing, slip and slide, a petting zoo, and paddle boat rides. It was a lot of fun, and the kids just LOVED it!

Alyssa is in the blue coverup. She caught a great fish, but I didn't get a picture of it.

I do insurance billing still from my home office, and I've been spending a lot more time in this room working. I know that it will get a little more difficult once I have a newborn to tend to, and I won't be feeling well for a little while. So I'm trying to get to a point in my work that I can keep up without too much extra stress once the baby comes.

I do a lot of work when the girls are napping, once they go to bed at night, or when Robert is home on Friday and Saturdays. Still there are times that I need to get a few things done when they are awake, and this is what a day of my office looks like when they are.

They are my little co-workers. Sometimes it can get stressful to balance being a stay at home mommy and a stay at home employee. But most days, I am grateful. Look how cute they are "working" at their desk. No child working laws here!