I won!!!

The phone rang this morning and the only info the caller ID was showing was "Mountain Area C" and a number. Usually I let the machine get those calls, and if they want to talk to Donald Duck (AKA Alex :P) then I'll listen to what they say, but otherwise its too bad for them. But I was bored this morning! So I answered.

"Hello?"

"Hi, is this Abby Burrell?"

Stink! A junk call. Why do I answer these when I'm bored? I don't know. And why do I always feel disappointed when I find out that it is indeed a junk call? That I REALLY don't know!

"Yes it is!"

"Congratulations! You have won a $500 shopping spree and you can shop on our website and pick whatever you want up to $500 worth free. There is of course a small shipping fee."

Of course.

"And in addition to this free $500 shopping spree you also are going to get a free 60-month subscription to any 7 magazines you want! And that is entirely free except for a $3.64 handling fee."

Woopee. (that is said in the enthusiastic Polecat Jack style from Patch the Pirate, of course!)

"This is because we drew your name because you have either a Visa or a Mastercard.... (pause).... You do have a Visa or Mastercard, don't you?"

ARG! So to make a long story short, she transferred me to someone else who was going to handle something (I had no idea what, but the girl was so nice and friendly sounding that I would've felt guilty hanging up on her. Yeah, I'm a wimp!). So I get transferred to someone else and she was asking what magazines I want. Did I ever say I wanted any?!?

Because I could hardly understand her I kinda said yes (not a good idea for junk calls, guys!!) and fortunately nothing rash was promised from that. I guess I determined what kind of magazines I wanted. So then she asked (VERY smoothly, I might add!) Does your name on your credit card have a middle initial like mine does, or is it just Abigail Burrell?"

YIKES!! I replied, "I don't give out my credit card info over the phone." She must have taken that as a bargaining offer, because then she told me I could have 5 magazine subscriptions for $2.64.

I told her that she could take me off her mailing list because I really wasn't interested in all this stuff anyways, and she thought that, "maybe you're surprised at winning so much, but really for only $____ you can have this stuff!"

So I again repeated that I do NOT give out my credit card info on the phone (a very good policy, I might add!) and she started to argue back again when I asked if she could send me something in the mail that I could SEE. With my eyes.

Her reply: "Thankyouforyourtimeclick"

Whew! I only answer junk calls once in a blue moon, and if I am very bored, but each time after I hang up feeling very frustrated I always ask myself why on EARTH I did it again!???

Caller ID is a WONDERFUL invention!

Happy Presidents day!

We've been looking for a house lately and real estate was already sort of a hobby for me... well, now its an obsession! It's so fun to look at houses online and pick the coolest ones. Not quite as fun when you're working with a $$ limit, but still very entertaining :).

We have been out twice now with our realtor to look at houses and so far our favorite one is still right across the street from where we live now. Its a small older house but it has one acre of property with it and the house is pretty cute. And it has a nice kitchen with a bazillion times more counter space than I have here! We looked at another house that has a little shed out back with a really cute apartment in it. That one had a pretty small yard and we've been told its in a bad neighborhood, but other than that I liked it!!

Hmmm, other than that we haven't been doing a ton lately. Alex's friend Carl came down for the weekend again and we had a lot of fun :). He looked at houses with us and got to hear Alex teach a Sunday School class. And we watched Mythbusters and a kind of weird Shakespeare movie (Taming of the Shrew).

I made an idiot of myself again (what's new?) on Sunday :). We got to church about a half hour before S.S. starts, and our classroom is the old science room (the church used to have a school in it). So there is a whole solar system hanging from the ceiling, and other various objects around the room. I wandered over to a shelf in the corner and found the frog that Alex had broken the leg off last week, (it's plastic and it opens up and there are all sorts of frog parts that rattle around inside it). So I picked it up, turned around, and asked Carl, "You wanna digest a frog?" He had a funny look on his face and I was trying to think what I'd just said when Alex said, "Digest a frog?!?" Then I finally realized what I'd said, and now every time I think about it I start laughing at myself all over again :). It cracks me up that I just blurted that out and then couldn't think of what was wrong with it!!

Hey, we finally have our official wedding pictures back!! Do you want to see one? OK:

And hows about another?Heh heh, that's all for today, folks!!!!

SORRY!!!

I know I'm supposed to update this thing occasionally, but it seems like there's hardly anything happening that is really worth mentioning. Especially since most everybody knows everything we do anyways, right? Oh well, here goes!!!

We did go up north for an extremely short visit in January. We were gone almost a week but spent most of our time on the road. At least it felt like it! We were going to go visit Alex's Grandma in NY because she was very sick but we ended up going to her funeral instead. So we drove all night after work on Thursday to MI and stayed there one night, left the next evening for NY with Alex's sisters & families and got there about 6am. We were driving in HORRIBLE blizzard conditions!!! I wanted to hibernate in MI until spring but Alex said we couldn't. So then we had the visitation and funeral and then got up early on Tuesday morning to go back to MI. We got there in the evening and had supper with Andrew, visited with Mom and Rachel for a little bit and then had to go to bed so we could get up early on Wed. We got home (to LA) about 10pm Wednesday night and Alex had to go back to work the next day. Boy were we ever tired after all that!!!

So here's a few pictures we got in MI. We hardly got any. I got to hold my new baby niece for the very first time!!! She is soooooooo adorable!!!
And I got to see that my nephews are as crazy as ever :D.

Oh yes, and see all the water in the big ditch between our parking lot and the road? Its usually empty and dandelions and stuff grow in there, but when it rains a lot the thing just fills up. I was very impressed by that, so I took a picture so I could show everybody :D.

See, here's what its usually like. The pic where its full was taken a couple weeks ago when we had a tornado warning and it was storming for the afternoon.

Other than that... probably the most exciting thing I've been doing is working on sewing my civil war dress! My goal is to have it completed by the end of March since we have a reenactment that last weekend every year on the Port Hudson battlefield. So far I have my chemise started, my bloomers started and my skirt started. Haha, nothing finished yet!! Oh yeah, and my petticoat is mostly done. I bought a hoopskirt on eBay a couple of years ago so I don't have to worry about that. I'll post some pics when I get a little more progress done on it.

Oh yes, and since most of my faithful readers are in MI I just thought possibly I should give y'all the local LA weather report: Sunny and63 degrees with a light breeze. Ahhhhh! Since I heard you are having blizzards up there I just thought possibly you might like to know how gorgeous it is down here. For once I am happier with our southern weather than with your snow :D. Of course Monday I wasn't happier with our weather because it was 80 and VERY humid. We had to turn on the AC finally! So then I was jealous of your snow, but not anymore! Heh heh, and on that parting note, I had better go and start stamping valentines! See you all later!

P.S. And just to cover everything since last time I posted, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, ya'll!! And Happy Groundhog Day!! And to cover for until next time I post, Happy Valentines Day, Happy St. Patricks Day, and Happy Easter!