Dinner with Jude

Tonight we went over to have dinner with Lance, Nyx, and Jude. The kids had a great time playing together and I enjoyed the opportunity to talk to adults. :)

After dinner things got a little crazy. Mr. Lance decided to throw Jocelyn across the room to Mrs. Nyx. Jocelyn loved it!

Jude wanted a turn too. I like how it looks like he is flying right over Jocelyn's head.

I Got Mail!

I was very surprised when I went to the mailbox today to get the mail and I found a card for me from Clay.

This is my first piece of mail with a military postmark.

It was a very sweet anniversary card.

It takes about 1 1/2 to 2 weeks for snail mail letters to get to where Clay is. We have mailed him tons of cards, letters and drawings to decorate his plywood bedroom with. It was so nice to get a card from him. We hope to be getting many more in the future.

We mailed Clay his first "care package" this week. We were waiting until he was able to give us a list of things that he needed. He emailed me and told me that he needed more razors, ankle height workout socks and some new cologne. The girls and I went shopping and got everything on his list plus a movie, puzzle book, playing cards, warm pajama pants, and lots of candy. We wrapped everything individually with Valentine paper and put our Valentine's Day cards on top. We are hoping that he enjoys his early Valentine's Day gift from his girls.

1, 2, 3, 4...Pose!

Today was "Observation Day" for Madison's ballet class. This was the first time that Daddy wasn't there to watch her. Here is a cute video I took of the "1, 2, 3, 4 pose" dance. Madison is the little girl right behind the teacher, well at least for a little bit. ;)

Sears Cares

A couple of weeks ago I wrote a post entitled Clay is in Qatar. In that post I mentioned the following:

"This morning I was trying to get all of our laundry done from being gone for 10 days when the washing machine died. It died in the middle of a load so the wet clothes were locked inside. Of course when I called Sears the washing machine is no longer under warranty and they can't send a repair man out until Friday. What is going to break next?"

Much to my surprise I received the following comment on the blog post:

SearsCare said...

To Rabens family,

My name is Brian and I am part of the Sears Cares Escalations team. I am sorry to hear about the problems with the washer as well as it happening at a time like this; then again no time is ever a good time for your washer to break. We would be glad to talk to you about the situation to see how we can help. At your convenience, please contact my office via email at searscares@searshc.com so you don’t have to continue to be frustrated. In the email, please provide a contact phone number and the phone number the washer was purchased under (if different than the contact phone number) and we will call you directly. Also, please provide the screen name (Rabens family) used to post here for reference to your issue, and we do look forward to talking to you soon.

Thank you,

Brian J.

Senior Case Manager

Sears Cares

Needless to say I sent Brian an email and a Sears Cares representative called me back the following day. Our Sears Cares caseworker Kathy informed me that they would get someone out to check the washing machine and that I would need to pay the $129.00 service charge but that Sears Cares would reimburse it. The repair man came out on Christmas Eve to look at the washing machine. The only problem he found on it was a torn gasket. He had to order the part which cost $255.13. Luckily the people at Sears Cares are going to reimburse $112.15 of it, so it will only end up costing us $142.98. Don't get me wrong, I still think that is a lot of money for a rubber gasket, but it is a lot better than paying full price. The repair man should be coming today between 1:00 and 5:00 to put on the new gasket. That means we will have a working washing machine and I can buy the extended warranty so that if anything else goes wrong with it over the next year it will be covered. But wait.... here is the best part. Sears Cares is going to give us a complimentary one year warranty for our washing machine!!! So if anything else goes wrong with it over the next year it will be covered!!! Yeah!!!

Thank you so much Sears Cares! It is such a relief to know that it is one less thing I have to worry about while my husband is deployed. It has been a pleasure working with you all.

Time Out

Jocelyn got sent to the "time out" bench today. Just a few seconds later I got a quick phone call. When I hung up, I had completely forgotten that Jocelyn was in time out. A couple minutes later, I remember and headed to the time out bench to talk to her.

I found her asleep on the time out bench. That is one way to serve your time, especially when Mommy forgets you are there. Oops!

Ready to mail!

Today I was busy writing thank you notes for all of the amazing Christmas gifts we have been given, when I got a phone call from my brother. I walked away from the thank you notes for just a minute. When I returned, I was surprised to find Jocelyn sitting there holding up a picture she had drawn for Daddy and announcing that it was ready to mail.

The little stinker took one of my stamps and stuck it to her picture. :)

(By the way, she dressed herself today. I told her she could stay in pajamas since we were just staying at home. She insisted on wearing her cherry pajamas, which are short sleeve. I told her it was too cold that she needed to wear something with long sleeves. So she did. She put on her Christmas pajamas with her cherry pajamas on top. Madison tried to tell her that they didn't match, but Jocelyn just said they both had red in them. Boy do we love our silly Jocelyn.)

Gift from Granddaddy!

Granddaddy surprised Madison by buying her her very own "pink" Nintendo DSi. Madison was so excited!!!!

That night Granddaddy sat Madison down at the dining room table and read the instruction manual to her. It was so funny to see her sit there and try so hard to pay attention. Granddaddy was even quizzing her on the safety rules. The poor kid just wanted to play her new DSi. Finally it was time to play. YEAH! Madison played for about 20 minutes and then got distracted and ran off to play with something else. Granddaddy on the other hand was addicted and sat at the dining room table most of the evening playing the new "pink" DSi. I must admit that it is quite addicting.

Jocelyn is even enjoying playing it. The girls have used several of their Christmas gift cards to buy DSi games. If anyone knows of any good little girl DSi games, please let us know.

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Thank you very much Granddaddy (and Grandma)! We are having so much FUN with our new toy and everything else you got us for Christmas. The best gift was just getting to be together though. We loved getting to spend the week together. We love you and miss you already. XOXOXOXOX