I DID IT

I did it, I downloaded a blog template and it actually allowed me to get rid of the GIF. Ofcourse it also deleted a few of my other widgets but I don't care, I was getting tired of them anyway. Now I can look for new widgets to add to my page. YIPPEE. I still have links to friend's blogs and the other sites I check often.

I LOVE the new template, it's really cute. I'm playing around with it a bit so it may change a little but I now have my title at the top.

Updated Blog Scheme

As you can see I still can't get rid of that animated gif I inserted in my header. I am trying to work with it but I really hate it. There is a glitch in the blogger system and it won't let me remove it from my layout. I can revert back to a classic layout but I lose all the stuff on my side bar like my links, hit counter etc. But I may have to do it just to get rid of the gif.

I have friends with blogger blogs, typepad blogs, wordpress blogs and mac blogs whop have such creative templates and headers, wish I could do more with mine right now.

Since there was NOTHING on TV last night now that Idol is over, I spent a good 45 minutes playing around with templates and colors on my blog and could not remove the header. Oh well, those that read this blog know who I am, guess I don't really need a title or a picture to tell whose blog it is, RIGHT?!?

Dry Basement + New Carpet +New Furniture = Happy Alison

So, the flooring company mentioned in the prvious post is NOT, I repeat NOT, making it right so we thought the heck with them and are getting carpeting from another place. But hold it, wait a minute, back track, the basement is DRY, yes DRY. Yes St.Louis had about 4 inches of rain this weekend but our basement is dry. Thank God for sump pumps!!!

So we picked out carpet and then I saw that Rothman's was having a Memorial Day Blowout sale. I thought I would take a look at a love seat I liked for the basement because we currently have no furniture available for down there.


We are not getting all of this, actually getting 2 love seats and the accent chair and ottoman which I love and will put in my living room not the basement. We will move our taupe colored leather chair and ottoman from our living room down in the basement with the smoky love seats. I think it will look great.



These are the tables that we got. I may end up having these in my living room also and give the kids my old ones from up there. I just love the stone look of them!

Carpet and furniture will be installed and delivered in about 2 weeks. It's been two months so what's a couple more weeks.

Customer Service

I have been hassling with the flooring company who installed the carpet in our basement for over 3 weeks now and it has really got me steaming. The salesman brought out three samples of carpet for us to choose from that were in the price range discussed with our contractor who sub contracted the flooring to Borghi Floors. Of the three samples we chose one from a 4in by 4in square. Two days later we were told that color was out of stock, so we choose another color. Four days later we were told that they forgot to put the order in and now it would take a few more days to get ordered and shipped from the manufactuer in Georgia. Then once it arrived there was a three day delay in getting the "best" installer to put it in. It was installed May 5th, but it looked terrible. There was a huge seam showing, adn the carpet itself was stained, yes stained. We complained and the salesmen came back after 3 more days and said yes he would have to re-order more carpet to make up for the stained piece. At this point, we told him we were unsatisfied with the carpet's quality as a whole and we wanted it removed and something different put in its place. The carpet was removed on May 12th but left to sit in the garage because someone from the manufacturer was going to come and inspect so that Borghi Flooring could get their money back. As of yesterday the carpet was still in our garage.

I called Kenny, our salesman again to complain about removing the carpet from the garage. He very rudely told me it couldn't be removed until it was inspected. I told him I wanted it gone today or we would put it out in the trash. At this point this guy starts yelling at me saying if we put it in the trash they will sue us etc. I very calmly told him that I never signed a contract with him, I signed it with our contractor and as of yet we had not paid our contractor for the flooring portion of our remodel and I would not pay if this was not rectified. I also told Kenny that I would never reccommend the company to anyone. He told me he wouldn't want to work with anyone I would reccommend anyway. At this point as he continued to yell, I hung up.

As I was steaming mad, I called Borghi Floors and asked to talk to the owner who I left a message for. He returned my call later and I explained everything that had happened over the course of the last three weeks. All of which he was unaware of. The owner promised to have the carpet removed today and he said "he wanted to make this right." To be honest, I really don't believe that this company will make it right. In fact I am ready to go through another company. AND as of yet we are still unable to use the basement as there is NO carpeting down there, just sub floor.

What was suppossed to be finished within a week is now going on a month, and there is no end in sight! FRUSTRATED does not even cover it.

Needless to say if you live in St. Louis and need flooring, don't go to Borghi!

A Camping We Will Go

Just got back from the 8th grade camping trip. I went with the 8th graders from my school and their teacher to a camping trip at Camp Lakewood in Potosi, MO. It was a blast. We spent 3 days and 2 nights out there this week and the kids had an awesome time. Several of these kids were ones that I had for the last two previous years in my 6th and 7th grade classroom. It was cool to be able to spend this time with them and see how much they have grown and matured.

They experienced all sorts of activities from canoeing to riflery to archery to wall climbing and a zip line. They participated in large group team building challenges and learned how to build a fire. The camp had an interactive campfire for us with songs and skits and ofcourse smores. We braved the rainy weather, the bugs and all the hiking. (I'm exhausted)

I was happy to be home Wednesday night. I thought I would post some fun pics from our adventure.

Interview Time

Since my last post was about an incident at work, I thought today I would write about an interview I had. I interviewed at the Mehlville School District. The person interviewing me was the principal at one of the middle schools. The interview went really well, it started out with the standard 20 questions that everyone gets asked but we veered off when he found out that I had experience teaching 6th and 7th grade and a background in special education. We really hit it off and he told me he had a communication arts opening for 6th grade. By the end of the interview he said he would definitly call me back for a follow up interview at his school next week. I am very excited, Mehlville, like all districts, has had it's problems but for the most part they are a pretty big, stable school district!

Go Panthers!

Peace

There are a lot of things to blog about concerning this title. The main one being an incident that happened at work, which I will get too in a minute. First off, basement update.

The carpet was back ordered and should, SHOULD, be in on Friday to install Friday afternoon. The outside stuff is done the painting is just about complete inside. All that needs to be finished is the carpeting, the baseboards and the trim. All should take place on Friday. Then we should be able to move everything down there this weekend. YEAH!!!!!! Bob is off, it will be a cool weekend, not too hot, perfect for moving stuff into the basement.

Second, Boomers update.

Hannah's team played last Sunday and she pitched almost the entire game except for part of the 3rd inning in which the other pitcher allowed 8 runs. Hannah's team lost 18 to 6 but she did do a really good job of pitching.

Now, school incident. (this may take a while to explain)

Here goes, yesterday, our school counselor arranged for this exhibit called the Peace Museum to come to our school and do these hands on little centers with our 2-5 graders all about peace. There were 10 stations. I was asked (or rather told) that I would be running one of the stations for most of the day. Breakfast and lunch would be provided to those that ran a station. So I show up early at 7:30 to the "training" for my station, I get myself organized and ready and the first group of kids comes through the exhibit taking about 90 minutes. Just as the second group is coming through, I get paged over the intercom to come to the office. So I run down to the office to see what's up. Our literacy coach, Mary, is sitting in the secretaries seat and she goes, the principal, the PE teacher, the secretary, the other resource teacher, and 3 other classroom teachers are all absent today. No subs have shown up, there were two fights one in 6th grade and one in 4th grade involving 6 students plus 3 other kids got kicked out of ISS (inshcool suspension) and I need someone to help me call parents and run the school.

So I am like YIKES!! Sure I'll help, what can I do? She goes start calling parents to come pick up these kids who are ALL now suspended. So of course I start doing what she asked. Meanwhile I send a note upstairs to the counselor explaining the situation and telling her I will be back ASAP. After about an hour, most of the kids in the office have been picked up and things have calmed down. Mary tells me that there are only 3 of us ( including me) to do lunch and recess duty instead of the usual 5. So of course I tell her I will help. So by this time it is just about lunch time for the volunteers upstairs. SO I run up to tell the counselor that I have to do lunch duty but I can return to my station after that when the afternoon sessions start up. She is in the staff room getting the pizza and salad set up and I come and in and again apologize and ask if there is anything I can do to help. She very forcefully tells me " No we don't need you." So I am like well I'll be back after lunch and she goes " I said we don't need you!"

Back I go downstairs to the office and I tell Mary that I think I just got stiffed out of lunch. She's like, no way, she will still let you eat, what's the big deal, I asked you to help me out. So I stay in the office answering the phones while Mary goes to the first lunch duty. Meanwhile another friend comes down to bring me a soda and another comes down to see if she can bring me lunch. So I'm like, I don't think the counselor will let me eat, she's mad. So my friend, Karen, is like that's ridiculous, you were doing what you were told, I'll go bring you some food. Karen comes back empty handed and says the counselor told me you couldn't eat because you made a choice to leave your station and come down here and they didn't really need you. So now you don't get to eat. Karen said she explained that I was doing what I was told and that I would be back later. But the counselor tells Karen to go downstairs and ask if I was going to be back later or not. At this point I told Karen, don't bother going back up there, I wouldn't eat now if she paid me too.

Karen was upset, I was upset and for the next 20 minutes several of the other teachers came in to hear the story and express their outrage. I never did go back up there but instead did my lunch and recess duty and helped out in the office. I didn't see the counselor for the rest of the day and I have decided that it is not worth my time or effort to say anything to her. But I know that what goes around comes around!

The ironic thing about the whole deal was that we were helping out at the Peace Museum, their motto being Peace for Me, Peace for You, Peace for Everyone, Peace for the Planet. I guess the counselor missed that message!