Happy Halloween from Wal Mart

I try not to venture in here. Especially after a comment from an acquaintance once when I mentioned I was afraid I couldn't afford to shop anywhere else for groceries: "Well, then, you should go to college and get a degree. Then you could afford to shop somewhere else." This was after I had graduated with my bachelor's degree and been accepted to nursing school. Oh, the joys of having a sociology degree.

Anyway, our bank happens to be in Wal Mart, so sometimes we have to make an appearance. This sign was the first thing I saw when I walked in.

Now I remember why I'm going to nursing school.

Trips

Chase and I have been trying to plan a trip for a long time. I have had a bunch of unused Delta Skymiles in my acount for years, accumulated mostly from business trips I've taken. It was never quite enough for a flight though, so back in June we decided to get one of those American Express cards that gives you Skymiles with each purchase, plus 15,000 bonus miles when you sign up. Or so we thought. We had originally planned to go to Maine in August, to visit Acadia National Park and my friend Brittany. However, we soon found out that the miles take 8-12 weeks to come through on your account. A couple of weeks ago I was thinking about this, and wondering why, though we'd waited months, these miles had stilled not shown up on my account. (We'd bagged the Maine idea a long time ago, traveling to Canada instead, and were now looking to fly to Florida for a cruise to celebrate our anniversary and Chase's graduation.) When I called American Express, they informed me that they'd "made an attempt" to transfer the miles to me in June, but because my name was different on my card (married name) than my Skymiles account (maiden name), it wouldn't work. Besides being annoyed they hadn't notified me of this little problem, I thanked the man and set to work faxing my marriage certificate to Delta so they could change my name. Despite this, the miles still did not appear (meanwhile rates to Florida are increasing daily). When I contacted them again, after forty minutes on the phone, twenty of them spent on hold, and a three-way conversation between me, an American Express lady, and a Delta lady, this is what I found out:
Delta lady: The name on your American Express card and the name on your Skymiles account don't match, so we can't give you the miles.

Me: Nice try, I faxed the marriage certificate in last week and they told me everything was updated.

Delta lady: It says here that the name on your Skymiles account is Ashley Raymond.

Me: Yeah, that's right.

Delta lady: Well, the name on your card is Ashley L. Raymond. That is not the same name.

After a little more negotiating, I agreed to fax in my drivers license, which lists my middle name, so that I could prove to them that I am Ashley L. Raymond, instead of the "other person" they had an account for, who happened to have my same first and last name, address, phone number, social security number, and credit card number. The conversation ended like this:

Delta lady: Before I hang up, would you like assistance booking any hotels or rental cars?

Me: NO! (Because of you, I probably can't even go on my *@$#?&#* trip!)

Delta lady: Would you like to apply for an American Express Skymiles card and receive 15,000 bonus miles with your new card?

Me: Aaaarrrghhh! (Hang up phone)

After a few more painful phone calls and several more painful days of waiting, I am pleased to say that we have now booked our flights and cruise in December. Finally...in seven weeks we will be here:

Stories, Updates, & Things Left Unblogged

So I've taken a break from blogging for a while...to focus on the election (ha! just kidding - although my candidate is pulling ahead...yay). So what has been going on...

1. A couple of months ago, in an effort to be more environmentally conscious, we downsized to one car and bought this:

Cute, fun, 80 miles to the gallon...but it broke down this week. I never really thought about how you'd get a scooter to the shop to be fixed when it doesn't work...you can't tow it, nor does it fit in your car. We're still working on that one...

2. I have learned how to can. Sort of. Some women in my ward were nice enough to teach me. Eventually I would like to know how to do this on my own, but since I don't have any of the equipment, I settled for canning in the church kitchen (applie pie filling!) the first day and in someone's home kitchen (tomatoes) the next week.



















































Next I'm looking to buy a wheat grinder so I can make my own whole wheat flour.

3. I'm going to have a niece! My sister already blogged about it here, and I am so excited...we guessed it would be a girl, and we were right. What else would you expect from my family?