Lots of scary things going on lately!
I was at work on Tuesday until one of the associates told me at my store I might want to call home because Virginia just had an earthquake. I was wondering what the heck was going on, and then I check my phone and see my house called, and Ryan had texted me about checking in because he heard about the earthquake too.
I called home immediately and talked to my parents. They were fine, thank God, and they told me that they talked to the rest of my family and everyone was fine.
The earthquake was a 5.8 magnitude, which is big time for the East Coast! My mom said she was at her desk when it started majorly shaking so naturally she was scared. Work sent everyone home for safety reasons and the big chance of a pretty large aftershock.
I'm glad to hear no one was hurt, but it does look like some pretty historic buildings had significant damage. Here's a website in DC showing the damage done to the beautiful National Cathedral:
http://www.dcquake.nationalcathedral.org/
On top of the Earthquake, there's a nasty Hurricane Irene getting ready to hit the East Coast. I'm hoping it doesn't cut too many people's vacation's short, and I definitely hope no one gets hurt!
The Hurricane just so happened to hit our vacation island that we'll be visiting in only 5 days. Soooooo glad that we didn't chose to go this week, but soooooo hoping we have an island to visit in a few days!
http://www.foxnews.com/weather/2011/08/25/east-coast-checks-bridges-readies-plans-for-hurricane-irene/
Check out the link above for a video. I told Ryan last night that even if there are storms when we're on vacation, we'll live. A rainy day at the beach is better than a sunny day at work :)
Thursday, August 25, 2011
Thursday, August 18, 2011
Rena Brynn
My sister in law, Emily, created a cute video of my niece, Rena Brynn's, couple of "firsts". I love watching this since we can't be there to see her do it ourselves!
Enjoy watching her cute little butt :)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bxc29kQlrjs
Enjoy watching her cute little butt :)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bxc29kQlrjs
Wednesday, August 17, 2011
Watch out, Nicole Kidman!
While watching the CMAFest Sunday night, I realized it's been so long since I've been to a country concert and how bad I wanted to go. Keith Urban has an excellent marketing team and I just so happened to see a commercial that Keith Urban was coming to the Sprint Center in KC this Friday, August 19!!!!!
I first checked my work schedule. Opening Friday and closing Saturday. Yessssss....that meant it was possible if the concert was at a reasonable hour and it wasn't sold out.
I didn't have high hopes when I was going to the ticketmaster.com website. I assumed, being that it was a week before the concert, there would only be nosebleed seats available if anything at all. OOOOOOH I was wrong!
I found tickets on the Lower Level for $50.....FOR TWO TICKETS! Yes, youheard read me correctly. I'm still in shock.
I bought the tickets ASAP in fear that there was something wrong with the website and if I didn't do it right that second then I would lose them. After I bought them ($52 after taxes, no processing or convenience fees, etc I might add), I realized I probably should of sold the idea to Ryan before doing this, but lucky for me Ryan reluctantly agreed to go if I drive and he gets to drink. Done and done. :) :) :)
This is very clearly exciting to me since I'm dedicating an entire blog post about it. Not much happens with the Hibbard's in the small town of Overland Park. This is big :)
Mom - I'll record this song just for you if he sings it :)
YEEEEEEEEEEEHAWWWWWW!! ;)
I first checked my work schedule. Opening Friday and closing Saturday. Yessssss....that meant it was possible if the concert was at a reasonable hour and it wasn't sold out.
I didn't have high hopes when I was going to the ticketmaster.com website. I assumed, being that it was a week before the concert, there would only be nosebleed seats available if anything at all. OOOOOOH I was wrong!
I found tickets on the Lower Level for $50.....FOR TWO TICKETS! Yes, you
I bought the tickets ASAP in fear that there was something wrong with the website and if I didn't do it right that second then I would lose them. After I bought them ($52 after taxes, no processing or convenience fees, etc I might add), I realized I probably should of sold the idea to Ryan before doing this, but lucky for me Ryan reluctantly agreed to go if I drive and he gets to drink. Done and done. :) :) :)
This is very clearly exciting to me since I'm dedicating an entire blog post about it. Not much happens with the Hibbard's in the small town of Overland Park. This is big :)
Mom - I'll record this song just for you if he sings it :)
YEEEEEEEEEEEHAWWWWWW!! ;)
Tuesday, August 16, 2011
Choking the Gecko
I admit I love the Geico commercials. They're incredibly funny and innovative. I do love the gecko, but I'm feeling like this right now:
I want to take a minute to vent about why they're making me so mad.
A long, long time ago (April 2011), our brand spanking new (to us) Rav4 was hit was some really, really bad hail damage. I took it to Geico so they could create an estimate so we could get it fixed. We were told it was going to cost over $4,000 to get it fixed because of the hail damage on the roof and on the side of the windows. Good thing we weren't having to pay for it ourselves!
The estimate included paint repair. As we know, Ron has a Toyota dealership and is very familiar with claims and body work. He advised we should take it to another body shop to see if they were about to do it without getting any paint repair done to it. Paint repair depreciates the car faster than it does with just dent repair.
Lucky for us, the Toyota dealership said they could get it fixed without having to do paint work. A month later, my car is beautiful again and all is happy. Even better, because there wasn't paint repair there was a $1000 left from the Claims check that wasn't used. I was told by the guy at the dealership that there are many insurance companies that issue the difference back to the owners.
I was curious, so I called before we had it fixed at the Toyota dealership. I called Geico not once, but twice, about assuring the money would get sent back to us (meaning Ryan and I and Toyota Financial) and not Geico. Stupid me didn't record the dates or the names of the people I talked to, so now it's turned into a he said, she said battle, and we've lost.
My frustrations are this:
-We were mislead. We shouldn't of been told that we would receive the difference from multiple people at Geico.
-I've called the Claims rep, Victor, for 2 months. I left messages, and when I did get a hold of him, he would write down my name and Claim number and would tell me he would call me back. He never did. Not once.
-After telling Victor's supervisor my frustrations with having to keep following up with this, he proceeds to tell me that it's my responsibility to call him if I can't get in touch with Victor. Ummm....what?? Am I going crazy here? What's wrong with this picture?
-I explained to Victor that I work with customers and manage a team, and if one of my reps told a customer something, I would honor it, even if it wasn't correct policy. It's called good customer service and doing what's right. Because he's choosing to fight instead of checking into our account in more detail, he's going to lose 2 customers. Basic math = is an $1100 check worth a loyal customer of 2 years paying $130/mo? It's definitely worth it for us to go somewhere who will honor what they say in case something like this happens again.
Stupid. Stupid. Stupid!
Who can recommend some excellent car insurance companies??? I've heard good things about State Farm & Farmer's Insurance, yes? I'm thinking we should get a local agent who can handle these kind of disputes themselves!
I'm done venting now. :)
A long, long time ago (April 2011), our brand spanking new (to us) Rav4 was hit was some really, really bad hail damage. I took it to Geico so they could create an estimate so we could get it fixed. We were told it was going to cost over $4,000 to get it fixed because of the hail damage on the roof and on the side of the windows. Good thing we weren't having to pay for it ourselves!
The estimate included paint repair. As we know, Ron has a Toyota dealership and is very familiar with claims and body work. He advised we should take it to another body shop to see if they were about to do it without getting any paint repair done to it. Paint repair depreciates the car faster than it does with just dent repair.
Lucky for us, the Toyota dealership said they could get it fixed without having to do paint work. A month later, my car is beautiful again and all is happy. Even better, because there wasn't paint repair there was a $1000 left from the Claims check that wasn't used. I was told by the guy at the dealership that there are many insurance companies that issue the difference back to the owners.
I was curious, so I called before we had it fixed at the Toyota dealership. I called Geico not once, but twice, about assuring the money would get sent back to us (meaning Ryan and I and Toyota Financial) and not Geico. Stupid me didn't record the dates or the names of the people I talked to, so now it's turned into a he said, she said battle, and we've lost.
My frustrations are this:
-We were mislead. We shouldn't of been told that we would receive the difference from multiple people at Geico.
-I've called the Claims rep, Victor, for 2 months. I left messages, and when I did get a hold of him, he would write down my name and Claim number and would tell me he would call me back. He never did. Not once.
-After telling Victor's supervisor my frustrations with having to keep following up with this, he proceeds to tell me that it's my responsibility to call him if I can't get in touch with Victor. Ummm....what?? Am I going crazy here? What's wrong with this picture?
-I explained to Victor that I work with customers and manage a team, and if one of my reps told a customer something, I would honor it, even if it wasn't correct policy. It's called good customer service and doing what's right. Because he's choosing to fight instead of checking into our account in more detail, he's going to lose 2 customers. Basic math = is an $1100 check worth a loyal customer of 2 years paying $130/mo? It's definitely worth it for us to go somewhere who will honor what they say in case something like this happens again.
Stupid. Stupid. Stupid!
Who can recommend some excellent car insurance companies??? I've heard good things about State Farm & Farmer's Insurance, yes? I'm thinking we should get a local agent who can handle these kind of disputes themselves!
I'm done venting now. :)
Thursday, August 11, 2011
2nd Honeymoon = Booked!
In 18 days Ryan and I will be well on our way to what I'm calling our second honeymoon. I mentioned in an earlier post that we decided not to do gifts, and to take that money and put it towards a trip. I think a trip away is good for our relationship and much more memorable than some watches :)
I'm so glad we decided this because we'll soon be looking at this:
and eating this:
and doing this:
aaaaaand this:
I'm so glad we decided this because we'll soon be looking at this:
and doing this:
this picture is a combination of relaxation and laying out, but I just thought this puppy was too cute to not post
After much debate (and when I say debate, I mean debate with myself. Ryan didn't really care where we went), we decided on the Norwegian cruise out of Miami. It's a 4 night cruise and there are no sea days. We stop at Freeport, Great Stirrup Cay (private island), and Nassau. We plan on staying Friday night in Miami to explore the city before we fly back on Saturday. A big thank you to Kim for finding this cruise because my eyes skipped it!
We (meaning I) picked this vacation for a few reasons:
- We loved our cruise to Alaska. It was soooo relaxing, and being that we don't have to pay for food the entire time, it's cost effective. Yes, drinking and excursions add to the cost, but we think it's still cheaper than going to just one place for a week.
- We've only really been on 2 vacations together, and none of them have been tropical. We went to FL a few years ago, but Ryan got really burnt the first day and that pretty much took out any other beach days we could of had. That trip was more to visit his Grandma Bev & to go to Disney, anyway.
- Norwegian is supposed to be a good cruiseline for younger couples. The cruise will have bar crawls, White Parties, and lots of different entertainment. This will be completely different than our Honeymoon, but I think we'll enjoy it. We don't plan on drinking ourselves crazy all week, so don't worry.
- My work schedule didn't really allow us to leave for a cruise on Saturday or Sunday, so this was a good cruise that leaves on a Monday.
- We want to travel and see as much as the world as possible before we settle down with kids. We would never be able to do a cruise like this even 5 years from now, so it's perfect timing :)
I think I'm way more excited than Ryan, but once he starts packing I think he'll show more excitement.
By the way, I don't know if I've raved about priceline.com before, but if I haven't, I need to. If I have, I need to do it again. We were able to get a room at the Sheraton in downtown Miami for only $55!!!! Name your own price is amazing! On top of this, we have a rental car we're able to use Friday & Saturday for only $16!!!! How crazy is that!!!! Amazing! Ryan will one day appreciate my thrifty spending :) Thank you daddy for showing us this :)
In other news, my friends Cindy & Jared just welcomed their second little one into their lives. Isabella Claire was born August 4th and she's perfect! They have such a cute family!
Congratulations Barsanti family!! <3 We are so very happy for you and can't wait to meet her :)
Wednesday, August 3, 2011
Random Thoughts
-The customer service industry is screwed. So many customers expect so many ridiculous things I can't even handle it sometimes. No, you don't get an extra discount on your phone because you've been with us for a long time. No, you don't get a discount on your monthly plan because you pay your bills on time. I pay my car payment on time every month, but I don't get a discount off of the car. No, telling me that I did something wrong when in actuality I didn't have anything to do with the initial problem will not make whatever you're trying to get right. I am not the CEO. Ugh. I appreciate the customers that understand policies, and I'm glad there are more nice people in Kansas than nasty ones!
-The movie Crazy, Stupid, Love. is crazy, stupid good.
- I want Zoe to have a brother or sister. Ryan still won't cave.
-The show Toddlers & Tiaras is depressing.
-Ryan and I will be on vacation together in 25 days. Can't wait for our second honeymoon <3
-My boss is crazy. I hope he doesn't read my blog.
-I miss my family and I miss my friends.
-I've read really, really good books lately. I need more Nook friends so I stop spending $12/week on new ones. Don't read the Jaycee Dugard book because it's really, really sad. People are crazy, but I'm so glad and so surprised to see she seems so "normal" for having so much wrong done to her for so long.
-Margaritas are so, so good in the summer.
-So many friends are having kids, and Ryan and I still aren't close to being ready. I think once we have a house, I'll be ready as ever.
- I love, love, love my car. Love.
- My parents still amaze me in so many ways.
- I hate I can't see my niece Rena every day. I hate I can't see my Goddaughter Riley and Elly all of the time. I hate I can't see Jayden or Taiten or any other cute babies I know and love. I hate I can't see Graden and Abby grow up. I hate I'm missing all of them grow up. I pray every night Ryan gets transferred to Charlottesville ASAP.
-My DiSC profile is "Inspirational". I lead a team by inspiring and motivating. My boss had me do a DiSC test and I had a 55 page report sent to me explaining all about me. It was spot on. Me in a nutshell: stubborn, sarcastic, hard working, fault finding, emotional, always right, and independent. I handed the report to Ryan and told him this is my User Manual for the year. He didn't read it.
-Monacan High School's 10 year reunion is next year. 10 years. Graduated. From high school. I'm so, so old!
-More people should relax by taking bubble baths. I am included in this "more people" equation.
-Zoe wakes me up in the middle of the night whining wanting to get water out of her water cup. How did I let her get so spoiled and how do I make sure I don't do this to our kids?
-Why do people join Twitter? An even better question, Why am I on Twitter?
-It's hard to believe Fall is just around the corner. Fall is my FAVORITE season! Can't wait for it to cool down a bit!
-The movie Crazy, Stupid, Love. is crazy, stupid good.
- I want Zoe to have a brother or sister. Ryan still won't cave.
-The show Toddlers & Tiaras is depressing.
-Ryan and I will be on vacation together in 25 days. Can't wait for our second honeymoon <3
-My boss is crazy. I hope he doesn't read my blog.
-I miss my family and I miss my friends.
-I've read really, really good books lately. I need more Nook friends so I stop spending $12/week on new ones. Don't read the Jaycee Dugard book because it's really, really sad. People are crazy, but I'm so glad and so surprised to see she seems so "normal" for having so much wrong done to her for so long.
-Margaritas are so, so good in the summer.
-So many friends are having kids, and Ryan and I still aren't close to being ready. I think once we have a house, I'll be ready as ever.
- I love, love, love my car. Love.
- My parents still amaze me in so many ways.
- I hate I can't see my niece Rena every day. I hate I can't see my Goddaughter Riley and Elly all of the time. I hate I can't see Jayden or Taiten or any other cute babies I know and love. I hate I can't see Graden and Abby grow up. I hate I'm missing all of them grow up. I pray every night Ryan gets transferred to Charlottesville ASAP.
-My DiSC profile is "Inspirational". I lead a team by inspiring and motivating. My boss had me do a DiSC test and I had a 55 page report sent to me explaining all about me. It was spot on. Me in a nutshell: stubborn, sarcastic, hard working, fault finding, emotional, always right, and independent. I handed the report to Ryan and told him this is my User Manual for the year. He didn't read it.
-Monacan High School's 10 year reunion is next year. 10 years. Graduated. From high school. I'm so, so old!
-More people should relax by taking bubble baths. I am included in this "more people" equation.
-Zoe wakes me up in the middle of the night whining wanting to get water out of her water cup. How did I let her get so spoiled and how do I make sure I don't do this to our kids?
-Why do people join Twitter? An even better question, Why am I on Twitter?
-It's hard to believe Fall is just around the corner. Fall is my FAVORITE season! Can't wait for it to cool down a bit!
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