Things are going well this year. I am finally going to be able to start creating some jewelry. Now that I am at my first week at work part-time this is attainable.

Yesterday was Joe and my 9 year wedding anniversary. Love him to death! He is a wonderful husband.

Next year is about creating and living life with passion!

Unfortunately this blog is not upbeat. But I need to rant about what went on with Sears. the problems Joe and i have been having.

Two weeks ago we come home from Charlotte to find water all over the kitchen floor. We found that it was coming from the dishwasher. looked in the dishwasher, it is flooded. I scoop all the water out of it… later I go downstairs to the finished basement to check on the cats to make sure everything is ok while we were gone and to change the litter. I get to the downstairs and I scream!  The ceiling in the basement came down. Drenched with water the tiles fell from the ceiling and were over the floor. Not only that there is extensive water stains and damage to the other part of the ceiling.

Called Dennis. He told us to turn the water off for now.

Following day had a handyman come in and he said it wasn’t from the pipes. If it were the pipes the water would still be leaking even after we turn the water off.

Joe called Sears. A repairman came out a few days later. Said that this model was flagged. They found a defect in the dishwasher and Sears was going through the list to call everyone with our model to have the service technician come out. We never received that call.

The technician said that the models have been having the same problem. He DID NOT look at the whole dishwasher. Just changed a part he thought it would be.

The following morning I get up go downstairs and the floor is full of water again and the dishwasher is flooded whole where the ceiling tiles used to be is leaking from the overflow

So after Joe was SO PISSED off that he wrote about our whole ordeal with Sears on his personal blog. A couple days later one of the head people from Sears in the Presidents office left a comment on his blog. After that one of the heads of customer service top rank next to the Presidents office called Joe. Said that the situation would be rectified and that he wanted Joe to call him when the technician came yesterday so that he would make sure everything was done right.
He told Joe that he saw that the technician was running behind so he was putting us next in line.   The technician NEVER SHOWED UP!!!!!!!!

So Joe spoke with the head of customer service on his way to work. He said that he was promised the technician would be out here between 8 ad 12. We had to wait 2 weeks since the fist technician was out. But not only that. the problem with the dishwasher is coming from the hot water. So when we do the dishes we have to go underneath the sink and turn the hot water on. Otherwise it will slowly leak into the dishwasher which will cause the overflow.

Ok and with all that going on Joe is keeping in touch with someone else from Sears who is going to pay for the damage to the ceiling. He thought that she was going to send someone out to fix it, but now it turns out they don’t have any contractors in this area.  Joe needs to call some people and we need to get two quotes.

I am hoping that we get this ceiling fixed by the end of September.

All could have been prevented if Sears would have sent someone out when they knew there was a problem with this model. We only had it for 5 months!It should  have been replaced! They said withing 90 days they will replace it. With all of our trouble they should replace it with a better model. Dishwashers should not break after 5 months!!!!!!! ARGH!

I’m not even as upset about the dishwasher being broken. I can handwash dishes. Its that we have to go under the sink to turn the hot water on every time we need to do that dishes. It is also because there is ceiling damage and we have been looking at a whole in the ceiling in the finished basement for 2 weeks.
This should have NEVER have happened! Sears prides themselves on customer service. It has gone DOWNHILL in the past 10 years,

Joe wrote on his blog that it is a good thing that Mr Roebuck is not alive because he would want his name taken off of the store. He also said that it would have never have happend in the days that he ran the company.

So that is the Sears saga… oh and we also had a problem when we were going to have our refrigerator delivered.

The head of customer service told Joe that he guarantees that the problem will be rectified by Tuesday. Joe asked him again. He said. “You are telling me that this is all going to be fixed on Tuesday? You guarantee that? I can tell my wife then?”

They need to do something. The thing that makes me mad is that this company makes so much money. Why can’t they just take the $599 dishwasher and replace it with something that does not have a manufacter defect. It can be the same price dishwasher. Or maybe they could give us one that never had a problem. Even if it cost $800. That is nothing. Especially when Joe and I can go to all our coworkers all our family and tell them what a bad experience we had with Sears. It may not make a difference to them and they may still buy Sears products, but they may also think about what we went through and go somewhere else.

I know if this happened to one of our friends I would definitely rethink buying anything else from Sears.

My family have always bought Sears products, I have always bought some things from Sears. Joe and his family bought Sears products for years as well. I NEVER saw my parents go through what we are going through.

I am just so upset at this whole situation. I think since Joe and I are both in Customer and Patient service fields … we are extra sensitive. Even if we were not in customer service fields it is not right what we are being put through.

They pride themselves on customer service? Not from where we are standing.

Now going to go create some jewelry.

Happy to report that our friends Rachel and Julianna had their baby girl! Lousia is her name and she is cute as a button. She was born December 14th. Cheryl’s daughter Heather had a baby girl too. Her name is Kaitlin and she was born on December 17th.

It has been a good year. I have met new friends. Got a job with a good company socked some money away. Things are going well. Joe is finally at a job that appreciates him and rewards him for his work. He is also doing freelance writing for a company out of California. They love his work. Yahoo loves his work as well. They have put a few of his articles up on the front page of their site about 4 times in the last few months.

Careers are going well, we were able to put away some money this year. It feels so good to be out of brokeville.

Now new things will be on the horizon in the next couple years. Adoption is going to be at the top of the list. Going to try to adopt from the state. Have to go to some classes and get the ball rolling. That will happen after the cruise in February. We would really like to adopt a baby, but a toddler would be fine as well. Who knows… keeping out options open to whatever the universe has to hold for us.

It was our anniversary yesterday and we stayed in. The cruise is our anniversary and birthday presents to each other. It is going to be wonderful to have a vacation just for us.

Looking forward to the New Year and what is has in store for us.

We finally had the Prius delivered. I am driving it during the week and Joe drives it when we go out. We love it! He put gas in it the Sunday after Thanksgiving and it still has gas in it. I have driven almost 350 miles and it still has 1/4 tank of gas. The best thing about it is that it only takes 20 bucks to fill the tank. And it takes regular gas! Joe was putting in 30 bucks a week when he was driving the VW. What a savings!

I love the color of the car inside and out and love the xm… not that you can love a car. Let me rephrase. I really, really like it! This is a car that we will keep for years to come. And it being made by Toyota it definitely will last for years and years. I had a Toyota Tercel in my 20s. It was 10 years old, maybe more. It was like driving a go cart. I had it for about 2 years. The only reason that I didn’t have it longer is because the bottom half of the car was rusted out and it wouldn’t pass inspection. I only paid 400 bucks for it, and it got me where I wanted to go. It served me well!

Joe has been chosen by his Regional Manager to go to the Apple conference in San Francisco.  Only about 20 people chosen from the retail stores to go. So pretty big deal! I am a little jealous! I haven’t been to San Fransico since September of 2000. I wish I could get some time off and go with him. However we do have the cruise that we are going on in February. I was thinking I would take the weekend to go with him, but he is only going to be there from Mon-Fri and Apple pays for his ticket.

Even though I wish I could go with him I am VERY EXCITED for him! It is a tremendous opportunity. He will get to meet Apple employees from across the country as well as people from the home office. He works hard there and he deserves it. He also has alot of fun working there as well. It is so wonderful seeing him enjoy his job. A long time coming. He is also doing freelance writing on the side and he is enjoying that as well.

Things are going well for us. I am very grateful!

I am not holding my breath.

I would rather of just waited and had a call when it was actually here. We are told it is going to be here sooner and get our hopes up and then disappointment. I would rather wait till next Monday then have to keep going through getting excited then disappointment.  Back to the waiting game.

Joe did some research and found out we could get a trade in on the VW and the loan that we could get would make the payments the same as the VW.  Well $5 more. So we went looking at the Toyota dealership and test drove a Prius. We have been wanting one for a couple years.  Me especially.  Want to do our part with helping the environment as well as save money on gas.  We were also thinking of our time traveling.  The Prius gets such excellent gas mileage!  We would be able to drive to PA or to FL and not have to fill up on gas till we get there.

The Pruis gets 51mpg highway and 60mpg city.  It was weird seeing that on the sticker.  That a car gets better gas mileage in the city then highway.

So this past Saturday we put our order in for a Prius.  We were originally going to go with the Seaside Pearl.  But we looked at it again and it looks sort of purple in the light.  We saw the silver pine mica which is a silvery green color.  Really love that color so ended up ordering it!  I always wanted a green car and this isn’t too green.  I was thinking I would get sick of the blue after awhile.  And we already have a blue Scion.

Really looking forward to taking our first road trip in it!  This is a car we are going to have for years to come.

I may need my passport for the cruise we are taking in February. Luckily I will not have to wait in line like that again. You can renew through the mail. Though I don’t have to worry about that for 10 years! Good thing!

I was cracking up at it!