Time Is Flying By...

Well, today is December 2nd and I realize I haven't stopped to blog since November 22nd. I wish I could say I would do better but I honestly can't. So, rather than give up, I'll do the best I can to blog and be happy with that effort.

Thanksgiving Week:

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving this year. We truly missed having all our family for Thanksgiving dinner but we know they each had a great day doing their own thing.

On Tuesday, Nov 23rd, Claude and I headed to LaGrange in the morning to arrive at St. John's Pre-school by 10am. Bailey was having her very first performance in their Thanksgiving program and we were invited to attend. This was a big day for our littlest grandmonster. It was also a fun time for Hayden, watching his little sister and going back to his Alma Mater.

We arrived and Bailey was being left in her classroom and dressed in the Thanksgiving performance wardrobe.

Hayden, Michael and Andie joined us in the chapel. Michael was able to pass the time waiting for the program to start by teaching Hayden the fine art of Tic-Tac-Toe.

It wasn't too long before the little ones entered the chapel by classes.  Bailey's class was a couple of rows behind us. She was a bunch of wiggles and giggles seeing her family sitting in front of her. Andie had her hair done in pigtails and they seemed very appropriate for the day.

I have to say we were all very impressed with Miss Bailey the Entertainer. She was totally uninhibited. This little lady did the motions, swayed back and forth, grinned from ear-to-ear and sang her little heart out. Here are a few pictures of Bailey and her class.

After the program a light lunch was served. Michael headed to work and the rest of us stayed to eat and visit. Hayden was most excited to see Miss Amanda, his pre-school teacher last year. She had a baby the very last day of school last year and Hayden was sooooooo happy to see Claire. He took each of us over to meet Miss Amanda and Claire.

I was very impressed with how the pre-school handled this lunch. They had tables set up over the gym floor. Each table had a little fall centerpiece of some kind. Each parent was asked to provide a certain dish depending on which class their child was in. The parent was to bring two separate disposable containers with their dish divided between the two containers. Then each container could be placed on a table. When we sat down there was a plate with sliced ham, a container with fruit salad, a container with veggies and ranch dip, and a plate with rolls. The kids could eat from the containers on their table and not have to go through a buffet line. To clean up the containers could be tossed. There were dessert tables on either side of the gym so the kids could go pick a dessert after they ate their meal. Water was the beverage and some of the staff and moms were making sure water pitchers were full all the time on the tables. It was just a very efficient and easy way to do a meal for a gymnasium full of parents and lots of little kids.

After the meal, Claude and I took Hayden and Bailey while Andie stayed to help with clean-up. We drove Hayden back to his school first. Then Bailey thought she needed a run at the park before heading home. She loved pretending to be a monster on top of the playground equipment, making pretend food out of nuts and nut husks, and climbing on the playground equipment.

Tuesday evening, after a nice quiet time, Claude and I took Bailey home with us. This gave her a sleepover on her own and gave Hayden some Daddy and Mommy time without Bailey. Also, Hayden had a birthday party to attend in Wednesday.

Miss Bailey loved her car ride home. I sat in the back seat with her. She learned quickly there are lights above the passenger seats that turn off and on when you press the light. It was dark and Grampa had lots of fun driving with the psychedelic light show in the back seat.

After safely arriving in Sadieville, Bailey ran and played and watched a short show before we found her little bedroom in the basement storage room. She was quite happy to snuggle down in the Pac-'N-Play that is getting so much smaller each time she uses it. She still fills it with tons of lovies and blankets. The cutest thing about her arriving at the house was watching her roam through the upstairs looking for Tiny. That is Papa's little dog.

Thursday  we had all morning to eat and play before quiet time came. Lots of yogurt was consumed with lots of flax seed.  I purchased a bag of Cheetos for Bailey when we stopped for gas the night before. Bailey figured out the Cheetos were even delicious when dipped in her yogurt. Yum...???

 We spent a lot of time playing in the basement. We pulled out PlayDoh and  made tents. Claude even make corndogs for us for lunch and served us lunch in the basement.

After Hayden attended his birthday party and Michael got home from work, the Marx family loaded the van for their Thanksgiving trip to Sadieville. Hayden took appropriate care of his lovies. They would ride in style this trip in Bailey's car seat instead of packed in a suitcase.

Bailey was very happy to see her family again. As much fun as a little girl can have being spoiled by grandparents, there is still nothing like the love of your own family. Bailey was still working on that bag of Cheetos and she shared them with her family as they all snuggled in for a nice evening together.

Thanksgiving Day Andie had two great projects for the mini-Marx's to accomplish. They made turkeys out of PlayDoh for a centerpiece for our Thanksgiving table. They also made acorns for a snack for everyone. First the centerpiece. Andie's turkey is front left. Hayden's is center back with the entire can of green PlayDoh for the body. (Can you tell Hayden loves green!) Bailey's turkey is right front.

The acorns were so cute, so easy, and so much fun to make. Andie brought chocolate donut holes. Then she had a bowl of crushed up stuff that is all edible. I believe there were chocolate chips and crushed up chocolate candy and/or cookies. She also brought chocolate icing and pretzels. She gave each child a large spoon of chocolate icing. They held it is one hand and rolled one end of the chocolate donut hole in the icing. Then they pressed that iced end of the donut hole in the crushed up mixture. Then Andie gave them a broken piece of pretzel to put in the top of the crushed mixture for a stem. These things really looked like big acorns and they tasted yummy. Here is a picture of each of the kids with their acorn and a picture of Bailey serving the family. Poor Tiny really wanted one of them but you really aren't to give dogs chocolate. As you can tell by Hayden's face, there was a lot of tasting going on and these can be a bit of deliciously messy fun.

Papa joined us for Thanksgiving afternoon and early evening. We had a smoked turkey, rolls, mashed potatos and gravy, glazed carrots, stuffing and cranberry sauce, tossed salad and brocolli/bacon salad.

Andie also came armed with a Thanksgiving project for herself. She measured each of the mini-Marx's heads before bedtime on Thanksgiving night. Then, while they were nestled snug in their beds, Andie went to work creating two little masterpieces of head gear for Hayden and Bailey. Here they are in their reindeer stocking hats. The antlers are made out of mittens.

 Miss Bailey determined she 'was' a reindeer. I offered her reindeer food to eat (Cheerios in a bowl) and she proceeded to be a diligent and very hungry little Bambi.

Friday afternoon Andie and Michael took Miss Bailey home and left Master Hayden for his sleepover. Hayden spent a good deal of time checking out segments of the Star Wars movies, not necessarily in order. He really just wanted to learn the characters and what they looked like at different times in the process of the movies. We would watch a little bit of movie and then play other games.

One of Hayden's favorites was bringing all the train gear they have at our home up to the breakfast room area and building track systems.

We also played with the Lincoln Logs in my sewing room. They ended up being a track. Then Hayden needed an engine to ride on that track. Hmmmm...what to do.

I purchased a new box of little envelopes for when I make greeting cards. I had the old one sitting on my sewing machine to take back to storage. It was the perfect size. We were off on a project to make the perfect engine. Hayden would tell me what he needed to do on this engine next and we would brainstorm ideas to make that work for him. Eventually this project ended up at the card table in the family room and also included a coal car to pull behind the engine.

Here are pictures of Hayden holding the train and showing the side, then the bottom, then the top. He was very proud of that train and played with it the rest of the day. I took pictures of it with my cell phone and eMail them to Andie. She showed Bailey, who by this time was missing her older brother a lot. Bailey looked at Hayden holding his homemade train and said, "Oh, my Hayden Boy!!"

Saturday afternoon I drove Hayden to Shelbyville. Andie met us at the Taco Bell for dinner and then she took her little guy home.

On the ride over Hayden started to feel car sick. Just a little bit. I was very amused when in a most adult manner he said, "Ma, if you don't mind, could we find another road to ride on?"

It was great fun having a little sleepover with the mini-Marx's. We always enjoyed doing that with Nissa's kids when they were little and it is fun to have the Marxlings old enough to keep them over night.

Now, I would like to share with you "The Thanksgiving Miracle!!" 

Why is that "The Thanksgiving Miracle"? Usually I have to removed my decorating treasures off the coffee table when little ones are here. This Thanksgiving my decorations were left on the table and, other than the moving of the doily when bumped, it all stayed pretty much as I had placed it. It is just a Thanksgiving Miracle but also a sign that little ones are growing up a little more each visit.

Random Items...

So, this evening I don't feel clever enough to think of a cute title for this Blog.

Thursday evening, November 18th Claude and I attended the Scott County Historical Society's annual banquet and election of officers. Also attending from Sadieville were our City Clerk, Cindy Foster, and her hubby, Billy, as well as Loni Friddle and Don Piggins. Cindy, Loni and I all serve on the board of the Friends of Sadieville Renaissance.

The dinner was held at Georgetown College and the food was provided by them. This is the second meal we have eaten at this particular location on the Georgetown College campus. The menus are always a little a bit braver than hotel meeting fare. This time we had a nice little green salad. The interesting thing was their choice of having two cucumber slices on the top of each salad plate. One top of each cucumber slice was a half of a cherry tomato. It just looked like two eyes looking at me. I shared this observation with my hubby, big mistake. Claude moved his to the side so they would look like ears. I have to say that only made them look like the eyes of the sloth in the Ice Age movies.

Our second course was not to my liking at all. It was a cooked portabella mushroom smothered with a large slice of red bell pepper and melted cheese on top. I am not a mushroom eater. I can take a little on a pizza or in a recipe but to just eat a mushroom as a dish...it is just not happening. Claude enjoyed two of these dishes as he ate his and mine.

Our main course was chicken, mashed potatoes and steamed carrots with a creamy broth on them. I enjoyed all of this, especially the carrots. I'm really a veggie lover. However, it turns out Billy is allergic to chicken. His allergy started with eggs and progressed to chicken. I had never heard of an allergy to chicken. I had heard of an allergy to eggs.

Dessert was a wonderful cheese cake.

Friday, November 19th, my former stake Relief Society presidency was to have all gone to the temple together. When we were released in October, we all determined we still wanted to make this temple trip.

Laura was not able to participate for a most excellent reason. Her daughter had her first baby and Laura was playing Gramma.

Claude also did not get to go with us. He got up Friday morning, I thought all was well, I went to my sewing room to do some things. I came back upstairs at 10am to find Claude under a blanket on the sofa in the living room. I assured my dear hubby that 10am is a little early to begin a nap. Then he informed me he didn't feel well.

I left about noon to go to Georgetown to take care of my parents. When I returned at 5pm the only thing that had changed with Claude was his head was at a different end of the sofa. I asked him how he was doing and he just looked at me and mournfully said, "I hurled." He was really not doing well. That meant no temple trip for him. I told him I would cancel and stay with him. He assured me he was going to be sick whether I was there or not and to go enjoy my 'Play Group'.

So I headed to Louisville by myself and had a wonderful evening with Lisa, David, Barbara and WC. We ended our evening at Dairy Queen for a quick dessert and some fun conversation. I got home at midnight. Claude had moved to the bed. I felt particularly bad for him. He did have any meetings on Friday and was going to have a day of doing anything but Mayor stuff. Well, he didn't do Mayor stuff but he didn't do any of the fun things he wanted to do either.

Saturday we just stayed in. It was a quiet day. Claude started moving around and in the afternoon started eating again. He was on the mend. Yippee!!

Sunday Claude was out the door for Church meetings beginning a 7am and didn't get home till in the evening. We have definitely swapped rolls. Now I'm the one home and he is one the road on Sunday's. He did have a good day and felt good all day.

I had a tender visit with my mom again. I go to visit her during Sunday School time on Sunday's. This time I took my Ensign and read two talks to her. She held my hand and seemed to look at a few of the pictures. When it was time for me to go back to Church for Relief Society, I wrapped my arms around her and hugged her well, then gave her a big kiss and told her "I love you mom." She looked up at me and mumbled the beginning of each word in this phrase back to me "I love you too." Then she grinned and the moment was gone. Such a sweet moment. Each of these tender moments is what I want to remember about this experience.

I enjoyed a brief visit with Papa at his apartment after Church and choir practice. He had a new pair of pants that was too long so we pinned them so I can hem them for him. (Boy that sentenced ended with a lot of h_m words. Jake is probably freaking out reading that one!!)

Today has been very full and will be through the evening getting things ready for this Thanksgiving week.

We spent the morning accomplishing computer stuff, doing Papa's laundry, and some cleaning.

This afternoon we headed to Lexington. I placed an item on hold at Barnes & Noble for Claude for Christmas. I needed to pick it up and today was the only day I could do that. So we made an outing of it. First, we dropped off Papa's laundry. Second, to Lexington and lunch at Chicago Pizza. Third, Claude waited in the car while I went into Barnes & Noble. I got his item, the Angels and Demons DVD and a CD of Enya doing Christmas type music (which I'm enjoying now). Next we stopped at Staples to get paper and ink cartridges and the numerous other things we found that really seemed to be needful. Claude and I are suckers for an office supply store. Two more stops in Lexington included trying out Culver's Frozen Custard and filling up the Jeep with gas at Walmart.

Now we were off to Georgetown to pick up dry cleaning and buy the groceries for this Thanksgiving. Then the drive home.

Whew!!! A full day that is not quite finished. Laundry is going, I've got some computer work to finish and some ironing to do. I hope to talk Claude into a movie tonight instead of the inane stuff we now have on TV. I'm wanting to watch Angels & Demons and The DaVinci Code again.

Funny how life just fills up, even when one is supposed to be 'retired'. Retired just means the things you are filling your life with are a little different than when you work.

Oh, my Enya CD just played the last song. It was a beautiful rendition of 'Silent Night' in Celtic. How pleasant to the ear that was. I was not going to list to Christmas music until after Thanksgiving but...it is a new CD...I really enjoy Enya...and...I'm 60 years old and can do what I want most of the time!!!

Gramma Was In Town...

Claude is a Kentucky Colonel. Every year the Colonel's have a big event. It used to be a picnic but they have now changed that to a day at Churchill Downs in the sky boxes. A very nice lunch is served. In the afternoon a refreshment is also served. It is a very nice affair with a dress code and table assignments.

Last year Claude and I went and had a wonderful day at the races. Claude received the invitation for this year's event and it was on a day I was sure I had a meeting. This information came last June when Bonnie was visiting for Katelyn's graduation from High School. I suggested to Claude that he purchase two tickets and ask his mom is she would like to come and go with him. He presented the idea to Bonnie and she was over-the-top excited about it.

Claude bought the tickets and he got three just in case I could come. Bonnie made her flight plans. This last week it all happened.

Bonnie arrived Tuesday, November 9th at Cincinnati Airport.

We had dinner at Mesquite's on the way home from the airport. Bonnie watches 'Dancing With The Stars' so we settled in for that Tuesday evening.

Wednesday we had a day at home for Gramma to rest up. She had a big genealogy project she wanted Claude to help her with while here, so they worked on that some. I went in to sing with Papa at the nursing home in the afternoon.

Thursday we took Bonnie to LaGrange to see Andie and her family. We actually plotted this day so that we could rest up on Friday. As it turned out, it was a great day to help Andie with the kids.

We got to LaGrange early enough to go to the Marx home and put a car seat in my car for Bailey. Andie was not there. She had a dentist appointment. We put the car seat in my car, then headed to Subway to get take-out lunches, then we headed to Hayden's school to have lunch with him. He was so happy to see us. He was very cute. They now have the families sit at a different table than the class. Hayden was watching his class carefully. He told me that when his teacher comes into the lunchroom that is the 'signal' to get ready to go back to class. He was watching from our table to be sure he was ready when his class was starting to get ready to leave. When his teacher came into the lunchroom, Hayden took Bonnie over to meet her.

Then we headed out the door to quickly get across country to Bailey's pre-school. Claude and Bonnie waited in the car and I headed in to pick up Miss Bailey. When the door was opened I bent down so I would be eye-level with her. She looked up from across the room and saw me and ran to jump in my arms. That feels soooooo good to a Gramma. I slowed her down enough to gather her jacket and book bag and a flyer from her teacher for Andie.

She informed Claude (Pa) that she needed french fries. He dutifully headed to McDonald's for a happy meal for Bailey. She was hungry chick-maiden because she downed the entire thing except for a few apple slices before she got home.

When we got to the Marx abode, Andie was there with a still numb mouth from seeing the dentist. We played with Bailey while Andie put together a veggie lasagna that for dinner that evening. The second picture is Bailey wearing Bonnie's shoes.

Bailey eventually laid down for quiet time. Andie and I walked down to pick up Hayden from the school bus. Hayden got a little play time prior to going to his doctor's appointment with Andie.

We eventually had everyone, including Michael, back home again for a nice lasagna dinner and some play time. Bonnie read and play some with the mini-Marx's and had a chance to visit with Michael and Andie. 

We bid farewell to the Marx family. For the story of that ride home check my Blog entry yesterday titled 'Irked'.

Friday was supposed to have been a quiet day to rest. Claude had a morning meeting in Lexington. We joined him at the AT&T store after his meeting. Claude purchased a new phone. I had mine officially diagnosed as broken. We ate lunch at Appleby's. I introduced Bonnie to one of my new favorites, "Wonton Tacos" (the chicken version). Then Claude and Bonnie headed back to Sadieville for rest and more genealogy and I went to Papa's apartment to work on his land line issues.

Saturday we were at the Georgetown building at 8am for the Worldwide Leadership Training broadcast about the new General Handbook for the Church. It was a really good broadcast.

Then we were off to the races. It was a wonderful afternoon. Very sunny when we got there and the clouds rolled in through the afternoon for a rainstorm that evening. Lunch was really good and then we pulled out our programs to check out the horses. We watched seven of the races that afternoon. Bonnie learned a little about the process and even bet and won several races. There are monitors in the rooms to watch while you sit at your table. But there are also sliding glass doors that let you out onto balconies where you can stand and watch the races under cover of the roof.

Bonnie wanted to be sure I got the airplane over the football stadium in the background. If you look closely you can see an airplane over that very full stadium. The seats are red in the Louisville stadium for the Cardinals but that Saturday every seat was full as they played a Florida school while the races were going on. All the red you see there is the people dressed in red for the game.

Our tablemates were a lady, who is the Kentucky Colonel, her hubby and her mom. They were interesting people who go to the races often.

I also had the winning sticker for the centerpiece. We now have another Kentucky Colonel bud vase.

After we left the races we headed back to the Marx home. Hayden had his birthday party with his little friends that day at lunch time. It was a Space themed party. We found a huge rocket on the front porch taped to a step ladder. We each had our pictures taken in the rocket just like the kids did when they came to the party. Here we are:

We had dinner of left over pizza and pasta salad from the party. We played some more and took a few family pictures to finish off this quick visit. Then we were headed back to Sadieville.

Sunday morning was spent with Claude on his visit to Owingsville Ward. This is such a fun ward to visit. It is the ward he will work with as High Councilor. Bonnie loved being there and totally enjoyed the meetings and the friendly people.

Monday I woke up with Charlie Horses in my side again. This happened once before and it is just muscles that get tense and spasm like a Charlie Horse in your legs. I still managed to move around and get some things done during our day of rest before Bonnie's big flying day to get home. Claude and Bonnie got some more genealogy done. Claude pulled out his jewelry making stuff in preparations for making Bonnie a pair of earrings. I got my new Blackberry and got it loaded with a lot of my stuff. I finished a crochet project for a wedding gift.

Tuesday we had a quiet morning with me starting the laundry and Claude making a big breakfast. Then Claude and Bonnie headed to the Family History Center for the afternoon. Claude showed her how to work in the New Family Search on the computer. Then they headed back to Sadieville where they scooped me up and Bonnie's luggage and we were off to the airport.

It was a full and very fun visit with Bonnie. We tried to provide rest time but it was still a very full week for her and us.

Un-Irked...

Last night as Claude and I were watching Criminal Minds, we spoke of my Facebook issue during the commercial. I had my laptop upstairs so that, during the show, I could take the things I needed off the stake calendar and put them on Outlook to go to my Blackberry. I stopped what I was doing and decided to try Facebook again.

I was amazed that it came up. It was very slow coming on the screen but, none-the-less, it came up. I made sure my settings were all the same and the stuff I put on there was still what I had originally put there. It appears all is as I left it.

This morning I received a little notice from Facebook stating an apology for disabling my Facebook in error and causing an inconvenience.  I'm just stating for the record, "I accept their apology. I'm happy to have my good name restored. And I look forward to seeing some more fun thoughts and pictures on Facebook."

I do want to acknowledge that Jake's statement is also accurate. He said, "A true friend will know how to get in contact with you without Facebook." Jake is on target there. The thing with Facebook is that we can find some of those friends that we have lost touch with over the many years of our lives. I was grateful that,as I added a friend to my Facebook, I saved their eMail address in a Word file so I could stay in touch with them at Christmas and as needed through the year, if I couldn't get on Facebook for some reason.

I can't help but reflect on my early years of marriage. This was before home computers of any kind. This was when the only phones were land lines. This was when we only had 'snail mail' or 'Western Union' if you needed to get a message faster. Somehow we managed to live with that.

How did we do it?

There was the fun attempt at a 'Family Chain Letter'. I would write a letter and mail it to my sister. She would add her pages and mail all of them to our other sister. She would add her pages and mail all of that to my parents. They would add their pages and remove my pages and send the remaining pages to me. Then I would add my pages, remove my sister's pages and mail the bundle to her and it would continue round after round until we all finally gave out.

All our letters were just that, letters, handwritten (or typed, if you were lucky enough to own a typewriter). For that matter typewriters were just beginning to be electric. They were just coming out with a white paper you could put in there and type over a typo to white it out.

I just read a book about the future and it spoke of no telephone booths. I haven't checked but I wonder if those are becoming obsolete also on the streets. I know they are still in airports. I'll have to look for that and see how many are still out there by gas stations and such.

Now we go to the airport and there are machines with plugs for every kind of cell phone or PDA you can think of that you can pay a fee for 30 minutes to charge your phone.

Oh well, enough rambling about the past and this current 'thing' called Facebook. I'm just happy I can quickly send a note to a friend on Facebook again.

Irked!!!

Irked!!!  Yep, that about describes my current state of emotion. My intent today was to gather the pictures from Gramma Bonnie's visit and post a really nice little blog entry about that. However.......

Last Thursday we were driving home from LaGrange. We took Bonnie over to see Andie, Michael and her great-grandkids. It was a good day to do that as it turns out. Andie had a dental appointment for herself in the morning and she had a doctor's appointment for Hayden in the afternoon. We were able to provide car services and kid-sitting services during this visit.

I'll post about that later when I'm not quite as 'irked' as I am right now. Back to my story...

We were driving home. I was in the back seat and Bonnie and Claude rode in the front seats. Since it was dark and I couldn't crochet or read, I pulled out my trusty Blackberry and proceeded to play the BrickBreaker game. The Blackberry hung up on a totally white screen with the indicator light at the top showing bright red.

When I purchased my Blackberry, I was told that I should occasionally take out the battery and let it rest a few minutes, then put the battery in and let it restart so it would reset itself. I was told if it hangs up, to try this first.

So, I pulled my battery out of the Blackberry and sat in the dark for a bit. Then I put the battery back in. I got a black screen and a red indicator light shining brightly in the dark. Eventually the word Blackberry came across my screen and the little bar indicating how much longer the process of getting started again had to go. I waited and that indicator bar moved to the middle and stopped. The screen went black again and that red indicator light shown brightly. (I shall now call this 'the process' so I don't have to repeat these steps again in this blog.)

Okay, I must have not let it rest enough. I pulled the battery out again and waited a longer length of time. Then I went through 'the process' again.

I took the battery out and waited until we got on I-75 and then went through 'the process' again with the same results.

Then I pulled the battery and waited until we were past Georgetown to try 'the process' again. I pulled the battery and waited until we got to the Sadieville exit and tried on more time with the same sad results.  The drive from our home to LaGrange is 1 1/2 hours. I gave this process lots of attempts with varying lengths of pause between attempts.

When we got home I waited until 11pm and tried one more time. The same disappointing results. I headed to the basement to find my book. I tried to sync the Blackberry thinking that would jog it into working again. No such luck. The manual told me to try charging the Blackberry. So I headed to our bedroom and plugged the little guy in and headed to bed.

Friday morning I tried 'the process' again and got those same pitiful results. I now knew I needed to head to the AT&T store in Georgetown. Fortunately, I had received a coupon for $50 off on a new Blackberry and Claude wanted to shop for a new one to upgrade his Blackberry.

They were very nice at the AT&T store and we finally determined it was not a battery issue as I thought. I went prepared to purchase a new battery. Instead, it seemed to be a defective Blackberry. The sales representative tried a few tests they gave him. He also called the tech support hot line and discussed the situation with them. He was told I should take the Blackberry home and call them while in front of my computer to make the final decision. However, it appeared to be the fault of the Blackberry which was still under warranty.

I left Claude and Bonnie to head for home and spent the rest of my afternoon at Papa's trying to change his home phone, long distance and DSL/Internet usage from Southeast Telephone to AT&T.

When I got home I called the tech support phone number and went through the steps they asked me to do with the phone. They then said it was the phone not the battery. They were sending me a replacement phone and I was to mail the defective one back to them.

Monday, in the afternoon, I got the replacement phone. I spent the afternoon working at loading my addresses, calendar, memos and notes from my computer to the new Blackberry. I tried Facebook and it worked. However, I was not receiving eMails and I couldn't log onto the Internet. Hmmmm....

I found the place in the Blackberry where you put in a User Name and Password to get the Blackberry to work with Outlook so I could get my eMail's and Internet. Here is where the problem arose. I wasn't sure what was used when we set up the first Blackberry last May. So I used what I do on my computer to get eMail's. That didn't work. I thought, "Okay, it is case sensitive and maybe I need to use capital letters." That didn't work. On the Blackberry you have to press two keys at once to get numbers and I wondered if I had not done that quite right and the numbers were wrong. I tried again. That didn't work. Okay, maybe she used my name in some form, so I tried that. That didn't work. After several attempts my Blackberry told me I was blocked and to wait and try again later.

I found a place in the Blackberry where you set the number of times you can try and the maximum is 10. I had exceeded 10 times trying. No problem, I would just wait until much later and try again. This never worked.  Tuesday morning that still didn't work.

Claude gave me the paperwork from when we originally purchased and I could find no written record of what Angie used for a User Name and Password. I did find a phone number and called it. They walked me through a process and I eventually had eMail's coming to my Blackberry and I could get on the Internet on my Blackberry. I was a very happy lady.

Why am I 'irked'!!  When I tried to use Facebook on my Blackberry it would not work now. It had worked when I first got the Blackberry and when I didn't have eMail service.

I went to my computer and tried to get on Facebook and it told me my account was 'disabled'. There was a hyper-link to a help page. I clicked it and found that they do this when someone uses a 'false' name for their Facebook account and/or they have more than one Facebook account.  Now what was I to do.

I looked all over pages in Facebook for a phone number. No such animal people, no such animal. I checked the Internet for a phone number to call. Still no luck. Finally Tuesday afternoon I found a page on Facebook where you can send them an eMail and explain the situation, they put you in a 'queue' and you wait for your answer.

I wrote my nice response indicating my belief this was a direct result of the issues with starting eMail on my Blackberry. I really was Sandra Christensen and my eMail address has been the same for years and I have no other. I waited for a response.

This morning, I got the response. Basically, they refuse to reopen my Facebook because I have committed the grave sin of using a false name and/or having more than one account. Okay, I have NOT done EITHER of these things.

I wrote them another eMail beginning with the words "I am livid." I sent my kids each an eMail explaining why I would not be communicating with them via Facebook.

Jake wrote me back and said to consider myself 'free'. I would love to consider myself 'free' of this but as I told him in my eMail response:

1. My good name now has a mark on it that is not correct or fair. I didn't do anything wrong!! It just feels awful to know there is this scar on my good identity for no reason of my own doing.
2. If I wanted to quit using Facebook, I would have at least posted that I was leaving Facebook before I left so that all those people that I have as friends understand why I don't respond to their posts. I don't believe I am a rude person by nature and this just feels rude.
3. I also post to the Facebook pages for the City of Sadieville and the Friends of Sadieville Renaissance. I have permission to put pictures out there and to post messages of things that we are doing in Sadieville. I can now no longer do that.

So there you have it. I'm 'irked' and will give them a little bit of time to eMail me back. In the meantime, I looking for a phone number to call and speak to a human being that might listen and understand.