Snow Days...

So in case you haven't heard, it snowed here the other day. School was closed for 3 days because of 6 inches of snow. It started snowing sometime Wednesday night and quit late Thursday afternoon. It was actually very pretty and this midwestern girl really enjoyed it.

It is funny though how everything comes to a stand still around here when it snows. People were out shoveling their driveways on Friday with garden shovels. A snow plow didn't come by our house until late sometime Friday night, well over 24 hours after it had stopped snowing. My hubby and I went for lunch yesterday and the snow plows left huge piles of snow right in the middle of the driving aisle in the parking lot. Why wouldn't they at least push it to the corner of the lot? Seems so strange to me and yet completely normal to everyone else.

But even with school out for 3 days I had to keep the kiddos busy or this mama was going to go bonkers. Thank goodness for Valentines Day and boxes that needed to be made! So that is what we did. And for those of you who know me, know that I am not a crafty person in the least. So when I asked Addy what type of Valentines box she wanted she scoured the Internet and pulled up a photo of a Minion box. So Wednesday morning (before it started snowing) her and I went up to the craft store, bought our supplies and I secretly prayed this would work out.

Several hours later we had this!

She was so proud of that box! And you know what? I was too! I guess there is a little Martha in me after all. And let me tell you, I am not one of those moms who does the project for their kids. No Sirree! I did help Addy wrap the yellow construction paper on the box because it was so hard to bend, and I did cut the hole for the mouth. "Safety First," Addy would tell me. But she did the rest.

And yesterday when the girls got home from school (and they finally got to have their valentines parties) Addy was so excited to tell me that she won first place! First Place! Way to go Girl! There was major high fives going on at our house. And the best part was I didn't even know there was a contest! Score one for us!

The day flew by, the girls were happy and we all enjoyed each others company without the distractions of electronics. Complete success in my book! If only I could say Thursday went the same way. But no, sadly it did not. 

I spent most of Thursday doing laundry and cleaning and organizing the baby's room. The girls spent most of the day on electronics. Big fat fail in my book. However in my defense, after having a HUGE baby shower at our church our little man's nursery was looking something like this...

(ignore the pink bunnies, those actually were a gift to the girls from papa several Easters ago)

Now don't get me wrong, I am overly blessed and eternally grateful to have such an amazing church family who has taken us under their wing and decided to throw a wonderful shower for me and our little arrival. I wish I had more photos of the actually shower to show you all, it really was a good time. It seems like saying "Thank you, Thank you, Thank you," is not enough to express how I actually feel about them all for doing something like this. They had even thought of the girls and got them gifts as well. God is good and works in amazing ways and the thoughtfulness of this congregation has left me speechless.

Did I just get off topic? I think I did. Anywho, so after this amazing shower, I had a lot of work to do. So Thursday that is what I did. I will show you pictures after I finish the room, it is almost there but not quite yet. The bedding for the crib was washed and put together, toys were organized, clothes were washed and put away. As for the girls, they played on their electronics and watched movies. I tried to encourage them to go play outside in the snow but we have yet to find their snow boots (they are still packed away somewhere) so I didn't push the issue too much.

Friday rolls around and it has now stopped snowing and starting to melt. I have an appointment scheduled that afternoon with the local fire department to have the car seat installed in my car. Since the girls are off of school yet again, they got to go with me. Only the woman that was supposed to do it, couldn't get out of her driveway to meet me there. So as I am thinking the trip was a total bust, one of the fire fighters asked the girls if they wanted to see a fire truck. And boy were they excited!

(Showing them how their equipment works)

(Checking out the pole! He even slid down it for them!)

So what I thought was going to be a hassle turned out to be a really fun afternoon. I have to give a shout out to the Salisbury Fire Department for giving my girls their own private showing and being so kind and generous with us. They made my little girls day and therefore made mama's day too.

And after talking with the fireman, I think I will drop off some of our snow shovels for them to use, if and when it snows again. We don't want them out there shoveling their driveway with garden shovels.

Hackers

Hackers! Don't you hate them? They are everywhere these days, from the stores you shop at to sites online. I am sure you have all heard by now about the Target breach where millions of credit card numbers and personal info was stolen. This is not the first time that this kind of thing has happened and it will certainly not be the last however in my opinion, it is what those companies do to make things right for their customer that really matters.

It's no secret that I love Target. Hello? I am from the Midwest after all, where Super Targets are on every block. I will always be a loyal shopper for life. This incident that has affected millions of people including me, is very serious and we all need to be monitoring our credit in the months/years to come to protect ourselves. And in case you haven't heard, Target is offering a year of free credit monitoring if you were one of those who were were effected by this incident. Now it doesn't make the whole breach thing ok in my opinion however what I do appreciate is that they are not pretending that this didn't happen. In fact they are addressing the issue head on, taking responsibility and informing their customers of their options. In my book that still makes Target a stand up company and I will continue to shop there. Will also I take advantage of the free credit monitoring? You bet!

But what I can't tolerate is when this type of thing occurs and the company does nothing about it. Case in point, my Pinterest account was recently hacked. Apparently someone from Indonesia logged into my account and tried to pin spam on my account. So Pinterest decided to put my account in "safe mode" without telling me. So when I tried to pin something it wouldn't let me. Their customer service department told me that to fix the problem, all I had to do was reset my password via an e-mail link associated with my account. The only problem is that since we have moved, my e-mail associated with that account is not open anymore. I tried to change the e-mail account myself but it won't let me because my account is in "Safe Mode." So I asked Pinterest to change my e-mail address for me. And their response was since my account is not linked to my Facebook, they could not verify who I was and therefore the only solution was to start over with a new account.

START OVER! You have got to be kidding me! So now all my pins are lost! Awesome. The whole reason I didn't link Pinterest and Facebook was because I chose to purposefully keep the two separate, for my own security reasons. But after a short exchange of questions, Pinterest stopped answering my questions and closed my customer service request. No response, they just closed it. As in they are considering the case has been resolved. Only it is not resolved. All of my nursery decor ideas are gone. All of my recipes to try are gone. All of my gift ideas are gone. All of my dream home inspiration ideas are gone. I will tell you this is enough to make an 8 month pregnant woman really mad! As in really @!$#@$ mad!

But it is not the fact that it was hacked or even the fact that Pinterest put my account in "Safe Mode" that makes me angry. It is how poorly their customer service department handled my request. How can you just close a case and ignore the customer without any attempt to make things right? In fact their only solution basically says that the customer doesn't matter. Even if they couldn't do anything about it, an apology and a heartfelt explanation goes a long way. All I got was a canned response to say,"we are sorry to hear about this issue."

Now imagine what kind of uproar there would have been if Target had responded in the same way? And I fully understand that these are two very different situations with very different outcomes. But a customer is a customer whether it is one or millions. Pinterest can learn a thing or two about customer service from Target. Ignoring and shutting down your customer requests is not winning you any points in my book. Refusing to work with the users of your site is not the way to grow your company.

In fact I would almost rather have my credit and identity stolen then be treated this way (insert sarcasm here).