I'm Baaaaack!!!!

Wow....ONE FULL WEEK and ONE DAY without Internet makes for a GRUMPY mommy!!!!

Have you ever counted how many times in one day that you sit down in front of your glaring screen and touch the silky smooth keys with your fingertips? How many times a day you drop down your "Favorites" list and immediately find the comforting words of your favorite blog? How many times a day that you have a thought or idea pop into your head and think "mmmm, I should look that up online"? How many times you think of something fun to do with your children and while planning your outing you reach for the comfort of the keyboard to find out what hours they are open, how much it will cost, the exact directions to your desired location?

What in the world did I do before the Internet?!?!?!?! Oh yeah, that's right. I recall those huge books with yellow covers and walking fingers. What were they called again? Directories, Phone Books, Yellow Pages? I vaguely recall watching these outdated books stack up in my home in the most obscure places until I determined one fateful day that they were no longer a necessity in my home. When I realized that they were only good for children to stack up tall enough to reach things I didn't want them to reach, or for propping open a door that wouldn't stay by itself, or for collecting dust! Oh yes, that fateful day that I threw them all into the recycling bin! I no longer needed them for I had jumped into the 21st century! I had DSL Internet!!!! There was limitless information at my fingertips and I didn't even have to look it up in alphabetical order!

What, you ask, caused such a trip down memory lane? Well, sit back and enjoy your warm cup of coffee and I will tell you the terrible tale of the BAAD Family's Week Without Internet!

It all began with my eagerness to expand the horizon of the "frugal" lifestyle that I am striving for. I did some research on my cell phone bills and found that I was paying more than I really needed to for a service that was less than stellar and a phone that worked only when it wanted to. I found that if I switched my cellular service to the same company that provides my home phone, my fax line, and my DSL Internet that I could save a considerable amount of money and upgrade our 3 cell phones at the same time! Sounds fairly painless at this point doesn't it? It's not like I was switching to a brand new company that had never heard of the BAAD Family! They have been receiving BAAD Family money every month for several years and we are simply wanting to give them more of our money each month.

So the sweet customer service professional (SCSP) takes my order, and some BAAD Family money for our new phones then AFTERWARDS informs me that our Internet services might be interrupted for 3-4 days while everything is "bundled" to give us the best discounts available. Great, I love discounts! However, I do actually WORK from HOME and my Internet is not a luxury but a must have! So, I ask the SCSP if she could please hold off on making any changes until Friday so that I have as little down time as possible to my business. She assures me that this is not a problem and we exchange pleasantries and hang up.

I wake up the next morning ready to get some work done and out of the way so that I can spend the rest of the day playing with my kiddos only to find that I have NO INTERNET SERVICE! Mind you, this was WEDNESDAY!!! Remember, it wasn't supposed to be interrupted until FRIDAY! So, I think to myself that there must be something wrong with the Internet and call the phone company that I had spent a good hour talking to the day before. I explain the situation to the nice young man who was unfortunate enough to answer my call and he informs me (in the proudest voice imaginable) that they have started on my order EARLY!! Can you believe that? In my 13 years living on my own I have NEVER had a utility company do anything EARLIER than they promised! I felt a twinge of sorrow for the poor guy when he realized that instead of being happy that they were ahead of schedule on my order I was FURIOUS that I was going to be unable to conduct my business because I had no Internet!

Since this post has grown long enough at this point I will fast forward a bit. Finally, EIGHT DAYS, SEVERAL HOURS ON HOLD, MORE THAN ONE MOMMY MELT-DOWN, and I am FINALLY back in the great world of limitless information!! Awwwweeee, it feels so good to be home!

Of course life didn't stop for us in real life just because we were banned from Cyber Space so I have lots of other updates to post as well!! Stay tuned!

Love & Blessings!