Are We Still Friends?

Seriously you have been neglected!  Their are 2 MAJOR things that keep me from posting as I wish.  I have over 30,000 pictures on my hard drive and my poor little MacDaddy which is now 5 years old can not handle too much.  When I have time to be on the computer I am moving pictures to other drives and organizing them.

2nd is it is not easy to do updates from my phone.  I can post one picture at a time or have no edit options.  GRR.  I have been thinking of switching to another blog to make this easier.  I am sad to say my Facebook is more current then my blog, (my head is hung in shame).

If you have any suggestions on how I can resolve these issues quicker and get back to real blogging please bring it on.

A few highlights for now:

Us 

To Charlee's delight Santa brought her too much for Christmas

Charlee is a Wyoming girl, she lives for the snow and finds every chance to get cold outside.

Charlee makes a great tree.  She is LOVING her pre school, and has a blast there.

Charlee turned 4 and per her request she got a cow cake.  She enjoyed every bite.

More posts to come!!

huh? blog? I have a blog? oops I forgot

Poor little neglected blog, you look so sad.  We have been doing so much lately and I have been working on our home and blah blah blah this blog is not on fire so it keeps getting moved to the bottom of the to do page.  Here are some random pictures that should have been posted months ago.

For us Summer was:
Cousins
Trips
Sunshine
Extra Sassy

Reasons why my blog is not up to date:

Charlee is busy getting into new trouble, making new messes and getting creative.  The time I might have devoted to my blog is now usually spent cleaning something up. 

 This was just one day

Hopefully it will warm outside again soon and we can run and play!

Blogging & Facebook

Here a some of my thoughts on blogging and facebook, twitter and all the social media that is now a part of life.

I was blog hopping the other morning, my favorite time to blog hop. I was reading a blog of a girl, who is now engaged to an acquaintance of mine.  So knowing what her situation is now, and reading about what it was, which was only 12 months ago was a different perceptive.  It was interesting to read about the things she said she would never do again, she did, things she said wouldn't change, did.  This is normal and happens all the time.

This brought home the point about thinking about what you write, because it will always be there to bite you in the butt.   You write today, only knowing your past and not your future.  Your future readers, will read what you wrote today and gage it against your future self.   

This is why I almost prefer blogs to biography's.  First of all generally there isn't an editor or a ghost writer trying to spin it.  There is not an end, there is no beginning, you are a part of the journey.

One thing I don't like about blogging, is it can make you a lazy friend.  I love to tell a good story, its sad when you get cut off and  they say oh I know I read it on your blog, it can make for a boring lunch.  Or when you are talking to someone about what they are doing and they say, oh its all on my blog.  I don't think blogs/facebook should ever take the place of a real conversation!



I LOVE that I am a complete and total novice blogger.  I don't have to keep the rules, I am not obligated to any sponsors for certain posts, it is all mine.   It is in bad form, with bad grammar and candid pictures that will not be winning awards.  Its all 100% MINE.

Okay, before this post gets too much longer, let me give you my little opinion on Facebook.  I love it, its fun and great and I keep in contact with more people then I ever would.  I love to see pictures of friends and their families and to hear about their lives.  But it has totally killed the blog commenting world, because everyone just puts the comments on Facebook.  But people listen one of the best things about blogs is the comments.  So DON'T STOP COMMENTING.

One downside is you never know if your friend is your "friend" or your "frenamy" on facebook.  Watch out for those who are just looking to use you, for their farmville connections.

Something else I have realized with facebook, is that it can interfere with the normal, natural flow of a friendship.  Pre facebook days:  You'd meet someone, get to know them and then after sometime find out their religious/political views,  what they dressed up for halloween 3 years ago, and so forth.  Also not all friends and people you meet are life long friends, differences happen, interests change, life moves on and naturally those relationships die out.

Okay now real frienships that involve face book.  You meet someone, maybe after a little while you ask if they are on facebook, or you they send you a friend request.  Of course you accept, and then there is the over sharing for everyone.  You know more about them and they instantly know more about you.  Its not a bad thing, just a fact.  Fast forward 6 years, job changes, marriages, moves and you are still in contact, not bad, but really how much do you have in common now?  How many inside jokes can you share online before it just gets weird?

That being said I have not, and don't plan on unfriending anyone, its just something I have noticed.

And I will not even get into past boyfriend, past girlfriends finding each other and causing all sorts of chaos . . . that is all of another time.

I love twitter, the little outbursts are hilarious, even my own.  But seriously it is getting way to commercialized and not as much fun.    

Sad Day, Hopefully You Can Help

When we moved our blog address, I lost my blog roll that was listed on the right.  I wasn't smart enough to bookmark those blogs.  So now I am totally out of the loop.  PLEASE EMAIL ME YOUR BLOG ADDRESS so I can begin to rebuild my blog roll.

THANKS!

wyomingmade(at)gmail(dot)com

Glad you found us

Sorry we had to change URL's on you.  But we are glad you found us anyway.  Be sure to save the new address to your bookmarks.  Don't worry I am not going to stop blogging, I am way to addicted!!

really a new post??

Let's first get out of the way my way lack of posting  . . . Of course there are ot is the standard reason, "busy".  But mostly there seems to be so many things kind of in the air, so many things out of my control right now in our lives that sometimes it is easier to hide then to talk about it.  Sorry all you faithful followers.  I am back and first here it the last picture of Charlee I just uploaded, she is so fun and leaning and doing more all the time.

Writers block.

As you can tell, I have hit a blogging wall. I have things I want to say, but as I type them out, they sound retarded and then they just get deleted. This past month I have many posts that are still in edit mode because they aren't quiet right. Blah!!

This has been going on too long, sure I try to hide it, by doing posts of Charlee, because that is just an easy out. Before Charlee, I had to get creative and think of how I wanted to share about our lives and what goes on in my head. And now that I am having a hard time finding that blogger voice again. If you know what I am talking about and have suggestions please share.

Honestly, the thing that probably holds me back the most is my extra thick layer filter. It keeps me from telling you all of my shortcomings. That almost panic when I think I am type something that will be wrong. My filter has been on overdrive. That expectation if you can't do it perfect you should not do it at all, so the posts don't get written.

I have to push past this. So my goal is now to share more on my blog. Not just pictures of Charlee. My posts will not be perfect, the grammar will still leave a lot to be desired, and I can't promise it will always be pretty. But not waiting to be perfect, I will get more done.

No pictures of charlee . . .yet

Time to Unplug

You know change is good, but not easy. Inevitable, but not always in your control.

A major thing that changed in my life was my socializing. Last week, I went to a movie with a friend from my previous job. We had fun, we laughed, but I all of a sudden felt so out of it. Do you know what I mean? I felt totally out of any loop, I felt like I couldn't carry on a normal conversation to save my life.

The previous week, I realized that 4 of the days, Karst was the only adult I talked to or saw. I only left my house 2 times that week.

These are all shocking things to see, because this is not who I am. Before I was on the go. No one ever caught me at home. This is another HUGE change in my life.

The shocking thing, my days don't feel empty. At night I go to bed exhausted. I feel challenged to try and stay on top of my obligations. I get to watch Charlee grow and learn. I lose track of time when we are playing on the floor. Hours go by without me noticing.

A while ago, Charlee started to get really whiney and it seemed we were having lots of bad days. So out of desperation, one day, to get her calmed, I dropped everything I was doing and read her a book. It was then that she calmed down and the power struggle seemed over. It was then that I realized the reason for the chaos was because she was feeling pushed aside.

I realized I have another 70 years to do and accomplish all the things I want to do, but only a couple of years to spend with Charlee, before she is too independent and doing her own thing. I waited too long, I love her too much, I don't want to miss anything. I don't want her to think that mommies only read to you before bed, that they spend time on the computer rather than playing with you. She has to know that she is more important to me than "stuff".

It was the light bulb going off, telling me this is her REAL life, this is her REAL day, and I can't be be holding her back. If the weather wasn't so yucky we would be outside more. We have been doing and discovering things around the house. We defiantly need to get out of the house and do more things.

As you have probably noticed I spend way less time on the computer. I am so behind with my blog reading, it is embarrassing. My emails are beyond out of control. To you all, I am sorry, please don't think I am rude, I just have needed to unplug for a while. For myself, I have decided I will not choose to be on the computer when Charlee is awake. I hope you understand. I hope I still find a loop to be in. But if you are looking for something to do, or need to get out of the house yourself, let me know. I have tons of ideas!! I am so excited. I will try to share them with you.

Our experience at the Flamingo in Vegas

Are you ready for this story?

Why of all the places were we at the Flamingo, remember I told you about Brain and Ramey getting married, they wanted to get married there, so we joined them.

We made our reservation months ago for a "Deluxe Room", so we figured it wouldn't be too bad.

But we were wrong. We were assigned room #18124, I tell you this, in case you are assigned this room number, you will run. So we find the place, we unload the van of all our crap, I am taking care of Charlee, not impressed with what I see but figure it is livable for a couple of days. Karst grabs the clorox wipes and is going to town wiping down everything in sight, he comes out of the bathroom and says I need to go get some Tilex, before we can use that. I laugh, and say Karst I am sure it isn't that bad, but whatever you need to do. He heads off to Wal-Mart to get the cleaning supplies.

In the meantime, I get Charlee situated and in a safe place, not on the floor, as that has cigarette burns in it, and start checking out the place.

First I see these fixtures in the bathroom that have a lot of dust and rust on them,

Then I notice the bathroom is so old it has a bottle opener in there and a place for men to put there straight edge razors, vitage or dated?

I look up, notice what I hope is clean towels folded below where the wall paper is falling down,

now I am getting scared, I can't believe their wall paper is falling down and

they haven't fixed it.

I turn, pull back the shower curtain and look at the tub,

and gasp. What is this? Karst wasn't exaggerating.

For real there is MOLD in the bathtub

I can't shower there, I can't put my baby in there, I can't live with all of this. Karst comes back with the Tilex, rubber gloves, and a scubber ready to clean it. I tell him, no way we are not paying to clean our own room. This is not acceptable, I am calling to get a room change.

3 phone calls and 2 hang ups from the front desk I talk to a manager who tells me we can go to this other room, I go look at the room, there isn't mold in the bathtub but other than that it is about the same. I go back to our room, call Homewood Suites, get their room rates and decide to move the next night and warn our other family members who are coming the next day.

I grab my camera, take pictures of the offenses and go back down to the front desk, I talk to Anjanita the manager on duty. I show her the pictures, and tell her it is unacceptable, and the room they tried to move us to was not much better. She tells me that since we have the delux room and not a luxury room that is what we paid for, I told her this was unacceptable I don't think a clean room is unreasonable. She doesn't offer any options. I let her know we will be checking out in the morning and letting everyone who is coming for the wedding know. She says okay and I head back to the room.

By this time it is 11 p.m. Karst and Charlee are asleep, a girl from the front desk calls and asks if we are changing rooms, I let her know we will check out in the morning and we already talked to a manager and no one wanted to do really help us. About 10 minutes later Anjanita calls me back and tells me she was thinking about the situation and the pictures and she wants to try and make it nice, she will upgrade us to a remodeled room and upgrade everyone else in our group to a better room. I thank her and tell her we will move in the morning, it is too late for us to move that night.

The next morning, we get up head down to the front desk, get new room keys, check out the room it is night and day difference and we move.

To get to the room we got to go down this pink hallway that makes you feel like the walls are coming in on you.

Here is Charlee and I outside our new and improved room #21100

When you walk in you have a pink light and a glass wall around the bathroom. And there is a full size closet with a big light in it.The room was very modern, but retro. My favorite part was the lights that had a mirror behind it, so Vegas to have a mirror above the bed, even if it was a small mirror.
A nice flat screen screen and a sound system, against the pink striped wallpaper. I know Elle would be dying all the pink.

We did have a great view of strip with Caesar's Palace and the Ballagio fountains.The bathroom, with the fuschia wall, bowl sink, and glass shower was quite a sight to wake up to,
but the best part was the t.v. in the mirror in the bathroom.

Charlee loved getting her hair done in that bathroom. The sink was a perfect seat for her and she was entertained.This room was so much better, and we were so relieved that we didn't have to change hotels and we appreciated them upgrading us.

However there was still some maintenance issues with the rooms, there was tape all over the room probably left after a great party someone had in there.

And some other minor maintenance issues that have not been taken care of.
Charlee slept great there and we did feel better about everything, But it will probably be our last visit to the oldest hotel on the strip.
Seeing how brilliant a lot of the customer's were. I am sure many of them don't notice little details like mold in the shower.
The back gardens with the flamingos, fish and ducks and the great swimming pools were lots of fun.

Those who make the decisions about the care and the pricing of this hotel are clueless, (that would be Harrah's Entertainment Inc.). This is not the Wynn or even the Ritz Carlton, it is the Flamingo, if they can't update all the rooms, they should at least make sure they are clean. The minimal would be some good customer care, which could go a long way. After working in the hotel industry myself for 5 years, where guest services was so important and hearing one of their employees say "we have 10,000 people check in everyday, we can't please all of them." They are trying to pass off a dive at Mirriott prices and they have no class, no service and not worth the price.

Yes we did get an upgrade and yes we do appreciate it, but it shouldn't have taken 4 conversations and pictures with us making other reservations for them to try and make it right.