First Snow of 2009

Around 1:30 pm today it started snowing! First snow this year. First snow at our new house. And no one else is here to enjoy it with me. Josh is baby-sitting Isabel's cousins and he took her with him to give me an afternoon off. I hope he makes it home tonight! Thank goodness for all the wheel drive Subaru.

Right after the snow started, Greta was running around snapping snowflakes out of the air. Here she is gazing in wonder at all the white stuff falling from the sky.

Little Dog Lost...

I'm a big kid now!

Many of you may remember the beautiful crib Isabel's grandpa made for her by hand. It is an amazing piece of artwork but at the same time it is very sturdy and built to last. I have no doubt it will become a family heirloom to be passed onto future generations.

Another nice feature of the crib is that it converts to a toddler bed and then eventually it can be used as a full size bed. Isabel has never tried to climb out of her crib and has been very happily sleeping through the night in it for quite some time. But as her third birthday quickly approaches, we decided it was time for her to start sleeping in her "big girl bed."

I am amazed at how simple the transition was. I planned on many sleepless nights of repeatedly putting her back into bed. However, she seems just as content to sleep in the toddler bed as she was the crib. Hooray!

She does sometimes get herself up and attempt to get dressed by herself if I am slow coming upstairs in the mornings. Which is all fine and good as long she is only wet when she wakes up!

Anyways...

So thank you again Papa for Isabel's beautiful bed. As Isabel put it, "It's so, so warm and cozy!"

Merry Christmas

HO! HO! HO!

Tonight was "Kelly-Land," an annual holiday party hosted by Kelly-Group Keller Williams Realty here in Newberg. Each year they transform their turn-of-the-century farmhouse office into a winter wonderland complete with lights, decorations, snow, free pictures with Santa, free mochas for the parents and a stocking that the kids get to fill with free toys.

This was the first year that Isabel was actually willing to sit with Santa and didn't cry! I was very proud of her. When Santa asked her what she wanted for Christmas, Isabel replied, "A candy cane." Santa laughed and said, "How about a doll too?" Isabel replied emphatically, "Yes!" It was pretty cute. I really like how her picture turned out. (They will email us the "official" one later, but the ones I took over the photographer's shoulder turned out great.) We also got to chat with Jessica, our realtor who sold us our house. (She works for the Kelly Group.) She was very excited to hear that we still love our house and wants to come by to see the place all decked out for the holidays.

We also got our Christmas tree today. In the spirit of being "green" we bought a live Noble fir and have it in a pot our our living room. We will plant it after the holidays. We also got the energy efficient LED lights for the tree. I will have to try to get a picture of our tree. It's very cute.

How to be a total jerk on Ebay...

I just have to share this. I cannot believe how dishonest some people are.

I have been looking for a new pair of tall leather riding boots. After trying on several pairs at the local tack shop, I have decided on Ariat boots as they are unbelievably comfortable. I have been looking for a good deal online and the other day I came across an Ebay listing for a pair in the exact size I need, that had been tried on once, but were other wise brand new. I thought, aha! Here is my chance to get a very nice pair of boots and save a lot of cash. There was a pretty good "buy it now", but there was also the option to make an offer. So I thought what they heck, I think I'll make an offer and see what happens.

Of course, the seller did not accept my first offer and sent me a counter offer. I countered back and so did they and so on and so forth for a few days. Also, a random but important side note in this little story is that I also emailed the seller and asked them to send me additional photos of the boots, including the bottom of the boots specifically. Which they did right away.

So this morning, I countered with what was pretty much my final offer. I agreed to their price, but wanted free shipping. You see, when you are making an offer on Ebay, there is a little section to add "terms" to you offer. If the seller accepts your offer, they also have to accept the terms you set. So the terms of my offer were that the seller pay for shipping.

Fairly quickly I got an email from Ebay saying that my offer had been accepted. I was excited and was logging into my Ebay account to pay for the boots when I got an email directly from the seller (not through the Ebay message system). The email stated, "i am so sorry i cannot find them and will have to cancel - hope you understand." Then I got an email from Ebay stating that the seller was requesting to cancel our transaction. I was thoroughly confused at this point and hadn't had enough coffee. I thought who the hell loses a pair of boots, especially when they just took additional photos for me the day before, but oh well. I agreed to cancel the transaction and didn't think much more about it except to be pretty disappointed.

That is until I saw that the seller had re listed the exact same boots only moments later. OK, now I'm pissed. What the heck was this person doing? Then I tried to make an offer on the boots only to find that they had blocked my ability to bid on the boots. Now I'm furious. I can only guess the seller didn't realize my offer had included the additional terms until after they accepted it.

I immediately reported them to Ebay as a fraudulent seller. I had to actually call Ebay to report them as the stupid resolution center was too limited in its options and this little fiasco didn't fit into any of their drop down menus. When I told the very nice customer service rep what this person had done, she was pretty shocked too. Unfortunately they can't force this guy to revoke his cancellation of the transaction, and they won't tell me what exactly is going to happen to the seller, but she did say "Oh yes! This will definitely affect his ability to sell on Ebay again." I hope he/she gets more than a slap on the wrist, but knowing the way things work, probably not. All I can say from this experience is don't buy anything from horseysaddles4u.