Evil Customer Service rears its ugly head

So, I thought leaving Florida meant leaving the rudest people on earth behind. Today I was proved I was wrong about that.

At 8:30 this morning, while I was just getting settled at work, The billing department at Boston Children's decided to start my day off all wrong. We had submitted a complaint that we felt we were overbilled for Finley's genetic blood draw (by A LOT - several thousand), and at first, the people I delt with a few weeks ago were wonderful. Very understanding and also feeling that a mistake was made. I sent in the required letter and paperwork to try and resolve the problem.

But today - a VERY rude man called me up to basically say I was a moron for second guessing their charges. I tried to explain to him that 1) we know what we should have been charged and 2) we didn't mind paying, but we felt it was in need of more explanation. I got no where with this man. He was awful. He wouldn't let me talk, he kept making really dumb remarks, and he had poor grammar. Why in the world he was in charge of calling people, I have no idea.

I was pretty rattled when the phone call ended, so I took his name, and called Mat. I am not easily rattled by stupid people, but this guy caught me off guard. So my saint of a husband took care of it for me. Not only did he talk to this guy and really challenge him, he talked to his supervisor and patient relations. So, in the end, I was feeling better.

But - if you use Boston Children's for anything, stay FAR, FAR away from their laboratory. They are going to screw it up. Get your blood drawn somewhere else.

Moving on........

Today was met with a large headache that stayed with me all day after that phone call. So, I didn't attend the monthly PTO meeting tonight. I was disappointed, but my headache won in the end.
This weekend flew by. Sunday we went to church, and then in the afternoon, Arlington and I went dress shopping for her annual Christmas dress. This year I took her along to choose. She narrowed down her choices based on color, and how far the dress went out when she spun in a circle. In the end she probably tried on 30 dresses. And she was very dizzy. But we had a great time. We spent several hours at the mall for her to pick the first dress she tried on.

This is only the beginning of that charade.

She also chose a dress that came with a matching doll dress for Bargain girl. She tried it on her tonight while she was modeling to see how they looked together.

We also got Finley's dress while we were shopping this weekend.

She wanted to model her cute self.

I had a hard time getting her to stand still long enough for a good picture. Christmas pictures this you should be interesting.

I didn't take any pictures of Cainan in his outfit. It is different with boys. His is a shirt, pants, and sweater are just cute, but nothing fancy. You can wait to see that.

Arlington and I wrapped up the book "The Magician's Elephant" and I highly recommend it. It was very good, and we both enjoyed it.

Now Mat is taking a turn reading to her at night, so she picked for them "Diary of a Wimpy Kid" book one.

I think they are both enjoying it. The humor is right up her alley.

On her own, Arlington is plugging away at books to get her to her American Girl doll. She is still doing one chapter book a week, and sometimes she fullfills that requirment in a day, and sometimes it takes the whole week - depending on her mood! This week, she finished one book in a day and is working on a second so that maybe she can finish early. Good thought.

So she is working on "The Littles" series. She and my mother-in-law Sally picked up one at the book sale a few weeks ago, and she loved it. So we went to the library and got a few more.
They are cute books and a bit on the old side. She asked me at one point what "keen" meant. That says a lot about the age of the book.

The second book that caught her attention this week was "Happy Birthday Bad Kitty".

Again, humor right up her alley. She read this book last night before going to bed - she loved it.

Finley got a coloring book in the mail today from her new teacher from the school of the blind. She was pretty excited about it. Her teacher thought she might like it, and she was right. The pictures are raised, so she can feel them and that is helping her color. And it also contains the braille words for all of the pictures, so that was cool too.

She already colored in it a bit. Tomorrow her teacher will be visiting her preschool and talking to them about how Finley acts/interacts at school. Then the teacher will finish up her report and we will get a copy.

Which makes me think of that REALLY awful guy this morning. I felt like shouting at him - "our daughter is going blind. We are trying to do right by her. I don't need this." What a jerk. Maybe if he would have taken two seconds to look at the test and see what they were for, maybe he would have been a little more sympathetic.

But probably not.

Back to Sunday - after the shopping trip, we met Mat and the VT's (virtural twins- in case you forgot) at the church. Mat and I have decided to join our church, so we had to attend a new members class. We absolutely love this church and the people. They had found someone to watch our kids while we attended the class. It was fun and low key.

After the class we went to Ruby Tuesday's for dinner. Thanks Aunt Betty for the gift card - we enjoyed our dinner out!

Monday morning - Finley was not in the mood to go to school.

I wanted to take a picture of her in her cute outfit, and she felt that this pose was good enough.

She also decided her stuffed M+M needed a bed and blanket before she left for school.

Monday I met Mat at the toy store to let the VTs walk around and see what they wanted for Christmas. They were on toy overload. The wanted everything they touched, of course. But Finley found two things she wanted consistently. 1) baby doll 2) stuffed elephant. She wants a "soft baby and a walking/talking baby". This walking/talking baby is WILD. She is not cheap, either. But she stands and walks on her own. Personally, it made me think of "CHUCKY", (although this doll was cute).
So I was researching the doll when I came home, and found this absolutely hilarious You Tube video I wanted to share with you.



Isn't that funny? My goodness people have too much time on their hands.

Finley also thought she wanted a "Terminator Skull" because it was a skeleton. What a weirdo.

Cainan really wants anything to do with super heroes and cars and trucks. All boy, all the time.

Although, today - when I asked Cainan again what he wanted - he said "green jello". Weirdo.

I took a picture of the "project" the students in the school have been doing for me. I have to do handwashing classes, which I have told you about before. I have each class write for me ways of keeping healthy, or have them draw pictures of being healthy. Tomorrow is my very last class (can I get a hallelujah) so I took a few pictures of my walls.


I have to tell you about Kindergarten - I have NO idea what some of the pictures are. There is also a very good chance I hung a few of them upside down. But they were so proud of themselves. I enjoy going in and teaching a few things.


So that's it. The rest of the week will be busy at home and at work, so I am looking forward to the weekend!
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See you Saturday!