So This is Chrismas...

This Christmas we spent a few days in the OP before we headed to Boston to spend a week with the entire John family. We had a ton of fun with our new footie pajamas, courtesy of my mom. We took a few pictures for a Chirstmas card we will probably not send out until next year (oops, my bad). Here is Matt with the John family's Christmas Tree.
While in Boston we did a lot of singing. One night we sang to a group at a facility for the elderly and the next night we caroled for friend's of the family. This is the cool sign the hospital had up announcing our performance:
We had a ton of fun in Boston, so much fun in fact, that we forgot to take very many pictures. Hopefully Meredith and Carly got some good ones and will post them on their blogs. Here is a picture of Anthony and Alicia hanging out.We had a great Christmas week and hope everyone else did too.

Birthday Shout Out--Part 3

Yesterday was my mom's birthday. We got to go out for lunch with the Crane's on the Plaza before we headed back to Springfield.My mom is pretty great. She is one of the most thoughtful people I know. She is always looking out for others, especially her daughters. This past October she arranged for us to all get together in Salt Lake for General Conference. She takes lots of pictures, and even though we protest at times, it's fun to have them. I'm so blessed to have such a great mom. I hope your birthday was great. loves!

My mom has had a pretty big impact on my life. Here are a few photos of the fun times we've had through the years. As you go through them, you might see why I am who I am today.
I probably love the water/beach so much because I was introduced at such a young age.
Being exposed to delicious ice cream at such a young age is probably why I am addicted to it now.Visiting Nauvoo (and other church-related sites) is probably why I am so spiritual today. (Sidenote: I think this was the trip where the elderly missionary thought Laura was a boy, even though it was me that was dressing like one. Ugh, I was awkward. )
Probably why I am so cuddly and like to hang out with my family.

Birthday Shout Out--Part 2

This Monday was our very own Anthony's birthday.We were still in Boston, so we got to celebrate his big day with the John family. We went out for dinner at Vinny T's and Hillary made cheesecake that was so delicious which Alicia decorated beautifully.We flew back to KC that evening and got to have some delicious chocolate cake with the Cranes.

TJ is pretty great. He is a good sport, we have lots of fun together and he makes me laugh all the time. Love ya, Puffin!

Birthday Shout Out--Part 1

Happy Belated Birthday to Melanie!!

Mels is a pretty awesome girl and last Monday she turned 19. We were lucky enough to get to go out with the family for her birthday dinner and it did not disappoint.

Melanie in a nutshell:

Merry
Excellent
Lively
Animated
Neat-o
Interesting
Effervescent

Best wishes for your 20th year of life!!!

Sprint: When You Want Your Poor Customer Service Taken to a Whole New Level

WARNING: This post is dripping with sarcasm

Today I googled "poor customer service". The first link was a comprehensive, behind-the-scene look at bad customer service that only the news team at MSN.com can give you. Well, actually it was a simple, gimmicky article from 2007 that listed all the crummy customer service companies according to an MSN poll. (SURPRISE! The list included many MSN competitors!)

What did not surprise me was the company at the top of the poor customer service list. Whom do we Americans loath the most? Sprint-Nextel. How could something come from Kansas City be so terrible? Everything else- Carrie and the rest of the Cranes, college roommate Brad Borchert, delicious BBQ, Jazz, etc. has brought nothing but happiness.

All these pollsters did was ask people how they would rate the customer service. FORTY percent of Sprint customers said their customer service was "poor", while the second worst company (Bank of America- a company I feel that has MANY policies designed to suck extra money unfairly out of poor, stupid people like myself in college) only had 30%. Since the article is a year old, there is a 2008 update, and do not fret Sprint scraped their way into being only the third worst customer service company by improving from 40% "poor" ratings to 39%. How did they manage to turn this sinking ship around?

"The wireless carrier says it has stopped its automatic contract extensions and now rewards agents for solving customers' problems rather than for ending calls quickly."

How novel. Well, I still contend that they have a long way to go. I signed up for Sprint service this summer because they gave 15% discount to employees at Spherion, my employer. When I signed up over the phone, I made it very clear that the discount was the critical reason for me signing up. I was told that, unlike the flier I had read a mere 10 minutes beforehand, I could use the corporate discount after 2 billing cycles. Apparently clicking that computer button is too hard to do right away. Well, it has been five months, and I am still not getting my discount.

I called today again. It's the fourth round of calls I have made to their customer service to remedy this problem. After being put on hold, and I felt that putting me on hold was his strategy to get me to hang up, for 20 minutes, I was told that they had messed up my corporate discount request, and he would have to apply for me again, and it would take another 2 billing cycles.

Sprint embodies everything wrong in the world. Boy, this is the most cathartic blog I have ever written.

"You better watch your back, *****!"

Yes, some one just yelled that at me. Apparently asking someone to stop wrestling in my doorway makes me a *****. Let me explain.

After work today I decided to come home and study rather than go to the library. It is rainy and cold I didn't want to deal with the wetness and puddles that are Missouri State after it rains. So I ate some homemade tomato soup, put on Tony's Red Sox sweatshirt, and started my last (yay!) assignment of the semester. About 5 minutes after I start reading I can hear these people talking right outside our door. At first I'm just annoyed at our apartment, it has INCREDIBLY thin walls. I tune it out until I hear this loud whack! I look out the peep hole to see who would be banging on my door. I see these two middle school aged kids--a boy and a girl, both of whom I think may be a bit slow--that I've seen around the complex. I open the door and ask if everything is okay. They assure me they are fine and apologize for hitting my door. I ask them why they hit the door. They said one of them tripped. Whatever. I know that isn't true but I say okay and go back inside. Not even a minute later I hear another bang! against the door and a sign we have on the wall and the mirror over our couch move. What is going on out there? I am really mad because I have a lot to do tonight and I need to work on my assignment. For the next minute I keep hearing these weird noises. Finally I look out the peephole again and see the two of them in the middle of a fight. The girl flings the boy off her back, then he runs back and knocks out her knees and tackles her. I decide to grab my phone so I can call our apartment complex office in case of emergency and open the door.

Me: WHAT are you doing?
Boy: (Sheepishly) Teaching her [the girl] how to fight.
Me: That is a bad idea.
Boy: I think it is a good idea. She needs to know how to defend herself.
Me: Nope, it's not. Get off of her right now.
Boy rolls off her (and reveals WAY too much crack in the process).
Boy: You can't make us do anything. We aren't doing anything wrong.
Me: Yes you are and yes I can. You both need to go home right now or I will call the office. You have banged into my door many times and if you do it again I will call the office and have one of the maintenance men come over and take care of you.
Girl: Let's get out of here.
Me: Yes, go home.

The boy doesn't say anything to me, but they kind of walk off. I go into my apartment. I can now see them out our living room window. The boy starts yelling towards the window as the girl walks towards her apartment. I can't exactly hear what he is saying, but judging by the shapes his mouth was making I could make some pretty good guesses. I walk outside and hear him yell, "You better watch your back, *****!"

So I tell him I heard that and he ran home.

All I wanted to do this afternoon was study and now I feel bad because I was mean to special 8th graders. It's these watching-my-back times that I'm glad to have Tony around. He is much stronger and a much more skilled "fighter" than me (or that kid).

Scene what?

We have a new addiction and it is Scene It? on xbox. No, we do not have an xbox, but our good friends Pat and Steph do. We've spent hours both Friday and Saturday night playing. I'm a bit bugged that Anthony has won so many times, but I'm pretty sure his wins can be attributed to the fact that he has SO MUCH more experience with video game controllers than I do.
It is hard to describe for sure what it is that makes Scene it? on xbox so fun. I've played many versions of Scene It? (ESPN, Harry Potter, Friends, Regular) and it was alright, but certainly not addicting. I think it is the wide variety of puzzles and games. I'll give him props--Anthony is pretty tough to beat on anagrams and crosswords. The credit roll and movie poster challenges tend to up my score. There is enough variety that everyone can be good at something. So, if you have an xbox and are looking for a fun game, Scene It? may be the game for you. Especially if you want to invite us over sometime soon.