Nothing Like a Good Butt Kicking Letter

Okay so I am going to give you a little secret or tip that has helped me out a lot! This tip has helped me get a free computer, upgraded engagement ring, free airline tickets, and now free furniture. So what is this tip you ask............It is the simplest little thing...all you have to do is ......write a letter. I illustrate my point with a recent event. Now it is a long story I must tell you but the details will help you out for future letter writing.

So let me start from the beginning.....Two years ago, Milton and I were living in a tiny little apartment in Louisiana. We knew we going to move and wanted a new couch. Our first couch was a twin bed pushed up against the wall with big pillows and then after that my dad gave me his couch that he had for numerous years. It was nice but our whole house was hand me downs or freebies. Nothing wrong with that. Milton and I were just excited about picking out our first piece of furniture and purchasing it. So Christmas came around and my parents gave us a $400 gift card to a furniture store. I do not want to give the name of the furniture store so that way I do not sway anyone's opinion. So Milton and I started going there. At first we thought about getting a cloth couch or bedside tables. But then we came across this:

with a matching oversize chair and ottoman. It was a leather set that was going for $800. We could not believe it!!!!! We had half the money and we were confident that we could pay off the rest. So we hollared for the salesman and badgered him for the details. Our salesman went on and on about how we were getting a great deal on a leather set and how we had to take it before someone else snatched it up. He told us how you could tell it was leather because the way the couch was stitched So we excitedly told him to bag it up and went to the check out or cashier or whatever you call it at a furniture store.

At the check out, we were offered the protection plan. At first I thought it sounded like something that came with big meaty guys with Italian accents that protected our couch while saying "forgedda about it" or "you talkin to me!" However, we were quickly informed that if anything happened to our couch.... anything from stabbing the couch to writing Amanda Loves Milton on it with a sharpie that they would either repair the couch or if it is not repairable they would replace it. So we were like "Absolutely" I know this is turning into a long story but I promise it has a point and it will help you out.

So fast forward to June 2009. I am sitting on my couch and I look over and see this.....

What you can not see it. Let me go a little closer

Are those cracks and rips in my couch?!!! Yes they ARE!!!! How does that happened when only two people live in my house and both are mature adults that would not damage furniture. I immediately am upset, but then I pinch myself and remember that we have the protection plan that covers ANYTHING! So I call the protection plan and I am told that the plan only covers accidents and that this is considered normal wear and tear. Well I do not take no for an answer. So I ask what I can do? I was informed to call the store where I bought the couch because it was a manufacture defect. So I call the store and tell them the long story to only be told to call the service center. So I call the service center to be told that the manufacture only covers the product for a year. The rep with the service center advised me to call the store manager where I bought the couch and ask him to cover the repair of the couch since it was since employee that lied about the protection plan.

So I call the store manager to go through this long story. I tell him that when we bought leather couches that we wanted them to last longer than two years and how my parents have had their leather couches for like 10 years that are still in good condition. This is when the store manager interrupts me with his greasy southern accent and says "Ma'am did you say that you bought leather?" I replay "Yes" to which he replied "Ma'am your couches are not leather, they are VINYL." As I stand there in shocked disbelief, he tells me with a little smirk in his voice that you can not buy leather couches for the price that we did and he should know better. From here I go on and on how his sales person told us lie after lie. His only reply is ..."I am sorry you were lied to." At this point, he makes empty promises that he will see what he can do and will call me back.

Again I promise you there is a point!!!! So a week later, he calls me back and says the couch is discontinued and they can not repair the couch. Now before getting off the phone he offers me a word of advice in his sly little greasy southern salesman accent. He says "Now Ma'am your protection plan covers "Accidents," and if there was an "Accident" to happen to the couch that they would see that the couch is discontinued and you would get a store credit for the leather set." This really upsets me. I am an honest person and I have integrity and I expect others to also. Well as I stated, I do not take no for an answer. Plus I called my mom whining and crying and she reminded me of my letter writing skills and all the stuff it got me in the past. What would we do without good rationale moms that remind you of your best qualities? Well I would have probably "accidentally" tripped with a knife in my hand while running towards my couch!! Just kidding!! Oh come on...sometimes people drive you to do things that you would not normally do. I digress!

So I write a letter and call another store from the same chain of furniture store to ask who to send a complaint letter. After hearing my story, they give me a name. So I send my complaint letter with all my evidence certified to the name given.

A week later I get a phone call from this person telling me that he was REALLY impressed with my letter and they are giving me a store credit for my couch and to go pick out what I want. Little did I know I was talking to the owner of the company. He was the nicest guy and really made up for everything I went through. So I got two bedside tables and a twin bed for the guest bedroom.

I did not want to make the same mistake twice of buying a couch at this furniture store. However we went to another furniture store and bought these...

So my point to this whole story is.....The way that I have gotten the above mentioned free stuff is by writing a letter. My family thinks that I have gotten so good that I should start a business. I do not write a complaint letter unless it is really valid. I also suggest to always be polite and never to yell or anything that shows less class. Companies are more willing to work with you if you are nice and polite. However, I do want to say that not all letters have to be complaints. You can also write about how much you love someone's product. Right now I am writing a letter to appeal a denied medical insurance claim. I will let you know how it turns out.

I like to waste my days....how about you?

So I am now back from Louisiana. I know that everyone was missing my daily post! Wait! What? Nevermind. It was a fun and I love being around my family. It was hard to leave them but I was so excited to come home to my hubby. However, day one I went right back to the grindstone they call work. I had to make up the days I missed and work two long nights. I know! I know! Awful, right?

So I have a riddle. What do people do when they don't have kids and it is 10:30 at night?

They meet at Wal-Mart! That is right!! We like to do our shopping midnight style. So after we cruised the isles of Wal-mart with the rest of the late night reclusive peeps, we decided to come home and cook a late night dinner. However, in our defense is was grilled chicken, brown rice, and veggies. We then decided to damage our minds even more by watching the X-factor on MTV until two a.m. This is what happens when you do not have children to get off to bed or wake you up early in the morning. You develop the sleeping and eating patterns of a teenager.

So I finally aroused myself at 10:00 a.m. this morning so that I could go lay on the couch until 11 so I could follow up that with taking an hour before I went to the gym. I consider my time at the gym, charity work. My presences alone drives up sales and keeps people health concious so they don't become couch potatoes and look like me. I finally decided....Amanda, you need to get your lazy butt up and do some work or run some errands. So I drive the long (not really) drive to Target for the tedious task of shopping for bedding. I know, I know. Most of you are thinking to yourselves..."Thank goodness I get to slave away at work, come home to cook dinner and clean. I would never want the grusome chores that Amanda has to do."

I finally return home to prepare the hubby and I lunch around 2 in the afternoon. (for those of you that do not know, Milton has a flexible schedule where he can make his own hours and come home for lunch) Apparently, this tuckers us out because we then proceed to retire to the guest bedroom so we can watch a movie and play on facebook.

An hour later, Milton is out the door for class and work. Around 4:00 in the afternoon I decide that it is now time to take a shower. After this I am on facebook once again to only be put to shame by all the wonderful wives out there that are REALLY cooking and cleaning and do homework with their kids and paying bills. I am reading status like this ..."Jane Smith is glad that she can finally rest after getting up at six this morning to milk the cows for homemade waffles, get the kids off to school, clean all the bathrooms with a toothbrush until they gleam, drop off a casserole for the lady in our church who just had twins, sew all the kids costumes for the school play, do ten loads of laundry(washing, drying, folding, ironing, and putting them away), make after school snakes that look like butterflies using nothing but healthy stuff, pick vegatables from the garden for dinner made from scratch, difuse a bomb, read "War and Peace,"bake my hubby's favorite dessert, help the kids with homework, save a kitten from a tree, bath the children, massage my hubby's neck, and now I am sitting on the couch knitting a sweater for the charity auction next week." or basically something to that a effect. My first thought is "I wonder if I can hire these people?" followed by "Amanda, stop being lazy!!! Get to work!!!" So I did what any self respecting woman would do at 6:00 at night after realizing she is a lazy wife....."I loaded the dishwasher!

and then .........

I realize that the job of Superwoman has already been filled, so why try. I know I have it hard, but someone has to do it.

Check it out

I love this blog. It is one of my favorites because it is about Louisiana....and my mom is the publisher. This has been one of my favorite post she has ever done and not just because I am in it. I am not that vain. I just think it is real cute. So check in out!!!

http://livinlouisiana.blogspot.com/2009/08/real-wives-of-louisiana.html

I just have not been up for it

I have not been feeling like blogging lately. I blame it on being busy. Ashley left on Monday. It was sad to see her go but I know it was for the best. She has to finish school. I do miss her. and all the great times mwe had. I miss coming home and talking to her. I miss our spountanous late night hip hop work outs. I miss eating popicles with her. I miss coming home and seeing her cooking a new recipe her and ket decided to cook. I just miss her.

Later that day, Milton came home and we had errands to run and groceries to buy. It is funny how a few errands take most of the day. Tuesday I worked. Wednesday we took Milton to get his MRI, ran more errands, worked out , and then had a friend over. Thursday, I went to work out, cooked dinner, and went to a late night movie with Milton.

That is one of the good things about not having kids. I mean I have to focus on the positive! We went to a 10:00 p.m showing and did not get home until 12. Then we stayed up and had a Midnight snack. I am so grateful to always have my best friend with me. It was fun!!

Today, well it's a long story for another post but we went shopping with a $500 store credit I got, dinner at our of our favorite restaurants, and then home to lay around and snuggle. I just feel like our lives are too boring to post. On a good note, I switched my make up to MAC. I am really liking it. It stays on a long time and it is easy to put on and go. Exactly what I need.

I head to Baton Rouge for a week to take care of my momma. I hope everyone is doing fabulous. I am going to kiss and cuddle with my hubby now. Night......

I just read this post and I sound like a self absorb moron. Sorry!! but it is all I got.

Baby Let's Cruise

Well we're back. We have actually been back since early Sunday morning but we went to my best friend's graduation and then I have worked the past two days. We had the best time!! We did not want to get off the ship and the only reason we did is to avoid being arrested and the ackwardness that would have took place when we tried to explain the next set of guest of why we were still in their room.

Since I consider my blog somewhat of a journal I am going to bore you with my favorite parts of the trip. We arrived to the ship on Monday at about 1:00 p.m. That gave us 3 1/2 hours until the ship was suppose to leave. So we basically just walked around the ship and saw every possible thing we could. We looked like a bunch of kids running around looking for the next thing.

One our favorite things to do was look out at the ocean. It just went on for miles. It was amazing.

That was pretty much all we did on Day 1. I mean they have shows and dinner but Day 1 is pretty relaxed.

Day 2, we went to a private island owned by royal caribbean called CocoCay. At first, I did not want to go. I am not a huge beach person around crowds. I mean don't get me wrong I love the beach but I do not like to go when it was crowded. I am so glad that we went. It wound up being the favorite part of trip. It was so relaxing.

That night was formal night. So we got a chance to dress up and have fun. Look at the handsome man that I am married too!!!

The next day we went to Nassau. I was actually looking forward to this one but it was not as great as I thought it would be. You are constantly harrassed to have your hair braided or buy something or go on a ride somewhere. The Atlantis resort was nice but everything was pricey.

We just went back to the ship and had dinner and took advantage of the awesome entertainment they had.

Day 4 was just a day at sea. We enjoyed the wonderful game shows, entertainment, and events they had. We also found a nice spot to play cards. It was very relaxing. We made sure to get plenty of sleep.

We did not want to leave. We had the best time. We are already trying to book our next cruise with my parents (hint hint).

However, we did get to go to SeaWorld since we had two days in Orlando until our plane took off. I have always wanted to go. I cannot believe I am going to admit this, but during the Shamu show I actually could not stop crying. It made we think of how wonderful our Father in Heaven is. It was amazing to see one of this beautiful creatures. I felt something very spiritual watching the show and I am grateful I got a chance to witness it.

OH HAPPY DAY!!!

We are so excited to announce.... That we are.....having.....a ......
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great day......bc we are going ........to have a .........
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a great time on our vacation. I know...I know, most of you are probably wanting to throw your computer at me. I just thought it was funny to string ya along. Anyways, this will be my last post for a week. We are heading to Orlando tonight, leaving on a cruise to the bahamas toworrow, and will be back home on Sunday. I will have tons of pictures that I will make each and everyone of you look at until your eyes cross. Just kidding.. Everyone stay safe and I will talk to ya in a weeks time!!

DATE NIGHT!!!

Okay, we have been trying to save money lately, but date night is very important to my husband. I often say things like "let's just stay home" or "We don't have money." I am not saying that you have to spend tons of money or that you can not have date night at home. I am just always trying to be better and cut spending where we can. However, this does not fly with my husband. No matter what we do on date night. So this past Friday, we went on a smart economically date.


We always start our dates night holding hands!

We then went to the dollar movie. It cost $3.50 all together for us to go to the movies. We saw "Race to Witch Mountain." We actually really liked because it was cute and did not have any bad or crude scenes. I like movies like that and I like to support them. It is sad that the cute family wholesome movies kind of get pushed to the side and the ones filled with crude scenes and bad language get academy awards. Sorry folks I forgot to get a picture of this.

Next we went dancing. This was completely free as it was done in our car on the way to one of our favorite hamburger and custard restaurant. Sorry about the pictures being cut off. It is hard to dance and take pictures.
























We then went to one of our new favorite little hamburger joints. As of right now it is one of my favorite hamburger places. Their frozen custard is to die for!!
























I then took pictures of Milton. Milton wanted to take pictures of me. This is the first picture he took of me. HMMMM,wonder where his mind is.

Okay my mom started reading this and freaking out. Let me explain the picture....Milton grabbed the camera and took a picture really quickly. He did not even look at what he was taking. So NOTHING was on his mind and he DID not mean to take the picture like this. I was JUST KIDDING. I did not to be vulgar. I am not Vulgar. I thought it was funny after Milton took the picture and then handed it to me and this is what I saw. As you can see from the next picture, he grabbed the camera and re did the picture. So there MOM!!!!!

So, all together out date cost $11. Not to shabby!! We had dinner and a movie. Then we finsihed the night by being the responsible adults we are and went grocery shopping so we do not starve.

It's The Little Things

I have really been enjoying going around and having fun with Milton. I have been trying to remember to take pictures where ever we go. It has been hard to remember because I have one of those big professionals cameras, but I recently found my old little digital camera. So I stuck it in my purse to capture moments here and there.

On Friday of last week, Milton called on the way home from work and said "I need to tell you something." I was like okay. He then said "No, I want to tell you over dinner." So then I start freaking out thinking what does he need to tell me that he can not tell me now. So I say "NO tell me now." He starts laughing and said "Okay, I really do not have to tell you anything. I just want to take you to dinner." Now why do you ask would he need to make up a story to take me to dinner because every time Milton has said "let's go do....." I always respond "We don't have money." See we are trying to save. So needlless to say I caved. I mean it is pretty sad that my husband has to make up lies to take me dinner. Sorry we don't have one together. Milton did not want to ask anyone to take our photo.

Then one of the things that I love love love about Milton is he always looks at my gas to see how much I have left. He saw that my gas was low, so he immediately goes to get more gas.

Then he always follows it up by this......

While he is pumping my gas, he looks through my car for any trash and throws it away. *Sigh* I love the litte things. I love the little dinners and driving around together and listening to music. I want to cherish the little things. What are some of the little things that your husband does for you?

What to Write?

Hello all!!

I have been struggling with what to write on here. Nothing exciting going on in the Timoteo house. However, that is good news? It is nice to have that down time, to not been running from one place to the next. I guess in a sense " I am stopping to smell the roses."

However, I want to one day take this blog and make it into a book. I want it to serve as a journal in a sense. I think too often that we think the boring and mundane is not an interesting thing to write. However, all the blogs that I am obsess with talk about the day to day details of their life. It is what fascinates me. It helps me feel normal.

Some of the thoughts that have been going through my mind as a young new housewife now is that I need a little structure. This is what I mean by this....To often I wake up in the morning and just kind of lull around the house, playing on the computer, watching TV, and before I know it it is night and I really can not account for my day. Now I have always been a very productive person. I have always liked that about myself. So I was thinking about how could I make it where I get more stuff done in the day but I am not running around like a chicken with its head cut off. What came to mind is to have kind of like a chore chart. Now I don't know if I am actually going to make a chart, but I would like to make some type of outline. I think I would like to do something like....


Monday=Dusting




















Tuesday=Vacuuming




















Wednesday = bathrooms



















Thursday=laundry













Friday=cars



















I just can not take not doing anything all day long. Now I know most of you probably have stones in your hands ready to cast them. I am not wishing that my day was chalk full of chores and errands. I just know if order for me to not become a lazy couch potato I need to have a little structure. Okay I feel much better now after getting that off my chest.

I've Been Thinking

Okay, I am laying in bed here tonight with something on my mind. One of my sisters friends asked or told her..."How does Milton take it when Amanda jokes about hitting on other men?" At first I thought it was funny...Really funny!! But then I started pondering on it. I had just met this particular friend of my sisters and had joked in passing about Hitting on another man. Every laughed (including my husband) and then we moved on. So when my sister told me this, like I said I did not think anything at first, but then it started to bother me. Now the fact that they made this comment did not bother me. I am not made at them in any way. If anything I am grateful because it made me stop and think. No the thing that bothered me was that I could convey something like that even though I was completely joking. I love to laugh. I can laugh at almost anything and I am constantly joking around. But this made me think or realize, that there are somethings you should not joke about especially meeting a new person for the first time. It made me sad that I gave my first impression as someone who is a fluzy or that I smeared the love I have for my husband.

Alot of times, I do not blog about my undying love for my husband. I know some people long for companionship and I do not want to rub it in there face of how wonderfully over the moon in love I am for the man that I share and enjoy my life with. It is kind of like how I long for a baby or child. I am happy for people who can have babies and as a general rule I can talk about pregnancies and babies and so on. However, there are times I just can not read another blog or facebook post or email or message board about someone being pregnant. So I applied this rule to my blog and how over the top I am in love with my husband.

Now if you were to meet my husband and I. We are not one of these couples that make you want to loose your lunch because we can not keep our hands off eachother. We prefer to do that in private. However, you will always find us touching in some way. Milton always make sure he is holding my hand or touching the small of my back. Our conversations are always full with I love you's and I am so grateful we are together. We never take for granted how lucky we are to find such a wonderful eternal companion that we enjoy spending time with. Since quitting my job, we have some much fun everyday together. I enjoy the rymthm of waking up and puttering around the house and talking until Milton has to leave. Sometime through out the day, Milton walks up behind me, puts his arms around me, and thanks me for all I do.

The thing I honestly wished I could convey to this person or give him the slighest preview, is how totally and completely I am dedicated to my husband. I do not even notice other men. If we are some place and he walks in, I completely loose focus and zoom in on him. Every morning I wake up to sun shining on me and all around me. That is the way I feel with Milton. I feel his love all around me and shining on me. I am so grateful for marriage, especially eternal marriage. Tonight we went to bed. We have a routine. We come in the room, shut the door, and lay on the bed. Milton always says "let's do scripture study." Milton will read something or I will and then we will discuss it which usually winds up with us talking. The usual scene is me laying on his stomach or chest and him casually rubbing my back or my arms. Then we will say our family prayers. After that, even though we say we need to go to bed, we always talk way later than we should. Tonight when we came to bed. I apolygized to Milton. I told him that I am so sad that I made someone think for even a second that I would even hit on another man or question my love for him. My husband being like he always is ...Kissed me very gently and said " Who cares what he thinks, I thought your joke was very funny!" Thanks for alway laughing at my jokes, Milton. Thanks for letting me be me!!!