Update & "Millionaire" Childhood Story

A few days ago the kids received a package from Grandma & Grandpa Patch. I actually wrote of this the night of but I ended up not publishing the post to the blog, so here I write it all again.

The girls each received a Happy Valentine's Day card, a package of underwear, and a Valentine's Day t-shirt.
Our son received a Happy Valentine's Day card, a football t-shirt (super soft & comfy) and a sporty jacket with matching pants!

They were very excited.

Well, baby Johnny just wanted to eat his card, but I think he enjoyed wearing the soft football t-shirt yesterday. Oh and he also wore his jacket yesterday when we took his Sissy to the school bus stop in his stroller. Yup, still not walking. He does have 10 teeth with more on the way though. And he's done with baby formula, completely! Yeah!

The weather this week is interesting, getting warmer every day and colder every night (or so it feels) and on Thursday we're supposed to reach a high of 70º F and on Friday crash into the cold again with storms in the forecast.

Someone has gifted me a subscription to US News, so THANK YOU to whomever it was. I'm guessing it was my Grandpa Ray because he's all into that Publisher's Clearinghouse stuff. They say "purchase not necessary to enter to win" and that it "won't increase your chances", but I bet he think it's not true and that they just have to say that. You wouldn't believe how much my Mom buys into those things and that I have to talk her out of all the time.

Speaking of Publisher's Clearinghouse...

You know how when you're younger (and if you have kids my girls' ages you're seeing what I mean right now too) you take everything for it's word? My kids believe every commercial they hear and think the things they see on TV are literal, all of it. They buy into every advertisement they see or hear.

Here are some examples of that:

The other day we were at the store and an employee gets on the intercom an says "We need carts please". Well, I am one of the few people in the store with a cart (because like a good shopper, I grabbed one from the parking lot on my way in) so my 8 year old daughter looks at me (dumbfounded that I didn't acknowledge the requests) and says "Mommy, they need carts." She was implying I give them mine or go get them some, I'm not sure, but she was definitely insisting they were asking me to do something for them. ::sigh::

When I was about her age I checked the mail one day and there was one of those Publisher's Clearinghouse letters in there. I looked at the front of it claiming that it must be opened at once because something about being a Millionare. Then I realized it wasn't for us, it was for the lady two doors down. She had a bunch of horses and taught horseback riding. Two doors down was a pretty major walk on that street as our properties were huge.

I called our home a mini-mansion. It had 4 separate quarters, ours was the main house, my cousins Chase and Mike lived next to us, next to them was my sister and her family, and on the other side of us was my grandparents. The home surrounded the huge backyard and laundry area with a giant peanut-shaped pool that was pretty deep and sported a diving board (I learned to swim in that pool). We had two raised and covered Gazebos on each side of the back yard and a cozy area surrounded in Palm Trees for shade as well. We also had the biggest driveway, enough for at least 20 cars, easy. And a covered carport for our main house (where I lived- w00t!). We also had a basket ball hoop. Yup.

Back to the story. So, I thought about this mail and how important it was. I was so excited as I walked the long walk to her house to be the one to show her that she was going to be a Millionaire (that's what the envelope promised), and I was dreaming of what a huge tip she was going to give me for delivering this most precious piece of mail! And as she answered the door and took her prize mail from my hand with obvious dismay at my interruption of her day and thanked me as she closed the door, I think I stood there in la-la-land. After the door closed, like a robot I turned around and began walking home. I replayed the situation in my head numerous times and I could not understand. "Was she that rich?" "Did she not care about being a Millionaire?"

We had very nice, large homes on that secluded street and lived right across the street from Wayne Newton, but we certainly were not Millionaires. Nowhere even close! I don't even think we owned a dishwasher back then!

Finally I told my parents what had happened and how rude she was to not even offer a tip and went on and on about how snooty our neighbor must be.

My parents just laughed at me and questioned me more and laughed more. "What the heck was going on?", "Am I on hidden camera!?" I thought. Finally my parents said "Dear, that was just junk mail!" The laughing started all over again. "But... It said she was going to be a Millionaire?!" Oh! What a dramatic day that was.

And here, about 22 years later, I remember it like it were last year.

One last funny thing my mom told me the other day. She got a bill from Wal*Mart. She has a credit card with them, or did have. She started to chuck it in trash and I was like "Isn't that your bill?" She says "Yeah! I'm not paying them!" I think this is funny, so I'm like "Oh yeah? Why?" She told me that they decreased her credit limit to less than what she owes. So, she had charges and had credit left over, then they lowered her limit without notice or giving reason, and then she not only had no more available credit but she owed more than she was even allowed to spend. I think she was also embarrassed when she tried to make a purchase and wasn't previously informed of the changes. I don't blame her, I guess.

That was low, Wal*Mart, but you are #1 at being low.