An update.

Well, I didn't received my possessions back, but I did receive compensation for them. D had tried several times to reach the girl, who of course would not respond. Finally I looked her parents up on line and had D call their house, knowing that she lived there. D spoke with her father and explained why he was trying to reach her. Her father did not seem overly shocked, but did state that it was the first that he had heard of it and that he would speak to his daughter. He never said that his daughter wouldn't do something like that.

About 20 min later she called and D answered. He said that we wanted our things back. She admitted to taking them and said that she didn't have them. Apparently she gave the ipod and speakers to a friend for her birthday. I don't really believe that, and tend to think that she probably gave it to her dealer for drugs or something. What friend wouldn't understand if you needed to ask for the gift back. But them clearly she doesn't see things from a normal perspective and maybe thought it would be humiliating to ask for it back.

D told her what the items cost us and gave her 1 week to either return them or give us the value of them. She called back later in the week and talked to me and said that she had some of the money and could she drop it off. I said no, that I was not accepting less than payment in full and that she had until the date stated to get the payment in full. She tried to tell me that she was having such a hard time getting the money together. I explained that the easy solution was to get our possessions back. She called back a little later in the day and said that she had more money and again I explained that I would accept nothing less than the amount we stated. And that I was not accepting anything less because I did not believe that she would ever pay the rest. I think she finally understood.

The next day at work I received a phone call from her mother who was extremely apologetic and mortified. She explained that she thought we deserved to be compensated as quickly as possible and that she would be covering the debt for her daughter. She asked what was owed and said that she thought that she should pay more than that. While I appreciated her sentiment I explained that I couldn't put a monetary price on it, that it was so much more than the loss of possessions, but the fact that she came into our home, acted like a friend to our son while stealing from us. Also the unknown of was something else going to happen? Did she tell a friend etc. I believe that her mother understood that.

Ultimately we did receive our payment if full and I believe that this is closed. Thankfully!

Wednesday Got Worse

After my spectacular fall on the way to work Wednesday I was pondering what else might go wrong on my way home that afternoon.

When I got home our sitter (D's cousin) mentioned in passing that our old sitter had stopped buy to pick up some of her stuff. She gave our old sitters name, but mispronounced it. I thought this was odd, because our old sitter, we'll call her Mary, has moved to Cleveland. I asked what she had picked up because it's been 3 months since she worked for us and I had not run across anything in the house that was hers.

When our current sitter said that she had gotten something up stairs I was immediately suspicious. After D's cousin left I did some looking around and found that the change in our change bucket was gone. I looked a little further and found that my ipod and speakers were gone from the kitchen. I called D's cousin and to get a little more information about what the person looked like who came to the house. And to specifically ask if she had a piercing. Which she did.

Sigh, this was not our former sitter and friend "mary" as I expected, but a girl that who we had hired to watch the pickle who only lasted 2 days. After showing up 2 hrs late the second day, we paid her only $45 instead of the $50 that we pay for a full day's work. She argued that she deserved to be paid the full wage saying that we pay by the day, not the hour. I said that was true, but her day was to start at 7:45, not 9:00.

D was out of town when this all went down, and when he returned he called her and told her that we would not be needed her services. Hind sight being 20x20 he should had told her that we were going with family as a sitter and that we would love to be able to call her for an evening sitter and then never call her again. Instead he told her the real reason, that she was not reliable, too concerned about payment (she asked for more money before even starting) and just didn't click. She said that she could take us to small claims court over the 5.00. We laughed this off as bravado and she ended up hanging up on D.

Well, I guess she got her $5.00 and more. I am so irate. We have filed a police report and according to a family member who is a police officer D is going to attempt to call her and try and get our stuff back w/o having to press charges.

I am so over the loss of property, but the fact that she invaded my home by saying that she was a friend of ours just makes me so irate. I'm at a loss. What would she have done if no one was there? She had locked herself out of the house the first day she worked for us and I told her to get in. She walked past several other items that she could have taken, might she come back for them, or tell someone else to go get them?

Her parents own a business near us, and after D attempts to get a hold of her he is going to go speak with her father. I don't expect much from that except for D to be thrown out. Who knows... the father could even be in on it. I am just at a loss, it swirls around my brain all day long. Her talking to the Pickle like she was a friend while stealing from us. I am just sick. What sort of person does that? Is she so hard up for money? Was it just spite? Is she on drugs and if so what else might she do?

I'm sure it was spectacular

As I gathered my things this morning to head out to work I noticed on the termometer that it said 55 degrees. I thought wow, 7 am and 55 what a nice day. Then I opened the door and realized that it was pouring down rain. I ran to my car figuring that I'd get there before I could get my umbrella out.

After making it to the parking lot I started my trek into work, avoiding puddles where possible and noticing that the rain was running in little rivers down the edge of the street. I stood at the corner waiting for the light to change. As I stepped down the wheelchair ramp and started to step over a stream my foot slipped, sending my arms whirlwinding and finally landing with a giant splat right in the middle of the road. Ugh... I am ok, I fell to my knees first, then my hands then my side. I feel no danger to the baby, just bruised my ego. A nice woman stopped to help me up, while some man just walked right on by.

I ended up on the elevator with him and he said "oh, you are the woman who tripped, what did you trip on?" I unzipped my coat trying to show off my belly and said that I didn't trip that I just slipped on the wet pavement. Thinking the whole while "you @ss hole didn't even stop to help me up!"

I thought about calling D to bring me dry pants, since they were soaking wet, but then discovered that it is about 95 degrees in here today. My pants were dry before he would have made it here. Now I sit for the rest of the day with bruised hands and sore knees.

I can feel someone kicking around in there, so I don't feel the need to get checked out.

Progress is occurring

I have been trying to be super organized in this whirlwind of birthday planning. For D's I'm taking the easy way out and ordering some BBQ for his party on Sunday. Baking a cake should be a breeze. It is the Pickle's birthday that is taking a toll on me.

I am in the process of trying to make some magnetic paper dolls of the pickle to pass out as party favors. I'm really really hoping that this idea works. Yesterday my friend took some pictures of Pickle and of some outfits that she is going to process though photoshop. I ordered some magnetic paper which I am hoping will be strong enough to work. The plan is to print out the clothing and Pickle dolls, and then you can dress him. The question looming is whether the magnetic paper is strong enough to hold the clothing to the cut out of the pickle. I ordered the paper on line, so I need to wait until it comes in to try it out.

The other project to work on is the cake. I think that I have decided that I am just going to do 2 small bus cakes for the Pickle, one for his Saturday family party and one for his Sunday friend party. Then do cupcakes for everyone else, and frost them school bus yellow. It seems like that would be the easiest way to go.

I have actually started the quilt. I'm trying to keep rough track of the amount of time I spend on it. I currently have all the pieces cut out for the pieced blocks. Hopefully I can get about half of them sewn tonight. But on second thought, I am working on Pickles invitations tonight over at my brothers house.

Our computer has been MIA which is making this party planning pretty difficult. D took it to a friend of a friend who is trying to fix it. My hope is that he can at least salvage all the music we have saved on it. Most of it is from the library and would be a huge undertaking to get back.