Happy Birthday to Hubs!

R's birthday was over the weekend. Thanks to Groupon, we were able to go to the beach for the bargain price of $29 a night. (Thanks, Groupon!)

Getting ready to take off

The one thing R wanted to do at the beach was take a helicopter ride. He's wanted to try this for over a decade and this was his lucky weekend. The helicopter rides are advertised everywhere for $20, but when we got to the place the $20 ride was a 2 minute ride basically above the helicopter place. Longer rides were, of course, available for more money, so we bumped up to the next level at $40 a ride per person.

Unfortunately, there were only three available seats on the helicopter, so we had some decisions to make. Do two of us go at a time? Do three of us go and then the straggler gets to go?  How do we decide who pairs up (our kids are way into bickering about everything right now)?

AAAAHHHHHHH. 

Coming back!

So I decided I would skip it. I didn't want to go as badly and Robert and the kids did and that way I could take pictures. Plus, it would save us $40, so there's that. Although, watching them go, I really did wish I could go too, but c'est la vie. 

After the helicopter ride, we went to Broadway on the Beach and walked around until the kids begged us to get them out of the fresh air and into the hotel room because - and no, I'm not kidding - "walking around outside is booooooooooooooring". 

Kids these days. 

This is going in my favorites album!

The back story on this picture is WAY too long for a caption

Details are in the Karma

Having ignored the smart phone trend for ages, Robert and  I finally upgraded this summer. I am still on the fence about whether or not I actually like it. I think I like the idea of them more than actually having one.

This morning, after dropping the kids off at school and stopping to return a Redbox movie, my phone chirped to let me know I had an email. First thought - ooops! I thought I had turned off mobile data! Second thought - well, let me see who emailed me. 

It was Credit Karma. Last year, my debit card was compromised and I've been on super high alert since then to make sure a compromised card doesn't turn into full blown identity theft. So you can imagine how high my eyebrows shot up when Credit Karma informed me that there had been a hard inquiry (which usually means you have applied for new credit) from Target. 

I haven't applied for new credit from Target. In fact, the last time my credit report should have been pulled is when we purchased a car in July. And, since it's relevant, I was not alerted to that hard inquiry by Credit Karma. Just sayin'...

Smart phone or not, I'm not about to pull up my credit report on it. So I dashed home (I was supposed to be going to the gym) because my over-active brain was imagining all sorts of identity theft scenarios. 

Once home, I log in. Credit Karma has somewhat recently changed their format. This means I spend a lot of time clicking around trying to magically recall the old format and find what I'm looking for. It didn't work. And then I totally freaked out because there was a section saying we had 5 accounts past due. WHAAAAAAAAAAA???????? 

After a 'slight' amount of panic (by which I mean a sh*tload) and much more clicking around, there was no balance on those accounts and certainly no late payments. Thanks for the near heart attack, Credit Karma! 

I should also mention that there was no Target credit inquiry on my credit report. Interestingly enough, there was an inquiry from the orthodontist we visited in August, even though I didn't get an inquiry alert from Credit Karma, nor did I actually apply for credit, either. Harrumph.

To add credit insult to credit injury, upon looking more closely at the email that started all of this, I noticed that the Target inquiry was from December of 2012. 2012!!!!!!! I feel like I need to buy a bunch of stickers that says "Voted most likely to panic for no good reason" and sport those on a prominent location - like my forehead.

Good grief.

Changes are a'comin!

I've been thinking a lot in the past year about what to do with this blog.  I started it when we were stationed overseas as a way to let everyone know what we were doing. It was easier than writing the same thing in multiple emails and, I wouldn't be obsessively checking my inbox for replies. What can I say, sometimes I want and need some validation. Hahaha...but seriously...

The kids are older now and T, especially, hasn't wanted too much shared on the blog about his life in the last few years. I completely understand that and respect his decision.

S is disappointed that she's not famous yet. ::snort::

And then there has been the occasional, resulting drama. I love to write. I still love to write. I understand that everyone has (and is entitled to) an opinion. I know that sometimes I will and sometimes I won't agree with people's opinions. But a couple of things have happened along the way and those things made me think really carefully about what I'm doing here.

The thought that I've really and truly hurt someone's feelings affects me deeply. I would never, ever want to hurt someone with my words or actions -whether friend, family, or stranger. I take that stuff seriously. I also resent my words being taken and twisted into something they aren't meant to be. It offends me and it hurts my feelings, especially if it isn't possible to have an honest, grown up conversation about it afterwards.

So, now what? I haven't finished a post since September or October on this blog, even though I've started about 50. I've lost my motivation somewhere along the way. Until now, this blog was my family's story. But now, I think maybe it's time to tell MY story.

I hope all of you will come and visit...frequently. Thank you for reading over the years. I hope you will find the new Daily Dose of Dahl just as engaging as the 'old' one.

Happy 2015!

Brooke