25 weeks down *hopefully* 11 to go

Well, we are at 25 weeks and 2 days. I'm so excited. Fetal Medicine keeps telling me, if we can just make it to 28 weeks without any events, that the babies will have SUCH a better chance of survival and fewer complications. Every Saturday morning I have a little celebration in my mind that we all managed to make it one more week together. I'm aiming for 11 more. It seems the twins that can hang on until 36 weeks don't have to have any nicu time. I know that there is so very little I can actually control about when they come. That's the scary part. I can follow all of the rules and make it without any issue. Or, I could follow all of the rules and BAM! deliver very preemie babies. It happens so many times, every day. All I can do is continue to hope and pray that they continue to grow and develop until it's "safe."

Things seem to be going well with the house. We've had a lot of showings. So far, no offers...but people are at least checking it out. I'm excited that cooler weather is here. The mums will come into full bloom and the grass will suffer less heat exhaustion and be able to actually retain the water before it evaporates. Our yard is always prettiest in September/early October. Chris, Steve and Pam went out this past weekend and moved the sprinklers that had ended up behind the fence line when the fence was put up. It was so much easier to do with their help. The quote I got to redo the line almost caused me to faint. Nothing will make you sick of the phrase ending in "at least $500" like fixing up a house to sell. I can tell you...if you need anything fixed and don't have the skills or the time...it'll be at least "$500." I owe Steve and Pam big time. They probably shaved off 2 hours of time being there to help. Pam kept me from over doing things in the yard. She put me on Victoria duty while she helped Chris do lawn stuff. We fired our lawn company, because the 6" tree sprouts and weeds in the backyard screamed NEGLECT. Clearly, they weren't really coming every week.
Begin Rant--WHAT IS WITH THESE COMPANIES ANYWAY?! I have heard my mother-in-law talk about her previous pool and lawn companies before and just figured she had bad luck. But it seems crappy customer service and an inability to communicate effectively is universal with so many of these service companies.

1. Answer your dang messages. I understand that you're on the job, and thus leaving a voice mail may be necessary...BUT YOU SHOULD CALL YOUR CLIENT BACK. Making me follow up with a text 3 days later, and then having me contact your BNI referee to let them know you're MIA before any kind of response is ridiculous.
   
2. INVOICE YOUR CLIENTS. I can't pay you if I don't know when/if you've been at my house. When we agree on a weekly service, because the home has been VACATED, then please show up and do your job and then email, text, or SNAIL MAIL me to let me know you've been there and what I owe you for the services rendered.
3. Happy customers = repeat business and additional referrals. You create happy customers by following the two SIMPLE rules above. Unsatisfied customers = me blogging about how awful of an experience I had and no referrals, just warning others to stay far far away. Seriously, I would have been better off with a 12 year old mowing my lawn. END RANT

Well, it's time to go eat, before I rampage on other random things. We are partying it up today at my parents for KK and Daniel. W00t! Happy Labor (and non-labor wooo hooo) day folks