Well. The Cats out of the Bag.

We are very excited and cautiously optimistic, to share the news that we are pregnant with our second blessing. We are having a boy, Daniel David, and he is due September 29th.

I started a blog for him before we knew he was a him.

I haven't been as diligent about adding some posts lately, but the most recent post shares the best news we have received in a long time.

http://oursecondblessing.blogspot.com/

We still have a long way to go before he arrives. We are very excited, but nervous too. Being pregnant again has been and will continue to be wonderful. But there are a lot of reminders that come with it. Feelings about what we have had and lost. So while we are so in love, we are not screaming from the rooftops. We won't go out and purchase anything for a while. The thought of making returns again, or having someone else make them for us, is enough to make me sick.

Right now, all we can ask is for people to keep us in their prayers for a healthy pregnancy.

Celebrating 30-Years Today!

I love birthday's. Especially the milestones. Two years ago, it was my "Golden Birthday" when I turned 28 on March 28th. That was a milestone. This year, I am 30.

It's a little discouraging how many people are downers about birthdays. I mean really. If I wasn't having a birthday, it would mean I was dead, right? I'll take having a birthday, thank you very much.

The comments about birthday's just crack me up.

• It's all downhill after 30.
• Everything slows down, especially your metabolism
• Your body starts to ache, you start to feel the pains.
• A few others I received were...Come talk to me when you're 40 and we'll see how excited you are about birthdays then

Jeez Louise People.... It's a birthday, not a death march.

Turning 30 is great. I mean 30! I've done a lot of great things in 30-years. I hope that when I'm celebrating my 60th birthday, I'm amazed by all the more achievements and challenges that have kept me going. But I don't want to age myself too soon. I want to enjoy the years a head.

30 is a welcome change from 29. Some people like to joke that they are 29 forever. That would be my worst nightmare. 29 was not an easy year for me. And while there were lots of wonderful memories, some of the tough ones sting. I won't need to be reminded of my 29th year. It will be with me forever.

So please, when someone reaches a milestone birthday that isn't 13, 16, 18, or 21...don't be a downer. No one wants to hear that. Birthdays should be celebrated.

It's the time between the dash, right?

eBay Story

So, I've been meaning to post about a crazy eBay story that happened to Dave and I a few weeks ago. We were selling our PlayStation 2 so that Dave can buy a Nintendo Wii. Yeah, because that's what we need. Anyhow, back to my story.

We've been buying/selling stuff on eBay since 2002. So we're pretty familiar with the process.

I woke up early on Saturday the 15th to get ready for a wedding shower. I went and checked eBay and saw that someone had bought the PlayStation. This was great. The guy who bought it emailed my Yahoo account. Here's his email.

Hi Seller,
Am glad to get back to you in regards to the payment for the eBay item. I am so happy to be the winning bidder of this item. Well i bought this item as a gift for my son who is currently studying foreign language in west Africa and i am so sorry for not getting you aware before. I have sent the payment via PayPal and i have received the confirmation that you have been sent the confirmation of the payment. Moreover, i included the shipping cost of the item to the payment, so just get me informed immediately the item is shipped first thing in the morning and make sure the item is shipped via USPS Global Express Mail EMS. My son's address is:
Name: O.F.Martins
Address: Transformer Road Oluyole Estate
City: IbadanState: Oyo State
Country: NigeriaPost Code: 23402P
hone #: +2348063014998

Thats the shipping address and i want you to get back to me as soon as you ship out the item and thanks for the concept of the business...

I was a little surprised by the email because he was SO BOSSY...and he was telling me to ship the PlayStation to Nigeria! NIGERIA!! Hello, the eBay listing said we would only ship in the United States!! So I printed the email so I could read it to Dave who was in bed sick. Before I logged off the computer though, I looked at my Yahoo account, and there was a PayPal email indicating that the eBay buyer had paid an extra $100 to account for the shipping to Nigeria.

So I went and told Dave. He was not happy about the whole thing and used a few superlatives to express his irritation. I just said, whatever, the guy paid an extra $100. If it costs more then that, I'm not going to ship it. Dave was fine with that.

So, after we packed up the PlayStation and printed out an address label, Dave was getting ready to bring it to the car. I ran back in the house for one more thing....and said "You know what, I'm going to login to my PayPal account and verify that the payment came through because of this whole Nigeria business". I logged into PayPal, and sure as shit, the money wasn't there. Wasn't pending, wasn't nothing! No where to be seen was this almost $200 dollars. So, I printed the PayPal email to read it in more detail. That's when I noticed it didn't look right.

Here is an excerpt from the email that was in fine print at the very bottom:
NOTE: This PayPal® payment has been deducted from the buyer's account and has been " APPROVED" but will not be credited to your account until the shipment reference/tracking number is sent to us for shipment verification so as to secure both inequalities (Buyer & Seller) from online fraudulent activities.

Below are the necessary information requested before your account will be credited.You will have to email us the tracking number to the PayPal Customer Care at: paypal@accountsverification.net .

As soon as we receive the shipment tracking number from you, you will receive a " CONFIRMATION EMAIL" concerning the accreditation of the funds into your PayPal Account and we shall get the funds credited into your PayPal Account within 24 hours.

I also noticed that the email was sent from:
"service@paypal.com" paypal@accountsverification.net

I called PayPal and they said it was a scam.
1. They never require a tracking number for shipment to be given before payment is received
2.The email came from a non-PayPal website (accountsverification.net)
3.A legitimate PayPal email would be addressed to me, by my full name, NOT my email address.

We almost shipped our PlayStation to Nigeria at the cost of $100+ in shipping!!!

Can you believe that? Nuts. Dave called eBay to tell them, and they told him that the eBay user name that was being used, has had this problem. Someone has hijacked a "good" eBayers account using a third party software and is doing all of these scams. So, if you ever sell something to an "Eric Diehl" or "ericdieheric" then watch your wallet!

Lesson learned for us. Fortunately, we didn't ship anything, or lose any money. Take it as a lesson learned. Make sure your emails from PayPal are really from PayPal.com. Otherwise, if you click on one of the links in the fraud email, you may expose your personal banking information. Lucky for us we didn't click on any of the links.

What a LONG WEEK

Last week seemed endless. I mostly attribute it to the weather and politics. Between the ice storm and the primaries, I was ready for the weekend on Tuesday.

I want to provide an update on Sam. His surgery was Friday. The botox injection went great, but the the second surgeon in the room decided to do a balloon dialation because the pyloric muscle was so thick (from being enflamed, etc). The ballood dialation caused a lot of problems, especially a perforation in Sam's intestine. What was supposed to be a simple laproscopic surgery, became a massive surgery. Sam will be at Rainbows for 7-10days. I talked to Gretchen today, and the poor girl is frustrated. Right now while the intestine heals, Sam can't eat, he can only have sugar water. So he is hungry! Dawn and I are going to visit them on Tuesday and spend the morning with her. The good thing is, Sam *should* heal and be a healthy little boy after all of this. What's frustrating is that if it had been properly diagnosed by the last pediatrician, all of this would have been resolved a month or so ago with a simple surgery. Let's just say, I took that ladies name down, and when the time comes for Dave and I, she will NOT be on our pediatrician list!!!

On a positive note, people never cease to amaze me. The Book Club came through and made some great contributions to bring to Gretchen and Nick. Gift Certificates for restaraunts, magazines, wine, books, and more.

Other good news this week was that a good friend of mine found a new job right around the corner from me! I'm looking forward to catching up more often over lunch.
This weekend was low key thanks to the weather. Between watching movies, DVR'd shows and sleeping late...all I accomplished was a little bit of vaccuming and cleaning some toilets. Oh, and I made it to Giant Eagle too. Dave must have snow-blowed the driveway 8-times this weekend! Poor guy.

Hopefully next week will be faster and full of better news.

Please keep Gretchen, Nick and Sam in your prayers. They need the extra strength.

Say a Prayer for Sam

Our friends, Gretchen and Nick, had a little boy in November. Sam has had trouble out the gate with eating, acid reflux, and food allergies. There's a whole series of medical words that are related to what is causing this, I just don't know them all. Sam is so uncomfortable, that he can't eat or sleep, and he screams almost all day long. To quote Gretchen, "he writhes in pain".

Needless to say, Sam *might* be having surgery this week at Rainbows Babies & Children's Hospital in Cleveland. This is a huge decision that they will make as parents, as the surgery has never been done on an infant before. This surgery is highly recommended. They are in the right hands. They live in the right city. They've taken him to every specialist under the sun, and this seems to be the best recommendation. Sam needs to be able to eat, and sleep so he can flourish.

So I ask all of you to please say a prayer for Sam, Gretchen and Nick. They need the extra strength to get through this trying situation. No little 3 1/2 month old baby should have to endure such discomfort.

With Love,
Susie