Yes Chase Bank, I’m talking to you.  Why do I bother rant like this?  Well, it makes me feel better I guess.  What would Jesus do?  Hmm… well, he wouldn’t need a bank…. but I suppose he would say something like- they know not what they do, please forgive them.  I however, think they know exactly what they are doing.  Ok, so first there was the ‘we can’t take your cash’ incident.  Let me explain.  Our business has it’s accounts through a credit union, they are not insured federally so we cannot pay our federal taxes through them… or something like that.  SO, we are forced to take cash from that bank and take it over to Chase so they can issue an official check & send it in.  No big deal really, we like our credit union- a minor inconvenience. until….  The last time we went to Chase to get the check issued, we walk in there with a couple grand in cash and ask them to issue a check.  They suddenly seem ‘all confused’ and flustered… do you have an account here?? No… we never have…. you issued the checks before… ohh, well we changed our policy in March this year.  -So lets review… I bring a stack of CASH into a BANK, but they can’t accept it because I don’t have an account.  Hmm… Now, thanks to our Federal Tax system we can’t just send in a business check -in case there are insufficient funds.. that’s a whole other issue.  Back to Chase.  So the flustered chick at the desk get’s what may be a manager?  Who knows, she’s mousey, fragile looking, and has those half glasses on the end of her nose.  I want to punch her in the face.  She basically tells us the same thing the other lady did.  She tells us that they can’t even sell us a money order.  I am baffled.  Ok, fine, we’ll open a fricken account.  An hour later we are depositing the money into our newly opened account & then taking it right back out so we can get that check issued.  When we went to open the account the mousey lady says.. oh maybe you’ll like us so much you’ll switch banks.  Hmm let me think… do I want to join a bank that doesn’t accept cash… NAHHHH.  Instance number 2.  Today, the day we pay taxes… I issue a check for the amount, take it into the bank… ohhh, well this money has to be issued directly from the account you hold here- the mousey lady tells me… maybe she looks more like a squirell.. either way.  She acts like it’s a big freakin deal.  I said, oh, well we don’t keep money in that account (I made sure to say it in a way that sounded like her account wasn’t worthy… or at least I’d like to think that’s how I sounded) She kind snaps back- well you need to!  That’s how we can issue this check… I said alllll chipper like- oh no, it’s no problem, I’ll go get the money from my bank… seriously, it’s like around the block.  She does some sort of typing on her computer… I’m thinking WTF… the squirrel tells me, if you had deposited this check days ago, we could do it. I wanted to say, Hi-I’m earth, have we met?  I said, really- it’s no big deal, I’ll go get the cash from MY bank. So we got that all taken care of.  In the meantime I found out we can pay online… it was supposed to have been set up in October… eh hem.  Anyways, we head back to the bank- pay the flustered chick, she tells us- oh this account will be closed, there is no activiy!  I said, that’s fine- we don’t need it.  Well there will be a fee for closeing it before 90 days.  GOOD GRIEF.  Ok, here’s an f-in dollar.  Geez.  So I’ll be back in two months to close that and say f-off to the squirrel & fluster girl.  Oh, & P.S. we also got a notice this last April that federal had no record of a payment… thanks again Chase.  I’m not the only one who has delt with this crap either, I found lots of other articles.  Go figure, when Chase opened they purchased chasesucks.com & chasestinks.com … what’s that tell ya?  So, 10 things I hate about chase:

10.fluster girl

9.her lips

8.the color of their walls

7.the squirrel

6.her glasses

5.her sucky attitude

4.their location on that busy corner

3.their policies

2.the blue shirts they all wear

1.they don’t accept cash…. hello??

OK, I feel better, even if I am the only person on the planet to ever read this again.   

yay me.

God must really love us all to give us something so simple & special as a sunrise & sunset each day.  I watched the sunrise today and the sun was that all too perfect shade of raspberry pink.  I just sat there in the coolness watching it rise- it was perfect, I can’t stress that enough.  It was so breezy & cool & I watched the leaves blow & our willow tree blow, I was just overflowing with joy.  Burtsing at the seams!! I thought, oh if I could hold this moment forever!! What a simple thing too, I know I used to pay more attention to these simple things in life than I do now.  I swear there was a point in my life when my flame just simply went out, but not anymore.  How cool is that?  God does reach us where we are.  He finds me sitting on our steps smelling the cool air watching the trees blow & the sun come up.  Awesome.  I have decided as I look around at the people I even remotely know, that most of them are consumed by -well, consumer things.  Buying things, owning things, having more.  Not to say that I haven’t been one of these people for my entire life.  I just have reached a point where I don’t want to care about having more, or anything at all.  So maybe that’s why God distances me from being close to people.  maybe I am too easily influenced.  They got a new couch?  They own that movie?? I want it tooooo.  I’d like to think I’m not that way anyways… but ya know.  So what can I do?  Our pastor said that if every person ate only what they need & we could take that extra that we consume now- that there would be no one hungry in the world.  Geez.  Then there’s the problem of even donating money, some people don’t because they don’t trust the places they donat to to get the money where it really need to go; or to make sure that they don’t take an unfair cut out of the donation.  What is up with this world?  It seems everyone is so concerned with themselves.  maybe it’s just me, but it seems Americans are especially so.  We have so much & all we want is more.  We worry about buying TV’s & DVD players & CD’s & movies & sound systems… & on & on.  Then there are the little things that are huge to me.  For instance…. they are working on a main road here in our town, so where are those construction workers at right as kids are walking to school??? Right in front of the cross walk- in fact, they were blocking the cross walk.  The crossing guard was standing across the road looking all concerned not even being able to tell if kids were there.  Those assholes.  They couldn’t take the time to make sure that construction wasn’t being done at that time?? They couldn’t go another 10ft down the road until school started??? Are you kidding me?  That’s the kind of thing that tells me that no one give an f about anyone but themselves.  GRRR.  How can we be so inconsiderate?  Ok, I’m done ranting for now… I’ll post my complaint about Chase bank later…

Sunny, breezy, kinda cool.  YUM I was looking at Katrina pics today, both amazing & terrifying.  Then I looked up Sri Lanka pics, it seems the longer it has been since that, the more pics you can find.  It is just the most horrific scene.  I found one site that showed aerial shots before & after the storm.  The islands looked like uncharted territory, as if it was in the stone age.  Then somehow I decided to look up Hiroshima.  I just think to myself- God, how long will you let us stay here?  It’s not that I haven’t seen alot of these pics before, it’s just very humbling & frankly the closer I become to Christ the more it hurts to see those pics.  So what does it all mean?  That I better be very thankful for the life I have & I must do more.  My husband & I have decided to donate 10% of our business profits to any sort of charity.  I think we can help alot of people this way.  Although it may not be much compared to some, it is what we can do.  That is all God asks, that we do what we can.  How much are we willing to give?  I so badly want to finish our house & sell it so we can spend less on a house, plus have tons more time to do the things that really matter.  I wish we had never bought that place.  All for a reason I suppose.  Good experience in the way that I know I will never buy a ’fixer upper’ again.  Who’s got time for that?? Geez.  I so look forward to the day we are not living there & our lives are simplified.  Well anyways.  Not too much to say really. 

I love it, all rainy- kinda cold… like fall!  Yummy!  When will my allergies decide to take a break?? I ordered like 3 or 4 books off amazon today, how to draw books.  I felt kinda silly buying them, but the fact is that there are many techniques that would make my life easier if I would just learn them!  I admire self taught artists & I have always been a big supporter of the ‘don’t bother going to college for art club’.  Well, surprise surprise, turns out many talented artists that completed school. HMM what a concept.  I guess, I just got too frustrated too soon when I tried it out.  Plus, I couldn’t afford to go to art school so I was stuck with courses I didn’t need-or want for that matter.  My point?  Well, I haven’t got one.   My husband & I will be trying to get rid of our murderous dog now, that should be interesting, I can imagine the ad now… FREE: One brain damaged dog that squeals when you look at her, she is known to pee on herself, gets fleas, jumps & scratched your legs, oh & also she has been know to attack other dogs.  Good Luck.  What do you do?  I mean, something must have really been wrong for her to attack our other dog, but it’s not the kind of thing where I would have her put to sleep or anything.  My heart is too tender when it comes to that sort of thing.  As much as I despise her for what she did, I couldn’t have her killed.  Anyways, back to the amazon thing.  I also ordered like 4 movies.  The most I paid for one was $.21 .   I wish I had never discovered that you can get stuff so cheap on there!! Nevermind that shipping is $4.00- I got a movie for a penny!! Whatever makes me happy I guess.  Although, I should have sent that money to Afghanistan, that’s where I go back to sucking.  I don’t want to spen money on possessions, then I go buy those dumb movies… however cheap they are.  I still am on my quest to figure out how to glorify God with my art.  I figure there’s got to be some reason I love it so.  Guess that’s about all that’s on my mind. 

One of our pups died this morning, how very very sad.  She was apparently attacked by one of our other dogs two days ago.  Weird occurance, but she hurt her bad enough that she died today.  We thought she was doing just fine.  It was so incredibly sad because I sat up with her the entire night, I could tell she was in pain, and by morning she was barely breathing.  My husband & I sat by her side for about two hours then she finally died.  I watched her die.  It was horrifying, I can only pray I never experience that with a person.  I was praying the whole time that she might be healed or die soon so the pain would end.  Once I had my bout of tears… three times, I over all feel at peace.  I have a terrible head ache & my eyes hurt since I didn’t sleep last night, but other than that I’m ok.  We had an awesome message yesterday at church from a YWam worker.  She was telling us all about all these mission trips & all these different races that live in Chicago, one woman had never heard of Jesus!! In Chicago!  She told about a woman who keeps 100 children in a home in a third world country & the children are so excited to have matresses, $2.00 can feed them for a month or something like that.   It is so humbling.  Excited about a matress?  I want to buy useless decoration for my house sometimes… shame on me.  So how much are we willing to give up?  I want to say everything.  I know I will be tested on that.  So, I don’t feel too much pain from the loss of my pup, so many people are hurting so much more, I will focus on how I can help in that area & love my pups I still have at home.  I am amazed at the way Christ led us to our church, I love it, I can’t do without it.  Thanks.