Here is what happened, I wake up this morning and perform my regular activities which always end with the bank account. Around 11am I check my bank account and Loon Lake Lodge has overcharged my card for last nights dinner!  So, overcharged you say?  Like how much?  Well, the bill was approx 149.00 and they have taken out over 500!  They hit my debit card not once, not twice…not even THREE times…NO, they hit it FOUR times! 

On the upside……I called and spoke to Chad, one of the managers, and he was very polite and accommodating. He is calling my bank right now attempting to get them to remove all the charges, other than the ONE charge. I give him credit for taking the bull by the horns and trying to make this right without my having to beat him over the head!

Something to keep in mind……….when I spoke to him I was NICE. I did not accuse and I tried to be understanding. We did talk about the fact that this can really make serious problems for people by overdrawing their accounts, but he also pointed out that it was not the restaurant that holds the money, it is the bank.  BUT..it is his server that charged my card 4 times. So, we were both understanding and he is going above and beyond to make it right. I have been in this position before with other merchants and they never made it right. They just said that I had to wait for it to clear and that they were not going to overcharge me in the end.

I like this attitude much  better than the other

his birthday. One of his favorite places to eat is

Loon Lake Lodge. Located on I 69 and 82nd St. in

Indianapolis, Indiana this is a pretty nice place to

eat at. 

When you enter the lodge the first thing you notice is that it is a really old establishment. It is over 100 years old, it is family owned and operated and opened it’s doors in 1888!

You walk into something that could be on Disney property….well, have you ever seen the Country Bear Jamboree? It is not crazy like that, they do not put on a show, but it has animatronics. They are wildlife, like bears and a owl, there are heads hanging all over the lobby. Ya know, heads of animals that have been hunted. Every 20 or 30 minutes the animals come to life,there is alot of wild life noise, it is pretty cool, my granddaughter loves it.

The servers are friendly, the atmosphere is good. The restrooms…yeah, I know!!! LOL  the restrooms are pretty cool due to the fact that they have “sanie sensor” doors!!! I am not sure on the spelling but these are doors that have sensors so that you do not have to touch them to get out of the restroom after washing your hands!!! How cool is that!!!!  Okay, so they get kudos for the restrooms BUT…how can you have such a cool device yet not have it working!!!!! Yup, that is right, it is out of order! Only the ladies room, the men’s room works just fine, not fair!

The food? It is good, it is on the higher end of prices but it is good. I found out tonight that Loon Lake buys their meat from the same vendor as Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse….cool.  The prices are not as high ended as Ruth’s Chris and it is the same vendor….pretty good. You can assume though that the meat that RC gets might be of a higher quality…possibly. This is very good meat though.  At our table tonight we had Sirloin, Prime Rib ( 20.00 I think) , 14 oz.NY Strip ( 28.00) Swordfish ( 19.95) Shrimp ( 16.95 )  and a childs sirloin which was 8.95. There were a few different appetizers but the only one I can remember the price on was the onion rings , it was 11.95.

As I said, the food was good. We had a half bottle of Martini and Rossi Asti Spumante that was 11.00, I believe.

So, my only complaint…..when I made the reservation the girl told me that she did not have the new book for 2009,  she assured me that she would get the reservation in the book after she hung  up with me. I called earlier today to confirm, of course it was not in there. When I called I spoke to a girl who told me she could not figure out if I had a ressie or not to please call her back in a while….give her some time to go check in  the back office.  LOL…okay… I called back about 15 minutes later and was told they did not have the ressie, it was never added but they would make sure we had a table ready for us when we arrived and were very nice about the whole thing.  As it turned out…it all was good!  I just wish it had not seemed so disorganized.

Overall, I give them a A+ !!

OH…they used to have a plane on the roof that appeared to go through the roof…like it crashed! It is gone,   :(  now, the plane just sits on the roof! Wonder what happened…if anyone reads this and knows the answer, please let me know! We all miss the plane!!

We decided to finish the basement which the previous contractor, in our opinion, wanted too much $$$ to do the finish,  so we said we didn’t want him to do it. Although we were going to pay the price and have him come back and finish it at a later date, until things went awry.

Okay, so Twin Builders is the name of the company that we chose to finish our partially finished basement  I already told you that prior to the job they had promised things that I thought were awesome BUT I was being cautious about the whole thing. I mean, once bitten twice shy, right? I thought it all could be too good to be true!

So, they claimed they would have the job done prior to Christmas, in approx. 17 days and that it would cost us $10,000 for the basement and then between 2000-3500 for the flooring if we wanted them to do it. So, about $13,500 on the higher end.  Now, with the other guy we signed a contract for a certain amount but he did the standard act for a contractor and the original $$ amount kept going up, so much so that we had to cancel a few major things..like the complete deck and part of the siding!  Anyway, we were prepared to be disappointed if this company turned out to be like the other.

So, you may want to know what happened, considering I am here and the job should be done! Okay, I will not make you wait any longer.

This company, Twin Builders, in one word is PROFESSIONAL! My gosh they are the BEST I have worked with. You may think my only experience is with the other contractor but it is not!! We built a house also, with a different contractor…so we have some experience and these guys are the BEST! If you live in the Indianapolis area, please call them. They are beyond good! I do not think there is a term in the English language that can express how happy we are with the way they performed! PROFESSIONAL.

This company not only delivered on every promise they went above and beyond the contract and NO we were never charged a penny more! That was the first thing everyone we talked to about this asked….how much did they charge you to do that? Nope..nothing. There were just some things that they looked at and said…”hey, you know that is expected” and they did it. Example…a light in the laundry room…framed the hoses, a light in the utility room ( they were not even doing any work in there) a new light on the stairwell ( there was one there but they didn’t feel it represented the NEW look so they changed it out with our permission) the stairwell…it was already drywalled, but they redid the entire thing because it was not as nice as the rest of the room. These things might seem little or to be expected items, but construction doesn’t always work that way, we have learned that. It is the small things that make a company referable..( is that a word?)  Anyway, they are some of the best people to work with. They are polite and fast and good. The work is quality! And they will not leave a job if it does not meet their standards! They do walkthroughs during every stage of the project and do not expect a penny unless it passes the walk through. We paid each time because it passed!  When we did the finale walk through there were a couple of things we did not notice but the manager did….the guys will be coming back out to finish up on these small items. And these small items are like caulking around a vent… and a couple of other  drywall items, but he could not let the job be finished until they were done! He didn’t expect to be paid….but asked us if it was ok to agree they would come back for those minor items and that we could make the finale payment. IF that was ok with us, that would be great, and of course it was!

SO, YES it is done, on time and it did not cost us anymore than stated!!!  AM I happy? Ummmmmmmmmmm let me think…..YEAH!

We love our basement and we are happy to refer them to anyone.

We want to have them come back to finish our deck and build a pool! 

Twin Builders (317)862-4611

7335 Preamble Ct, Indianapolis, IN 46259                                                        

Ask for Jim Kernodle-Tell him Christine Martin referred you! Maybe he will give us a break on the work to come!  :)  You reading this Jim?

Okay, it is Dec 20th and I, being the brave soul that I am , venture out to go shopping with my daughter and mother! I know…brave or S-T-U-P-I-D!  So, I can tell you that the loss of kindness that I am always talking about, unfortunately, is alive and well!! The LACK of it….

But, That is NOT why I am posting this blog. No, no,no…… today I made the mistake of asking my daughter and mother if we could eat at Logan’s for lunch..what a HUGE mistake. Sorry..but in this particular case the server was pretty dang BAD. I try to be very very fair…really I do!!! But this is so hard, As usual I will not mention names, he knows who he is because I left him my card and if he is reading this it is only because he got the card and knows he served me.

At any rate, he was terrible. We took our seats and waited not to long for him to appear, then off he went for our drinks. He came back speedily and we asked for a appetizer, then he came back for something…oh to bring bread and we asked for another ( my daughter did not like my choice!) so off he goes to put in our appetizer orders. I might tell you here that he was not an unpleasant fellow, not at all. We dubber him MR. Clean, due to the fact that he had a shaved head and a earring! LOL  But, he was much less intimidating than Mr. Clean!

Ok, so he was a nice enough guy. Got it….but as slow as a turtle!!! We got our appetizers and our salads and then we sat..and we sat…and we sat….finally we were not very hungry anymore.  We were going to ask him to just wrap our food to go at this point but he appeared and we went ahead and ate. I had sat so long I was not hungry any longer, neither was anyone else. So, we wrapped up our food anyway. Then he asks us if the bill is one or separate..I tell him it is all on my daughter!!! LOL then I tell him it is 3 checks and he goes away for along time…then brings us back the check, he doesn’t drop it off where we might be able to talk to him he does a drive by dump onto the table! He hits and runs us! We can not catch him once we see he only leaves us one check! hmmm…didn’t i say 3? Oh well, so then he disappears to put in another tables order, we can see what it is that he is doing, v….e…..r…..y….. slowlyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy! We finally get together the cash so that we do not have to wait any longer for him to run my credit card and run out of there so fast that I drop my food!!!!

Oh well!

It was cold when I got it anyway and I couldn’t tell if it was any good or not! Now I will never know!

Merry Christmas! 

www.meetup.com/The-Plainfield-Give-to-Get-Meetup-Group/
A group that believes you have to give to get in this life.
We meet once a month to share experiences,goals and
what it is that we do to help enrich the lives of others!
Come check us out!

Many of you know that I am a distributor for Xocai, I have a website at www.xocai-healthydarkchocolate.com  visit anytime that you would like to know more about this amazing chocolate!

Well,

I have now joined up with an amazing company you might have heard of Send Out Cards!! Amazing company. I feel so blessed to be finding these companies that care more about others than themselves. Of course I know it is no coincidence that I have been lead to these companies. 

Send Out Cards is a online automated system that allows the customer to join in one of 3 levels,  depending on whether they want to just send cards or if they want to make a business out of it.  The system is very good and fun! It is easy to use and has many many  little things that make it so efficient, for example when you send a card to someone it automatically saves that persons name into your contacts, no need to save it or go do it yourself.  It also allows you to use your own handwriting and signature when you send a card!! Yes, even though you are doing it all online Cool, huh?

If you are interested in finding out more please go to www.sendoutcards.com/63456 and get a free gift account on me. Send out a few cards, see how you like it.  If you want to join to just send cards, awesome! It is a great and convenient service…if you would like to join to build a business, then you can do that and you will be blessed to be joining a awesome company!!!

Hope to talk soon!

Christine

Changing lives…one card at a time!

I have started a group in Plainfield, Indiana.  It is though MeetUp.com

The group is for people who believe that you must give to get! It is that simple. I want to meet other people that feel as I do….basically that KINDNESS…I know here she goes again!!! Kindness is missing in our society today and we need to bring it back. I do a few things myself, my current endeavor is to send a card to someone each and every day to make them feel special! Today I sent 7…although Christmas is right around the corner so that is not fair, but they were individual cards all different with different special greetings in each one and I hope they are appreciated and something tells me they will be.

Anyway, if you live near and would like to come to one of our meetings join the group! It is brand spanking new and I am the only  member so far! I hope that changes fast. I like to believe there are alot of like minded people out there that feel the same way as I do and I am anxious to hear what everyone else does to make others feel special and show kindness to people…..even people you don’t know!!!  Or maybe that is easier..maybe I should say to your own family! LOL

Whatever the case. Go to   http://www.meetup.com/The-Plainfield-Give-to-Get-Meetup-Group/  and JOIN today!!!

Hope to see you there!

Have I told you that I am a consumer of dark chocolate. Not just DARK chocolate, but HEALTHY dark chocolate!

Yes, it is true, I eat Xocai Dark Healthy chocolate!  And it is yummy! It also is very good for you.

Have you tried it? Would you like to? I can be persuaded to send you a sample if you ask really nicely! 

There is tons of info on my website www.xocai-healthydarkchocolate.com   check it out. You will read some great testimonies, one of them is mine.  Long story short is that I had BAD…did I say BAD…YES…BAD acid reflux for about 4-5 years, so bad that the Doc felt it was starting to scar my esophagus, well after consuming my lovely chocolate for a week it disappeared! I get the occasional flare up but I do not take my meds the way I used to! WHOOHOO!  Anyway, go to my site and check it out. Click on the links…do some reading or watching, see for yourself!

Happy eating!

The definition of Respect is esteem for, or a sense of the worth or excellence of a person, a personal quality or ability, or something considered as a manifestation of a personal quality or ability.

I believe that we, as people, are in serious need of RESPECT. I think that most of our problems as a society can be solved if we can bring back a simple RESPECT for others.

When I am standing in lines or driving in traffic I watch others and wonder….where has simple respect gone?  I see people treating others like they have no VALUE. I know that we have a serious entitlement issue in this country, especially with our young people, but at what point will it stop? We feel entitled to “things’ and RESPECT from others but we do not GIVE to others. We do not give “stuff” OR respect. We feel that people need to earn our respect and we should not GIVE anything ” stuff” or otherwise to anyone unless we feel like it and they should be forever grateful if we decide to impart our “stuff” wisdom or money onto them! YET, we EXPECT them to give freely, without thought, to US. Give us MONEY, give us RESPECT, give us “stuff”..whatever! It is amazing the double standards that I see everyday. On the customer service side of things, we think it is OK to treat the service industry with disdain and as SERVANTS with a total lack of respect in some cases, they have not EARNED anything more from us.

YET we expect..NO feel entitled to good customer service regardless of what is happening. We do not feel it is our responsibility to care or consider what is happening in their lives..THEY ARE THERE TO SERVE US! ME…ME…ME…ME…

I was recently at Disney World, we went to T-Rex which is a new restaurant in Downtown Disney. It is a very kid friendly, crazy, noisy…FUN place. I witnessed a man being very hostile to a server to the point where the manager had to come over and the man went on and on and on…..seriously, he stood there for a good 15 minutes arguing and berating this woman about his BAD customer service. All I could think was, this is a loud crazy place, we all know that coming in. It is hard to hear and given that you know the servers have a hard time getting everything right. I could not imagine, not in my wildest dreams what could have happened SO BAD that he should behave this way. I mean..it appeared that this woman let his youngest child be kidnapped right from their table! I mean, it had to be something this serious the way this man was acting!! It was sad to watch. Now, some of you might think that there are situations which warrant this type of behaviour, but this is exactly what I am talking about. I do not believe there is ever a time that this type of behaviour is appropriate. I just don’t. Things need to be handled in different and more loving ways. YES, I am asking you to love and have compassion for people YOU DO NOT KNOW! OH MY GOODNESS!!! IMAGINE THAT. What a concept. Love..compassion…tolerance….

Hopefully I am getting this across in a manner that one can understand.  It all comes down to respect. It all comes down to how we treat others. I believe a little self LOVE can go a long way in unblocking our LOVE for others. I think, as I have said in the past many,many times…..that if we get PASSIONATE about LIFE we will…WE WILL..as a byproduct of this passion, we WILL start to treat others, start to SEE others in a new way! In a loving way. A way that GOD intended us to in the first place.  Treat others better….treat YOURSELF better! Do unto others…..

MATTHEW 7: 7-12

7“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. 8For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.

 9“Which of you, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? 10Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? 11If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him! 12So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets

I love these verses, they represents what I believe in. GOD will give you anything that you ask for in love, BUT you need to be positive! You NEED to treat others better!! One has everything to do with the other.

Take a look around. Not in a pessimistic or negative way, but take a look around and notice that when you are nicer to others how well things will go in YOUR life! God knew what he was talking about…. the bible is YOUR road map to your life.  

Have a blessed journey!

I was pretty happy with them prior to disconnecting my service in 2007. I disconnected because I moved to Florida and was not going to be practicing Real Estate so was not in need of the service. I reconnected the service when I moved back at the end of 2007.  When I reconnected the service I was dismayed to find that they were not acting as though they were the same company.

It seemed to me that I could never get into my voice mail and I NEVER was able to use my Internetaccess. ( in all fairness I did get in briefly but as it turns out they sent me someone elses email username-GREAT CUSTOMER SERVICE) I called tech services so many times with no return calls that I just flat gave up! I wrote them repeated emails asking for help, still no reply. When I finally gave up I left a voice mail as well as sent a final email saying something to the affect of…” I have had it! I can not use this service and you refuse to reply to my phone calls or to my emails, I quit, please cancel my service!”  Did they cancel my service? NO! They CALLED ME! Imagine that little twist! haha

It took a few phone calls back and forth but after a couple of months of not being able to use the service all of a sudden I could again…. for about 2 days! Then it was out again and I sent multiple emails and left voice mails to the tech department  with no reply back. Boy nothing like some good old deja vu! I finally sent them a note attached to a bill saying that I didn’t think I should pay for the service and that they should cancel the account. I had changed the greeting on my voice mail to reflect the fact that I could not use the service and that clients should call my cell phone directly. I told EGIX in my note that they could check my message and ..guess what? They did! I received a call one day saying that it was all fixed and that I should change my greeting to reflect that. OKAY, I am not stupid! Really! I checked to make sure that I could retrieve messages ( this was the main problem the whole time) before changing the message back and ya know what? It still did not work, does not work, never will work and they sent me a bill! LOL

So, tonight I am sitting here with a bill and a note from them telling me how nice they are, that for Dec they are waiving the monthly bill! Very nice! IF I HAD SERVICE THAT WORKED I WOULD BE IMPRESSED! Really I would. So, again I have sent a note along to them suggesting that I should not have to pay for a service that I have hardly used due to their lack of CUSTOMER SERVICE!!  and asked what they thought? If they agree…awesome, if not..well, send me the bill and let’s be done with this once and for all. I will pay the bill and they can cancel my account. END OF STORY!

Do they get a glowing recommendation from me?  What do you think? 

AM I GLOWING?!!!

Life is a party! Party on dudes and dudettes! LOL

INDIGO  OR CRYSTAL CHILDREN- according to Wikipedia are children who are believed to represent a higher state of human evolution. The term itself is a reference to the belief that such children have an indigo–colored aura Beliefs concerning the exact nature of Indigo children vary, with some believing that they have paranormal abilities such as the ability to read minds, and others that they are distinguished from non-Indigo children merely by more conventional traits such as increased empathy and creativity.

These children are highly sensitive with a clear sense of self-definition and a strong feeling that they need to make a significant difference in the world. 

Doreen Virtue, PHD. has wrote a couple of books on these children. You can use this link to go to see the books and to purchase them if interested.