Skylanders and the a-holes on ebay

For Christmas we got the lil man the Skylanders set up for the Wii. For those of you unaware of what this is, it's the newest generation of Spyro the dragon game. You get a disk, a portal, and 3 character figures. Then you must buy extra figures to help advance you further in the game. I bought him 2 extra packs of figures and figured he could buy more after Christmas with the money I knew he was getting from the grandmas.

He loves his game and of course wanted to get more figures as soon as he had money to do so. So like a good mommy I got his want list and off to the store I went. 6 stores later and I hadn't been able to lay my hands on 1 single Skylanders figure. Turns out this is one of the hottest sellers this season, and either A)the stores were all completely unprepared for this, B) the manufactures were and didn't have enough product made, or C) a little bit of both. Either way after several hours and much agonizing I came home empty handed. So I went to the internet and couldn't believe what I saw.

People on ebay have these figures all day long and are making and enormous profit from them. I now understand why the stores are out. Normal people didn't go out and buy these. Asshole ebay sellers did so they could sell them for double, triple sometimes even more than the actual price. I'm dumbfounded, whats worse is people are paying these prices. Listings read very rare, hard to find, blah,blah, blah. Yeah because people like this seller went and bought the local store out of every single piece on the shelf. Stores should really have some kinda of quantity rules when it comes to hot ticket items like that. I mean it's kind of obvious when someone is buying multiples of the exact same item they aren't for their own household. And people should really wise up and quit playing into the scam I've actually seen people bidding on 1 single figure for over $100 that I heard is coming back out in the next couple weeks for under $20.

Don't get me wrong I love ebay and will shop through them when I'm having trouble finding something or looking for a deal, but I hate when I see people twist it's purpose in this way. Although their not alone in this one, I went on Amazon this morning and saw similar price gouging going on there, just not to the extremes I witnessed it on ebay.

Where does the greed end? These are children's games and people are trying to make the biggest profit possible off some poor hard working parent whose just trying to give their kids the toys they want. I can even understand wanting to make a profit but this is just beyond ridiculous.

A couple of great things about the game itself is if your interested in purchasing the start up kit you can get it for almost any system (Wii, Nintendo 3ds, PC/MAC, XBox) and only the portal and disk are different for each system. The figues themselves are universal so if you find them they are good for any system. The game says 10 and up but my lil man is 5 and really has no trouble at all with it. Both my kids enjoy playing and to be honest the hubs and I don't mind getting suckered into playing with them. Draw back is obviously how hard it is to get the extra characters and it is only a 2 player game.

*Disclaimer legal thingie this post was in no way sponsored by anyone I bought the video game and all opinions are my own. However if Skylander, or anyone else would like to send my kids extra figures I won't say no. (you can't see it but I'm giving you a big cheesy smile and batting my eyes)

Sell this house~The stranger merry go round

It's now December and were still living in our house. The new house is finally showing real signs that we've been working on it. Most of the painting is done, the carpet is in all the bedrooms, linoleum gets put in the kitchen and dining room today. There's still the hardwood floor in the living room, and a bunch of little thing that need to be done, and then of course there's the basement. But the worst of it will be done and it will be just about ready for moving in.

Now we just need to sell this house. We've had quite a few showings, at least 2 or 3 a week but no bids as far as I know. It's only been on the market for a couple months and I know that's not to bad and I'm not really stressing about the length of time it's taking, it's the showings themselves. That part is kind of a nightmare. First you have to deal with the randomness of the timing, my relator will call me with anywhere from an hour to 2 days notice, I've actually had them call me 9:50 and say someone is coming between 10 and 11. I then have to run around like a chicken with my head cut off trying to make sure the place is presentable. Because try as I might I just can't keep the house clean enough,(thanks kids for all your help on that).

Then there's the fact there are strange people traipsing through my house. I know it's necessary to sell it, but there's strangers in my house. Logically I know they could care less about my personally possessions, but it still weirds me out. I can never get this book I read once out of my head. In the book this perfectly unassuming guy would go to an open house, and after everyone else left he would stay behind by hiding under a bed or in a closet, he would then kidnap the unsuspecting female do horrible things to her and kill her. Needless to say I've had some sleepless nights and a nightmare or 2 since this process started, it definitely didn't help when one of the relators forgot to lock up on their way out.

We don't have a lock box either so someone needs to be here to let each showing in before we can leave, so I've had the pleasure of seeing most of the potential buyers and though most of them have been normal everyday people a couple have just added to my OMG I'm so going to have those nightmares tonight. One guy even looked exactly like the guy described in the book, I almost sent him away.

On top of all that it's the holidays so now I'm all stressed about weather I should go all out and do my regular decorating routine, or if that will turn off a potential buyer, but I don't want to ruin my kids Christmas traditions because someone that's looking at the house may not like my mistletoe being hung from the door way. I just can't wait till it's over and I don't have to hear the words we have someone scheduled to come look at your property today at blah, blah, blah. That will be nice.

Remembering The Band's Babies

October 15th is Pregnancy and Infant Loss Remembrance Day. Something everyone of us has been affected by in some way. Maybe you've lost a baby, maybe you've miscarried, or maybe someone close to you has gone through one of these.


So on Saturday October 15 Band Back Together will be~


Remembering The Band's Babies


The Band will have a post that will be continuously updated with your babies you want to remember. To participate please send the following to jana@bandbacktogether.com with the subject OCTOBER 15.

Baby’s name (or names for twins, triplets or multiple losses)
Dates and the cause of death (miscarriage, stillbirth, prematurity, heart defect, group b strep, etc.)
URL to your blog or a post about your baby(ies)
Your first name if you want it included


If you'd like to share your stories here you can e-mail me at rsavu30@gmail.com with the same information as above. We may not have our babies here with us physically, but their memories never leave us and deserve to be shared.

Yea I'm a union wife

The hubs is a United Auto Worker. He works for the company that didn't take a bailout. His father before him worked for the same company. My grandparents both worked for rival auto companies. Needless to say I grew up understanding that the UAW was important and that they were what helped keep food in my belly and a roof over my head. But I also understood then and now what they did for the labor movement. Without the UAW workers rights would have been and still would today be trampled all over. Safety would be next to non existent. I'm not saying the UAW did this on their own, lord knows unions all across this country in many different forms made a difference but the UAW is what I know. They're the ones that have taken care of me and mine for pretty much my entire life in one form or another and I'm sick and tired of sitting back and listening to people bash the union and it's members. Now I'm not naive I know they're not perfect. I know there's corruption, I know there are area's that need improvement. But I also know without the UAW there would be 10s of thousands or more men and women unemployed or working at unreasonably low wages with craptastic to no benefits. These members fought long and hard to get what they have today and without doing what they've done, people in other industries would have no map to follow to fight for their own wage increases, better benefits etc. These are hard working men and women who go to work everyday, they have earned and deserve what they get. Sure they're are some that have learned to work the system. They're are always going to be a few bad apples. But to sit and call an entire group of people lazy and worthless because of a handful of people is ridiculous. I hear almost daily how the unions did what was needed and just aren't needed any longer. Really? Do people really believe if they just went away that big business wouldn't just do away with all the hard fought for and earned rights they gained? Who would be there to make sure they were kept in line? Government? I somehow doubt it when in most places it seems our government is hard at work looking for ways to get rid of our unions. What about health and safety? Who will look out for the health and safety of the workers? Again I don't see the government doing this, they can't even look out for our poor. The wages of the union members have helped keep economies going, think I'm wrong look at areas where plants have shut down. Take away those jobs and money is no longer being spent in those areas before long those areas dry up. Flint, Michigan is a perfect example of this, and I'm sure that many of you can think of other areas this has happened to. Take away the unions all together and we go back to the days of big business being our overlords and all the rest of us being their serfs. Maybe I'm wrong and I'm just holding on because of the hubs job, maybe if he was in another industry I would feel differently but some how I doubt it. Oh and for the record the average income of an hourly worker in 2010 was not $109,000 as one idiotic Michigan news station reported, nor do workers make $58 or more and hour. The average income in 2010 was around $74,000 if that person was lucky enough to pull in overtime maybe more if they worked 65 to 70 hour weeks but I guarantee you the average was no where near what was quoted. (I know this because the hubs worked every minute of overtime his building allowed and didn't come near that and he had the highest hours in his building) and $28 an hour is the max that any worker is making without o/t. Yes they do receive pretty good benefits, but don't hate them for that.If you want to be mad that your employer can't or doesn't offer the same be mad that the system is so screwed that it's not affordable for everyone, or that insurance companies are allowed to get away with the crap they are. Either way all the ills of the world are not the UAWs fault they can only do so much and their jobs are to take care of their workers. At the end of the day unions aren't the enemy, corrupt government, to big business, and jealousy are the enemy.

When puberty strikes

My princess is 9,her next birthday is about 5 months away and she'll be the dreaded double digits. I really haven't been that worried about this age, not like I worry about the impending teen years.

But I've noticed some changes lately that have made me realize the teen years aren't that far off, and she doesn't need to be a teenager to have things start happening that are freaking me out a little.

A couple days ago as she was getting dressed I walked in her room to hurry her along, (she is so slow in the mornings I'm starting to think maybe getting her up and hour earlier is necessary)so I walk in and notice these 2 little points poking out of her shirt. Well hell really she's only 9, I grab a cami and tell her to put it on under her current shirt and sure enough there's 2 pointy little nips poking out. What? When did this happen? This is my baby girl right? When did all this growing up start? Where the hell do I find a sports bra in her size?

At least now I am starting to understand her mood swings and emotional outbursts a little better. But cripes I thought I had a few more years. So I talked to a friend of mine with 3 girls one of which is the princesses bff, and 2 that are older and she informed me that nope it can start this early and even more fun is in store within the next 2 years. Lovely.

We've already had the talk about what she can expect when she gets her period. We had this talk for many reasons one is because the girls in our family do tend to develop young but not quite this young. I just keep hoping that this is a really slow process. But if the last few months are any indication of what we can expect it so won't be as slow as I want it to be.

I can just imagine how much fun the next oh say 5 or 6 years are going to be around here. For now I'll be planning a shopping trip for some mini sized bras oh what fun.

Choosing to let go

Some friendships last forever, some for a short period of time. Sometimes they're worth fighting for with everything you have, other times you have to make the decision to let it go and walk away.

I've recently been faced with one of these choices in this particular instance I'm going with the latter. I thought this person was a good friend I've been there for them through some serious amounts of bs in their life. But when someone decided to go all kinds of high school and bring my name into their family drama instead of talking to me like a true friend this persons first reaction was to turn on me and accuse me of things I didn't say or do. I chose not to fall into this crap, I told them I did nothing wrong,but if they wanted to throw our friendship away over this that was their choice, I wished them well and told them I was done, and that's exactly where I stand.

Since I made position clear this person has sent me several messages wanting answers at this point I refuse to respond any further. I understand they've had a rough life and have trust issues but I wont be dragged into these kind of dramatic high school games no matter who is behind them. I have more than enough going on in my own life to worry about my friends turning on me too.

It's sad and I'm sorry to say goodbye to someone I once considered a good friend but sometimes that's just the choice that has to be made. I have to do what's best for my own life and family. I wish this person the best in life and hope that they can find peace and happines in their family, unfortunately I just can't be apart of that lif any longer.

New name same great Becky

I'm sure a couple of you noticed there was a change of name on my blog. I figured I should give a quick explanation. I received a very cordial cease an desist order, in the form of an email stating that apparently my previous blog name is already in use and has been for some time. So being the nice person I am I changed my blog name and url.I didn't really have a choice the person who had already been using it has had it since 2006 and it really is only right. She was pretty nice about it too. So if you follow me please be sure to update in you feed etc.

In happier news I finally figured out how to blog from my nook and android so there will be more posts coming in the near future.