Government Sucks

Finally! We're getting some chubby little leg rolls!

Micah's computer has been super slow so he deleted some files. It was pretty stressful because it was so bogged down even deleting things took forever. This window warned of a pretty long wait to move some files...
It reads "About 47166 Days and 13 hours remaining"

Sammy working hard to make sure Natalie doesn't roll off the couch and keeping her Pooh seat warm for her: Hanging out with Daddy, pushing off the legs and holding up the neck until she's pooped!

My mom popped down for a visit on Saturday so we left Natalie with her while we visited some friends. They have a baby 3 weeks older than Natalie who seems very easy. The wife lent me a book called The Happiest Baby on the Block and even though I have barely started reading it, the suggestions in the very first chapter have already helped. It basically had a list of steps to trigger the baby's calming reflex and it worked. Though Natalie fussed a bit last night, each time she really started to scream I followed the steps and she would totally relax and drift off to sleep. Yay! I learned a new swaddling technique that she can't get out of nearly as easily and it has been helping a lot with staying asleep.

I had a fun experience on Friday. While I was at the county government complex (taking care of some other buisiness that went badly beause of rude, lazy state employees), I stopped in at the tax commissioner's to ask about our property taxes. We recieved a FIFA notice in November that we would be delinquent on our city taxes if we didn't pay them. I was confused because I thought that would be paid directly from our escrow account, but I went ahead and sent in a check so we would stay out of trouble. When we got our tax documents from the mortgage company at the end of the year, it showed the transactions of our escrow and an amount was taken out in September for city taxes. The amount on the FIFA and the escrow account was slightly different, but I figured I would ask any way, just in case I was charged twice accidentally. I finally got to speak to an employee at the office and she looked it up and said that indeed I had been charged twice and the amount that I paid in response to the FIFA had been a positive charge to the account that was refunded. The refund check? Sent to REO Solutions-the company we purchased our place from. It had already been cashed and so the tax commissioner lady basically said well, that's too bad, there's nothing we can do. She printed off the record showing the check with the company's address and told me I could try contacting them. I was aghast with rage. I wanted to yell at the lady, demanding why I had been erroneously issued a FIFA and threatened with a tax lein in November when we had paid our city tax in September. It was their fault that I paid twice and they did not offer to do ANYTHING to help me get back the money that they owed me? Again, it was THEIR fault that they sent the refund to some company in Minnesota rather than to the individuals who paid it. I had Natalie with me and she was on the verge of freaking out so I was in a rush to get out of the office and just left. I was so furious. Micah finally found a way to contact the company (after a long and difficult search; the address was to the 3rd largest building in Minneapolis and the company name was actually different, REO Solutions was just a venture or account of the buisiness) and we are waiting for them to call us back. So, we may get the money or we may not. It's not a huge amount, but I don't care about te money nearly so much as how awful the tax commissioner office was. I mean, how many people do they hose over and just say that there is nothing that they can do. Government sucks. They have absolutely no responsibility to anyone because if they mess up and screw you, it's not like you can just quit shopping there. They made the mistake in the first place overcharging, then in sending the refund to the wrong place and did not so much as offer an apology or explanation.

This experience almost made me want to support Ron Paul.