Never buy Chrysler!

At the beginning of February, Jason had called Chrysler to get info on returning our leased car. He told them that his first set of orders were not quite 90 days, but he is getting deployed long enough for SCRA to take effect. They assured him that it was ok and all he had to do was turn in the car, his orders, and the mileage. After doing all that, we have spent the last month going around and around with chrysler about the damn car as they say nothing has been taken care of etc, but they'll get right on it. Each person says they will make sure its all squared away etc, but nothing has happened.

So after calling 5+ times in the last 6 weeks, we call today and are informed that it has been rejected, we cant turn in the car because his orders are not 180 days regardless of the fact that they have the car, have a nice life. I finally end up talking to one of the managers of the account managers and he tells me that we were misinformed by all the previous people we talked to, tough luck, but if we get jas's unit to send them documentation that he will be gone indeed more than 180 days, they will start closing out the account. The catch is that not only will we owe mileage, but they will inspect the car AFTER they start closing out the account and we are liable for any damage found on it (even if it happened in the month its been sitting there), and we also owe them $200 for a disposal fee; basically grand totaling about $3500. Needless to say that after all the crap chrysler has put us through in the last month, im never buying from them again and we are going to have a nice lil chat with JAG in the next couple days. We have enough stress and junk we're dealing with in all this, didnt need another migraine headache cause of a car company that wants to make our life a living hell and wring out every dime we dont even have. Why is it that the "good ole american" companies are the ones that screw the soldier the worst? Pardon my french, but screw you chrysler!

Language Barriers

So Jason's oma (grandma) called today, which was random since it isnt a holiday or anything. And without Jason here, I couldnt simply hand the phone off to him. I always feel like such a dork when she calls because I have to muster up what little german I remember and there is a lot of "tut mir leid" and "was? was?" I feel horrible, cause had i kept up on my german from high school, conversations would be no problem. But as I havent, we dont have the opportunity to say much and she probably thinks me dim. I admit that there is a lot I want to say, a lot I could learn from her and want to know about Jason growing up etc, but the language barrier is uber frustrating! There is a part of me that always pictured being able to chit-chat with my husband's family about everything from traditions to how everything is now etc. I always thought it was cool that Jason's family is all back in Germany and really doesnt speak english, but umm....its causing a problem that means contact is extremely limited, which is a bummer. Oh well, time to start boning up on german again (ironically i've said that for 4 years and still havent). Oh well, we'll see how long before oma calls again.

"they're goin to hell"

Justin goes to a private christian preschool with many parents from our church. That means there is more than the fair share of "well-to-do" gossip hens etc. Jas and i bought a hummer back in february, and as it is jason's "car," he has put his fair share of bumper stickers on the back of it. One bumper sticker we have simply says "what would blackbeard do?" Not a surprise to anyone that knows us, cause we have a very piratey family. Of course living in a society where the WWJD saying became a mantra among many people in our area, we were not shocked when one of the mom's walked by, looked at the sticker, and her mouth dropped open with a look of horror on her face. Burst the bubble on one more lake oswego mom, our job is done.

Learned it doing time in leavenworth

My parents are currently at their la quinta house while their house here in west linn is having the stucco completely redone. That makes me the POC for the head contractor, as well as the person running their house and life here in west linn. Now my parents, being the smart people they are, gave me the keys from the garage to the house and left the other house keys...well...in the house. So of course i happen to get a phone call from the head contractor asking me to let him into the house, as they blew the breaker and cant get in to reset it, since the garage is on the same breaker. After informing him where the keys to the house are, he calls his locksmith buddy to pick the lock on the front door.

As luck would have it, he broke his lock picks and while everyone is standing there staring dumbfounded at the front door, I suggest the only logical option: use a bump key. After getting the "do you make a habit of breaking into peoples' houses" look, he decided to give it a try. Sadly to say, his attempt failed, and as i was already looking criminal enough, i wasnt going to stand their and lecture a certified locksmith on how he made the key wrong etc. He informed me that it was a wive's tale and they dont really work. Me and my big mouth had to spout out "well my husband makes them and they work just fine...errr umm...*coughs* you know, just on his padlocks *clears throat*" We finally got the lock picked and the police havent shown up asking questions, so i think it ended as an ok day. "and now children, for our next lesson we will learn how to hot wire cars.." errr umm...forget i said that...:P