Dreams

So I just want to take a few minutes to brag on my husband ...

We've been married for nearly 17 years.  At some point in the past ... probly when things were okay but not great, finances were still pretty shaky and our relationship was recovering from a nasty valley ... I gave him a list of "dreams".  They ranged from the relatively minor - "I'd like to be able to go out to eat now and then without having to budget it in and save for it" - to the big one about building an earth home.  Honestly I don't remember all of the things I listed out ... it was one of those thinking out loud, daydreaming, what-if types of thoughts.

Josh took notes, and has made a point of checking off those "dreams" as he has worked hard to make each of them come true.

Well, today he really stepped it up and checked off one of the major ones.  All week I have been almost giddy with anticipation, but trying to keep it reasonable and not really allowing myself to hope that it would actually happen, and not wanting to say anything until it actually did - almost for fear of jinxing the deal.  But this morning, we took a little drive and I came back in this gorgeous beast of a black Mustang.

Of course none of this would have happened without God's blessing and favor ... without Him, Josh and I would have failed long ago and none of what "we" have accomplished would be possible.  I was listening to a radio broadcast the other day, and this daddy was talking about how he had to braid his daughter's hair one night.  He didn't have a clue how and really kinda botched it, but did the best he could.  Well, his wife later taught him how to braid hair, and he was struck by how the braid looks like two cords of hair weaving back and forth ... but it's really three.  Without that third section, the braid doesn't work.  Just like a braid, a marriage requires three strands all working together to hold strong - God, husband, wife.  If any of those strands disappear, the whole thing unravels.

Thoughts ...

Today is my eldest's birthday.  Ashleigh is now 17 ... still can't quite figure out how that went by so fast.  Seems to go faster every year too.  For her birthday dinner, Josh told her it was her choice - she could go anywhere in town, take any or all of the family ... whatever she wanted.  She chose to stay home and have him cook - said he's the best cook in the city :)  I kind of have to agree ... but it's nice to have time to just sit and chat while someone else waits on us, which is why I generally choose Bella Milano.  She treated us to a movie tonight in the "new" family room - The Secret Life of Walter Mitty.  I had seen the previews but just hadn't gotten around to the movie - she loved it and insisted on watching it.

Earlier today, I was looking at copies of the kids' birth certificates that I had to get for insurance verification stuff and noticed the times of their births.  Each one came a little earlier in the day - Ash was 3:15p, Michael was 10:47a, and Daniel was 7:55a.  As I looked at those times, all side by side, I was struck by a little correlation I had never realized before.  Ashleigh is most like me in her sleeping habits ... she likes to stay up late and sleep in, but she's *able* to get up and get moving when needed.  Michael moves a little slow in the mornings, usually has to be coaxed out of bed, but almost never is in bed past 8 in the morning.  Daniel ... he's the oddball child who is up no later than 6 am nearly every day, regardless of weekday/weekend or what's going on (or not!).  So at least in our family, it would appear that the earlier in the day you are born, the earlier of a riser you are in the morning.  I'm curious how other families are?

My lilac bush has decided to bloom in somewhat spectacular fashion ... there are little buds all over it!  I'm really looking forward to seeing the soft purple cascading down the sides.  Last year's one little bunch showed me she wasn't dead, but man I missed the color!  The rest of my flowers are sprouting and throwing a lot of green up into the red mulch, but only one (so far) of my tulips has a little bud.  It should blossom in a couple days, by the looks of it.  That's one of my favorite parts of spring ... watching the flowers peek out.

My other favorite part is the neighborhood waking up.  Right now, the kids are all outside playing basketball with Josh - he got the hoop fixed and, as dark as it is, they are out there with spotlights and extension cords, playing with several of the neighbor boys.  They are all hollering and calling shots and fouls and generally having a blast, and it's after 9.  Another month or so and they won't even need the spotlights and extension cords :)  I could listen to them play all night - I always wanted to have "that" house ... the one where the kids all congregate and know they can have fun and be safe.  I love being in a neighborhood that we can do that!!

Why I Can No Longer Recommend GoDaddy Hosting

Let me start this off by saying that this is utterly and entirely a rant against GoDaddy.  I fully understand that there are plenty of people who like them, have had no issues with them, and would recommend them to everyone.  I am not posting this to begin a debate, or to get any concessions from GoDaddy, but only and solely to rant about the total lack of customer service I have received from their Hosting services.

I have been a GoDaddy domain customer for many many years - pretty much as long as I have been doing websites.  Their domain name services have always been great - it's not something you can mess up easily, really.  A couple years ago, after experiencing a lot of downtime and other issues with the hosting provider I was using, I decided to move my sites to GoDaddy hosting - they had a pretty good list of features, their reviews looked good ... okay, off we went.

Almost two weeks ago, a friend and I started putting together an auction, hosted by REGAP, to help another friend with her vet bills (more info here and here if you want to help!!).  The auction launched on Sunday and ran for several days with no issues.  All of a sudden on Thursday ... nothing would load.

That's when the whole thing went south.  I have compiled screenshots of my support tickets with GoDaddy, my frustration posted on their Facebook page, and the support I received from my new hosting provider (all linked below).  Boiled down ... the software we use for the auction uses a particular coding convention in their links.  There's a little file on most servers that automatically blocks that coding convention, which means that the links stop working.  Most hosting providers have no problem removing that block if the web designer asks them to - GoDaddy apparently does.

My main problem with GoDaddy's "support" is that there simply wasn't any for several days.  There was no response on the ticket at all - not even a "We've gotten your ticket, we're looking into it, please be patient".  What really ticked me off tho, and what made me wait so long to finally respond to them and write this post, was the scripted, canned reply that I did finally get.  Plain and simple, GoDaddy took 5 days to copy and paste some text into a response and ask for a bunch of information I had already provided.  In the meantime, I had spent most of my weekend frantically backing up, downloading, and relocating my websites to a new host who, in turn took only three and a half hours to research and remove the block that was causing all the trouble (I didn't count the lag time between my own responses - only the time their support people took).

While I think I have every right to be angry, I also do understand that GoDaddy is a business and much of their support decisions are based on what's best for their company.  One little non-profit greyhound adoption group is small potatoes compared to, say, an online business that does national sales.  REGAP doesn't use the site for daily income but for social connections and a public face. In the end, what it boils down to for me is a bit of a hassle while I relocate my websites (REGAP being the largest and therefore will be the last), and a few drops added to the bucket of bad press for GoDaddy, which you can find on a simple Google search.  Now I wish I had listened to all of that.