She don't like lumps in her applesauce

It's true.  Charlotte is not a fan of lumpy applesauce.  Apparently Grandma Hoerner didn't get this memo, because she seems to think applesauce is supposed to be all chunky and lumpy.  And of course I bought the applesauce at Costco (which by the way, I have a story on Costco...read on...), so we have a large quantity to go through before we can purchase some smoothly pureed apples to Charlotte's liking.

On the days I feel ambitious, I run the chunky applesauce through the blender.  And lo and behold- Charlotte will eat it.  But it's not every day I feel ambitious.  So then I think...maybe if we take a couple days off the applesauce, then she will eat it next time (without me having to blend it further!).  Plus she is eating solids now, so she really should be fine with lumps in her applesauce.  (I guess I COULD just puree ALL of the applesauce and just recan it.  But that requires work my friends...And I am lazy.  Sometimes.  Or busy....)

So I tried to feed Charlotte some of Grandma Horener's applesauce this morning- (I mashed it up with the spoon!)- Joke's on this mama.  I spoon the applesauce into Charlotte's mouth, she pulls out the lumps.

And so is the case with most any other food (minus bread, pasta and cookies.  we got us a carb lover!).  Charlotte don't want lumps in her green beans, her carrots, her potatoes...and the list goes on.  Which- I gotta mention, her Grandpa G (My Dad!) actually refuses to eat mashed potatoes because he doesn't like the lumps that are sometimes found in the mash.  So maybe it's a family trait?  Haha ;)

Anyway.
Costco.

Over the past month or so, we have made quite a few purchases at Costco.  Why?  Some things are just cheaper there (strawberries and diapers).  Plus we had Charlotte's birthday party and had to purchase some large quantities of food.  If you don't own the Costco Credit card, you have to use your debit card and pin number or cash.  Since we don't carry around a lot of cash, we are often stuck using our debit card and pin. (We use our Discover Credit Card for basically everything else because of the awesome rewards/benefits.  Love Discover!)

The day before Charlotte's birthday party I received a phone call from some "efax" place in California.  They asked me if I was trying to set up an account with them.  To which I replied, "what is efax?"  The lady explained...and I said, "No."  So then the lady says, "ohhh, that's not good.  You need to call your bank right away because someone is trying to fraud your card."

Um.  What!?  I take a moment to let this sink in...remind myself that it will be OK.  Good thing my Dad's here to play with Charlotte while I smooth things over...set down the party decorations...and then I called our bank.  Sure enough, they checked our account and confirmed the bogus activity.  Over $1000 had been racked up.  Most of it to one place- a new computer gadget store online.

I spent the next hour or so calling the police department, speaking with an officer and filing a report, etc. etc.

When Ben returned from work, he also received a call.  His card number and pin was trying to be used at efax too.  Fortunately they hadn't gotten to any BIG purchases yet with his card.  But it was enough to set Ben on edge and he too called our bank.

Ben had the realization...how did the efax place have access to our name and phone numbers?  If the people got our card numbers and pins....then they must have also gotten access to our phone numbers in order for the efax people to call us.  But HOW did that happen?  Umm...little creepy.  Yeah.

We also started to think about how someone could have gotten our debit card number and pin to begin with- since we don't use it anywhere!  EXCEPT for Costco.  Where we'd been the night before...and at least one-two other times earlier that week.  Coincidence?  Maybe....

Ben called Costco to alert them of the possible breach in their system.  But they didn't seem concerned.  Not to bash Costco or anything- because we like Costco!  But from now on...we will be paying with cash when we shop there.


Fortunately we will be reimbursed everything that was spent using my card number.  I just pray they don't have more of my information.  EEK!

Charlotte's happy about that.  So she is sharing her squinty-eye-smile with you.  Or maybe it's because she knows we won't be purchasing anymore lumpy applesauce for her...