The Power of Social Media

For those who scoff at the idea of using Twitter or cringe at signing up with Facebook, here's a story on the power of one tweet I sent on Dec 10th Here's the tweet...

"Won a free trip on @flyfrontier at a Rockies game, no date/location works for me to use it! Worthless promotion? Probably"

Here's the story. I participated in an on-field promotion with the Coloardo Rockies at the end of the season 'The Frontier Airlines flyball challenge'! Catch two fly balls, get a free roundtrip on Frontier. I caught the balls and won free RT ticket. The caveat was the need to book the ticket in certain class over the phone and the trip needed to be complete by August 2010. So my first attempt to use the ticket was on our family vacation to Disneyworld. No luck booking the ticket in early November for a January vacation. A month later I knew that I had three different trips coming up to try and use the ticket. San Fran, Minneapolis, and New Orleans. Frontier doesn't fly to New Orleans so that was out. San Fran was in February and Minneapolis in March. Two and Three months out for those places. Upon calling Frontier, I found that I couldn't use my ticket for either one of those destinations, even with flexible dates over a long weekend in both cases.

At that point, I figured I was out of luck, so I asked how I could file a complaint with Frontier. They transferred me, I submitted my complaint and was told there wasn't much that could really be done becasue the free ticket was restricted to a class that doesn't have many available seats.

I was frustrated because I couldn't look up availability on the web, had to work with someone over the phone and just keep guessing for a location and date that would work. Further I figured my phone complaint had fallen on deaf ears. So I sent my tweet!

Within 18 minutes @flyfrontier (Frontier Airlines) started a twitter conversation with me about how could they help resolve my situation. Several tweets back and forth and within 24 hours, they had booked a seat for me to San Francisco. The result is that Stephanie and I will have our first weekend away from the kids in just two weeks.

Simply, when you make a complaint directly to the company, there isn't always the incentive to respond. However, when you share you complaint/concern using social media the power of your network, connecting to the networks of your followers and friends, provides a powerful incentive to respond and handle the issue.

In this case, I was more than impressed with the speed and willingness of Frontier Airlines to respond to my situation. Thank you Frontier! Unfortunately my loyalty to Froniter is starting to slip. With a family of four, we always need to fly with bags. Until the baggage fees kicked in, I would always choose Frontier over other airlines. The direct tv is a big draw when travelling with kids. But with baggage fees there is an additional $120 cost when compared to flying with Southwest Airlines, plus the $16 to $24 in Direct TV costs. Sure you can purchase the Classic Fare, and my solution would be purchasing two seats in Classic and two in Econmony for only $80 more in most cases. Unfortunately, they don't let you book that way online so the entire family is on the same itintary. With only an $80 cost, I might make that choice, but over a $140 difference, I'm a Southwest Airlines guy when possible. Maybe someone at Frontier will read this blog and change how they do business, but I doubt it. (Hey my doubt worked last time!)

Master Bathroom - Nov 20th

We are about halfway done with our Master Bathroom remodel. We are really excited about the tile in the shower!

Mud Room and Half Bath - Nov 20

A short video of the changes to our mud room and half bath. The wall opposite of the shelving has magnetic primer and chalkboard paint for us to use. So we can hang the kids artwork and write notes on the wall with chalk! Pretty excited about the changes to this space.

Master Bathroom

So a quick look at the before and now current vies of the master bathroom. We've moved the wall a little, removed a doorway and added a window. Most importantly, we are down to just one yellow toilet (yellow). The blue and green toilets are gone.

In addition, I've replaced almost every door in the upstairs. Gone are the doors stained dark brown or painted and in their place we have white six panel doors. The house is so much brighter!

This week I'm going to tackle painting the family room while work continues with our bathrooms.

Bathrooms Part 1

So we are a little more than a week into the Bathroom remodels. The powder room is nearly complete, our bathroom is completely gutted and the kids bathroom has the old wallpaper removed.

The first photo is the powder room - gone is the asian wallpaper, the carpet, and pretty much everything else. The second photo is the mud room that is partially complete. Really just need the paint on it and we'll be done. The new floor is such a huge upgrade over the ugly carpet. We are also looking forward to the magnetic primer and chalkboard paint on the wall opposite the shelving.

The third photos is the kids bathroom which no longer is the ugly green color.

The last photo is the asian wallpaper that had been painted over in the master bathroom - though this was behind the toiler and not painted. The same stuff was in the powder room.

One Year

Wow! Twelve months ago today, Steph and I were sitting in the recovery room with Mason as he had just had his partial biliary diversion surgery. Amazing the things that we have went through over the course of just 12 months. Last night Stephanie and I reflected on what has transpired. We have had four different stays at Children's Hospital along with three trips to their ER and countless doctors visits. We remodeled both kid's rooms, the kitchen, the living room, and the dining room. We traveled to Disneyland in February, Bumpa and Tete's cabin in the North Woods twice (April and Oct - where it rained way too much both times), Kyle and Sharon's wedding in Grand Junction and Breckenridge for a family summer vacation. We have the plans and the people ready to remodel all three of our bathrooms starting next week. I started a new job. Isla started going to ECE classes with Stephanie, Mason has blossomed in the Rainbow Fish room and become a star on the soccer field. We celebrated Isla's first birthday, had Mason's superhero birthday and we were finally able to have family over to our house for the High Holidays. Stephanie was able to take a vacation to Las Vegas, while I had my college buddies in town for our annual hockey weekend. All in all, I'm not sure how we have done it all, its been exhausting, fun, crazy, and stressful. But at the end of our discussion - we sure feel fortunate. We have wonderful family along with supportive family and friends to continue forward on our journey.

For those that are wondering. Mason is doing great. Everything from the second surgery seems to have worked the way we wanted. We are looking forward to having Stephanie's family to our house for Thanksgiving and my family to our house to celebrate Christmas. We are looking at vacation options for us as family in January and a special weekend away for Stephanie and I.

With that said, I think I need a nap. Have a great day!

Mason's 4th Birthday

It’s been busy at the Denver Georges the past couple of weeks. Steph and I have tried to find a sectional couch for our family room and still haven't found the one that we love. Then we have been planning Mason's 4th Birthday and preparing for Mason's surgery next week to fix a small issue with his stoma. So by far the most fun was planning, preparing and hosting Mason's Superhero birthday party. Mason got to choose the theme and from there Steph and I borrowed ideas we found on the internet to have an interactive Superhero birthday party. The planning started with the invitations where we asked each of Mason's friends to let us know their favorite color. Needless to say from there, Steph and I had our work cut out, but as you can see in the pictures it paid off!The first picture is the sign on the door of the house when Mason's friend's entered. Needed: Superheroes to defeat the Birthday Bandit and recover the stolen treasure. We had the children hang out, play, eat snacks while we waited for everyone to arrive. Once the group was together, I asked who wanted to be a Superhero! All raised their hands and yelled me! So I pulled out t-shirts that Steph and I had designed. Each had the kids initial in their favorite color. From there I said we had to defeat the birthday bandit! The first step was going in the front yard to pop the balloons the birthday bandit had left behind. Once that task was complete each kid received their superhero wrist bands made of foamy paper and Velcro.

Next step, each kid had to go through the superhero obstacle course. They went down the slide, through a tunnel, around the cones and hopped in and out of the hula hoops on the ground. After 3 or 4 times through the course, each kid got a red cape with their initial on the back. Now the birthday bandit had left green and red kryptonite in the yard and the kids used a spoon or tongs to pick up the kryptonite and deposit it safely in a metal bucket. Upon completion each kid got their own superhero mask in made out of the foam paper in their favorite color. The picture with their arms raised is just after they completed the training.

But they still had to find the stolen treasure. So as the kids roamed the back yard, I lowered the treasure chest piñata from the tree and they rushed to see it coming down. The kids got to take whacks at it with a bat and finally it opened up with the treasure the birthday bandit had stolen.

For cake, Steph and I made cupcakes for the kids and parents. It was truly a great time for Mason and his friends.

Later this week, Mason got to give his friends fruit popsicles at school on his birthday and we had a birthday supper in the tradition of my family. We wore hats, Mason got to pick his favorite food for the dinner (noodles) and we opened presents from Isla, Steph, and I. Mason got a new bike, which we rode through the neighborhood tonight after dinner. It won’t be long and he will be cruising alongside me.

Steph and I are planning on a fun family weekend as we prepare for Mason’s surgery next week. We know that’s going to be stressful on all of us, but it should help stop the stoma from prolapsing any more. Surgery is schedule for next Thursday and we will post updates on Mason’s Carepage (keyword: MasonGeorge) and I’ll leave some quick tweets (@sweetlou94) which you can follow on Twitter or on the right hand side of the blog here.

Right now, we are looking forward to having some family time as I’m going to take off 8 days from work. Plus my parents are going to come into town to watch Isla and Aspen while Steph and I stay at the hospital.

During the recovery at home, I’m hoping Mason and I can go to a morning practice of Broncos training camp and I’m sure we will have some fun family walks and outings. And in September, Mason and I are also talking about an overnight camping trip at Cherry Creek State Park, just a short 10 minutes from our house. I’m hoping that it will be a lot of fun to camp with Mason, but I’ll post here how it goes! Have a great weekend!