April 25, 2015. Madison, Ms. Surprise.

One thing leads to another but not always to a pleasant surprise. Our movers, John Vining, was referred to me by Christina. He moved them twice and had done well, so I called him and arranged for him to pack our belongings at the condo and move it to the new house. And I needed the boxes unpacked too. He told me that his wife would do the unpacking but she could not do it until the day after as she has her own cleaning business and was busy on moving day. My ears pricked up because I needed the condo cleaned after the move so I asked to speak to his wife. Her name is Elizabeth and she was pleasant on the phone. We agreed that she would unpack, then clean the condo, which she did. During her work at the house, I asked if she had any openings to clean our house and whether she had ever checked on houses left empty? Since then, she has cleaned our house twice, and done an excellent job. She is quick and thorough and quiet. And she will check each week to be sure all is well in the house. When she came today to clean, we agreed on the price we would pay her to check on the house but just before she left, when I was giving her the key, she gave me a big surprise. Elizabeth had been calculation her time and decided that we were paying her $20. too much each month and that she would be happy with the agreed on price less $20. In all my life, I have been told that our salary was too low but I had never been told the fee was too much!! So we will pay her every month the amount she says is fair but it came as a big surprise to me. One thing did lead to a very nice surprise.