Monday, October 25, 2010

October, I'm Really Starting To Hate you.

What is with October this year? I feel like it has been jam packed with things to do, and I never have enough time to do them. Not to mention all the time I've had to take off from work this month. It's ridiculous. I feel so bad for having to take time off, but there is nothing else that I can do. Does anyone else feel bad for taking time off or am I just crazy? Yea, probably the latter one.

This past week Bug turned TWO! I can't believe it and still don't want to. How can my little peanut be TWO already? Good thing she's cute or else I might have had traded her in for a newer model. Speaking of a newer model...Month one of "Operation Impregnate" (OI) was a fail. Here's to hoping that through all the craziness of October OI is a success.

I digress...

Back to the busy week. First of all Monday started with me having to redo an assignment for grad school because I didn't state the necessary information in the more obvious manner. Excuse me for sounding snotty for a minute; as an professor of education you would think it would have already been obvious which parts of the assignment were differentiated. I guess it wasn't, so I whipped up a new section and copy and pasted the information from above to the lower section. VIOLA! Then I resubmitted it and got an.....A!

Tuesday was the down day. No interesting reports here.

Wednesday was Bug's real birthday and I would normally take the day off and spend it with her doing something fun and exciting, but I couldn't do that this year. It just so happened that the school's family night was scheduled on Bug's birthday from 6-8 and I HAD to be there. AWESOME! After being thoroughly angered by this hiccup we decided that we would simply celebrate her birthday on Thursday as a family. I still wasn't happy about the decision because I felt like a scammer. The good part was that Bug's Poppy and Gramma came over to celebrate with her. She got some very snazzy princess boots for winter, an outfit, and a baby doll almost as big as her. I love these pictures of her loving her baby up. Isn't she so sweet?

Despite the dreading, family night went well and much faster than I thought it would. I raced home to hopefully put Bug to bed. Luckily she was just getting ready for bed, but unfortunately as soon as I arrived she tapped  into her reserves and ended up staying up much past her bedtime.

Onto Thursday... It was Thursday and I still didn't have anything farmish for the kids' favors for the party. Then AMAZON saved my life. I love that I get one year of free prime membership for being a college student. I guess going to graduate school really does pay off. So I found some really cute farm things and ordered them. I only could order the items that shipped with prime and said "Order in the next TWO hours for delivery by FRIDAY, October 22,2010!" Hello checkout and order receipt! Whoops! I accidentally left if for the two shipping...within 30 seconds of receiving my instant receipt I went back and changed it to one day shipping and paid the $3.99 per item to get it the next day. ***This is important information for later. Now I had the favor bags all set. One less thing to worry about for the birthday bash.

It was all going a little too smoothly for the week and then I got the phone call. It was my mom. I had to go pick up my brother. That's all I'm going to say regarding this matter because it is really personal. Let's just say it wasn't long after receiving my mother's phone call that I got another phone call from a place where they only limit one call. Yup. All I could think was "What about Bug's BIRTHDAY!?" I thought she would never get to celebrate her birthday. Did I mention that on Thursday we watch a friend of our's daughter that is one month younger than Bug and they were to arrive any minute? The only thing that I could do was leave the Hubba-Bub home with Bug and hope for the best. I think I had more faith in him than he had or showed. After 1 hour I was back home with little brother in tow and finally ready to celebrate Bug's birthday. I just hoped that she was still ready. All I had to say to the girls was, "Want some ice cream cake?" and they were hooked. After that things went great. Bug and L ate their cake and opened Bug's presents then took turns playing with them. They are so darn cute together :) I love watching L and seeing Bug interact with another girl her age. They play so good together too!

Now it was Friday and I only had one day until Bug's party. There was still so much to do and I felt like I had no time. I mean we still had to finish the countertop at the bar area, paint the picture frames for the wall collage, put pictures in them, make cupcakes, buy party supplies (plates, cups, etc.), buy party food, find a tv stand, make a dress for Bug, etc. Oh and I was supposed to get my hair cut too. I was actually supposed to get it done on Tuesday but that feel through and was impromptu scheduled for Friday. It started out as any other day and when I got to work I had decided that I needed my hair cut ASAP. Luckily I work at a school that also houses a trade school and we have a cosmetology center on site AND one of the aides that comes in one of my class is a licensed cosmetologist. The stars aligned and VIOLA! I was getting my haircut. I love the way it came out!


I'm loving the length, layers and ease of it. It's a mom-cut but still young. Thank you to my SIL for tipping me off on the Katie Holmes Elle Cover.

Then it was time to leave half day. I left in the middle of a mix of snow, sleet, slush, rain coming down. Wonderful. Our first encounter with the lovely stuff this year. I was not impressed, but as soon as I arrived to the nearest town with a superstore in it everything had cleared up. I shopped for the party supplies that I still lacked, party food, and even picked out a tv stand that I liked. The bad? I couldn't pick up the tv stand to get it in my cart. Maybe if I had been a little more conscious that morning when getting dressed and didn't put on my wedges with a total tread of -100, then I could have managed to flop it into the cart. So whip out the trust iPhone, seriously people- don't leave home without it, and snapped away at the UPC. When I arrived at the register and told the cashier of my dilemma she said no big and called for someone to bring it up. 10 minutes and letting 5 people cut ahead of me later I was finally able to checkout my beautiful new tv stand. Thank you slow moving cartel bringing man (SMCBM), thank you. I check out and....what's this? Where did SMCBM go? Oh c'mon! Don't these people know that I still have to get home put this thing together, make a dress, food, etc? This is completely unacceptable. The shock must have registered on my face, because it was at this point that the cashier told me to go to customer service and they would call SMCBM back up to bring it out to my car. Another 15 minutes later and beginning to debate whether I should put in an application and start checking people out while I wait to help pass the time, finally SMCBM arrives again with a friend! Great! No wonder it took longer. We trek out to the car and load it up. Once again, and truly this time, thank you SMCBM.

I make it home and we start to assemble the beauty. By we I mean my brother and I. I'm not kidding when I say it took at LEAST two hours to assemble. The directions were AWFUL, but it looks great! Now onto Bug's dress. I had this AWESOME  idea to "Sound Of Music"-it and make a dress out the left over material I used to make the curtains in the living room with, which just happened to be painter's canvas. I know, I know, I know...WHAT WAS I THINKING?! Anyways I made this dress from it with a bottom ruffle as muslin. When it came time to try it on Bug (after fighting with my sewing machine about its stubborn refusal to shirr until 12am), she was already sleeping, but I could tell  it was too big and too stiff. I know you're probably saying, "Really? Stiff? Who would have thought painter's canvas would make a stiff dress?" Consider this one a FAIL! I went to bed extremely tired, disappointed, and thinking my baby girl was going to wear her birthday suit to her birthday party.

Somewhere between the tv stand assembly and the dress failure it dawned on me that my Amazon package of barnyard goodies for the kiddos hadn't arrived. I was concerned. I checked my Amazon account and was stupifided. The expected delivery date was 10/25/2010. WHAT! I called up Amazon immediately and was asking questions to which I was told, "We're sorry, but unfortunately there is nothing we can do at this time because you're order is already being proccessed and readied for shipping. We cannot overnight it because it would have had to been sent out by 3:30 Pacific Time."  After some much needed venting to the poor individual who just happened to pick up my phone call I was refunded my $3.99 per item shipping charge and given a 20% credit to a future purchase with Amazon as an apology. Good, but still left me with nothing for the kiddos. I ended up sending the Hubba-Bub to the dollar store in town on Saturday to cover that base.

The party was good. I just wish I hadn't waited until the last minute to do things because it could have been so much better and cuter...::sigh:: Here's my proudest piece of handy work which was created in help by my awesome inlaws:


I got the idea and how to from the taste of home website from a google search. Google saves the day again!

Everything went great during and after the party. I'll  leave you with these beauties that I captured while trying to take a picture of myself for the hair reveal:

Maybe I should have used these for the big reveal, because I'm guaranteed to look good compared to a dog's butt. (Or so I hope)


How was your week?


****UPDATE!****
I received the Amazon order TODAY (Monday) and went straight to the computer to complete the return information. At which point I stop dead in my typing when I am presented with a screen that says because it wasn't Amazon's fault I will have $5.99 deducted from my refund to cover the return shipping charges. Unacceptable Amazon, unacceptable. Not feeling confident in my ability to remain calm on a phone, call I decide to give the contact via chat option a chance. After explaining the entire thing to the person they said they would email me a return label to return the order free of charge. Then I ask the simple question of "Can you please tell me when I will see the $11.97 credited to my account that was promised to me on Friday?" and am told that they don't see this on my account; they only see the credit towards another purchase. Thank goodness I didn't call in. I then explained how the other lady told me I would get refunded my $3.99 per item one day shipping charge, and they happily said they would process it for me and I should see it in 2-3 business days. I have my shipping label in my email waiting to be printed and slapped on that forsaken package to be returned to my once beloved Amazon. Sorry Amazon, despite your attempts to "fix" this, you've fallen a couple of notches in my book.


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3 comments:

Emma's Lunch said...

Hi, Happy Birthday to your gorgeous daughter! Thank you so much for your lovely comments on Emma's Lunch, I'm following you back and I must say, those cupcakes are absolutely amazing!

Unknown said...

Hi, I am a new follower from Tuesday Tag Along. I love all your pictures. Hope you can stop by my blog...
http://thewhitefamilyof6.blogspot.com

Barbara B said...

Hello,
I'm following you from Tag Along Tuesday, would love a follow back.
Thanks
Barbara

http://couponscouponsandmorecoupons.blogspot.com/