Time to Gripe...

Hello all...

I am a positive person, or at least I like to think I can find the positive in ANY situation... But right now - I am in a total negative mood and I want to share it with everyone!!! Just in time for this holiday season... How sweet (see my sarcasm is coming out - that's me in a mood).

So I bought this beautiful ring from NY & Company in the mall. It is a purple stone weave ring. It has small amethyst colored stones at each criss-cross of the metal weave. I absolutely loved it! You know when you find a piece of jewelery after searching for months and it's perfect!

Anyway... I'm regressing.

So I had the ring for a month and when I looked at it one day, there were two stones missing from it! So I went back to the store to try and exchange it, but since I didn't have the original receipt (who knew the ring would fall apart?!?!?) I could only exchange it for the sale price. So instead of my exchange receipt saying $15 it said $4. Didn't think anything about it... UNTIL NOW!!!!

Just imagine a look of shear disgust on my face right now. This very minute.

The ring I exchanged was size 6, the size I received in return was size 7 - doesn't fit me! So I went to exchange the ring AGAIN at the store and they did not have the size. So I left my name and number for the manager to call me for when the next shipment comes in. Apparently the store cannot request certain items to be shipped to them. So the manager told me I just had to wait and see if the ring comes in.

That was about three weeks ago - I am still a ring size too big. I have not been able to wear my ring because it will fall off my finger. I called the corporate number from online - they told me they cannot do store transfers and that they could give me a list of the store that carry the ring size. Non of the stores were in CA.

So I called the manager that I have been working with at the Chico store and she informs me that the ring still has not come in. So I told her I wanted the full refund of $15 (not the $4) because the ring was defective. I told her I have been patient in waiting for the ring to come in especially since each time I went in or spoke to her on the phone I was told it should be in any day now. She informs me that since I am not in their system nor did I have the original receipt, that I cannot receive my $15. I also told her I am not being unreasonable for asking for the full refund since the ring was defective! I am not trying to cheat the company out of anything - THE RING WAS DEFECTIVE. I was actually yelling at the manager on the phone.

For a big company, I do not know why their customer service is so messed up.

So now I am out of an awesome ring and out $15.

I am going to cry.

Someone I work with found me a solution - to buy a ring snuckle. So I am on my way to Walmart to see if I can find one.

But it's just the principle of the situation... I've been patient and now I am being punished for purchasing a defective ring. Thanks alot NY & Co. I am NEVER SHOPPING THERE EVER AGAIN.

Wedding Bells...

But not mine!!!! I'm so evil!

Joe spanked me for that one...

I took Joe to my friend Kari's wedding in Wisconsin this past weekend. What a whirlwind trip... Seriously... I hope to never fly again. DO NOT FLY WITH DELTA OR NORTHWEST. I put that in capitals because it is now a rule I am going to live by. First off, I called the airlines on Wednesday to see if the flights were still on time (I was told they were) and to change my seat to accomodate my motion sickness (which they did). Oh wait... I forgot to start at the beginning. The Bay Bridge decided to break so we couldn't drive straight to the airport hotel; we decided to drive through San Francisco because I didn't know the San Mateo area. BAD IDEA... It took us about 4 1/2 hours to drive to our hotel because of traffic. Okay, got that out of my system... Back to my story - We arrived at the airport at 4am and the ticket agent informed us that they did not have any record of tickets for us. The start of a very bad weekend... We finally got our tickets - they never did tell us why we didn't have tickets in the first place. We landed late in Minneapolis because a runway was down due to construction so we had 10 minutes to make it from one end of this ginormous airport to the other end... After we ran to our connecting gate, there was no one there and there wasn't a plane waiting... We checked the monitors and our connecting flight had been cancelled. Great - I have to be in Milwaukee by 5pm for the wedding rehearsal - THAT wasn't going to happen.

We talked to a new ticket agent who told us the next two flights had been overbooked, but she could put us on stand by to arrive in Milwaukee by 530pm. I don't think she understood what I was saying to her - I needed to be in Milwaukee by FIVE PM... Luckily we made it onto that flight and we flew into Milwaukee in time for the rehearsal dinner at least. The worse part about this is that a Supervision came out because Joe and I were throwing a very loud fit - all he could tell us was "There's nothing I can do." He did offer us a $25 voucher for future flights - I told him I didn't want that becuase I would never fly with Delta/Northwest again. I even showed him my itenerary... He still didn't help us out.

So I made it to the dinner and didn't know anyone except her parents! Haha - It was funny. But I met her Whitewater friends whom she talks about all the time so it was nice to put some faces to the names.

This is Kari - the Bride - My very good friend from my days in Platteville, WI. (Elisha - I've been wearing the pearls you gave to me!)

Joe and I had our very first Fish Fry - Although it is exactly like Fish & Chips... Funny thing - Every time Kari and I talked on the phone she was on her way to a Fish Fry - I lived in WI for 4 years and never had fish fry - so we had it at the rehearsal dinner. Yummy.

The next day we had the wedding. I carried the Gospel book in at the beginning and I read the Prayers of the Faithful. I was so honored to be apart of her wedding.

Here is Kari walking in with her father - Rick. Very beautiful dress with lace and beading. Her veil was her mother's headdress with a new veil sewn on it. She looked so happy!

They are husband and wifie!!! Mike and Kari after officially taking their vows. It was such a beautiful ceremony. What made it even more special was Mike's brother was just ordained as a priest so he was able to marry them.

The cake was beautiful as well. White frosting with some elegant piping and ribbon wrapped around the bottom of each layer with some red roses planted on top.

They had a humungous wedding party - 8 people on each side - A couple of them were students at Platteville when I was there - apparently we recognized each other, but we couldn't place how we knew each other.

Don't they look soooo happy?!?!?

I guess everyone in WI are midgets - Joe towered over a lot of the guys out there. He looked soooooooo friggin' handsome in his suit!

I was so very blessed to be invited to this wedding - and I would never have missed it for anything! One of the best parts was seeing her parents - Linda and Rick. I remember going home with Kari for Easter and spending the week with her and her family. Her mom was so serious and stressed out about making the Easter meal so perfect and her dad spent the day teasing her mother and just laughing at her and having fun. I also remember going to mass with them and then there was a food festival afterwards. Each table had a special meal from a different country including their signature liquor. We spent the evening drinking and stuffing our tummies!!! Tons of fun I tell you.

All in all, I was so glad we went out there even though traveling was such a headache. I'm also glad to be home after this ordeal. Kitty missed us so much!!!!!!!!

Greet Each Day With A Smile.

I have just acquired some cute pictures of my nieces and I have decided to share them with you! The baby is Madelyne and the older is Eleni. Mommy is Bethany and daddy is Seth. I love them so much!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY FAVORITE!

So, Joe never reads my blog - he makes fun of it actually - but I thought I would post a GINORMOUS Happy Birthday to Joe on here.

Kind of reminds of Monkey... Actually, this is what Monkey looked like!!!!

So to my favorite man in the whole wide world - HAPPY BIRTHDAY. I'm so glad you were born! Love you muchos!

Monkey No Mas.

Today is a sad day... Monkey has passed from this wonderful world. He had been running on his wheel for the past three days (after not running on it for about a year) and this morning Joe made a joke that Monkey gave himself a heart attack while on the wheel. I ran in there and I thought he was just sleeping - he likes to bury himself in the bedding - but he wasn't breathing. He was already gone...

Monkey touched many lives in his three years of existence... He was so friendly, always poked his head out of his house to say hi, and always bit me when I reached inside his cage. But in his last few months, he was more friendly and wanted to be held - He loved Melissa and Teaghan holding him - and just the other day he let me hold him without biting my fingers.

I remember when I first bought him - he was half the size he was today - and he was such a lovable baby. Then he went through his teenage years - Always talking back at me, not eating his vegetables, and not exercising to stay in shape. I was so happy when he got over himself...

I will always remember the sweet Monkey he always was...

He hated his ball... But Kitty was always "watching" over him.

Teaghan & Brittnee...

Joe and I invited Teaghan and Brittnee up for the weekend - I'd like to think we all had a fantastic time together (I hope the girls enjoyed themselves as much as we enjoyed them).

We started the weekend with renting some movies - Brittnee chose Hannah Montana - I'm so proud of Joe for watching the entire movie! And we picked Madagacar, Escape to Africa - Funny movie! We watched Hannah Montana and ate ice cream!

The next day, we went downtown to watch some festivities going on... There was a Palio event - where different organizations in Chico build horse models and race them around the City parking lot - They had real horses there that did a dance routine as well... We walked to the City Plaza where different groups could purchase a square and show off there chalk artistry. Here are some pictures of the best ones we saw.

This one looks yummy!

The artistry work on this one was phenomenol... I wish I could've seen the final product!

We next went mini-golfing. Teaghan made TWO hole in ones and I made one as well!!!! The other two were inferior to our golf performance.

Aren't they cute???

We went swimming at One-Mile after that - The golf course was totally in the sun so we had to cool off somewhere! The water was actually very cold. Everyone was brave enough to jump in all the way except for me! I was not going to freeze to death!

We went bowling after that - I think the girls had fun, but Brittnee had some trouble throwing the ball straight down the middle of the lane. We helped her and she definitely improved during two games.

Last, but not least, that day we made personal pan pizzas! We rolled our own crust out, we decorated them the way we each wanted and then we PIGGED OUT!!!!!!!

Kitty decided she wanted to be in on the fun!

The finished products!!!!!

Joe had to work on Sunday, so I spent the morning playing board games with the girls and we ended our fantastic weekend by meeting Doug in Yuba City for the hand-off.

We were so happy to have the chance to spend quality time with the girls. Thank you to Doug and Kristin for sharing their children with us!!!!!!!!!

It's Official...

I'm promoted to.... Drum Roll Please... OPERATIONS MANAGER of New Beginnings!

As you can see, I'm very excited about this new title. With it comes some perks...

1. Authority to run the front office/desk
2. Help in making some minor procedure/process decisions
3. Support in some minor business decisions
4. Support with hiring

AND THE DOOSY...

5. A car!!! Yes, that's right ladies and gentlemen... New Beginnings is going to lease a new Honda Accord for me. I took the car instead of a cash raise. Who wouldn't?!?!?!?

So, everyone may now call me Ms. Operations Manager from now on... I've deserved it!

Thank you.