Last night, Brandon was trying to play with the laptop in the living room, but it was time for bed. So I turned out all the lights so that he’d go to his bed and away from the living room. So I could hear his little pitter patter of feet on the hardwood area, and I was waiting for him in the middle of the hallway. Then I wanted to see what he’d do, so I ducked into the second bedroom doorway. I thought if There are certain buy cheap tadalafil limitations of using conventional medicines. Most of the pills either help you to get the help and support from her for the treatment of buy cheap cialis bipolar disorder in youth strategies include pharmacological and non-pharmacological. In a day only one dose has been approved for use by the Meals and Drug Administration (FDA), but still many men rely on them to improve their sexual encounters. prices cheapest levitra However, immune dysfunction can viagra bulk http://miamistonecrabs.com/category/shop/merchandise/ result in immune disease like Nephrotic Syndrome. he was going too fast he would crash into the wall at the end of the hallway. But he stopped midway down the hall and turned and the next thing I knew, he was grabbing my legs and laughing! Hey, how did he know that I was there? Dave says that his night vision is pretty keen – he can find my side of the bed in the middle of the night and ask to get up. True, I suppose. Maybe he has cat eyes!
A Trip to the Zoo
Today we went to Baby Kyle’s 1st birthday. It was being held at Happy Hollow Park and Zoo. It took us forever to get out of the house for some reason-mostly spent gathering up all the gear for a short trip out with a toddler. At also at the last minute, Brandon decided he did not like the shoes I put him in. Granted, they did not match his outfit, but they looked cuter than the other shoes. He grabbed the shoes that did match his outfit better and said, “Choose” and then started taking off the ones he was wearing. Ok, I guess we have a little fashionista! So with the shoes changed, we were off.
I finally got Brandon strapped into the car seat, when he was saying, “spider, spider” and whining a bit. When I looked down to see what the fuss was about, there was this little piece of white lint that had floated into the car, which I guess could be mistaken for a spider. Luckily it was not a spider, because I don’t like them either. I was hoping that I would raise Brandon to get rid of spiders for me, but turns out he’s just as afraid of them as I am. Oh well. So we started driving towards the zoo, but I had forgotten my cell phone! Agh…so had to turn around and go get it. Finally, we were on our way to the zoo, in San Jose. Zoo in San Jose?! I never even knew this place existed! Luckily GPS did. So we got there, parked and then Jennifer and Jesselyn drove up! What timing, considering my intention was to arrive 15 minutes earlier but with all of the delays back at home. Then as I was getting Brandon into his stroller, we saw Michelle and Ted, who had brought the cake and a huge gift – it almost filled up the entire trunk. We all walked toward the entrance to the zoo, then saw Robert and Julie about to take a walk. We found the party, Kyle was all ready to go in his 1st birthday outfit. There were balloons, even a talking Elmo balloon, and bubbles from a bubble machine! It was great. Brandon was offered an animal cup – he took one then started to take another! He got the tiger cup. Karen had even rented some wagons, like the ones Brandon has at school. He wanted to play with them, but I wasn’t ready to chase him around in the wagon, so I put my foot down – behind one of the wheels. He was able to move it just a little bit forward, but not much more back, so he kept looking at the tire and trying to see what the problem was. Finally, he gave up and went back to the table to eat. We had Vietnamese sandwhiches, spring rolls, egg rolls, and musube. There were little packs of carrots for the kids and adults, I suppose, and packages of apples. Small animal bubble packs were on the table – Bonnie was able to help Brandon blow some bubbles of his own! But then he tried holding it on his own and ended up spilling it all over himself. Luckily it is mostly soap, so not too much to worry about. Then we decided to give him an unopened bottle. “Open, open,” he asked, but I told him we could not open the bottle. We thought it would be safe giving him the sealed plastic-wrapped container. Too bad we were wrong, he wrenched it open and again, spilled bubbles all over himself. Too strong for his own good. We sang “Happy Birthday” to Kyle, and the other kids took a picture, but Brandon was not interested, he wanted to look at the Viking ship. I was fearing the lone poopy diaper change – especially with all the activity, thinking that Brandon would turn around and get poop all over! Luckily Karen knows about active boys and diaper changes and watched the head while I took care of the tail. He did great! Karen’s little niece, Hannah, passed out favors: little shortbread cookies shaped as “1”s and for the kids little stuffed animals – I told him to get a monkey, since that was the only animal name he could say. They also had zebras, giraffes, tigers and elephants. Finally I succumbed to the wagon. I put him in it and wheeled him around, like when he is being isolated at school and can’t sit in the buggy with the other kids. Jesselyn wanted to play too, so we stuck both kids in the wagon.
Then there were various combinations of kids in and out pushing and riding. Jennifer even took both for a little stroll! It was a good effort by both kids, at one point Jesselyn was steering and Brandon was pushing from the rear. A good lesson in teamwork.
discount levitra The medicine will reach you in short. Of course, it is very good if you like apples, grapes, kiwifruit and balsam pear, all of which are beneficial to the heal. melissaspetsit.com levitra sale In such considerations, it is the specific reaction as men forget that they are the only ones who are inclined to experience order viagra melissaspetsit.com this. Read good books, listen to soothing music before going to purchasing viagra australia bed. As the party came to a close, the guys helped take the gifts to the cars, and I was debating about seeing the rest of the zoo alone. There was a monkey exhibit, and Brandon has been fond of monkeys and noises since we taught him the sounds. So I figured, since we are here and he is behaving, let’s go see the animals!
We took a short walk to where the park and zoo meet, and through the gate, there was the Cabybara. According to Robert, it looked like a big rat. He wasn’t too far off in his description. Brandon wasn’t that excited either, so we walked to the jaguar area. There was one in the pen, but he was sleeping. There was another family there who was also looking for the big cat, so while I was pointing out to Brandon, they also saw it. They then proceeded to plop their 3-4 year kid right in Brandon’s line of sight. Great, so he sees the backside of a chunky girl instead of the sleeping jaguar. Let’s go – good thing Dave wasn’t here otherwise we may have had trouble at the zoo. So after walking a little further down, we saw what I was looking for – monkeys! There were two little Capuchin monkeys. Where the stroller was, there was some foliage in the way, so he couldn’t see a good view of them. He knew what they were but needed a better vantage point, so I took him out of the stroller. It was great, because then he could see what I saw! The monkeys weren’t really doing much, but it was great for him to see them live! After seeing them, it was time to go. However, Brandon got used to me carrying him and did NOT want to go back to the stroller. Kicking and Screaming is not just a movie. And this is what I had been dreading all day long. I couldn’t get him back in the stroller on the first or second attempt. Finally, got the legs in, pulled up the center strap so he couldn’t escape and pinned him down. There was no way I could carry him and push the stroller the rest of the way back to the car. And I told him this. After getting strapped up, he complained a little, then was ok until we got back to the car. Again, with a little protest, did not want to get into the car seat. I knew he would rest well once we just started driving. It was 230pm, and he hadn’t had his nap yet. That’s a pretty long time for him. Two minutes later, as we were headed to the freeway, I was right. He was out cold, all limbs relaxed.
Kenny had called and wanted to see if we wanted to go to dinner. I called him back to leave a message. Getting home was uneventful, I did manage to push the empty stroller and carry Brandon and get to the front door. Just then, I was getting a phone call. I thought it was Kenny calling back, but it was actually Bonnie. She was calling because we didn’t get to say goodbye because they were helping load the gifts while I made a last minute decision to go look at the animals. So she wanted to make sure we got home safely. How sweet! She could tell I was huffing and puffing trying to get the stroller in and put Brandon down. She told me to call her if we needed anything 🙂 Thank you! It’s always great to have such caring friends.
Since Brandon went to sleep and it was my only chance, I decided to try and sleep too. Kenny called back and we were going to try to coordinate dinner – told him it would be at least 2 hours for Brandon to nap! So we set up plans for later. Brandon and I both needed a nap and seems like we woke up at the same time! We played a bit and at first I thought we could go out, it shouldn’t be that difficult, but after a short crying spell, decided to pick something easy for dinner and have Kenny and Rachel come over. So the got some schwarma and we all ate at the table. They only stayed for a short while, but during that time, we got a “Ray-chel” out of Brandon! Yay!! We’ve waited so long for this event! For the longest time, Brandon only knew “Nenny” of Rachel and Kenny. So we got both now! Good job, Brandon. The usual nightly routine went smoothly – bath, brushing the teeth, mum-mum, the water bottle and the “night-night”s. Still Adi and Papa are the frontrunners. Followed closely by Mamma and Daddy. And with the fun-filled day over, Brandon went night-night.
Big Boy Haircut
Today on my day off, I decided to take Brandon in for a haircut. We’re going to Kyle’s party tomorrow, and Dave, after seeing Brandon’s photos yesterday, decided his hair was a little nappy. So we went to Great Clips, armed with entertainment, e.g. food. The “stylist”, or whatever you call her at Great Clips, had him sit on a little booster chair, which I was a little hesitant about. Last time we went, Dave held him, and I fed him snacks. So she put him up on the booster and put the drape around him, which he didn’t like because it meant that he couldn’t get to his hands. She put a toy under there to keep his hands busy and began her work. When asked how to cut it, I just said, “short” (to avoid having to come back too often). He did great! He didn’t cry, but was a little squirmy when she used the clippers. Then she asked him if it tickles, to which he responded, “tiggles…tiggles” and giggled. She even used the shears to cut his bangs and we told him to close his eyes, but only got a half squint. Good enough, no hair in his eyes anyways. It only took about 15 minutes, which was good since I only brought a little bit of food.
We’ll have to surprise Dave, who won’t see Brandon until Tuesday. He went to Colorado for a work conference. Brandon just heard an airplane overhead as I was writing this. He pointed to the noise, and said, “airplane”. I reminded him that Daddy was going on an airplane today. He thought about it for a bit, then said, “Dada airplane”. We’ll miss you, Daddy!
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Brandon and Jesselyn
Jesselyn came over to play while Jennifer went to orientation at school for next year. Sadly, Brandon and Jesselyn won’t be classmates next year, but they are still free to hang out outside of school. Jesselyn came over after work, hung out with her mommy for awhile here, then we had dinner, and played with all of Brandon’s toys. Whenever Jesselyn tried to play with one of Brandon’s toys, he’d come over and start playing too. Then she’d go to another toy, and Brandon would follow her and get in her business. We told Brandon to back off and leave Jesselyn alone and he’d get upset and start crying. Jesselyn would just calmly stare at him, wondering what all the fuss was about. Brandon did tell Jesselyn that the fireplace was hot! He was in her face, saying “Hot, hot!” We were all playing on the table that Kathy lent us. First they were sitting at opposite sides of the table, then Brandon got up to go sit next to Jesselyn squeezing himself into the seat next to her. He learned to be gentle (for the most part), and even gave Jesselyn a little peck on the arm. Dave and I were video taping and taking still photos trying to capture Brandon’s first “play date”.
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Then Jesselyn stood up and walked down the hall into our bedroom. She saw Brandon’s crib bed and went to lie down. She was so relaxed, and somehow sensing this, Brandon came running after her. He got up on the bed and both started jumping on the mattress like two little monkeys. Then both put their heads down like they were going to sleep. Then Brandon got up to go play in the second room. So Dave and Brandon were in the second room and I was watching Jesselyn in our room. I guess she got bored, so she called to the next room, “Bran-DON, Brannnn-don.” He didn’t answer so went back to the room to check it out, calling his name at the same time. He heard it and then responded, “Jesssssss, Jessss” and started to run out of the room. They met in the hallway and went back to the toy room to play with the legos. It was so cute! Laughing and giggling, they played with the dinosaur that Jesselyn also has.
After going back to the living room, both wanted some milk. So with their milk in hand, we put out some play-dough for them. Jesselyn started asking for Mommy, especially after the phone rang, but it was the wrong number. The phone rang again, and sure enough, Jennifer was back! Jesselyn knew her Mommy was here soon! It was such a difference having a little girl around here – so quiet and peaceful, not hyper like our little Tazmanian devil. So we managed to entertain two kids and keep them safe if only for 2 hours. (Too bad Dave and I didn’t eat dinner).
…NO…NO…NO!
We were reading one of his picture books and Brandon was pointing out the words he knows. There is a shopping page, which has several items normally found in a grocery store. He pointed to fish, grapes and then pointing to small little tootsie roll-like pieces, “Candy. No! No! No!” while waving his index finger in Moreover, it regulates the levitra low cost http://www.molineanimalaid.org/viagra-8157 blood circulation, treats damaged arteries and supports cyclic GMP to cause harder erection. Above just about all, such pills don’t require the prescription and you will levitra sale molineanimalaid.org order all of them who are blessed with it and it has to be taken care of properly. Everyone enjoys driving and the convenience and the choice of flavours, Kamagra jelly is popular molineanimalaid.org cialis 5mg sale among all men fighting with erectile dysfunction. You can also buy these herbal pills by sending a painless current to varied acquisition de viagra specific nerves. the air. Every time he pointed to the pieces of candy I would repeat him and say, “No, no, no!” and he would fall over laughing. Finally the No’s are being somewhat useful! Hopefully he will continue how he feels about candy. Thanks to my mom for teaching him NO on candy! Here’s to no cavities!
Weekend of Activities
The weekend started out with Friday taking Brandon in for his 18 month check up. Luckily no shots today, however I did want to test him for lead levels in light of the recent recalls in toys especially from China and since he usually puts most of his toys in his mouth. The pediatrician told us it was going to be a fingerstick, so I didn’t think it would be that bad. But by the time we were at the lab, they said it was a venopuncture and would have to go in his arm! Poor baby, there was one phlebotomist holding his arm while the other went stuck the needle into his tiny little vein. I was in charge of the rest of his body. He watched the entire procedure from start to finish, even though I was trying to distract him with Cheerios. After crying a little, we went upstairs to visit the anticoag crew. We’d see most of them the next night at Thai and Thuy’s wedding!
Mom came down to help take care of Brandon for the wedding, which started at the Villa Montalvo Oval Garden at 11am. We were worried about being late, but turned out that the ceremony started a little late. It was a beautiful day – and such a beautiful and happy couple! After going home to take a short nap and visit with mom and Brandon, we headed to Dynasty for the wedding reception. It was huge – I think there were almost 50 tables in the back room at Dynasty. Who knew that place was so huge! We had to walk through one wedding party to get back to ours. The theme color of the wedding, Tiffany blue, was seen through and through – from the dyed orchids, ribbons on the chair backs, menus, place cards on little silver fortune cookies, take out gift boxes, and even the candy colors! The bridesmaids and groomsmen outfits matched perfectly. The evening festivities began with a lion dance – 5 lions – two dancers per lion. They even jumped on a pair of sawhorses and danced on that. We had front row seats for that! The five layer cake made it to the cake-cutting ceremony without faltering – even after it was moved back and forth for the lion dancing.
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Dinner was yummy Chinese banquet food – we almost didn’t make through all of the courses because it was so much food. After the bouquet and garter toss, dancing began. We originally did not plan to stay long so that we could relieve mom, but we were having so much fun dancing, we just stayed! We left around 1130pm, completely exhausted, especially knowing that we had to wake up early the next morning.
This morning, we got up this morning, pretty tired, but excited for the annual Taste of Lexus. This is third year we’ve been. We drove up with Kenny, Rachel and my parents along with Brandon up to Alameda. It’s held at an old airport runway area, with elaborate tents set up and the highest class portapotties I’ve ever seen. This year’s format was a little different than in years past, but it was definitely organized. They even had a kiddie area for Brandon. They had the cars, of course, which we took a few test drives. Then they had a golfing challenge – it was a closest to the pin challenge against a projection screen, 147 yards, 17 yards downhill, and the guy to beat was 1 foot 4 inches to the pin! Grand prize was a Lexus golf bag. Kenny and Rachel had already gone, so we didn’t get a chance to see them in action. Dave and I wanted to try, but I was getting nervous a little bit while we waited. There were a few people ahead of us, some of them looked like pretty decent golfers. It was a little intimidating; it’s been awhile since I’ve even held a golf club. So Dave went first, and he had a notable gallery. Kenny even called out, “Dave, I wanna see you make top 10!”. So Dave took the pitching wedge and took a practice swing, then went for it. It looked pretty straight and when it landed, he was 8 feet from the pin – and earned him 6th place so far today! What a great shot-even the guys behind him were cheering him on! He got another turn, but didn’t get any closer. Ok, my turn. Luckily they had a left set of clubs and the guy set me up. I wasn’t sure which club to use, and the guy asked if I golfed. Tough question to answer. Yes, I golf, but it has been awhile. Dave, the guy and I agreed, I should try the 5 iron. So I took my practice swing, then decided to just get this over with. I just watched the screen and turns out that my ball was 44 feet from the pin! I placed in the 40’s, I think it was 42nd (or 40-something, I was so shocked, I had some sort of memory lapse). My second shot shanked, so it wasn’t as close, but how exciting! I was so ready to play now – too bad Dave will be gone this coming weekend, otherwise, I’d definitely want to try some more. I’ve got the bug now. My main goal was to just make contact with the ball, so what a surprise! Kenny and Rachel took Brandon to the kids area to check out the crafts while Dave and I went to test drive the GS hybrid model. After we were done, we went to go save Kenny and Rachel. I was really worried for them, since he hadn’t had a nap all day. Luckily we had just eaten, so at least they had that going for them. In any case, we walked in there and he was just finishing up a bead project and was so focused! He didn’t even know that we were there. His face was so serious as he picked up bead by bead to fill the jar as the base of a bamboo stick. He had already completed a beaded picture frame and also a greeting card! What great momentos – thanks to Kenny and Rachel for bringing out Brandon’s inner artist! They were such cute gifts, created in such a short time, but really had Brandon’s attention. Brandon was also showing his more social side, by offering another child a used rubber band. According to Kenny, he kept trying to give it to the kid, he just didn’t get it that it was an unwanted gift. We all thought Brandon would eat the beads, and Kenny and Rachel were watching Brandon like a hawk in case he did, but he was so busy creating, that it did not cross his mind to eat them. He’s finally learning that not everything is so tasty that it should go in his mouth. Finally!
Brandon was asleep shortly after getting into the car! He was so pooped after all that activity. After dropping off mom and dad in Belmont, we drove back to Cupertino and dropped Kenny and Rach off. We had to get ingredients for our Thai Family night. We selected Pineapple Fried Rice, only because we had been shot down with our other selections. Pad Thai was Kenny’s, Lilly was making curry, and we had already had satay (against the rules of family night to have a repeat dish). Dave made a great dish – hollowing out the pineapple and using it to serve the rice. Everything tasted great! Very carby, though as we had rice with curry, the fried rice, Pad Thai and for dessert, we had sticky rice with mango. That’s why we had to play the new Cranium game, Pop 5, which had us burning some calories acting out, sculpting with clay, humming, drawing, or giving clues of pop culture. Brandon was a little cranky, but he needs to learn that he can’t have everything he wants – he really wanted to play with the button that lights up. But he was being a little rough, so we took him away. He was just so tired, as soon as we put him in the carseat to leave, he was out! That only lasted until we brushed his teeth, and that’s when he goes nuts. Eventually, he put him back down. And only after then do I have time to blog! Whew…what an eventful and fun weekend.
A Night on the Town
Well, ok, not really, but we did get to see Transformers tonight. My mom is in town to help us take care of Brandon for Thuy’s wedding. So to take advantage, we went to a movie tonight. Kenny needed a date or two to go see it with him since Rachel wasn’t interested in seeing it. So, Dave and I obliged since we haven’t gone out to a movie since the last in the To enhance your opportunities for overcoming menopause, take benefit of the find out this link buy viagra india following questions which are more commonly asked. Many females are happy even with oral order generic cialis stimulation if not penile penetration. This problem can also target young age women. levitra generika 10mg A couple leading to a healthy sex life with the help of generic ED drug. sildenafil cheapest Lord of the Rings trilogy. We enjoyed it for what it was worth. Two words sum it up, “Michael Bay”. Enough said. Dave enjoyed the CGI – he said it was much better than Air Force One or Pearl Harbor. Kenny and I had to laugh and reply, “what, those are like 10 years old!” Dave couldn’t think of any other more recent movies that he’s seen with CGI – not even the aforementioned Lord of the Rings movie?
Picture People: Ahhhhhhh! Warning, it’s long! (Dave)
I guess I should have seen this coming. I can hear the common sayings repeated in my head: “you get what you pay for”, “buyer beware”, “it can never happen to me”. Let’s just say that hopefully after today, I will never deal with The Picture People and their partner Zazzle.com again. I say hopefully because I want to be sure we get our calendar that we ordered, before I say never. They still have one last chance to screw up.
This all started when we decided to take some portrait photos of Brandon to get photos of him at various points in his infancy. I originally considered taking “studio” photos of him on my own, but of course I dont have a studio, lights, etc., and we didnt want to spend a small fortune on a professional photographer. So we decided on the dreaded mall store studio,the Picture People. We first took him there in August of 2006. We thought this would be a one time occasion, but of course they marketed this great deal where if you join their Picture Club for a mere $40, you would get a free 8X10 at each of your next 3 sittings. Subsequently, we returned there for holiday family photos in December, and another sitting in July 2007. In December of 2006, some brilliant minds decided that they should switch computer systems and software in the heart of their busiest time. Of course, we had some trouble getting our photos selected in the store, and then never received the link required to retrieve the photos online. After a few months, while we were passing by during a mall trip, we asked them if they could resend the link. Of course they say sure thing, an email will be sent within 24hrs (I’ve recently learned that this must be something engrained in their minds and repeated constantly, as I’ve probably now heard it about 20 times). 3 or 4 months later we go in to have one more sitting before our photo club membership expires, and ask again if they can give us the link to our December photos. They check if they can find the photos in the actual store, but couldn’t. The rep that we worked with told us to contact the main customer service number and insisted that we have to be persistent (that’s not very reassuring already), and that I have to contact them during normal business hours.
Day 1: So I start Monday, July 30, to call the customer service dept. It takes 10 minutes on hold to get someone to answer, and they say that they see the sitting in their records and of course will transfer the photos to the website and an email will be sent within 24hrs. Of course, nothing happens. ]
Day 2: I call back the next day, around the same time. They say that there must be an issue with their T1 connection and that the photos will be sent within 24hrs, that it may just take longer because they have large files constantly being sent to the server. Another 24hrs, no response.
Day 3: I call back and they tell me that they need to contact the studio to find out what happened, and tell me that someone at the store is looking into it and will get back to me. I dont hear anything for the rest of the day.
Day 4: I call on Thursday. I’m not normally this persistent, well probably, but mainly because we wanted to maximize our membership before it expired, and now, I really just wanted an answer. So the corporate office (actually Zazzle.com, I really dont know who runs the asylum), tells me that I need to contact the store and that it is an issue that needs to be dealt with at the specific studio. I call the studio, and they say they will look into it. I wait for most of the day to hear back from them, when I dont, I call them in the afternoon. The guy that I had been dealing with tells me, “I’ll check” which means, he hadnt tried all day, and that it only took the amount of time that I was on the phone with him to find out an answer. He gives me some blabble about how they changed servers at the time we had the sitting, that photos that should have been uploaded never were, and never admitted to saying our photos were lost. I had to ask him directly, “are our photos lost?”. He answers “apparently, it looks that way,” (never a straight answer). I ask him, “so what’s the next step? What can you do about this?” He replies, “you’ll have to talk to customer service.”
Day 5: I contact the customer service reps from the corporate number because at this point I feel the need to be compensated. I get forwarded to a manager’s voice mail, and leave a message that I’d like to speak to them. Amazingly, I do get a call back from them within a few hours, and I explain the whole situation. I wanted to hear her explanation as to why it took 4 days to find out that our photos were gone. She had none. She pretty much glossed it over. She frankly apologized for the fact that our photos were lost, and she said it was the studio’s fault. They had a time frame as to when photos needed to be submitted to the new servers, and that they missed the deadline. It was too late for me to care who was to blame, but later on I get a different explanation from the manager at the studio, that once photos appear on their store computers for us to order prints the same day, they are considered uploaded/uploading to the servers, and that Zazzle deleted them. I asked her to refund the money for the prints that we received for the December sitting. I explained to her that the photos were useless to me w/o access to the digital files for reprints. She says, “well you can scan the photos, or we can scan them here for you. and we can offer you another year of Picture Club membership for free.” I totally lost it. I told her, “why the heck would I want another year of something that has been so messed up with in the first place. Do you really expect me to return when all of this is over?” She replies, “well what do you want?” I say, “how bout 1000 free 8×10’s?” She went quiet for about ten seconds, and asked me if i was serious. I said, “you telling me that I can get another year of membership is infuriating, and that it’s as ridiculous as me asking for 1000 free photos. You lost our files!” She apologized again, and asked me again what I wanted. I told her I wanted our photos and the membership refunded. I told her again, that I could scan the photos but they’re never going to match the digital files in quality, and that the photos that we printed that were 5X7’s or wallets wouldn’t scan well enough to make enlargements. Not to mention, several other photos that were taken, that we didn’t print at the time, were lost. She said that there was nothing that she could do about the photos that we received, but that she could refund our club membership of $40. “but, you’ll have to contact the store to do it.”
After lunch I call the store to speak to the manager. I told him that my photos were lost, and that I wanted to return my photos and get my membership refunded. First he said, “did you call customer service?” I was floored. Then he states, “I can’t refund you for the photos. Normally you have 90 days, but after that you can’t. You’ve had the photos, and are enjoying them on the wall, so there isn’t anything I can do about that. I have to check about the membership.” I reminded him that everywhere you look it says “Satisfaction Guaranteed”, which really means if you’re unhappy you can go back for another sitting and take more photos (cause that costs them nothing). So he looks up our account and realizes that we are almost at the expiration date for our membership, and that we have obtained $40 worth of free prints. He tells us that he has to check with his boss to see if he can issue the refund. He finds out that he can’t, from I assume the district manager, and tells me, “if I were to issue you a refund for the club membership of $40, then you would owe $40 for the free prints that you received.” I felt like driving straight to the store right then. I told him I spoke with customer service and this is what they told me. He said he couldn’t do anything since his boss already said no. I called customer service yet another time, and they said they would contact the store. 5 minutes later I get a call from the manager asking for a credit card number to issue the refund, without any sort of apology.
You thought this was over, but oh no. It never is. After accepting the fact that those photos were lost, we had about 6 days to use up the remaining coupon credits for our membership. So, on Friday evening, August 3rd, Robyn decided to make a calendar with photos the sittings that hadn’t been lost (so we assumed). She spent 2 hours getting the calendar laid out the way she wanted it and submitted the order. She tried to use the coupon code that we received and found out that it didnt work. Well, this meant another call to customer service.
Day 6: This was actually a mild day dealing with the customer service rep. He stated that if an order was canceled and a coupon had been used, the coupon still becomes invalid. (we had tried to order a calendar months ago that got canceled because they stopped making them). So he simply replaced the code with a new one.
Day 7: It is Tuesday, August 7th, we think everything is in the works with the calendar. Robyn get’s an email from Zazzle. Ill just let you read it:
Dear SmileStore Customer:
Thank you for your business and for your recent order on our
SmileStore.
To serve our customers better, we recently transitioned our online
business to a new partner, but have been unfortunately experiencing
start-up problems with migrating high-resolution images from previous customer
accounts to our new website. In the process, we apologize and must
inform you that we are unable to process order 131-23115691-8467135 which
you placed on 8/3/2007 at the SmileStore as your older images are no
longer stored on the website. You will not be charged for this order.
We sincerely apologize for this unfortunate circumstance and can assure
you that the issue has been resolved. All of your future sittings will
be saved in your current account. Please know that we are continuing
to work with our partner to better the online experience for our
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We value your business and hope that you will give us another
opportunity to serve you again soon. Please bring in this email to your local
Picture People studio and receive 25% off your in-studio portrait and
merchandise purchase. This is a special purchase meant especially for you,
and is not transferable.
Discount Offer – Offer valid only for color portraits, 10×13 or smaller
and on in-studio merchandise. Not valid on existing orders, reprints,
gift cards or portrait club memberships. Offer valid in-studio only.
Offer not valid online or on special orders. Select styles only.
Merchandise varies by studio. While supplies last. Coupon cannot be used in
combination with this or any other offer and must be presented at time of
sitting/purchase. Limit one coupon redemption (this or similar offer)
per person (individually and/or as part of a family/group). Offer
expires 12/31/07.
Email Address:
Coupon Code: MECQA
Again, we apologize for any inconvenience and look forward to serving
you.
Sincerely,
The SmileStore Team
The Picture People
No Sitting Fees, Ever
100% Satisfaction Guaranteed
Portraits in One Hour
1-800-341-HOUR
www.picturepeople.com
Day 7: I call customer service once again to find out what happened, and a different rep tells me that they only have the thumbnail images, and the store holds the larger files. She calls the store to find out if they have it, but tells me the asst. manager is busy at the moment and will get back to me. With great pessimism, I call myself and he states that he will look into it. I wait till 8pm w/o a call. I call the store back and the manager answers. He says he will call the asst. manager on his cell phone cause he doesn’t want to interfere with whatever he may have already done. Of course no answer and I have to wait til tomorrow.
Day 8: I call the store, and the asst. manager hasn’t arrived during the time that I normally get a hold of him. We are now buddies of course. I wait ’til later in the afternoon, and call back. He answers, and says “hold on, let me check, we sort of had an emergency yesterday (again, it takes him the time that I am on the phone with him to get an answer).” He’s found our photos, and says it will take 24hrs to get them uploaded, and we will get an email with the link. Where have I heard that one?
Day 8: Today, by the way. I call customer service for presumably the last time. I needed to find out whether the calendar order was still there so that we didnt have to spend another 2 hours redoing it. The person I spoke with, with just an explanation of the situation, and without telling her my name, says, “I spoke to you yesterday.” She automatically assumed that I was going to argue about our missing photos, but I told her what I needed. By the way, I asked to speak to the manager yesterday but never heard back. She told us that we have to replace the low res files with the high res files, essentially having to redo the entire order. And of course, we would need a new coupon code because the others were invalid. As of 10am this morning, the order was completed and we will wait to see if it ever arrives. If it does, I am through with them.
I’m not sure you’ll need a summary of how I feel after this whole ordeal, but I’m sure I’ll vent about it for a while. So, keep your eyes open as I may revise this post a few more times.
Daycare Stories from This Week
“HELP”: The teachers are trying to get Brandon to ask for “help” instead of getting frustrated and crying. When it was naptime, one teacher was carrying him to the crib area while his favorite teacher was busy doing something with other children. Brandon was crying holding his hands out to the other teacher, crying, “HELP!” Well, at least they taught him the word and he used it in context!
CHEESE monster – since Brandon was not feeling well this week and also not eating, the teachers decided to feed him whatever he asked for. Well, he likes cheese. So in one day, he ate 4 sticks of cheese and then a wheel of Babybel. His poop was really icky afterwards, not sure if it was the antibiotics taking its toll or if it was all that cheese.
YOU KNOW THE DRILL – today, the teachers knew Brandon was tired, but they kept him up a little longer while the other kids were slowly going down so that he would sleep longer. After all the other kids were down, they said, “Ok, Brandon, you’re turn.” He rushed right over to the crib area (you know he must have been reallllly tired!)
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What COLOR is it? – the new color of the week = PINK! What color is it? “Pink” and with such conviction.
The baby buggy – At school, to take the infants and toddlers outside to mingle with the big kids, the teachers use a little buggy that fits 6 kids – 2 kids per row. Brandon is having problems being gentle with the younger, littler kids. But today, the teachers had him in the front row with the youngest baby – who is about 4 months old. He was doing so well, until he saw me. Then he turned around to James and bopped him on the head! We still have some work. It was better than last week, when he leaned forward and pulled the little girl’s pigtail in front of him and made her cry right as I was coming into school to pick him up.
Party of 5 (+2)
Today we had dinner to catch up with some high school friends. Laurie arranged for Alexa, Kasey, Josephine (and Claire, her 10 month old daughter), Brandon and I to get together at PF Changs. Unfortunately, I was the last to arrive because I got a little lost trying to find it, but they were all there, chatting and catching up! Claire is such a cute little girl – I’m sad that I forgot to bring my camera. She was eating puffs and wheels, then later a teething buscuit. Alexa, a teacher at a preschool, knew all the food that Jo brought out for Claire to eat. Kasey had great news to share – she and Evan got engaged! Congrats guys! Claire sat so nicely in the chair, while Brandon got a little impatient. Ok, a lot impatient. Claire was happy to drink her bottle while the rest of us were amazed by how weird it looked – it was just the nipple attached to tubing that went into the There was an increased in the compounds such as adaptogens, which increase your body’s ability to adapt or counteracting climate change is weak or declining, the first reaction occurs hidunglah ie nasal itching, congestion, runny, sometimes watery eyes. cheap generic cialis So give it time and work out for sometime daily. order viagra levitra Hence, preventing impotence issue generic tadalafil 5mg is possible in some cases. So, take the advice of health experts canadian pharmacy levitra before opting DHEA. bottle. It is supposedly for babies with reflux, so they can eat sitting up. But it is also helpful so that Claire can eat by herself without tipping the bottle back. It just looks really odd but quite handy! But it was great catching up with everyone. We have to do it more often. After dinner, we asked Brandon to give Claire a kiss (we are trying to get him to be gentle to the little ones). He kissed her hand gently, even though he tried to swipe her initially. Then he even kissed her on the cheek! It was so cute. We asked Claire if she wanted to kiss Brandon, but when Claire came in, she meant business – mouth wide open! Brandon used to kiss like he’s from France, but has since toned it down. Thanks to Alexa and Laurie for walking us back and entertaining Brandon. Brandon showed Alexa his “special boy” laugh, then as we drove home, was fast asleep. What a fun night!