June 29th

Hi it’s Christina –

Good Morning! Yesterday we were up early (summertime early, not real life early) and out of the house. Lys needed to be at work for nine, so Dani and I dropped her off and…ready for this?... headed to the mall. That’s right, I voluntarily went to the mall.

We got there around 9:20, which I thought was good, because I thought they opened at 9:30. I could swear, when I worked there, we opened at 9:30. I was wrong. They open at 10:00. Now I’m at a mall, with a fifteen year old who was woken up five hours early on a summer Saturday, and all the stores are still closed. Yikes!

I suggest we walk to the furthest store from where we are, to kill a little time. (My idea was to start at the furthest store and work our way back to where the car was parked.) Anyway, five minutes later, we get to the opposite end of the mall, and lo and behold, Vera Bradley’s door was open. They were having a huge sale, so I wanted to stop in and see if I could find anything.


As if I wouldn’t. I got their Grand Traveler, a huge weekender bag, which will be perfect for my trip to Dallas in August. It was available only in a few select colors, and in my opinion Venetian Paisley was the least annoying, but $120 bag for $60, I wasn’t going to be too picky. I also picked up two cosmetic bag trios – one to give as a gift, and a towel. The towel was free with a $100 purchase, so it and the other cosmetic bag trio, Dani is putting away to give to me for Christmas. Not bad, I get three Vera Bradly bags in my pattern (petal paisley) and a towel in my pattern, for $20. I think Dani will get the bargain of the season award this Christmas.


After we were done at Vera Bradley, we still had fifteen minutes left before all the other stores opened, so Dani ran our purchases back to the car so we didn’t have to carry them around the mall while we shopped. When she got back, we hit Bath and Bodyworks, swapped out a lotion Lys got as a gift for a scent she actually liked, and I picked up some stocking stuffers – they were having a buy three, get three free sale. Then we were finally able to get to the stores Dani wanted to go to. 

She did some damage in Forever 21 and Love Culture. Dani got some shorts, a bathing suit, some really cute tops, and a hat that says “Selfie” on it. She was a happy camper. We then bid ado to the mall, and made a quick stop at Barnes & Nobel to pick up her summer reading book. They had three of the books on the suggested list, and of those three, Dani chose The Alchemist, by Paulo Coelho, not because the story actually interested her, but because it was the shortest of the three books. 

The child absolutely hates to read, which I find sad. I’m hoping, like what happened to her sister, one day she’ll find a book which sparks her interest, and she will begin to see what she has been missing. I guess to each her own, but I couldn’t imagine not reading. 

Even though The Alchemist was not on my “must read” list, because it’s the one Dani chose, it is now. I have read every single book each of my children has had assigned to them for summer reading, so I really don’t have a choice. The story seems interesting, so hopefully it won’t be too painful. A few years back, Lys was assigned that “cups of tea” book, and I was pulling my hair out trying to get through it. I never could understand what all the hype was over that book.

On our way out the door, we spotted a sign for iced drinks, and I asked her if she wanted one. You know, a peace offering after making her pick a summer reading book. I went over to the café section of B&N and ordered us two Mocha Cookie Crumble Frappuccinoes. Oh my word! I am not a Starbuck’s fan. I think their coffee tastes burnt, but these were YUMMY! I’m sure they contain about a zillion calories, so I need to limit myself to one a month, and only during the hot months.

When we got back home, I wanted to take a nap because I knew we were going to have a late night, and I still wasn’t feeling 100%. Just as I dozed off, Dani knocks on my door and tells me Lys needs to be picked up from work. They weren’t supposed to be done until four. This is the second day this has happened to me.

On Friday, she was supposed to be there until nine. I wasn’t feeling well, so I went and laid down. I was probably asleep for no more than fifteen minutes when Dani woke me up and said I needed to pick up Lys. It was 4:15. Not only was I feeling crummy and was now foggy from an interrupted nap, I had to deal with Friday rush hour traffic. Let’s just say, I wasn’t good company on Friday evening.

So, I go and get Lys, and then when we get home, I try again to take a nap. It didn’t work. After lying there for twenty minutes, I gave up. There wasn’t enough time before we had to leave to finish making the jelly I started on Friday, so I just chilled for a little while in front of the idiot box.

Last night, we all went to the town’s fireworks display. I had planned on sharing some photos with you, but for some reason, my phone is refusing to send them to my email. The fireworks were great, they even had a few I had never seen before which was cool. I bumped into a few folks I haven’t had the chance to see in a while, so that was great as well.

All in all, it was a lovely evening, but when I got home, I realized I never made the bed after I had stripped it. So there I am, at ten thirty at night, wrestling with sheets and pillowcases. Thankfully, my hubby is the one who puts the sheets on the bed because, with my back, I can’t lift the mattress from the bed to get the sheets in place properly. (Our bed used to be a waterbed, but now we have a regular mattress, which sits in the old waterbed frame, and I can’t lift it out of the frame to tuck the sheet under the corners.)

We finally get the bed made. I fall in, get comfortable, then realize I forgot to do something. So I drag my butt back out of bed, finish what I needed to do – five minutes before the midnight deadline, and then crawl back into bed. I was completely exhausted, but wouldn’t you know it, I tossed and turned for at least an hour before I finally fell asleep. I really hate when that happens!

Okay, I have rambled on for long enough, so we will do the writing challenge tomorrow instead. I hope you have a super day, and happy writing!

January 12th

Hi, it’s Christina –

Good Morning! Yesterday, Dani and two of her friends wanted to go to the mall; so, because I needed to exchange a few gifts, I agreed to take them, even though I usually avoid the mall at all costs. Yes, I will admit, I am not your average female. I hate going to the mall. There are way too many people, and a majority of those people, for reasons I cannot fathom, are in a bad mood. Unfortunately, like yesterday, at times, the mall is unavoidable.

I said goodbye to the girls and went off in my own direction. I get to the first store, am waited on by a very sweet woman, accomplish what I set out to do with no muss or fuss, and leave the store with my new purchases feeling positive. One task accomplished, one to go.

Next I'm off to one of the cornerstone stores to exchange the vest my husband’s customer gave him for one in a larger size. I head to the men’s department, and it is an absolute zoo. My positive feeling begins to fade. Since the line at the register is at least ten deep, I circulate through the department to try and locate another vest in the hope of being able to simply do an even exchange and save some time. Not only can I not find a vest in his size, I cannot locate the section which houses the brand of vest at all.

On a sigh, I trudge back to the line at the register and wait my turn. After fifteen minutes, it was my turn. I hand the lady the vest, tell her it was a gift and I need it in a bigger size. She punches it into her computer and tells me there is one left in the store. Yeah! Where is it? She has no clue. What? How can you not know where the IZOD section of YOUR department is? I’m sorry, but when I worked retail I knew where every – yes, I am not kidding – every piece of merchandise was in MY department, plus the general area where things were kept in most of the other departments.

So now the lady has the vest, and I have to leave the line and go hunting…again. My luck wasn’t any better the second time around, so I go back to the register. The lady click, click, clicks again, then says when the computer shows one, it usually means there really isn’t any left. Seriously? You couldn’t have told me that fifteen minutes ago? But, she could check and see if there are any in the distribution center. OK, good, that’s fine, ship it to my house. There are none available in the color I have. OK, no big deal, we can pick another color.

“Black?”

“Sorry, no.”

“Navy?”

“None of those available either.”

“How about you tell me what colors ARE available in my husband’s size?”

“Sorry, the computer doesn’t work like that, but I can try.”

ARE YOU KIDDING ME? WHAT WINGNUT CAME UP WITH THAT PROGRAM??

“Neon Orange?”

“No, I don’t think my husband would appreciate looking like an Oompa Loompa.”

“Red?”

“Yeah, a giant tomato isn’t much better.”

“Charcoal?”

“YES! Charcoal would be fine.”

“Very good. Just to confirm we are ordering a 2X vest in red and…”

“NO NOT RED, Charcoal.”

“Oh, I’m very sorry, let me start over…”

At this point, I am trying very hard not to scream, but I just smile and give the lady all of the shipping information.

Then she says, “that will be $19.95.”

ARE YOU KIDDING ME? "It’s not my fault your store doesn’t have the item in stock, why should I be charged to have it shipped?"

“There’s a shipping fee for all items under $50.”

“The original price of the item is well over $50.”

“I’m sorry, the item is now on sale and is less than $50.”

The heck with it, I’m done. "Just give me a credit and my husband can come back himself and pick something."

“The credit will be $23.95.”

“On a $98 vest? Forget it. Just give me the vest back. It will be easier to get him to lose ten pounds so the dang thing fits better.”

Now I’m twitching. I shove the vest back into the bag and start to leave, but then I think to myself – no this isn’t right, and this surly was not the policy when I was a manager in this store – so I head to where customer service used to be. Well, it’s not there anymore, but I did find a manager – Jen – and explained to her what happened. She said, “No big deal, I’ll override the shipping and return the item for you.” She had to get another associate to actually ring the transaction so she could do the override, but she got everything done. So my husband’s new vest is being delivered to the house, and somehow I ended up with a $7 credit on a gift card to boot.

So, can you see why I avoid the mall? For the most part, this is par for the course whenever I go there.

I had such a headache by the time I got home, I popped two aspirin and went to lay down for a little while before I had to make dinner. Guess what? I didn’t wake up until one in the morning! I went to the bathroom, got a drink and then went back to bed. I can’t remember the last time that happened. I guess the body gets to the point when it has had enough and then simply shuts down. I have been running full steam for the past several weeks, and have not been sleeping a whole heck of a lot. Well, after thirteen hours of sleep, I cannot say I’m not well rested!

This was another really long blog, so we’ll do the writing challenge tomorrow. I wish you all a wonderful day & happy writing!

January 2nd

Hi, it’s Christina –

Good morning! So for the past two days I have been telling you about this marketing event I have been involved in. It has been amazing. I have boosted my Facebook exposure by over 50% and I have met some pretty neat folks in the process. Now I’m looking forward to the event being over so I can go back and poke around all the new pages and get to know these new authors.

Having to cook and maneuver in my mother’s small kitchen last night made me REALLY appreciate my kitchen. It’s not huge, but it is a nice size – second largest room in my house, but I have a 48 year old ranch so that’s not saying too much. The limited amount of space definitely contributed to dinner getting on the table at seven instead of six, which was something we didn’t need last night. I found out on NYE that my darling daughter had a paper she needed to write over the winter break and she hadn’t finished it yet. She just had some final touches to add and polish it up, but it wasn’t done and the hour delay didn’t help the situation. I felt bad having to eat and run last night, but what could we do? Dani needed to get her homework done before school today.

So today, before the blizzard hits, we are headed up to the mall (YUCK) so Lys can exchange a few things, then we are off to Costco so my mom can pick up all the supplies for the New Year’s breakfast at church on Sunday. I’m a little bummed that I won’t be able to attend the breakfast this year because I will be driving Lys back to college. I’m usually in the kitchen with several other ladies preparing the feast. We have such a blast when we’re all together – it’s usually a very silly and enjoyable morning even though we are all slaving away at hot stoves.

I just realized the time, so I have to run. My mom is going to be here in a few minutes. I don’t even have time to do the writing challenge, so you are getting a one day reprieve. Chat with you tomorrow. I hope you have a fabulous day, and happy writing!