A Mellow Brick Road...: Partly a Girl's Day Out and a Boy's Day In

Well, it's 10:21 p.m. I have a car full of household items needing to be brought in and put away, I haven't eaten all day, and I don't know where to start hee/hee.

Well, let’s start with... today was just as busy if not busier than yesterday. Bodhi, first thing this morning you started your day with Ms. Connie, for speech therapy. You were a little shy acting, however, you named all the body parts Ms. Connie asked you to name (by pointing, not by talking huh!), and you made all the animal sounds. Ms. Connie was highly impressed, and she was also impressed at your problem solving skills when playing with some puzzles and different shape blocks that you had to match up. You are so smart Bodhi! :)

After naps, the plan was for Mommy, and the two of you, Bodhi and Jude, to meet up with the Federspill girls (Amanda, Mia, and Ava) to paint ceramic pieces. However, Daddy showed up, so Jude, you stayed and played with Daddy. Bodhi, you had such a fantastic time. You were happy, sweet toward me and the girls, and you interacted well with both Mia and Ava. You are a totally different child around Mia and Ava. There was no fussing, you shared, and you just plain had a great time!!! It was your first time painting and you were a natural, well, besides when you tried eating the paint. You painted a ceramic frog blue and green. When you were finished, Mommy painted your name on the frog's back, and the date on the frog's belly. Mommy is excited to see the finished product once it's fired in the kiln. After our painting adventure, we all walked over to Big Ben's coffee shop, Mommy and Amanda had a coffee, and all you girls had a small bowl of ice-cream. Bodhi, you have maybe eaten ice-cream 3 times in your little life span, so this was a major treat for you. Mommy picked blueberry cone for you, as Amanda highly recommended it, and plus, you LOVE fruit. After eating your ice-cream, Bodhi, you are the youngest but the first to finish hee/hee, you all played with one another, and Mommy was amazed you all entertained yourselves in a coffee shop.

Jude, Mommy nursed you when Bodhi and I arrived home, and then Mommy took you shopping at Target to purchase our monthly baby and household products, to the tune of $270.00 dollars worth. This took forever!!! You however, besides fussing when Mommy had to remove her finger from your mouth, were an absolute angel!!! Mommy even got you laughing so loud, people were ewww'ing and awww'ing left and right. Then came the check-out, ugggh! Mommy took you, Jude, and our items home only to turn right back to go back to the store. I left you with Daddy for this next process.

Long story short; Mommy applied for a Target Debit card over a month ago, which deducts from your checking account but also gives you an instant 5% off discount, their machine couldn't read my bank's checks so I had to send it in the mail and didn't get my card instantly as they advertised. I've missed out on several discounts (despite minimizing my shopping at Target until my card arrived), but tonight I wanted my discount since at no fault of my own, I hadn't received my card. I HAD to get these items; I couldn't put it off any longer. Well, Management refused to give me my discount and told me I would have to return all my merchandise when my card did arrive and then re-purchase everything to get the discount. Well, my card had come in the mail today while we were away, so Mommy drove right back to the store and returned all $270.00 dollars’ worth of merchandise for a $15.00 discount, at closing time, since tomorrow nothing I bought would be on sale. This took another hour of Mommy's time! Lesson #1: people do not use common sense and bureaucracies suck, and you will have to learn to deal with both!! Lesson #2: If you don't like the way something is/don't just complain, offer up a solution! Mommy's last boss, Angela Smith Grossman, preached this, and it's a good lesson! Mommy suggested that they need to give customers that happen to bank with First Farmers a temporary 5% off discount card to use until their card arrives in the mail, especially since you won't be turned down, but they could care less. However, they may care more with the extra two hours of work they have to do first thing tomorrow morning because of this ridiculous process. AND, Mommy discovered through this process, when someone returns food to Target, they have to throw it away... WHAT A WASTE! They didn't throw Mommy's away since I was re-purchasing it. If they had, Mommy wouldn't have done it and walked out, never to shop there again. AND THAT'S REALLY THE SHORT VERSION, HUH!

Anyway, today was a fun day for the two of you and that's all that really matters to Mommy! :)

Ms. Mia painting her frog ;)

Ms. Ava painting her Carebear ;)

Ms. Bodhi painting for the 1st time ever!

Bodhi, before the Federspills arrived, you kept pointing and "ooooh'ing" at the frog, so Mommy picked the frog for you to paint. I was going to pick something functional, but you obviously loved it :)