Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Nothing's Ever Easy!

After a great start to the day (good run, kids playing happily together, Caleb had a 2.5 hour morning nap!) we headed out after lunch to run some errands. We've settled into a new schedule now - Caleb is down to 2 naps (first one from about 9:30 - 11:30 or so, and then he goes down again after we pick up Josiah from school from 2:30 - 4:00). It's working out very well - it has helped with some of the nap issues we were having with Callie. She (and Jacob on the days that he takes a nap) goes down for her nap after we pick up Josiah as well. We were having all these issues because when I was trying to put her down at noon (so she could have a two hour nap and be awake by 2:15 to pick up Josiah), she wasn't tired. But I couldn't wait until 1 pm -she'd only get an hour nap and be a bear! This new schedule is working out great.

ANYWAYS - we headed out after Caleb got up to do some errands and none of them were quickies. Partially because I have 3 little ones with me and partially because they ALL involved some sort of return or price adjustment or receipt issue. I had 4 stops to go to - and we made it through all of them...but barely!

Stop #1: Walmart. Had to return some plastic eggs that I bought last week. I found the bag in the attic of 200 of them that I thought David had thrown out when we moved (it drives him nuts that I save them). Looked for plates/napkins for Callie's party but struck out.

Stop #2: Target. Got a $3.00 refund because I realized that I had forgotten to give them one of my coupons when I was there on Monday. Returned the first batch of plates/napkins that I got there. Found Easter-y ones that I wanted for Callie's party and bought those instead. Went out to the car, then realized I forgot to ask cashier for a rain check for the eggs that are on sale (99 cents for a dozen!). Put stuff in the car and went back inside with kids. Lady at customer service said I'd have to go over TO the eggs and bring her the sign because she needed a number. No thanks lady - I don't have time for that. I'll just send an email to corporate and complain about their LACK of customer service.

Stop #3: Walgreens. Getting some contact solution that David & I use that was on sale this week and some silly bands for the party this weekend. Kids were SO excited about these - and I was excited to find some Music ones! :) Also got some cream of....soup that was onsale & had a coupon for (made it 29 cents a can). Realized when I got out of the parking lot that they rang up at regular price (1.59) and not the sale price (0.79). SO mad...didn't want to obsess, but knew I had to make another stop to get it fixed.

Stop #4: Publix. Returning 2 boxes of baby cereal (don't like Beech Nut...only like Gerber). Needed to exchange 3 bottles of laundry detergent (I grabbed the regular ones instead of the ones with the "he" symbol on them. Don't want to screw up my lovely washing machine! Customer service gave me the money for the cereal and told me to bring the other detergents to her and she'd swap it out. Went to get my other few things and headed out the car. Put stuff in my trunk and realized I'd never gotten the detergent! Ran BACK inside with the kids and got the detergent and swapped it out at customer service. WHEW. I would have been so mad if I had gotten home and realized it!

Got back in the car and saw that I had 12 minutes before I was supposed to pick up Josiah. Decided to do Stop #5 even though I was going to be pushing it.

Stop #5: Walgreens. Again. Ran in with the kids and my cans of soup and he refunded me the difference in price and apologized for the mess-up. No biggie. Except that Caleb was starving his head off and screaming (which he NEVER does) with big tears rolling down his face, and Callie and Jacob were touching EVERYTHING in sight and driving me nuts.

Sigh. Run back in the car and race over to Josiah's school to collect him - 8 minutes late. thankfully he was still outside with the other few kids whose parents are slackers like me. Good grief. Nothing is ever easy! And I realized that the lady at Target did NOT give me my $0.05 credit for using a reusable bag...oh well. I'm not SO obsessive that I'm going to go in and ask for my nickel! :)

A good day though. Felt good to get all that accomplished, even as crazy as it was. I just ordered my blog books for 2007 and 2008, and am working on 2009 (it was SUCH a doozy of a year that I had to do it in two volumes!!!) :) Hooray!

6 comments:

Jen said...

I've had so many of those days where there is so much to do, and you just can't get them done right the first time. There's nothing I hate more than getting out of the store only to realize I have to go back into the store - kids in tow. Sounds like you made the most of it though! The new schedule sounds great. I can't wait till Megan is a 2 napper and I can actually get out of the house!

Judy said...

Wow...that makes me tired, just reading all of that.
I can't even tell you how thankful I've been to have my parents around so I don't have to take the kids with me on shopping trips! Sooooo thankful! It's so hard to keep everything straight when you're checking out at a store with kids. No wonder you forgot to remind them about your $0.05 credit (although I really do think that they forget on on purpose something). Hey, at least you remembered your reuseable bags. I forget mine half the time!

Annelise & Ethan said...

I also will make stores refund me if they make a mistake. Even if it is just 30 cents. Michaels made a mistake and I realized it right after they rang me up. It was off by 30 cents or so. The lady gave me a look as if I should just forget it instead of her having to redo the transaction. I made her redo it. My friend had bought the same item and been overcharged too but did not want to go through the process for 30 cents!!!

anthonyandbeth said...

i'm exhausted just thinking about all the in and out of the van. thank the Lord you have automatic doors! :)

Courtney said...

did you use blurb?? i can't believe you finished 2 years! i haven't even started on 2009...i don't know when i will!!

jenns said...

you are too much!

remind me to tell you the story about Learning Express and our VBS Silly Bandz order. not sure I ever told you what happened, but now I won't shop there on principle. it's breaking the kids' hearts, but i'm sticking to it.