House of Brides Revisited

I have to touch on a topic that I have already discussed previously. I have already voiced a major complaint about House of Brides, but I must revisit the topic once again.

First let me say that the customer service at House of Brides is far from service. We ordered dresses from them in April, for a wedding scheduled on September 12th. Just before we ordered them, we found out I was pregnant. They told us our options were to buy a different dress or just as easily order 2 yards of chiffon fabric and they will do the alterations. They never stated that it would be additional to the flat rate of alterations ($80). So we opted for orderiing the extra fabric. Then, they ordered the dresses in the wrong color, and did not contact anyone to let them know. They simply shipped them back to the company that they ordered them from. The bride happened to call and check on the dresses to see if they were in, and only then was she told that they had ordered them wrong and that they had to re-order them. That left us with four weeks to get alterations done. So we took our dresses to someone else to see if they could be altered by them. The said they couldn't do anything because House of Brides did not order the liner that was needed to fix the dress. So we spent a week leaving messages with the alterations department at House of Brides to have the dress looked at. Fast forward to today, a mere 13 days prior to the wedding. The alterations department finally calls and tells me to come in at 10 today with the dress so they can look at it. Its fixable, but it will be $125. Plus they tried to claim that we never paid for the additional fabric, so they wanted to charge us an additional $50 or so bucks for the fabric, which has been paid for once already. We can't prove it though, because they did the order over the phone and never sent us the receipt they were supposed to send. So the bride, once before already had to pull her credit card statement to show that she paid for the fabric. So after some discussion about all the problems, the manager finally shows up to talk to us. (We'd been there for an hour and half already.) She can't seem to come up with any way to remedy the situation. She wants to know why didn't just order a bigger dress and have it taken in. That was never given as an option to us. So finally she tells us the $125 is a discounted alterations rate, and its the lowest she can go. Plus its due up front, and in cash! Has anyone ever heard of alterations being paid for before they were made? And in cash?! So the groom is with us, and he starts asking some simple questions about receipts and orders, and the manager says, I am done answering your questions. You need to leave. So he asks her another question, and she has an associate call 911 to have him escorted out of the store, but before the police can arrive, we exit the building, dress and fabric in hand. The police then go into the store and we are told by him that they no longer want us as customers, and that they refuse to do our alterations. The wedding is in 13 days! So now I am on a mission this afternoon to find a maternity dress that needs no alterations. Most of the bridesmaids have already had their dresses done, all but one I think. So our solution is to just go get me a different dress and leave it at that. However, I am so discouraged by the service there, that I want to do everything I can to make sure that no one I know gives them any business. I think I am a little in shock as to how they have handled everything. I could understand if the groom had yelled or threatened anyone, but he merely asked some questions, and now they are completely refusing services. I will be reporting this to the BBB.

What does my heart break for?

I'm trying to figure out where God is leading me. I think of the words from the song Hosanna:

Heal my heart and make it clean
Open up my eyes to the things unseen
Show me how to love like you have loved me

Break my heart from what breaks yours
Everything I am for your kingdoms cause
As I go from earth in
Eternity

I don't know what God wants me to do, but I know he wants me to get more involved. Its a struggle for me. Being pregnant and having a small child, makes it difficult to figure out my place. I don't feel completely whole unless I am serving in some way, but I can't figure out where God wants me. I want my heart to break for the same things God's hear breaks for. I want everything I do to be for the purpose of helping people find God. I want to love people. I just don't know where my talents and passions are. Thats one thing I've always struggled with in my life. I have never found my true passion, besides loving God. I have never found that ONE thing that I do better than the rest. My heart breaks for many things. Where to start though?

Lifes little dilemmas hit you in a big way

So, I am taking a moment to vent on the horrible, terrible, no good service at House of Brides. I begin with the fact that I am in a wedding in September. The 12th to be exact. We ordered the dresses about a month before we found out I was pregnant with number two. So we called them in the nick of time. They told us we had two options, which were both easy. Either come in and try on the maternity dresses and pick one out, and they would exchange the first one for that one no problem. Or we could order additional fabric and have the dress altered. I figured, being the lazy person that I am that we would just order the fabric. Enter mid July, dresses come in, in the WRONG color. They have to be shipped back and re-ordered. Thus they are. We receive them last week. That puts us at about 5 weeks pre-wedding. I pick up the dress today and head to the tailor that will alter it, along with the designated fabric. She begins to fit me and realizes they have only ordered fabric for the sheer layer of the dress, and not for the liner. Thus, alterations cannot be done on this dress. Dilemma? Now we have two choices, go back to incompetent HOB and see if they can order the liner, leaving a very short period of time to get major alterations done on a dress, with major costs for the alterations as well, or try to get them to take the dress back and still exchange it for a maternity version that we will have to buy directly off the rack in order to have enough time for alterations to be done. I thought David's Bridal was bad when I got married, but clearly, HOB is worse. Do I have time for all their crap? I would say no! :)

Something about being pregnant and the fall. . .

So something about being pregnant, and something about fall, always makes me nostalgic. Here are some things I keep thinking about that take me back to being a kid, and are comforting. I thought all would be food related, but I found a few that weren't.

1. Fall makes me want to bake. Being pregnant makes me want to eat. These two things go hand in hand, and they make me happy. I can't wait to bake some delicious treats for Jeremy, Maggie, Baby K 2 and myself. (Perhaps I'll even share with those outside my home, that live nearby.)

2. School supplies. I love the smell of them. I love the look of them. I love the feel of them. I'm fighting buying things I don't need, but doing well so far.

3. I am craving candy that I ate as a child. There is nothing I want more than a pack of Cherry Cola Now 'and Laters, but I will have to settle for some random flavor I can buy at Walmart. I used to be able to go to this little store and pick from 50 different flavors, ten cents a pack. I had a little brown paper bag I would fill with about 5 dollars worth, and I would eat them one after the other. I also ate sour patch candy, which I truly adore. Razzles were also a real favorite, as well as Chiclets.

4. Fall makes me think of my mom, as we both celebrate our birthdays in the fall. Something about fall makes me think of mom! In a happy sort of way!

5. Fall makes me want to go shoe shopping! For me and for Maggie. Luckily, she shares my love of shoes, and begins taking off her current pair on site of the shoe aisles at any store. She is always ready to try on a new pair! Thank you God!

6. Crock pot cooking. This is not something that my mom did much of, however, my aunts and my grandmother have thoroughly impressed the ease and comfort of a slow cooked meal that requires little effort on my part. There is something about the smell when you walk in the house at the end of the day, knowing dinner is already ready already! ( I have some good crockpot recipes if you want them!)


These are a few of my nostalgic fall thoughts. If you have any great baking recipes or crock pot ideas, feel free to post them as comments. I would love to try them and share them with others!

Olympic Fever

I can't help it. This is one area where my patriotism shines through, and I cheer for the USA. The OLYMPICS! They are finally here, and I am pumped! I've only been able to watch a little bit so far, but I can't wait to watch Phelps win his gold medals in swimming. I am hopeful for women's basketball. There is so much to be excited about.

The opening ceremonies were seriously a ceremonies to remember. It was intense, vivid, intimidating, and beautiful all at the same time. It was truly awe-inspiring. I hope that everyone can join in the Olympic spirit and cheer for their countries!. I can't wait to watch gymnastics!

Good times, great storms

So last night was a rough night for weather. We had some friends over for dinner, and the electricty went out just as we finished eating. It was fun spending some time electronics free with good friends. We had candles lit and just talked and laughed and goofed around. There is nothing like neighbor to neighbor morse code, or disco flashlight dance parties. Granted the electricty was off until almost 3am, leaving us roasting in a fan free, ac free house. We also got to wake up to the sound of the air kicking back on, and then stay awake to listen to our daughter play with toys, as she must have woken up to the fan, ac, and night light coming back on all at once. But I love storms. I didn't realize that there were tornado warnings because we didn't have the tv or internet to check the weather, but there were no sirens so there were no worries right? It was a good time and a GREAT strom.