Sometimes it's time to put your purse on the counter and lift up your uzi...

If I were a violent person...and didn't care about killing people or going to jail...

I spoke to two emotionally numb warehouse employees of Houston Bel Furniture on Monday. (I can understand that you have to keep a distance when you're in customer care. You can't fall all over and give away the farm but I do expect to be treated as a human being, have people take responsibilty for their mistakes, say I'm sorry and compensate. NOTE: I DID NOT say OVER-compensate....but enough has to be friggin' enough sometimes. I not only want their farm but their horses, chickens and cows too.) The pick-up guy said Claudia, the Warehouse Manager, would not be in until 1:00 p.m. but that he would personally hand deliver a written message to her when she got in. Being a fair, I think fair, person, I wanted to give her a little bit of time to settle in, thus the 2:00 p.m. allowance I gave her to call me back...When 2:00 p.m. came and went, I proceeded to call incessently. Of course, no one answered at any extension. The only person who picks up is the delivery guy and he doesn't want to give me his name. Oh WELL, what can I do? Anyhow, so I'm calling between the hours of 2:00 p.m.-5:18 p.m. and only get a slew of voicemails. Dont' get me wrong, I leave some but they just don't return calls. I still hadn't gotten phone calls from when I left last week.... Finally the warehouse dude picks up at 5:18 p.m. and I can't help but get a little nasty. He told me that Claudia actually didn't come in at all. I told him I wanted to talk to some supervisor NOW. He patched me through to Julie, the customer service manager that I had left 3 voicemails for. She tells me, I can have that delivered to your house on Wednesday. They will give you a 4 hr window. I told her that they had wasted enoguh of my time and enough of my employer's time and that I needed a smaller window and an evening delivery. She said ok. I then corrected the telephone numbers they had on file for us, AGAIN.

Carl called me on his lunch break and told me that he had a voice message from the delivery guy that told him he would be at our house between noon and 4:00 p.m. If we were not there, they would not drop off the furniture and we would need to reschedule. ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!?! I have told them to change the phone numbers to the umptieth time and the time that they call, the have the audacity to tell me, they won't deliver my furniture because it's our fault we didn't answer the phone number they weren't supposed to CALL!? OMG.

So the phone dialing continues as I try to get a hold of, aybe, a more intelligent moron... Again with the voicemails. I get a hold of the pick-up guy. He's probably sick of hearing me but i can't help it. I'm in tears at this point. He goes to find Julie. Julie promises to call the delivery guy and see if he can call me with a 30 minute window. As I have stated, they had the wrong telephone number in the system. So when she asks to look it up in the system by the phone number, she can't find it under the right number, the wrong number OR my number. I don't have any comments on that. I have yet to hear back from this "amazing" individual....

OH YEAH. Carl also told me while he was on his lunch break that when he went into work today, he found that someone had stolen his tool box and all of his tools. (Estimated 4 years collected value at about $12,000.)

Is this day over yet?

If you want something done right, you gotta do it yourself?

They only problem is, they don't let unauthorized (pregnant) people in the BEL Furniture warehouse.

So here I am completely perturbed at this sight in my daughter's unfinished nursery.



It all started with the salesman 2 saturdays ago that was so proud of his 5 "Million Dollar Sale Plaques" on the wall to care what we felt about the furniture. As you all know, I'm rather opinionated so his pushy attitude would have been called out upon if I needed time to research this bedroom set. Fortunately for him, I knew what I wanted and I knew what I wanted to pay for it. They honored the price from a prior 2 week ad which brought the price from $3600 (without mattresses) to $1407 with 2 twin pillow-top mattress so I was feeling ok. I started to get irritated when he wanted us to sign for our order without showing us the mattresses. He finally slowed down when I told him that I wasn't going to sign and he wasn't leaving our side until he physically walked us to the mattress section and showed me what we were ordering. Turns out the original trundle mattress he tried to sell us for $50 less than the pillowtop could make my stuffed Teddy Ruxpin stiff. We ended up ordering two pillow-tops.

The order clerks at the store location told me the order would be at the warehouse at the end of the week so I had to take about an hour and a half off work early to get through the downtown Friday rush hour traffic. I called twice to verify that they had the order because let's face it, that drive doesn't appeal to ANYONE, let alone a 7 1/2 month pregnant woman. The lady at the pick up window told me my wait would be approximately 45 mintues. I waited almost 2 hrs!! 6 people were able to pick up their orders before me. 2 that were waiting prior to my arrival and 4 after I had already sat down. When she did finally call me to the window she told me that their inventory was wrong and they only had a full sized bed, which would cost me about $1,000 in upgrades. To order a new twin set would be impossible and the only option I had was to go get the floor model from the store. She explained that they order from overseas and that they had to order in large quantities/full container shipments and even if they decided to recarry the merchandise in stock it would take anywhere from 1-2 years to deliver. Carl asked for some sort of reimbursement for the trouble and she said the only thing she could do was offer free delivery, set up and "I'm sorry". So, he went to the store and a manager was able to get one ordered for us. Why is it that the store manager was able to get one ordered from another warehouse but the WAREHOUSE MANAGER couldn't?? Beats the snot out of me.

The delivery was set for Saturday (An entire week later), so I called to verify the order and the phone numbers on the order. Of course the number that the jack rabbit saleman wrote down was wrong. I should've double checked everything he wrote down but he was so busy trying to get rid of us to get to the next Million Dollar Plaque, I didn't even notice. At 11am the warehouse manager (Said, oh yeah, I remember you, the pregnant woman right?) told me that my order was being loaded and I would get a phone call with a window of delivery. (Approx. 4 hrs) That call never came. My delivery guys finally showed up at 9:30pm. The phone number on the delivery was incorrect, as was my order. The twin canopy came with a full-sized trundle that wouldn't fit under the bed. 2 correct posts for the bed came. along with 2 king sized bed posts. The driver told me that he would turn in the paperwork but to also call sutomer service Monday morning.

I have called for the past 4 hrs. When I finally got through, the CSR told me he'd patch me through to the customer service manager, which disconnected after being on hold for 5 minutes. I called again and on the 8th time of hanging up on voicemails, he told me that the warehouse manager wouldn't be in until 1pm. I called the store manager (at 11:02am) and she said she just "spoke with the warehouse manager" and she would call me shortly. Seems to me that they're all a bunch of sorries trying to cover each other's tracks. I felt like telling that "Store manager" that the last time I checked, Claudia, the warehouse manager, wouldn't be in until 1:00 pm.

I don't recommend to purchase from them unless you have a lot of patience and time on your hands. Roslynne will probably be born before everything gets here. I only regret taking part of the order and not getting a full refund.

If I don't get a call back by 2:00 p.m. the sage will continue. They're only going to wish a bunch of blood-thirsty ravaged vampires were coming from Forks to save them. @#$&^(#@(_&#@*)$&@($@&)(&$@)*expletive.

The End.

Shopping for Lil' Roz...

I told my friend Monica, Carl called our daughter Little Rozi. She laughed and said, "Ima get her a grill."

That was so funny. We figured she'd get a lot of nicknames. Probably Rozi, Roz, and my mom doesn't pronounce R's too well. They come out sounding like L's. For instance, I'm Los or Lote. I don't think I've ever heard her say Z. It sounds like See. Anyhow, my mom will either give her a nickname or even call her Lynne.

Regardless, we went shopping for a bedroom set for her room last weekend. I wasn't feeling very well so I forgot to take pictures. I know. I must have been feeling REALLY down and out right? I will take pictures once we get it. :)

Today we ordered a little something from amazon.com. I use Swagbucks as my search engine and have accumulated $30 in Amazon gift certificates so it went towards this lovely Bassinet :) We are getting so excited to buy fun things! Apple also painted Roslynne's room so pictures of that to come too!

That's what I'm doing these days...

6:30 am - Test blood sugar
8:00 am - Eat brekfast (1 starch, 2 meats)
10:00 am - Test blood sugar
10:30 am - Eat Snack ( 1 Meat, 1 starch)
12:00 pm - Eat Lunch (3 meats, 2 starch, 1 fruit, 2 vegetables, 2 fats, 1 milk)
2:00 pm - Test Blood Sugar
3:30 pm - Eat snack (1 Meat, 1 starch)
7:00 pm - Eat Dinner(3 meats, 2 starch, 1 fruit, 2 vegetables, 2 fats, 1 milk)
9:00 pm - Test blood sugar
9:30 pm - Eat snack (1 meat, 1 starch)

So as you can see, my day basically consists of testing and eating with the gestational diabetes diagnosis. I'm sure that I will soon get used to it but the shock is not wearing off easily. They say you go through 5 stages of grief after finding out. For the love of food, I go through all 5 stages everytime I walk into the grocery store. LOL.

It's not too bad. I just have to remember that it's for Roslynne's health and overall, mine too. That keeps me going. But SERIOUSLY? This schedule does not leave me much time for anything else.

Thus far, Blue Bunny Sweet Freedom Fudge Bar Lites are my new summertime favorite. It's so stinkin' hot in Texas that's its the perfect guilt-free chocolate something every pregnant woman is entitled too. I recently bought Russell Stover's Sugar Free Pecan Candies but I eat them. I'm allowed 78g of fat per day and I just can't bring myself to give into a 12g temptation....

Interesting things that happened today...

It started out a good day. I woke up this morning in pretty good spirits. I took my BS and it turned out lower than yester morning's fast BS. I don't know if that s a good thing but I think so...and I realized that I have a very round belly. I'm starting to feel a little sad that now I'm slowly phasing out of the stage one greving process about the Gestational Diabetes, I'm starting to embrace my little baby growing inside me more each day.

I took a little picture to remind myself of the Buddha Belly this morning...



After getting ready for work, it was time to take a little me time and what better place to do it, other than Walgreens? I was able to nab these items for $0.49, not to mention a $3 mail-in rebate for the Cortisone, $2.50 in Register Rewards and a Coupon for a free package of Always Ultra Thin Maxi Pads. That's like walking away $7.01 richer!



While getting ready to eat my Pepperidge Farms 7 grain Light Bread, toasted with a smidge of light margarine and a Tbsp of peanut butter....I took one bite to have my lips reject breakfast in it's entirety. Yep. That's my breaky on the floor next to my foot. Blah.



Yes, I was sad. It ruined my meal plan since I only packed 2 slices of bread. One for Breakfast and one for a half sandwich for lunch....

Take two on breakfast. No bread for lunch... So I had to improvise. I ended up shredding the lettuce, Cutting the roast beef, tossed in some sliced cucumbers and drizzled with Vietnamese Dressing (Nuoc Mam Chay).



For dessert: Jello Pudding snack! I'm so thankful for Splenda and a meal plan that allows it! Have you ever noticed that you can never get the last bit out? I'm hoping everyone will leave the office so i can lick the cup but if there's an audience I may be charged with indecent exposure....



Last but not least...as a request from my good friend Amie...a humorous montage of my epic undergarments....



HAPPY FRIDAY!!

Roslynne Marie Brauning in 4D

Hey pretty girl!

After an adventurous morning, we made it to Expectations Ultrasound and got to see your little face....cute little hands and giant feet. LOL. You weren't extremely happy about being woken up at 4:00 p.m. so you continued to hide your face for about 50 minutes into the hour season. The technician was awfully nice and continued to try to help you move your hand since we actually only paid for 45 minutes. Your heart beat was at 146 but mommy forgot to ask them how much you were weighing in, so we will find out in two short weeks.

Can't wait to meet you!

Love, Momma

(Click on the picture to get to the photo album)