Customer Service

This is more of a rant blog, than a picture/brag about Ruth blog. Why does customer service have to be so crappy at the NEX over here? I am not sure either; but let me start with my day.

I go to the store this morning with two intentions. One-To get Ruths hair cut and...Two-To return a toy she got for her birthday that she already has. So she falls asleep in the car and so I do my shopping first while she is sleeping and the haircut later. I go to the toy section and find a similar toy for her for 7 dollars more than the one I am returning. I go pay for it and then look at my receipt..sure enough they charged me 12 dollars more. I go back to customer service and she won't even come look at the label she just says "Well I will call toys to tell you why its different." So the toys lady says, "It is a different product or something and the price is 27.99 not 22.99 as marked." Well too bad right? I mean how obvious can it be? The shelf says "Leapfrog Word Whammer 22.99" and the name of the toy is the..yup you guessed it...the Leapfrog Word Whammer. No confusion for me...only for the toy clerk. So then I stand and argue with her that i want my 5 dollars back as she insists she can't do that. So then I get the manager of the toy department and he argues with me that the toy department forgot to put up the new prices since everything just got "marked up"...I didn't think they can do that but let me continue. FINALLY after 30 minutes of arguing he says "OK" and I get my 5 dollars back.

Ruth is still sleeping so I swing by the furniture department to check on full mattresses. You see...I have been needing a full mattress and box spring for quite a while now. I ordered and recieved a transhipment of new bedroom furniture for Ruth (took 2 months) all while the NEX was still waiting for mattresses. 2 and a half months after I begin asking for mattresses and boxsprings is today...the lucky day...they tell me they indeed have mattresses and boxsprings! YAY! SSSOOO I buy them and head on my way to get Ruths hair cut before going to the warehouse to pick up the long awaited mattress and boxspring. I get her haircut, head to the warehouse. NO ONE is willing to help me out and ask what I need. I stand there for 20 minutes...all the while I notice they overcharged me 20 bucks on the mattress!!! Here we go again. I get in the car drive down to the NEX and go to customer service AGAIN. Fight AGAIN about the price mismarked and get my 20 bucks back. Maybe I am stubborn but 5 bucks is 5 bucks and 20 bucks is a lot on a one person income. So then I head BACK to the warehouse. Finally they decide to help me out....this entailed them informing me that they never did get the boxsprings in. HHMMM. So lets see here. They tie the mattress to my roof all the while telling me that it is stupid to do that and it is not going to make it to my house. Only because they want their 65 dollar delivery fee. DUH....NO I have a luggage rack that will do just fine for 6 miles of back roads. So now I have to go BACK to customer service...with a mattress in a box strapped to my roof. I get my money back for the boxspring and still cannot use the mattress anyhow because there are no boxsprings. Almost 3 hours after arriving to the store I get to come home with a mattress. I get it out of the box...it is a one sided mattress. What is this? I have never seen a one sided mattress. I contemplated the idea of it being the boxspring but sure enough..it is the mattress. I call in and ask them to explain how this could be for 250 bucks...a one sided mattress. I get told, "Maybe its the box spring because I know that we got the boxsprings in and not the mattresses." He goes to the warehouse and looks and calls me back and says, "This is the new generation of mattresses...one sided." My next move probably was not the best. I started screaming that is stupid BS and I will make sure to bring his mattress back to him and get my money. I looked online... sure enough mattresses are now being made one sided so you no longer have to flip them. OOOPPSS. So I called my ol friend Pipo at the furniture department and appologized for cussing him out. Now...I just want my boxspring!!! Which do they have them?? The furniture department says the do the warehouse says they don't. A new shipment comes in tomorrow...maybe I will finally get the boxspring on that shipment. Who knows. Ruth has had her big girl furniture FOREVER and the dresser drawers were made wrong and do not fit in the dresser...waiting on those to come in the mail. Her bed has been waiting for a month now to have a mattress AND a boxspring and we haven't gotten there yet. When it finally gets completed I will snap a few pictures of the completion of the process and post them here. In the states this would be so much easier....


AHH let me add...my batteries for my camera have not been charged in a while and I NEED to get on the ball with that so for now...no new pics. SORRY :(

Birthday Party number 2!

We had Ruth's birthday party last weekend, but I am just getting around to posting pictures. The kids had a blast and we had a total of 24 kids in attendance! Thank goodness it wasn't at my house! All the children were dressed for the affair in Luau gear but not only that...many of the parents were in their get up too! Her luau turned out awesome so take a look!


We had a pull string pinata that was a flip flop and a surfboard pinata for batting at. The kids had a blast collecting all of the candy! By the way I should say that Robert and I made the pinatas ourselves with a collective total of 16 hours of work on them! Only for them to be smashed to smitherines...









Daddy is trying to help Ruth pick up some of that candy!
Her flip flop cake. Both of the cakes turned out great.

The cake table with the pinatas and the surfboard and flip flop cakes and dec it up with pineapples, cocunuts, and hibiscus flowers was my favorite part.

Ruth licking icing off of her finger. She stuck her finger in before anyone else had a chance for a piece.

Ruth attends a CDH home

Ruth has been going to a Child Development Home for about a month now and seems to love it. I get a lot of homework done and even get my cleaning and errands run before she comes home. Mandy, her daycare provider runs her daycare out of her home with her son who is 4 months younger than Ruth and a baby that is 9 months old. She loves helping take care of the baby and playing with Landon all day. Mandy does a lot of craft time for the kids and makes things fun. In these pictures that I will leave you with Landon and Ruth are making their own lunch...PIZZA! What fun.

First the sauce Then the best part...the cheese

Pepperoni..

LETS EAT!

The "new" hammock from Brazil

Daddy bought this hammock before I was even in existence and it has never been out of the bag! Can you believe that? All my life my Daddy was hiding the best thing ever! It is such a shame because I LLLOOOVVVEEE this thing. Daddy said he bought it in Brazil...I don't know where that is and I sure don't care as long as I can swing in it!

Potty training doesn't stop me from stompin around in my red boots!

Ruth is potty training and is doing very well. She hasn't worn a diaper for 2 weeks now and is doing great! Rare accidents occur but that will probably be expected for a while. Since she hasn't mastered pulling her undies down yet she mostly runs around naked when in the house so she can go at last second when she needs to. The funniest thing is when I put on her favorite show. She has a show that sings a song that goes something like this "Stompin around in my red boots, just stompin around in my...red boots." She called it her "Stomp Stomp Show" and while demanding it gets into the hall closet and digs out her red rain boots to wear just like the kids in the show. Her naky booty is just so cute with her boots on stomping in the living room!

"two-ball"

One of the many presents from her birthday at grammy's was a new pink and purple t-ball set. She calls it her "two-ball" because it comes with 2 balls. She yells frequently throughout the afternoon, "I wanna two-ball mommy!" She is actually very very good at it which makes Daddy so proud.

Sigonella Elementary Carnival

A few weeks ago we went to the carnival on base hosted by the elementary school. Ruth had a blast and although we do not have any pictures at the carnival we have some "after" pictures at home. She played the dime toss and won believe it or not! She won sidewalk chalk and she thought it was great to be able to draw on EVERYTHING outside. She sat very still and proud to have her face painted like a kitty cat too!

Ruth is 2 in Italy too!

We haven't had a large birthday party yet in Italy but one is coming this weekend. On her birthday she got a new barbie 4-wheeler that she absolutely loves! She had to go to daycare in the morning but she came home to a new toy from mommy and daddy that she loves riding to the park everyday on. Mommy and Daddy also got her a bedroom set but it did not make it by her birthday. It made it to Italy in time but its currently getting cleared by customs. We will post pictures when it is all here. For now...here is video of her toy from mommy and daddy.

Mommy made her chocolate cupcakes to eat for her afternoon snack when she got home from daycare since it was her birthday. Yes...she is licking the icing off of her arm!

After dinner we took her to our favorite Gelateria and had her favorite Chocolate ice cream at the look out point in Motta on the main road. We sat and watched the "vvrrooommm vrrrooomms" and then"caaas" aka the mopeds and cars and commented everytime one past. Then we walked down to the candy vendor on the street for some swedish fish. Boy do you think she was high on sugar for her birthday?
Here is the video of Ruth riding away for the first time! She was scared at first but after a while she jumped on and took off!

Ruth is 2!!!

Ruth is 2! She had the privelage of having a birthday party with Grammy and Pappy in the states. Grammy hosted an awesome Tinkerbell party that was a blast!

Openning gifts was so much fun and I got everything I ever could think of! Including this loud barbie guitar that Mommy and Daddy can't stand! Thank you so much Uncle Tommy and Grammy!

Weis's did an awesome job on the tinkerbell cake and it was delicious too!

Vacation to Citta Del Mare

After leaving Pennsylvania we had the wonderful of Dean and Katrina coming out with us. They had a great visit and we enjoyed them being here so much. While they were here we took them to our favorite resort for 4 days. Here are some pictures of Dean and Katrinas visit at Citta Del Mare with us...







The beautiful view from our hotel balcony.

This is the best family picture we have had in a while. I am proud of this one :)

Ruth loved chasing the balls down the miniature golf course and digging them out of the hole.

Spaghetti dinner at the resort. Scary right? The scariest part was that she was served an adult portion of spaghetti and she cleaned the plate! In Ruth's words "mmmmm......Buono!" (Good in Italian)

Daddy and Ruth playing in the Med

Ruth was burrying Dean in the sand

Ruth loves her Uncle Dean so much!

Dean and Katrina's Wedding

Of course it has been a long time since we have made a post. Actually somewhere around 2 months. I do appologize for anyone who does check. Life has been very busy with many travels but now that we have settled in we have many updates, pictures, and even a video to share. Enjoy!

In May we made the venture to states again, only this time with Robert in tow. We headed to Pennsylvania for Dean (Roberts brother)'s wedding. Ruth was the flower girl in which 5 year old Derek pulled her down the aisle in a wagon. It was perfect and she did great!

Nothing like eating gummies and saying cheese at the same time!

Ruth and her uncle Dean. This picture is perfect considering that Uncle Dean in her hero.