A different weekend...warning, its long!

Here is how our weekend was looking....Ep would fish a tournament on Saturday and Sunday. Kale and I would maybe visit some friends who were tailgating at the Razorback game. We would watch the game from home on pay-per-view.



Here is the how the weekend took shape starting on Friday....

1. Ep's tourament got cancelled. He gets his entry fee back and is now officially qualified to fish the regional tournament at Kentucky Lake (based upon final standings of the circuit).


2. We went to talk to our preferred jeweler and fell in love with a new ring...which turned in to rings. We told him we needed to think about it all and figure out a plan. I have never been one to be too frilly and overwhelmed by jewelry. However, I found a new kind of drunk in that jewelry store. Its called diamond drunk. I looked at the rings on my hand, and looked at Ep and said "I deserve this. I went through FIVE epidural sticks!" I don't even know where that came from...I never say stuff like that! See, diamond drunk!


3. We made plans to just have a fun family weekend....and relax!

So, Saturday morning brought on breakfast by Ep...pancakes. Kale gobbled his up! We got dressed and rolled out of the house for the day. First stop...the elementary school by the interstate...to change a stinky diaper! Yep, we made it all of 3.5 miles before changing a diaper and also his shorts (replaced by a pair of spare pants). Ok, now...whew, one whiney boy later...a good 25 minute nap was taken by Kale on the way to the jewelry store.

At the jewelry store, Ep was able to see the flaws in my original ring. I haven't said much more about it here, because I wasn't sure what avenue we were going to take. But, now that we have made a choice, I am spilling it. Office Depot has said that they weren't liable for what happened in THIER store, in THEIR shopping cart, when I was buying THEIR product. All I did was go in to purchase a printer. I put the printer in the cart. I moved the box and tried to lift it back out of the cart. My hand got hung when my ring snagged on the exposed bolt. My ring broke. End of story.

As for the original jeweler--Stein Diamonds (in California). Their first and only response to me (and I called them immediately after my ring broke) was that I could send it to them and they would see if they could fix it. If they couldn't, then I would just have to buy a new ring. Yep, ok, whatever. Let me send you my ring so you can tell me you can't fix it and I need to buy a new one. Duh. In the following days, I was told by two local jewelers that it could be repaired, but due to the shoddy craftsmanship of the casting (platinum with other unknown alloys), that my ring would continue to break again. So, we realized a new casting was necessary, no matter what. Not cheap! Ugh. However, my diamonds (as itty bitty as they may be--what the guy at Office Depot said about them) hold value!

We thought it over a bit. We slept on it. At most, Stein Diamonds would just set my diamonds in a new casting--at our expense. I really don't trust their work now, so that didn't seem like a good option. Office Depot...long drawn out event and would have to hire a lawyer. Oh yea! At best, they would buy me a new casting. At worse, they would do nothing and we would be out a lot of time and additional money. Since the local jeweler wanted to give us a good price on my diamonds to go toward offsetting the price of the rings we liked, that seemed the most logical.

So, on Saturday morning, we decided to take a yucky situation and make it into something good. I was heartbroken to give up my original ring...the one that Ep slipped on my finger when he finally said "I do" after seven years. But the thing is...I still have his love and I know he loves me more now than he did then. I still have his commitment, which is growing even stronger by the day. So...with that in mind...I gave up my original ring and slipped on not one, not two, but three new rings. Yes, three. To prove that there is a girly feminine streak in me...let me just say...THEY ARE GORGEOUS RINGS! I am a grinning fool. Our families know how much I was grinning when Ep and I got married...my grin is almost that big now! We are going to pinch our pennies and make some sacrifices, but we are both pleased with the decision. As we headed out the door of the jewelry store, the jeweler gave me a hug and said "if you EVER have any problem with those rings, bring them too me and we will get them fixed..." and the thing is...he does that for all his customers. By far, second to none, he has the best customer service that we have experienced in a long time!!!!

So, off we went...diamonds sparkling...to tailgate! It was Kale's first time to tailgate and he had a blast. He wasn't so sure about all the people. He enjoyed being around them, but just wasn't sure about them holding him. Ahhh, our boy is a little clingy...we can live with that! We were tailgating with Ellen and Rena....who throw a fabulous tailgate party by the way! We also discovered that we have denied our son the experience of having his toes in the grass. Our yard is treated...so I have been wary of letting him play much in the grass until he can understand not to eat it! He acted like the grass was going to eat his toes! It was hilarious. Kale enjoyed lunch and a nap...all in the sea of Razorback Red! Kale even got a little sunkissed on his cheeks...so cute! Around 5pm, we headed home to watch the game on PPV....which was much cheaper and EASIER than actually trying to take Kale to the game! We were happy the Hogs pulled out a victory! Then, we turned off the tv and tried to get some sleep.

Try to get sleep was the key phrase. We tried. Kale discovered we had put him in his bed. Oh, such sinners were we! He came to our bed in his daddy's arms...sobbing. He got to stay with us the rest of the night. Kale was not awake at 3am, but we were. And so was the critter who apparently took residence in our attic. Oh, fun. We tried to scare it, but that didn't work. Finally, it decided to call it a night...just in time for Kale to wake up and want a bottle.

Sunday morning dawned way too soon...and we rolled out of the house for church and lunch. Both were great. Kale napped on the way home and was ready to roll (play) while mommy and daddy were hoping for a nap. Kale seemed to think we were crazy for even dreaming that we could take a nap. So, I started cleaning and Ep started on his "list"--which included looking around the attic. I am still not sure if we have any way of keeping our friend outside!

Finally, Kale was ready for a nap. Ep was in high gear...so he kept on grinding away. I laid down with Kale. We snoozed...and snoozed...for over two hours! YEA!!! I woke up to a lawn mower running right under our window. (at least the lawn mower is fixed now!) Kale slept a little longer. The rest of the evening was pretty uneventful. Kale ate dinner and fell asleep with his bottle in the middle of the living room floor. I carried him to bed. In a bit, he will wake up and realize he has been put in his crib...and we will get to hear all about it! Ep went to bed about an hour ago, but was only able to catch about 30 minutes of sleep before I woke him up to ask "what the heck the thing crawling up our hallway was....seriously, is THAT a centipede in our hallway? Where did it come from?" and that all came out in one long breath...all Ep could manager was to look at me with one and a half eyes open and tell me to get the sweeper thing and put it outside. Um no. I put it in a glass...and put another glass upside down inside that. Then I put it in a ziploc....at which point Ep kind of snorted at me and headed down the hall back to bed. I put the ziploc outside...so if that stupid thing managed to escape two glasses and a ziploc...well, it deserves to live.

We are calling our bug man in the morning...critters in the attic on one night, followed by a centipede the next...we better get put at the top of the list!!!!

Ok...thats it...that was our weekend. I will post some pictures soon. Brrr, its freezing in this house...time to go to bed!!!