Dear IKEA,

My sweet IKEA, filled with wonderfully cheap and oh so stylish crap to fill my house and heart, how you have failed me. My love for you has been tarnished, I'm afraid, and who knows when I will have the strength, nay, the patience to return to you again.

It all started so innocently. We wanted some outdoor chair pads - you had said outdoor chair pads. We wanted two - you only had one in the color we wanted. So we bought the one, thinking we'd buy another when more came in. Well, that was before we learned that you won't order more until ALL the colors have been sold out. Lame. So I returned for what should have been a simple procedure: return the one I bought, and buy the blue ones you did have in stock.

The purchasing of the new ones went without a hitch. Unless you count the part where I had to hunt around for them because they were not in the same spot they previously had been in. But I prevailed, and moved on. I loaded them into the car and went back in to the store to return the lone green one previously purchased. That's went everything went all to hell.

I took a number and waited patiently only to be told that I couldn't return it because I didn't have the same card it was purchased with. Even though these debit cards went to the same account, you still wouldn't do the return. I think your policy is very inconvenient to your customers. It was my husband who had made the purchase, but I, his wife, couldn't make the return. It's a stupid policy. Yet, one I can handle. And I would have handled it just fine if I had only waited for the 9 minutes your friendly customer service sign, "We're thinking about you and your time!", told me was the longest I should expect to wait to be helped. But I did not wait a mere 9 minutes, did I, IKEA. Oh no, I did not.
I was told I was screwed after a 40 minute wait.
Here, let me put that in all caps so you can read it better.

FORTY MINUTES. I waited FORTY @*%#!@*%#! MINUTES!!

WITH A TWO YEAR OLD.

The other people waiting may have gotten a bit of a show from me. Your shopping cart may have a new dent in it from being slammed into a large pole, accidentally, of course. And the punk kid you hired to do returns may have had a few choice words thrown at him. And for that one, I apologize. Because those words should have gone to the incompetent airhead of a woman who had been doing the returns, (in between chatting it up with other customers as if we were all being paid by the hour to sit there), very, very slowly by herself and not calling for help until some of us had already been there for 30 minutes. And to the other two employees who merely shook their heads and gave a look of confusion and slight disgust at being interrupted from their chit-chat when the poor woman with 100 little kids waiting next to me dared asked them if there was anyone else who could help. She had been waiting a half hour and her poor son was about to pee his pants. She did not deserve the dirty look those stupid girls gave her behind her back. That's the kind of top notch service you get when you hire teenagers who are only there because their parents told them they'd take their car away if they didn't get off their butts and get a job for the summer. Good call Ikea.

The incompetent airhead kept saying they were short handed. And then the two guys in the back would stand there for awhile taunting us. "Look at us, we have nothing to do and we're not going to help you! Nah nah na nah nah!"

Coolest customer service ever.

In hindsight, I realize the huge mistake I made was buying the new pads before returning the one I had. I was offered store credit for it, and if I had done the return first, I could have taken the store credit and used it to purchase the new ones. I made the mistake of "running in quick to see if they have more and then I can just buy another green one and be done!". But not only did they not have a green one, they only had two blue ones left and that was it, nothing else. I was not going to take the chance of them getting swiped up while I went back out to the car. Clearly, Ikea wanted to teach me that from now on, I am to bring my return in to the store with me first.
Or, that it's run by the devil.

Lessons learned, IKEA. Lessons learned.

High Class Entertainment

This is what I overheard my boys singing as they were getting ready for bed the other night.

"Don't you wish your girlfriend was HOT like me! OH, yeah, Don't you wish your girlfriend was hot like me!"

Repeat ad nauseam.

When I asked where they learned it, they replied, "School!"

Thank you Public School Education System!

Bad Mommy Blogger

Some of you,(Steph) may think I'm a bad blogger for only posting once every 2 months, and you'd probably be right. Especially when you consider all that I haven't blogged about. From my kids school activities to birthdays to holidays, I've seriously failed in my duties as a Mormon Mommy Blogger.

To make up for it, I will make this post EXTRA, EXTRA long. Here's the update:

School is out. The year was great. Ethan had to get used to homework (our last school didn't really "do" homework. It was heaven), and Noah had to get used to getting up and out the door by 7:45 a.m (not so much heaven). And now my 3rd grader will be a 4th grader and my little baby kindergartner will be a 1st grader. *sniff*

Okay, I'm over it now. 2 kids gone for 7 hours a day! WOO WHOO! I can't wait for summer to be over! I mean, I'm so excited for summer to begin, it's just started after all. I'll be so sad for it to end. That's what I meant.

There was definite progress during the year. Just take a look at this. It's a bad picture, but try.



See how his mouth's open? That was him participating. He was singing along with his classmates. Singing. He even did a few of the hand actions.
We've come a long way.

It was Zoo Day in his class and he was a monkey. He made the ears all by himself, minus the wire they were connected to, and was oh so proud of himself. And believe you me, what he lacked in costume, he made up for in spirit.





He really got into it.

These were some of the habitats his class made.





This one below was where Noah the Monkey lived.



I think the kids (with some help of course) did a great job!

Another year end activity was the schools annual 5K Fun Run. Ethan was excited for it, but I think it was a little bit harder than he expected.



My job was to stand on the side lines and yell encouraging words like,
"Step it up Pedersen! You're runnin' like a girl!"
"Come on, let's move it!"
"Your Grandma runs faster than you!"

I don't think he appreciated it.


Dang he's a cute kid.

Noah ran it too. But only when I made him for this picture. The rest of the time him and his friend walked. You might call it lazy. I call it smart.





In other news, Ethan has really enjoyed scouts this year. One of his favorite activities has been the Space Derby. Instead of cars, they made rockets.


The goal was to get it not to the end of the line, but in the middle, I think between 220 and 250.




Ethan got pretty close.
It was hard to film, but I tried.





Did I mention how cute he is?







And this one, well, this one is just busy stealing my heart. (let's hear an ahhh...)





(Did I do it? Is this long enough? Cause I got more. Really, lots, lots more. My life is very interesting. You want me to go on? Cause I can. I will. I'm serious, I could. I mean, don't tempt me. I could go on, and on, and on.....)