Catching up again...

Man, I feel like I have so much to catch up on. Here is a quick little outline to help you follow along:

1. The Old Navy ban

2. Kate's first babysitters

3. Jay's fabulous company Christmas party

4. Day of fun

5. Sunday hilights

Ok, so twas the night before Thanksgiving and all through the Lacy house, blah, blah, blah. Anyway, we had been out shopping and it was late and we were hungry. We stopped to pick-up BBQ, something we never do. We went home, had a great dinner and then Jay had to run out to the store for something, probably formula. Anyway, he came back and said he had lost his Visa checkcard. We closed all of our credit cards a couple of years go trying to get debt free. Well anyway, our check card is EVERYTHING. It is how we pay for probably 95% of our purchases including on-line bill pay. We called Visa and they closed the account, both of them. His and mine. Ugh! We were trying to be extra careful becuase the next day was the busiest shopping day of the year and we actually had money in the bank. So......we went to okc (we had taken out money from the bank before we left) - we had a nice Thanksgiving dinner and planned to go shopping the next day before leaving town. We went through our cash pretty quickly but figured major dept stores stil take checks, right? right. kind of.
Brooke was hanging out with the grandparents while jay, Kate & I shopped. Our first stop was Old Navy. I found some cute CHristmas t-shirts for me and some great outfits for both the girls - actually it was quite a bit of stuff -more than $100 worth. I went to check out and Jay went to change Kate in the car (how lucky am I?). I wrote out my check and the girl asked to see my DL. No big deal. Well, she entered it all in and then said, I am going to have to call THEM. Who is THEM, I wondered. Well whomever THEM is, told her not to take my check. What the hell? I have not bounced a check since college and there was plenty of money in the account. The checkout girl was soooooooo rude. She said, "I am going to need some form of GOOD payment." emphasis on GOOD. I so wanted to shrink up and die! Everyone was looking at me like I was just awful. Well, I panicked and apologized and gave her almost all of my remaining cash. So much for shopping, I guess unlike Shocker VISA check card, my checks are not welcome almost anywhere. She had given me a number to call to find out why my card was rejected. I went and told Jay and he was so mad - he didn't understand either so....we called that number. Want to know why my check was rejected???? The clerk entered in my wrong DL # - she put dashes in which it should not have so it showed invalid ID. AUGH!! I was so mad. Here we are with no gas, very little cash, no "valid" checks and a fun-filled day of shopping, yeah right. Jay marched back in there and was HOT with the manager. Basically, because of their clerks errors, we were embarrassed, etc. The manager apologized and offered to refund our cash and let us write a check. Well we did and when we gave them the new check. Guess what, it was rejected. He called the number and they said, that they can't override the system, once they have had a rejected, with or without cause, it will not accept checks for 24 hours. UGH!!! Jay asked the manager if he would take the check and bypass the system but they wouldn't do it. UGH again. Jay was soooooo mad and so was I. The manager did apologize and gave us two $5.00 gift cards. Sorry this is getting so long I will try and sum up, we called corporate, they were very aplogetic and sent us another $10.00 gift card. We pouted for a while but ended up back at old navy this weekend. Guess what, we picked out some clothes for Kate and when we handed the clerk our gift cards, she said they are not valid, there is no money on them. Are you freakin kidding me?? Believe me baby, the Old Navy ban is back on!!


2 & 3. Jay decided this year his company needed a CHristmas party. So he lobbied and organized and strategized and got one. It was Thursday night. The only thing he didn't manage to arrange was the fact that no children were allowed at the party. :( Luckily, I have a good friend who has been there when Kate was just a twinkle in our eye - she and her daughter agreed to come watch Kate for the night at our house. We were only gone for a couple of hours but it seemed to go really well. They were so sweet and really seemed to have fun playing with her which made me happy. Don't get me wrong, I still called a couple 3 or 4 times but I did it! I don't know why but leaving Kate with someone other than her regular sitter, which I have to do so I can work, just seems different. I have to go to work, I did not have to go to Jay's party. Actually, I did but you know what I mean. It was totally worth it though. They had a white elephant gift exchange and Jay walked away with a box of Kleenex and a can of air freshener. Jay always gets screwed at white elephant/dirty santa gift exhanges. Sometime if you have a couple of hours, ask him about the oil lamps from Christmas at my grandmas house. Heheheh

Oh here is a pic of Kate and her new best friends::

So to make it up to Baby Kate, Jay and I both took Friday off and played. We went shopping and out to lunch and just spent the day as a family. It was great! Here are some pics from that:

This is baby Kate in one of her favorite Christmas outfits - it is so soft and comfy! Thanks aunt Bootsie and Uncle Mouse.

Here is Kate and her mommy hanging out in her room:

and this is us having lunch at Kwan Court.

here is Kate and her daddy at Kwan Court:

and that was our day of fun. On to # 5:

Sunday hilights - not much to say, we went to church this morning where I delivered a dramatic reading. Not sure it was supposed to be dramatic but I was trying to liven the joint up. It went well, I think. After church we ran to World Market for some Holiday Brew - yummy. Basically it's kind of a cider made with cranberry juice. Yummy. SInce then we have been hanging out at home. I am making a traditional Sunday dinner pot roast with carrots and potatoes and a cherry pie for dessert.

I do have a quick funny Kate story. I needed more play time with Kate so we spread out a blanket and got almost all of her toys out of her toy chest in the living room. I got up for a minute to sit on the couch and fold some laundry. Well, little miss Kate started to roll over. She would get 3/4 of the way with no help and then roll back. She was scooting and scooting each time she rolled. Well just out of her reach was her "my First Purse" that Julie had sent her when she was born. She kept part rolling and part scooting over and over until she finally reached the purse. Now, I am not making this up. She slid her arm through the strap so the purse was slung over her shoulder. After that, she rolled flat on her back and went to sleep tightly gripping her purse. Now I took this to mean one of 2 things. Either A. she has already developed my love and obsession for purses or B. she doesn't trust Jay or I and thought we would try and rip off her purse while she was sleeping. What do you think??

It's a short work week this week - just 3 days and then I am off until next Wednesday - WooHOO!!!!!