Customer Service?

I have decided to rant about my latest encounter with non-existent customer service.
O.k., let me set the scene.
It's Friday night and we are all upstairs playing Excite Truck on the Wii. Jordy, by the way, was surprisingly good for not knowing what the heck she was doing. We finally realize that we are hungry (we had fallen into the black hole of video game playing) and decide to order pizza from a new place that opened up. I place my order and right away I'm feeling a problem coming on because the coupon I wanted to use came with an order of bread sticks and I wanted to change out for the cinnamon ones (which a chain competitor lets you do). Well, apparently the computer wont let you make the switch, ok fine- no coupon. Next I order a small pizza for myself with some actual toppings on because after several years of suffering through plain pizza, I've had enough. I ordered their version of a deluxe minus the green peppers and onions, add olives. Nate kindly agreed to go pick up the pizza (still too cheap for delivery) and came home with my pizza with......you guessed it green peppers, onions and no olives. I decide not to let this go like I normally would because let's face it, it's generally not worth the hassle and I'm not opposed to green peppers and onions, usually. However, they were finely minced which didn't at all excite me. So...........I decided to call. This is where I really get peeved. The line is busy for 5 minutes (no exaggerations) then I finally get through and I'm asked to please hold--ok-----6 1/2 minutes later they return to the phone which I have had ample time to work myself into a frenzy. Could I maintain composure at this point? Nope! I said "are you kidding me? you seriously left me on hold for 6 1/2 minutes?" For which the boy replied, "sorry we're really busy right now." I explain the problem and he says that he can give me a discount on my next order. Seriously? Seriously?! I don't want the flippin' pizza with onions and peppers on it to which he replies that they are too busy to deliver me another pizza. What?! Did I ask for you to deliver another pizza? Can you make me a new pizza and I can drive myself over and pick it up? Yea, we can do that, was his reply. So I decided that I would go back over and just try to get my money back because I am fairly certain that at this point they are doing the spit conga on my pizza. Are you still with me? I know this is seriously long. Sorry. Anyway I get there and ask to see the manager, and frankly I shouldn't have expected less ---19 year old (maybe early 20's) said that he was the manager. Seriously! Ok- fine.
I was wondering if I could just get my money back?
Sorry can't do that, I can replace it.
Frankly I'm worried that you spit in it.
Ma'am we would never do that
I know you would "never" do that, still.
I swear we would never do that
ok fine give me the pizza
insert lecture here.......Oh yes I did!
I have to tell you that as a person that has worked in the customer service field their whole life you are totally missing the mark.
First of all you are a pizza joint whose customers call in their orders for which they cannot call in because the line is either busy or you're placed on hold for an obscene amount of time.
2nd, not good problem solving skills when someone has a problem with their order. Come up with solutions not sorries!
3rd when I came in here there were all sorts of employees standing around and no one acknowledged my presence. When a customer comes into your establishment you acknowledge them to let them know you'll be with them. It's a courtesy.
I then closed with how if he wanted customers to come back and tell their friends they had some serious work to do.
The phone rang while my lecture ensued and he had to put that poor sucker on hold while I finished. This is the insane part. Why is the guy at the cash register also answering the phone?

Now, before you think I judged too harshly on one experience it was our 3rd with them and the other 2 were only marginally better than this one. I have spent a major part of my life in customer service and had to kiss some serious customer booty, therefore it is extremely frustrating to get crappy service. They do have some pretty awesome pizza though. For the record I didn't scream my lecture at him and I kept the volume down so I didn't look like too big of a lunatic. The kid just had this dear in the headlights expression on his face and sent me off with a final sorry ---no coupons --no nothin', only my spit riddled pizza. :)

Aloha!!!!!!

I am finally getting around to posting pictures from our recent trip to Maui. It has been hard for me to post the pictures because I hate the way I look in them. My smile is just all messed up from the surgery and I'm beginning to think that I am stuck with it forever. I think I resemble "the Joker" from Batman. All the stitches run along the gum line of my upper lip so my lip is still tight and numb and doesn't quite move like it should. Plus more of my upper teeth are revealed now than I used to have. I've never enjoyed looking at myself in pictures, but this is far more painful. I figure it is better to just rip the band aid off, right--so here they are. Having said all that did ya see the above picture of my Zip line guide?! Let's just say that it was a very enjoyable day! I thought he was pretty hilarious too, but Nate didn't seem to think they was that funny. I guess my judgment was a bit clouded by the view. Nate was sweet enough to take this picture for me so I could remember it always. I can't even remember the guys name he was just fun to look at. Now did ya see the dorky hats they made us wear. They told us they made us wear them for their own enjoyment since a helmet wouldn't do much to save us from a fall off the line. Nice! We got to go on 8 lines that zigzagged down the mountain. This is the halfway point where we stoped for breakfast.

There is a picture of me coming in for a landing. The landing was pretty easy, you just had to start running before you hit the the angled landing and then keep running so you wouldn't end up going backward back out on the line. The guys were there to catch you so it was no big deal although they loved messing with us. One time the guide didn't catch me just to see the expression on my face as I started heading back out on the line. Punks! This poor couple that we were with just couldn't get the concept of how to stay facing forward while you are on the line and came in backwards for their landing every time. All you do is steer with your hand in the opposite direction your body his heading and voila (sp?).

Here I am on my horse, Valentine. She was a very impatient horse which suits my personality. There were only 6 of us on the ride so our guide said we could run if we wanted to, so with all in agreement off we went on one of the stretches of trail. Can I just say holy cow, what a rush! I could not stop from laughing uncontrollably while I was bouncing around in the saddle feeling that any moment was for sure my last moment when I would go flying right off the horse and to my death. You are supposedly supposed to use your legs to grip the saddle so that you don't bounce around so much and get a pretty serious beating in your rear. Obviously this didn't quite work out for me. All my horse wanted to do was run. So we would hang back a bit from the group and then Valentine would take off running. It was a total blast. I could hardly walk the next day, but it was a blast.

I don't know what it is about sea turtles, but I love them. They are just so darn cute. This picture was taken at the aquarium. I did get to see a turtle in the ocean which is far more exciting than spotting one at the aquarium. I almost lost my life trying to get a good look at the one in the ocean. We saw him (all turtles are a him to me) when we were at the place we took the next picture.

We were driving around and went pretty far north this time to a beach with a name that I don't remember. Anyway we stopped along side the road for this awesome lookout and I discovered a muddy little steep trail leading down to this rock in the ocean, so I said let's go! We headed down and it was so amazing down there. This picture didn't capture the huge waves that were crashing on the rock, but they were every minute or so and it was a site to behold. You can see some water behind us on the rock from the waves crashing. When we first got down there we saw black crabs crawling on the black rocks and then in the cove where that kid is standing a turtle was swimming around. You can't tell from the picture but the rock we are standing on is pure mud which is very slippery. We aren't sure what happened, but I fell and about broke my thumb and the camera and almost went off the cliff in the process. This guy and his kid came down to fish while we were there and was kind enough to take this picture for us. I can't remember what he had us say, but it obviously wasn't "cheese".

There you have it. Our trip to Hawaii. I forgot to put a picture of Iao National state park which looked like a rainforest. Oh well, I guess you'll just have to visit either there or here to see it. We had a blast and dream of going back again. It's a pretty spendy little trip though so be sure to bring lots of cash.

And So It Begins.........

This weekend was our Ward's annual Turkey camp out. Now this isn't just some last minute get all the men and boys rounded up and head off to camp for the night. This is the 9th annual Turkey Camp out complete with T-shirts and a schedule that is strictly adhered to. This is one of my families favorite times of year. The boys talk about it and count down the days until the next one while they are at that years camp out. They love camping and especially having Dad all to themselves. Jordyn got really mad that she couldn't go this year. Both of my girls love camping and think that it's not fair that they don't have a daddy daughter camp out as well. Anyway, while the boys are away the girls will play. Us girls equally look forward to this time of year to have our girls weekend. This year we went to dinner at TGI Fridays and to see Mr Magorium's Wonder Emporium. We had about an hour to kill between dinner and when the movie started so we decided to go shopping in one of our favorite stores, Old Navy. While we were in there Emma found and fell in love with a shirt that she wanted me to buy. I was already buying her and Jordyn and Megan (we had my niece along for the fun) a Christmas shirt that they all saw and fell in love with. We decided that since the boys got Turkey Camp out shirts to commemorate their time together that we would get Christmas shirts for the same purpose. Anyway, we were standing in line and Emma decided that she couldn't live without this shirt and that she had money with her and wanted to know if it was ok if she paid for it herself. I said to her "you want this shirt so bad that you are willing to spend your allowance on it?" This has never happened before. My kids always make plans for toys, ipods, video games, candy etc... for their money, never clothes. Luckily my sister-in-law Jenny was there with us or I just might have started crying. And so it begins.......growing up. Wanting to use your own money to buy clothes is the beginning of the end of childhood. Emma happily handed over her hard earned cash and has been proudly wearing and displaying this shirt she just had to have. We also had to go on the hunt for the perfect boots. Her cousin Ally got some cool boots while they were visiting and so we had to find some just like it. The only way I know how to describe them is UGG type boots, only more stylish than that.

Every time Ally comes to visit, Emma seems to grow up just a little bit more. You know how it is when your 10 and you get to hang out with someone who is 15. All the mysteries of being a teenager that seem so far off are on display right in front of you reassuring you that you will in fact be there some day. You actually get to test out living in that world when you have such a nice cousin that is willing to take you along for the ride. Ally gets to do all the things that Emma dreams about, wearing makeup (for real), having cool hair, cool clothes, a cell phone, talking to friends via email (Emma and Ally email each other now) you get to drive a car, read cool books, watch adult movies, talk to boys, freedom, etc.... I was asking my friend Emily who has a soon to be 12 year old daughter what it was like. What do you do with a 12 year old. It's not like you can say go play in your room to a 12 year old. I just can't even believe that Cassandra, Emily's daughter will be in YW with me in December. How freaky is that? I would have had a girl in YW if I hadn't have had a miscarriage. It makes me shudder at the thought. She did say that Cassandra is a bit of a pain in the butt. That in between being a kid and a teenager is a rough stage of life.

Hopefully Angie and Ally had a good time while they were here. I know we had a blast and were so sad to see them go. My energy level has been on the low side lately which was proved to a painful level when I tried to go "running" with Angie. I put running in quotations because that is what we were supposed to be doing, or what Angie was trying to do. I felt like I was going to die and mostly walked and then the next day I could hardly move. I was thinking that it had only been about 3 months since I have exercised, but it has been more like 8 or so since I have actually tried to run. With all the problems with my jaw I had to cut a lot of things out to make sure that I wasn't making things worse by jarring my jaw with exercise. Then add a second surgery in 2 years on my jaw and you get a problem with getting enough energy to do much. So there's my excuse and I'm stickin to it. :)

So, while my daughter is rapidly growing up I am slowly becoming an old lady. The older your own kids get the more you cant deny just how long ago you were a teenager. Trying to run with Ang didn't do anything to help me feel not so old. :)

The House

Well, here it is! This is what my house is going to look like from the outside. I am pretty excited about everything but the 3rd car garage. I'm sure that Angie has plenty to say about it! :) If you look at the picture below you can see that there really isn't much that can be done because there are 2 bedrooms with window and a balcony above the 3rd garage. Anyway the picture above doesn't really show that the front door is recessed and under a fairly large covered area. Below is the side of the house with the garage and the kids bedrooms and the theater and guest bedroom with the bathroom that leads outside. You can also see the balcony from the master bedroom on the right.

Above is the back of the house. You can see the master bedroom with the windows to the tub and toilet on the 2nd level. On the 1st level is the door to the garage, the kitchen nook windows and the slider and window for the family room. You can also see the railing for the princess balcony on the side of the house that leads out of the sitting room in the master.

Below is the left side of the house. You can see the front entry and the balcony for the study. You can also see the courtyard. The princess balcony from the master and the windows in the loft overlook the courtyard area. I think the rest is pretty self explanatory.

So, there it is. This stage of building a house really is more stress than fun. I just have this huge expectation building in my head and I am starting to get a bit freaked out that I wont really like the house. When I went through the 2 story house they just got finished building to look at some ideas for tile work and kitchen space, I got really excited. The guts of the house is more my thing and that's where the true excitement comes for me. I have far more confidence in my abilities to make the inside look good, it's the main structure that I am less confident about. It's just scary being given the opportunity to build exactly what I want ............what exactly do I want? Yikes!

Anyway it's too late and I'm too stressed to be chipper tonight. I have bathrooms waiting for me to clean in the morning so that on the off chance someone wants to look at my house they can. BTW the house is finally listed on realtor.com and on craigslist. Cross your fingers for me that we can sell this house and sell it for a decent price.