My American Girl Doll store experience

This weekend was the Grand Opening of American Girl Place in Denver. The link I just put there says that the wait to get into the store was 3 hours long... ummm not QUITE! The article also estimates the crowd in the hundreds... I don't think that's very accurate either.

My friend planned to get to the store at 4am to wait. I wasn't quite that "gung-ho" so we planned to be at the store at 5am instead. We wanted to get there early because the first 100 girls in the store would get a gift bag.

I woke up at 3:50am and took my shower. Darly had set her alarm clock, so I knew she would be up soon.

Since I knew my friend was already supposed to be there, I sent an email to her iphone account and waited to see how it was going. She let me know that there were already more than 100 people in line. YIKES!

Well seeing as we were NOT going to get a gift bag, it seemed like a good idea to just wait at home where it was warm instead of going to the store and waiting in the snow storm (YES, it was 30 degrees and snowing out at that hour). So when Darly got up I let her know how we didn't get there early enough for the gift bag.

She agreed that warm was better but asked if her friend would let her know what was in the gift bag...and of course she would (she blogs too!)

So we left the house at 7:45 (which annoyed Darly) and at last check in with my friend who was freezing her butt off in the cold there were already over 1000 folks waiting with her.

When we arrived at the mall and found parking, we walked toward the store. I could already see that the line of folks extended past the section of the mall that included the store. Hopefully I'll be able to use the Mall's directory to show you just how bad the line was.

I soon located a mall security person and asked where the end of the line was. He pointed in the general direction and told me that there would be another security person over there that I could ask. We found the second security person and he directed us to the end of the line. The end was in front of the Eddie Bauer store which is where the B is on the map. The time was 8:15am. The store wasn't supposed to open until 9am.

I called my friend to see if she had any info because I knew that the store couldn't possibly hold more than a hundred or so folks. She let me know that they were told the number was 130. sigh...we were in for a wait.

so after the store actually opened we moved from the second curve in front of Eddie Bauer to the first curve.

It was so much fun to watch other families arrive and the shock on their face to see how long the line actually was. Darly & I had not gone to the front of the line so we didn't know how much snakeing there was by the front but I knew it had to be pretty bad. When we got there they were just adding the "cow ropes" to the section we were waiting in...I don't believe that the mall had any idea just how many folks were going to show up for this. Starbucks was doing VERY WELL that morning.

I think it was about 10:30 when we got to the part of the line that was close enough to the bathrooms that we risked taking turns with the family ahead of us and going to the bathroom...to warm up a bit and of course go potty.

When we finally got to the section of line that is in the actual Vistas section of the mall we figured that we were finally getting down to the end. LOL, not quite.

It was almost 1:30 pm by the time we got into the store. Yup, that's right...we waited for 5 hours to get into the store. But since we had come all that way and waited all that time Darly deserved more than just the book mark that she was able to make...so I allowed her to get some stuff for her dolls (which stayed home for this trip, they can come next time!) She picked out some cute stuff and we headed to lunch.

As we were leaving we ran into a mom and her daughter in the parking lot that had just then arrived. I guess they were hoping to avoid the crowd. LOL! They asked how long the wait was...I told them we had waited 5 hours and I expected that the line now was at least 3 hours long. Mom didn't want to wait, daughter was heart broken.

speaking of heart broken... we saw more than one fit as a child was disappointed that her parents were not willing to wait that long.

Darly has pledged her undying love for me for sticking with it. She STILL owes me a clean bedroom though.

email

Just sharing a bit of my morning. We picked this house because it was close enough to the base that DH could get to and from work easily, but it was far enough away that we would avoid "MOST" of the air traffic. However, some days...
-----Original Message-----
> From: RENEE > Sent: Tuesday, March 23, 2010 9:04 AM
> To: DH@work
> Subject: why so close?

> Hi Dear,
> why are the jets flying so close to the house this morning? Or do you know?
>
> Love
> Renee
---------------------------
To: renee
Date: Tue, 23 Mar 2010 10:12:27 -0500
Subject: RE: why so close?
>

> Hi Dear, Don't know. Commercial or Military?
I can speculate...they are probably avoiding weather.
Going around the weather. If they are flying visual, they are avoiding clouds.

>

> Love,

> DH
-----Original Message-----

it sounded like a military jet, but I didn't bother to look.
It was fast, so I'm thinking military.
ah low clouds probably explains it.
tell them to fly above the clouds next time please. ;o)
they wake folks trying to sleep here.



Love

Renee
-------------------------
Yah,I can't believe they are so rude. With these weather conditions (humidity, clouds, moisture, etc.) the sound travels better, so it can appear louder too.

Love,
DH

Daily Mile

Hey did you notice the new Widget on my blog?  It's right over there <--  it's my Daily Mile.  I'm hoping that this thing helps me to stay motivated...cuz I really really really need to fit in my old summer clothes.  It has been quite the bummer that my old clothes are getting too snug and so I want to do something to help me loose some inches.


So far I haven't seen any difference.  In fact I found that when I tried to wear some of my new bigger jeans they were too tight!  YIKES!  this isn't good.

So my goal is to do something each day.  I have a buddy who will go out walking with me.  So hopefully at least 2 times per week we'll head out there and clock in at least 4 miles of walking.  I may also drag my hubby with me to get in another walk on the weekend.

Right now our biggest detterent is the weather, which is why I've been taking advantage of our elliptical trainer.  When I walk outside it takes me longer to do 4 miles, but outside has hills and stuff.  The elliptical only takes me about 30 min to do...but when I get to that point right now I'm bushed.  So I guess that's a good thing.  Hopefully I'll work my way up again to do the elliptical longer and clock in more miles and then be able to add more mileage to my outdoor walks too.

WHAT A CROCK!

I don't exactly remember when I first noticed the messages running across the top of my TV screen at the top of each hour, but I've been seeing for a while now that my cable company is going to upgrade it's system to all digital and I may not get my TV channels unless I contact them.

So today I finally went online to see what all the hub bub is about.  And low & behold it's much ado about nothing!  See we only have cable TV because without it you don't get TV here at all!  This is the first home we've had where we actually paid for cable.  We don't believe in paying for TV...especially since "isn't that what advertising is for?"  I remember the days when the cable channels didn't have ANY ads on them...because we paid for them.  Where did that go???  HUH???

So to that end we only have the very cheapest, and basic cable package.  When we first signed up for it, the cost was only $13 per month.  It has now risen to $17ish.  And we are happy with what we get, just not with paying for it.  But alas we cannot do without TV so we pay.

Back to the notice on my TV.  It turns out that only customers who have the Expanded Basic cable have to worry.  They will loose their extra channels if they don't order the adapter box.

This company has been nagging, annoying and trying to scare us into buying more expensive cable since we first signed up for it.  And I know for a lot of people these tactics work because I know someone who ordered the more expensive package.  I think this is wrong!  Especially when they go after folks who really should be spending the money that they have on more important things...like perhaps the electricity to run the TV.  sigh

Bible reading

no wait! You'll get a giggle out of this one!

http://www.lolcatbible.com/index.php?title=Main_Page

Trust me!

oh and you might want your kittehs to NOT read Genesis 6!

Forgiven!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3F9z54g30Eo

I wanted to embed the video but it isn't available yet. But this is a really cool song. The "video" is just a slide show, so unless you would like to learn the lyrics, I would just open up another window to look at something while you listen to it.

Smoking rant!

okay all you smokers out there... I'm about to tear into you and if you don't like it...I'm not sorry about it.

I'm really sick of you all! (that includes you too mom! actually double for you!)

I just don't get it. It costs a lot of money to smoke. You're not allowed to smoke inside any buildings. You stink, it makes you sick and could kill you. Yet you do it anyway. If you buy a car and smoke in it, you've lowered it's value for if you want to resell it. If you buy a house and smoke in it, you've just either lowered it's value or totally cut your buyer population by a huge number. If you have children, you're making them sick too...even if you don't smoke around them because the smoke is in your clothes.

Every time you drive down the road and toss a butt out you earn the scorn of every non-smoker on the road. A friend of mine told me that once her car's fan sucked up the lit butt of a cigarette that someone from the car in front of her had tossed out and it was blown into her car! But of course the smoker never knew that! Tossed butts can also end up flying into open windows on other cars. If I'm stopped at a red light your second hand smoke will enter my car. But you don't care!

Note to my mother... YOU HAVE COPD! This WAS caused by your smoking! Your chronic bronchitis and pneumonia WERE caused by smoking. This WILL kill YOU! However, if you stopped smoking your lungs would heal and you would have a better quality of life for what you have left. Who knows, you might even get well enough to start working again and get off disability. You wouldn't be stuck at home all day bored out of your head. I know that you don't care if you die early from this, but did you really want to be stuck at the house bored out of your mind all day??? REALLY??? In case you haven't noticed, your kids do care if you die early from this.

I do realize this is an addiction. There are many many ways to stop smoking out there. But you have to stop because you want to. What does it take to make you want to?

Coffee! Coffee! Coffee! Coffee! Coffee! :D

Now that I have your attention ;o) Hummm do I have mine?

My good friend Marsi and I were just chatting last night about getting some coffee together on Monday. And now that I think about it, we just grabbed a coffee and went antique shopping on Saturday. It seems that sometimes our lives just revolve around when we’ll get our next coffee fix. Honestly, I think for me it’s an appreciation for the flavor of the coffee more than an actual addiction to the caffeine. I don’t drink nearly as much as I hear that most of my friends do. (okay, maybe that’s a fib!)

When it comes to what makes a good cup of coffee, I’m sure we all have our different opinions. I know there are many out there who just love a good cup from that one coffee place (you know the one I’m talking about!) but honestly, for me I prefer to make up my coffee at home. I make it just how I like it and I don’t have to continue monkeying around with it.

The folks over at © The Coffee Growers Federation of Colombia - 100% Colombian Coffee – 2010 know what it takes to make a great cup of coffee. You can’t make a great cup of coffee unless you start with great beans! I guess that’s why there are so many brands of coffee that are 100% Colombian!
By visiting www.whatsbehindthebest.com, you'll have the opportunity to learn about the philosophy behind 100% Colombian Coffee and enter to win great prizes. The grand prize is $10,000! There are also weekly prizes of 100% Colombian Coffee…YUM!

The small print… In exchange for this post I was entered to win a supply of 100% Colombian Coffee and the $100 American Express gift card from The Coffee Growers Federation of Colombia and Mom Select.

If you are interested in participating in future MomSelect sponsored events and programs, register at MomSelect.com

Sorry, sorry, sorry

I know I've been a bad blogger. I've been reading blogs but I haven't posted anything.

Excuses, yeah, I've got lots...but you don't want to hear that. right?

Those of you who follow my rants blog know that I haven't been ranting about anything either. and that's a good thing, I haven't had much to vent about at all...things have been going rather well since the funeral.

DH's health is doing really well. The docs are still worried about him getting blood clots, but his last sonogram showed no clots at all (although the tech wasn't supposed to tell dh that.) The docs still have him on blood thinners though, but at least I don't have to give him any shots (speaking of, I should call the pharmacy and let them know we don't need the shots!) LOL

Darly is doing well. We haven't reached the halfway point to her goal for selling Girl Scout cookies and I don't think that we will, but that's okay. We had a lot of obstacles this year for cookie selling. We weren't here for initial order taking so many of our neighbors bought from someone else. We switched Churches so our main buyers weren't available to us anymore, and it was very cold out to try to hit up new neighbors. We have a cookie booth this weekend, so perhaps we make up for it then.

She is still doing well in gymnastics...although I see that her desire isn't quite there...she really wanted to be on TEAM and there aren't any TEAM opportunities for her right now. I'm a bit miffed...I asked about her getting on TEAM and they told us not until June, but then the next class to try to get the girls to behave they told them that if they wanted to be on TEAM they had to listen to their coaches. Darly always behaves. So it was a speech for the others. But it makes it seem as if the only reason she isn't on team is because of the behavior. poor kid I should ask about USAG. She really needs to be pushed again.

I've been running around (when I'm not playing games on facebook) doing Girl Scouts, homeschooling and Church stuff.

Yesterday our Church met for the first time in one of our member's homes. They have a really large home with a HUGE basement that they aren't using. The space is awesome and with a bit of tweaking will make a great worship space. I've offered to help with the financial tracking, so I've been bringing my computer with me...yesterday it decided to be a spaz I think that DH messed up my battery on it. ugh.

hummm that's about all I know to tell you.