Soon I am gonna walk my butt up the street and take a picture of my neighbors house for Jacinda. It used to be her Grandma's house. I have not forgotten, I just always remember around this time of day...dark.

Today was the most frustrating day ever, but it did end up ok.

Our first stop was Walmart where I was returning two things I bought that did not work out to be presents. One of them as an XM radio for Erik that I thought would overjoy him. It did not. He said he is not in the car enough to enjoy it and he does not listen to the radio enough at home to justify the price. He is totally right but I was a little disappointed not to get him a "WOW" present. Everything else he might want is way far out of my (our) budget. So anyway, I bought that and his grandma a CD player to go along with the audio book we got her(it ended up she already had one so we just got her the book). These two items were almost $90 and purchased on Dec 23. I have every other receipt for Christmas in a file and for some reason, THAT high dollar, big item electronics receipt is lost. They returned the CD player but would not refund the XM radio without receipt. I was spitting mad but managed not to show it too much since I had the girls with me. FUMING!!!

We then went to Burger King for a buy one get one free coupon lunch out. 2 whoppers cut in half and 2 orders of chicken fries split and a free soda. $5.81. Four people. ( : OK, that went great.

Next stop was the Public Library to check out a book for coop and check on possibly getting some others as well and a movie or two. IT WAS CLOSED!!! due to PLUMBING problems!! I wanted to scream, "We don't need the potty, just some books!!" Just my luck.

Next stop, the pound. No trace of Buddy and we are now at over 3 weeks. I had lost hope that he was gonna show up and the pound was my last shot at getting my baby back. I miss him so much. To make matters worse, we have not seen Thunder in quite a few days either. He just isn't coming home though. Other people are seeing him every day. He has officially marked us off of his route. This is what happens when you bite the bullet and spend obscene amounts of money to get your dog "fixed" so he won't "roam". He just stays at the local grocery and visits all your neighbors. NO DOGS. Of course, Kayla fell in love with another dog. So did Erika and Lilly and though I tried not to make eye contact, Benji is at the pound. None of the four of us fell in love with the same dog though. WHEW!

Then two other stops to exchange some gifts my girls got for something they might actually use. We thought we knew what store they were from, but we were wrong. Then to Kohl's to return something I got, but it was not a Kohl's item either. So the only thing we had accomplished was Burger King for the 2 hours away from home. I told the girls I was gonna try again at Walmart and refuse to take no for an answer. I just walked up friendly as if I had not already attempted to return it and easy as pie, it was done. The other clerk had CHOSEN to give me a hard time. Two other managers stood right there and said, yes, it is fine as long as it is unopened. GRRRRRRRRRR!!!! Anyway, I was then able to go and get the things I needed at Walmart, replace XM with a shredder, and felt Jovial enough to let the girls spend some of their Christmas money. It was all good.

After checking out we bought Papa Murphy pizzas on sale for $3.99 and came home for an easy supper. My mom was already here to take Kayla to spend the night with her. Erik was thankfully home from work! We all had pizza and life is good. Lilly bought a three drawer organizer for her toys and is SOOOO excited. Yes she is a mini-me!!

Off to play "Sorry" which I have not played in about 15 years. My house is so quiet when Kayla or Lilly are not here. Amazing. Two really is company.