Why NOT to go by yourself to the emergency room

Cat's out of the bag with that title. We went the emergency room at the children's hospital last night. Ben has croup. It really wasn't too bad a visit -- about three hours from my front door back to my front door. Hopefully, we won't have to go back, but they said croup is common with babies who were intubated.

Really the worst part was being there alone, and the ONLY reason that was so bad was that I had the taste of garlic in my mouth from Alli's Tastefully Simple part that I went to and I wanted a drink SOOOOO bad, but there was no one to help me get one. I couldn't leave Ben in the room, but I couldn't take him and have no one be there when the doctor came. Plus, I only had a 20, or I would've gotten a drink on the way in.

Anyway, that was our exciting night. Got home at 2am. Am now appropriately tired.

To be [honest] or not to be [a savvy shopper], that is the question.

Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous store return policies or to return items without full disclosure and get back more than you paid for them.

1) I returned an item to Wal-mart which I had originally bought on clearance at Target. Target has very stringent return policies and I did not have a receipt, so I thought I'd try Wal-mart. Before I knew what was happening, the Wal-mart customer service clerk had given me double the amount I paid for the item at Target.

2) I bought some shirts at JCPenney with a coupon for $10 off, but had to exchange one of them. On my way in, the clerk checked the price on the shirt and told me I could pick out something for the same price as the price tag on the shirt I was returning. When I got back up to the counter with my exchange, she asked if I had a receipt, which I first lied and said no and then said I did (acting, of course, like I'd forgotten). After looking at my receipt she informed me that I could only exchange for an item half the cost of the price tag on the original item, because of my coupon, which in effect meant I lost the coupon discount when I exchanged for the new shirt.

This frustrates me: I want to get the most for my money, but I also want to please the Lord. I'm thankful that he convicted me while I was at the counter at JCPenney, so I didn't have to go back to the store and show them my receipt at a later date, because I knew I'd done wrong.

What would you do?

Greg is off.

Greg is off today and tomorrow. It's so nice because we get to spend some time together. Tonight, we actually ate dinner at the table, and then, once the kids were asleep we had a little time without TV, just went outside. That was nice.

Next Monday is Greg's birthday. He will be off! We are either going to Atlanta, or having people over to our house here for dinner. I'm trying to decide what to do. Any suggestions?

I love my kids. They're cute!

"It"

Vanilla Coke is back! Alli guessed correctly. I bought her one, but since she didn't want it, I was forced to drink it myself =).

"It"

This is a piece of "it". Another hint: it's not something personal. Anyone could get it.