JC Penney Trickery

I feel duped. Suckered. Embarrassed at my stupidity. All because I'm a cheapskate. And because JC Penney sucks.

Miles had his Christmas pictures taken at JCP a couple of weeks ago. The pictures turned out fine, sort of. However, here's the tale of why we won't go back.

We showed up for our 11:00am appointment a week ago Saturday in good spirits. Despite my worries, Miles ate when he was supposed to, had a nice nap in the car on the way over, was in a pleasant mood, and hadn't managed to puke all over himself. When the elevator doors opened to the Portrait Studio, mass chaos ensued. There were babies crying, kids whining, toddlers darting, parents scolding, all of them dressed in their Sunday best. Reds, greens, reindeer sweaters, and glitter dresses abounded. Why did I think that a Saturday afternoon before Christmas would be any different? Because, I am an idiot...I mean, an optimist.

After I was able to finally flag down the girl to check in, she told us it would be 40 minutes until they would be ready to take Miles' picture. An hour later, we finally made it into the studio for the session. Miles made it through the first round of pictures with a smile on his face, thanks to my obnoxious rendition of the Hokey Pokey behind the photographer. I'm pretty sure the 30 or so people in the waiting room enjoyed my performance too. The hotter the lights got, the less patient Miles became, so we did have a couple shots of him crying and staring off into space in our proofs. Overall, we thought Miles was a super good boy - he ended up coming out of there in a better mood than we did!

That's only the beginning of my complaints with JCP though. I don't have enough creative energy for a continued narrative, so here's the rest of the why-JCP-sucks list:

• It took another 30 minutes for someone to review our proofs with us.
• I knew more about how to "edit" the pictures in the JCP system than the sales clerk did.
• We ordered the package to see the pictures online...our prints came back 4 days before they posted them to the internet!
• The online prices are not the same as the deal we got in the studio. If I want to reorder, it will cost almost SIX times as much for the same sheet of pictures I bought the day of the shoot.
• You cannot use coupon codes on reorders, even the one I got from the survey I filled out about my horrible experience.
  
• The resolution on the pictures online is so bad, you can't even read the type on some of the "enhanced" pictures. Plus, they're so low res I can't print them someplace else.

This is where JCP is sneaky. They outline all of this stuff in the small print and hidden away in their FAQ section. So, I'm the one to blame for ASS-uming that they would honor my coupons, my original price, and that the pictures I bought online would be of high quality.

All of this b.s. is worth it, though, because of this:



And this:



And this:



Sucker.

Return of the Weekend

Now that Jason is finished with marching band, we've been filling our weekends with fun stuff...um, I mean, yeah, not that sitting at marching band contests isn't fun. I'm a bit behind on the blog, so forgive the massive amounts of pictures.

A few weekends ago we had uncharacteristically lovely November weather - in the 70s! We took advantage of this freak occurrence and took a walk on the canal downtown.

Last weekend, Miles and his daddy met me in Louisville. I survived my first night away from him while at a conference in Chicago. I was only away from him for 36 hours, but that was enough! After spending the night with Uncle David & Aunt Hilary, we went down to Grandpa and Granny Kahl's house.

Miles had lots of fun playing with Aunt Ashley's old musical ball. Sorry for cutting off your head, Gran!


We also got to see Aunt Ashley score 6 points at her basketball game! Miles was completely enthralled with watching the girls run up and down the floor. Cripes - first a football addict, now a basketball junkie. Looks like he's ready for a full season of Butler Basketball!


Before it got too dark, we made it outside to take some pictures with the beautiful fall leaves. We just made it - it gets dark around 4:00 in Kentucky!!


On the way home on Sunday, we stopped at Uncle David & Aunt Hilary's house again to watch the Colts/Steelers game. Aunt KK and Uncle Davy came up from Lexington to keep Aunt Hilary company as Steelers fans. Miles was shocked to hear his own relatives liked that team. He almost looks disgusted to be touching such nasty jerseys. At least he puked on Aunt KK's jersey - good boy!


Can I remind everyone that the Colts won? First time in 40 years in Pittsburgh. I think it was this cute touchdown dance (assisted by Uncle David) that gave the Colts the advantage...


Miles moment...cutest boy ever!

Miles Film Festival

I finally figured out how to transfer videos from the camcorder to the computer! It turns out that all I had to do was plug it in, and the software automatically popped up and did everything for me. D'oh! Guess I shouldn't let my fear of new technology get in the way anymore. I won't post everything - sorry, I know you REALLY wanted to watch all 20 minutes of Miles' baptism - but here's plenty to entertain you for awhile...

Scene 1 - Miles leaves the hospital, refusing to go into the real world without a fuss.

Scene 2 - Only a mother for two weeks, Kristin quickly learns not to turn her head for even a second to get the video camera.

Scene 3 - The plot thickens. Enter "Bears"...named Hal, Fannie, and Dagwood by our protagonist.

Scene 4 - Miles' first "tasteful" nude scene.

Scene 5 - The action-packed climax - Miles' first time rolling over.

Scene 6 - Miles vs. First "Solid" Foods. Solid Foods wins the battle, but Miles wins the war.

Scene 7 - El bambino loco. Miles practices rolling his rrrrrrs, either to have a conversation south of the border or to sing Italian arias.

Scene 8 - Final Scene. Miles tames the savage beast.

fin

Skeletons in the Closet

Miles had a great day on Halloween! He started it by carving his first pumpkin with Nana and Papa. OK, so, no, Big C did not give a 4-month old a knife, but Miles had a great time watching Carl's artistry.



After it was finished, Miles posed with Nana and his first jack-o-lantern:



Later that evening, we had some friends over to hang out and help hand out candy to the trick-or-treaters in our neighborhood. Every year, we have about as many kids as you'd see waiting outside a Jonas Brothers tour bus (translation: a helluva lot), so we definitely needed the help. It was supposed to be a costume-optional affair, but the people with the fancy costumes (translation: an actual smoke-breathing dragon) peer-pressured us into dressing up as something. So, our family went with what we could pull off with what was already in our closet. That just happened to be John McCain, Sarah Palin, and the skeletons in their closets.



We were making fun of them? You betcha! Apologies to any GOP readers out there. Many of the parents of trick-or-treaters assumed we were endorsing them, but I held my tongue; even when one little kid said, "Oh, the President!" I guess McCain being president is possible on Halloween...after all, it is a holiday all about make believe! Nevertheless, Keno and Miles humored us by tolerating their costumes for the evening. Miles really had fun watching all of the little kids in their costumes...didn't make a peep the entire night and just stared at each of them.




I still have some fun videos to upload of Miles...stay tuned!

Happy Halloween!

More Halloween pictures and funny videos to come. Have fun trick or treating!

What About Me?

Keno's a bit perturbed that this blog is by "The Kahl Family", but he hasn't had any face time lately, so here's his moment in the sun. He likes to sing along whenever Miles and I are playing the piano, so I finally got it on video. Don't mind the poor musicianship...holding Miles on my lap kind of takes away from the technique of, say, playing with two hands.

So, without further ado..."Keno's Song."

Buzz Buzz

And now, the cutest picture in the world!



Miles cheered his daddy on at his marching band contest on Saturday by dressing up. Don't call him a bee - he's a mighty yellow jacket. Jason's school's mascot is the yellow jackets, so I just couldn't resist when I saw this Halloween costume at Target. He must have brought the Pride of Morristown good luck, because they did so well that they are moving on to Semi-State next weekend! That basically means that, in the small school division, Jason's band is among the Top 20 bands in the state of Indiana. We are so proud of him!!

Miles also got to have a quick visit with Uncle David, Grandpa Bernie, and the three aunties: Hilary, Ashley, and Kari. Here he is with 'Pa.



And showing Uncle David and Aunt Hilary how well he can "stand" and "dance":



On Sunday, Miles got to spend time with his other grandparents, Ron and Misty. Not sure whether he was tired out by playing with Grammy, smiling at Grandpa Ronald's silly faces, or just because the Colts lost...again. It's sad when the Browns have the same record as the Colts.



We lazy parents finally got off our butts Sunday morning and went to the grocery store to buy rice cereal. The doc told us we could start it about 2 weeks ago, but we've been putting it off. Sure, part of it was that we didn't have time to get to the store, but I think I was secretly liking the convenience of not spoon feeding him yet...plus it's just one more step in my baby growing up!

Miles wasn't too excited at first, but he got the hang of it. As of last night, he devoured the whole batch I made up for him! Little piglet. Again, we caught it on video on our camcorder and still haven't taken the time to figure out how to upload. Give us a break - if it took us 2 weeks to find time to go to the grocery store, this could take years! Here's a pic of him later that day, chowing down for solid meal #2.