Saturday, January 15, 2011

birthday mayhem

It is Madeline's 10th birthday today! YAY!!!  Before she went to bed last night she said, "Say good bye to the 9s!" then she proceeded to ask us what time we were getting up so she would know how long she would have to wait to open her presents. What a goon.


I woke up at 8:45 this morning, wished Madeline a Happy Birthday!, and she ripped into her gifts. She was a tad spoiled this year.


 The gifts...


 A book by Julie Andrews (one of her favorite famous people)


Eli with some crazy bed head. I couldn't resist.   


Queen of Hearts bag she wanted plus some really cool Alice movie pins. 


 Alice on blu-ray. 


 Not believing she got a DS. She has been saving her money for months for one. We decided to surprise her. 
 A very happy girl. 


Alice in Wonderland DS game from her brother. 
Plus she got a competition swimsuit, a pair of jeggings, and a really cool army green jacket that is military-esque. It is really cute. I can't believe I didn't get a picture of it.  Although if you click the last few pics to make them huge then you can see it on the back of the couch. 


She wanted to go to Texas Roadhouse for lunch. No problem! We had a DELICIOUS meal. I love steak. I love it a lot. I could eat it every day. Yum. We got our bill. Chad handed the waiter (who was a little weird) his debit card. It came back declined. What?!?! We don't have any other credit cards. We have lived credit card free for over 3 years. If there wasn't money in the bank (which we knew there was) then we didn't know what to do. Chad handed the waiter his HSA (Health Savings Account) credit card to see if it would work....I know. Hilarious, but we were panicking and not thinking clearly. Chad got on the internet via his phone and checked our bank balance. There was more than enough money to cover our lunch...that doesn't make sense...what is that crazy charge at a Wal-Mart in Connecticut?...WHAT?!?!  There was a random charge for $220 for Wal-Mart! WHAT?!? But why wouldn't Chad's card work when there was more than enough money? Hmmm....we explained to the waiter what was going on and he let us go to a bank to get cash out. Chad's card was declined at the ATM. Mine wasn't. We took out all the cash of our checking in case someone was going nuts using Chad's debit card number. We went back to Texas Roadhouse and paid our bill. Oy vey! What a disaster!

It is very weird to feel violated that way. Someone stole our number and was charging it up! I have no doubts that we will recover that money. But the feeling is a tad creepy. Chad called the Wal-Mart in question and talked to the manager who is going to investigate and get back to us tomorrow. We will contact our bank on Monday and get it all worked out. Madeline was a bit perturbed that all of this happened on her birthday and made a comment that we will always remember her 10th birthday because of this craziness. I hope that isn't all we remember!!

We spent the rest of the day hanging out and getting more stuff done for Madeline's party tomorrow. We are sure to have a great time with all of our family! I can't wait to show you all that we did to decorate!! Stay tuned...

3 comments:

Iowa Sunshine said...

your daughter looks sooooo super-excited!!!! looks like the alice theme was a hit, too. julie andrews is my favorite -- need to get that book :)

i'm B. said...

multiple thoughts...
-LOVE the alice bag, movie, game, etc. oddly enough, piper's favorite movie right now is alice in wonderland. i was pretty sure it was a little too...mature for her, but she loves it. we need to plan an alice date!
-jeggings and olive green jacket? um...APPROVE!
-eli's crazy hair? love.
-a few years ago i left my debit card on the checkout at target. it was picked up by the WRONG person. a $300 purchase at taret and a $250 purchase at walmart on the same day. ugh. we called it in and on christmas eve we got a call from security at merle hay mall that they had found it. (someone ditched it once we called to have it shut off) we did get all the money back, but i totally felt that "violated" feeling. it's really weird.

Anonymous said...

I have random thoughts as well. :-)

That "Alice" bag is totally hot and I'm really jealous of your 10-year old at the moment.

Johnny Depp is hot, even as the Mad Hatter.

Madeline's facial expressions with gift-opening makes ME want to buy her gifts. Even though I'm broke.

Texas Roadhouse is the bomb diggity.

The violation felt with what you experienced is the worst. I've had my credit card number stolen before, my car broken into, and my checking account hacked. Thankfully, banks are super efficient in not just resolving the issue, but in refunding your "stolen" purchases in a timely fashion. Hang in there.