Web address for Christmas in the middle of commercial chaos

PRELUDE: If you don't read anything else, just go to http://www.guidecraft.com/ and order from them, it's worth your while- TRUST ME (though they'd never brag about why). Below is an account of my eye opening experience with them.


I've been planning Layla's "big Santa" gift for some time now. It involves a yellow Belle (Beauty and the Beast) dress, which has been her first request and only consistent request to Santa this Christmas. Sure she asks for other things, but when pressed for her favorite thing, it always comes down to that yellow dress. Simple enough. She's starting to have a TON of dress up stuff and I had eyed a cool dress up center last year and decided this was the year and ordered the one pictured below...I ordered it two weeks ago (12/10)off of Amazon. Much to my dismay, a week later (12/15), on the day it was supposed to be delivered I got an email that the order was cancelled and the item was no longer available. I was SO upset -- it was so close to Christmas and I'd gotten a fantastic deal on the (expensive) item.

I looked all over the web and no one else had it available for delivery until January. At check out I would get the dreaded "back order" message :( I went straight to the brand - www.guidecraft.com and paid a little extra for it and at check out had the option to pay $25 for guaranteed delivery on the 20th - perfect!

Until the next day, when I got an email that they didn't have the item either and it wouldn't be available until after Christmas. I emailed them and asked if I would still have to pay the expedited shipping (they said definitely "no")etc, etc. I explained the nature of the situation, what happened with the previous order and asked if there was even a *slight* chance it could get here by Christmas. Nope. BUT- what did happen was amazing. After offering several alternatives -- all of which were very nice, but I still was committed to this item, he showed an incredibly overwhelming gesture of kindness and customer service (though this is so much more). I can't sum it up on my own, so I'm just going to paste some of the email responses from the Company's VP-Logistics here - they speak for themselves...

"I’m sorry that we weren’t able to get you this item in time. I even checked with some of our retailers and no one has any available.

I feel terrible that we are not able to get this item to you in time for Christmas. We’re a 46 year old, family owned and operated company and we constantly strive to exceed our customer’s expectations and I definitely think we failed you on this order. Please allow me to make up for it by sending this item to you at no charge. We are keeping your order open but I am going to make sure that we process a full 100% credit for your entire order total."

  

Wow!!! RIGHT?! I obviously was STUNNED and told him that was generous but unnecessary, but he held to it.

PART 2: I get an email today saying the order was cancelled, I figured it was an automatically generated message, but emailed to be sure and here is what he said this time!!

"No, you don’t need to worry about this email. It is an automated response from the company that handles orders on our website. It is just confirming that the order you placed on our website has been cancelled and your credit card should soon see a credit for the total amount.

Also, there’s good news! We are currently receiving our shipment of the Dress-Up Centers and I have your order out to the warehouse to ship today. I’m sending it to you via UPS 3 Day so you’ll receive it on Friday. I’ll send you a note a little later today once I have the tracking information so you can go online later tonight and see your items progress all the way to your door.

And, of course, he sent the tracking number not long after.

I can’t tell you how happy I am that these arrived to us today. I immediately thought of you and I dug through a few hundred orders to locate yours and make sure that we would ship it today in time for Christmas.

I’ll send over tracking in a little while."

Let's review -- even though we will still have the item before Christmas - they are not charging us for it AT ALL....and they could have just sent it slow and gotten it here whenever, but he personally selected our order from the stack to make sure we would get it in time for Christmas....again, FREE.

THIS is the ULTIMATE in customer service and it would be totally irresponsible of me not to share my experience. I would encourage all parents, grandparents, etc. to visit their site, view their selections, and order from them (www.guidecraft.com). They truly have GREAT products but their customer service has turned me into a lifelong supporter. I will buy from them at EVERY opportunity I get. We can all agree that your any town mega store not only doesn't understand service like this; but, they are paralyzed by a system of regulations that makes them incapable of it. 

PLEASE share this with anyone you know and support this business if you can. www.guidecraft.com This is the true spirit of Christmas, alive and well.

Merry Christmas all!!

"Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus." - 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

Jackson

Last week was quite a wonderful week!! Piper had a follow-up appointment with the Infectious Disease team last Tuesday and they were extremely pleased with her healing. That is, NO MORE DOCTORS!! Woo Hoo! It's hard to believe it's been over a month since we were terrified for our little girl, camped out in the hospital and going on zero sleep. God has remained faithful and shown His great works in Piper, for sure.

Two weeks ago in school, Layla showed up and started writing words. Amazing! She wrote "Hi" and "Tall." We haven't taught her to spell/write words yet and neither have her teachers - she just figured it out by herself - so COOL! She's also been excelling with patterns - in amazing ways. We are so proud of her and are working to make sure she's in the right place academically. Every night when we read books we pick a couple words and teach her to sound them out. She's acing it!

Piper showed off in school last week herself - turns out she knows her colors! They were picking up at the end of the day and the teacher decided to ask her to put the green block away and she did! Then it was blue and yellow and she nailed them first try each time :)

We are so proud of our girls!

I took yesterday to have some 1:1 time with Layla while Piper napped. We went to the mall to pick up a couple things we needed and it just happened that Santa was there. She wanted to talk to him and while she won't tell us what she talked to him about, we have a feeling it involves princesses (fortunately, Santa is a "loud talker"). I'll post a pic of her with Santa later tonight (hopefully). We all went out for dinner last night and Piper's meal was mostly chips and a big bowl of salsa. We kept waiting for her to feel the hot and start crying, but that never happened and she kept going back for more!

In the middle of all this wonderful and fun stuff - perhaps the most exciting news is the addition of a pet chinchilla to our family!! Layla is the proud "mama" and named him "Jackson." He's four years old and very sweet. Layla is, of course, the foremost expert on all things chinchilla and Jackson now, so if anyone has any questions, she will be offering advice.

Looking forward to Thanksgiving this week. We will be staying in Nashville this year - had hoped to make it back to Iowa; but, we'll have to make that trip later :(

This year we are especially thankful for our health and the health of our children. God continues to remind me how faithful He is and how His plan shows itself. It's so easy to get caught up in our own plans and solutions; but, when it comes down to it, God is right there all the time and I need to just let go of all else.

Love,
KB

All Done

yeah - so I'm a little behind. Needless to say, with all the other things in our life, adding to the list (i.e. blogging) wasn't in the plan. BUT - it turns out lots of you are continuing to visit the site.

That said, I have been super tardy in posting a health update on the girls.

Piper had two follow-up visits last week - one with Infectious Disease and one with the Orthopedic Surgeon. Both were excellent and we stopped her antibiotic on Thursday at the direction of the Surgeon (he was, and is, heading up her care). We've all been sleeping much better since- that includes Piper. She has an additional follow-up with Infectious Disease next week and I'm anxious to ask them LOTS of questions about future risk. Bacteria like this is known to colonize in the muscles creating an increased risk of recurrence in the future from something as simple as the common cold.

Layla finished her antibiotic without incident and was back to herself quickly.

Mom ended up on antibiotics about 10 days after Piper was discharged - I suppose it all just caught up with me. BUT - better now! The latest is both girls have pink eye; but, it's SO minor an "illness" that we'll take it!! :)PHEW! Banking on a much healthier 2012!!!

Everyone enjoyed Halloween immensely and Layla was very proud of herself for (eventually) being courageous enough to go up to houses and knock all by herself...with a proud momma watching from the curb. She had a great time and everyone loved her costume, which meant a lot to her - she told me, "MOM - everyone really likes my costume!" Mommy win!

Mommy Fail

So - for whatever reason, the girls' school decided to do classroom Halloween parties today instead of on Halloween. Historically, kids wear their costumes to school on Halloween; but since the parties are today, they were supposed to wear them today.

For Piper's class we were told to just send the costume, if we prefer, and they would change into them for the party - keeps the costumes from getting messy/destroyed. I love that idea and thought that would be best for Layla too so her costume would still look nice for the official holiday. Sent her to school in a festive orange shirt and halloween tights/skirt and planned to bring her costume with me in the afternoon for the party.

Eric takes the girls to school this morning and wouldn't you know - ALL of Layla's friends were in their costumes. She was visibly upset about it and when I called school to  check on her around lunch time, she was still very depressed. MOMMY FAIL. *face palm*

Paying the Piper

...as opposed to Paying FOR Piper, which I'm guessing will happen in a couple weeks.

But - the whole not-able-to-sleep-while-in-the-hospital thing has caught up with me and I've got some kind of head cold thing. Hopefully it will be short-lived. Enough about me--

The Layla had fun painting/carving pumpkins with dad and a neighbor kid today while Piper took a 4 hour nap and I crashed on the couch. It was pretty relaxing. Layla's in some kind of funk the past week-- it involves not listening or obeying and being as contrary as possible. I think it's a little carry over from all the attention Piper got for being sick ad hope we'll get sweet Layla back soon.

Piper continues to do well -- she is still limping some, which is on my mind. We do have appointments with tons of different doctors coming up next week. Part of that process is deciding if she needs physical therapy. I would have never thought that would be a possibility; but, the way she's hobbling around has me wondering.

Looking forward to a great week!! NIGHTY NIGHT Blog-world.
KB

10/25/11- UPDATE- decided to go to the doc this morning. Hopefully the super charged amoxicillin they prescribed will help!!! Eric's the only one not on antibiotics now. Shall we take over-under?! Heh heh.

Fire Hooping Therapy

The perfect night of unwinding from all that's happened in the last 10 days. I've waited a long time to have MY OWN fire hoop. In fact, I started fire hooping right before I found out I was pregnant with Piper. I was all set to buy the fire hooping gear; but being pregnant kind of threw that out (temporarily). BUT- my quick wicks came to day and I was SO excited to get home and get the girls in bed so I could go out and play! "What are quick wicks," you ask. Great Question. Quick wicks are....well, wicks, but you can take them off the hoop, put them on a different hoop, put them on yet another hoop, etc. As opposed to the traditional hoops that have the wicks built in and the hoop is ONLY ever a fire hoop. The video is of my second burn with the wicks tonight. The first burn was MUCH better though. I dropped the hoop a couple times here; but, I feel quite certain a little wrap of grip tape and I'll be ALL set. I plan to give this lots and lots of use, so if you'd like to come out and enjoy some fire hooping, let me know!!

The girls are doing great. Layla had a rough day at school yesterday; but had a GREAT long night of sleep. She's still not 100% but she's a TON better. Piper...well, Piper is hilarious and seems to be completely back to herself.

I am still exhausted, but was able to sleep in yesterday and today. My boss and work, in general, have been so wonderful and supportive. Eric's great, of course...he's fortunate in that he requires MUCH less sleep than anyone I've ever met.

Until tomorrow! Sweet fire hooping dreams!
KB

Business As Usual...What Now?

Both girls were in school today - Hooray!! We found out late MOnday evening that after 3 days of culturing, the strep test they did on Layla finally grew a positive, so she started on some antibiotics Monday evening. Piper is a brand new kid (sort of) -  she's is giddier than we've ever seen her and was noticeably happy to be back at school again. There are a slew of follow-up visits in the coming weeks and months, and we'll get through those and hopefully past all of this very soon.

Layla's the sick puppy now and she's in desperate need of sleep. Hoping she sleeps well tonight - after all, she did pass out in the car at 5:45pm on our way home.

I took this morning to rest (at the request of my employer) and went in a little before noon. I am tired, but it feels good to get back to business as usual.

So - what's next for the blog? It seems a shame to just shut it down. SO- I hope you will choose to use the "join this site" button on the right of your screen and follow along as I continue blogging about our family but also my adventures as an imperfect Christian, a leader in my corporate America gig, and as my true deal as an entrepreneur (www.happyhoops.us -- I recently renovated and it was revealed earlier this evening), and as a generally curious person.

Stay tuned!