the tale of the purse and the dress

OK, hopefully you're not reading these posts from top to bottom, but rather oldest to newest, but anyway, if you need more background on my emotional weekend, read the post below. That was Saturday morning/afternoon. My story picks up here, at Saturday night. In an effort to keep our sanity, and facilitate keeping some semblance of romance alive in our marriages, my sister and I have decided to try swapping babysitting to make 'date nights' for each other. We got to go first on Saturday night (and then I have Tuesday night so she and her hubby can celebrate his b-day). (On a side note, this whole babysitting thing has potential to be really great, or really disastrous...there are 8 kids all together - her 4 and my 4 - ranging in age from 2 months to 11 years. That's the potentially disastrous part; the part that works really well is that most of them we had in 'pairs' - my 3 boys match up in age with 3 of her girls; my oldest and her youngest don't have a corresponding age, but the 11 year old is more than happy to pair off with the 2 month old and everyone gets a 'buddy'!! Bets & Joe said they actually had a somewhat relaxing evening - they were playing Settlers at the table by themselves when we came in - because everyone was off playing nicely!)

Anyway, that was all an aside. The main part of the story is this: Todd & I headed out to hit the mall first; I wanted to try on dresses while he was with me to 'approve' (or not) for an upcoming wedding that we are officiating together. I found 3 that we agreed on, but I wanted to run them by the bride (who is a close friend) and also my sister to see which they thought was best. I asked the sales clerk if I could return whichever I didn't choose and she said yes. I had found 2 first, purchased them, and while I was waiting for Todd to look at some stuff, I found 3rd one. I quickly went to try it on, hanging the 2 I had already purchased, which were on hangers covered by a garment bag, in the dressing room. I liked the 3rd one as well, so went to purchase it, but had to go to a different register as I couldn't find the original clerk. After that we headed out of the mall. When I laid the bags on the back seat, I noticed the one was untied at the bottom; I commented about it being untied and Todd said he didn't think the girl had tied it at all; I thought she had but figured it maybe came untied. Anyway, not giving it a second thought, we headed off to dinner at Applebees (gotta love those gift cards you can earn off the credit card we use!!) and then to Starbucks for my favorite White Chocolate Mochas espresso before heading home. As we arrived home a little after 10, I went to grab my purse as we got out of the car, and found, much to my dismay, I had left it at Starbucks, about a half an hour away!! I ran in the house, assuring my highly-stressed husband (he's already thinking of having to make calls to cancel credit cards, etc.) that I'd just call them and they'd hang onto it for me. I found the number online, called and described the purse to them, and sure enough, it was right where I left it. They said they'd keep it for me and I said I'd pick it up in the morning.

That crisis averted, I was quite excited to show my sis the dresses I had found. As I pulled up the garment bag my stomach sank to see an empty hanger and one of the dresses missing. We frantically looked around the car and the house to see if it had fallen on the way in, but to no avail. The mall was obviously closed, so there was nothing I could do til the next day. Sunday morning at 11 when the store opened, I was there waiting. (A benefit of church meeting in the evening...) I explained the whole situation to the sales clerk (different that the clerk the night before) and told here I had found the same dress in the size I had bought back on the rack, (although I didn't know if there was another one there the night before or not). She looked at my receipt, but when she put the #'s in the register it showed that they still had one in stock, so she informed me that, while the computer might be wrong...she wasn't sure it always updated correctly...she could not let me have the dress or give me my money back; there was no way to prove anything. She was very kind and sympathetic, but unfortunately, kind and sympathetic doesn't change me being out 60 bucks, and having no dress. She told me they'd talk to the girl working that night and see if she remembered finding the dress in the fitting room, and they took my name and # and said they'd call me if anything turned up. It makes me feel ill even just re-capping all this. I'd appreciate any prayers for this whole mess getting straightened out.

On a really positive note, by dear husband has been very understanding with it all, and even told me to just buy the other dress, the last one in my size, so I'd at least have it for the wedding (of course, it had to be my favorite out of the 3!) He said, if we just have to 'take the hit' we will. All this on the tail end of him saying the day before that we really have to buckle down and call a spending freeze on anything that's not an ABSOLUTE necessity (which he was already making an allowance for the dress as a necessity for the wedding...). Aaarrrgghhhhhh....

If I believed in luck, which I don't, I'd sure think I was having a string of some bad stuff!!!