Are you there God? It's me Kristen.

I am so livid right now! I have never, ever had a worse experience retail shopping for anything, much less expensive jewelry in my life.

My best friend bought me a beautiful pink saphire ring for Valentines Day. I saw it online and she wanted to get it for me. She had to go to 3 Zales stores before she found one...and unfortunately she ended up at the Zales in Gwinnett Place Mall.

When she went in, she told me she was pretty much ignored for a while. Finally someone decided to help her. The sales person was very pushy with her about the protection plan. She sold her the plan, telling her it was $39.99. Ashley told her she wanted to think about it.

We decided to get the plan, because it included free sizing and I needed to get it sized up to fit, because they only size they had in stock was a 7. We went back to get the plan and get it sized. The man that helped us the second time was obviously new. But we decided to discuss the plan with him and then purchase it. He told us the plan was $29.99. Wait...the lady the first time told her it was $39.99. He told us the extra $10 is an OPTIONAL theft protection plan. The first lady made no mention of it being separate...she tried to up sale Ashley without her knowledge! What a crook!

Then he was doing all the paperwork...took him forever and he had to keep calling over another sales person to help him. We stood and waited for all this for over 45 minutes. He asked me what size I needed the ring sized up to...I told him I didn't know, I would need to be sized. He brought the ring sizers over to me and just handed them to me! I had to size myself!

Finally, it was all done and he told us my ring would be ready in a week. Wait a minute....a week!? I've had 2 rings sized at Jarred and they were done in 2-4 HOURS!

Oh well, it's worth the wait....right?

Well, wait is the right word. We got a call yesterday late afternoon that my ring was ready. So Ash went this morning to pick it up. The store opens at 10am. Ashley got there a minute or 2 early. No one was there. Another employee was there waiting. Nobody. 10am passes.....10:30....11:00....11:38 someone finally shows up. 1 hour and 40 minutes LATE. Now Ashley had to wait for them to open the store, count the registers and bring all the jewelry out.

FINALLY.....2 hours later...Ashley finally gets my ring. I wasn't even the one waiting and I have never been so infuriated! What a way to treat your customers! I don't care if its Neiman Marcus or the Dollar Tree! Its ridiculous! Especially when they have your property that you have already paid for and you are coming to pick up. What insanity.

Not to mention, after waiting an hour....Ashely called Zales customer service number and the girl on the phone treated her so rude and wouldn't even help her contact a supervisor or anything.

NEVER EVER buy anything at Zales. Terrible.

An adventure in canning.
Originally uploaded by kmiller799

In my quest for homemaker perfection, canning was one thing I still need to check off my list. Besides having yummy fruits in the pantry all year 'round...It will be nice to have jars of yumminess to give as gifts to friends and family.

Of course citrus is in season now, so Tangerine Marmalade it will be. The Blue Chair Jam Cookbook by Rachel Saunders is awesome. The pictures are gorgeous and make my mouth water. The recipes seem more complicated than I will need at first though. But it's a beautiful addition to my bookshelf.

I made a Greek dinner tonight. Chicken Souvlaki with warm pita and homemade tzatziki. I also made greek potatoes. It was so yummy!

Until tomorrow.....