My dad and his wife are in town for the weekend. We decided to take .alyvia for some portraits this weekend, and walmart was having some kind of deal, so we decided we'd go there. We did her .christmas portraits there, so it seemed like a great idea.

We went to eat at .olive .garden first, and we were literally there about two hours. It took forever to sit down, and then forever to get served. Our waiter acted like he was brand new, so he was really nervous and unsure of what to do. He took like 10 minutes bring our refills to us. The salad was disgusting, the breadsticks tasted like cardboard, and he brought my parents' food out 15 minutes before I got mine. My food was almost unedible. I took maybe four bites and pushed my plate away. The chicken was soggy, the alfredo sauce had dried on the noodles, and it made my stomach do flipflops. Ugh.

In the meantime, .alyvia has gone from happy and smiling to grouchy and tired. We were supposed to go to .walmart directly after eating for her portraits. I was getting more and more upset because I really wanted a picture with her smiling! And she was getting tired and pissed! Our waiter came back and asked me if my food was okay, and I said no. He asked me if I wanted the kitchen to remake it, and I snapped at him that we had places to go and we'd been here long enough. I understand he was new, but .jesus! We were supposed to be in and out of there. If we'd known it would have taken so long, we would have eaten after the pictures.

So we booked it over to .walmart, and what. The portrait studio was closed. The business hours said it should have been open, but there you go. We asked an employee where the lady was, and he told us she was working at another location across town. So we drive all the way over there, and they don't even have a portrait studio! I was beyond pissed! They referred us to yet another .walmart about 30 minutes away, and we refused.

So by this point, .alyvia is crying. We decide to go back home so she could take a nap. We called .sears and .k-mart who were both open and available. We decided to look at .k-mart's package first, since they were on the way to the mall. They had a reasonable deal and there was no wait, so we just decided to do it there.

Her pictures turned out beautiful!! She was still doing her face at the photographer, so I asked my stepmom to sit beside her (they require you to be next to your babies during the session) and I stood beside the photographer behind the camera and she smiled for her mommy. Her pictures were just divine! I was so happy. I can pick them up on the 23rd. They don't put them on cd apparently, so .i'll need to scan them at my inlaw's house. But they turned out so beautiful. We're not going back to .walmart anymore, I don't think. We're going to .k-mart from now on.

We're going back out today. I'm really excited. I shouldn't be awake this early (I woke up at incredibly' 5 am!) but I had yet another nightmare about my mom and decided enough was enough. So I wrote her a four page (typed) letter and emailed it to her. I seriously have issues with my mom, you guys. It's insane. Serious issues.

But anyway, that was my day. Started off bad, got a lot worse, then became awesome. I can't wait to get those pictures back. You girls have never seen .alyvia look as cute as she looks there. Her real smile was finally captured on film, and I couldn't be happier!