ATTENTION: NEVER GO TO THE PICTURE PEOPLE!!!

I am the biggest sucker for the ads that come in the mail for free 8X10 prints. For Mother's Day, I finally talked Aaron into going to the Picture People to get a professional family photo taken--our first in the six years that we have been married. Afterall, I did have a coupon for a free 8X10 and 20% off additional prints. However, my first biggest mistake was scheduling the day before Mother's Day, when the only open appointment was at 8:00 pm on Saturday. The kids are usually passed out by that time, but I planned all day for the pictures and made sure they were rested and happy so we could get lots of good smiles. On the way to the mall (clear across town), a cop stopped traffic on the freeway, making us 5 minutes late. Only 5 minutes late!!!! Well, we check in and get the kids ready for their pictures. For an hour and a half, Preslyn was all smiles as we waited for our name to be called to get our pictures taken. Finally after they took a prom couple back to get their pictures taken that arrived 30 minutes after we did, I blew up. The worker informed us that since we were 'late' we had to wait for the next available opening!! Whatever! I was furious. When we FINALLY did get called back to the photo room, our photographer had absolutely NO idea what he was doing. He just stood there with the camera, staring at us. Somehow we got one HALF WAY decent picture of us. By this time, all the smiles and giggles from the kids were gone and I was so furious that I could hardly force out a smile myself. If you look closely you can see a tear in the corner of my eye. Someday I will learn my lesson with those stupid ads! With my luck, it will be another 6 years before Aaron will agree to get a family picture again!