Some Advice, via my latest Fieldtrip....

If I have taken the "field trip" on a particular situation, I like to share my advice and experience with others to save someone else from having to take the same trip.... MOST of the time, my "field trips" are not the fun, exciting trips you're thinking of complete with cheesy overpriced merchandise to commemorate the trip... Nope, my field trips are usually embarrassing and the only souvenir I usually take away is a good lesson, along with a red face and neck (when I get really embarrassed (or on the rare occasion that I get really mad), my neck turns bright splotchy red...its a tell-tell sign that something is up! I consider it my warning sign...)
Anyway, my latest field trip....
Friday, Belle and I met our BFF's Carrie & Allie at the quilt shop for lunch. I had not yet been to Carrie's new favorite hangout, and all of her sewing bibs has inspired me to break out my sewing machine as well (I'll do a post soon about what I made last weekend!), so we wanted to have lunch and check out their fabric. Wow, is all I can say about the fabric selection. There were so many cute patterns and textures and it was so hard not to say, "I'll take a fat quarter of it ALL!" Do yall know what a fat quarter is? I did not. Carrie didn't either. Thankfully, the all-knowing Ma'am was there (Allie's grandmother, formerly known as Carrie's momma, or to me as Ms. Cindy Jo) to answer our inexperienced question. We learned that a fat quarter is a quarter of a yard of material cut in a square... hmmm, makes sense...
Anyway, this is not part of the field trip for you--- you can count that as a freebie...
Back to the trip...
We looked around, and I picked out as many fat quarters as I could put my hand around and until my arm went numb from carrying around the car seat carrier loaded down with Miss Priss and her big hairbow. I think the big bow adds at least a pound.

We decide we've had enough and proceed to the cutting counter, where I must say I received my very own frequent shopper punch card! Now, don't worry, you didn't have to sign up like the Winn-Dixe savings reward card, so I wasn't holding anybody up by getting it! We got our fabric cut, our tickets tallied and headed for the checkout counter.

The sweet lady rang me up, and I so graciously handed her my beloved debit card. She was so sweet, and asked, "Sugar, does it matter if I run it as credit or debit?" I, proudly, replied, "No, Ma'am, it works either way!" She swiped that sweet little booger, (which it is quite familiar with), and then it happened....the little receipt machine spat out the smallest receipt-like paper I have ever seen, which read, "DECLINED".... WHAT?!?!? I was puzzled. Funny thing is, the same thing had happened when Devin had tried to use his debit card at lunch two days before this. Now, I'll be honest, it might not be too hard to believe that my account is running low, but for it not to take Devin's card, well, there's just NO WAY... So I said, "Well, something must be wrong with our bank or our cards, because the same thing happened to my husband on Wednesday...." (She probably thought I was SO making it up, but really it did.)

So the sweet cashier, said, "Well, Darlin', let me run it as debit, do you have a pin number?" (Oh, yes, ma'am, I have a pin number, and I am not afraid to use it!) So I say, "yes, ma'am, let's try that..." SWIPE... crrrr,crrr,crrrr,crrrr (receipt machine spitting out that TINY receipt again...) DECLINED.
OH.MY.GOSH. I could feel it, my face was burning and I know my neck was screaming "Mortified!!!!"... I knew there must be some mistake. I mean this was Friday, and Devin gets paid on Thursday (which means my "mad money" goes in via direct deposit and I KNEW there was money in my account...) Now, any other day of the week, it might be questionable, but on Friday, there's always money in there! Not for long, but on a Friday at lunch, I KNOW it's there!
The lady was so sweet, and I said, "Well I am so sorry, I promise there's money in there, I don't know what the problem is..." She said, "Oh, sweetie, I'm sure there is. You just call your bank and check on it." Well that was good, at least she wasn't mad with me. I can't stand for someone to be mad at me. But we still had a problem. I had two tickets I still had to pay for -- the lunch ticket, and the fabric ticket. So, I opened that wallet of mine, and handed her my B-E-A-U-T-I-F-U-L Discover card. (it really is cute... its pink with a big daisy on it. Devin picked it out for me and surprised me with it when I stopped working... REALLY, a credit card when I STOP working?!?! Remind me again, HOW I got so lucky?!?! Don't worry girls, he isn't THAT dreamy (almost but he's no dummy) because when I got that cute little card it came with some guidelines... I use it for house and kid purchases and in emergencies...) But this was totally an emergency, and if you had seen that fabric you'd think so, too! Plus, I don't think my husband would want his daughter and I washing dishes to pay for lunch, so I knew he wouldn't care... So anyway, Sweet Mrs. Cashier-lady, takes my card and smiles sweetly and says, "Oh, sugar, this would be fine, but I can't take Discover"... NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO..... Here it goes again, the neck is on fire... Now I look like the girl who's card has been declined not once, not twice, but three times! I am beginning to wonder if that's why Devin got me a Discover card--- unlike "Visa, who's everywhere you want to be", some places discriminate against my plastic Discover card friend. I am sensing some pre-meditation in making his choice on what card to give me.... So what am I to do now?
I did it, yall. I pulled out old faithful. My checkbook. I was worried that Sweet Mrs. Cashier wouldn't take my check, seeing as my debit card, which is linked to my checking account was declined. Fortunately, she accepted the check. And after what felt like an hour long battle of trying to pay I was paid in full and beyond ready to get my red face and neck out of there!
Now, what was this field trip lesson, you ask?
Oh, well, after I dropped Carrie off and headed to Wal-Mart, and just before I called the bank to find out WHAT in the world was going on, it hit me.
About two weeks ago, we got letters in the mail on both of our checking accounts that said we would be receiving new debit cards in the mail soon. Then a few days later, we got new cards. Well, me, being me, threw them in the mail basket and never thought twice about them.... UNTIL that is, my card was DECLINED because it had been deactivated and needed to be replaced with my new card that came in the mail a week earlier and was covered up in the mail bin.
So there it is, guys, the field trip lesson that I took for team, so that you don't have to---
DON'T THROW YOUR MAIL IN THE MAIL BASKET ESPECIALLY WHEN IT HAS YOUR NEW DEBIT CARD IN IT!!!!!!
~annie~