A great many things happened Thursday.

We generally start Thursday like a horse out of a gate. We hit the ground running. While my friend Kim was on the phone telling me the wonderful news that FORD HAS EMPLOYMENT!, I cleaned the bathroom. (Oh, much praising is going on. It was a long 6 months.) I had laundry in and was tossing it on the line in between. The beds were made, rooms swept and friends stopped by. K- and the boys played Star Wars, while Heather and I ran around looking at new kitchen paint colors, she saw the bookcase that started it all (because doesn't that always happen), took in the changes and was the encouraging friend that she always is. After Heather and her boys left, K- and I skipped off to the thrift store. (Most was for her, but the first two were for me.) Oh, just read what we got:

- A brand new A. I. Root Cinnamon Apple Candle. It would have been $23.95. I paid $2.50. Root is my absolute favorite brand of candles. They are locally made and even Hubs loves them! This will be a winter burner.
- A lightly used little brown leather bag. I've carried my Coach bag for probably 5 years. It is rubbing black on the left shoulder and between the brea*sts. My new little bag is smaller than the Coach, but I think that we can skip that pesky black mark crap that I'm getting. Since it is smaller, I have less in it. That is good, too. I still couldn't get away from hanging my keys on the outside of the bag with the purple carabiner, though. At least I'll know where the keys are, right?
- Two short sleeved polo shirts. One is yellow and one is a lighter weight Land's End. I paid 75 cents for each.
- A Gap Khaki jumper for 75 cents.
- A heavier weight Gap cardigan for $2.00. It is red and will be great for K- to wear this winter.
- A lighter weight white JCPenney cardigan that has great little dots and hearts in the weave for 75 cents. (Hey, it is completely white, so it should be legal for school wear.)
- A black pair of pants for 90 cents.
- A red button-down, long-sleeved shirt for a dollar. It'll look great under her khaki jumpers.

Keep in mind that I'm a thrift store snob. All of these things look like brand new. Oh, and I was able to use my $5.00 off $10.00 coupon. I'd say that 60% of what I got was 1/2 price anyhow. It would have been $22.00 + tax. In the end, I spent $9.54 total. Hooray!

After the thrift, we spun by the library. Then, we had a little more time before our date with Grandma and Aunt Donna, so we ran by Giant Eagle to pick up the Lipitor prescription (to counteract that cheese that I just ate.) We had a 4:00 PM date with Grandma and Aunt Donna, but Aunt Donna decided that she wanted pizza for dinner and invited us to stay. I introduced her to $5.00 Little Caesars and she was happy. While visiting, I did my monthly pitching of the old food at Grandma's. I found juice on the shelf that had expired in January. There was milk that had expired May 3. Grandma had some liquefying apples in a bag on the counter and oranges so soft that they felt Nerf in nature. I ditched those, the petrified cookies, hardened whoopie pies and explained to Grandma that though she hates to see me pitch things, I was certain that the milk was sprouting legs and was soon to walk out the door itself. Grandma is 91. She comes from a completely different camp of food keeping. My ditching and organization makes her nervous, but in the end, she admits that she's glad that I've done it.

After the pitchfest, I cruised by my parents to confirm to them that the neighbors really were picking up the mail (though they had left both the Sunday papers in the paper box at the street), picked a few things up for my brother that mom had and cruised over to his house. Of course, he wasn't home, but after the third call, I was able to have someone track him down. He told me how to break into his house (I wouldn't without permission), and I stocked the bagful of frozen food that Aunt Donna gave to me (my brother tends to run short, and I knew there were frozen chicken breasts and frozen dinners that they could really use) into his new-to-them side by side refrigerator. (Their other fridge was majorly ailing.) He was busy consoling my sister, as she had to put her 18 year old dog to sleep yesterday. Knowing this, I had a hunch that he wasn't going to be home. I'm glad that I got to break in and leave them things.

K- and I cruised home, decompressed for just a few before dragging her bike up from the basement and going up and down the street several times with the neighbors. K- played ball with E- as E-'s mommy and I caught up on the neighborhood goings-on of last night. A car had been broken into just across the street. Since we live in a very quiet neighborhood on a dead end street, the police went around, checked in on all of us to make certain that we weren't victimized, as well. It's sad. Truly. We have an incident like this happen once every three years or so. I don't think that is a bad track record considering.

Smiles in my day:
- Ford got a job. What an answer to prayer.
- I just ate the treat left for the Pick-Up Fairy. K- left a plate of Cheese-It's with a slice of Swiss broken up over top. It'll give me dragon breath, but it was a tasty snack.
- I got a photo of our hawk. It isn't a gorgeous photo, but it's a photo nonetheless. He was on a telephone pole on the next block over.

- Hubs got home an hour early tonight. He ended up finding out yesterday that the building needed covered, so he had to pull a 12 hour day. He is scheduled for a 12 hour day on Saturday, as well. He worked 1-9 on both Tuesday and Wednesday. It is a long, long week for him.
- The magical powers of the Pick-Up Fairy. Really. I wished I would have done this sooner!
- More organization to be done Friday.

Have a great weekend, all!