When you are short, finding over the knee boots that fit isn't the easiest thing.

My brother's wedding is on Saturday.  Though it is billed as a casual dress event, I refuse to go to my brother's wedding in jeans.

It is winter in Ohio.

It is supposed to be cold and snowy on Saturday.

I have wonderful skirts and tops to go with.  My wintertime missing element was proper footwear.  I had no idea what I was going to do until J came into work this week with tall boots on.

"That's it!"

She looked at me rather odd, but she does that a lot.

I told her I needed tall boots and that would make the pieces of outfits I have roll together just fine for my brother's wedding.  Not over-dressed, but not terribly under-dressed.  He is wearing black jeans and everyone else is probably wearing denim.  I just can't do it, though.

I went shopping with K.  I thought it wouldn't be that bad.  I thought that what would hold me back more was what to spend.  Though I will wear them in the winter, I didn't want to pay a ton.  I started trying them on at DSW in ye ole clearance section.  I kept running into one problem, though.  The zipper didn't want to zip all the way up on the left boots.  Yes, that would be plural.  I couldn't figure out why.  I was even trying on boots for $149 and $169 (not that I was buying them) to see if more expensive boots made a difference.

It was almost worse!

I don't have calf muscles of an overgrown moose.  What's funny is that the left is where I had atrophy from the full ACL rupture and the thigh was 2" smaller than the right thigh.  I thought we would roll with a similar size difference with the calf muscles, but then I remembered breaking the right foot.  That may account for the difference in size, or that I'm just not symmetrical.  Either way, I had a dang hard time finding some boots to fit.  I also found that I needed a size 6 in the boots and not my normal 6 1/2.  Who knew?  On the way home, K and I stopped by Hubs' work and I was discussing my fit issue with the girls.

Shortness was my problem!  They design these boots to fit on tall girls!  I'm not a tall girl!  I'm a short girl who buys pants cut for short girls and they are still too long!  I did have success, though. I found these.  (I'm sorry.  I was unsuccessful on cut and paste.)  Hubs says that they look like Gene Simmons boots and asked if I could get some with some more hardware.  "They had some with spikes, but I didn't get those."  I also informed him that Gene Simmons' boots had huge heels on them and these don't.

He did smirk and said that he liked them.  :insert approval with the eyebrows:

I'm pleased to say that they were 40% off, I just received a $10 off coupon from DSW yesterday, so I spent $40 instead of the insane money that they wanted for not leather boots.

I smile.  They are lovely.  Hubs even thinks so.  ;)

Will work for books.

Today, my book fair co-chair and I went to the Scholastic Warehouse sale.  We needed to purchase books for our school library.  In years past, we were able to purchase paperback books and all was well.  Central processing has now said that they will no longer bar code the paperbacks and all further purchases need to be hardback.

Drat it all.

Kay and I went knowing what we had brought in for the Birthday Book Club.  We also knew that we had a fairly successful book fair this fall and are sitting with quite a sum to be used for book purchases. We had books to purchase for all 6 grades, and to keep with hardback, we knew it would be difficult.  The warehouse sale was 25-80% off and most were 50% off.  While she picked some ahead without me, we went to town today.

I have no idea of how long we were there, but we were able to score.

We purchased 65 hardback books for the bargain price of $315.  For those of you not wanting to pull your calculator out, it was an average of $4.85 per book.  Given that, we decided that 4th and 5th grade would each have a donated book in their name, where grades K-3rd would be buddied up a few kids on some books.  In the end, it doesn't matter, as long as we purchase for the library what needs to be gotten.  The folks, if they have a problem with it, will notice the retail price on the back is NOT the $5.00 that people donate.  We had a coupon of $25. off each $100. spent, so we did 4 separate transactions to get the best price.  We saved $100 that way!  When we dropped the new books off to the librarian, she was thrilled to death.  Those two boxes of books were like Christmas to her!

Kay and I were given a book a piece as a thank you for our recent book fair.  Apparently, they were impressed by how well we did.  They made sure to let us know that the books that we were given were for us for our use at our homes.  I thought that was kind.  Kay worked on set up yesterday and since Scholastic pays $10 in book trade per hour of labor, she is sitting with a tidy $40 in credit to use towards Christmas.  I will be helping tomorrow as well.  I have a few science project books set aside for K to go with her Christmas gift.  To my understanding, they honor the 1/2 price with that, so for two hours worth of work, I may owe them just a few dollars.  Hoorah!

I love books.  K loves books.  To be paid in books?  That is just grand!

Have a great day!

One more thing ticked off of the list.

The annual Christmas card is usually ordered and posted by now.  I like to drop them off on the day before Thanksgiving so that they can hit mailboxes on Black Friday.

Not so this year.

We have a different computer configuration since the infamous crash of early fall, so I haven't been able to get tutoring on transferring photos.  The photos are locked into the external hard drive, but tonight's e-mail had me motivated enough to do some investigation on my own.  I figured that the worse I could do was to get a funky screen that would call for my neighbor to come bail me out.

Shutterfly was having a sale, y'all!  There was an extension of Cyber Monday, I had a coupon code that came in K's photo package from school and I had free shipping since my order was over $30.  I cashed in on a savings of $97.00!

You see, I plugged the camera in and touched the computer and told her how pretty she was.  I wasn't brave enough to work with the external hard drive.  I know nothing about it anyhow.

Then photos started popping up.

And it kept going.

It was a program that I wasn't familiar with, but I was lucky enough to have it be pretty easy to navigate.  I was able to transfer all of the photos, they have arranged it in order of date and I transferred the photos that I needed over to Shutterfly.  A photo that would work for our hodge lodge popped up lickety split and I was able to get all arranged and ordered in about an hour and 15 minutes.  (I was being picky, so it wasn't any problem.  I also wanted to check out card options.)

I'm so excited!  I was having a tough time with my cards not being ordered or out.  I'll be able to get them addressed quickly and out in the mail when they arrive.

Hooray!

"A real puppy and a pare of high hells."

A wish list appeared on my pillow shortly after Smudge died.  (It should be noted that the spelling of the post title is the spelling that appears on the wish list.) A real puppy (moreso a pound rescue) is something we've talked about for a while, so it is no surprise that she wanted that.  I did tell her something.

I told Santa no.

There was a second item on her list.  She wanted high heels.  She has wanted high heels for quite some time, but since the child suffers from atrociously narrow feet/heels and a high arch, I have never explored the possibility because, well, shoes hardly ever actually fit her well.  Tennis shoes often have a bit of a heel slide on her.  When she told me, "Mom, I dream of wearing high heels with my Christmas dress," I knew that I had to make that dream come true.  She wasn't asking for something unreasonable or outrageous.  My baby wanted her first pair of heels.

My sister and I went for our traditional Black Friday shopping extravaganza last evening.  I went with an index card in my pocket with the list of things I needed and items that I promised to pick up for other people.  I started out at 11:15 PM and went out to "the farm" as we referred to it all day to get her.  We gathered change, stopped by the Circle K for our half gallons of soda and we were off.  We arrived at Target, found the Brave movies I needed for my MIL and took a funny spin through the shoe department.  Not only did they have "high hells" but they had a strap to keep them on her feet AND! they had her size.  It was like the light shone down and angels themselves were singing the hallelujah chorus.  I grabbed some clearance lip goo (Chapstick) and the requested Q Tips and off and away we went.

We went next door to Kohl's where we spent an hour and 45 minutes in line.  The good news is that I was able to use my $5. Black Friday coupon, 15% off coupon and my Discover Card $15 off $75 coupon and I saved a bundle.  That was delightful!

We pressed on to Walmart which was a big bomb, but I managed to get another box of laundry detergent since I was running low, so it wasn't all for not.  LeAnne cashed in on cheapie jammies for her little man.

We cruised through Dunkin Donuts and being the dork I was, I didn't consider that someone else could possibly be out besides us and almost got plowed into at 3:30 AM by another Black Friday shopper.  She was kind and didn't honk.  Apparently I cut her off pretty bad.  My sister said that she would have every right to be ticked.  I needed food.  I blame the low blood sugar.

We jetted up to the next Target where I decided to bite the bullet and just buy the danged AGesque bed for K-'s American Girl doll.

We went to the mall after that.  The restroom at Sears looks like it belonged at a concert venue that had been ransacked and abused during a multi-day event.  The good news is that they still flushed and that is about the only positive news I could relay.  How can people be such pigs?

Old Navy was a big ole stinkin' pile.  Aeropostale was where my sister had to fill in some holes on her list.  She dragged me into Hot Topic and besides the fact that all of these stores were blaring music at 4 AM, it was bad music.  Really bad music.  Think Pink Floyd rolling through Muzak but with a funky beat.  It was so wrong.  The only sweet thing about Hot Topic was that I scored the Soft Kitty t-shirt that I wanted for a whole $10.  Other than that, the store is one that I will probably never step into again.

Bath and Body Works had nothing.  JCPenney had a gathering of people outside of the gate waiting to get in.  We didn't choose to stand in line to see what the fuss was all about.

We went on to our third Target, where I found the DS game my MIL wanted me to get for her.  I think that the only reason that it was still in stock is because they only had one person in electronics and no one to open the cases.

We went on to Joann Fabrics where there was another steaming pile.  That is really my fault as I didn't read my circular carefully enough to see that what I wanted to purchase was on sale tomorrow.  Snap!

I was able to score a gingerbread house kit at Michael's for about $5.00 and some lovely AG stuffings for K-'s stocking.  They were on the clearance section and I had an additional coupon.

I introduced my sister to the fine, fine land of World Market where I was able to score some additional stocking lovelies for my people.

Since Kohl's somehow lost control of a ring that I bought for my niece, but didn't charge me for it, I went ahead and headed back out to take advantage of their continued sale.  What I bought her still had the early morning extra percentage off sign up and though it didn't ring that, the jewelry counter folks were kind enough to give me that and my additional 15% off.  I scored $15. to spend starting Monday, so I'll probably use that on something for Hubs.

All in all, I call this Black Friday a success, though we did find that it took several trips to stores in different areas to find what we needed.  I spent $248 ($30 of that was for things for my MIL) and I saved $292.  My sister spent $310 and saved $397.  That is why we go out.  We only buy the deals or the can't finds.  We do not camp out for them and I'm not going to get in a knock down drag out fight over something.  I left my house at 11:15 PM, after having only scored 45 minutes of sleep and returned home at 10:30 AM, exhausted and nearly falling asleep while driving.  I would have slept longer than an hour and a half, but my mom called.  Oh well.  Tomorrow is decorating day.  Hubs has been on the ladder hanging lights on the house and re-lighting deer.  We have snow coming down and it is actually accumulating a bit.

Christmas is on its way!

Have a great weekend!

I'm alive!

More importantly, so is my kid.  Second tour of duty on strep with the kids z-pack is working-- I think. 

Thanksgiving was low key, as we stayed home and enjoyed a quiet day together.  I ran to my family dinner, but because I was in charge of rolls, no one else had them and we couldn't have that carb absent from the table. 

My sister and I did Black Friday shopping, which started Thursday night at 11:30 PM.  We went to the wealthier section of town, didn't witness smack-downs, macing, pepper spraying or fighting.  I did find that people would whip around the corner and come full force down the aisle at me (aisle chicken) and I didn't budge.  I was a lot shorter than them, but really-- y'all can hold onto your fanny panties and be polite.  We hit 10 stores in 8 1/2 hours out and we were toast by the time we returned.  We got everything but an external hard drive, which I'm not convinced that Office Max had anyhow.

I worked on decorating the tree after I awoke from my brief slumber and Hubs and K- worked on the outside lights.  We had dinner, I fell asleep sitting up on the couch and all was well. 

Saturday, we took my niece and nephew to Bass Pro Shops for the day.  It was about a 2 hour drive, but they went, they had fun and we were able to lavish a bit of Christmas on them that they haven't had probably ever.  We dropped them off with their bags of loot, came home, worked on the tree some more and fell asleep sitting up on the couch again.

Sunday took us to church, we came home, K- and I baked a pumpkin pie, I worked on the tree, we went to the in-law's for dessert (rescheduled from the Thanksgiving strep quarantine), came home, worked on the tree some more, worked on finding the rest of the house and displaying the rest of Christmas because as I told Hubs, "If it isn't up tonight, it isn't going up," K- went to bed, I watched and watched American Pickers until I felt like I was full of rust in my veins and was climbing into honey holes along with them and went to bed.

That brings me to today.  I work.  Wednesday left me with kind of a crappy sense of funk and I'm hoping not to have that bit of retail replay.  People can be so blasted crabby at the holidays. 

I shall shove off, pack my lunch and put my heart into the right place.  Of course, a can of coke with some pretty caffeine won't hurt matters much, either.

Have a great day!

A big pile of many things.

Accomplished, that is.

This weekend, despite the illness that had overtaken K-'s throat, was quite busy for Hubs and me.  We worked in the yard, cleaning through some of the plants, Hubs worked on clearing the shed out, ditching unneeded stuff (mainly Pergo remnants from last year) and reset everything.  I got the mums planted, trimmed up the ivy that was overtaking one of the basement windows, trimmed up the old mums and the attack rose bush, was finally able to take down the last tomato plant, drained the rain barrel and stowed that away, trimmed the peonies down to the ground, helped Hubs haul leaves for pick-up and helped to get the outside furniture picked up for winter storage.  Whew.

:side note:  K- is feeling back to her ole self.  I should have probably put that first.

I had a goal to have the Christmas card done this weekend.  I had an incident with our photo program about 2 months ago, where I had (what turned out to be 10,993 photos) photos in limbo that I could not find.  You see, we replaced our Kodak Easy Share printer (don't buy one, they are horrible) with a lovely Epson Work Force 630 (I could kiss it and tell it how nice it is to me).  When I removed the Kodak printer out of the computer, it decided to take all of Kodak off and took my Easy Share camera software with it.  That is the software that I use with the Nikon and I had years of photos (many on disk, but not since last Christmas!) that I just could not find after the program decided to take hostages with it. 

I was hating on Kodak Easy Share anyhow, but that really ticked me off.

Back to the subject at hand, right?  Well, I decided that if I re-installed the Kodak Easy Share camera software, perhaps God would smile on me and put the photos back in their proper creature home.

God is good.  He did smile.  My photos are back.  :deep sigh of relief:

It took quite a while to re-install and to import the photos back into the program.  Since the program has had an update or 10 since I originally had it, I fumbled with the workings.  After hours, and I mean hours, of work, I was able to get all the photos off the Nikon, combine photos that I pulled, burn a disk and download them to Shutterfly.  Because I failed to read the fine print, I designed a card that didn't qualify for my free 50 cards, so I had to readjust.  I went ahead and designed a few cards last night, but decided that I would order the cards this AM, when I had a fresh brain.  (We skipped church because of K-'s strep.)  What card did Hubs and I decide on? 



The merry moments collage Christmas card!  You can also get it with green blocks instead of black.

I'm thrilled.  Since what I chose was a flat stationery card, I could give a quick run-down on the back of the card and include one more photo of our family.  It negates the need for the holiday Christmas letter. 

:side note:  Yes, Aunt Patti, I know your fondness of the letter.  I tell you, I got quite a whisker lickin' for the letter last year as I had three women at a family dinner tell me about how depressing my letter was.  It wasn't my aim to list depressing things and have people all funky about them.  My aim was that though crappy crap happened, we were all taken care of, everyone is well and all is good.  Besides, Grandma was dying and I wasn't as chipper as I usually am.  Still, I had people give me a very hard time.  Sheesh.

Now that I have Aunt Patti's note all handled (hi, Aunt Patti!!!), I shall share with you the dealie-do of the day.  I purchased 65 cards.  Of those 65 cards, I had 50 + shipping provided to me for free from Shutterfly for blogging about their Holiday card selection.  I had no problem doing that, of course.  Then, when I received K-'s school photos, there was a $20.00 code for Shutterfly included in there.  On the remaining 15 cards, I was able to apply the 40% discount sale that they are currently running and the $20.00 credit, which left me a balance of $7.05 for a little over $200.00.  Hubs was impressed.  His second question was, "Do people really spend that much for their cards?"  "Yes, there are some.  I'm not one of them."  My sister told me that I was her hero.  God bless her.

I'm now left with a bathroom to clean and laundry to fold and! to put away.  Hubs has been quite the man today and in Mike Holmes style, he pulled the entire dryer and lines out, cleaned them all and put everything back together.  The dryer is running so much faster now.  It really needed a good clean-out and Hubs spent a few hours doing an awesome job.  Now he's tidying the basement.  What a man!

Dinner is in the crock pot and if you'll excuse me, I have a date with a toilet bowl brush. 

Have a wonderful day!

Bulk shopping by phone.

My husband phones me on my cell and says, "I'm at Sam's Club.  Do you need anything?"

"Cheese sticks and lunch meat."

"Do you need anything else?"

:insert non-pregnant pause:

"I can't think of anything."

"If you do, give me a call back."

Suddenly, the thought comes to my mind.  I call Hubs and say, "Give me a call when you get to the feminine products aisle." 

:ring, ring:

"I'm in the feminine products aisle."

"Good!  Do they have Tampax Pearl?"

"Yes."

I go on to continue with the remainder of the make, model and serial number. 

"Yep.  They have it.  They actually have both."

"I have Always," he says. 

"Thin?"

"Ultra thin."

"Wings?"

"I have wings."

"I'm not a big fan of wings, but I can do it.  How much?"

He told me and I can't recall, but I think it was $13.00 or so for 60.

"Don't worry about it.  I can get those elsewhere."

"Oh, wait!  I have Always Maxi!  They are $7.48."

"Thick?"

"I think!"

"Uh, no.  I don't need to feel diapered."

:insert husband laugh:

My husband walked away with two 96 count boxes of tampons for me.  What a man.  Considering that I'm 38 and still have a ways to go with this, I'm thinking that 192 tampons should last me for a while.

"Do we need Purell?" he asked.

"I think so." 

"Ooo!  Go on down to the vitamins and look for K-'s vitamins." 

"Gummy, gummy, gummy, gummy . . . "

"Nope.  No gummy.  She would have to take two and that doesn't save money.  Just look for the average chewable." 

"Ahh!  Flintstone?"

"Yes!  How much?"

It was $13+ and I wasn't willing to pay that much.

"Forget that.  I'll get them somewhere else.  Can you check Calcium with D for me?"

"I have a bottle of 300 for $12.00."

"Well, I just bought a bottle of 60 for $3.99, so that is good."

"Wait!  I just found a bottle!  It's a bigger bottle!  It's 600 for $7.48!"

"Sounds great!"

"What about prenatal vitamins?"  (Again, not pregnant, but I do take prenatals as they have the extra vitamins I need to balance the blood clotting disorders.)

"Centrum, but no prenatal."

"No.  Forget it.  Need the extra vitamins.  I'm good."

"I'm glad that I called back," said Hubs probably relieved that our marathon phone shopping session in the H&BA aisle of Sam's was done. 

What a sport.

Smiles in my day:
-  Getting Hubs hooked on Storage Wars.
-  Catching the last 15 minutes of Along Came Polly with Hubs.

Have a great day!

Everyone is going BOGO these days!

Ice cream overstock sale!  Get 'em before they melt!  The recession!  The recession made me do it!!!

Many thanks to Hubs for bringing this bizarre BOGO to my attention and understanding my need to photograph it.  I heard the music tinkling for a while, but didn't realize that we had a mobile sale.  Oh, how I deemed this completely blog worthy.

Enjoy. 

Yard Sale Day 1: "You got any guns?"



I made this sign last night at midnight so that people wouldn't mistake . . .



. . . this as a party tent.  I came in at 12:10 AM and took a quick tour of the game closet to see what else could be sold. 

These two ladies flitted from house to house today, having a grand time.

The day began with cars beginning to circle at 7:15 AM like vultures.  These are, as we all know, the yard sale die hards.  They race up, sometimes quickly glancing at your offerings only to ask for the following items:

"You got any instruments?" 
"You got any hunting or fishing equipment?"
"You got any old or broken watches?"
"Do you have (this one was proper) a snow blower?"  I told him that the gravel drive pretty much put me out of the running for owning one.
Then, there is my favorite.  "You got any guns?" 

Here's the deal.  The tent was 10 x 20-- two Easy-Ups cable tied together.  You can see that it wasn't the most roomy place in there.  A three second look would tell you all you need to know.  Now, I realize that they were probably hoping that I would go to every cook and nanny in my house (not nook and cranny here-- sorry) to dig up some wonderful treasure for them. 

Nuthin' doin'.

Besides, we are a peace-loving house and in our home, we have no firearms.  The heaviest hitting item we have for self defense is a bubble gum pink aluminum kid-size baseball bat.  I'm good with that.

I had to laugh at the people who shopped ONLY the free box and didn't bother to look at anything else.  A guy came toodling up with his own shopping bag in hand and announced, "This is exactly what I was looking for!"  Grant you, I'm happy to have dispensed of some not necessarily quality items in the free box. 

I had people park in the end of my driveway this morning.  Where I'm sure that in most cases, that would be okay, but we were working with the fact that Hubs was going to need to go to work.  Since street salers tend to stay for a while, I told the gentleman, "Sir, I'm so sorry, but my husband is going to be leaving for work soon."  "WELL, IS HE GOING TO BE LEAVING IN A MINUTE?!"  "No, probably in about 10."  "Well, I'm fine then.  I'll be out of here by then."  It was only the before open crowd that did that and he was the only rude one about it.

I had a lady ask her husband, who was at the side of my house checking the workability of an orbital sander, to bring her some of my tomatoes since the deer ate all of hers.  He didn't, but I did send K- to pick her one.  I told her that it was organic, heirloom and and not genetically modified.  She looked weird at me.  "Well, it won't make you grow a third eye!"  "We'll just have it with our lunch."  Alrighty then.

I had a woman puzzled by K-'s snowshoes that I have for sale.  "What are these?!"  "Snowshoes!"  The look that she gave me was as if I had a third eye.  "Well, we like to snowshoe and hers are too small.  We ordered her new, but I just don't think that people typically snowshoe around here."  Again, she continued with that look.  They are purple and aluminum and I suppose if you are used to the idea of snowshoes being giant tennis rackets, these probably look like weird outer space junk. 

So how did the day end?  We made $45.00, but we've decided to buy the hammock stand that the neighbor has, so now we are down $25.00.  That's okay.  It'll make our hammock experience much better.  We installed the clothesline post a little too close to the fence post, so when we hang in the hammock, we're about an inch or two above the ground.  We suspect that we'll get much more use out of the (as we call it) hamhock if we have the stand instead.

Onward to tomorrow.  I'll try to report back about my progress tomorrow. 

Smiles in my day:
-  There is something that warms my heart about putting out a sign, having people willingly show up to your house, look at your discards, be willing to take them away and will actually pay you for them.  They pay you for junk you no longer desire.  There was a ton of work involved, but I think that it is grand that we make money off of things unusable to us.
-  K- biked the whole way on our walk today, up and down hills, and did great!  I didn't even have to break out any of the band aids that I squirreled away in my pocket.

Being up until 1:15-1:30 AM for the last three nights, then working full days has taken a toll on me.  I'm having a hard time typing.  I'm going in reverse a lot more than I should have to.  I need sleep.

Have a great day!

Dishin' Dinners Day, incredible deals and I blame Pippi

Sunday:  Tacos and rice
Monday:  Macaroni Monday and Kielbasa
Tues/Wed:  Crock-pot turkey tenderloin
Thurs/Fri:  Crock-pot meatloaf, veg and bread sticks (didn't happen last week)
Sat:  Homemade pizza

Since I seem to be fairly well-stocked with food, I decided that I would go to Giant Eagle to take advantage of their double coupons.  I had a bunch of coupons for toothpaste and whatnot.  Between flying past Giant Eagle and a local discounter, I got some pretty good things to restock the linen closet with.

I ended up with three free tubes of Crest toothpaste, one for 50 cents and two Colgate Cinnamon's for $1.25.  I stocked up on deodorant for Hubs and soap for both of us.  I found non-stick foil for our new convection/toaster oven.  It was really expensive, but it was on sale and with a coupon, I paid $1.00. 

At one store, I saved 48%.  (Between sales and coupons.)  In total, I used $19.60 in coupons.  That doesn't include the doubling or the sale prices.  I will say right now, they are all things that we use.  I bought things because I had coupons, but not weird things like lime infused beef jerky with sun dried tomato casing just because I had a coupon.  (I don't think that exists, but it sounded just weird enough.) 

I will also say that we won't need toothpaste for a really long time. 

Now on to Pippi.  We were talking to K- this AM about her lack of loss in the dental area.  She's bummed.  That's when I shared a story. 

When I was a kid, we watched Pippi Longstocking.  One day, Pippi belted someone in the mouth to get their tooth to fall out or something like that.  I decided that it was a grand idea.  I needed money, I still had teeth to lose, so I talked my sister into belting me one.

She belted me.

Nothing happened other than extreme pain and my crying drew my mother's attention.

LeAnne got in trouble for letting me have it.

Hubs' response, "What kind of dysfunctional family did you grow up in?"

"Hey!  We were poor!  It was a way to make money!" 

Smiles in my weekend:
-  We got to spend some time with Hubs' family.  Doesn't happen too often. 
-  My SIL and her husband bought a new house.  They'll be able to move outside of the city, which is a good thing for them.  It is gorgeous and we're very happy for them!
-  Going to Hubs' beaver puppet show yesterday.  K- had a lot of fun!
-  Getting lovely deals!

Grandpa update:
Grandpa was put on a vent the other day and they took him to surgery to put a drain in his lungs.  (Ewww.)  The doctor anticipates him to make a full recovery, but it will be a bit of time for him to get there.  In the meantime, I'm in no race to get to the hospital to be kicked out.  Nothankyou.  I'll pray from here.

Tales from the Trenches: Stocking up for Christmas 2011

For those of you unfamiliar, I shop for Christmas in January.  (Yes, we budget for that and my husband supports it in full.)  I'm happy to say that other than my 18 month old nephew, I have gifts for 28 children purchased for next Christmas and it isn't even mid-January! 

Allow me to answer a few questions that might be coming to mind for you:

1.  I have over thirty children to purchase for.  At the moment, the number is 31.  I have nieces and nephews, friends that we exchange with and K-'s siblings.  There are generally a few more that pop up during the year.  Don't ask me how.  I think that they just grow from my woodwork.
2.  I have a limit of $5.00 and under per child.
3.  I only buy something that I consider to be a good quality gift.  No use in filling people's houses with things that will break the first time that the kids use them.
4.  I have several children that fall into different age groupings.  I often purchase in bulk stacks.
5.  I keep a sheet with me and fill it in while I'm shopping, right in the store aisle.  I have it saved on the computer and I update it with the item purchased and amount spent.
6.  I have a gift shelf in the basement that I keep organized with all the gifts that I purchase.  I label each with the name, occasion and amount spent.  Each item is detagged, labeled and placed on the shelf. 
7.  I usually buy all the birthday gifts that I know I need for the year in January, as well.  Yes, I generally have a few slosh pieces.  I've saved both my mom and sister with extras that I had.  Sadly, I had to use up most of my extras this year with the 5 additional gifts that I needed to contribute to family Christmas Eve, so that we made sure that all the children had the same number of gifts to open.  That's okay.  At least I had them!

This year, I did particularly well.  At first, I have to admit that I was a little afraid.  The clearances weren't looking so good.  Target is my go-to.  So is Joann Fabrics.  Neither one delivered on my first run.  Target did redeem themselves and I was able to get a hunk of things taken care of.

Let's get to it, shall we?  You want to know what I got, don't you?

1.  Red Toolbox Christmas Carol Building Kit for 8 children (one for K-).  Miss Patti was pretty impressed when K- brought her own tools to Build and Grow.  She told me to check out the kits marked down for $2.98. This kit was originally marked for $14.98.  Wow!
2.  Rose Art Modeling Clay Activity Kit for 7 children.  This was a Target buy of the day.  I admit that while this retailed at $4.99, they were marked down to 64 cents.  Yes, I sound cheap and cheesy, but I'm good with that.
3.  Littlest Pet Shop Postcard Pets for 2 children for 2 separate occasions.  They were marked down to $2.52 from $5.00 each.  Two girls are getting two each for Christmas, one is getting 2 for Easter and one is getting 2 for her birthday.
4.  Aqua Sand.  Three parents will be hating me for this.  I did score these for $3.48 each and they looked just fun enough for boys to flood the kitchen table out for.  Look next year for blog posts about the hate mail I've received.
5.  Chocolate Bath Sets.  5 young ladies will be receiving these lovely bags (already holiday wrapped!) with chocolate scented bath gel, lotion, bath pouf and felt ornament.  They were originally $12.50 at Kohl's, but were marked to $2.50.  I would have liked it when I was in the tween/early teen years.

I was able to get puzzles for my niece (one a scented Candy Land puzzle!), Yule Jewels OPI nail polish set for $2.50 for one of K-'s sisters, an Iron Man lego-type boat for one of our friend's son and CD book sets that I had purchased this fall for the upcoming babies.  I bought a few half price ornaments for children of a friend of mine.  I was also able to feed in the puzzles and activity wipe books that I purchased off the Target $1.00 marked-down-to-25-cents rack for a niece.  They are spiffy and don't have that dollar rack look or feel.  I was also able to score an Uno game for a somewhat difficult-to-buy-for boy for $1.00.  Turns out that he loves the game, took his home, so now he can keep this one at his dad's house.  The report was that he'll be thrilled.

My total spent?  $68.10.  The budget that I was hoping for?  $100.00.  I've even been able to fill in several birthday gifts!  The average gift price is about $2.50, and that is great!  Even better?  My grand total would have been $280.76.  Yes internet, that is a savings of $212.66.  HOORAY!  It's so good to be able to skip the retail market for gifts for almost the rest of the entire year by just shopping for a week or two in January.

Smiles in my day:
-  My husband leaving me an excited message on my cell that we had birds at our new bird feeding area.  It's the little things, you know?
-  One day of inventory down.
-  The great neighborhood that we live in with wonderful neighbors that surround us.

Have a great day!

While the icing sets and the bath water runs . . .

A quick post.

I managed to complete getting the items needed for K-'s Christmas gift from me.  I needed to have a leisurely stroll through the craft store.  (AKA without child.)  Today was the day.  I went to the mega locally owned craft store and found some wonderful wooden kits to include with K-'s tool kit.  They were on sale for a dollar a piece, which was a wonderful surprise.  She'll be able to build a western fort, a log cabin, an antique car, a bird house, a doll (that she'll be able to clothe from my scraps) and a primitive snowman that she can paint and accessorize.  I bought some glue and nails to include in her kit.  Hubs wanted me to get her a hack saw, but I'm holding out for a little while on that one.  Let's see how she does with his. 

The house is cleaned and just needs a dusting.  The laundry is washed and dried.  It is presently heaped on my bed so that I can fold it.  That will be done this evening and tomorrow I will do clothing distribution.  I'll be back on the line drying band wagon.  I always fall off in December, but I don't think that is that bad considering that I line dry all the rest of the year. 

I stopped by the grocery to pick up items to make ramen noodle coleslaw for tomorrow night and broccoli cheese casserole for Christmas lunch at my parents house.  I'll be making homemade granola and taking along a tub of vanilla yogurt to add to the Christmas breakfast that we'll be having at my in-law's. 

This evening, we've kicked back and decided to watch Elf.  Polar Express was on and yikes.  I just can't do it. 

I've made plans with Aunt Donna to stop by and visit tomorrow.  She threatened me not to bring anything into her house for a gift, so I will be verbally telling her that we'll be taking her out to lunch to a restaurant of her choosing for a Christmas gift.  Dealing with Grandma's apartment clearing has gotten my aunt to really clear out the items that she has amassed over the years.  Considering that I'm the one that will be given the task when her time comes, I appreciate all of her efforts now more than she could possibly know.

A goofy thing that possibly only Rachael and Sissy could appreciate.  I had two good curly hair days.  I mean, it was curly hair down with nothing pinning it up and out of my face or anything.  Call that a Christmas miracle all and of itself. 

While on the hunt through the party box this week for supplies for the birthday extravaganza, I found my container of simmering spices.  Right now, my house smells of a delightful mix of cinnamon sticks, whole allspice, star anise and cloves.  Delightful.  I promised Hubs that we can throw the contents of the simmering pot away on Monday, so as to avoid growing the awful mold that seems to bloom rather quickly on my resting spice mixture.

With that, a bath awaits me as my husband builds the gingerbread structure.  I made the icing and have readied the candy pieces.  When I build it, it collapses.  Somehow, a gingerbread tenement doesn't scream Christmas cheer. 

Have a great night! 

A handful of days that involve lots of bon bons.

Really, notsomuch. 

I had many days filled to the brim with much to do.  Let's see.

Tuesday: 
Worked all day, then came home, did homework with K- and made chocolate/chocolate chip bar cookies with her for the PTA cookie drive.  Our post office has an orphan Thanksgiving for all those living around here that have no family to spend the holiday with. 
Wednesday:
Did that thing called work all day.  Came home and started some prep for Thanksgiving.  Got rolls on the rise and baked two pumpkin pies.  They always take longer than I anticipate.  They never take the 45 - 50 minutes that they say.  Hubs and I watched the Biggest Loser update show while we smelled them baking.  Well, it was only me smelling them as Hubs' cold had reached the point that tasting and smelling no longer occurred. 
Thursday:
Got up at 7 AM to start the prep to get the turkey in the oven by 8 AM.  Turkey got in the oven by 8:15 AM.  As I prepped the turkey, I baked 3 1/2 dozen dinner rolls and a double pan of corn bread.  As the turkey cooked, I steamed potatoes (a few carrots, too) to mash, prepped the cornbread stuffing to bake, steamed some fresh green beans and got glazed carrots rolling along.  Hubs was feeling a bit under the weather, so he stayed home.  He didn't want to share his cold.  K- and I had lunch with my parents and dessert with Hubs' parents.  I got home, got my ads together and took a two hour nap.
Thursday evening:
Left at 11:15 PM to go get my sister for shopping.  Worth noting, it was 44 F when I left.
Friday:
We were at Walmart at 12:05 AM.  Their sale started at 12:01 AM.  All DS and Wii games were wiped out before I reached the cardboard carcass of a rack.  We scored some $4.00 jammies and my sister got some $5.00 fleece coats.  We stood in a long line to cash out, but everyone was kind.  No gun involved this time! A highlight this year was that my sister's partner decided to call her 7 different times.  I mean, he called to tell her that L- was crying.  He called back to have L- scream in the phone.  He called to ask when we were coming.  He called to ask where we were at.  He called to ask if we had left.  He called to have L- scream in the phone, again.  He called again and by that point I announced loudly, "IT'S THE 7TH CALL!"  We were in the store for about an hour.  My sister turned so that she could keep talking with him.  When we left, I drove her back home, watched a couple of episodes of Cake Boss (boy that guy is obnoxious!  I had never watched him and don't think that I could.) before going out on my own at 2:45 AM.  I hit Kohl's and stood in line for an hour.  I then drove to Target about a half hour away, fetched the items that my sister was going to buy but wasn't allowed to leave the house for.  I went to Joann Fabrics after that and scored myself a steamer iron presser thingy to use on K-'s uniforms, as well as some odds and ends that I cannot remember right this second.  I went from their to our local mall to hit Big Lots.  They had nothing left of the Zhu Zhu pets that they had advertised on sale.  After all, I was there 1/2 hour after they opened.  Who could expect anything to be left?  I decided to slide on over to that Target to use the $10.00 gift card that I earned at the previous Target for spending over $100.00.  I figured that I bought things for two people, combined them to make the $100.00 and since I stood in line, it was a reward for me.  I used that card to buy K- a robe that I'll use as gift wrap for her birthday gifts.  I hopped on over to Toys R Us, found absolutely nothing and drove on to Lowe's in a completely different section of town so that I could get Hubs the light spikes that he was longing for.  I, being a good wife, decided to give him a call to let him know I was there.  He then needed another extension cord.  Then he needed two additional sets of lights.  Then he needed a drill.  A new drill.  A drill that was on sale for "Only $99.00, but it was originally $199.!"  Reluctantly, I picked it up for him, knowing that we have a couple of other drills at home.  I scored a poinsettia for me, a set of tools for me to gift to K- and I was out of there.  Since I was so close and I was still riding high on an additional 15% discount from Kohl's, I went on an undergarment replacement mission.  I caught sight of the fact that they were on sale when I was in the never ending line at the previous Kohl's, but without my sister, I couldn't abandon my post with my belongings and expect people to save my place.  Besides, I didn't want to explain to a stranger that I had an undergarment let go earlier the previous week and I really needed to replace it, especially in light that they were 50% off and I had an additional discount.  After scoring at Kohl's -- again-- I had to stop by Joann's to return the tool box that I now didn't need since the tool set I bought K- conveniently comes with a tool bag and apron.  I called my sister, told her that she owed me $50.00 more for more presents that I scored for her and that I was dropping her things off.  She was thrilled.  She kept saying, "You saved me $55.00!"   She also promised to have my nephew weaned before next year.  I made my way home and none too soon.  I was starting to fall asleep on the way there.  It was 9:30 AM, I had been out since 11:15 PM and a cold front came in as I was out and about.  By the time I reached home, it was light out and a crisp 27 degrees.  Hubs and K- understood my collapsing in bed exhausted.  I laid down at 10 AM with the intention of sleeping just an hour and woke up three hours later.  Hubs and K- had put the tree up, so it was my task to start the decorating.  I was still so tired and spent that I started it, but the task had to roll on over to Saturday.
Saturday:
Stayed home all day and decorated the tree with K-.  Yes, it was an all day affair. My tree?  Some branches have 3-4 ornaments per.  It is a study in engineering.  Can I really get that much stuff to go on that amount of fake greens?  It takes a bit of work.  I think that we watched Girl with a Pearl Earring, Year Without Santa Claus, Santa Claus is Coming To Town, The Toy that Saved Christmas,The Star of Christmas and one of the Home Alones that involved a kid that was not MC.  Every now and then, I must walk away for a few to uncross my eyes.  By 10 PM, I put the finishing touches on.  Part of the time it takes rolls into a walk down memory lane.  It always takes a while.
Sunday:
Went to Bass Pro Shops.  We had a drive ahead of us, but we got there by 10:30 AM.  Hubs took K- to enjoy their Winter Wonderland as I did some much needed shopping for him for Christmas.  K- enjoyed the activities, she took an absolutely awesome picture with Santa, made a "Bobber Santer," had lunch and before we left, we got some ice cream.  I had pumpkin with bits of graham crackers and pumpkin.  Oh, it was lovely!

A funny thing to note:  I noticed that they had gift wrapping tables set up with paper, scissors and tape.  "Oh!  You have gift wrapping!"  The cashier apologized that their gift wrappers weren't there.  "Would it be okay for me to wrap the gifts that I purchased here today?"  "Oh, sure!  It's not a problem.  Just have your receipt with you."  So K- and I went out, fetched my gifts and went back in.  I hurried up and wrapped them, got ready to go and the blasted alarm went off.  The guard lady stopped me and said, "Well, since your packages set the alarm off and we DON'T have gift wrappers on duty today, I'll just have to unwrap all your packages."  "Are you serious?"  "Well, I have to see what is going off."  "I have receipts for all I purchased.  I have four things.  I have four things on the receipts.  I swear I didn't steal anything."  Someone else went through, set the alarm off with the motorized cart and she let us go.  We dropped the things off in the car, then went to track something down for K- to buy for Hubs.  She found her thing, we picked up pictures that we had developed, went to the counter, paid for all and quickly wrapped up her item.  The guard lady came through and said, "Well, let me check and make sure that it doesn't set anything off.  Make sure that you hide the scissors because we really aren't encouraging people to wrap their gifts."  "I'm so sorry.  The cashier told me it was fine!"  For the love that is all good and right with the world.

When I reported being stopped by the guard at the door, I was teasing when I told Hubs that, "They were gentle, though."  I was so kidding and he seriously thought I really had been patted down and searched! 

Today we brought The Elf on the Shelf home with us.  His name is Buddy.  He has brown hair, blue eyes and he is currently resting with the Christmas books awaiting his child to find him in the morning.  K- read the book to us tonight and totally got into the whole thing.  Let's see how it works.

In the last few days, we've managed to get our whole house decorated and Hubs even gave me beautiful woodwork around both kitchen windows as a holiday bonus.  Go Hubs!

I have some turkey that I need to freeze, so I'm going to scadoodle here.  Besides, there is a half gallon of caramel cone ice cream calling my name.

Smiles in my week off:
-  Listed above. 

Have a great day!

Because a great deal makes me feel as if I have battled the retail beast.

Y'all, I feel like I'm super-power Santa Mama.  The one and only big thing that K- has been asking for is a Nintendo DS.  Now, Hubs bought me one last year at the resale store.  It was basically an open box thing, but being a kid, we wanted to get a new one so that the warranty went along with.  I was depending upon Black Friday to make that happen for me, but the only place that had it listed for sale was Walmart. 

I'm not a huge fan.  Especially on Black Friday.  Last year, there was a family trying to swindle the cashier.  They were switching things out, having her ring things up, taking them off, wanting more, not having enough cash, no try this card, well take that off . . .  It ended up being that she had 3 additional co-workers watching over the transaction AND! a guard in uniform WITH! her hand on her gun. 

Isn't that a warm and fuzzy feeling? 

Given that, my sister and I swore to never again deal with the monster that is Walmart during Black Friday.  I'm more of a Target shopper all the way around anyhow. 

Target?  It was my ticket to present-purchasing happiness.

I was looking through my late-to-arrive-on-my-doorstep issue of the Sunday newspaper and like a vision, there it was in the Target ad.  The Nintendo DSi was on sale for $119.00.  (Savings of $30.00.)  That made me extra excited since I had $60.00 in Target gift cards that I had earned from My Points to use for K-'s Christmas gifts anyhow.  Let us review my deal, shall we?

Nintendo DSi -  $149.00

Target sale    -      30.00

Target price  -     119.00

My Points     -      60.00

Balance due   -    $59.00

Now, between tax and the very nominal shipping cost (sadly, this one didn't qualify for the $50.00 and up free shipping, but it was only $4.44), in the end it was $71.50.  That, my friends, is cheaper than the $89.00 that Walmart had the DS Lite for and that isn't even figuring in the 6.5% tax on top of it.

The upside?  I'm thrilled that I have this purchased.  I wanted to purchase her a camera and this one has one (or two I think I read) included.  We can purchase the games used (Hubs handles that) and the Leapster you can't.  Have you checked what some games are going for on eBay lately?  Eeek! 

The downside?  It's white.  It is the only color choice available.  I will be able to wipe it down and K- is a pretty careful kid with stuff. 

A note to Target about a downside:
Please consider moving your customer service to THIS COUNTRY as opposed to India.  The young woman talking to me didn't understand what I was trying to tell her when I was asking how to input my gift cards.  In the end, I finally taught your customer service agent how to help anyone else who might encounter the problem.  Also, when she started helping me, she was without a computer.  It's kind of difficult to help someone with an internet order when you don't have access to the internet yourself.  Just sayin'.  This is not the first time that I have encountered issues with your overseas customer service.  2 1/2 years ago, I was trying to buy two Britax Regent car seats, because they were not available in store.  The young man I talked to finally gave in and took care of the problem when I announced the massive sum I was spending on two car seats.  Please, oh please, give Americans these jobs. 

So there we go.  K-'s necklace arrived just yesterday and it is beautiful.  Of course, Mrs. Claus made that.  All I need to do is to pick up a box of Fuzzoodles at the local craft store and I'm done with the three gift process that is K-'s Christmas.  They are $6.00 at the craft store and she just loves them.

I feel shoppingly accomplished.  Believe me, I know it's not about a stuff thing.  We really wanted to get her something nice and she is now old enough to appreciate it. 

Smiles in my weekend:
-  My sister is feeling so much better.  A friend came over and gave her a chiropractic adjustment.  She also took her truck (High Ho Silver rides again!) for a ride down the driveway and to the bus stop.  She made it, but got nervous when another car was coming towards her.  I told her that will happen from time to time and that she has to get back in the saddle before the snow flies.  She was able to go to the tow yard to retrieve her purse and she got a really good look of what she walked out of.  Oh my.
-  I've accomplished writing ye ole Christmas letter (hey Aunt Patti!) and I've made K-'s birthday invites this evening.  We found some stupendously gold glittery paper at the craft store that makes her invites look like lovely golden tickets.  Now grant you, it took three gluing options to finally get the printed portion to stick, but Zots to the rescue!
-  As soon as I hit publish, I will be assembling and addressing Christmas card envelopes.  The Christmas cards that also include a birthday invite (gotta save on postage!), I do believe will call for additional postage.  I'll take a ride past the post office to purchase my stamps and to confirm my stamply thoughts.  I took an Excedrin Migraine at about 3 PM and still feel myself going strong.  It'll be a long night, so why not put all that energy to good use? 

Have a great day!

Trick "R" Treat

Just letting you know that today from 12 - 3 PM, Toys R Us is having their Trick "R" Treat.  They have a nice little parade throughout the store and giveaways for the kids.  We've gone in years past and had a lot of fun. 

No, no one asked me to post about this.  I just did because it is a nice, FREE activity to do! 

Have a great weekend!

What Dominion giveth, US Bank taketh away.

I phoned Dominion the other day to discuss the excessive amount that I have tucked away in budget payments.  They agreed and they decided to have me skip my budget amount for August, then run a budget payment of $40.00 until the amount is gone.  We'll re-evaluate it in the winter. 

Believe me, that time is coming up quick and the budget excess will be eaten up quickly when it does come. 

So, that left me with a happy extra $115.00 in my account, right?  Um, no.

I got the mail today, thumbed through, found a few cards and an envelope that says in red capitals, "TIME SENSITIVE ESCROW INFORMATION ENCLOSED."  I was on the phone with my friend.  "Oh, goodie!  I hope that I get another check like I did last year!"

Um, no. 

Basically what it said was that I had an escrow shortage of $88.12.  I know that we passed a library levy and it may be partially a generalized increase in property tax.  Home values dipped for a while and I believe that they rebounded a little.  It makes sense and I'm not arguing about it, but there goes a hunk of the extra I thought I had.

Ooo!  To add more fun into the mix, my husbands car decided to blow a power steering line, get a leak in the gas line tubing somewhere and needs another brake replaced.  Since the power steering and gas replacement parts are dealer-only, we paid the dealership that we hate and I thought that we fired $256.00 for the parts.

Ouch. 

On another small financial bit, we've been readying K- for the beginning of her very first soccer season.  I admit that I went into this not knowing what shoes or socks or whatever else she might need.

They may have seen me coming.

After dinner Thursday, we followed my in-law's to a big box sporting goods store.  We went in, found the shoes and though the first pair weren't in stock, a comparable pair were and that was good with me.  I told the girl that we needed socks.  She grabbed some, told us they were the right size and we went onward.  I found shorts and a dry fit shirt.  (Think cheap version of Under Armor.)  I was so tired from hospital duty with mom and I was in a glazy haze.  The bill ended up ringing to $31.00ish, I signed and I went on my way.  I always check bills before I leave and I was so tired that it escaped me. 

I got home and found that I was overcharged on two of the three items that I purchased. 

I went to another store, found shorts for $8.00 cheaper and I decided to take everything back.  When I went to return, I decided to check out the socks to see if there was a size of sock that would work for more than just this year and there were.  They were on clearance and spanned size for a couple of years.  They were $3.00 cheaper than the socks that the associate handed to me.  I was an idiot.  I didn't even double check.

When I reached the register, I explained to the gentleman that I was returning two of the three items because of being overcharged.  "Well, I can get you a sale price on those."  "No, I'm sorry but you've lost the business."  "What about 50%?"  "Uh, no."  "What about 80%"  [I was stunned.  I didn't mean to be car dealershipping the guy.]  "Uh, I'll take the shirt for 80% off." 

The shirt ended up ringing for $3.00 when the original price was $15.00.  I was able to get the clearance socks for $3.97 instead of $5.99 (though the original pair purchased were $7.00) and I found shorts at another big box for $4.00 instead of $11.99.  By taking the stuff back and politely complaining, I saved myself $20.00.

We did cruise by the local Hallmark to get a little somethin' somethin' for my mom.  They had 75% off, with an additional 20% off this weekend.  The items we bought her would have been $24.00, but they were $5.11.  Who knew we could take a giftie for so cheap?

So, have you found any good deals or any bad register goofs lately?  Feel free to share or vent.

Smiles in my day:
-  Mom continues her road to recovery.  We went to visit her today and she had her hair pinned up (it had been flipping in her face) and she put make-up on while we were there.  She said that she ate a decent dinner (clear liquids, of course) and that her nausea seems to be letting up a bit.  I was glad to hear that.

Have a great weekend!

Tales from the Trenches: A shared coupon

Mom gave me a $10.00 off $10.00 coupon for JC Penney's tonight.  We have what I call the "free-standing JC Penney" down the street.  It is in a little strip mall and really doesn't fit the strip, but we have it and a few times a year I go in.

I looked at uniform pieces and what not.  Truly, there was nothing overly stunning that K- needed to have.  We have her set with that stuff, so I decided to look for tights or shoes.  No tights, but they had a rack of clearance shoes.

I was able to get her a $30.00 pair of tennis shoes that were marked to $11.99 for a whole $2.13 (including tax.)  I bought the next size up.  She has three pair of size 1 and she's not quite in them yet.  I figure that the shoes aren't going to expire and for $2.13, I'm happy to put them up and wait.

Smiles in my day:
-  Brownies, cake and ice cream-- all the day before a cholesterol test!  :O
-  The temperature is 66 F right now (10:10 PM Mon night) and that is delightful sleeping weather.  There is a breeze and Thursday is supposed to be 72F as a high!  Fall is truly my absolutely favorite season and I feel it around the corner.  HOORAY!  It's been a really hot summer!

Have a great day!

I couldn't help but to share the lovely deals.

We visited the thrift store today.  Hubs worked late.  K- and I had some time to kill and Hubs was down to one pair of shorts for work.

We needed to fix that situation.

Aside from purchasing Hubs three pair of khaki shorts for $4.50, a pair of denim shorts for me for $1.00, a couple of pairs of jammie pants for less than $2.00 and a Land's End fleece nightgown for K- for winter for $2.00, we cashed in on the kids game and book section.

What's Gnu?  Would have been $19.99, but we paid $1.25.  It is missing one letter tile, but I thought that was completely doable since they are three letter words anyhow.

Scrabble Junior (Brand new-- Still sealed in the box) Would be $15.99, but we paid $2.00.

Veggie Tales Minnesota Cuke 100 piece puzzle (Though the box is open, it appears completely brand new and yes, I did count the pieces in the store.)  Sticker on the side from Berean says $4.99.  We paid 20 cents.

Animal Antics "Now I'm Reading!" for beginning readers 10 phonics books- short-vowel sounds  (Seems very lightly used and the Border's price tag on the back says $14.99.)  We paid 25 cents.

Maya and Miguel The Lucky Easter Hat Level 2  Price is $3.99, but we paid 25 cents.

A Child's Book of Birds (An old library book, but one worth having for K-.)  25 cents.

And for my nieces and nephew I found:

Camp Rock, The Junior Novel (For my 9 year old niece) Price tag $4.99, but paid 25 cents.

Once Upon a Potty- Boy (For my 16 month old nephew) Price tag $5.99, but paid 25 cents.

Frog on a Log Phonics Reader (For my soon-to-be a first grader niece) Price tag $6.95, but paid 25 cents.

With all that I bought, I paid a hair above $15.00, but I really think that I cashed in!  :)  Had to share my finds! 

(This is my second post for the day, so read on.)

The success of my yard sale.

A quick 7:15 AM shot before the crazy day of Friday began.

It always amazes me that you can take a bunch of needless-to-you items, slap them on some tables and whatnot in your yard, people WILL come and WILL pay you for your stuff.  I love it. 

I'll start with what you really want to know.  How much did I make?  $276.00.  That is not at all a bad haul.  My plans for the cash that we raised is to take $150.00 to purchase K- a savings bond towards her college education and the remaining to go into kitchen spiff stuff. 

The sale started before the sale.  My neighbor told me that he would list our Burley Cub Bike Trailer on Craig's List.  I'd never done Craig's List before and frankly, it has gotten a bit of a bad rap from some bad apples out there.  In the end, the gentleman who said that he wanted it came with his wife and 4 1/2 month old daughter.  They are so excited.  He paid us $100.00 for it, when we know darned well that we would have never fetched that from having a yard sale alone.  Thanks, Don!  (Yes, the sale of the bike trailer is included in the total amount above.)

We were all out on Thursday night setting up.  Hubs was able to borrow two EZ-Up tents for us (no garage) and some tables.  As we were setting up, a guy and his wife came through to see if they could look.  It was dark, I was getting eaten alive by mosquitoes and couldn't believe that he was actually for real.  Well, and we looked like the big top circus had come to town. 

After he left, Hubs went in with K-, had her taking a bath and it started to rain.  Hubs insisted that it wasn't supposed to but it did and rather vigorously for a bit.  Since we had two 10 x 10 tents cable tied together, it leaked down the seam where they were butted together.  One place on the roof gathered water and I had to stand up to push it off, as it was leaking on my stuff.  Over all, most things remained dry and I was thankful to have the opportunity to set up the night before.

Friday morning started bright und earlie (as we say in our house.)  I was out wiping things off and getting things ready to go before 7 AM.  Sure enough, our first folks came through at 7:15 AM.  There was a slow, but steady flow from there.  I had a woman at about 8 AM (our sale was actually set to start at 9) ask me, "How firm are you on that price for the stroller?"  I was selling a Baby Trend Expedition Jogging Stroller.  I had researched it online the night before.  I knew what a new one was worth.  ($139.00)  "I'm very firm.  It's just the start of sale and technically, the sale hasn't really even started yet."  "Oh."  I had another guy in later.  "I'll give you $15.00 for your stroller."  (I had it tagged at $25.00.)  "I'll take $22.00."  "You mean that you won't take $15.00."  "It's a $140.00 stroller."  He started some mumbling and grumbling at me.  "Well sir, I know what I have and I know what it is worth."  He told me that he would be back at end of sale on Saturday.  You'd be glad to know that the stroller did sell for $25.00 without a quibble.  Many women came in and told me that it was a wonderful price. 

This past fall, I purchased a big wooden disk swing for K-.  Hubs was thinking that he was going to build her a play set, but in the end the nice Amish men sold us one for basically we would have paid to build one.  The disk swing didn't work on it, though.  Hubs tossed it into our pile on Thursday night and I plunked a $15.00 tag on it.  A woman offered me $10.00.  She was stunned when I wouldn't take $10.00.  "Ma'am, this is a $33.00 swing that I bought in anticipation of building a swing set for our daughter.  We bought an Amish set instead and this didn't work with it.  I'll take $13.00."  She paid $13.00 for it and I admit that in the end, I at least broke even.  She didn't really need to know that I bought it on clearance for $13.00.

This past spring, we had some internet issues.  The neighbor had us purchase a wireless antenna and a range expander.  In the end, we couldn't use them and couldn't return them because of Best Buy being a horrible place to purchase things.  On the antenna, I had marked that we paid $50.00 and marked it to $30.00.  "I'll give you $20.00 for the antenna."  "I'll take $25.00."  The man looked at me stunned.  "Sir, I bought those new this spring.  We couldn't use them and couldn't return them because they were in an open box.  At $25.00, you get it at 1/2 price."  He bought it.

The one big sale that delights me most is the sale of my Coach bag.  That bag was snagged by my mother-in-law from my sister-in-law's garage sale in Chicago.  She had all of her Coach bags for sale for $2.00 each.  (Insane, I know.)  I carried the bag for 7 years.  My sister-in-law had carried it previous to that.  In the end, for what was probably a 12 year old bag that I lovingly mink-oiled prior to the sale, I sold it.  I had it tagged for $25.00, which Hubs thought was ridiculous for a bag at a yard sale.  The lady asked me, "Would you consider taking $20.00 for the Coach bag?"  "Oh, absolutely!"  She was thrilled.  She had her money and her cell in her hand, put her belongings in the bag, put it directly on her body, paid me and went away happy.  I did mention to her that I swore that it was real.  "Oh, I could see that!"  We were both happy.  It was making me no money by sitting in my closet.  It needed to go. 

My mother-in-law was funny.  She put some items in the yard sale for me to sell, which I picked up on Wednesday.  I was up until 2 AM Thursday morning pricing and evaluating my own items, as well as re-pricing my mother-in-law's items.  She had a baby gate marked to $1.50, which I re-priced to $7.00.  She had bed rails marked way too cheap, too.  She laughed that I sold them for the higher price with no quibbling.

What I found most interesting is that Friday was by far way busier than Saturday.  Friday had such a constant flow that it was difficult to even eek in time to run to the bathroom.  It rained off and on on Friday, which left me to putting the sides up and down on the tents. 

A funny end to my Friday was one lady who seemed to need a lot of assistance.  She needed me to explain everything.  Then, she got to the bag of wine bottles I had out for free.  (I was going to craft with them, but never had the time.)  She wanted to know if I had any from Italy.  I did find one, then she wanted a green one.  I dug through the free bag o' bottles and found her a green one.  "How much are they?"  "They are free."  "Oh, well, do you at least have the corks for these?!"  "Um, no.  They are free."  So after we dealt with that, I asked if she wanted a bag.  "Yes and wrap those bottles up well so that they don't clang around in my car as I'm driving."  Really?  I did wrap them with a little paper, was struggling to get them in the bag, but she offered not a spot of help.  I took a deep breath and wished her a great day of shopping. 

At about 3 PM on Saturday, I started parting pieces of yard sale leftoverness into bags for people that we knew.  Bethany got a bag, as did Lena and Julianna (her brand new baby sister), Grace and Anna.  We delivered all but Anna's, but did leave hers at church with her grandparents.  I packed up boxes of homegoods into the back of the RAV.  Don, the neighbor who organized the sale, asked where we were going.  I told him to the Goodwill drop and asked him if he wanted me to take anything.  He loaded me down with about 50 pressed and starched dress shirts (he is a retired Dean from one of the local colleges) and a couple mink coats.  I drove them up to the Goodwill drop and started carrying things to the man in the drop trailer.  "Don't you have any bags?"  "No."  [insert humph from him]  I carried the shirts in chunks because they were heavy.  I then started carrying one of the two boxes of homegoods over.  It was a big box and one top flap that I had been carrying was giving way.  "You know, you guys can't bring boxes overflowing like that!  Those are entirely too heavy!"  I tried to ignore him, but he kept grumbling.  I carried the next box over and placed it on the floor of the trailer.  He was humphing and belly aching.  "Sir, I'm not even 5'1" and I'm about 125 pounds and somehow I can manage to carry these things over to you just fine."  "But I have to lift them above my head," says the trailer attendant who wasn't wearing his attendant shirt, but rather a button down shirt that was left unbuttoned and flapping in the wind.  I walked to my truck grumbling about how you would think that he would be pleased that we were donating.  I walked back to the stairs and stood there.  "Yes?"  [add a snotty tone] "Um, do you still give out receipts?"  "Oh, yes." Really?  This is the first time that I've gone to this Goodwill drop in the nearly 11 years that we have owned our home that I've been treated like this.  He never left the trailer.  Never offered to help unload anything and complained about everything.  Don called later to see how the drop went.  I told him and he called me later to say that he had e-mailed Goodwill about the attendant.  I have to truly tell you that if they remain having that man as an attendant, I will be taking my donations elsewhere.  Ugh.

My neighbor went up to the Goodwill drop today to leave off some more items.  He ended up discussing the matter with the attendant there, who happened to be the supervisor.  He said that he'll be writing up the problem.  I certainly don't want anyone to lose their job, but if you are being paid to take donations for a place that depends upon donations to resell to help those in need, don't be so mean and unhelpful!  The neighbor told the attendant that he considered leaving his items at another donation drop and he asked him please not to.  I do believe that the matter has been officially handled.

In the end, I find myself exhausted, but pleased.  K- had a brownie stand.  She sold brownies for 25 cents a piece and ended up pulling in almost $18.00.  She learned valuable lessons on making a product, packaging to sell, the disappointment that not everyone wants your product, and the need to make change.  She ended up taking her profit (I told her it was all hers to spend as she wanted) to Hallmark and took advantage of their 60% off Zhu Zhu pet sale.  She managed to purchase 3 additional Zhu Zhu pets and a truck with a surf board for just a handful of change more than she made.  We now have Jilly (the one she already owned), Scoodles, Nugget and Winkie living with us.  It is the most bizarre toy, but she loves them and we are thankful that we accidentally found out about the clearance sale that they had. 

Smiles in my weekend:
-  Listed above. 

Have a great day!

Price check on aisle 2.

This past weekend, we were on our way back up from the Franklin Park Conservatory in Columbus. We stopped in some miscellaneous town to pick up a few odds and ends from their Super Wal. While we shopped, I found a display of full-sized Mitre soccer balls (yes, football to the folks elsewhere) marked to $5.00 each. Hubs accidentally over-inflated (exploded) K-'s soccer ball at Christmas when he was trying out the new air compressor that our lovely neighbor bought him. $5.00 was the perfect price for a daddy-oops replacement.

We went to the register and I was emptying the basket. Hubs went back to replace the box of plastic forks that exploded and asked when he came back what the soccer ball rang to. I hadn't paid attention, but told him that I was going to have the cashier check it after she was finished.

As she was ringing, the box of forks rang up to $2.50. They were on a big middle aisle display with a large sign above them saying $1.12. When I mentioned the price difference to the cashier, she huffed at me. (I was very polite.) She did change the price with a little extra attitude tossed in for fun.

At the end, our bill was markedly higher than we expected. Why was that? Because the soccer ball rang up at $18.86.

"I'm sorry Ma'am, but that soccer ball was supposed to be $5.00."

"Well I can't change THAT for you!"

"Oh, I don't expect that you could. That seems like more money than you can fix."

"Do you want me to take it off then?"

"Um, I'd really like it for $5.00."

(Insert look with eyes crossed.)

"Is there anyway you could do a price check?"

"No, I can't!"

"Is there anyone who could?"

So, she did some code thingy that called some miscellaneous person from the back halls somewhere who was just as enthusiastic about a price check as she was. After Hubs gave her specific directions as to where the ball was, it took her about 10 minutes to return.

Guess what? We were right. (I knew we were.) I apologized to the lady in line behind me (she came later in the ringing portion.) I told her, "Ma'am, I'm sorry but a $13.00 difference was just too much." She told me that she didn't blame me.

The cashier? She apologized for the price problem.

It's all good and now we have a new red soccer ball living at our house.

What irritates me, is that under or over ringing is against the law. Weights and Measures comes in on a periodic basis to check for scanning errors. If the price that it rings is not correct, it counts against you. (Over or under.) I worked at a grocery in high school and for the first few years of college. Their ringing was so off that Weights and Measures actually took their scanning rights away. (As a result, I can now run an adding machine probably faster than anyone I know.)

So, how are you with overcharges? Do you check your receipt before you get out to the car? There are plenty of overcharges out there. Believe me, I've stood in my fair share of customer service lines to get my money back.

An aside: How do you pronounce "Mitre?" I always thought it was "mit-er," but now I think that it could be "mit-ree." Help!

Smiles in my day:
- Though sad that our two days of play dates have been canceled due to stomach virus (the friend) and storms coming, it gives me two days of painting that I didn't have before.
- The animal guy is at the library tomorrow.
- Hubs' binoculars were returned from the Alaskan trip just fine. His boss insisted he was going to borrow them and they are nice binoculars that Hubs bought. They aren't 1000.00, but they are still very nice. Hubs was afraid that after seeing his boss' binoculars, his would come back trashed. He did take care of them and that made us very happy. He also brought us back some Musk Ox fur. Gee, well, I would have been good with skipping the fur.
- A/C when it is in the mid-90's.

Have a great day!