Black Friday!

It's the day everyone dreads...Black Friday! In all the years I can remember, I don't think I actually did any major shopping on Black Friday. Last year Joe and I tried to get some good deals but we didn't arrive to the store until almost 7am...we learned that day that you MUST be early. So, this year we decided we were not going shopping at all because neither of us had kids that day and we just wanted to sleep in. I guess the tryptophan in the turkey the night before kicked in and we fell asleep on the couch around 930. By 5am I was wide awake and decided to let the dogs out. Of course they jumped on "Daddy" on the way out and woke him up. Since we were both up, we decided to hit up two stores. That was the plan, TWO stores. Why do things never happened as planned?? So at 6am we left the house for what we though would be a SHORT shopping trip....

Our first stop was Toys R Us. WHAT A MISTAKE! We walked in and it was like a football stadium when the game just finished! People were everywhere! There were absolutely no carts. The line for the register wrapped completely around the store and weaved in and out of the aisles! We decided that NO deal was worth the wait in that line! So we looked around a little bit and decided we were going to come back later. If the deals were gone, we didn't care. We decided to be pompous and say that we would rather pay a little bit higher prices than have to wait in line for hours.

Our next stop was to the PX (Post Exchange--the military department store basically). We browsed around a little bit and got a few good deals, mainly for ourselves. We picked up a Blu-Ray player that is the same brand/model of our TV for $169! Last year the same player was $499!! I believe it was normally $299 this year. We also picked up a coffee grinder for him to take on his deployment and a portable DVD player. I did get the boys a Wii game a piece...that was our one Christmas present in the cart which ended up totally over $500.

The next stop (by this time it was 9:30am) was Sonic. No, not a shopping store, but a GREAT place to fill the coffee ridden bellies. LOL. I just want to say that if you have not tried the Sausage Biscuit Dippers, you don't know what you are missing! AWESOME!

After Sonic we decided to take the dreaded trip back to Toys R Us. This time, there still were not any carts available but, the line was quite a bit shorter. It only went on one side of the store. Joe got in line with one item and I shopped for the others while he waited in line for me. What a great boyfriend! :-) I grabbed a few items and would take them to him. Finally, he was able to get a cart (to lean on...LOL!) while he waited. Believe it or not, I was able to still get all the items I wanted to get from the Black Friday special despite the fact that we arrived 3 hours after they started. In all, I bought about four presents a piece for them. The total when I first looked was $216!!!!! I realized that wasn't the total after the discounts. When she hit the total button, it was only $122!!!!!! I could not believe we had saved almost 50% by taking advantage of Black Friday deals. I am not sure if I will cuss Black Friday again or complain about standing in line for a little bit. I think it was well worth my time. By the way, I think Joe only waited in line about 45 mins...the people that arrived first thing in the morning had waited over 2 1/2 hours!

After Toys R Us, we were in a shopping mood and just decided we should stop by some of the other major stores and pick up the remaining presents we wanted to get the boys. I knew in my head all the items I wanted to get. I had looked at the MOUNDS of sale papers/ads at my friend's house the night before. We made stops at K-Mart, Wal-Mart, Target, Big 5 Sporting Goods, and finally the mall. By the time we were done, it was 5:30pm!!!! We had been shopping for almost twelve hours! I had put on some cute dress boots that went well with my red sweater (and some Frosty earrings) not thinking we would have been out that long. My feet were SCREAMING by the time we got home! I have never wanted to wear tennis shoes with a nice sweater as much as I did yesterday about half way through the day.

When we arrived home I decide to go ahead and wrap all the presents. It took me slightly over and hour (all while watching Sopranos and potty break) to get all the presents wrapped. The only thing I have left to do now is to fill the stockings. I can't believe it, I have ALL my Christmas shopping (for the boys) done! It felt so wonderful. Then he said the dreaded words "you ready for bed so we can get up early to get the next round of sales tomorrow?". Uggh...I can't believe I actually didn't want to go shopping again! He wanted to go to the PX to look at a jewelry armoire for me that would be on sale Saturday morning. I didn't want it THAT bad! LOL.

Needless to say, we got up early again today and went to the PX. The armoire wasn't really what I wanted so we passed it up. We then went grocery shopping...which is usually another HUGE ordeal for us! Today we spent over two hours in the grocery store. A little bit of that time was watching the lady make some fresh sushi...which I definitely took advantage of. :-) We were back home and lounging on the couch with sushi and his turkey sandwich by 12:30. SOOO much better than yesterday...thank goodness!

The next task, a Christmas tree....

Non-Traditional Thanksgiving Meal & Trip to the Store on Thanksgiving Eve..

As most of you probably know, I am divorced. Luckily, my boys' dad lives in the same town as me so we "share" the boys. Last year I had them Thanksgiving Day therefore, it is their dad's year to have them. Joe and I are a small family so we didn't plan to cook this year...we actually thought of going to Golden Corral and not have to worry about cooking, cleaning, etc. Anyway, we decided not to cook because the boys are going to their dad's in the afternoon to have Thanksgiving dinner with him and his friends. So, I thought, "how could I have a special meal with them but not ruin their dinner with his friends?" For days and days Nathan has been asking me to fix a meal from a cook book he made in Kindergarten. He wants me to cook "Sunny Side Up Sandwiches". This is just an English muffin with egg, cheese, and Canadian bacon. Just a few days ago he asked me about it again. Then it dawned on me!! Why not cook them a "special" breakfast (more like brunch) so I don't ruin their early dinner. So, I promised Nate we would make those sandwiches as our non-traditional Thanksgiving meal.

As I looked through the recipe I realized I didn't have all the items we needed. So, we made the dreaded trip to the grocery store on Thanksgiving Eve just before dinner tonight. What was I thinking??? I should have known that it would be packed! Where was my common sense? The store was so packed that they didn't even have an empty cart or basket!! Here I am going back and forth trying to find the items I needed for these sandwiches because this was a store I don't normally go to so I wasn't sure where everything was (unlike the Commissary or Super Wal-Mart!!!). I am carrying a gallon of milk, carton of eggs, bag of English muffins and a package of Canadian bacon trying my best not to drop the eggs all over the place. I had to weave in and out of the crowds all the while trying to keep up with a six year old who can't understand the concept of "stay with me". The milk was cold and I had to keep switching hands because my thumb felt like it was going to fall off from the cold and pressure of holding the handle with only a few fingers. On top of that, my dang phone started to ring!! Normally, I would have just ignored it until I was able to get to it. But, I had called Joe several times on the way to the store trying to find out if I need to take anything to the friends' house that we had been invited too, at the last minute, for Thanksgiving lunch/dinner. Therefore, I had to find a place on the shelf to sit down the milk so I could dig in my purse to find my phone. Of course it wasn't in the pouch that is conveniently the size of a phone. NO, it was way down in the bottom under all the receipts I need to throw away, keys, wallet, hair bows, etc. Finally I find the phone and I am trying to hold the phone with my shoulder and ear while holding all the items I had in a line long enough to stretch halfway down one of the aisles. I gave Nate the bag of muffins to hold for me. Bad idea. He holds it under the plastic clip and starts to swing it around and of course the plastic clip falls off and he almost slings muffins on the floor. I had to hold the bag and twist with the same hand so he could try and put the plastic clip back on. Sometimes I wonder if four hands is really better than two!! LOL. Finally, we get to the self checkout and get our things paid for and out the door. Remind me to NEVER EVER again go to the grocery store the day before Thanksgiving!

Back to the non-traditional meal. So, we have all the fixin's (plus some hash rounds like you get from Burger King) to make Nathan's recipe from his Kindergarten cookbook. He is extremely excited about it. I have this bad feeling that he isn't really going to eat much of it or even like the Canadian bacon. I warned him it was like ham instead of bacon and he says he likes it...we shall see. I think he is just excited that we are making something he had a hand in creating at school. In any case, having the moments with him shopping for the ingredients and cooking it in the morning will be worth the dreaded trip to the store tonight. The things we do for the happiness of our kids. :-)

Thanks for noticing me...

You guys remember the character on Winnie the Pooh named Eeyore? Surely you all have heard of him/her. Don't you remember he used to always say "Thanks for noticing me" in a non-chalant way...sort of like he was depressed?? If you don't remember, here is a picture to help jog your memory! :-)

As I was reading people's comment/responses to my first blog, I thought of how grateful I was that people noticed me. I instantly thought of Eeyore and his/her (we can discuss that next) pouty little way he talked and how he moped around. Sadly, that has been me for a few weeks...not constantly, but occassionally. But, things are getting better! Don't worry, I am not crazy or considering doing anything dumb, I just need a good pick-me-up. :-) Thanksgiving, Christmas, new job, something like that will do. Just a matter of time and I will be bouncing around like this little character...

Again, thanks for noticing me!!!!!

Testing 1-2-3....3-2-1

*Tap tap* Can anyone hear me? Is this mic working??

If you haven't noticed, I am testing this blog for function. I'm new to blogging...trying to figure it out. :-)