Time to Start Prepping for Christmas

 I did just a hair of shopping on Saturday, to take advantage of one specific sale. It was great. I bought the fellas these shirts at the same time. 

Of course they wore them the next dang day hahah I love these two. 

Freezer Time!

 I went shopping today and met my sister there. Since nobody can be visiting each other's houses, but we're still allowed to go shopping, I have found this loophole. We can shop near each other and still keep all the rules. Nice. So we went today and when we got to the freezer section, I had Darth get a thing out of the freezer that I couldn't reach. Then when he had half of his body in there, I "helped" him get the other half in and then died laughing. 

He is such a card haha we have so much fun. 

Shopalypse 2020

Y'all, the world is a little crazy right now. The Coronavirus is making everyone panic, and people are hoarding all the household supplies, which is just such a jerk move. But, I needed my regular groceries, so I had to leave the house and get some stuff. We had the fellas with us, and I had to keep the small baby entertained. Turns out, as soon as you give him food, he's good to entertain you!

What a fella, he does the squinty eye thing because he knows it makes us laugh hahaha, what a smart baby.

First Time in a Shopping Cart

I did a little more Black Friday shopping today and this time, baby Epifanio joined me. We put him in the cart and it was his first time! Look how small he looks.

Look at him holding onto the cart with a death grip. He was having a great time, now he looks like such a big boy.

HULK GRAB

This morning we went shopping for some breakfast muffins before Gecko had the chance to get dressed. Naturally, when we got to the store I realized how amazing he looked, and had to snap a quick pic.

We also had to get a new dog bed for Cookie, so we were in the pet section. I told Darth that if he could pick up a bag of dog food, I would give hime $50. I don't think he knows exactly how much that is, but danged if he didn't try his hardest. If you listen closely, you can hear him say "hulk grab" while trying to get it. What a great guy, he does his best.

Black Friday

Happy Black Friday everyone! If this day isn't your jam, I hope you had a good day at home. I had a successful day of shopping, in which I found many things for myself, and a few gifts that I'm excited to give. I have no stories to tell; nothing crazy happened, and no pics, because I wasn't taking pics of myself shopping ha ha. Now Christmas can officially begin!

A Shopping Adventure

I went shopping today, with my sister, so baby came as well. He didn't care for the drive over,

Look how awkward that weirdo is in his seat.

 Then we had lunch, and he tried to eat my fettuccine Alfredo with me, but the noodles were too long for him to eat, he struggled.

 And of course, he fell asleep mid-trip, so we had to leave. Naturally, as soon as we were walking out, he woke up. But I got what I needed, and everything was all right. Merry Christmas in a couple of days, guys!

Slim Pickings

I went to Bath & Body Works on Saturday; I needed to pick up a few things. I went to the nearest mall to me, and after getting in there, I couldn’t find a single lotion I wanted, they were all sold out. I went to the other mall, in the hopes I could find it. As I searched the store, my balloon was deflating. It was nowhere. I was standing in front of a display, lamenting my bad luck, and a worker popped his head around, and asked me what I was looking for. I told him, the Warm Winter Apple, and he quietly said, “I have some of that hidden.” He turned away, grabbed some bottles, and came back over to me. I was so happy; I thanked him profusely, and went on my merry way. I was looking for the last bottle of lotion that I needed, and I did find it – hidden behind the body sprays. I was so glad my purchases worked out! As I was checking out, I hoped that they would let me use my coupon along with the sale I was already getting, and they did! It was a merry night at Bath & Body Works, and I was glad I made the last minute choice to shop there as well. Good luck with all your purchases, friends!

Sale, sale, sale!

A week or so ago at Stamp and Chat, Chelle was telling all of us about a sale that happens once a year, a scrapbooking sale that takes place at different venues and at different times each year. Last week, we had heard about when it was starting, Friday the 22nd. She invited me to go with her, and I readily agreed, as I love myself some sales, and I’m still working on building up my scrapbook supplies. They picked me up at 9:00 this morning, and off we went.
When we walked in, it was just rows and rows of everything! Paper and tape and books and stickers and embellishment, oh my! We started at one end, and slowly made our way around, picking up more and more things. I got loads of new papers, many much tape, a lot of stickers, and embellishments galore. It was pretty awesome. I spent just a hair over 50 dollars, but I got so much stuff, so many deals, that I just kept calculating how much I saved, and didn’t care about what I spent. I’m psyched to have all this stuff, and I’m glad that Chelle asked me along. And maybe we’ll go back…to see what else they’re setting out!

A Replacement

Last Saturday, PJ sat on my sunglasses. I don’t remember the circumstances. In fact, I vaguely even remembered this happening, until yesterday, she told me, on the way into Target, that she needed to buy me new ones to replace them. I just went along with it, because I remember it happening, but I can’t remember how. Were they on the couch? Probably, but I just don’t remember. That’s ok, because I do enjoy a new pair of sunglasses.

So finally, we went to the sunglasses section, and began to look around. I kept pitting sunglasses against each other. “Do these look better, or these"?” And then, “Or these?” It was almost like being at the eye doctor, when they ask if 1 or 2 is better, then throw in 3 for good measure. So finally, I narrowed it down to four, then we couldn’t decided, so we did what anyone would do. We took a pic of me wearing each pair, and then compared them all in a grid.

Now, I know they’re all similar, but that’s only because I like a certain kind of glasses, for my face type. Finally, I made my choice (I chose the top right) and my new glasses were mine. Hopefully, no one will break these – especially me!

Christmas Shopping

Today is Christmas Eve, friends! Naturally, I worked for a little while this morning, and after work, Chelle and I went and did a little Christmas shopping. I found these pajama pants that were really cute, but sadly, they were all out of my size. As we passed a mannequin wearing the same pants, Chelle tells me to check the size of them. Usually, all the mannequins wear smalls or extra smalls, so I wasn't holding my breath, but then lo and behold! It was wearing a medium! I immediately flagged down a sales person, and asked if I could just take the pants off the mannequin. She asked someone else, and then, ta-da! They did it! I laughed at the whole scenario as they took the pants off, and of course took a pic:

A naked person! In a store! I bought the pants after they removed them (as they were taking them off, the girl asked "Now, you're going to buy these, right?" Like I would have them go through the whole trouble of taking them off, just to be like, nope! Change my mind!) The pants were only 7, so that was a nice present to myself.

Merry Christmas Eve!

Ticket to Ride

I had to find something to occupy myself, of course, and I was told that downtown Stuttgart is very nice. I didn't want to drive our beast of a rental car, so I wasn't sure what to do. Someone told me that I should take the train to Stuttgart, and it would be easy and only cost about 3 euros, and I should just do it. Well, if you know me, you know what a giant sissy I am. I get very nervous and anxious doing some things, and especially when I'm by myself, and especially me being in a foreign country, where I couldn't understand everything, so I was nervous. Finally, I psyched myself up for it, walked to the train station (only getting lost once!) and bought my ticket. A train came up about 5 minutes after I got there, and I didn't think it was my train, so I didn't get on it. Right as the doors closed, I figured out it was my train, shoot. The next train was coming in thirty minutes, so I just had to sit there and wait. IT WAS FREEZING so I tried to spend it getting warm, with hardly any luck. The train finally came, and off I went. I made it downtown with no problems, so that was awesome. I walked around, and walked past what seemed to be a department store, with a window display of Legos.

I also walked around a German bookstore for a while, laughing at most of the books, and the translations of the English books. I found Hunger Games, which looks cool

Doesn't Katniss look way cooler on this cover? I like it a lot. I went through a lot of stores, and didn't buy much, mostly because it's like, what would I do with a bunch of it? I found this cool building that I thought was like, the Stuttgart city hall, and took a bunch of pictures of it. Later, when I got back to the hotel, I discovered it was actually a castle that I could have gone into, and I kicked myself for not going up to investigate it further.

Dang me for not just walking up there to find out. After I finished taking these, and walking through their Christmas market, I made my way back to the hotel. I made it there with no problems, and then took a pic of the euros I managed to accumulate during the day

 The euro is weird, in that they have a lot of coins. $1, $2, $0.50, $0.20, etc, are all coin, so you collect a lot of coins with any purchases made. I felt good about the accomplishments made, and that I made it successfully there and back with no problems, and no tears.

A Different Kind of Shopping

This year, I did Black Friday shopping a little different. I didn't like how everyone was opening on Thanksgiving this year. In my opinion, that day is reserved for spending time with your family, eating, laughing, playing games and whatnot. I don't think you should shop, so I didn't do it. But I did do some online Black Friday shopping, which I thought was fun (because I got to do it all in my pajamas). I shopped at Amazon.com, and got some great deals. I visited gap.com and got jeans at great prices. Then finally today, I was like, oh might as well check things out, see if I can find any deals, and sadly, there were no deals left for me. Which I'm sad about, but at the same time, I waited about 2 days to get going on it, no wonder nothing was left. I did take advantage of one deal - I got my hairspray (Big Sexy Hair) on sale for half off, so that was pretty awesome. And then I got a good deal on a DVD player - a BluRay one. I wasn't even thinking about getting one, but then we saw it on sale while looking through things, and thought that we might as well get one when it's so cheap.
...and that's it. On one hand, it's weird to me that I didn't really buy all that much, but on the other hand, it's nice to have spent a lot of money on things, and that's really important during the holidays, when I'm trying to spend money on others. And I don't know if it's true, but I hear Monday, called Cyber Monday, has great deals too, so maybe I'll check those out. Who knows, maybe my new Black Friday shopping will all be done online from now on!

Today I am thankful for good deals. :)

Super Saturday Shopping

Tonight, I was near the WinCo and I thought, we should go in there. I wanted to go in to see if they had this bread I really like (A Dunford brand, wheat, super delicious) because I had heard before that it was there. I swear, this bread is never findable. I can only find it at Walmart, but I’d like to be able to get it anywhere. WinCo didn’t have it, in case you wondered. Anyway, as we were walking in, we decided to head over to the bulk candy, since you never know what you’ll find. I spent some time wandering through that part, through bulk candy…bulk baking supplies…bulk cereal, and I saw that they had bulk frosted flakes. It’s been a long time since I’ve had frosted flakes, so I decided to get a little. I filled up some of a bag, and onward we went.
I circled around to the refrigerated section, looking for more goods, and stumbled upon pre-made cookie dough. “Well”, I thought to myself “I should buy some cookie dough, in case I want to have pizzookies one night”, so I picked that up too. After a while longer, and general wandering through the store, I decided that it was probably time to get going, I wasted enough time in there. On my way up to the cash register, I passed by chocolate oranges. WHAT?! I love those! Of course I had to pick one of those up right then. So I made my purchase, got home, took them out of the bag and realized what a weird night of purchases I had made.

A few delicious purchases, I know but still, when you look at them, you think, “Really?” and I answer back, a resounding “yes!” So I encourage everyone to go to the store with no list in mind. Don’t go thinking of what you need, go with the idea that maybe, you’ll pick up a yum treat, and you’ll leave happy!

Today, I am thankful for grocery stores. I know that I take for granted that you can get so many different things in one place, and tonight, I appreciate it and am thankful.

We be shoppin'

Happy Black Friday! (sing it with me...Black Friday...Black Friday...everyone loves Black Friday...) I am writing to you now, done with the shopping of the day, and pretty tired. Black Friday started a little earlier this year - stores opened at midnight. So at 10:30, we (PJ & I) bundled up, and got to Target at about 10:45, and waited.

The line was huge already. We were pretty far out, even though we were over an hour early. Finally, a pretty chilly hour, and some exciting happenings (my button fell off my coat! It's now lost forever), the doors opened at midnight and we finally made it into the store 15/20 minutes later. We quickly grabbed the things we were looking for (DVD's, mostly) and back out. We went to Best Buy...the line was too long to stand in the cold. We went to Kohls...the line there was so long! We then went to Old Navy...no pants in my size/preference there. :( We went back to Best Buy and success! We got in after minimal waiting, got our items, and out again. We went to Shopko, they didn't have any of the things we had seen advertised. It was a little after 3 in the morning when we all shuffled home, tired and sleepy. (Those might seem like they mean the same thing, but in this case, they do not.)

On the way home, as I was turning off of Center street onto Orem Boulevard, I accidentally (in my sleepy state) turned too early and was on the wrong side of the road! Of course, on that road there's that median thing, so I couldn't just swerve back into my own lane, I had to drive for a bit on the wrong side, panicking the whole time that a car might come and hit us. Luckily, there were no cars - phew!

I went to sleep at about 3:30, then woke up at a little after 9:00. Then Husband and I went shopping at about 10. We went to a few stores, bought an elliptical at Sports Authority (we got such the deal on it! Thank you sales) and then I tried to go to Gap to get some jeans for like, 70% off, but sadly, I was about 15 minutes too late, so I didn't get that deal. :( Apparently this was not my week to get new jeans!

Finally, at about 2:00ish, we came home. After a long day, and a lot of shopping, I was pretty tired. But all in all, a successful weekend. I won't lie, this year wasn't as good as others. I think it's because the shopping all started at midnight, so instead of having overzealous people getting up at like, 3 in the morning to go shopping, everyone was like, dude, I can stay up past midnight, so there were a lot of teens this year, whereas previous years, there are rarely any teens. But I survived, and am here to tell the tale. And some advice - always make sure to drive on the RIGHT side of the road.

Done and Done

Good news, readers! I am, as of today, the  16th of December, 2010, finished with my Christmas shopping! It’s been a long road. I started all the way this morning, and I finished at like, 3-ish. Most of it was done online (God Bless 2-day shipping) but I did hoof it out there for the rest of it. My shoppings took me all over this good city, and even up to Sandy. I battled traffic jams, (the entire freeway was shut down up in Sandy because of a giant accident) my own fatigue, but I pulled through.

My last shop was Macy’s, here in Orem. As I was making my purchase, the cashier asked how I was doing (like usual, so polite) and I responded that I was doing great, this was my last purchase of the Christmas season. He congratulated me, and then as he was handing me my bag of merchandise, he made a little fanfare and handed it over, like I had won. I really felt like I had, at that point.

Now I can settle in and enjoy the season without any problems. I can’t believe how late I let everything get before I purchased stuff, but in my defense, I had no idea what I was going to get people. But then I had an epiphany, and then I was set. I’m psyched to be done, and even more psyched to give my gifts away – so long as people like them!

Sometimes, it just feels like insanity

Happy Black Friday, shoppers! All right, I don’t know that many of you hit up the stores, but it’s a holiday nonetheless. I of course, participated once again, even though stores opened earlier than last year. I awoke at 2:52 AM – my alarm was set for 2:45, but what I didn’t realize until I woke up is that I set it for PM and not AM – holy lucky that I got a text this morning and just happened to wake up for it! I hurried out the door and made it to Target by 3:30.

After standing outside in the freezing freezing cold for half an hour, we finally got in. We were really quick with everything there, then moved onto the next store. We basically just went from store to store for the next 6 hours, finally finishing with everything by 9:30. I came home and immediately went to sleep – I was so tired after my less than 4 hours of sleep!

I know that most people think that doing Black Friday is craziness, but I still like doing it. You go in with a great attitude, and you’ll have so much fun! I’m glad that I went, but I’m always glad when it’s over.

Same shopping, different year

All right, I've now been up for about 21 hours, so who knows if this will even make sense! Today, as everyone knows, is Black Friday! So I have been out shopping all day. I awoke early to get to Target at 4:30, since everyone decided to open earlier this year. They opened at 5, so we had a bit of time to kill, out in the cold. We hit up pretty much every single store you could think of. I won't lie-I was mostly selfish and bought things for myself instead of presents for others.
We also took in a movie, which, after having woken up so early was probably not a good idea. I kept drifting, but I don't think I ever went to sleep-I was just so beat! I can't believe I am still awake right now-I was falling asleep in my car on the way home, but now that I'm at home, ready to sleep, oh, no dice. This always happens!

Well, we've all done this

This happens to everyone. I mean, it can be as simple as a quick trip to the grocery store, and you end up buying a few things not on the list. But when it happens to you, the severity always seems worse than when you hear it from someone else.
This weekend, I did a bit of shopping, and I went to Old Navy. I just went for one thing-I needed to pick up a pair of flip-flops. One tiny pair of flip-flops, because I was wearing some Nike's that day, and my feet were too hot. When we walked in, we saw signs all over the place saying something about celebrating a 15 birthday or something, which I didn't even pay attention to. We walked about, trying to find where the shoes were, and I started to glance at clothing. I realized that about everything in the store was some variation of 15 dollars. It was either 15 bucks or 2 for 15, that sort of thing, and holy cow, those are some good prices. I was finding so much, it was ridiculous. And of course, its all winter stuff, which just makes sense to buy at these prices! I kept loading things up, pretty soon, my arms were hurting from all those dang hangers.
Finally, I had to tell myself to stop. It was too much-I needed to take myself away from the situation. I dragged myself up to the register, and got the final tally. What was supposed to be a simple trip to the Navy to pick up a pair of 'flops ended up a shopping spree that cost me upwards of 80 bucks! I couldn't believe it. I told myself that it was ok, it would all be needed, etc, but all I could think about was holy crap, that's a giant chunk of change I spent.
So really, this isn't all that bad, and luckily, I stopped before it got really steep. I'm just here as an example for everyone. If you want to keep your spending in check, make sure you stick to the list you have. And if you do stray, realize that once your hands can't hold your items of purchase, you might have gone overboard.

Black...like my soul.

Today, the day following Thanksgiving, is, as everyone knows, Black Friday, one of the busiest shopping days of the year. I was part of it yet again this year. I have a blast during it. People are all crazy, running around with their massive amounts of stuff, and their shopping baskets, and we're just casually walking around, finding stuff we like, etc. I was up so early this morning (because my brother woke me up at bleeding 3:30 IN THE MORNING...so I was up for it. I was in the line for Target at like, 5:20, raring to go.
We got all of our shopping done by like, ten. We hit up a billion different stores, took advantage of tons of deals, and then were done before noon! It was so much fun-I love this day. I got tons of stuff for people, so my Christmas shopping is almost done (yea!) but I also got loads for myself also. (I couldn't pass up these deals!) I am about dead on my feet right now, though. So excuse the lack of information about the race-that'll be coming later, when I haven't been awake for a long time.