The Trials of a Busy Mom

Author: Superpaige (Page 167 of 180)

Retail Experiences

1- THE DVD PLAYER FOR THE CAR
In the past few weeks I have bought 3 (count them….3) dual screen DVD players for the car. The first one I bought at ToysRus, using the gift card, so I didn’t have to charge it. I got it on sale, got a free DVD with it, and used a coupon for 20% off, saving me another $50. So, it was an all around great deal. Until we opened it on Christmas day and Ryan informed me that one of the screens didn’t have a working backlight, therefore you couldn’t see the movie on the second screen. So, back to ToysRus I went to return it. They didn’t have any more in stock, didn’t know (and didn’t care, from the look of the sales associate who I asked) when they would get any more.
So, I looked online and found a similar one at Walmart.com (also available in stores). So, to avoid the shipping, I went to WalMart and bought another one. I brought it home and Ryan informed me that this one must have been a return, because it was already broken. Ugh.
So, I returned that one to Walmart (a different one–not the scroungy one at 106th South where I bought it), and bought a different brand. This one–so far–looks good. Although the cables between the two units are short and we don’t know if we can put one in the middle seat and one in the back seat, it looks like it will work. Hooray!

2- THE PURPLE BRA
While birthday shopping, I went into the bra store to stock up on a few essentials. I found this really great Bali bra in the clearance section that was marked at $5.99. Wow. But when I tried it on, I realized that it wasn’t white like the picture on the package, but purple. Oh well, I’ll try it on, and then I can find it in white. Fits great. So, I look for it in white. There are no whites in the clearance (blue, yes. white? no), but the sales girl found it for me in the regular section. It’s $19.99. Ok. I’ll get it, but I’ll also get the purple one, too, since really, what does it matter what color your bra is (unless you are wearing some sheer white outfit or something very low cut that shows your bra). So, she rings up the purple bra, and it’s 1/2 OFF the $5.99. Wow, so I went and grabbed the blue one as well. I mean, who gets a bra that fits for 3 dollars? Well….me, that’s who. So, now I have these blue and purple bras. I’ve personally never strayed from the basic white, so it feels kind of funny to wear them. I feel kind of exotic and sexy (under my same old regular clothes, of course). What’s your most unusual bra like?

3- THE STOLEN PIN
Last night as I was digging in the pile of coats in the mudroom for a shoe or something, I found a pin. Not just a pin, but a fancy broach type thing. It was still on the little card, with a price tag on the back for $1.99. It looked like it must have come from Big Lots, where I took the kids Christmas shopping. But I don’t remember anyone buying it. So, I asked Jenna where it came from. She kind of avoided answering, and said she thought her friend’s mom would like it for Christmas. I asked her if she had paid for it, and she again avoided my question. So, it appears Jenna stole this pin. I did not fly off the handle about it, but told her I would have to think about what we would do about it. I did quickly inform her that taking something without paying for it is stealing, and that Heavenly Father frowns on that kind of activity (as does Mommy). So, what should I do. It’s really such a small pin that it’s not a huge deal. The last time one of my kids stole something, I traipsed back to the store where it came from (Barnes and Noble), told the clerk that my daughter had taken the Barbie book without paying and we would like to return it, asked them to reprimand her, and they said “Oh, thanks.” So, it was more a punishment for Me to have to drag my kids all the way back there, and she got nothing out of it. Any suggestions?

Happy New Year

Well, it’s been an eventful day of playing with friends.

I took the kids to the “Meet your Teacher” at church this morning, and we brought a friend home with Jenna. A friend, who, altough cute, has a bit of a phobia about the stairs. Jenna told me “Maddie’s afraid of heights and wants you to carry her up the stairs.” So, I told her there was nothing to be afraid of and I would hold her hand as we walked up the stairs. She started crying and said she wanted to go home, so what was I to do? I carried her up the stairs. And I carried her back down the stairs when they wanted to come back down. hum.

I instructed the other kids to call around UNTIL they found someone to play with, so Megan found a friend to come over, and Natalie went back with the friend’s mom to her house to play with her friend, Cole had a friend come over, too. Lots of kids, but less trouble.

Ryan cleaned the old fridge (I helped a little), loaded it up, and took it to his parents’ house. They will replace their 40 year old fridge in the garage with our 12 year old fridge. It will seem like new to them.

I watched “Chicago” (it was a lot different than I remember it, seeing as I watched it in the hospital right after having had John), and cleaned up. We had a lovely dinner of stuffed potato skins and pizza. Now the kids are piled in Ryan’s office watching him play some kind of video games, and I’m blogging. How exciting!

We’ll play games, pop popcorn and watch movies tonight, and have a very low key stay at home New Years. I got tickets for us to go the New Year’s Eve celebration for youth up at the conference center “First Night for Youth”, with Ryan Shupe and the Rubberband, but Ryan doesn’t want to truck “all the way up there”, deal with parking and traffic, and try to keep our kids well behaved for 3 hours (or however long they lasted). So, we’ll have a casual night here. Which is nice, too, since we have church at 9:00 in the morning and don’t really want to stay up late.

Maybe someday we’ll be invited to a New Year’s Eve party, or have friends over ourselves, but for now, we’re content to stay home with the kids.

Happy New Year!

Happy Birthday to Me!

Wow!

I don’t know about you, but Birthdays for me are kind of a let-down. I work really hard to make sure my kids have fun, special birthdays, and always remember my hubby’s birthday, too. With my birthday being at a very inconvenient time of year (4 days after Christmas–eek!), it’s often forgotten and most usually glossed over.

So yesterday, I was feeling kind of down, anticipating that my DH would once again underwhelm me with his casualness, and I complained about how my birthday was such a non event. I’ve been quizzing the kids “Do you know when Mommy’s birthday is?” the answer was usually not specific, or just plain no. Ryan told me not to get depressed yet, it’s not even my birthday, and who knows, it may go really well.

I must sincerely apologize to him, because he really pulled it off this year. When John woke up, Dad got him up and changed him, and made him his “p-butter toast” that he wants every morning. Then he got the kids up and they made me breakfast in bed that was even yummy (scrambled eggs with ham!), and they all brought it up on the “you are special” plate on a tray. The kids had all made cards and Megan even gave me a present that she bought herself, a black purse with a pink P on the front. I absolutely LOVE IT! I love the fact that she picked it out herself, and it’s a really cute purse! Ryan said, “I’ll give you your present when you come downstairs.”

So, after eating my breakfast in bed (alone), I took all the packaging off the purse, and brought my tray down to the kitchen to see my kids eating breakfast. Then I looked up and saw—-

A Brand New Refridgerator!

Right there in my kitchen. It wasn’t there last night! How did he do it?

Wow! A new fridge! The kids were all jumping out of their seats with excitement, and Ryan was so shocked that I didn’t know, and told me the whole story about how it was ordered but not here in time for Christmas, and he had to pick it up since he couldn’t risk having it delivered when he wasn’t here, and how he drove the whole way from North Salt Lake with this big fridge in the back of his little truck, and how he hid it in the neighbor’s garage, and how he and his friend Larry brought it in last night after I was asleep, and he couldn’t believe I didn’t hear them making all the noise. I seriously did not hear a thing! He took all the food out of the fridge and freezer, threw a bunch of stuff out, and transferred it to the new clean fridge without me knowing it. I am so impressed!!

So, I must say, he really surprised me with this one, and I must let him off the hook for all the less than wonderful birthdays I’ve had in the past (like him saying he couldn’t possibly be ready by December 29, so we would celebrate on January 29, instead. Come to think of it–that year I believe he got me a freezer. Do I sense a trend here?).

The kids and I are going out to do something fun now. We’re hoping to catch a movie, and then Ryan and I will have a date tonight. So, everyone, the Birthday is a success!

After Christmas blues

girls
Here’s my girls in their new Christmas pajamas.

After all the preparations, parties, concerts, buying, hiding and wrapping of presents, listening to, singing, and playing Christmas music, eating lots of food I shouldn’t and having so much holiday fun, it’s hard to accept the fact that Christmas is over, and I’ll have to wait a whole year for another Christmas. I guess it’s the after Christmas blues. Oh well, on the bright side, the weather is nice, no inversion has set in to make us depressed, and we have all these new toys to keep the kids busy, right? What I NEED to do is start my diet, get out there and exercise, and clean my house. What I am doing is shopping around for a replacement dual screen dvd player for the car, since the one I bought for the kids didn’t work, and when I took it back to Toys-R-Us they didn’t have any more. Any suggestions?

How do you handle the after Christmas blues?

Happy Boxing Day

We had a wonderful Christmas and hope you did, too! Today I performed the traditional boxing day custom of returning things. We had some gadgets that didn’t work, a movie that we recieved in duplicate, etc. I must say that Costco has the right idea. As they shuffle you through the line for exchanges, they have people standing there handing out snacks! Thank you, Costco! (Not such great treatment at ToysRus, by the way, and they didn’t have the item in stock for exchange, so we had to take a credit).

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas!!

Here’s a picture of Cole on Santa’s lap (it may be the last year he’ll actually want to sit on Santa’s lap, so I must use his picture!) . We’re excited and getting ready–lots to do still, but enjoying the warm spirit and the beautiful warm weather!

cole

I rock

The concert last night went very well. Ok, We Rock! Despite our mistakes (and there were some), everyone loved the concert. We had a ballerina dance for two of our Nutcracker songs (the sugerplum fairies and the dance of the reed flutes), we had and organist with us for two of our songs, a brass quintet, and a violinist and flutist for one song. It was great!….and…it’s over! No more concerts for a long while, and no bell practice for two weeks! What will I do with my free time? Oh, yes, get ready for Christmas!

Cute as a cookie

Here are the three youngest rugrats, just as cute as…well, gingerbread! This was taken after Natalie’s 1st grade play, “The gingerbread boy caper,” which included such well loved songs as “Gingergread Rock”, “Oh where, oh where has the gingerbread gone,” and “Oh Gingerbread”.

gingerbread

« Older posts Newer posts »

© 2026 Superpaige's Pad

Theme by Anders NorenUp ↑