John says to me, “Mom, do you know how to write an A?”
“Yes, I do,” I said.
“No, you don’t. Because I haven’t shown you. Now watch and learn,” he said, and proceeded to show me how to write an A.
Month: January 2008 (Page 2 of 3)
I may not be shopping, but that doesn’t mean I am not receiving things in the mail.
A while back, My Mom Shops ran a contest, which I entered. I guess the first person didn’t respond, so I was the “back-up winner”. I won a kid’s t-shirt of my choice from Birdlette. They have the cutest little shirts, and I had fun choosing. Since they carry sizes from newborn to 6x, I decided any shirt would be for John, since he’s the one who would fit best. I let him come chose his favorite design from the website. And although I would have chosen an otter or a gerbil,
or these guinea pigs (my personal favorite)
John looked at all the designs and he chose the kiwi.
So, check it out. They have darling paper and cards, along with the cute as pie t-shirts.
The shirt came yesterday in the mail, and John is pleased to wear the shirt he “picked on the computer”. So, thank you, Andrea, for the fun winter gift!
As I was coming home today, the snow was coming down and the wind was blasting the car. I pulled up in front of my house, and noticed a blue envelope peeking out of the snow. That was a card I had put in the mailbox this morning, and now it was in the snow on the street. I put the car in park, pushed the door open against the fierce wind, and climbed out onto the slick street. I picked up the card, and opened up the mailbox to get my mail. And lost my mail. Two enveloped escaped my grasp and I had to scramble for them, before they blew off to the next county. Once I had everything in my arms, I went back to the car, and slipped and fell in the snowbank.
Seriously, folks, I’m like a one woman ice follies here. Hoping my neighbors weren’t watching the whole hilarious catastrophe, I got up, brushed myself off and climbed, wounded back into the car. With my mail.
Perhaps I should have waited, because now the sun is out, and even though it’s still bitter cold out there, the snow has stopped.
Just another reason why winter is NOT my favorite season.
It’s the 15th of January. The month is halfway over, and I haven’t been shopping. Really. I do admit that I bought Cole a pair of gym shoes from Amazon, but I used a gift card for that, so the whole purchase (including shipping) cost me $2. And I didn’t even add anything else to the order. Only shoes that aren’t even for me. So, I think I’m doing pretty darn good. I do miss the shopping. I heard that Target was having their huge toy sale, and felt like getting the keys and driving to Target. I’ve also heard that Old Navy is having a huge clearance sale, and a friend of mine said she got school clothes for next year for her 5 year old all on clearance. Oh, how I wanted to go check out that sale. But I did not.
Last night my friend Michelle gave me a brand new shirt (with tags and everything!) from Coldwater Creek. 
It’s this shirt, only not this color, it’s a “spicy copper”. She didn’t go for the color. Well, even though Michelle and I have very similar coloring, I think it looks pretty good on me. And it’s a brand new shirt! That I didn’t even have to shop for. How do you like them apples?
Now if someone would just give me a new phone.
In my “office” (I use the term very loosely, because it’s also my sewing room, craft room, wrapping room, gift storage,and the place I put things when I don’t know where they go) I have my computer, which I share with the kids. Sometimes it’s really a struggle for everyone to get their “turn” on the computer. Well, now there’s just one more little guy to share with.
My little friend, Popcorn, (here he is with John) 
who was sitting on my shoulder just a moment ago, jumped down onto the keyboard and thinks he would like to post something on the blog, too.
l 76jhgf is what he says.
Good grief. It’s not enough I have to share with five kids, but a bird as well? Soon I’ll have to be sharing with her 
, or maybe these guys from the back yard 
will decide they want to come inside and email Santa.
Sheesh!
This morning, as I was preparing my lesson for RS today (about 20 pages of introduction for the new Joseph Smith manual), I got a phone call from the primary secretary reminding me that John was supposed to give a talk in primary today. Um, next time, do me a favor and remind me a little bit earlier, ok? One hour before church is not the best of a reminder…I’m just sayin. Anyway, I took a break from my OWN lesson planning to throw together a talk suitable for John, and I must say it was a cute one.
He read this poem (meaning that I whispered into his ear and then he said it), and held up these pictures that I took from a Greg Olsen calendar.
As the shepherd knows his lambs
God above knows who I am.
All I do or think or say,
With love He guides me every day!
Easy for him, easy for me, but with enough punch to make a good little primary talk for a four year old. He did great, and wasn’t all grumpy and shy like I thought he might be. When he was done and he was going to go and sit down, a couple of little kids in his class started clapping for him. Now I don’t know about you, but I’ve never had applause after I give a talk or a lesson, so he must have done pretty dang good!
And speaking of primary, is there a tactful way to tell someone who calls and asks you to sub for their primary class that ‘No, I’m not going to be out of town or teaching a lesson somewhere else, but I’d really just rather not?’ I didn’t think so.
My boyfriend’s back and you’re gonna be in trouble (Hey-la-day-la my boyfriend’s back). Ok, not really my boyfriend, but that song just popped into my head. Really, my HUSBAND is back, and we’re glad to have him. He was gone for 8 1/2 days and 8 nights in glamorous Las Vegas! (Imagine a Price is Right model standing in front of a sign that says “Vegas”). Actually, I’m sure it wasn’t all fun and games for him, as it was a ‘business trip’. No gambling, no shows, no shopping– I don’t even know if he ate at any buffets– but he had his share of fun, to be certain. It’s been a long long time since we’ve been separated that long. As I think back, I do remember a time when he was working in Illinois and I was living here, and we were apart for weeks at a time, but that’s been a long time.
We did alright on our own, but we missed him. When things broke, there was no one to fix them. Only me, and I’m not a very good fixer. I just look at things or shake them, and then tell the kids, ‘Oh, well, we’ll have to wait until Dad gets home and ask him to fix it.’ It is kind of fun to not have to cook real dinners, and not have to worry about getting my stuff off of his side of the bed, and using the entire bed if I feel like it for that matter, but we’re glad he’s back home.
And when Dad goes to trade shows, he is required to bring home the expected “bag of spiffs”. The kids were all very excited to see what kind of show stuff he managed to procure, and as usual, they were not disappointed. Last night he brought out the fun stuff, and everyone got something. They all got a pom-pom guy with feet, and a cool pen, and we let the kids choose a couple of items from the stash of t-shirts, hats, frisbees, footballs, pens, bags, and business card holders. Noticeably absent were the blinky light items. It must not have been a big blinky light year, I guess. In my opinion, the best thing he brought home were water bottles that look like this 
and have the company logo on them. And they came from his own booth! He could probably have stayed home and still snagged me one or two of those. He also gave me a tiny little sqeegie tool to clean my computer monitor. Wow. That’s true love for you, right there. Oh, and mints. Lots of mints. Because my baby knows how much I love fresh breath.
One of my favorite radio stations was doing a Disco lunch today, and I love it. I don’t really like it when they do a whole weekend long disco thing, but one hour at lunch is just perfect. I find it’s the perfect music to do housework to! I can get down and Boogie-Oogie-Oogie while I’m cleaning the counters, be the Dancing Queen while I sweep the floor, and do the Hustle while I mop. I can even sing along, if I want to (unless my kids are there, and then they not so politely tell me not to sing). And I get a lot done. What’s your favorite music to sing along with while you do housework?
I’ve got a little self imposed ban on shopping this month. No Target, No Kohls’, no big expensive trips to Costco (I went today but only spent $64 on groceries), no large grocery store trips stocking up on cereal or whatever is on sale. We need to use what we have and not purchase any little extras this month. I’m a bargain shopper, but I find that sometimes I shop simply because it’s on sale, not because it’s something I need. I can relate a little bit too much to Becky Bloomwood, if you know what I mean.
That said, I have to show you the darling dishes I bought the day after Christmas on a MAJOR SALE! (I know you’re saying to yourself, “What, girl? OhNOYouDi’ent! Didn’t she just say she wasn’t shopping anymore?” Yes, I did, and that’s probably why I forgot to tell you about these dishes that were bought BEFORE the shopping embargo. Bought on sale with a gift card from my MIL no less.) I was at Kohl’s perusing the after Christmas sales, and I found the cutest dishes on the “discontinued” shelf in housewares.
Oh, those dishes are so cute, I thought to myself, and remembering how I had to borrow dishes from a friend to host a recent party, I noticed some cute as pie plates that looked like they would match the tablecloths I bought a few months back in this pattern here.
So I picked up one of the plates to see how much they were. And I felt just about like one of my favorite bloggers and silently said to myself, “it’s a Christmas miracle!” because those lovely little plates were marked down 90%. Yes, 90% off! Each plate was $1.19. I decided to get them all. There were 14 of the dinner plates, and yes, I put them all into my little fabric covered Kohl’s stroller/shopping cart. I was a little afraid it was going to break, but it held true for me. The sad thing was that there were only four salad plates (for 99 cents each).
While I was there looking at the loveliness of the plates and placing them carefully in the cart, a cute lady with a Spanish accent came up and started looking at the plates. She was truly impressed with my Christmas miracle, and started trying to find one of her own. She looked at the price tags on some of the other cute plates on the shelf, but they were only marked down to $4 or $5 per plate. “Do you think these others are 90% off, too?” she asked me. I didn’t really know, but told her she should try using one of the store’s magic scanners to see what the price was. I left her there to deliberate over her plate choice and went skipping off to the check-out line (and boy, was it a line) to buy my plates. A Christmas present from my mother-in-law, who gave us a Kohl’s gift card instead of trying to pick something out for us for Christmas. And yes, this present is for both Ryan and me. He’ll eat off of them, won’t he?
When I finally reached the check out counter and started unloading my cart, that same lady came up, with red plate in hand, and we asked the check out girl (who strangely enough is the same girl who is ALWAYS working whenever I go to Kohl’s. I think she’s checked me out three times in a row. Is that weird, or what?) if she could scan the plate, and shouldn’t it also be 90% off, since it was right next to the striped plate on the shelf. Young Kohl’s checkout girl was unfortunately less than helpful. She scanned it, and said, “Nope, this one’s $5. It must not be on clearance.” Darn. I felt bad for the lady with the Spanish accent; I wished we could have gotten her a killer deal, too.
I couldn’t wait to tell Ryan about my killer deal. Not that he really cares, but he knew I was excited, so he pretended to listen when I called him from the parking lot. When I got home and showed him, he said it was too bad they didn’t have more of the salad plates. There’s a supportive hubby, for you. So, I went online to Kohl’s.com and found that they had salad plates. They weren’t the killer deal that I found in the store ($1.99 EACH online) and I have to pay shipping, but I think it’s worth it to round out the set.
But now the plates are bought, and there’s no more shopping. For the whole month. Oh, Target, how I will miss you. I even have some returns to make at Target, but those will just have to wait until next month. Because these feet aren’t going there.
“Do you know what’s on the flyswatter?” I said to John.
“Fly guts!” says Jenna from the next room.
“That’s right. Fly guts! And we don’t hit people with fly guts, do we?” said mom.
John hangs his head sadly and says in a small voice, “no.”
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