Black Friday

K, I know this month is all about what I'm grateful for, but today's post just couldn't wait until December. (And I just re-read this and it's really long, sorry!)
I am NOT grateful for Black Friday. I am a sucker for a good deal. It's like waiting for Christmas morning for me waiting to get my ads on Thursday.
For some reason that I'm not really sure about, I decided to go to Toys R Us Thursday night. I had been told that "it's not too bad at Toys R Us." And I needed to stop at my mom's anyway to get my Kohl's coupons, so why not run up quick and get all my Christmas shopping done in one stop? Good plan...bad idea. My mom decided to come with me for fun. We got there and couldn't find the end of the line. I kid you not. It was 10:10 and the line was totally wrapped around the building. I was ready to go home, but my mom said that we should wait it out.
In the freezing cold 14 degree weather.
For an hour and a half.
We made some friends with the people in line with us.
My sweet nieces came and checked on us at 11 and cheered us.
My mom tried joking with the police officers guarding the door.
They didn't approve.
She muttered under he breath not nice things as only she could.
We were in!
The first thing I saw was something my neighbor had asked me to get. SCORE!
Grabbed it...victory!
Then we saw the line.
The line to check out.
The line that went up and down every aisle in the store and would take another 2 hours to get through.
That's when I gave up.
We left the store empty-handed.
Defeat.
I felt like such a failure.
I started to take my mom home when she said, "I'll go to Wal-mart with you." By then it was 11:45 - way past my mother's bedtime. But we went. We found the piles of things we were there for and waited for the countdown over the pa system. The store was silent, then people got antsy, 10..9..8..7..6..5..4..3..2..1..utter chaos broke out. I held my ground in front on the PS3 game display. Me and about 60 other really confused Mommies buying games for our kids - by kids I mean husbands. I had found a guy who looked like a gamer and showed him the picture on my iphone of the game I was sent to get. He helped me find it and we waited for the lucky man in blue to come unlock the cases.
He came.
He started helping people on at a time.
Unlock case. Grab game. Lock case. Move to next case. Try 6 keys. Unlock case. Grab game.
SLOW.
Getting frustrated at all the other deals I was missing.
Lady in blue comes over and says, "these are not the promo games, they are located over in the frozen foods section."
Nice man next to me lets out a string of profanity.
We all run to the frozen food section.
Games are gone.
Defeat.
I call my mom and hope she's doing better.
She is. Just like her to find the bargains.
We get in line. 2 people with a million things butt in front of us.
I stare them down every chance I get.
Then their credit card is declined.
I had not nice thoughts.
We had to wait for about 10 minutes while 3 ladies in blue tried to figure out what to do.
Finally pay.
Drop Mom off.
Get home at 2 a.m.
Set alarm for 5 a.m.
Wake up at 8 a.m. (forgot to turn alarm on once I set it).
Dang it.
Go to Kohl's.
Do you remember when I got that amazing deal at Kohl's a while back? Well, today I got the Kohl's Nazi for my cashier.
I sweetly say, "Can I have these rang up in separate transactions so I can use my coupons?"
She glares at me "That's fraud."
I kind of laugh. K. " Then I just want this one thing and I'll go through the line again".
"That's fraud. Only one coupon per day."
I read my coupon.
"No, it says per transaction, not per day. I bought 3 of these coupons and should be able to use them."
She wouldn't budge.
My total was 50.90 AFTER tax.
Kohl's cash is for a purchase over $50. She would not give me Kohl's cash because it wasn't before tax. Ew. (After all that, she did compliment me on my ring. Trying to save the sale, I guess).
I took my bags to my car.
Went back in.
Went to a different cashier.
Used my $10 coupon. Showed her my last receipt and she gave me my Kohl's cash.
On to Target. They had nothing I wanted left.
Defeat.
Dang alarm.
And then I saw it.
I have wanted a Greatest Hits Queen CD for YEARS, but have never bought one.
It was calling my name.
It's happy little sales tag smiled at me.
"I'm only $6.50. Buy me." It said.
So I did.
I got to my car, ripped it open, and cranked it all the way up.
Ahhhh...Success! I got something on sale!
I drove to my next store blaring Bohemian Rhapsody and head-banging in my best Wayne's World manner.
I even sat in the car and finished the song before I went in.
While I waited in line at Cabela's I sang in my head and I was in a happy place.
I jammed out all the way home (did you notice me singing and jamming out when I passed you, Adhis?)
Got home. Showered. Took at 2 hour nap. Listened to Queen until Jeramy said it had to be turned off.
So, today was a total success! Thanks to Queen for saving the day.
Will I go shopping again next year? You know it.

Snow

I am grateful for snow. Sunday morning (while I was so sick) Maddie let me sleep in until about 10. When I got up, I looked out my window and she was out there shoveling my driveway. I love her. I then bundled up the other 2 kids (whoever created gloved for small children has a sick sense of humor) and sent them out. I made hot chocolate and cuddled up on the couch and watched my kids play outside for an hour in the snow.
I used to think there was nothing prettier than perfect snow that hadn't been walked on, but as I looked out my window and saw my trampled snow and little attempts at snowmen, I decided that was way better to look at because now I can remember how much fun my kids had!

Primary

I am grateful for Primary.
Did I forget to mention that Saturday I woke up with a terrible cold? Sunday when I woke up, I was pretty sure I was going to die. I sent Jer to church with the girls while I rested and tried to prepare myself to do my sharing time lesson. I had prayed that I would be able to go and teach these children my lesson. When the time came, I got up and dragged myself to the church. As I sat and waited, my nose cleared out (yuck, I know). My throat didn't tickle anymore, and my eyes weren't watering. I felt just about normal. I was able to do my sharing time and teach well over 100 children about serving in their homes. (I tried my best not to touch any of your sweet little kids, so hopefully I only shared my message of service with them and not my germs).

I know I was blessed to be able to go to church and teach. My cold was back full force right after church!

Maddox

I am grateful for dinner with my in-laws.

You may have noticed on my "to-do list" for Jeramy it said, "5:30 head to Brigham."

After my weekend with my sisters, we got to go to Brigham City to have a birthday dinner for my father in law at Maddox. I hear they have amazing steak. I'm just there for the rolls and salad. :) If you are ever in Brigham City and don't know where to eat, try it out!

We had a great time...with 8 adults and 9 kids under the age of 7.

Even our 2 hour drive home in the snow wasn't all that bad. The kids fell asleep and I got to talk Jeramy's ear off for 2 hours about all the amazing talks I head during the day.

Weekend away

I am grateful that I got to have a weekend away with my mom, some of my sisters, and 2 married nieces. We went to Time Out For Women in Salt Lake. We started our weekend off on Friday. My darling husband took Friday off. Wednesday night as I was getting ready to go to Bunco, he started the whining..."Everyone at work got this new game today. I really want it. You're going to be gone all weekend. What am I supposed to do?" He proceeded to "show me the money" and convince me that he needed this new game to get through the weekend without me. I finally caved and he went and bought his new game.

I also realized that I had ordered a Bountiful Basket and was going to need him to pick it up. We then played the "what's it going to take" game to get him to commit. Do you guys ever do that game at your house?
me: What's it going to take for you to go pick up my basket Saturday morning?
Jer: Um....new game - oh wait, already got that...a 12 pack of Mountain Dew...and a 12 pack of Pepsi, NOT coke.
me: SOLD! Did I mention it's no longer right here by our house and it's 2 hours earlier?

So here began my weekend. Not that I don't trust my husband, but I did plan out his weekend for him:
Friday was so fun! We went shopping ALL day. It was great to giggle and have fun with my sisters. Grandma made sure we fit some service into our day and it was good to go visit an old family friend who just lost her sister. We ate dinner at my (used to be) favorite restaurant Morelia's. Then headed up to Salt Lake to start our big event. It was great! Virginia Pearce (Pres. Hinckley's daughter) spoke, and Heidi Swinton (just wrote Pres. Monson's biography).
I decided to really make it a weekend away and I stayed the night at my parent's house and stayed up way too late chatting with Robin.

We headed downtown again bright and early at 8. Our speakers for the day were also wonderful! Linda & Shawni Eyre, Amanda Dickson, Brad Wilcox, Mariama Kallon, and Emily Freeman. The music for Sat was Hilary Weeks, now I know I'm a little biased since our best friends happen to be related to her, but she was FANTASTIC! It was so great to get away for the weekend and come home feeling spiritually recharged.

Remember that husband of mine I was so worried about? 10:20 Saturday morning I get this text :

Got 3 kids ready...picked up your basket...picked up my new glasses...bought the V8 juice your kids wanted...got a haircut...I'm on a roll!

Us ladies really got a kick out of that one.

And it doesn't end there, when we got home at 11 Saturday night, I was dreading seeing the absolute chaos my home was going to be in...I walked in and had to smile. He had cleaned the whole house - and even done the dishes! My weekend away was soooo worth a PS3 game and 24 cans of pop!
p.s. I'm pretty sure my Mom took about 700 pictures, and I only took one. My dad didn't put any up on his blog, so you only get one picture. You have to understand that my mother takes about a million pictures. We were walking through the construction area downtown and she was stopping to take pictures of our "behinds" because she walks slower than us, and we were making fun of her for doing so, a very friendly construction worker said, "You can take a picture of my behind." Wow. Then my mom just couldn't even walk because she was laughing so hard!

Family Home Evening

I am grateful for this:

I am grateful to have all of these talks and games to use for family home evenings!

Last year I inherited my mom's stash of talks for Primary. I spent a few days going through them all and re-labeling them. Some were a little too outdated for even me to use, but most made it to my file boxes. Jennica was so jealous of my "vintage" primary talks. She has come and borrowed a few, which makes me happy. If you ever need a last minute FHE lesson, give me a call. I'm not even kidding! I would love someone else to enjoy them. I have oodles of old ones, and oodles of new ones that I have made. (This is Macie's talk for tonight. It's a talk about being grateful for all the things we can do, like hear, smell, etc. These pictures are older than me, drawn by my mom).

Grateful for...

Well, I told you not to hold me to my daily posts. I had scheduled out the entire week ahead of time last week, but never sat down and did it for this week.
Here's a run-down of what I'm grateful for so far this week

Sunday: Grateful for a wonderful Stake Conference. My kids were actually pretty good, so I got to pay attention!
Monday:Grateful that I can play the piano. As the youngest of 6 kids, I am the only one who was spoiled enough to get to take lessons. I am grateful to have a piano in my home so that I can practice and fill our home with the peaceful spirit that music can bring. Grateful that Maddie is taking lessons from someone besides me and she's really enjoying it!
Tuesday: Grateful for my calling and the amazing women I am serving with. I am enjoying learning more about each of them.
Wednesday: Grateful for lunches with my parents and sisters. Grateful for a new Christmas craft to work on.
Thursday: Grateful for nothing to do today. :) (Except for a few primary things, but those are just fun for me to do, so they don't count).

Big hills and time to play

Remember when I said I didn't take any pictures of Halloween? This is seriously all that I got. Not a single one of all of them all lined up all cute and wearing their entire costumes.
Maddie the pirate would not wear an eye patch because "They said no masks, Mom, and that's a mask."
Lindsay was an adorable ladybug. I made her skirt. :) She should be wearing her black leotard and her red wings, but wearing our costumes to the school was a last-minute kind of thing.
Macie was a ballerina fairy. What's that, you may ask? She wanted to have wings, a wand and a crown. All of which I had for her, none of which she wanted to wear. Aunt Tera made her skirt, I just added blue to it so it would match her wings.

These pictures were taken at Maddie's school. There is a huge hill out front and I let the girls play on it. They were in heaven. I had no where to be. I had my fancy shmancy phone, so I sat and checked my email and such while they played. It was a good moment. I'm grateful for good moments.

Skating and Buster Burger

Monday night was family skate night for Maddie's school. Not our favorite activity, but the girls love it and had a blast. Maddie did great on the skates...thanks to aunt Kerry for taking her ice skating this summer. (I'm grateful for that).

Jeramy and I couldn't decide what to do about dinner. Us girls just wanted to get a pizza while we skated, he wanted to leave. We finally all agreed to leave and Jer took us to one of his favorite lunch places called Buster Burger. Monday nights, their mini burgers (which are really mini, but perfect for Macie and Lindsay) are .99 cents. Maddie ate 2! Lindsay had a bite of Jeramy's and for the first time in her life, requested a burger. We immediately went and bought her one and she ate the whole thing. (grateful for that).

When we were finished, the manager came over and asked us if we'd like some free ice cream...heck ya! He gave us 3 large cups of ice cream. The girls were so excited and now have a favorite new restaurant.

So, today I'm grateful for a good family night, with free roller skating and free ice cream.

(On a not so grateful side note...just pulled up my checking account, and the poor girl who rang us up couldn't get the transaction to work, or so we thought. We got charged 4 times for our meal! Hopefully I can get it taken care of, otherwise, that free ice cream was more like $40 ice cream!)

Acorns

This was actually from last week, AND I actually wrote it in my gratitude journal.

"Grateful for a relaxing afternoon at Mom's. The girls picked up acorns at the Ledford's. Made pumpkin cookies with Mom and Tracy. The girls brought their acorns home and colored on them for HOURS outside with the neighbor kids."

Preschool

I am so grateful that I was able to pull together another co-op preschool this year. I was so stressing having to pay $60-$100 a month in a preschool when I knew that I could teach her the same things at home. I'm grateful I found some families feeling the same way and we were able to group up and save some $$! I am working with some amazing Moms (and Dads) and so far it has been perfect! Lindsay is learning so much, and I enjoy the 4 hours a week that she's gone. :) She has made new friends, and really loves going to each different house.

Bountiful Baskets

I am grateful for my Bountiful Basket this week. (You sign up on line, pay $15 and go Saturday morning and pick up a basket full of fresh fruits and veggies. You don't know what you are going to get in your basket until you get there- which kind of makes it fun to try out new things). I haven't done it for a while, but this week I actually remembered to sign up on time. It was like Christmas morning going to get my basket and seeing all of the healthy fruits and vegetables. I also tried out their bread this time and I LOVE it! 5 loaves for $10. We've already had our green beans, salad, tomatoes, and cucumber. Trying to get brave enough to try the sweet potatoes tonight.

Happy...November

Can you believe that it's November? I can't! For the past few years, we've made a "gratitude tree" for the month of November. Every night when we have family prayer, the person praying gets to tell us what they are grateful for and then we write it on a leaf and put it on our tree. This year, I never took our tree down - but the tree itself fell down and never got put back up. It's been a nice reminder to see all year long the things (mostly people) we are grateful for.

So tonight we will start a new gratitude tree.

I have high hopes for the month of posting daily one thing I'm grateful for...don't hold me to it, k? Last year for Thanksgiving my mom gave us each a Gratitude journal. I've really tried to write things in it, but I forget most a lot of the time. It is so fun to go back and read those things that I was grateful for.

So day one...I'm grateful for my cricut! Last night when I remembered it was time to make my gratitude tree, I just had to go downstairs, put a paper in the machine and tell it to cut 30 leaves for me. 5 minutes later, I was ready to go. Sigh, my cricut makes me happy! (Even when I realized I didn't need 30 in each color, I actually made 90 leaves. Whoops!)

What are you grateful for today?