Black Friday

I will forever shiver when I hear the term Black Friday thanks to my first Black Friday experience this year. Don't get me wrong, it was worth it for the deals I got and I'll probably do it again next year and the year after that until Farrah and any other kids we have are older. But man oh man was it crazy out there.

I wasn't even really planning on going out but on Thanksgiving we were at my mom's house and after the meal we were looking at the ads. My mom goes a little nuts when it comes to Christmas presents (sorry mom) so she was studying each ad for more and more present ideas for Farrah. Since little miss has a birthday in December in addition to Christmas, I wanted to try to get her birthday presents at some black friday deals as well as her Christmas present.

My aunt wanted some ideas for a birthday gift for Farrah and I said a kitchen set and we found this awesome deal in the Toys R Us ad for black friday... on sale for only $70! Reg. $100So my aunt gave me a check for it and asked me to pick it up. Now I really had to go for the Black Friday deal because otherwise I was going to have to come out of pocket $30 for a gift that was supposed to be from my aunt so I went from just perusing the ads to preparing for a long night of crazy people and crowds.

So I asked my brother-in-law if he would come with me... best decision I made because there's no way I could have carried everything by myself, plus I had someone to talk to to pass the time while we were waiting in all the lines.

So we got to Toys R Us about an hour after they opened on Thanksgiving night... so I guess technically it was Black Thursday. It took us about a half hour to get into the store... not so bad I guess. Once we were in I saw the line to pay and I knew we had to hurry and grab what we came for and quickly get in line. The line weaved in and out of the aisles of the store. My brother-in-law grabbed the kitchen, I grabbed a food set to go with the kitchen, a cash register, and then this slide on sale for $25. I'm hoping it will provide hours of fun for Farrah when it's raining outside :)

Then we proceeded to the line to check out. That took about an hour and a half to get through. And there was a fight in the aisle over for an apparent line cutting incident. Here we are trying to keep a positive attitude despite the craziness.... I had to take at least one pic to document the experience.

Oh and while we were waiting in line in one of the aisles I saw this gem....

Thankfully they weren't sold out or I don't know what I would have done :)

We then took off to Target for me to get a portable DVD player with 2 monitors that attached to the back of the headrests in my car. We take long drives when we visit family and as Farrah has gotten older it has become increasingly difficult to entertain her in the car. It was on sale for $99, regularly $200. They had the line wrapping around the back of the store just to get inside. That was the worst part of the whole Target experience. There were people walking up the line selling hot chocolate and tamales to the people waiting (not a half bad idea if you ask me.) And then there was a guy that had a puppy in his trenchcoat that he was trying to sell as he was walking up and down the line. It was pretty much a circus outside the store. When I got inside it took us a while to find what we were looking for because the electronics section was a zoo. But the line to pay was really short. Like I'm pretty sure I wait longer than that at a Target on a regular Monday morning.

I should have known it would be too easy. When I got up to pay she rang it up and it came up full price. Oh heck no. I explained to her it was supposed to be $99 and it was in the ad. She seemed confused but then it appeared a lightbulb went off and she said "Oh you mean this one?" as she pulled a box out from below her register. It looked exactly the same as what I had except the monitor size on the box she had was 2 inches bigger. She scanned it and sure enough it was half price! Then she said "you know you're really lucky because I believe this is the last one and I had someone come through my line not long before you and they thought it was too expensive so I put it down her with the go backs." Score! The Black Friday gods must have been looking out for me at 2am the day after Thanksgiving.

We were going to go to Kohl's but thought we should end on a make.

That, and we were just really exhausted.

All in all, it was worth it. I think I ended up saving just under $200 and didn't pay full price on anything. I think it's worth it if you have young kids but I don't see the point if you're not buying larger quantities of stuff.

I'm done with most of my Christmas Shopping. Just a couple more people to buy for. Hopefully Cyber Monday proves to be a good day to do some shopping as well :)

Anyone else have any Black Friday Stories?

A much overdue Halloween post

I know, I know, I'm behind on my posts. But my pre-New Years resolution is to be more on top of my posts.

So Halloween was pretty Anti-climactic. My father-in-law and sister-in-law came to visit that week and my sister-in-law has always referred to Farrah as her little cupcake, so when she saw a cupcake costume at Old Navy she called and asked if she could get it for her. Of course I was more than happy to have someone check something off my to-do list for me and thought it sounded adorable so when they came to visit I was excited to see it on Farrah. She had other plans though. Apparently she hated it. I say "apparently" because I wasn't there when they put it on her and when I came back it was already off because she got that upset when they put it on her. They snapped a few photos so I was able to get the idea of what it looked like. My vision of my smiling baby in her Halloween costume visiting her neighbors to get some candy will have to wait until next year.

That night my church was putting on a neighborhood Trunk-or-Treat and I volunteered to decorate my trunk and pass out candy to all the little kids. My hubby showed up with Farrah in the "costume" she selected..... a 2 piece Dora swimsuit and dress up clear heels that light up. Needless to say she didn't stay long due to the clothes to temperature ratio.

Next year will have to be our first "real" Halloween with Farrah. Let's just hope she can keep her costume on long enough to get some good pictures.

What I'm thankful for this year

I could go on for days but here are some of the highlights

1. People who still read my blog even though it's been over a month since I last posted :)

2. Having my in-laws visiting for the week. I'm one of the few lucky people that actually loves having them visit.

3. My house. Although there are many times I get frustrated with projects that need to be done or things going on in the neighborhood that make me want to move, there are times I stop and look around and can't believe this house is actually ours. How did we get so lucky to be able to own a home, especially one that has been good to us and our sweet babe.

4. My "other kids." We have 4 pets that, knock on wood, have all been pretty healthy. While I sometimes complain about the work involved in taking care of them especially with a toddler, they bring us such joy and I am grateful for the joy they bring Farrah. Pure joy.

5. My parents and sister. While we haven't always agreed on everything, my parents have been through some life "biggies" this year and we have all come together for support. And my sister is working hard to make her dreams come true. I couldn't be more proud of her.

6. Our trip to Hawaii. Yes it already happened, and yes I haven't blogged about it but it was awesome and I will get to blogging about it. The main hold up is I broke my new digital camera on the trip and so the only pictures we really got were from the hubbs' Iphone and I'm waiting for him to upload them. But for now the cliff notes version is it was awesome!

7. An absolutely amazing year for our careers. A free car (which by the way I'm especially grateful for considering Abe's car just died and we're now living on one car until we figure out what to do), a promotion for me, and ending with a promotion for Abe! We finally feel like instead of treading water we can actually make some progress when it comes to our financial goals. This one was a biggie for us this year.

8. Finding a wonderful church. This had been on my "things to do" list for a while and we found an awesome church that we enjoy attending, and Farrah can go to a great "preschool" while we're there.

9. Friends. We really have some amazing friends. And we've become so much closer to them all this year (and it's not just because they are geographically closer to us). I realize not everyone has the fortune of having "lifer" friends like I do. I know these girls aren't going anywhere no matter what happens in our lives. They're the kind of people you could call at 3 in the morning and ask them to come pick you up 3 hours away and there would be no questions asked. Love them.

10. My husband. Bleh.... as soon as I typed that my eyes got all watery. Absolutely the most perfect person in this world for me. No one understands me better, deals with me better (love you :), or could be a better partner for me as we make our way through this crazy thing called life. The most amazing father to Farrah and I thank my lucky stars everyday he came into my life via a little place called Quiznos :)

11. And lastly, my sweet, sweet girl Farrah. I have a feeling I'm going to say each year that it was the most fun year with her... well maybe not when she's a teenager :) But she has really turned into such an amazing little girl and she's not even 2 yet. I'm amazed by her on a daily basis. She teaches me how to be tough, not to take things so seriously, how to enjoy the little things, and how to truly enjoy life. Love you baby girl! Thank you for being my biggest blessing!

It's the most wonderful time of the year...

Move over Christmas.... you're cool and all, but Fall takes the cake in my book. What could be more exciting then the crispness in the air after a hot summer, the return of swoon-worthy boots, pumpkin spice lattes and anything pumpkin for that matter?! I'm sure I have all you Christmas obsessed folks thinking of coming over to the dark side :) However my baby is a December baby so I will say, that does tip the scale in your favor for that reason alone.
We took Farrah to a pumpkin patch a couple weeks ago. She loved it! Not because of the pumpkins or anything, but because of 2 things... the animals on the farm, and the hayride to go pick pumpkins. She could have cared less about the music show they put on for the kids, which I was fine with because quite frankly listening to a creepy hillbilly sing barn songs isn't really my scene anyways. Instead this is what she did...

... stare at animals. She loved it. But I wasn't the least bit surprised considering her lifelong (almost 2 years now) obsession with all things animal. If you are one of my "real life" friends or family members, you've already been introduced to "Ra-Ra" and her purple wrist and ankle bands. If you are a "blog friend" you're probably wondering what the heck is on my kids legs and what she's carrying around. We get many stares these days. Mostly for her wrist and arm bracelets. I see people point and make comments, my recent favorite was at a party I heard a couple talking and then point to her purple bands then followed it up with "it looks like she's on house arrest." Yes moron my 2 year old is on house arrest. Being that I'm a parent of a toddler, my first thought would be, looks like that kid has taking a liking to some purple bands. That is it precisely. She's 2, she has new obsessions daily and this is her current one. Ra-Ra goes with her everywhere and her purple bands must be on her at all times. I think it makes her unique and gives her character. If she wants to wear rockstar bands all day, more power to you girl!

Best family photo we got all day

On the hayride over she put her little hand on daddy's lap and left it there the whole time. P.R.E.C.I.O.U.S.

One of her many DIVA faces

She got so mad when we had to get off the hayride to start picking pumpkins. This is her crying and pointing at the tractor as it drove away. Note to Grandma, Farrah wants a tractor for her birthday!

We quickly picked some pumpkins and got back on the hay ride as soon as possible.... Farrah wasn't diggin' the whole pumpkin part of the pumpkin patch.

Leave it to mommy to ruin Farrah's good time on the hayride. At least I was able to get this good picture with my happy girl.

We had a great time celebrating the gratest season of all. Halloween will be here soon. I'll leave you in suspense with what she's going to be for Halloween. Her Auntie Janett picked it out and is coming to visit from LA to see Farrah model her costume. Can't wait!

I've been waiting for this forever and a day

Ok well that may be a bit dramatic but I'm super excited! Me and the hubbs are going to Hawaii! I'm sure many of you are rolling your eyes behind your computer screens ... I can just picture it... "must be nice!" That's something I would probably say to someone who announces in a blog they're going on a nice trip. But hear me out.... we need this trip!
In college I did a lot traveling. I loved it. Loved exploring, learning.... yada yada. Now that I've been married for a few years and have been a parent for almost 2, I have no desire to go anywhere where I have to think. I want to go somewhere with a beach where I can lay around and do nothing besides work on my tan (or in my case attempt a slightly darker shade of pasty white) and drink girly beverages of the alcoholic variety. So Hawaii has been on my list of places I wanted to go with my wonderful husband to get away. I knew that logistically it would be difficult enough with one child, and that trying to get away for a trip like that with more than one child would be very difficult. So I've said for a long time that I didn't want to have any more kids until we could go to Hawaii. As time went on, I started to doubt we'd ever be able to go, let alone before another child comes into the picture.
Until my husband and his amazingness came to me one day with some good news. "I have some good news. We might be able to go to Hawaii." Those were his exact words. I believe my response was "Ummm... what?" You see I know Hawaii is synonymous with expensive. Because if we're going to go, we're going to do it right. None of this Motel 6in' it in Maui that's for sure. We've been working hard at paying down debt and we're making progress so any extra $ we have now needs to go to that, not to a Hawaii trip.
So do you remember my last post? In case not HERE it is. The one where I was blabbering about how much my husband has been working? Turns out the hard work and long hours he's been putting in have paid off. His boss came to him and thanked him for how much he's been working and said "I'm sure your wife probably isn't too happy with you right about now." Who me? ;) So he offered to give us his frequent flier miles to send us to LA to visit family. Very nice of him to do. So my husband jokingly says, "well the wife's been wanting to go to Hawaii.... how many miles you willing to part with?" And his boss said sure!!!! Can you believe that? So this is the day my husband came home and told me we "may" be going to Hawaii. The catch was, I knew the rest of the trip was going to be really expensive even without having to pay for the flights so we talked about working really hard until our trip to save. Fastforward a few days. The bosses wife who co-owns the company pulled Abe aside and said she was very excited for us and that she remembered I wanted to wait to have more kids until we could go to Hawaii. On a sidenote I don't remember ever telling her that... who tells the hubbs' bosses wife about their family planning? But apparently I must have. ... So they were excited for us to go and she said they would like to take care of our hotel while we're there as well! Oh my stars I was so excited!!!! Now we just have to come up with spending money. As if all that wasn't enough... a few days later they offered to pay for a rental car and a helicopter ride for the 2 of us while we're there. SHUT.YOUR.MOUTH! I literally had tears in my eyes each time Abe came home to tell me more good news.
We leave in 3 weeks! We'll be staying for a week in Maui. I feel like a school girl that just won Justin Beiber tickets or something. I'm excited to relax, not think about work or Dora the explorer, pets, or any of our other responsibilities (it's impossible for me to not think about my sweet girl :) and just spend time with my husband. I need this... we need this. So I hope that makes you feel better to know that we're not the types of people that just take trips all the time. Proof that hard work pays off. Maybe not when and how you want it to, but it always, ALWAYS pays off.
Be ready for picture overload when we get back. And don't get all anxious for a pregnancy announcement or anything since we're taking this trip. With time. We'll see. Right now all I can think about is Maui or bust!

I love love, but.....

Don't get me wrong, I love love. I love my husband more today than I did when we got married. Right now, however, I'm not a fan of wedding season. Not because I'm a cheapskate that doesn't want to buy all of my family and friends that are getting married this time of year an overpriced kitchen gadget they'll never use.... nope that's not it. I'm not a huge fan of wedding season because it means I get to see my husband about 5 hours a week. And when it comes to time with my husband, I admit I'm a little selfish. I know it could be much worse so please, no leaving nasty comments about how lucky I am... I know I'm lucky to have a husband that lives in the same house as me and isn't in the military on the otherside of the planet... I get that. However as I'm typing with a glass of pinot in my hand it's 9:30pm on a Sunday night and I'm not expecting him home until abot 3am. Oh and did I mention he left around 9am this morning? Yeah... typical during wedding season.

Such is the life of the wife of a DJ :) It's not just that he DJs a lot of weddings, but he also happens to be the problem solver in the office of the DJ company. So when he's not actually at a wedding, he's dealing with the 40+ events going on at once they sometimes have.

I have to say, as much as I juggle daily, when I think about all he does I honestly have no idea how he does it. I know he's lucky to work for a great company, and to even have a job at all, not to mention one he loves doing, but the sheer number of hours he works makes me tired just thinking about it.

So, honey, this post is for you! I love you, appreciate you, and can't wait until November when I might see you on a weekend (gasp!). (Not that you'll have time to even read this post ;)

Sweet baby face

For those of you that know my daughter, she has a tendency to be a little shy when she first meets someone new, or is in a new place. She gets clingy, standoffish, and sometimes will even cry if she is unsure of where she is and if she thinks I might be leaving. At first I panicked and thought I didn't want to have that clingy kid that always cried everytime she left her house. Which is part of the reason why I started her in daycare 1 day a week around 6 months ago.

This weekend we went to a birthday party for the daughter of Farrah's daycare provider. Even 6 months later, she still usually cries when we drop her off there. So when we arrived at their house, Farrah instantly went into panic mode and wouldn't let me put her down. I sat down on the couch and watched her look around with a look of confusion on her face. "Why am I here on a Saturday?" "Why are there SO many people here?" "How come mom is still here?" All things I can imagine running through her head. It took her a few minutes to calm down and then soon enough she slid off my lap and started playing with some toys. When we went outside she saw the water table and took off running towards it. She loves that thing. It was the first time in a while I was able to really think about "who" my child is. Sounds funny because in my eyes when I look at her, I still see this sweet baby face looking back at me, but there is a little person inside that tiny little body.

She may not be a social butterfly and I'm ok with that. I could continue taking her to daycare for another 6 months and she might still cry everytime I drop her off and I'm ok with that. Because when it comes down to it, she's happy. When I saw her playing in the water table and getting her face painted by the clown, I knew she was one of the happiest kids at that party.