on target

Yesterday I went to Target to get some envelopes.

I got chips, peanut butter, face wash.

No envelopes.

However, it marked the second time this week I didn't come out of Target with the "unnecessary necessities."

No scarves, dishes, curtains, bracelets or holiday decorations.

Y'all don't realize what an accomplishment that is for me.

I got just what was on my list.

Kind of.

Except for the envelopes.


PS - I have no update on the horse.  The Captain never thought about him again.  Well, except for the ten times I asked about him yesterday.

Hello Mr. UPS Man...

 

Yeah, so I've been doing a lot of my holiday shopping online.

 

Yes, that was one day's visit from Mr. UPS Man...

 

 

Goodness

My three hunters had a good weekend.

The Captain and Jordan went on Saturday. 

Coop and the Captain went on Sunday.  And, Coop got his first deer!

Me? I had the laziest, most productive weekend ever.

I did some major online holiday shopping from the comfort of my cozy chair on Saturday.  Because nothing says holiday hustle and bustle like jammies, free shipping and no crowds.

Two day week ahead.  I got this.

This

All I want....

Hooray hooray! I bought a Christmas present yesterday. I am finally realizing that these gifts won't buy themselves.... And, time....it's ticking.... So the show must get on the proverbial road.

I've been trying to order some things online. But soon, my statute of online ordering limitations will expire and the gifts won't get here in time. And I refuse to pay more in shipping than the actual gift costs. So it's looking like I'm going to have to go to some actual stores. I have confirmed that I'm allergic to the mall. So that's going to present a small problem.

Cooper has asked for a snowboard. This is slightly problematic because, you, ummmm, kind of need some snow for that. And a hill. He also is asking for a trampoline (Sorry, kid. Never), anything WWE related, and some Pittsburgh Steelers stuff.

Jordan's list only has three things on it: an iPhone, a gecko, and an additional piercing in her ear. Let's just say only one of those things is slightly viable. And it doesn't breathe. Or include needles.

The Captain never really asks for anything specific. He gets this weird little voice and says "allll I want is youuuuuuu". OK, then. That's easy. We're kind of "not giving each other anything" but we kind of do. Santa is still bringing us a new shower floor and getting our roof fixed. So there's that. Ho ho ho.

Me? I kind of want a Kindle, and of course world-wide peace, and 5 minutes without somebody saying "Mom".

And right now, I want some more coffee.

Ciao!

Pain in the neck

Last night at church, I had a little word with the Captain's chiropractor. You know, the one who has required the Captain to sleep on his back. (see also: snore like a freight train).

I told the good doctor that I would not hesitate to give him a little ringy ding at two in the morning to discuss the Captain's treatment plan.

Another little part of this healing process requires the Captain to lay on the floor with a rolled up towel under his neck. And when I ask him what he's doing he says, "Shhhh - I'm supposed to lay here and totally relax for 10 minutes." And then he lays there with his eyes closed.

Wha???

OK, then.....

Speaking of pain in the neck....

Let's talk holiday shopping. Or let's not.

I'm slowly chipping away at my to-do list. And I'm trying to squash that suffocatingish feeling of "I have so much to do and so little time to do it."

So. Much. To. Do.

And that may or may not have been me in Target last night at 9:30 buying bananas for Jordan's French club lunch....

Which is in no way related to the Christmas shopping.

How do you say banana in French anyway?

Anyway, I bought two gifts yesterday. Hooray for me! But still lots to do. And then that whole wrapping thing.... My grand plans of "wrap as I buy" really have not panned out so well for me.

I think I'm going to go grab a towel and lay in the floor for awhile.

Expensive Socks

All she needed was some new socks. So Jordan and I ran to Target Saturday night after the debacle also known as the Arkansas-Alabama game to get them.

$150 later, we left with the socks. And all this too:

• two CDs
• bathing suit - marked waaayyyyy down - for Jordan - not for me because I'm allergic to bathing suits
• two bags of M & M's - one bag of peanut butter (which are most excellent) and one bag of pretzel
• two little dresses - for Jordan - I'm also allergic to something that's described as "little"
• bag of apples
• butter
• crescent rolls
• headbands - in school approved colors
• chocolate covered raisins - special request from the Captain
• Coke Zero - again, for the Captain
• Special K chocolate shake drink things
• two spiral notebooks
• a package of bobby pins
• gum

Oh, and the socks.

The Mission

My Saturday afternoon featured a shopping trip with my daughter.

My "6-weeks from being an official teenager" daughter.

The mission?

She needed a new pair of jeans.

Simple enough. Right?

A pair of jeans.

Think again.

We went to four stores.

And looked at 305,172 pair of jeans.

Of those, only 49,240 of those made the cut and made it to the dressing room.

I did my best to achieve this simple jean-buying mission....

How about these?

These?

Did you see these?

These are cute.

Try these on.

What about these?

My suggestions were met with responses that sounded like this:

Mom. MOM!!! MOM!!!!!

I must not know jeans.

Some were too dark.

Some were too light.

The wrong color.

A funny color.

A yucky color.

They were too baggy.

Too floppy in the legs.

Too saggy in the front.

The pockets looked weird.

The stiching was ugly.

For those of you who felt the earth shake about 3:30 on Saturday afternoon and just thought it was an aftershock in Chile, you were mistaken.

That, my friends, is when ... She. Found. Some. Jeans.

{Cue angelic singing}


I, who was not even looking for some new jeans, had no problems. I walked right up to a big ol' display of jeans. Seriously - one whole wall of jeans. Picked up a pair. Tried them on. And bought them. On the spot. The end. Maybe it's not so hard cause I am looking for "Wide Circumference Mom Jeans" and she is looking for "Cool Cute Tweenager Jeans".

Anyway, jeans were purchased.

And they were quite reasonably priced. (aka: Didn't resemble a car payment.)

And even though Levi Strauss rolled over in his grave more than once that afternoon, we all lived happily ever after.

A love letter

Dear Target --

Oh how I love you.
And like a faithful friend,
You are always there waiting for me.

(OK, maybe not always, but at least Mon-Sat 8a-10p and Sun 8a-9p)

I love to push my red buggy up and down your treasure-filled aisles.
You calm me.
You are a solace to my stress-filled soul.

You love me unconditionally.
(As long as I bring my debit card)
And you always give me exactly what I need.

Dishes....

....and purses....


....and shoes....

Oh my!

And you always have my best interests at heart.
Because you offer me things that I may not think I need, but you insist that I have.
And you beckon me to put them in my buggy.
Because you are just that kind of friend.

Things like....

....jewelry....

....and house things...

....and movies for $5 (FIVE DOLLARS PEOPLE!)....
.....Hoodies...in every color of the rainbow....

...and these lamps that I am hearting very much.

Plus, you even have things like Advil, and toilet paper, and milk, and laundry detergent.
What novel ideas!
You are *so smart* Target!

You are like therapy to me.
And you are very similar to therapy.
Because you and therapy both run me about the same amount of money:
$100 an hour.

So thank you my beloved Target.
For being there for me.

I heart you.

Are ya' done?

So, are you finished with your shopping? I tried to get some of this knocked out this weekend and actually made some progress. My list is pretty good sized. I shop for 19 family members. And then add in teacher gifts, school party gifts and service project gifts, and other various gifts on the list. This year at work, we decided to adopt some Salvation Army angels and buy for them rather than buy gifts for each other. I'm glad we decided to do that for many reasons. But it also eliminated another ten people or so off my gift list.

My goal THIS WEEK is to finish all my shopping. Then comes the dreaded wrapping....It's fun for the first ten presents....Then, no thanks....And I have some help (which I welcome) for the first five presents....Then, no thanks.

What about you? How's your shopping coming?

Online Surveys & Market Research

Here's where Jerry was seen hanging around this weekend. He's a funny little elf.

It also seems that we had a serious parachuting accident yesterday in my den. Fortunately, the Christmas tree broke his fall. No injuries were reported.

Have a happy Monday people. Good luck out there doing your Christmas shopping. And spread some holiday cheer while you do it. Let someone else go in front of you at the check out line. It won't kill you. That small act will be the difference in their day. And you'll both leave the store feeling pretty good. I promise.

Ready, set, shop!

So are you finished with your Christmas shopping? Have you at least started? Before I had two kids and my life turned crazy Several years ago, I used to have all my gifts purchased by Halloween and wrapped by Thanksgiving. Then, when I put the tree up over Thanksgiving weekend, all the lovely gifts were ready to go under it. As you can see, I can't make that happen anymore choose not to put gifts under my tree until closer to Christmas. Yes, that is an army man truck parked under my tree. Is apparently a good place for covert military surveillance.

Time is ticking away so you'd better start making your list and hitting the stores. Or the internet.

I do quite a bit of my holiday shopping online. It is just much easier and saves so much time (and gas) and it can be done 24-7! What's not to love about surfing the internet for gifts? Especially those free shipping offers. I heart free shipping.

I shop in the stores too. I'm not a big mall shopper though. There are a few stores that I can hit and knock quite a few items off my list.

What about you?

Online Surveys & Market Research

Well, there's Jerry! Up on the grandfather clock!

Make your list and check it twice people! There are only 23 shopping days left!

Black Friday

I hope all of you had a wonderful day yesterday. I know we did. The day was perfect. We had a house full of people and really just enjoyed being together (and, of course eating!)

We had so much yummy food. And boy did we eat it up! There really isn't anything left except a small baggie of turkey and ham, a little container of green bean casserole, the extra dish of my mom's dressing, and some cranberry fruit jello. It was all delicious. YUMMERS!

What are you doing today? Are you hitting the sales at the malls?

I have no desire at all to go shopping today. Lucky for me, there is no super deal that coincides with any must-have on my shopping list.

The worst possible thing to happen today would be for me to run out of detergent or toilet paper and have to go to the store for a non-holiday-shopping-list related item. Today would actually be a great day to do grocery shopping! Who's gonna' be at Kroger the day after Thanksgiving?

Anyhoo, I read that today is not really the busiest shopping day of the year (it's actually somewhere between the 5th & 10th busiest day). The Friday and Saturday before Christmas are the two busiest shopping days. But nine of the top ten busiest days are in December. That's your shopping trivia for the day...

I am happy today just being home - again! I plan to pack up the pumpkins and pilgrims and haul out the holly and the Ho Ho. Plus, there is some great college football on today. Including Arkansas who will probably get trounced by LSU.

PJ's and a coffee pot for me. Yep, that's my plan. Maybe I'll take advantage of some online shopping deals. But I see no mall in my future today.

What about you? Hitting the malls today?

Online Surveys & Market Research

Have a great Friday people! Regardless of where you are!

A great day at the Wallie

This afternoon on my way home I stopped by the Wallie World. I rarely frequent this shopping mecca, as I'm partial to Target, but I was on the hunt for a few specific things that I knew only this fine shopping institution would have. Little did I know it would become a trip full of great things.

First of all, I got a parking place THREE SPOTS FROM THE DOOR. Unheard of.

Then I found these great treasures.

This great plate stand was only $6.86.

Then I saw this cutie cute little wire basket. They only wanted $5.88 for this little guy.

Right now he is living on my kitchen table like this. We'll see if he's happy there.

And THEN I saw these uber cute pumpkins for $3.97 each. That's a steal I tell you. I know it's a bit early to be thinking about fall decorations, but love decorating for the holidays. And these are perfect because I can keep them out from Halloween until after Thanksgiving (since they are not jack-o-lanterns) In fact, I may go back and get some more because they would be cute on my mantle or on the bookcase in my kitchen. Did I mention they were only $3.97 each?!?

I just realized you can't tell how big the pumpkins are, so I propped a ball point pen against it for reference. They really are good size.

So Cooper was messing with the plate stand and said "Hey Mom this is cool! Did you know it did this?"

Well, I had taken a good look at it and examined it and didn't even REALIZE that it did that of course I knew that. I wouldn't have even looked twice at it if it didn't do that. Because what good is a plate stand if it doesn't rotate out like that? I just wanted to see how long it would take my very intelligent 6-year old to figure it out. He's smart. Just like his mother.

I loaded up all my treasures in my buggy and I head to the dreaded checkout where you can never get out of there in less than 30 minutes. And what do you think happened? I walked right up to the checker with no waiting. There was no line, no waiting. No. Line. No. Waiting. Unbelievable.

It was a great day at the Wallie. And, it's never too early to buy a pumpkin people.