Black Friday

You're going to think I'm nuts - I love Black Friday. I love getting up at the crack of dawn for shopping. I love getting my Cruisin' Coffee coffee. And I love buying socks at half price - even if I don't need any socks.

This year was no different, except for the fact that I probably got less sleep than usual. I feel asleep somewhere around midnight and woke up at 4:00 AM. I set my cell phone, in case I slept in and woke right up to the cell phone, and proceeded to get ready. Only, to hear about 30 seconds later my regular alarm clock going off. Poor Chris got a very early wake up call. But he has a talent that lets him fall right back to sleep, no matter what disturbs him. I wish I had that talent.

Here's me at 4:00 AM - no shower, no coffee and very little sleep:

It's not a pretty sight. This picture just screams "Give this woman some coffee!!"

I hopped in the car and drove to meet my shopping crew at my parents house and the funny thing about shopping as early as we did is that there are more cars on the road than you'd expect, but at the same time, it's eerily quiet.






We arrived and took stock of our coupons and ads and determined our first stop was Fred Meyer. They have half-price socks, and for me I had an added bonus. Because Chris works at Fred Meyer, I get a discount on everything (except food). I also had my Fred Meyer rewards cards and coupons as well as a $25 Fred Meyer gift card. So...off we went.



My sister-in-law Renae, her daughter, Lena and my mom and I all piled into the SUV and went shopping.

Suprisingly the crowds weren't bad. Of course, we avoid the stores with notoriously long lines and crabby people - Kohl's and Wal-Mart. I once went to Wal-Mart the day after Thanksgiving for a game boy color that was $34. It was early in my shopping days and I didn't realize that they only stocked 5 items of their "doorbusters" so that everyone runs to try to get their item, but you never get the one you want. After hearing about the worker at a Wal-Mart in New York get trampled to death, I'm glad we avoid that place.

I had a successful shopping trip at Fred Meyer. I had a purchase that, before coupons and discounts was over $250, and I ended up paying only $96 for the entire lot. You can't be that!

After Fred Meyer we were off to Target. I didn't really needanything so I meandered around. I found a few things for good prices so when I saw the line started getting really really long, I hopped in line. I lined up near the shampoo aisle, close to electronics. By the time my mom got in line, she was standing 1/2 down the game aisle in toys. Target does their lines well and it moved quickly.

After Target it was time to recharge. Lena's actually the only one who looks tired here. I know that I felt it, but as I said before, I love Black Friday.

(Note: my mom isn't the best picture taker. As you can tell, her finger is covering the bottom left part of the picture on the left. Oh mom).






We really did shop until we dropped. I completed my shopping for the most part and had a great time doing it. I was pretty tired on my way home...



...probably because I'd been shopping for 9 hours...










Time to rest up for next year.

Thanksgiving

I was the cook for Thanksgiving dinner this year. We had dinner with Chris's family, minus his dad who was home with a cold. I got really lucky because Carley decided to sleep for 3 1/4 hours that day, so I had lots of time to prepare and cook.

The turkey was, unfortunately, a little dry. Why? Well, because I saw cook times for a 22lb, unstuffed turkey that ranged from 3 hours to 6 hours. Kind of a slight difference. It would have been easier if the range was within an hour, so a range between 3 and 6 hours was confusing. So, the turkey dried up. Chris's brother, Nick, did the carving of the turkey and for some reason he seemed to think that the way the turkey was carved altered the taste so he apologized to me about 10 times for not carving the turkey well. I finally had to tell him to shut the hell up. Geez. It's turkey. We ate it. End of story.

I got to use our china we got as a wedding present and our silverware and we had a nice dinner. Carley had fun and so did Chris and I and considering that I had very little time to mentally prepare for it, it turned out to be an awesome Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving

For only the second time in my life, I am making Thanksgiving dinner. I am not the best cook on a regular day, and making a Thanksgiving dinner scares me. No one wants to eat dried turkey, and watery mashed potatoes so I'm trying my best. And frankly, I hate touching raw poultry. I don't mind touching beef, but raw chicken and turkey grosses me out (hence the picture above).

This time I have a new challenge of having a toddler running around while I'm cooking, but as luck would have it, she napped the entire time I cooked and cleaned. So, dinner is cooking, the house is clean and I'll even have a well-rested child by the time dinner is served.

And for all of that, I am thankful. Happy Thanksgiving.

Twilight in review (SPOILERS!!)

The waiting was finally over and last night, me and six others, got to see the movie Twilight. Due to the huge take over the weekend, we wanted to get to the theater by 6PM for our 7PM show, to make sure we got seats.

We arrived and you could hear crickets in the lobby. Not. One. Person. Was. There. But that's okay for me, because I don't like crowds. So we got our seats, the lights went dark and the movie started...

The movie instantly feels like an independent film, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. I, for one, enjoy independent movies. But you can definitely tell the difference between and independently made movie and a "blockbuster" made movie.

As with most movies adapted from books, some things need to be left out. The beginning of the book, until she discovers Edward is a vampire, doesn't take too long, maybe 45 minutes, so they aren't able to explore the characters as they did in the books. For one, they don't ever show Edward listening to the thoughts of all the other kids in school, which I was a bit disappointed with. So much of Jessica's bitchiness is learned through Edward listening to her thoughts and how Jessica never thinks that Bella is good enough for Edward. You also learn, basically, how everyone perceives the Cullen Family, through their thoughts. I think at one point Edward says that he can read thoughts, except for Bella's, but it's said in passing.

As for the Cullen Family, when I looked at the promotional pictures I didn't really like what I saw, but once I saw them on screen, I loved them. Dr. Cullen is exactly how I imagined, Rosalie is a much bigger bitch and Alice is someone I would totally be friends with.

Until Bella discovers Edward is a vampire, it moves slow and I had a hard time liking the movie. I think part of that was because in a theater with teenagers, they are loud and obnoxious so they laughed at the weirdest spots. However, once she discovered he was a vampire and even the scene in the forest where he demands she say it outloud, it gets good.

The best part was the baseball and the action and James - hubba, hubba! I will definitely buy it on DVD so I can watch it without a peanut gallery.

I think if you've read the book you'd enjoy the movie.

Twilight

I bought the book Twilight once, when I needed an additional $7 to get free shipping on my Amazon.com order. I'd heard a few things about it and needed something to read, so I bought it. When I got it, I proceeded to put the book on my shelf for about six months.

I don't know what prompted me to pick up the book and actually read it, but once I started I couldn't put it down. I stayed up until midnight every night reading. I took the book with me everywhere I went. I read on my breaks, I read on my lunch hour and I fell in love with the book. And I proceeded to tell every person I knew to read the books.

Now, the movie is out (and made a shocking $70 million!) and tonight the girls and I are going to see it. I feel like the days have dragged since it opened 4 days ago, but in a few short hours we'll be seeing the book come to life.

Bad ideas

Carley's birthday is coming up in a few months and I had this brilliant idea that I was going to throw an Elmo-themed party, where everyone would wear red and we'd decorate with the color red and Elmo. Well, last night I went shopping with my mom at the mall and we passed a store that had an Elmo pinata. My first thought was "oh my gosh, how perfect is that!". I figured I'd fill it with candy and the older kids could do the pinata.

I was also going to just come back to the store to find out the price, but my mom was so exited by it she stormed right into the store to ask the price. Well, the impulse shopper in me decided that for $14, it was perfect and I had to have it because Carley would love it.

As soon as I paid for the item (and simultaneously saw the sign that said "no returns"), I walked out of the store and it suddenly dawned on me...Carley would absolutely FLIP OUT if she saw anyone beating the crap out of Elmo with a stick. The poor kid would be absolutely traumatized.

After her reaction to seeing me clean off Winnie the Pooh, I can't imagine what she'd do if someone took a stick to Elmo's head.

So, now I have a $14 Elmo pinta decoration.

Trick 'r Treat!

There's nothing like Halloween through the eyes of a child, even one who isn't quite 2 years old. I had a lot of fun - until we hit the barrier between "I'm having fun" and "I'm over-stimulated". It's easy for a toddler to get overstimulated on Halloween, even without candy.

However, before we got over-stimulated, we got dressed up for some trick 'r treating!

Our first stop was for a free portrait at a local photography studio. She did really well, sitting there for her picture. We left before getting any candy.

Next stop, was the Courthouse (my work). I'm glad my mom came with me. It's always easier with two people. In this picture, we have just arrived and the costume is intact and she's carrying the pumpkin bucket (which she pronounces as "pa pa").





The courthouse is a great place for trick 'r treating. It's indoors, there's room for her to run and there's not a million kids. She filled her bucket to the very top, in just the 4 offices she stopped in. She was a hit with everyone. We worked for about 2 months to say "trick or treat" (which sounded like "trick or trick", not leaving many options for the candy giver), however once we got started, she didn't say "trick or treat" once. However, she did learn how to say "thank you" about 2 days before Halloween and she said "thank you" to most everyone who gave her candy.

She sort of got the concept of Halloween. She'd get a piece of candy, put it in her pumpkin bucket and then say "thay choo" (thank you).



After the Courthouse, we went to my parents house and then my Grandma Sadie's house. The novelty had started to wear off and she just wanted to play. She gave up carrying the bucket and instead wanted to pick up rocks and leaves.


She then got distracted by a chain-link fence. I mean really, what kid doesn't want to put their arm through a chain-link fence?








Chris, unfortunately had to work so by the time he got to see her, she had already reached her breaking point. We didn't last much longer after that and she fell asleep in the car on the way home.