$36.75 worth of trouble at Target

I dropped the kids off at church tonight at 6:15 which gave me the perfect amount of time to go to Target to buy groceries. I carefully kept an eye on my watch the whole time I was there and I arrived at the checkout at precisely 7:30 in order to leave by 7:45 to pick them up by 8. Groceries scanned--check, groceries bagged--check, groceries in the cart--check, debit card inserted into machine--check, coupons deducted--not check. Somewhere about halfway through my stack of coupons the computer froze. Then my total and everything they had just scanned disappeared. So I pull my overflowing cart to another lane, opened just for me, and unload $250 of groceries, recheck and resack. I'm no longer on time. It's 8:00 and I haven't even left the parking lot yet. I did have a small temptation to say "don't worry about the coupons" since that is what freaked the computer out the first time, but I had quite a stack--$36.75 worth. (Yea Me!)

Those of you who know me well will be proud to know I handled the situation with grace and politeness and repeated comments like: 'Don't worry about it; it's not your fault.' Very un-Sharon like. I didn't even roll my eyes once. The guy in charge of the check lanes, whom I know to call the GSTL (guest services team lead) from my Target days, came over to offer me a discount for the trouble. He typed in $6. How he came up with that number I don't know. It seems very random. He probably thought he was giving me 10% off but because he's a guy and doesn't shop for a family of 6 and can't comprehend spending the kind of money we spend on food, he was clueless. And for that we will forgive him. One day he'll be old and married with a housefull of little munchkins and realize his mistake.

Cellular Stress

I begrudgingly got a new cell phone number so if you didn't receive an email today with the new number, leave me a comment so I can make sure you get it. I say begrudgingly because I've had the old TX number for somewhere around 6 or 7 years. I hate change. I'd like to say I'm a go with the flow kind of girl, but today's experience just proves that I'd be telling a big fat lie. I debated in the Sprint store for at least half an hour while we were getting Zac's phone on whether or not I was even going to change it. Kevin tried to make me feel better and told me I didn't have to go through with it today. I've already been procrastinating for almost a year. I decided the inevitable could not be put off any longer. The decision though did not relieve the stress of the actual change. I could actually feel my chest tightening as we were walking out of the store, knowing the deed was done and I couldn't go back to the old. After we got in the car, Kevin laughed at me as I had a small meltdown and shouted something about refusing to learn my new number. I practiced some lamaze breathing. (I'm glad that skill came in handy again without involving bringing another child home.) Maybe if several of you call me over the next few days to prove to me that the phone will actually work with a new area code, I'll feel better about the whole ordeal--but I doubt it!

My Gabriel--Alyssa's Solo

This was taped at recital dress rehearsal. Alyssa would tell you she is not happy with this performance but I think it's beautiful. Even if you don't watch the whole thing, watch through the amazing turns about three-fourths through. For some reason it didn't put the last 15 seconds or so of the dance on the video, but you get to see most of it. She got her score sheets from last weekend's competition yesterday and found out she was one point away from receiving a Platinum which is the highest award possible. (Mommy bragging session is now over.)

Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing - Photo Books

NYC, here we come!

We finally have our vacation for this year scheduled after much debate. We finally convinced Nathan there were other places to visit besides Disney World. Uncle Weve is working primarily in Buffalo all of July so proximity to him was a big factor and everyone is excited to be going to NYC for a week, beginning on my birthday! Uncle Weve generously shared his hundreds of thousands of FF miles so we could all fly for free! Woo hoo!

As our kids have gotten older, it has gotten more challenging to find things to entertain us all. This year we've decided to try something a little different and occasionally split into boy/girl activities. This will keep us from listening to boys complain while the girls venture into American Girl and see Wicked, and the girls won't have to endure a Yankees game although I really wouldn't mind too much.

Kevin and I spent less than 48 hours in NYC a couple of years ago for a quick anniversary trip. We did the whirlwind tour atop a gray line double decker bus and are hoping for a more leisurely trip this time around. So, I'm looking for suggestions on must sees, must eats, or must dos for our vacation. I can't wait to read your comments to direct our travels!

Alyssa's employed!

Alyssa began her first 'real' job a couple of weeks ago. She's had other odd jobs over the last few years: assistant dance teacher or backstage helper for studio recitals, but this is the first real job. Real, meaning we had to fill out a W-4 and turn in a copy of her social security card and birth certificate.

We announced to her recently that if she wanted to continue competing in dance, she was going to need to assume responsibility for those costs. This is an expensive activity and costs around $1500 a year in addition to the tuition we pay for normal classes. The challenge was that I wasn't willing to let her work just anywhere and not very many people hire 15 yr. olds. Fortunately, she was blessed with my boss offering her a job to clean the Direct Buy showroom and offices and she only works 4 to 6 hours a week. We are not usually there at the same times, and I love the fact that the adults who are there with her are all youth Sunday school teachers at our church and parents of her friends. Cleaning bathrooms and dusting might not be her ideal job, but it's whole lot better than flipping hamburgers with foul mouthed strangers.

In other dance news, Alyssa was offered a scholarship at her new studio valued at $1000 for the next year! She will also be competing in Nationals in Arlington in June. We are going to attempt to video her solo tonight at dress rehearsal and put it on here for all the world to see. Hopefully, we'll be successful.

Smarty Pants!

Congrats to Uncle Weve (Kevin's brother Steve--he's the one in the middle) for receiving two patents last year. I emailed him to ask what the patents were for and was immediately sorry I asked. I consider myself an intelligent person about most areas in life but when you start using words like 'halo-olefin' and 'dehalogenating agent', my eyes tend to glaze over and I look like a bobble-head doll, just nodding my head pretending I understand. Chemistry was just never a subject I was passionate about in school. (Sorry Weve!) He was nice enough to put it into a simple answer for me: one invention saves his company a lot of money, the other makes his company more eco friendly and competitive with other companies. And while we appreciate his brilliance and are excited that we are related to someone smart enough to receive just one patent, let alone two, we just love him cause he's Uncle Weve. The fact that he's the giver of all things Disney and developed propellant for Spider man silly string just increases his lovability!

My new baby

My new washer was delivered last Wednesday. I love this thing! If you haven't upgraded to a front loader yet, you should march your little self down to Lowe's and buy one. It is awesome. Who knew laundry would excite me so. Because of my organized type A personality combined with the fact that my life is absolutely nuts, I have a very stringent laundry schedule: clothing on Mondays, towels on Tuesdays, and sheets on Wednesdays. One reason this process takes three days is because I couldn't get it all done in one day. This is no longer the case. On this past Monday, I washed 3 loads of clothing and two loads of towels and was completely done with all laundry in 5 hours. Amazing! During the first load, it became a viewing party in the laundry room with Nathan and Katie having their snack while they watched. I could conceivably wash the linens also on Monday, but my bed is always the dumping ground for said laundry since it is the only area big enough and dog hair free to hold it all until I'm ready to fold it. And because I'm so efficient this is also done on a schedule--during the showing of the Bachelor or starting next week, the Bachelorette. In case you're wondering, Alyssa and I were both hoping it would be Shayne so we were happy with the ending. American Idol is another story: She likes the Davids, I want David A to go home, and Nathan is cheering for "David Enchilada" to win the whole enchilada.

The purse that caused all the trouble

As promised, here is the picture of the cute purse that has caused all kinds of trouble in my life. The very pursuit of it, before I even knew what it would look like, caused me to abandon seeing at least a couple of friends on my recent trip to Dallas. (If you missed this story, click here)

After I brought the cute purse home, there was a protest from my daisy loving daughter who begged me to give it to her. Obviously that was not going to happen. I did offer to let her have it after I'd used it a couple of months and could purchase a new one on our next adventure to Dallas. She wasn't happy with this arrangement either and stomped up the stairs. A few minutes later, she comes back down the stairs and presents with me 5 old purses and offers to trade me all of them for the adorable daisy purse. I guess I'm just a mean mom because I still said "no".

For Catherine: I had the purse with me at La Madeleine for our lunch so you have in fact already seen it. You must have been so excited about seeing me that you missed it. Or more likely, you were too busy getting two babies settled for lunch to notice. :)

Happy Mother's Day......

I am so tired right now I'm not sure if I can put two coherent sentences together to tell you about my day. 5 a.m. came way too early this morning after a nonexistent night of sleep for me, but Alyssa and I were in the van by 6:03 and on our way to Oklahoma City for a dance competition. Don't ask me who the idiot was that planned this on Mother's Day. I'm sure if he/she had admitted that fact to anyone in public today, there would have been a line of people ready to beat him/her with a wet noodle at the very least. I didn't even get to see the rest of my family until 6:30 tonight.

Alyssa felt bad about it even though it wasn't her fault. I would have loved to have gone to church today, but I really didn't mind taking her and watching her dance. She did her solo for the second time ever at a competition. She did a beautiful job and I wouldn't have missed it on any day for any reason. When I started thinking about it, it's situations like this that cause mothers everywhere to be revered. Because we sacrificially give of everything we've got to our kids just because we love them. This kind of stuff is why we have our own special day (that and the marketing execs at Hallmark).

In case you're wondering, she received a gold for her solo along with 3rd place in the teen contemporary solo category. Her group dance also received a gold and 2nd place in the teen small group jazz category.

Loaves and Fishes in my Garage

Every year, sometime in spring, I have a garage sale. I always use the proceeds to buy our school books for the next year and somehow I always make around $400. I usually don't have anything big to get rid of, very rarely anything priced over $20. Today we thought we were going to be setting up for our sale tomorrow, but the neighborhood association advertised our sale as starting today. So, without price tags on most things, I made $300 in about 3 hours. About $100 of that total was big items, the rest--kids' clothes. And I still have a garage full of odds and ends and lots of kids' clothes. It always amazes me how God can take my boxes of stuff and turn it into exactly what I need for school books the next year. I guess it's my own little story of loaves and fishes, except instead of trading a lunch sack for a feast, I trade some 25 cent stickers for a another year of educating my kiddos.

I wish....

Tomorrow is the Homeschool Book Fair in Arlington. I have been every year for the past 9 years. This year would have been my 10th, but I'm not going and I wish I was. No, I didn't forget about it. The date has been on my calendar for at least 6 months, but Alyssa has a dance competition this weekend in another town 2 hours away. As with all dance competitions, we didn't find out when she was dancing until a week before. By the time I figured out I actually could go, Southwest's cheap fares were no longer cheap and several other things had crept onto the calendar as well.

But still, I wish I was there. A whole convention center full of books that I can peruse and touch and smell all day--a bibliophile's little piece of heaven on earth. Even better than all the books that make my heart go pitter patter are my sweet friends, some of whom I only see at the bookfair each year. And every year I go to lunch with Kether and an assortment of other ladies at Jason's Deli. While we munch on sandwiches and soup, we share what treasures we've found and ask the usual questions: Have you used this book? Did that work for your child? Is that science curriculum really worth $200?

I thought I could live without going, that I could choose books for next year without attending--and I have, but I can promise you that this time next year I'll be in Arlington getting ready to eat lunch and chat with my precious friends there and trying to figure out how I'm going to get all those books back on the plane.

La Madeleine Cuties

Obviously if I haven't posted anything in 12 days, it has been very hectic around here. Something about May and everybody thinking they have to schedule an end of the year something has made our lives insane--way beyond the normal crazy that we're used to. I'm going to attempt to blog everyday for the next week at least to get you caught up on the happenings of our family to date.

First off--mine and Kevin's flying trip to Dallas last Monday. Thank goodness for Southwest's $49 each way fares! We arrived at 10 in the morning and left at 7 although technically we were back at the airport at 5 so were in town for 7 hours. Please do not be upset because we did not call you to schedule lunch or a quick visit. I had my priorities in order on this day: I shopped on Harry Hines. (Yes, I put a cute purse before friendships. I'll have to take a picture so you'll understand my justification.) I also hit the homeschool bookstore for some bargains on used books for the next school year. And, we had lunch with Jeremy and Catherine because they have this......

and this.....

The fact that I got to have chicken friand with mushroom sauce and a Caesar salad from La Madeleine while I stared at these adorable faces was just a bonus. I'm sure you can understand why we chose them to have lunch with. They are also very good friends who are in ministry and truly understand us which is monumental all on its own. But we had to see these precious blessings that we have prayed to arrive for around 8 years.

Oh and the real reason for all this jetting back and forth: we had to sign our gas lease on the house we still own in Arlington and brought back a nice little check in our pocket.