I had a lot of good things happen this past week, but I had a few very frustrating days also.  I was at work on Thursday, and I noticed a woman and 2 girls standing there, but I didn't pay much attention.  When I really looked, there was my friend Brenda who used to work there with me (she moved away) and her 2 daughters!!  I hadn't seen them for so long, and I didn't realize how much I had missed the girls.  But they are so grown up now.  The last time I saw them, they were little girls, and we were singing silly songs about the produce man.  Now they are 12 and 13...  Where does the time go?

The weather was awful that day, too.  But not until later.  The roads were a sheet of ice, and there were wrecks everywhere.  I was suposed to leave early that day, but my manager asked me to stay.  Thank God I did.  By the time I left, the plow trucks had gone through and put down some salt.  The roads still weren't the greatest, but I made it home ok.

On Friday night, I was punching out, and I heard the owner saying "Merry Christmas" to oneof my co-workers.  I turned around and she had a bunch of envelopes in her hand.  We had already gotten our paychecks, but she was giving us Christmas bonuses!!  She matched our paychecks, too!!!

On Saturday, we were having Emily's birthday party.  Dave went hunting, so I was left to get the house all cleaned up.  I asked the kids if they wanted a bath, but they said they wanted to wait until right before bedtime.  I went into my bathroom to take a shower, and I heard the kids giggling.  I went to see what was so funny, and Cameron went running, and Emily was PINK from head to toe!  They had covered her in the pink lip gloss I bought her Friday night.  It was in her hair, all over her back, in her eyebrows, everywhere.  Her bellybutton is still pink--I couldn't get it all out!  She cried when she looked at herself in the mirror--and I made her look at herself until her bath water was ready.  I made Cameron sit on his bed and do NOTHING until she was done getting her bath.  I had to use pretty warm water, and I had to scrub her pretty hard to get all the lip gloss off.  I don't think they're going to do that again.  She said, "I'm sorry, Mama!"  I went in to talk to Cameron after I was done washing her hair 3 times and scrubbing her little body red.  He said he was trying to make her an "Army man."  He was all upset, so I talked to him for a little while.  After all that, I cleaned Max's cage, gave Max a bath, did 4 loads of laundry (there's a story coming for that, too!), vacuumed, cleaned the bathrooms and made the kids pick up their toys.  I have some powdered Cheer in my laundry cupboard, and the cupboard is a little on the full side, so the box doesn't go in right.  On my last load of laundry, I opened up the cupboard, and the box fell out.  Almost all of the detergent fell in the washing machine.  There wasn't much left, but it was WAY more than I needed for the small load of towels I was washing.  It was even in the bleach cup.  By this time, I wanted to cry, and I was getting mad at Dave because he STILL wasn't home.

Emily's party went pretty well.  She got a lot of nice things.  My mom made her cake.  It was Dora the Explorer.  And she wanted a pink cake, so she bought a strawberry cake mix.  It turned out really cute.  Cameron is already putting in his orders for his birthday cake, and his birthday's not until July.  But my day, going badly a it had been, got worse, when I spilled most of a 2-liter of root beer on my counter.  It has to be because I live in Pennsylvania.  If I lived somewhere nice, this stuff wouldn't have happened, right?

Monday morning, Emily had a doctor's appointment.  He said she's really smart, and she's doing just fine.  We dropped Cameron off at school, and went out for breakfast.  I felt kind of guilty about Cameron not being there, but Dave takes him to get donuts a lot, and we never do anything special with Emily. 

Tuesday was our shopping trip!!  We went early, because Emily had an appointment to get her birthday pictures taken.  So we went to Wal-Mart first.  We got her pictures taken, and she did SO good.  She wouldn't smile, but she was playing.  She was trying not to laugh.  She was so funny.  She looked so sweet.  We looked around while we were in there.  I got a picture frame, a cookie cookbook and a video game for my nephew for Christmas.  Then we went to Sam's Club.  I got 2 big packs of printer paper (I'm working on a Christmas project) and a giant pack of AA batteries.  I think every toy my kids own takes AA batteries.  Ihad been planning on getting printer ink at Sam's too, but I found it at work the night before, so instead of paying $50 for 3, I paid $30!!  Next we went to J.C. Penney.  I had 2 coupons for $10 off ANY purchase!!  First, I went to the men's department and got Dave 2 pairs of outdoor socks.  They were $10 a pair, on sale for $6 a pair, so after my coupons I paid $1.98 for 2!!  Then downstairs, they had these really pretty sweatshirts for $14.99, that had originally been $36.  I got myself a pink one with snowflakes for $4.99!  I really didn't need it, but I loved it.  We went to Toys R Us, and I got Cameron the Cars DVD, Emily the Chicken Little DVD, and my nephew Logan a gift card.  They live in Texas and gift cards are so much easier to mail.  My mom gave me a $5 coupon, and I had a $3 coupon, and they let me use both, so I did save $8.  At CVS, I went through the line and bought the kids some M&Ms to get my ECBs to print.  Then I got 3 tubes of Clearasil Daily Face Wash, a jar of Clearasil face wips, 2 Maybelline Dream Mousse blushes, and 2 Hershey bars for $6.59!!  We stopped at Martin's next so I could get Cameron some Pull-Ups for nighttime.  My mom stayed in the car with Emily till I ran in.  I had a $7 coupon off my order, 2 $1 coupons off any order, and a $1.50 coupon for the Pull-ups.  When I finally found the Pull-Ups (can you tell I don't shop there much?), they were all in carts because they were taking inventory or something.  So I dug around and found what I needed.  It was a small pack, so I decided not to use the $1.50 coupon.  Normally they are $9.49, so I figured on paying 49 cents.  But much to my surprise they were on sale for $8.99.  I didn't think about it, so I scanned all the coupons in, and my total was NEGATIVE 1 cent!!  They had this big hissy fit about payingme to take the merchandise, blah, blah, blah.  So I bought a candy bar.  My total was 32 cents for a candy bar and a pack of Pull-ups.  We went to a local massage therapist's office and I got my dad a gift certificate.  I had to take my shoes off before I could go in, and then the lady wouldn't stop talking.  She showed me all her certificates, her office, her room, her music selection...  I know I was in there a good 20 minutes.  When I came out, my mom said that my dad had called her.  He had to go to my house to pick up Dave, because Dave's truck broke down and he needed my car.  His fan belt fell off, and it was fine, but he needed a new pulley.  So we went to Giant Eagle.  I spent $45.79, and I got 3 gallons of milk, a big bag of shredded mozzarella, a big bag of shredded cheddar, 2 Glade scented oil refills, a can of pizza sauce, a bag of chips, a bag of grapes, a bottle of Hershey's syrup, a pack of Hormel pepperoni, 2 pounds of Land O lakes butter, a head of cauliflower and a whole ham.  Not too great, but ok.  After I checked out, I picked up Emily's fluoride prescription and picked out some gift cards.  You have to pay at the customer service desk for the gift cards.  Of course the only person working there was this lady who HATES me.  She kicked me out one night for "using too many coupons!"  But anyway, I got ALL my Christmas shopping done.  When we got home, there was a not frm Dave saying not to use the water.  Apparently, after he got his truck fixed (he had to go to the auto parts store TWICE for stuff) he decided to change the water filter and the O-ring broke!!  That night, we got the Christmas tree all decorated, so now all I have left to do is bake and wrap!!  I still have some things left to do on the gifts I am making, too, but that is easy.

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Posted by lerdman4

have you been busy! Whew you made me tired just reading what you did. I am almost finished with my shopping, have a few more gift I will get early in the week next week and then to think about Christmas dinner.. UGH. Sounds like you did well shopping though. I love when you blog your deals. Keep them coming Michele!

Lisa

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Posted by marthaskitchen

what a blessing for you to see your friend & her daughters, also to receive a bonus for Christmas. It almost makes us for the spilt root beer & the lip gloss eposide. (I hope you took photos!) You certainly have been busy but sounds like you have been enjoying yourself. have a great Christmas
Helen

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