23 posts tagged “shopping”

Today I took the bus to work because Brian was planning to donate blood after he got done with work. Turned out he didn't get to because a piece of donation equipment malfunctioned before he'd even really started to give, but nonetheless he was in my neighborhood so I went to the front desk of the donor center and picked him up. We went to Caribou for a mocha, like a real date! (LOL, I wonder how often blood bank employees hook up with donors?)  After that we ran a few errands. Gosh, it's kind of sad what constitutes a date after you've been married almost 14 years. :) But we had fun. We're pretty easy to please.

First we went to SuperTarget, the mother of all excellent stores. We have two ST's in town, and a few days ago I had been at the north one. I'd seen that they were supposed to have Champion track pants in a size large, relaxed fit, long length. At the time, they were out of stock. (How is it that I'm like 6 times bigger than everyone around me, yet I can never find my size and length?) So today we went to the south store to see if they had what I was looking for. No such luck, but I did find a couple of nice deals on their sale rack. So that was my frustration: I'm not extremely tall, but my legs are just long enough that regular length looks weird. And apparently track pants in long lengths are extremely difficult to find without spending a fortune. Dick's Sporting Goods didn't have any either. I don't even want them for running. I want them because Brian has decided that when we drive to Florida in a couple of months we're going to drive all the way through on the way down. I'm not spending 26 hours in the car without making sure I'm extremely comfortable!

The cool thing we got at Target was this cheap little karaoke machine for Bailey's birthday party. She wants to have an American Idol theme, so we'd talked about renting one. But then we found this thing that's about the size of a regular CD player (or "boombox" for you 80's children) that will display lyrics on your TV screen. We also picked up a CD-G of High School Musical 2 music - perfect for a bunch of tweens, no? It came with one microphone, but the surprise is that after getting it home and setting it up, we decided that we're going to need to get a second mic - because Joey loves it too! We popped in a regular Tobymac CD and he was just wailing on that thing! Too cute. I think that even beyond the birthday party, buying this machine was a good thing. :) It makes me so happy to hear my kids sing and enjoy it. They're both pretty decent little singers.

Moving on, we went to a couple of sporting goods stores because Brian was looking to try on something called a Fuel Belt. This is an elastic belt that runners wear, that comes with spots to store 4 little water bottles and also has a pouch to store gel packs, etc. He's training for a marathon on Memorial Day weekend. I'm so proud of him. He's done two half marathons (both last summer) and has decided that now is the time to go for the whole twenty-six-point-two. He's committed and is training. (Aside: I've heard of some spouses who get upset about the amount of time that a person spends training for a marathon. I truly don't get it. My husband is doing something that's good for his health, something that's going to push him to his outer limits and show him what he can really do. How and why would I not be supportive of that?)

The next good find was that while driving in town we saw a guy holding signs that World Market was liquidating everything. (Hmm, even the wine??) As it turned out, yes, even the wine. Evidently they're closing all their Minnesota stores and everything was on sale. This is a bit sad because I love World Market, but good in that we got a few deals. The wine was only 5% off, but we picked up a few bottles (including a zinfandel port, yum). In the regular store we got some candy for Joey's Indiana Jones birthday party (chocolate coins and gummy centipedes - geez, even the gummy versions of those things gross me out), some purple stemless wine goblets, a set of 4 wine glasses plus a decanter, and lots of dark chocolate which went into the freezer. They had lots of beautiful furniture still in the store, and I wished (as I have many times) that my house had the right style of decor for the kind of stuff you can get at World Market. It's so eclectic and fun.

You know, I always kind of feel sorry for stores that are going out of business. Even when they're part of a chain. It just makes me think that someone's dream is being shattered. It makes me sad.

We came home and decided to try out our new decanter. I've never used one before, but I think it really did make a difference in the wine we had. It brought out the aroma and flavor of this cab. Fun.

Alright, I'm supposed to be studying for a test. Obviously I'm not that into it. Good thing it's multiple choice. :)

So I've been trying to be better about not obsessing about my appearance. In that vein, guess what I did today?

Went swimsuit shopping.

Bad move.

See, we're going to Florida in a couple of months, and since I haven't gotten a new suit in like 5 years, I thought it would be fun to try to find a cute new one. Well, nothing fits right. And everything's too low-cut where it shouldn't be. Seriously, where are the people that have the bodies for these things? I mean, I'm not that fat, and yet I look horrid in everything I've tried on. I did find one cute tankini thing with a bottom I liked, but the top looked like white trash. That's the closest I've gotten so far.

Sigh.

Maybe I just won't go swimming.

Ever again.

**ETA: I just reread this post and it makes me sound all down & depressed. I'm not. It is what it is. So reread this post and imagine me with a matter-of-fact tone to my voice, not a whiney one. :)

My first Things of the year.

Bad:

• That I can't apply for this job. Well, I could, but then what would I do after six months? But it's a job I could totally do. Except that I assume they'd want me to actively participate in the nightlife..that would depend on just how wild they'd want me to be. I'm so not wild!  [Although, it's probably a good thing that I'm tied down because at this stage in my life I feel like I do want to go out and be wild, only it's not appropriate for me to do so. I had no desire to be wild when I was 20, which was good because now I have no regrets.]
• (This is likely why the above bullet item is so enticing) That it's -18 degrees outside. You know, there are lots of people who come to Rochester for jobs at the Clinic, and just by sheer probability most of them are coming from the south. At this time of year I always feel a little bit sorry for them because of the bitter cold. On the other hand, I don't really feel sorry for the ones who are only here temporarily....

Good:

• 104.1 JACK-FM from the Twin Cities. It plays all the music I like (the secular stuff anyway). A little 70's, some 80's, some 90's, some alternative, some softer stuff. I discovered it a couple of years ago when I would drive up (through the Cities) into the central part of the state for some meetings, but the signal fades out about 30 miles north of Rochester. I just learned yesterday that they broadcast online! (Yeah, I know that's a given for most radio stations these days; truth is, I never thought to look for it online until a coworker played it yesterday.) Take a listen.
• The scale registered some weight loss today. Not much, but enough to make me feel like something's happening.
• That I got on the treadmill this morning, even though I got up later than I wanted to and I DID NOT want to run. But I forced myself to do it. I set it for 10 minutes at running speed - which still didn't get me to the mile I could do before Christmas - and was dying after about 3. I pushed myself, though, and I did it. I love that feeling of beating my inner I-can't-do-it!
• On that note, I love that I can be very determined when I want to be.
• Sale shopping at Victoria's Secret. FOR CLOTHES. Do you think I'd mention it if I was buying other stuff? I love VS pants because they're about the only ones I can find anywhere that fit me. And the more weight I lose, the harder it becomes to find jeans/pants that fit.
• That a project I'm leading at work is going well. My original timeline is way off so we're not going to be done when I'd hoped we would be, but we make good progress at every meeting so I'm considering it good. I'm hoping we have enough good information that I can submit an abstract for a poster to our annual trade meeting in October. It'll be in New Orleans, a place I've never been.

Hm, well, I guess that's it! Have a lovely Tuesday.

...that the excursion to the American Girl store went very, very well.  I didn't hear any whining or demanding, just lots of little girls walking around as if they were in Wonderland. Despite my worries, I have to admit it was rather sweet and I enjoyed it.  Walking past one girl, I heard her exclaim, "It's beautiful!!" I'm not even sure what she was looking at but it made me smile.

All of the kids had a great time (except for maybe Joey, but he still did well).  The party actually started last night when two of Bailey's friends from across the street came to sleep over. The plan was that we'd all get up in the morning and they'd come with us to the store.  The younger sister ended up deciding around 10:30 that she needed to go home, so she did and she came back this morning. We left around 8 for the hour-long drive to the Mall of America, stopping at IHOP for breakfast before we went over. (IHOP is on one side of the MOA, and IKEA is on the other; how awesome is that?) We got to the American Girl store about 20 minutes after it opened, and the three girls and I looked around while Brian and Joey stepped out to the middle of the mall to Nickelodeon Universe, literally 20 yards away. We'd promised Joey a ride (that turned into two rides) since he obviously had no interest in the AG store.  The girls were cute, figuring out how much stuff they could buy with the money they had - we even whipped out a calculator at one point. Bailey ended up going a little over, but we covered her (I'm not totally mean). It's fun to see her so loving her new doll and so proud of herself for having earned so much of what she got, which was the doll, two outfits, a pair of glasses, and a new brush. I hope she feels the sense of accomplishment of having worked for something. She's already planning how she's going to pretend that the new girl is the sister to the one she already has.

As for me, no trip to the Mall of America is complete without a stop at Nordstrom Rack (the Nordstrom outlet store).  They have an incredible shoe rack. For instance, I'm a size 10, and normally at a department store clearance there will be maybe half a row of 10's, maybe a full row if I'm lucky. Here, there are FIVE ROWS of just size 10 - and not only that, but there's only one of each shoe on the rack so there's double the inventory!! It's like a trip through heaven. I had two pair in my hand: a Steve Madden pump in navy and a Born heeled Mary Jane in brown. I loved them both, but for the sake of my marriage I narrowed it down to the navy pump, because I needed that pair more.

After that it was a quick stop at IKEA and then the trip home. Right now Brian & the kids are out sledding with some friends. I think I'll go see how they're doing. There's not much snow on the hill across from our house, which is strange considering we had 2 feet on the ground only a week ago. We had a couple of warm days, though, and it's amazing how fast the snow goes in the well-traveled areas when the temp goes above freezing. I don't think we'll have to worry about melting today, though - it's plenty cold out there!

Tomorrow we will venture out with three hyper little girls and one full-of-attitude little boy for all of our very first foray into the American Girl Store.  I can see this going two ways: one, they will be very well-mannered and behave themselves the entire time.  Or two, they will be overtired from tonight's sleepover and be crabby, whiny, and disobedient. My money's on #1, but you never know.

What I'm more worried about is what kind of constituency we're going to find in the store. Now, because I can't afford (nor would I pay) $95 straight-out for a doll, Bailey was required to come up with half the money for the doll on her own. Which she did - and I'm proud of her! She did chores, dog & cat-sat for the neighbors, and asked for an AG gift certificate for one of her Christmas gifts. She's been working on this for months, and she not only has money for half the doll, she has enough extra money for a couple of outfits as well. Now, I know that plenty of parents buy their girls numerous American Girl dolls and that those girls are not spoiled, but part of me has to wonder how many Veruca Salts will be there, screaming "I want that! And that, and that, and THAT!" I might be way off there, but I'll be curious to see what it'll be like. Of course, Veruca probably got all the American Girl stuff she wanted for Christmas, so Mr. & Mrs. Salt have likely been & gone. In that case, if it's just the poor people like us hanging around, we'll be ok.  If not, I guess I'll have an interesting story to tell tomorrow.

One thing that guarantees to be good is that prior to going to the Mall of America, we'll be stopping for breakfast at IHOP. Can't go wrong there!

Today is the official start of the holiday shopping season. Are you planning on doing any shopping today? What are you going to buy?

I did shop today, actually.  I didn't go at the crack of dawn, however.  I actually slept until about 9 (which is like halfway through the day for me) and then I went around 1.  My inlaws are staying at a hotel here in Wisconsin while we're staying with my sister-in-law and her family.  I happened to notice that their hotel was right next to a Burlington Coat Factory, because I notice things like that.  So today while they swam in the hotel pool, I took advantage and did a little shopping.  I found a super-cute brown courduroy fitted jacket and a dark green ribbed turtleneck for myself (both work wear for the most part) and an And1 shirt for Joey (because with those long gangly arms of his he keeps outgrowing his long-sleeved shirts).  I looked for something for Brian & Bailey too but didn't find anything.  Those kinds of stores are always so hit-and-miss.  And somehow I had the willpower to pass up the Ghirardelli chocolates.

I know it's kind of weird that I didn't do any Christmas shopping today, and probably even weirder that I bought stuff for myself during this time of year, but oh well.  My Christmas shopping is coming along.  I haven't completely finished it, but for those I haven't bought for yet, I have a fairly decent idea what I'm going to get.

I got another Black Friday deal last night too, come to think of it.  I was on Amazon.com and found that they had cheap Black Friday mp3 downloads.  I saw that I could get the CD I've been wanting (Jack Johnson's Sleep Through the Static) for five bucks!  And then I had a $1.10 credit, so I got it for $3.90!  Bonus.

Real quick, since I have stuff to do:

I do not like:

• Green eggs and ham.  (Just kidding.  I've actually never had them.)
• Homework that never ends.
• Being cold!
• Having to watch my weight.
• Being bored at work.
• This nasty cold that everyone around here seems to have.

I do like:

• People who take the time to be encouraging.  Too many people don't give a crap about others.
• Getting 2 shirts & a skirt for me, and a shirt for Bailey, all for $21 at Kohl's.  Yay for new clothes!
• Cheese.  Mmmmmmm.......
• Have I mentioned that Joey gets to skip ahead a grade in math?  I have?  :) 
• Thinking about future job possibilities and realizing that maybe this dog isn't too old for some new tricks.
• Glenn Beck moving to FOXNews!  Sounds like in addition to having his own show he'll be a regular on O'Reilly.  Good times!

Short & to the point.  I have to go read about competency testing now. 

That was a happy, contented sigh.  My tummy is full, my house is warm, and I had a good day.

First of all, there was no homework.  There should have been, but that'll be tomorrow.  If I can get some reading & lectures done tomorrow, I don't think I'll be too far behind.  Instead I spent the day getting the house ready for Bible study tonight (which just ended) and doing some shopping.  It's the life I look forward to when school is done, when my time is my own again instead of it belonging to UND.

We had a nice night last night too, although it wasn't really too Halloween-ish.  My sister-in-law and her kids decided to come to town this weekend since my brother-in-law was at a conference.  They, along with my inlaws, came over for supper last night and then the kids slept over.  It was certainly chaotic but the kids had a ton of fun.  There were three boys, who spent the night acting like boys, and two girls, who originally were handing out trick-or-treat candy but then decided that it looked like too much fun and that they needed to go trick-or-treating themselves.  That was all we needed, more candy in the house.  But again, they had a good time.

I was going to dress up for Halloween.  I was going to put on a suit, wear my hair up, put on my glasses and go to work as Sarah Palin.  It would have been subtle and I thought it would have been fun to see how many people noticed.  But I ended up not doing it because I didn't like how the suit looked on me, and also because I had to do new employee orientation yesterday and I didn't want these people's first impression of their new job to be this freak who wears costumes to work.

So this morning I got to sleep in a little and woke up feeling like my head was going to explode.  I've been fighting a cold all week and I guess it caught up with me.  After some Claritin, Sudafed, Advil, and coffee I felt better.  I got stuff ready for tonight, which included checking on the pumpkin cheesecake I made last night and making a shopping list for the Election Night party we're having on Tuesday.  After lunch we took the kids over to my inlaws' so that they could sleep over there tonight, and then we went shopping.  I want to make this snack mix for the party on Tuesday and the recipe calls for Bugles.  Now, who would think that it would be hard to find Bugles?  Target didn't have them, and also didn't have the Crispix I needed.  (Huh? Who doesn't carry Crispix?) So we went to Wal-Mart, who had Crispix but not Bugles.  Sheesh.  Has no one ever heard of Bugles?  Finally we stopped on our way home at a grocery store that had them by the shelfload.  But that was only half the frustration of the shopping day.  We were also looking for a decorataive basket to put a large potted plant in but couldn't find one at Target, Wal-Mart, or Hobby Lobby.  I didn't go to Michael's today because it was back across town, but if I can't find one there, where else am I gonna look?

The Bible study went really well.  The pumpkin cheesecake went over fabulously, and I also made some caramel apple cider that people seemed to like.  We had the fireplace going and the discussion was great.  It was a nice night.

Ooh yeah, and I get an extra hour of sleep to boot!  Life is good.  :)

Seriously, who needs drugs when you can shop?  If I actually had money I'd be drunk on shopping.  It makes me high.

I have to bargain shop most of the time, and I have my favorite places to get stuff (TJ Maxx, Herbergers' shoe room, my sister's closet).  Normally I don't go to the mall because I kind of hate it, plus it's all the way across town.  But this morning a coworker told me about a super-cheap clearance rack at JCPenney's, a store I rarely go to.  Partially because it's in the mall, partially because I don't often find things I like there.  But for $2.97 skirts, I'll drive across town!  I found the rack she was talking about, only now the skirts were $1.97!  Less selection than there was when she was there on Tuesday, for sure, but I found a skirt I liked and a top to go with it.  The top was $14.99 but it's still a pretty good steal for an entire outfit!  Cheap enough that I decided I could afford some jewelry to go with it. :) The skirt is a kind of watercolor print with white, black, brown, and turquiose, and the shirt is a short-sleeved blouse with a tie that goes around the waist, in the same turquoise as is in the skirt.  It's quite flattering, if I do say so myself.  I haven't worn bright turquiose since the late 80's...wow, it's an incredible color on me!  I don't say that to try to sound like I look great or anything, just that it really compliments my coloring, especially my eyes.

Since I was on a roll, I went down to Macy's to see what they might have on clearance.  I found this Anne Klein skirt (cheaper in the store than on the website).  It was one of those things where it literally called out to me and said, Melissa, you must buy me!  I'm not kidding, I heard it!  I might have been the only one who heard it but I heard it nonetheless.  I also found some brown Mary Jane-type pumps that would have killed with the outfit I got at Penney's but didn't get them.  Unfortunately, I had to draw the line somewhere.

I got home and was showing Bailey my finds (it is my duty as a mother to turn my daughter on to the same fetishes I have) when I realized that I didn't have the jewelry I'd gotten at Penney's!  Dang it.  I remembered the cashier putting the jewelry (I also got a pair of big copper hoop earrings) into a smaller bag, but I guess she never put it into my big bag.  So I called the store and had to go back down there to get my stuff.  That was annoying but what are you gonna do?  I enjoyed two trips-across-town worth of singing my guts out in the van, which is always fun.

Ah, yes.  Now I have new stuff to wear to work next week, and a pair of pants on order too, from my favorite place to buy clothes online.  And the best part is, ever since losing weight (up to 22 lbs lost now!), it's actually fun to shop because I get to look for a smaller size on the tag.  And I feel like the clothes look a little better on me.  It's such a psychological boost for me to feel like I can go to work (or church; the wardrobe is interchangeable) and look great.

This post was total vanity, LOL.  That's the mood I'm in today.  I wore great shoes to work today; I guess that did it to me.

Today after church I went to Old Navy because my kids needed some summer clothes.  (They just keep outgrowing their stuff, darn it.)  Bailey and I walked in, grabbed a cart, arranged our purses inside the child seat part, and began to look at the girls' shorts.  This employee kid walked up to me with a handful of those mesh shopping bags in his hand.  He held one out to me and asked me, in all sincerity, "How are you doing today?"  [Just fine, thanks.]  "Are you finding everything ok so far?" [Yes, I am.]  "Do you need a bag to hold your stuff...or are you ok with the cart?"  [I'm good, thanks.]

I must've looked pretty wealthy in my church clothes (which consisted of a dress I got for $6 at Target + accessories) if he thought that I'd be filling my cart to overflowing and need a shopping bag as well.  Either that or he was just convinced that I would get tired of that pesky cart.  It was all I could do to not laugh out loud.  Poor kid - he was probably told to go around asking customers if they needed a handy shopping bag....but shouldn't independent thinking factor in here somewhere?  :)