So, did you hit the Black Friday madness?  I did.  I decided at the last minute to head out to Target.  Cr-azy.  That’s all I can tell you.  What was I going for?

A DVD Player (ours bit the bullet last week)
A portable DVD player for my mom to give the boys for Christmas (Angels will sing on our next car trip, they will).
Christmas pajamas

I left the house about 4:15 with coffee in hand.  The roads weren’t bad and me, in all my optimism, said to myself, “Maybe it won’t be too bad in G’ville.  Who goes to Ville but me on Black Friday?”

Apparently about 500 of my nearest and dearest friends, That’s WHO!  I got to Target around 4:45.  Line around the building.  ARE YA KIDDIN’ ME?  Well, I sucked it up and got out of the car, got in line.  Skipped the man with the little reusable bag and just got in the stinking line.   Waited impatiently.  Twittered it.  Facebooked it.  Waited.  Finally, we got to moving. The doors were open. 

I got in there (and the nice lady behind me.  We chatted to pass the time; she wanted a Nikon Coolpix) and headed to electronics with, well, 500 of my closest friends I guess.  Everyone was going to electronics!  I grabbed a buggy and then abandoned it because there was simply no room.  I worked my way to DVD players and grabbed up two (I was also getting one for my aunt to give as a foster child gift).  I searched high and low for portable DVD players…no such luck.  Sigh…mama would be disappointed. 

As I was leaving the electronics department,  I realized that I had the wrong DVD player…I needed RCA, not Magnavox.  I dashed back through the crowd again back to DVD players.  No RCA’s!  NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  I squatted down and saw two RCAs tucked way in the back.  I put the others back and got the right ones!  SCORE! 

Then I left electronics.  Thank goodness.  People are crazy in there.  I headed to pjs and found those easily.  Whew.  Walked around a bit looking for the $3 mini crockpot.  No such luck.  Back toward clothes to look at supposed shirts for $3.  Can you tell I planned this trip by my wanderings like it’s a Tuesday afternoon?  Never found them.  But I did find down comforters for $29 so I grabbed one for JL.  I’d bought 2 down alternative ones last week but prefer the real stuff so I’m taking one back this week.  The other is already in use. 

While I was looking at the Christmas stuff, I heard someone ask a Target employee if there were any more portable DVDs in the store. Turns out there were!  Back in the corner on the other side of the store!!! SCORE for the boys! 

I did find me a cute “bedazzled” black shirt with a rhinestone reindeer and a pair of cute earrings for $7 (half price).  Picked up 2 gifts for the boys’ preschool teachers to give for families they adopted for Christmas. 

Overall, I survived.  I stood in line for about 40 minutes to pay but I was happy. I actually bought 2 DVD players for us since they were $20 each.  Now we have one for the toy room as well. 

I did make a couple of other stops.
Wal-Mart—mini crock pot (came in handy last night at JP’s “not a birthday party party”).  They didn’t have any of the movies I wanted though. 

Home Depot—76 count shatterproof ornament set, 2 poinsettias (0.99 each!) and a package of flashlights for the house and Hunter to take hunting.
Kohl’s—walked out when I saw the line!

CVS—ear phones and something else dang it.  I can’t remember.  Oh, 1 package of razor refills for Hunter, 2 tooth pastes and 2 tooth brushes and 2 candy bars…total cost?  Less than $6!!!!  I had ECBs to use and earned back all that I used for later. 

Tractor Supply was the only let down.  They were supposed to be carrying a gingerbread barn but they never got it in!  BOO!  I’m going to check the one near work tomorrow. The boys and I did our first one last year and we had so much fun doing it! 

All in all, it was a good morning.  I was home before 10 I think.  Not a huge shopper here (I actually hate to go) but we were missing our DVD player a lot. 

I hope yell had fun if you went out.  I’m SO glad that I didn’t go to a mall.  I would have seriously lost my mind!  Anyone get any good deals?

C-re

Happy Thanksgiving to each of you, from our family to yours!

May it be full of wonderful food, wonderful moments, love, and happiness.

And if, like me, you venture out in the morning, be safe!  And have fun!  Our DVD player bit the dust so I am required to go to Target in the morning. Ahhh, let the Christmas season begin!

Blessings on yall!
C-re

I know.  I’ve let this blog go.  I have.  I think about it nearly every day and have tons of ideas for posts but what I don’t have is time. 

We’ve been dealing with JP and his attitude.  He’s become more and more…spirited…and difficult to deal with.  And JL is entering that stage too.  Oy.  As a result, we’ve been going to bed earlier (by we, I mean them) and I have been making a conscious effort to not be on the computer so much when they’re up.  They need more attention.  So, the blog has to wait a little bit.

But, I’ll be back. We’ve been busy!  I’ve started crafting for Christmas.  We’ve had a birthday.  And we’ve suffered a loss.  More on all that in the future.  I just wanted to say that I am alive.

Cre

Six years ago today (on Saint’s Day—I couldn’t talk him into a Halloween wedding for some reason), I stood at an alter and promised to love, honor and cherish the man that I’d chosen to be my husband. Six years. In those six years, we’ve had our ups and our downs. We’ve laughed, cried, and fought. We’re moved 3 times. We survived a year in that house with NO HEAT just so you could hunt! We bought our first house. We shut down and restarted a business. We lost a baby. We spent hours begging God not to take the miracle that became our firstborn. We’ve made two handsome little boys. We’ve agonized over decisions. We’ve worried and we’ve prayed for and over our children.

But most importantly, we have loved. Hunter, as the card you gave me said, I love you more now than I did that night when I stood in the candlelight at my childhood church and promised God that I would spend the rest of my life with you. It’s been a rough year for us, we both know that. But you know what else? I love you more right now than I did six months ago and more than six years ago.

Thank you for choosing me. For loving me. For making me a wife and a mother. For supporting me unconditionally. For holding me while I cried and questioned every single thing that came my way in the past year. For being there. For just being. I love you with all my heart. There’s nothing you can do to change that.

Here’s to another sixty years handsome,
C-re