Thursday, December 11, 2008

Better late than never...

Kaitlin stays with her Gramby (my mom) three days a week. They took tons of pictures one fall afternoon while Kaitlin was playing outside. A few of these were so cute that I wanted to share them.



Monday, December 1, 2008

Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow!

I cannot believe it is already December 1st! The month of November just always seems to fly by. I love this time of year, but I wish time would slow down just a little so we can savor it just a little longer. Know what I mean?
You can see from my title that I'm hoping for snow today. I have no clue if we'll have school or not, but a teacher can dream, can't she? I am up WAY past my bedtime, so I could really use a day off tomorrow to catch up on some much needed rest.
The week of Thanksgiving was awesome. I was able to celebrate with lots of friends and family this year. I love getting together with the folks in my life that I love so much, but don't get to see real often. The food is always pretty great too!
I took on the role of being a shop-a-holic this past week and am glad to say that I have finished all of my Christmas shopping! I started on Wednesday by venturing out with Kaitlin, my Mom, and sweet Aunt Polly. I got a few things for Kaitlin at Target (she was easily distracted with the help of the elves that accompanied me). We then headed over to Cheddar's for lunch where we met my cousin, Amanda. I've not seen a lot out of Amanda lately, so it was great to catch up with her. After this, we made a stop at the mall where I placed a few items on hold at my favorite store, Gymboree. Kaitlin loves riding the train at the mall, and I love that for a small train ride fee of $2.00, my child will behave just so she can ride :)
Thanksgiving night, I met up with a couple of girlfriends and we went to Opry Mills for their midnight shopping event. I am proud to say that I walked out of that mall with three huge bags full of gifts, and only spent around $90 there.
After a night at the Mills, we arrived at JCPenney around 4 am, just after they opened. I picked up a couple of more gifts there before we joined the very long line outside of ToysRUs just before 5 am. That place was crazy---But, it was totally worth it. I loaded up on a few more toys for Kaitlin and other kids for Christmas as well as some birthday presents for some upcoming parties we will be attending. The prices were great!
We left ToysRUs in time to stand in the equally long, probably longer, Target line. They opened at 6am. I picked up several items there before heading to the mall a little after 7 am. I bought one last gift there and picked up my hold items at Gymboree (30% off entire store, plus 20% off coupon, plus Gym-Buck earning time--yippee!!). By midmorning, two of the girls headed home for some sleep. Becky Davis and I met my Mom and headed towards Kohl's. Although I was done with my shopping, I was in this adventure for the long haul--and Mom had not gotten to Rivergate until almost 6 am and I really wanted her to shop with someone rather than by herself. Kohl's had the longest lines of anywhere we went during the whole shopping trip, but Becky was able to find some great deals there, so it was worth waiting for over an hour.
I got home around noon on Friday and immediately went to bed. I was totally zapped. The rest of the weekend was pretty busy too (Sesame Street Live--another post, family visitors from out of town, church, schoolwork, etc.). I need a day to recover and put my Christmas tree up. Which brings me back to my title for this post--Let It Snow! I need a day off.