Shopping

I have had almost the perfect shopping day! It has been awesome!

We started by going to Home Depot. That wasn't part of the greatness. We did get what we needed (except the drawer slides for Claire's dresser. Ours are shot). Then we went to Toys R Us. One of the gates that we bought a few weeks ago really sucked. Okay, it was good gate in general, but we hated it. We bought two baby gates that were extra tall and had a pass-through in them. The one in the kitchen is great. The handle is easy to operate and child proof. The one in the hall by the bedrooms was difficult. You had to push not one button, but two buttons, on on either side of the handle, and push down on the handle at the same time to get it to open. And it was hard to squeeze the buttons enough to release. I liked that it would shut if you just pushed it, instead of the other one where you have to close the door and push down the handle, but opening it was so hard. So I found another gate by the same company as the kitchen one with the same style handle and today, we returned the original gate. While we were at toys r us, we planned on getting another two-pack of gates. Basically, I want to be able to keep Claire somewhere without closing the doors. She is ALL OVER the house otherwise. If I am in the office, she sometimes just crawls away, down the hall, to who knows where (usually to the dogs or cat). We got the two pack because we want to get rid of the dog's kennel. We are thinking of trying them in the laundry room as their "big kennel". So we will put them in, put up the gate, and go our way. Then they can't look out the windows (i.e. bark at EVERYTHING!) but they can have a little more room to move around, and if they for some reason have an accident, the floor is tile. (Plus, they won't be on the bed so much.) I don't know why we didn't think of this earlier. Anyway, long story short, I wanted to buy this two-pack of gates. The website said they were $24.99. I had a coupon for $5 off a $25 purchase, so I figured we would pick up a toy or something small and get the coupon. When we got there, there was a stack of coupons that had a 15% off coupon for gates. Sweet. So we went and got the gates. They were on sale for $16.99. So then I was thinking "well, should we spend more to get a coupon or just use the 15% off?" I realized she needs more sippys. We only have the one. So we looked. Sure enough, there was one brand of sippys that had a 15% off coupon as well! So we grabbed a package of those and headed off to check out. The $5 off coupon said "not combineable with other offers" so I figured it was one or the other. The checkout lady rang up both 15% off coupons, then I asked about the $5 off. Doesn't hurt right? So she tried it, but I had only purchased $23 something. I had to find another baby item quick. In hindsight, I should have grabbed another set of sippys. 3 is better than 1, but 5 would be even better. Oh well. I grabbed a ridiculously expensive ($2) to-go type cheerio holder. It's okay. It came full of cheerios, and I will be refilling it. I've been using a baby food jar, but the lid is so annoying. This one has a flip top and everything. And, my total expense? Ready? $18.50. Seriously. Basically, I got the sippys and the cheerios for free. Obviously, it would have been more if I had grabbed more sippys, but that's ok. The gates were $6 each. I was very happy with the purchase.

Then we went to the DI. I spent $16.50. What did I get? The infamous ball popper (like Davin has) with two balls. It's a little air driven ball blower that sings and the kids put the balls in the top and it blows them up and away. It's fun. Dav loves his. This one works and has batteries in it (double score!). We also got a land-line phone, because our old one died (it sounds a little sick, but it works); a bunch of the Fisher Price blocks with stuff in them (most of them are beach scenes) that she loves to look at; a farm house that opens up (no animals though); and some cars to play with. I got one soft one for her and some others for when she is older/ Jocee. I also got a dump truck that has a lever that you lift to empty the back (I thought it was awesome); a few more kid-size bowls (I really like the Ikea ones, but refuse to pay $1 each when I find them for 25 cents each at the DI each and every time I go); and an art-type box (for $1.50!). We got that for her plastic tools that we bought last time. And a wooden shape puzzle (a tanagram I believe). I also found a puzzle for 50 cents, but Alann said no because it was in a plastic bag- no picture! That would be half the fun I think. Also, I found an ice tray just like the ones we just bought for only 25 cents! We paid $5 each for the others (they are special small bullet-shaped cubes- a lot like Sonic ice- totally worth it).I snatched that up in a heart beat. Alann just told me to buy 4 more. Now I only need 3. (I was so hoping there would be more. There weren't.) And, the third best thing (first being the ball popper and second the ice cube tray) Alann found a HUGE tub of Duplo blocks! (They are the mid-size blocks- between legos and the jumbo mega blocks.) I was so excited. And the best part, even if we end up buying replacement balls for the ball popper, we STILL spent less on everything than we would have spent on the ball popper alone! It was such a rush. We considered going to another DI to see what else we could find.

We ended up going to Walmart and picking up the replacement gate and then Claire was sleepy and cranky and we were getting hungry. So we came home. I love those days when you go shopping and it seems like everything is there just for you. It is so much fun. I love it. I wish we could go the other DI on Monday, but they will be closed. I think. The one we went to will be, so I assume they all will be. (Speaking of Monday, I have a doctor's appointment, which now seems odd. And they haven't called yet. I hope I have it. I was looking forward to going by myself and not worrying about baby or Jocee.)

Then, when we got home, I had an email from someone wanting to buy our love seat! I posted it this afternoon on Craigslist. (The best part? We bought it for $45 at DI two years ago. I am selling it for $50, plus extra for the gas to deliver it!) It is part of the master plan for simplifying our lives (we hope). We are selling the love seat, which currently resides in Claire's room. Then we are moving Alann's chair in there. I am hoping to get a bookshelf for her room too. She has (what seems like) a ton of books, but we don't read them because they are hard to get to. (BTW, we would like some books for her for Christmas. Seuss would be great. Or board books. Eric Carle. Anything with an actual story or message.) Then we are collapsing the dog kennel and moving them to the laundry room when we leave. Alann is fixing / recreating his old desk. I used to use it. The top wasn't attached. I almost lost my computer a few times. I finally got fed up and bought a new one. It's been living in the garage ever since. Now, we are going to redo the legs and attach the top (what a novelty) and I am going to use it as a sewing table. We are going to put it in the office where the chair is now. If I am going to be serious about this sewing business, I need a dedicated area for it. I usually have at least an hour during the day that I can work on it, but it is so daunting to drag out my table, set up the machine(s), do the work, then have to put everything away. It takes at least 20 minutes for set up and 10 for tear down, so I am halving the amount of time I can actually sew. This way, I can sew when I have some time, and not have to worry about setting it up and tearing it down. I am so excited. Now that Alann is having loan...complications... we need all the money we can get. So even if I sell 4 of these things a month, that is worth it. (Heck, one is worth it. That's the difference between paying our bills and not sometimes.) So I am rather excited about the whole thing. It's been a great weekend so far. Hopefully, by next weekend, we have the house rearranged and such. We are delivering the love seat on Monday, and I sent an email about a book case (for $5!) that is in the same general area. Could it be? Are things pulling together? Maybe. I hope so.

When we were at the DI, I also saw the most awesome set of furniture. If we lived in a Victorian house, I would buy it. It was a sectional that was this blue / light teal color and had wooden legs and there were 3 matching pieces- a chair, a corner/ curve and a chaise-ish piece. It wasn't a chaise, but it only had an arm on one side, so it probably went against the curve. I loved it. The fabric was a little sunfaded, so I would have eventually had it recovered, but used the same color. It was so great. Alann wasn't that impressed. Oh well. We didn't buy it, obviously, we have more than enough furniture as it is. But it was still cool.