Grey Monday?

Let me just start with this gratuitous Baby B Smile!

Okay. I don't know if any of you looked at the adds in your Sunday paper yesterday. I did. And Surprise, Surprise, the stores wanted me to come visit. I am a big fan of Black Friday, I love it, I don't always get everything I want- either because I get there a little too late (who would have ever thought arriving at a store at 4am would be too late, but sometimes it is) or I just can't afford what I want (thus, I don't get it). I will be perusing the adds on Thanksgiving to see if there is anything that is worth the early morning trip to the store, and I am 99% sure that I will, once again be headed out to participate in the spectacle that is "Black Friday". Over the past 5 years Ken and I have fallen into a pattern that works quite well for us. One of us will go out to the stores REALLY EARLY and the other one will sleep in, then we will head back out to the stores as a family after most of the crowds are gone and see what is still available. We have come away with some great bargains in the past. Little J doesn't seem to notice that his Birthday presents are purchased 4 months in advance. It is a win win situation for all involved. This year though some of the Pre-Black Friday sales were good enough to get me out the door early this morning.....

Early being 8 AM.

Target did it. They were offering this Fisher Price Little People Nativity for $13.99. I have wanted this nativity set for a couple of years now and last year I was thwarted at every turn. Not this year. Ken saw online that our local target store had some in stock on Sunday. I hoped, hoped, hoped that they would still have some on Monday. After all, Sunday is the Sabbath Day and I live in Utah County, no one in Utah County shops on the Sabbath, right? Doors opened at 8. I woke up at 7:40 AAAAAAAHHHHHHH how in the world did I sleep in that late. I got J up, gave him some cereal (without milk, we ran out....silly me) and while he was picking the marshmallows out of his cereal I put yesterdays clothes on over his pajamas- no one at the stores would ever suspect that I am just a horrible mother. Little J loved that he was still wearing his pajamas. Then I got a bottle of warm water ready and made sure that I had sufficient formula.....and I put my sleeping baby B into his Car Seat- I know Horrible Mother- I went shopping before I fed my baby. He really didn't mind, in fact both boys kept our secrets quite well. Before leaving for the store I handed J a zip-lock bag full of Marshmallow cereal.....that helped a lot too. We got to Target at about 8:10, rushed back to the toys and found where they had hidden the Nativity sets- all 3 of them! I took one, the employee who helped me locate them took one and the last one was gone within 5 minutes after that! YEAH!!!!!!! I love my nativity set, I am so going to play with it on Thursday night! Then maybe I will let the boys play with it.

Next- the games. They were having a sale on Hasbro Games, $7 a piece and if you bought 3 you get $5 off. We have my sister Laurie's family for Christmas this year, she has 4 adorable children and I mentioned board games as a gift and she thought that would be wonderful. I love it when I can get TONS of gifts and still come in under budget! Five board games $30!
We then continued on our quest, 2 more stores where we could use great coupons. Little J even got a Balloon at one store- and he was able to sneak some extra English Muffins into our cart at WinCo- I was going to put them back- since only one would be free but then I decided I could pay the extra 68 cents. WinCo was offering Free Orange Juice, Malt-o-Meal cereal, Eggs, English Muffins and Bacon- I of course took them up on their offer. I noticed that I didn't get my Cereal for free and that they had given me both English Muffins for free so I went to Customer Service to ask for an adjustment, I would pay for the English Muffins if they would give me my $2.48 cents back for the supposedly free cereal. I got my $2.48 and for my inconvenience, they let me keep my Muffins for free. See how happy that made J!
Don't worry about Baby B, he was fed and changed while we waited for the second store to open. I am pretty sure, that if he could talk, he would tell you that he enjoyed his adventure this morning.
So there you have it. My morning. It was fun. I am happy. Now.....I get to clean the house. YEAH!