It's My Birthday

It's my birthday. I'm 25 and can rent a car. That is all.

Black Friday

Many people avoid Black Friday like the Black Plague. They see figting the crowds, the early hours, and the cold as something to avoid, but I'm the opposite. I get a thrill at fight those crowds and trying to get good deals on things I would buy eventually anyway. Granted, I'm annoyed with the early hours and the cold, but when you get in that store and are racing around to get all the things on your list, I get excited. I was disappointed by some of the sales this year. Usually Office Max has some great deals that are free after rebate, but this year I didn't see anything that interested me. Rather I went to Staples, where I was able to get a flash drive with 512 MB of storage for $10, a paper shredder free (after rebate), and a Palm Tungsten E (for my hubby) for $150 with a free mp3 player. I was very happy.

After we went to Staples, we went over to JCPenny, where we spent the big bucks. They had 50 percent off all of their house hold stuff. We got towels, sheets, pillows, and a quilt. Then we got some jeans for Aaron (ones he really loves) again 50 percent off. We may have spent quite a bit, but we love what we got. The sheets are divine (at least compared to what we had before) and the pillows (which have a down-alternative) are really comfortable and help me to sleep through the night. Yea for comfort.

It was a great shopping experience over all.

Thanksgiving

Oh, my gosh, I spent like 8 hours cooking today! At the end I asked myself if it was worth it. I'm not sure, but I know that I learned a lot about it, like I want to always go somewhere else for dinner where every one only needs bring like one or two dishes. It was hard to cook that much.

But I am glad that I had my new Kitchenaid pots and pans to use making it. They're so wonderful--I love them. And they're red! Not that that's my favorite color, but I really like how bright they are.

Good News All Around

I've been feeling very lucky recently and I hope it keeps up. My dad came through town with my step-mom a week and a half ago. They were on their way to a real estate conference in California. They had an old '89 Corolla that they were not using any more and so they decided to give it to us. It was a wonderful and generous gift. We were worried about our '84 Civic. It hasn't been very easy to get it to pass the emissions test that is required where I live and I was worried about whether it would pass this next year. It also has over 223,000 miles on it. Quite old. So we were very excited about it. I was excited for other reasons as well. For one, the Corolla has power steering so I no longer have to crank the wheel every time I make a sharp turn. Also, our Honda had a draft in the driver's side door, and the heater didn't really work (and it's been between 20 and 40 degrees F here, so cold), and there was no radio. So it's good to have a car that has no draft, has a working heater, and has a radio. Yea!

So that's one good thing. Another is my mother-in-law came to town last weekend and we were able to have fun with her. She took us out to eat twice and to a movie, plus she reimbursed us for gas (which was very generous). So that was great. I guess she is giving us money for our birthdays and Christmas, so I'm grateful for that since if we move in December, we'll need it for stuff.

Finally, I was able to get a great deal on a washer and dryer set. My co-worker used to help the bank on foreclosed homes and now two of his sons have taken over. When they do this, they need to deal with anything in the house that is deemed hazardous or unsafe. This includes food, chemicals, refrigerators, and washers and dryers. At a house recently, that was actually in pretty good condition, they found a washer and dryer that was not too old and in good condition (as well as an almost brand new pool table that they decided to keep). I asked how much he'd sell it for and he said normally they'd sell for at least $300 for the set (although I wonder if it might not be more), but he agreed to sell them to me for only $200, since we're friends and all. And not only that, but his other son, who used to be in the washer/dryer business would clean them out and improve them so they will work better than new ones. Isn't that awesome! I'll be getting them Friday, but right now we're not in an apartment with washer/dryer hookups. We're planning on finding an apartment to move into that does and if that happens we'll move in December. Until then, our hometeacher is going to keep them in his garage. So nice! I'm just so excited. It seems to all be working out. Now all I need to do is find an apartment for us to move into that is bigger (with 2 bedrooms), has washer and dryer hookups, and is near a bus route to UVSC (that we can afford). Then we'll be set.