The saga of Banana's backpack:

Lovely Banana (aka The Queen) started middle school this week and offered to use the messenger bag I made (well, embellished?) for her last year because she's all money conscious and stuff. She packed it full of her junk and got to school and found out that 6th graders don't get lockers - the middle school was originally just for 7th and 8th grade and they haven't been able to put more lockers in. She has three 1 to 2 inch binders plus other stuff plus gym shoes plus her agenda. It's crammed and her shoulders are killing her every day.

No money for a new backpack - except financial aid money, but it's not yet released to me, just in my account. So I head over to the college bookstore and pick her up a really nice backpack - padded shoulder straps, adjustable compartments, etc. (ok, it was the only one left without wheels) for $50 - way more than I would really like to spend, but I don't want her to keep hurting her shoulders and spending money on financial aid is like spending money on a credit card. it's not quite real/in your hand yet, so it's easy to spend.

Oh, and the backpack is black with mustard yellow and grey accents.

She hated it and it was too long for her. But she let the office lady take off and throw away the tags before she read my note inside saying DON'T TAKE OFF THE TAGS UNLESS YOU'RE GOING TO KEEP IT - oh and there was a note on the outside telling her to read the note inside as soon as she got it.

TEARS.

On Wednesday, I took it back anyway. And got really lucky that they made an exception (mostly because it was the only one left and he still had people coming in to register who could also be suckered in to buying a $50 backpack on financial aid).

HAPPY - except her shoulders still hurt.

Went to Goodwill today. Our Goodwill SUCKS. Seriously sucks. Except when it doesn't, like today.

A PINK and black SWISS ARMY Airflow backpack (looked it up, one with the same features but this year's model, retails for $80), mostly clean (all clean now thanks to Shout, baking powder, bleach, and laundry detergent), a little smaller, did I mention it was PINK!!

And, oh yeah, for $4.99.

95% off retail.

If she doesn't like it...

Well, then I'll sell it on ebay I guess, there's one exactly like it but red listed right now for $60. Or use it myself. It's so awesome, laptop ready and everything. Not that I haul books or laptops anywhere, but if I needed to, I definitely could, in style.

They also had a clean and perfect love seat for $25 that I wanted so badly for our living room, but it was sold. It must have been an employee because it was marked sold today and I was there 5 minutes after they opened.

Resume lameness of Goodwill.

Oops, again.

See that post down there. Yep, that was post #100. Oh well.

Happy, happy, joy, joy. My mom is coming to visit on Saturday. Coming to rescue me and hang out and cheer me up. I've been just a little overwhelmed (yes, that means a lot overwhelmed) lately with kids and house and school and work and Primary. Hub offered to hire someone to help with the house and I freaked out a bit. I'm not a big fan of someone I don't know coming in to my house to clean. Though that'd be better than someone I do know like VT's or someone I'd have to see all the time knowing my deep dark messy house secret. It freaks me right out and I'd have to do that pre-clean thing and then what's the point?? So the thought of this made me say, "I want my mommy." Out loud even. Generally, I'm okay with living a bazillion miles from Mom. It sucks, but it is what is - except when I'm overwhelmed (or really, really sick) and then I want my mommy. Usually, I just have to suck it up and deal with it cuz she does live about a bazillion miles away, but this time the stars aligned and hub called her and between the two of them, they made it happen. She even got a great deal on the flight down here on a last-minute SW airlines getaway type deal. She only booked the one-way and we'll book the trip home after she gets here and we decide when she's going home. I think we might wait to make that decision until after Sam's appointment on Thursday (next, not tomorrow).

A Series of Fortunate Events

Due to some unforeseen occurrences, money is sooo tight this week. Like hold your breath and hope that the reimbursements from the school or something comes in tomorrow so we don't bounce stuff tight. Wing and a prayer, baby.

Fortunate event #1:
Today, I found 2 checks from Josh's birthday that have been missing in the depths of my purse/van and deposited them.

Fortunate event #2:
Tonight when we were supposed to be leaving for rehearsal for the girls, the battery on the van was dead, which has happened a couple of times now when the lights are on for even a fairly short period of time - so no leaving the doors open while you get everyone situated, run back inside for this and that and that and that forgotten thing.

Sounds bad, but really, it set in motion a chain that ended up very good.

I knocked on a neighbor's door to see if he could jump start the van for me. No problem, he brought over his handy-dandy little jumpstarter thingy. In the process, he was talking about how it was a good coincidence because the reason he had the handy-dandy little jumpstarter thingy was because his truck was acting up battery-wise and he'd borrowed it just that day from his dad. BUT, it had turned out that his battery wasn't actually bad, it just had post problems.

Well, that got me thinking (hoping) that maybe my posts are just dirty. So after we got it started and I had dropped the girls off at rehearsal, the boys and I headed to Walmart to buy some knock-off Diet Coke (for the van - and me), because even though it was farther away, the knock-off cola at the other store tastes like Diet Pepsi, which is DIS-GUS-TING. BUT, about halfway there, I remembered that I had some coupons for the other store (there are only two), which would allow me to pretty much get REAL DC for free, so I got off an exit early and headed to that store instead.

When we got there, we found that there were people singing in the middle of the bakery section - a choir! Seriously, I'm not making it up. Everyone was dressed up all fancy - turns out it was Taste of the Season - samples all over the store and a party so that one would be inspired to serve these yummy goodies at their holiday parties AND buy them there. The goodies were indeed quite fantastic, but that's not the really good part.

Another part of the party was a giveaway - every 30 minutes, they were going to draw names for $25 gift cards. I seriously knew on the spot that this was an answer to a prayer and that I was going to win one and be able to buy food between now and payday.

The boys and I finished our sampling and shopping and went back to the theatre to wait for the girls. We went inside to the lobby, but half the cast was out there and Josh kept getting them in trouble and generally being a pain in the tookus, so we left again. As soon as I got outside, my cell started working again and there was a missed call and a message. Guess what?

I won a giftcard.

Count Your Many Blessings

So, the weekend started out kinda crappy. I was a bit bummed because I was missing all my old friends for various reasons - one of which was that I had to dye my own hair Friday night. I miss having someone to call and say, "Hey, let's dye my hair tonight." Anyway, I was kind of sad off and on all weekend, but yesterday when we finally got to church, it was time for the intermediate hymn and guess what it was - duh, Count Your Many Blessings. I was kind of glad we were late because I was just bawling my eyes out, but we were in the Young Family Chapel, aka, listening over the speaker system in the Primary room. So, I counted them and I'm counting them here today:

* My sister is coming to visit next weekend. She's moving to Florida, which is sad for a lot of people, but she's passing by here on the way and might actually be closer if she's in Florida.
* We had a great time on Saturday at the Chandler Pow Wow. They asked David to judge the talent contest and the drama boosters had a food booth, but best of all, the Lions asked David to be in the dunking booth. I bought 20 balls and let the kids take their shots. The machine was a little stubborn, so the guys running the booth helped. I have video :-D
* There was a Scentsy booth at the Pow Wow. I now have a bar of White Tea and Cactus, which I will put in my burner as soon as my old Sweet Pea and Vanilla melts enough to dump. They also had the new plug-in variety, but I save my cash for other stuff (food at the fair) and will get one later. I was so excited to see those, because I NEED some smell good in my bathrooms.
* Burger King has Mac and Cheese now. One stop shopping - at least in Tyler. We can do Sonic with their grilled cheese, but it gets old. Now we just need a BK back in Athens. Applebee's also works, but eh, Applebee's.
* Only 5 more Sundays until Sam gets to go to Nursery. Oh how much easier my Sundays will be in 5 weeks.
* New Couch!! David's parents gave us their couch because they are moving. But they are moving onto our lot, so they can come visit it ;-) I actually kind of hate the couch - but it's got 2 recliners built in and that makes David very happy, giddy even, so I compromised. Oooh, I should bargain that against his wanting to get a dog - "hey, I gave in on the couch..."
* Getting rid of 3/5ths of the old couch. I loved that couch (sectional) in theory, but in reality this particular one SUCKED. It's going to go live at the theatre at BHS.
* Under the old couch, I found the extension hose for my vacuum!! Cobwebs beware.
* The girls made the bus again! They all had perfect attendance for last 6 weeks, which I don't think has ever happened. They always get E conduct, but last year Hannah got Saturday school for tardies, which was embarassing and sad.
* INSIDEOUT A CAPPELLA put their stuff on Napster!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! They were on iTunes before, but I have a subscription to Napster. My internet is currently running slow because I'm downloading 5 albums of delicious a cappella music.
* Thanksgiving is around the corner. We're going to Rick and Kristina's, which I think will be a lot of fun.
* Speaking of Thanksgiving, I still have the stuff to make Pumpkin Cheesecake. I should do that today.
* The video posted below, which just makes me giggle every darn time I watch it.
* Coming full circle - I really dig my new hair color. It's dark, somewhere between Hannah's color and David's color. David calls it emo, especially when I straightened it yesterday, but he's a dork like that.

I think that's it - well, you know, besides the obvious delightful kids and awesome husband. They are the ones I actually counted on Sunday, these are all the ones I was thinking of this morning.

David Young in Concert