An unexpected four-day weekend…..yippee!!  

After a rough week, and a particularly busy Thursday, I was happy when my mom offered to entertain the kids for a few hours so I could have some “quiet” time to myself.  YAY!  I suggested first thing in the morning based on my observations over the past couple weeks. 

The kids wake up around 8:00 lately.  (So much for my plan to get them up early every day, eh?).  They are partial vegetables in the mornings and usually fairly zombie-like until 10.  For the next hour or two after that they are quite cooperative.  But once noon hits, they start to get a little restless, and it just gets worse and worse and by 4:00 it’s a madhouse here.  Total chaos and loud and craziness and arguing and fighting and boredom and…..and…..

And this is what I might look like some day….

Of course I don’t want my mom to look like that either…so I figured it would be best to have her come over EARLY.  Like 8:30AM.  She agreed…and I told her I’d be back around lunch time.  She was hoping it wasn’t the lunch-time I had the day prior (which ended up being 1:30pm), or Grandma and Grandpa’s definition of lunch-time (2:00)!  I assured her I’d be back before noon.

So out the door I went at about 8:40am and stopped at Coffee Rush to get a 16 ounce White Mocha…. mmmm…delicous!  I made myself an Avocado Cheddar omelet before I left, so my tummy was very happy.  

Ran to the Office Depot in Hillsboro first.  Not sure how much longer they will keep my business because they only take returns within 14 days now.  They made a big stink out of my return, but ultimately DID refund my money, but still.  Ugh.  I was also looking for a desk tray organizer- one that will fit in a 10″x12″ drawer.  No luck.  I did pick up another ream of printer paper for $1.00 (with rebate, but still!!)

Then over to Target….return only.  I wanted to SHOP at the big one by Washington Square!

Then to Fred Meyer….bank deposit first…then a quick in and out to do another return.  

I started my drive towards Hwy 217 to Washington Square.   I’ve decided I need to keep a camera on my windshield so I can snap pictures of all the funny things I see when I’m out and about.

I saw Snookie!  Er, a wannabe Snookie (from MTV’s Jersey Shore) pulling out of a parking lot in a late 80’s Honda Civic.  Hmmm… that was photo-worthy I thought.  But too late.

Yep, the same hair and make-up as this gal

Then I get onto Hwy 217 and notice the car next to me says “Student Driver”.  I look in the window and it appears the instructor is advising the girl to get into the right lane (she’s in the left lane).  Poor kid.  First she slows waaaaay down (but doesn’t get over), then she speeds up (but doesn’t get over) and the instructor is making all kinds of hand motions and trying to explain how to change lanes on a highway (I’m guessing) and I found that to be pretty entertaining.  I didn’t want to hover and watch for too long and I was glad my lane was moving faster so she was no longer a “risk” to me.  I never did see her change lanes- I was too focused on making my exit!

Went to the Target at Washington Square first.  No desk trays there.  Found my $0.50 pencil boxes, made by Sterilite so even better!  Grabbed a couple boxes of cereal (it’s been our dinner lately!).  I grabbed another package of panties for Brooke (I’m not sure why she’s always out of underwear).  Saw a huge stack of clearance shirts and skirts at the end of that row- for $3.00 each.  Plus bike shorts (perfect for wearing under skirts on the playground) for $0.89 each.  So each girl got 2 skirts, 2 shirts, and 2 shorts.  Grabbed a pair of black flat ballet-like shoes for Brooke (she outgrew hers over the summer), a new ballet outfit, and a pair of boots for myself.  Then headed over to the mall.

Got to Washington Square. Parked where I thought I needed to be parked, turns out I was one exit too far, but that’s OK.  I was on a mission to hit only one store.  Victoria’s Secret.  WITHOUT the kids!  That was an experience in itself.  I haven’t shopped there in probably 6 years?  I had three “assistants” helping me and all trying to find me exactly what I wanted and matching underwear and the whole nine yards, and do I like this?  And did I see those back there?  And here’s a sample of one that we’re getting in a couple weeks- do you want to reserve it?  And…..GEEZ!  I ONLY WANT A MATCHING SET…BRA AND UNDERWEAR…IN THIS STYLE….IN ONE OF THESE TWO COLORS.   THAT’S ALL!  I was there for about 40 minutes.  Came out with THREE matching sets.  One is a basic every-day set, the other two I couldn’t decide between and I was running out of time, so I just grabbed both.  Ha ha ha….that’ll teach Jim to send me to Victoria’s Secret!!  (Shhhh….he might be reading this.  Yeah honey, I’ll take one of the sets back.  Maybe.)

No, I didn't buy ALL of these!

I’m speedily walking through the mall trying to make it to my car as quickly as possible and get home.  It was 11:50 by then.  I called Mom and let her know I was on my way.  I made it home by 12:10!  WHEW!  The kids did OK I guess- and she had them putting together a complicated puzzle, which took nearly an hour.  Smart planning!  Lunch was leftovers.

The rest of my day was fairly uneventful.  The girls and I went to the kids resale shop, didn’t find anything there that was worth buying (why pay $9 for a pair of used jeans when I can pay $9-$12 for NEW one’s?).  I handed over a sack of clothing for them to consider buying- won’t hear back from them until Monday or Tuesday she said.  No problem.

Then we went over to Nan’s Glad Rags so I could try selling them some of MY clothes.  Uh, I don’t think I’ll do that again.  They never show you what they bought- just say, “Oh she found 3 items.  We can pay you $7.00 or give you $12 exchange credit.”  Well I didn’t find anything I wanted there, so I took the cash.  Took the unwanted items back out to the car, when I realized that one of the items she kept was my Jones NY sherpa coat!!  That was a $100 coat!  And I got a measly SEVEN dollars.  I couldn’t figure out what the other 2 items were- had to be jeans or a sweater or something like that.  But SEVEN dollars for a sherpa coat?  Geez.

Back home, kids cleaned out their closets to get ready for “back to school”.  Then the older two went to the pool.  Brooke and I stayed behind and had a Skype call with Jim, then headed to the pool.  Spent about an hour there.  On our way home I had a message from a friend offering to have the kids over for pizza and a movie tonight.  SURE!  So here I am typing up this message.  And folding laundry intermittently, watching trashy TV (Ochocinco’s Ultimate Catch reality show).  Oh, and reinstalling Windows on my laptop.  So far so good, so I’m reinstalling all my software and trying to get it working so I can spend the rest of my weekend scrapbooking.  I did have a nice hour-long Skype with Jim around 6:00…. thank goodness for modern-day technology.

Alas, it’s time to pick up the kids and get ready for bed.  Hope you enjoyed my day as much as I did!