All My New Stuff

So i promised i would share all my new stuff that i have been talking (bragging) about here lately. We spent a good deal of money out of our income taxes this year buying things we needed but we also bought a few things that we wanted. If i am boring you with my chitter chatter of new things i am sorry but who doesn't love to shop for new stuff and share their finds!

Lets start with my Flip Video Camera!

This is possibly one of the coolest things i have ever bought! I love the fact that it charges by being plugged into your USB drive and that the USB plug just pops out of the camera with the push of a button. It is light and sleek. It comes with built in software which allows you to upload the videos to you computer and the edit them. You can also steal snapshots out of any video. Do you know how many times i have taken a video only to realize i caught the best moment that should have been a picture but its too late now. I also love the fact that there arent a million buttons i have to fiddle with. There are 8 buttons total! The play/pause, zoom in, zoom out, left, right, trash, record, and power buttons. I can take up to 60 mins of video and can always load it to any computer near by. I think i am in love!

Moving on to my new phone (can you tell i love my gadgets). I got a brand spankin new LG Spyder which kinda looks like this minus the silver buttons at the bottom.

Favorite thing (or coolest not sure yet) if that it is a touch screen! I dotn even have to open the phone for anything! I can just touch the screen and accomplish any task i want. Another cool feature is i can play music while i work on the phone. If i am sending texts, updating twitter, browsing the web, i can be jamin to my favorite songs while i do it. It also has a great camera as far as phone cameras go. It takes a pretty decent picture and video although i am not big on using it unless i am in a situation and i dont have a real camera. The only down fall is that it has an ascending ringer. For the first 5 - 8 seconds that it rings it is so low you cant hear it. By the time you hear it, it is almost done ringing. But i can deal with that as long as the rest of the cool features work!

I will share my bed and the kids beds later. Also more about the Wii Fit as soon as i find the time. It would all be in one post (minus the Wii Fit) but i bought a new memory card that is apparently not compatible with my computer so i now have to wait for a USB cord i just ordered to be delivered.

All Done...YES!!!!

So tonight we finished our Christmas shopping....WAHOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Now i never keep track of how much i spend i just know i have a budget and that's what i stick to. We only get what is on the list and who we have to shop for. So i am asking for honest opinions! I am going to throw a number out there and the amount of people i bought for and you tell me if i did ok or if i way over spent. Ready???

We spent a total of about $500.00 on a total of 11 people!

Now to me that is a lot of money. That, to be brutally honest, is more than half of one of my husband's paychecks. So to me if we would have done all that shopping at once we would have just about killed ourselves financially. Lucky we have been able to spread it out and i am ashamed to say charge some of it to credit (which i despise doing but it wasn't too much and we will pay it off with our income taxes).

The good news is we are done. We got every present for every person we had to buy for this year. Are you done? When do you start your shopping? I am so a last minute shopper which i desperately hate because i never can get what i want cause the money tend to run real thin at the last minute. I wish i was one of the people that could start shopping in like July or something but i just never think about it. So tell me about your shopping habits.

I am starting to feel a little alone on here as i hardly ever get any comments from anyone...Heeeelllloooo....is there anyone out there there there there???

Ok moving on...I think i might be getting a job! I am excited and nervous all at the same time. I am so nervous because the work force is not really my specialty. I haven't had a job in about 5 years and i am not a big people person. I feel very much at home talking to you all through my computer screen and with those few friends i have in real life. When i get around large groups of people i tend to clam up and become very quiet. I didn't use to be like that. I use to be a very social butterfly but 5 years cooped up in a house where the primary conversation is with a child under the age of 5 will kind of decimate your social abilities lol.

I am very excited on the other hand. I think i need this time away from the house and the kids. I need something that i can clam as my own that isn't just taking care of my hubby and kids. Please no one get this wrong i love my kids to the core but sometimes you just need space or time to be yourself and i think a job is just what i need. It will be mine! Not something i do because i am a mother or a wife but something i do because it is me. I hope i am making a little but of sense here. Am I or am I rambling incoherently?

Oh well i go for my interview at 9am tomorrow so i would appreciate some prayers this way to have the right words and get the job. Thanks everyone and i look forward to being able to tell you all about my NEW job tomorrow (fingers crossed)!

Is It Worth It?

I will make this clear at the beginning so in hope i won't have to state it again, i am NOT a Black Friday shopper. As a kid i remember many long days of 4 am shopping with my mom on the dreaded day after Thanksgiving. I hate it...no i despise it. I refuse to fight with someone over the last Elmo toy or knock over an old lady for the last blender. I know it is great to find these wonderful once a year deals but how much are you actually saving compared to how much you are giving up!

The reason i chose to blog about Black Friday when i didn't even go shopping is the pure chaos of it. I, as most probably have by now, watched on the news as they talked about the Wal-Mart shoppers in Long Island, New York who trampled a employee to death. They killed a person for the chance at a cheap deal! Excuse my use of language but what the fuck! Now i don't think these people intended to kill anyone but in the chaos of rushing to get that flat screen TV or toy for their child i have to wonder how many people say this person lying on the ground and just kept going to get their prize. And i wonder how they feel now knowing what happened. Was it worth it? Would your child have been sad if they didn't get that gift that you rushed in for? It makes me sad to know that this is how society is. We are so focused on the material items that we don't take account for helping another human being.

At a local Wal-Mart her in WV a old woman was pushed down and seriously injured by a man. Over what you may ask yourself? Well allow me to tell you...a blender! He pushed an old woman down with such force that she had to be taken to the hospital over a freaking blender! Now my brother and my dad both work in the meat department at Wal-Mart and they have seen their fair share of violence on Black Friday. Just last year my brother was called to the cooking section to help break up a fight where 2 women were fighting over a pasta pot. They both were holding on to the pot by both handles while beating each other (no this is not a joke) with a spatula and a whisk! Now i ask you was it really that good of a deal?

Since i have family who works at these stores i also get the low down on what is a good deal and what isn't. Did you know that a lot of these stores really are not giving you that much of a deal. For instance a store that i will not name advertised a special on a pan set for $49.99. Now this was only for Black Friday and no other day except for the fact that i was there 2 weeks ago and it was 49.99 then and i am pretty sure that has always been the price on it. I have noticed a lot of deals like this. They say "This item is on sale for one day and one day only" but in reality it is never marked down. It is left at its regular price but because we saw a piece of paper that said sale on it we had to have it. We jump at the chance to save a dollar even if it means we have to act like prehistoric humans hunting for the last Dino egg.

I for one stayed home today. I did some shopping online (which also offers these "Black Friday" sales) and got some nice gifts for my kids. I enjoyed cuddling with my babies and eating leftovers. I say if you want to go fight for a deal that might not be a deal more power to you but you will find me at home kicking off the Christmas season with a cup of hot cocoa and my kids. I prefer not to give or receive a black eye trying to save a buck.

The Rest of My Day

Ok so i already told you all how well my morning went now let me tell you how the well the rest of my day has gone. A friend of mine called and wanted to know if i wanted to go to lunch with her and a few friends. I said let me see if i can afford it. Hubby and me added all things up and decided it was managable. So we went out to lunch to Famous Daves. Now for anyone who does not know what FD's is it's one of the best BBQ places on earth. So i got to go out to lunch with friends...no kids...and have adult conversation...that was the greatest thing ever lol.

When we were leaving the restaurant they ask if i wanted to ride to Value City with them and i was like sure. I dont have any money to spend but it keeps me out for a bit and i needed the break so yea. Mary (one of the girls who was with us and a very close friend) ended up buying Phabian a new pair of shoes and 2 jackets for school and bought MJ a pair of Croc type shoes. Here are some pictures.

Phabian was so happy he couldnt stand it. He kept saying, "Look Mommy, look school clothes,". It then caused a huge problem when i told him he had to take them off so we could put them up til school starts but hey atleast he loves them.

So i got a huge break today and it was great. I havent had to yell at anyone, discipline anyone, or be bad mommy at all today. Just another adult in a restaurant with the rest of them. How gret is that?