So, anyway, because of all this sickness, we missed two gatherings with extended family. We were, however, able to make it to my mom and dad’s on Christmas Eve and to Steve’s parents on Christmas Day. (I did sound real great coughing the whole time, though!)

One thing about this Christmas, though, that really makes me smile, is that I know we’re loved. Not because people got us presents (I can do without those, really) but because those people that bought those presents really took the time to listen to what we wanted or might want and took the time to find those things. For example, my sister-in-law got me some dish and kitchen towels. I know that sounds funny, but I ASKED for those. Seriously. It’s one of the things I listed when she asked what I wanted. I really needed some and always forget to buy them myself! :) She also got me some earrings and a matching necklace and even with that she apparently had listened to me the one time I mentioned that I like blue and brown together.

So things like that really make it all the more special, you know?

I don’t usually like to spell out all the things we got for gifts and I’m still not going to list everything, but I wanted to say that I hit the mother lode with my gift card from my parents LOL. Due to sales I was able to snag two (plain color) maternity shirts, three pairs of awesome undies (heehee), two pairs of earrings, and a suede purse! Well, I went $15 over my gift card but that’s not bad. Also took a stop at Motherhood Maternity and grabbed three shirts on sale there one of which I absolutely absolutely love and it fits me great. The others fit me, too, but you get the idea. I really need maternity clothes, last time around all my friends loaned me stuff and some stuff did a disappearing act to other people (long stories) so I only have two pairs of maternity jeans left and those don’t even fit anymore. I more than I wanted to on those three shirts at Motherhood, though, but I really am in need of clothing. One article I thought the tag read $9.99 (they were all clearance) but it was really $19.99 but by that point I was sold, ha.

We also ended up with 3 gift cards to Walmart and while we hate that place, who’s not going to use a gift card? We got ourselves, for the most part, a blood pressure machine. I know that sounds nutty for people our age, but with my pregnancy with Elijah I had high blood pressure and that ended up to basically bed rest and then him being brought forth 3 and a half weeks early. This time I’m going to keep a much better eye on all of it. Not to mention I think Steve is kinda borderline — he’s ok now but wants to keep an eye on it and keep it where it should be.

Some other instances of people listening to us include my brother who got me A Christmas Story on DVD (which is awesome because Steve hates that movie and that I make him watch it lol), my in-laws got me a chronological Bible and got Steve socks (my mother-in-law laughed but that’s what Steve wanted!), etc. Heehee. We’re easy to please! :)

But Elijah… oh, boy, that kid made out like a bandit! Toys, toys, toys. And only one article of clothing: a coat from my in-laws. That little butt, though, kept saying for weeks that he didn’t want clothes for Christmas and I kept telling him it doesn’t matter what you get, you are happy and you say thank you. Of course he threw a fit when he opened it. I was so embarrassed but I think everyone understands that he’s a kid and in that absolutely selfish and rude stage (that some people never get out of). But he got so many new toys, oy! So hopefully he’ll be plenty of distracted for many months to come (at least until his birthday, haha).

He was also kinda mad today when I bought him four pairs of jeans at K-Mart instead of toys! But can I help it if all his jeans are starting to get holey in the knees and these were mucho on sale??
Oh one gift my in-laws got him isn’t really a toy but it’s totally cool and he loves it. It’s a floor puzzle, 2 feet by 3 feet (big pieces) of the solar system. On the reverse side, it’s a drawing of, I think the same image (maybe slightly different) and he can color it with crayons and then wipe it off and do it again!

Anyway, we all know STUFF doesn’t really mean anything in the long haul and that it’s certainly not the point of Christmas, but boy is it fun. :-)

E and I went swimming this afternoon. I am back on schedule. Friday being a holiday screwed me up, but my schedule for the last two weeks is swimming on Monday and Friday and working out on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. Not bad, so far so good. But ya know, when I went shopping earlier, I was going for a swimming suit. I never liked the one I have and then last week Steve threw it in the dryer so the halter strap thing is kinda cutting into me and I just hate it. But the store I went to apparently doesn’t carry swim suits (what the heck?) so I have to order it online and hope it fits. As of last Thursday, though, Elijah has finally started “swimming” on his own in his ring floatie. This is a great treat for me. Normally he was on my back, strangling me and yelling in my ear and not wanting to do anything fun. Now he even wants to go in the whirlpool so, yay. Hopefully soon I can promote him to water wings. Maybe soon we’ll get him swim lessons, too, who knows.

But suddenly I am very tired… and my jaw hurts again. Blasted wisdom teeth. Must do something about them soon…

Anyway, at the first store we were at where Steve was using his gift card from my parents, there occurred the following conversation:

Steve: Elijah, you want a BB gun?

Val: No, you’ll shoot your eyes out! (It was a Red Ryder)

Steve: Did you even get to watch that movie this year?

Val: NO! No one lets me watch it anymore! (It’s true, everyone’s so mean to me.)

Steve: *haha neener neener* Elijah, you want a BB gun?

Elijah: A db gun?

Val: See, he doesn’t even know what a “db gun” is.

Steve: A BB gun.

Elijah: No!!! We can’t shoot the babies!!

Okay, well we thought it was funny!

Holding his hand, I head back to the picnic table where the moms are to get my cell phone and keys and he’s crying and screaming the whole time that he wants to “stay and play a few minutes.” I say to my friends, “I’m sorry, but I am not putting up with this, I warned him.” One of them says, “good for you,” lol – so I leave, dragging a kicking and screaming preschooler behind me.

He wasn’t too great in the shoe store or the grocery store after that, either.

So, since there was a sale going on, I treated myself to four new pairs of shoes. LOL

I have never bought that many pairs of shoes at one time before but they had this whole “buy one get one half off” sale going on and they were already on sale, so, yeah, I spent less than half on four pairs than Steve’s about to spend on a new pair of work boots, heh. Truth is, I just couldn’t make up my mind. Also strange, considering I’m kind of hard to please. But, ya know, I needed some short ankled shoes I can be active in anyway…. again, funny, I’ve never owned this many pairs of tennis-like-shoes before at once, haha. Usually I avoid those like the plague.

Anyway, E has been better since he took his non-nap, and he’s being quite good. I only have to get after him to sit down and play since he’s chewing gum right now. (A non-nap? That’s when I put him down for a nap for my own sanity even though I know he won’t take one but will play in his room instead.)

But still, I feel like going to bed early tonight – want to get plenty of sleep so I don’t have to kick my butt to get myself out of bed like I did this morning – so I am counting the minutes until 8pm when I can put him to bed… 55… 54… 53…

OH, I just thought of something — this is also probably the first time I’ve had velcro on shoes for the first time since I was five years old! ;-) Guess that stuff’s in style or something, who knows, I don’t keep up!

It’s so pathetic, I’m usually done by about two weeks before Christmas. I guess being sick just really put me behind in all things. I’m still waiting on a few things, though, that I ordered this morning. They’re supposed to ship one to two business day shipping, I paid $17 extra for that, so they’d better be here in time. It’s another “piece” of the total gift for my sister, one for a sister-in-law, and one for my mother-in-law. Oh, I just had a thought. We should get my sister’s boyfriend something, too. We like him. I want them to get married. ;-) Ohhh and I got a cousin left, too. Oops. I usually just throw candles and maybe a little something else at the aunts and uncles and then little gifts for the little kids who aren’t so little anymore. But this cousin’s the only boy who’s not old enough to be married (and is married) so I get him something of his own. He’s 12 though, I have no idea what he wants… Well, I hope to finish up the shopping for those four guys tomorrow.

And speaking of tomorrow, I am dropping off a candle order in South St. Louis County and then Sarah, Elijah, and I are going to go to the lights display at Our Lady of the Snows in Belleville, ILL. This should be cool. I’ve heard it’s really good, and they have other attractions, too, than just the lights, like a Christmas tree display, free petting zoo, etc. Maybe on the way back we’ll hit that live nativity scene. Then that’s about as much Christmas cheer as I’ll be able to handle. ;-)

Lane Bryant
LB was my second stop yesterday. I started going here when I needed to get clothing to wear to wto weddings, including my brother’s. I was not able to find anything I liked anywhere else, then I came here… and spent more money on clothing than I had in a long time. I spent more on the outfit for my brother’s wedding than I did my own wedding dress – but that’s another story. ;-)

Well, I guess you could say I’m hooked. I like their clothing and, you know, I’ll be the first to admit that I’ve got some extra weight on me that shouldn’t be there. But, even were I to lose that weight, I’d still be curvalicious. It’s just the way I’m built, it’s the way women on both sides of my family are built, we are just curvy. And, you know, LB has clothing that’s not ust a bigger size meant for those stick girls (no offense, you know who you are :P) but they are made/cut for curvy women. Unfortunately, as far as I’m concerned, they’re quite expensive.

But I needed shorts for this summer. I was on a quest and I headed to LB.

Now, how they get me coming back all the time when I think they’re expensive? They’ve got these things out now called Real Woman Dollars. When you spend so much, you earn them and on a later visit, you can use them for discounts. This time around? I spent nearly $150 I don’t have and earned $50 in RWD. The catch? You have to spend money to use them. So next time I go in, provided it’s between the dates given, if I spend $50, I can use one of those and get $25 off. And I have two.

This is how they got me last time. I needed jeans, went in, got jeans. They gave me RWD. So, of course, I had to go in later and use those – I spent even more money the second time.

How’d they get me this time?
Denim Crops: $44.50 $29.99
Khaki Shorts: $29.50
Denim Shorts: $34.50
Casual Shirt: $12.99
Casual Shirt: $12.99
Casual Shirt: $12.99

Well, at least in this case, I wasted money on things I do really need…

Bath & Body Works
BBW is a little bit more subtile in the way they work.

It all started when Sarah and I saw an advertisement as we walked by some months ago. It was something like spend $10 and get this body wash for cheap. We started smelling and soon we were hooked. I ended up with Jasmine & Vanilla body wash and bath bubbles. I. Love. This. Stuff. But, of course, I needed the lotion. Gasp, what was that in my bag? A spend $10 get a new scent item free. So, the beginning of April I was in there, again. I bought the lotion and brought home a free Japanese Cherry Blossom lotion as well.

What did I get in the mail a few weeks ago? A card that says spend $30 and get $10 off. I took it to Steve and said, “see this? This is what you’re going to use to get me a Mother’s Day present.” He wasn’t too interested, so I went for it myself. My Jasmine & Vanilla body wash is running low so I needed some more, right?

I ended up buying another body wash and then another lotion and body wash in a different scent: Lavender & Vanilla.

What did they put in there this time? You guessed it – another coupon thing that says spend $10 and get this new scent free!

Ah, the cycle never ends!

I must give this one to my mother-in-law before I go broke.

But what am I going to tell Steve should he decide to take me up on my Mother’s Day offer? He probably won’t as he says, “we’re going on vacation, isn’t that present enough?” (He just doesn’t get it.) But in case he does… it was going to expire this week… um… yeah, that’s it…