So it’s Monday.  Again.  The bright side is that it’s the last day of August.  Don’t let the door hit you in the rear on your way out, August.  I’m onto to bigger and better (and cooler) things.

Still, as happy as I am to see August end, I wouldn’t have minded another day or two of weekend.  It was a busy one around here and busy weekends always seem to be over way too soon.

Kile got paid on Friday night and since he gets paid once a month (the joys of being a state employee), we do the bulk of our shopping for the month when he gets paid.  Unfortunately, this stresses Kile out since he doesn’t like to spend money, no matter how necessary, and when he gets stressed he gets crabby.  And when he gets crabby, it rubs off on me.   Still, I did a pretty good job of deflecting his crabbiness all weekend.  And if I had remembered to take my thyroid pills yesterday, I probably would have been able to deflect it yesterday as well.

Alas, I did not take my pill and alas, I did not deflect.  By the end of the day, I was tired and I just absorbed it.  And when I absorb a bad mood off of someone… well it ain’t pretty.  And it’s not fun.  But the upshot is that I took my pill FIRST THING this morning.  I wasn’t interested in having another down day today.  It’s a Monday and I need all the help I can get!

ANYHOW… Saturday was our monthly B.O.O.S.T. (Big Ol’ Obnoxious Shopping Trip) at Walmart.  We actually went to Kohl’s first to look for shoes for Harry.  That child’s feet are growing at alarming rates.  He’s almost out of kid sizes!  We weren’t able to find anything though and as Kile was crabby, we decided it was best to just move on.  We had lunch at Chili’s before heading over to Walmart and that was nice.  We don’t eat out at sit down restaurants that much anymore.

The grocery shopping went pretty well and I think we remembered almost everything on our list.  Which is impressive because we had a LOT of stuff on our list.  We chinzed on our shopping last month because of the trip to Florida, so we were pretty much out of pretty much everything.  It was not a small trip and it was not cheap.  But at least now we have everything we need for the month, for the most part.  Perhaps maybe now lunchtime won’t be a source of stress around here!  It’s hard to find food to give the little ones when you have just graham crackers and granola bars.  Even moreso when one of your wee ones is as picky as Liam is.

Believe it or not, this all took up the better part of the day on Saturday.  We were wiped out come Saturday night!

Sunday brought more shopping through.  We headed over to Legends to do some more shopping for shoes.  On the way, Kile stopped at In n’ Out and we grabbed some burgers and fries to go.  We ate at one of the picnic tables at Legends which was really a fabulous idea.   Or it would have been fabulous if it hadn’t been so windy.  Until Subway opens up over there, there just aren’t a lot of options for quick, cheap dining.  That would be my only complaint about it.   Otherwise, Legends is awesome.

We finally found Harry some shoes at the Sketchers store there.  We also got the little ones some croc-style shoes that were on a fantastic sale.  After that we checked out the Carter’s outlet store.  We were hoping to find some clothes for Liam since we never seem to have enough clothes for the poor kid these days.  But we did get him and Evie their Christmas jammies.  So one present down, many to go!

But our shopping was not done there!  We headed over to Michael’s where I had some specific things to look for: a container for my cloth diaper laundry detergent, some knitting notions, and a scrapbook for our Disney vacation memorabilia.  Sam’s Club was next and we had some very specific things to get there.  Including chips and snacks for Harry’s lunches, frozen stuff for the deep freeze, etc and so forth.  Luckily, we thought ahead and had a cooler in the back of the van.  We packed the frozen stuff in there before heading over to Whole Foods.

Yep, we weren’t done yet.  We ALWAYS have to go to Whole Foods!   We got some fruit, some cheese, some laundry stuff for me… and we got a pizza for dinner!  Which meant:  it was time to go home.  At last.

The pizza was awesome.  But of course it was!  And it was the perfect dinner because were all beyond tired.

Like I said, last night was kind of hard emotionally for me and I entirely blame the lack of thyroid medication yesterday.  I really do need to stay on top of taking those pills.  At the very least.

And now I feel like I need another weekend to recover from my weekend.  OY.

So what did you do this weekend? Did you spend as much money as we did?  Because I’m starting to see why Kile was so crabby about it.  UGH.

Okay, so maybe not a proper blog post quite yet.  Things are still a little hectic today, even though I’m getting back to “real life” (snort… what’s that?).  I’m getting some knitting business off the ground at last which makes me so happy you can’t possibly believe how happy it makes me.  And there are so many things I want to do, try, see, learn and experience that I’m having a hard time concentrating on ANYTHING.  Seriously.  You should see the state of my Google Reader.  It’s shameful.

But I wanted to share some pictures I took with my BRAND. NEW. CAMERA on Saturday night.  They’re nothing special, but just me having a great time and trying out some new things.  I’m ridiculously excited about this camera.  I literally CANNOT wait to play with it some more.

The very first picture I took with the new camera.  Believe it or not, I took this sitting in the van at the gas station at Sam’s Club.  I zoomed in on this funky looking tree next to the gas station that had the Atlantis Hotel-Casino in the background.  Not fabulous, but sorta cool.

As well as having a very messy face, Liam is excited about the new camera too.  Still at the gas station.

Taken from, you guessed it, the gas station.  Sam’s Club is where I got this precious, precious new camera.  I love it so.  (That’s the camera AND Sam’s Club, fyi.)

I love playing with street lights and headlights at night.  This camera makes it SO EASY.

Mmm… wine.  Taken at Whole Foods.

Hello, pretty flower!  Whole Foods has some of the prettiest flowers I’ve seen in any grocery store.

The bookshelf in my room.  A portion of my insane Nora Roberts collection and some knick-knacks from my grandmother.

I played with post-processing on this photo to make it look kinda grungy and antique-y.  And no, that’s not dust on the lampshade there. *cough*

I’m warning you now, there’s probably going to be a lot of pictures on this here blog in the future.  I’m having WAY too much fun.

Warning!  If you are a brother or sister to me (via blood or marriage), I advise you to skip this post.  Unless you really want to have your Christmas gift spoiled.  Turn away now and save the surprise for Christmas morning!

There.  Now that that’s out of the bag, I wanted to share with you the contents of the gift bags we put together for our siblings and their families this holiday season.  Partially so I have a record of the awesomeness we put together this year (direct quote from Harry: “We’ve worked harder on Christmas this year than we ever have before!”), and partially so that if there are any of you who are looking for ideas for homemade, handmade and inexpensive gifts, then maybe this would be an interested read for you.  Anyhow, sorry for the lack of pictures but I was uber-lame and didn’t take pictures of anything before we got it all bagged and boxed up.  Whoops. I’ll try to find links where I can though to make up for it, deal?

• The first thing is the picture of the three kids in wallet size.  We then matted that on some fancy red and white paper and then put it in a wooden frame that we painted white and decorated with little Christmas baubles.  I also painted wooden “phrases” (such as Believe, Hope, Joy, Noel…etc) and those were glued to the top of the frame.
• Chocolate molded Christmas tree pretzel rods and chocolate molded Santa Claus’ on a candy cane.  Wrapped up in little candy bags and tied with a bow.
• Plastic bin filled with homemade peanut brittle
• Plastic bin filled with homemade fudge
• Various and sundry handmade ornaments, mostly made by Harry.
• A Christmas Mix CD compiled by yours truly.  It features some seriously awesome Christmas songs.
• In the bags that are going to houses where there are little kids, we’ve included the appropriate number of craft kits.  One bag includes a ‘Snowman Making Kit‘ and another includes a couple of flower fairies that I made at a craft day event.
• Most of the bags include a book or two.  I got a lot of free books this year, some I barely cracked the spine on.  I sent these on to homes I felt were appropriate for them.
• A fancy-schmancy Christmas card, including our fabulous holiday letter.
• Each of these items were packed into a new reuseable shopping bag from our local Whole Foods store.  As a bonus, Whole Foods had a special holiday edition of their shopping bag so we got those.

The whole thing was then wrapped up in cellophane and tied closed with a golden ribbon.  Voila!  So what do you think?  Will these make nice presents?  Will the recipients appreciate the effort?  A lot of work though it was, it was kind of fun putting these together.  Maybe we’ll do it again next year.  Maybe we won’t.  We’ll see how these go over first!

That title right there pretty much sums up my weekend.  Well.   Sorta. 

We stopped by Target while we were out (after going to Ben Franklin Crafts and drooling over all the yarn-y goodness) (well, I drooled while the others waited patiently for me to stop drooling).  I wanted to get some diaper ointment for Evie (she has a rather persistant rash on her legs, where the diapers sit) and we wanted to bum around and look at stuff.  

My love for Target is amazing to me.  In fact, I dare say that the more I shop at Target, the less I like Walmart.  And the more I shop at Walmart, the more I like Target.   See how they’re connected there?  I’m convinced that Target needs to open a Super Target here in Reno.   I heard somewhere that one of the only companies that is doing well in this awful economy is Walmart because so many people are having to shop there.  It stands to reason then, doesn’t it, that Target could make good money by expanding their empire?  After all, Walmart Supercenters do better than regular Walmarts.  So wouldn’t Super Targets do better than regular Targets?  

I know I, for one, would shop at Super Target RELIGIOUSLY.  I love everything there.  Our Target, while not Super, is Great (as in it’s a Target “Greatland”) and has a limited selection of groceries.  And there just about hasn’t been a time that we’ve stopped in there that we haven’t been majorly tempted by some of the loveliness that is the Market Pantry and Archer Farms brands.  Kile is especially partial to their roasted almonds.  

So it was that Saturday night we wandered through the aisles of Target, gazing fondly at the wonderful, wonderful products on the shelves.  There was so much that we wanted to take home with us.  It’s the same every time we shop there.  There just isn’t enough money in the world.  That store is a friggin’ miracle.  So… Target?  Would you consider giving us a Super?  PLEASE?  I beg you.  I need a Super Target.  

After that stop, we had to go by Whole Foods.  It’s in the neighborhood and Kile has a major Whole Foods addiction.  And for the last several months, I’ve been salivating all over the goodies behind the bakery counter.  In particular, the cupcakes.  They are always themed appropriately for the season and look so good.  I told Kile that I’d like to have one of those cupcakes instead of a birthday cake this year.  Well, since my birthday is Friday and Kile didn’t think he’d have a chance to get down to Whole Foods again before my birthday, he suggested we get the cupcakes on Saturday night.  

Like I was going to argue with THAT!

See that?  It’s a Christmas wreath!  AWESOME. 

Happy (Early) Birthday to me!!! 

Harry was disappointed that the ornament cupcake he picked out wasn’t chocolate like mine so we switched.  Because, truth be told, I actually kinda prefer white cake.  Shh!  Don’t tell chocolate!

Would you look at all that FROSTING??  Interestingly enough, it wasn’t so sore-toothed sweet as a lot of buttercream frosting tends to be.  Very rich, yes, and very yummy.  And the cake was TO DIE FOR.  But as you can see, I had to cut it in half and eat the rest the next night because it was SO MUCH. 

Some of you may think I’m silly for getting so excited over a cupcake but BELIEVE ME, I have a major thing for cupcakes and I’ve been wanting one of these for SO LONG.  I’ve earned the right to wax a little poetic.  

YUM. 

I’ve kind of dropped the “Grace in Small Things” ball, haven’t I?  I guess it’s too much to assume I could remember to do this EVERY day for a full 365 days.  Maybe it’ll be more like “four times a week or so”.  That sounds more reasonable, right?

1. Robert Pattinson.  I know I’ve mentioned him before.  But I’m watching “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire” on ABC Family and it just has to be said again.  The man is a god. 
2. Target.  Shopping there brings me such joy.  I just wish they’d open a Super Target out here. 
3. Knitting.  I’m getting better every day and I’m very excited to make my family some things they can use and enjoy. 
4. 1/2 price slushies at Sonic from 2 to 4pm.  God bless Sonic.  
5. Cupcakes at Whole Foods (photos to follow tomorrow).  I got one in honor of my birthday (which is Friday) yesterday and ZO. M. G.  So good.