Dress Shopping and Olaf for Dessert

It's that time of year again for Lena's Daddy Daughter Dance. She's taking her Papa again this year since her dad's a douche bag she's taken all of the uncles and it's his turn again. It's a happy and sad moment for me all at the same time. I love seeing her all dolled up, but this will be her last DDD. I'm not ready for her to be so darn big just yet.

::sigh::

Saturday morning after my coffee, me and the girls hit the road and headed up to the mall in Merrillville. In prior years, we combed the many stores in search of the perfect dress. We have learned that Sears is the only place worth our while. Lena gets a beautiful dress and my wallet doesn't produce moths fluttering from it after we're finished. It's a win-win for both of us.

In typical girl fashion, we snagged easily 30 dresses off the racks to play around in. Some of them we already knew she wouldn't take home, but it's just fun to try them on sometimes.

Usually my sister comes along with us, because as Lena likes to remind me, I really have no sense of "style." Unfortunately for her, Auntie was working this year, so mom was who she was stuck with. In beginning she was a little bummed out that there wasn't a buffer when it came to dress selection, but in the end, I picked out the winning dress!

Here are just a few of the dresses she tried on...

I thought it was super cute, but apparently pink is
no longer cool anymore.

This one was on clearance and I begged to take it home
as a summer dress. "Mom, I can't climbs trees in this though!"

Lena even started busting a move, right up until she realized I wasn't just taking a picture...

This was my favorite dress because it made her look
sophisticated. But according to my girls it was
BORING! See, no style.

And the winning dress was...

The one with the best twirlability... Of course.

Funny though, she didn't even want to try it on at first.

Once we had found "the one" and were heading toward the checkout, we spied a gigantic stuffed Olaf from Disney's Frozen.

Yep, leave it to my girls, they tried to eat him. 

Proud to be a Tortoise!

I'm still exhausted from our trip this weekend. The morning came far too fast and there's just not enough coffee to make me feel peppy and energetic today. I'm going to have to pull myself up by the boot-straps when I get home though. I have bags to unpack, laundry to do, and I desperately need to go grocery shopping. I didn't bother to do it before leaving, because we weren't going to be home anyways.

I've spent most of today's lunch break catching up with everything I missed while being away. It's amazing how fast the reading list can build up if you don't stay on top of it. 

My first attempt at a link up appears to have been a bust (see: I'm So Unreasonable). Not a single person posted to it, which I admit was a little disappointing. However, that's not going to detour me from trying again. I've already started keeping notes for this Friday's post. There are so many moments with a pre-teen to be unreasonable, its hard to keep track of them all if I don't. 

In my excitement last night of being home and wanting to share all the great photos, I left out the fact that Friday I scored a major deal with Best Buy. I finally got the iPhone 5! (Doing a little happy chair dance). I'm a big advocate for email marketing and I always check the specials that are sent to me. Most of the time I just end up deleting them, but you never know when a true gem will end up in your inbox. 

Thursday night, Best Buy announced the pre-order launch for the 5S. Now, I'm an extremely frugal person. I do my homework, clip coupons, and make sure that where I shop price matches. I just can't stand parting with my hard earned money to save myself a few hours a week to not get the best deal. I've wanted a new phone for ages now, but simply could not justify upgrading when mine worked fine. I wanted a better camera. I wanted more memory. But these were not things that I needed and therefore I went without. Part of this launch for the latest and greatest upcoming version though was the markdown of the soon to be obsolete iPhone 5. Obsolete to many it may be now, but to me, it's a beautiful grown up toy that I've coveted for a very long time now. They were marked down to $100, but when you trade in your old smart phone you got an instant $100 in-store credit. All I paid for this brand new fancy fabulous piece of technology was $7 and some change. If I was more flexible and coordinated, I very well may have done a back flip right there in the store for everyone to see. 

For the past three days I've been patting myself on the back for this major score and going camera crazy! I know that a lot of people are complaining about the new operating system, but I have to say that I love it. The camera is great, the functionality is perfect, and I just couldn't be happier. Slow and steady wins the race and Friday I was certainly proud of being a tortoise! 

This post is not sponsored by Best Buy in anyway. The opinions (and excitement) are my own.

Affiliate Rave - Meijer vs. Walmart

Post sponsored by Meijer, however the opinions and statements are completely my own.

I'm excited for the acceptance of my latest affiliate! Mostly because I shop at Meijer all the time! Since it's right near work, I can't count how many days a week I run over there really quick to pick something up on my lunch break. The fact that they carry literally everything: groceries, home goods, clothes, cards, toiletries, DVD's, books, you name it... Is a big deal to me. I work full-time, raise kids full-time, and have to make the most of any precious "me time" seconds that I can snatch. Meijer helps me do this! 

I don't have to spend hours running around to different places to accommodate the million different things my family needs at any given point in time, to me, that is worth it's weight in gold! I also have to say that I love their mobile app. I'm a big coupon person. With 3 kids, you kind of have to be. I can simply click the coupon and it's waiting for me when I go to check out. No fuss instant savings. It's just beautiful!

Biggest bonus of Meijer though... It's always clean! No matter what one I walk into, it's clean. Even better, they actually have employees working there! I can't count the number of times I've "run into Walmart" (if there is such a thing) and stood in line 30 minutes longer than it actually took me to get what I need because there's only 2 lanes open and about 500 people standing in line! I hate that with a passion. I know that I make a terrible girl because I really find no joy in shopping. I want to get what I need, get in, and get the hell out... That's not even an option, even with self-checkout at Walmart.

So, thank you Meijer for taking me on. Thank you Meijer for making my life a little easier (almost daily). Now, if I could just convince them to allow me to click on my own link, that would great...

Yesterday I Was "Nowhere Near It"

It's not even 7:30 and our house is already in full swing. James was off to work at 4am and the girls are getting showered and ready to head to the "Back to School Party" at our little POA. There are things I both love and hate about living in a little town. The little events our neighborhood hosts for the kids around here is one of those things that I love. It's never anything fancy, but it gives the kids a chance to feel independent. They get to hop on their bikes and leave the parental units behind as they had off for a couple of authority free hours (save the community volunteers) and just hang out with their friends. Best of all... Mommy gets a break on Saturday morning.

I didn't bother posting yesterday because I was down right crabby. James has been taking Nyquil to try and smoother the cold he caught from the kids last weekend and it makes sleeping in the same bed as him rather unpleasant. For starters, it makes him sweat like a leaking faucet. For the past few nights I've been waking up moist. My skin feels like I just ran through the mist of a sprinkler and not in a good way. I've also been kicked, elbowed, had the covers stolen, and my side of the bed has constantly been invaded by his wayward legs. He's also started talking in his sleep. I've always loved that he's hardworking and dedicated to his job. But this man is literally dreaming of work.

My serious lack of sleep set the stage for a "I'm not taking your sh*t today!" attitude at work. I'd posted before about a co-worker of mine and her tendency to get, shall we say, sassy with me. In all truth, personally speaking, I like her. I think that we could be great friends outside of work. Professionally speaking however, it can be a little like oil and water. If you shake the bottle, we'll mix. It's the perfect cocktail for cooking up some really productive ideas and actions for our marketing. But, after a little while goes by, we settle and separate. It was really rocky a couple months ago when our manager made the decision to put me in charge of the marketing department. I never wanted her job, but I got it. Even through all of the resistance I got, I think we make a damn good team. Last month was the first month since I've been with the company that all 7 of our stores beat last year's number at the same time. We've always had one or two each month, but never all of them. We really over hauled all of our traditional marketing. I won't take all the credit for it though. We did it together. We got side by side in the trenches and poured our hearts into it full speed ahead. Yesterday however, she pulled a 180 on me and it just wasn't the right day to throw a tantrum. I simply didn't have the patience. At the end of the day, it's my butt on the line and her withholding important information about the projects we have in the works just isn't going to fly.

By the time I left work I was completely in defense mode. We have a birthday lunch today for Jame's brother at his parents' house and we were put in charge of making the homemade bread. I told him Tuesday when he mentioned it that we only have one bread pan, to which he responded "Okay." Then as I'm driving home last night he tells me that I need to get two more bread pans because we need three loaves for today. Poor guy, I chomped his head off. I work right near Bed Bath & Beyond (and I'm my sister's shopping buddy so I get to use the 20% employee discount) and was fuming that he didn't tell me this while I was actually near the store so I didn't have to make an extra trip. This leads back around to one of things I hate about living in a little town. We're a good half hour away from everything. There's no quick trips to the store. It's a big part of the reason we'll be moving next summer. But I'm getting off topic here... All I wanted to do yesterday was go home, put on my jammie pants, be lazy, and decompress. Nope, no such luck. However, on a normal day, I would just have said "no problem hunnie, you get the girls and Lena and I will handle the bread pans." Instead I chastised him for it because he "should have mentioned this Tuesday when I brought it up!"

I did get the bread pans. I did "accidentally" stop at the mall for some retail therapy and get a new pair of jeans that I was desperate need of. Most importantly though... I did end up apologizing for being a GIANT Sebastian. Thank goodness that man loves me through thick and thin. I'm grateful for him every day and I don't know what I'd do without him. He's my rock in all the chaos that comes with the everyday life of a working mom.

His Holy Grail and My Heaven

I have been significantly less cranky over the past few days, which has been a blessing I'm sure. I'm still feeling down right exhausted as if I haven't slept in days (even though I'm usually in bed around 9:30-10ish). Today especially... James has been religiously checking the H&R Block app ever since he filed his taxes a couple weeks ago. 5 to 10 times a day religiously, I might add.

Last night he decided to check it around 11pm (mind you, I've been long in bed at this point...sleeping). In his overwhelming moment of pure bliss he wakes me up to tell me the glorious news that the tax return has finally arrived. It simply couldn't wait until I wasn't comatose!

It's been a nonstop topic for the past 6 months that as soon as he has it, we will become the proud owners of a 60 inch 3D TV. I appreciate sturdy high quality electronics as much as the next girl, but I think talking about this particular near future acquirement actually gets his engine going full speed ahead if you catch my drift. I simply cannot share in the same level of enthusiasm as he has (there is nothing wrong with the one we already have), which seems to put a little damper on his spirits. It will not, however, damper his purchasing power Saturday when he finally gets his hands on his version of the Holy Grail.

The girls and I have a birthday party that we're going to Saturday afternoon and will be gone most of the day. This will allow him the perfect opportunity to literally make over the entire living room to accommodate this new high tech monstrosity to his heart's content without any of us ladies getting in the way of his "man time" with his best buddy.

On the upside, it means that we can also plan our long awaited day trip to my little personal piece of heaven IKEA! We are long overdue for a dresser that can actually accommodate both of our clothes so we can abandon the little plastic dresser we added when he moved in.

I can't wait!!