Chatterbox Thread-Cmon in and Jabber! Everyone is Welcome!

[sameyeyam]

So my day was not finished...after the copier broke, I was pulling a stack of papers apart and a staple popped up and flew into my left eye. No long term damage, but it sure hurt like heck when it happened. Chelsie told me I needed to leave a few minutes early, she was worried that I was going to really hurt myself if I stayed any longer!

Got home, the dryer is a pain in the rear to take apart. DH is just going to make a trip to town tomorrow and get a new one.

I'm starting to feel like I'm the only one in the entire country stimulating the economy!

 

[staley7580]

Oh geez Alison. Maybe a two hour drive is NOT what you need first thing tomorrow morning!

 

[kelmac284]

Holy crap I go away for a bit and all hell breaks loose!! LOL. Alison are you sure yesterday wasn't somehow Friday the 13th where you were? Maybe an alternate dimension or something? That is just too much crap for one person! Sounds like MY life! LOL. God I hope I didn't rub off on you guys!

I actually had a fairly decent day yesterday. Went in to work and although we didn't get all the commissions we were hoping for we had enough at least to pay the bills that HAD to be paid yesterday including payroll of course which is good for me!! Esp since I had ALREADY sent out my penneys bill AND of course bought my tires this week. Don't know WHAT we are going to do with all the crap that is due on Monday but heck that is 2 days away so NOT going to think about it!! Anyway they are having a birthday for one of the gals in the office on Tuesday anyway so she told me to come in then so maybe we will get lucky and the money fairy will visit!! I told her though we need to STOP doing the birthday lunches when the office is so short on money. She only pays for the birthday person but still we don't need to be doing that! I told her maybe someone can bring in a cake or something but they don't need to be going out to lunch when we can't pay the rent!!!

Anyway after work I picked up the girls and Shane worked in the bay area yesterday so wasn't going to be home till late and Katy actually needs some bras!!! I am SO not ready for my baby to be growing up and I have been living in denial about it but she is getting self conscious about it and I think it is actually more that some of her friends are starting to wear them so she wants to be "like all of them". She really doesn't NEED them persay but when she wears certain shirts it can be a little noticable soooo I told her we could get them. So off to target we went and then we grabbed a burger and Shelby had a gift certificate from her birthday back in April to Coldstone that we have YET to use so I told them we could finally go and what was right next door? Bath and Body. Well Katy is REALLY getting into the girly thing and she bought all this "makeup" for her birthday with her gift cards. Not really makeup but mostly lip gloss and a little eye stuff. Mostly just light browns and stuff I considered NON offensive. They aren't allowed to wear makeup to school and I told her she is still too young but she likes to "play" with it. But she wanted some perfume and when we went to Target they really didn't have much of a selection soooo she asked if we could go to bath and body and they had SO many cute halloween things. I ended up getting them some hand sanitzers for the trip next month. They had a great deal and you could get 5 little bottles for 5 bucks and it comes with a little holder that snaps onto your belt. I got them one like that last time we went and it is SO nice to have those at the parks. Plus I am always paranoid of getting sick when we go between the plane and just the parks in general. So we got those and then they had these really nice hand soaps that were autumn scents for 4 for 12 bucks. GOOD deal as they are pretty large and I got caramel apple, pumpkin, regular apple and vanilla. And of course Katy found some perfume!!

So the girls and I had a really fun girls night out. Then we came home and watched our videos that I had rented on Thurs. We had rented Diary of a Wimpy Kid which was cute and the Last Song which was really good but sad and then I got Killers which we are going to watch today. Prob won't do anything today since we did stuff last night and then tomorrow my mom has to go to Truckee to work as usual but my dad is staying home to hold an open house so she asked me to go with her so that is my plan. It will be nice to go up and see the mountains and enjoy the fresh air.

Anyway that's my plans.

Hope the rest of your's get better. Alison enjoy your visit with Megan if you are still alive!!

And B I hope you get all the SS mess straightened out!!

 

[sameyeyam]

Good Morning All! Today is going to be a wonderful day, no more catastrophes last night, so all is good.

Just got up and getting ready to grab a cup o' joe and bfast before I head out to Megan's.

 

[staley7580]

Holy crap! I better start putting my bra on now!!

Must be tire replacing time.. We need new tires for the van, but only 2. I am looking at $250 for a couple of cheap tires.

 

[staley7580]

I had a great day hanging out with Alison today!! THANK YOU FOR EVERYTHING!!

 

[kelmac284]

Morning and happy Sunday!!

Megan and Allison so glad you guys had fun!! And Allison I'm glad that the crap finally started to calm down!!

We had a good day yesterday. Watched our last dvd and then we really wanted to get out and do something but didn't want to spend tons of money so just grabbed a burger and went to a movie. I really wanted to see that movie Devil but was afraid that might be too scary for the girls and they really wanted to see Vampires Suck. I DEF could have waited to see it on dvd but we let them see it. It WAS really lame but the girls thought it was hilarious.

Anyway then we just came home and relaxed the rest of the day.

Now today Katy and I are headed up to Truckee with my mom.

Oh and last night I had told my mom about the stuff at Bath and Body so she picked us up and we ran back over to the mall so she could get some stuff and did some more window shopping.

Anyway hope everyone has a good day and talk soon.

 

[sameyeyam]

Good Morning Everyone!

Yes, my Saturday was much, much better then Friday. Since I had a trip yesterday to Megan's; shall I write a TR? Sure why not!

As usualy I woke up close to 6am, had things to do before I left, so naturally I closed my eyes & pulled the blanket up under my chin and sawed logs for another hour...ah yes, the hallmark of a good day!

Woke up, had a cup of coffee with DH and got absolutely nothing done before I left...oh other than telling DH what to look for in a new dryer. Actually he did better then I would have, as my new dryer was very reasonably priced.

But I digress, back to the trip. Headed out at 8am, but had to swing by the ATM downtown. So by the time I got on the freeway it was 8:15. Dang, I thought I'm 15 minutes behind schedule. Still, I was only 15 minutes behind, so of course I had to stop at Mickey D's and grab a sausage biscuit and a sausage muffin (what can I say, i was really hungry). Some idiot lady 2 cars ahead of me took forever! I swear she must have had a conversation in the speaker about every single item on the menu! I figured she must have ordered a ton of things...NOPE! When she gets to the window, they hand out 1 orange juice and a small bag.

 

[sameyeyam]

At this point I'm 20 miles north in Longview. So I jet back onto I-5 and make up for lost time. I soon learn where our federal tax stimulus dollars are going...apparently Obama has seen fit to fix a 50 mile stretch of highway between Megan & my house. Thank Mr. Obama. I see this as a good omen and means we must visit each other more utilitizing the smooth rut free pavement.

A few narrow places near Centralia (halfway between Portland & Seattle) where they are adding a 3rd lane, but other then that not a problem. I scoot on thru Centralia, ignoring that little voice in my head that is begging me to stop at the Factory Outlet Stores....note to self: head up there for xmas shopping, they have a new Nike Clearance Store.

Onward I head and before I know it I'm in Olympia, our states capital.
Traffic at this point starts to build, but there are about a gazillion lanes, so not a problem. Note to self: I need to one day go to the capital building, I've only lived in this state 40 years and I've never been there. The kids have, but Bruce & I have not. ROAD TRIP this winter!

 

[sameyeyam]

Before long I pass the Cabelas store...so I know it's getting exciting and only about 10 more miles to Megans!

Mapquest got me there perfectly and I pull into a parking space outside of the apartments. I hesitate to drive clear in because I'm driving the Excursion aka The Excursionator aka The Exxon Valdez aka The Behemouth aka Beatrice aka Bea. I don't want to get her wedged between two apartment buildings with no way out!lol. Anyway Bea enjoyed the trip and even though she has 165,000 miles on her, she never lets me down.

I hop out of Bea and standing about 5 feet away is a small child in diaper. I look around and see nobody else. Granted it's not a busy street, but still. Then I walk a bit and see a man walking, phew it's his kid! Nope! He says good morning and walks right past. The several little kids burst out of an apartment and a 7yo comes and grabs the baby. As Megan later explains, that little baby is always out running around by himself. Crazy!

 

[sameyeyam]

I locate Megans apartment and go in for a short tour and to say hello to everybody. I actually arrived around 10am. I thought it would take about 2 hours to get there, but it only took 1-1/2, so I was pleasantly surprised and right on time.

Megan nearly mows me down trying to get out of the apartment, heck she was just a flash past my eyes and she zipped down the steps. No, just kidding, she walked rather calmly, but I noticed didn't waste a lot of time hanging around.

We decided to head up to Southcenter mall, which is on the south end of Seattle. So we zip the 20 miles up the freeway and arrive. Geez, I used to go to that mall when I lived up there 20 years ago, it has really grown.

So we check out the movies times and get our tickets for the movie "You Again". We have some time to kill before the movie, so we decide to go to the Bubble Tea stand and I get a Strawberry Lemonade fruit slushie. Megan gets a frozen bubble tea smoothie thing with large black fish eyeballs in the bottom. I try a sip and thank God we were standing right next to the garbage can...cuz as soon as that slimy thing hits my mouth I freaked and couldn't spit it out and holler EWWW fast enough! You know it's going to be a good day when I'm hanging over a garbage can spitting slimy fish eyeballs out! Bubble Tea my rear, those things are giant fish eyeballs that they tried to give a cutesy name to!

 

[sameyeyam]

Have a few things to do, so more later.

 

[funnygarcia]

Loving the "Magical Adventures of Alison and Megan" trip report!
Complete with Bea, small child wandering loose looking for a better momma and bubble tea fish eye spitting.

I've been thinking of trying the bubble tea place at Mall of America, lots of teenagers hang there and they have a rainbow of colorful liquid refreshment on display. But now.. well I might reconsider.


I wish MN wasn't so far far away, it would be fun to just hang out.

Kelly, I like to hit up BBW during their semi annual sales. Stocking up enough body wash to last until the next sale. But sometimes I get drawn in at other times if the deals are good (and the Halloween stuff is so darn cute!) .. but always always shop there with a coupon!

At the end of the receipt there is usually a survey coupon for $10 off $30, those NEVER expire. Usually the receipt fades away before I can use them all up.

Plus they have printable coupons every week or so. Typically it's free item with $10 purchase type, sometimes they have just free.. no purchase needed. Eloy and I go to Mall of America, where there are TWO stores, each picking up the freebie item. The most recent was a new scent of men's body wash 2 oz size... it's not much but with 4 bottles between us - well worth the effort!


Saturday we made the rounds of our typical shopping places.. dragging our shopping car thru the wet streets and sidewalks along the way.

Walmart for some essentials: name brand med $12, Walmart brand of same thing $4 well gee that's a no brainer!

Then off to buy his icky uber cheap ($1.20 a pack) little cigars. Eww.

Poked around the thrift store and bought a nice dressy shirt for me ($4).
While Eloy spent a bunch of $ on:
Diesel shoes (paid $20, retail $100)
Authentic MLB Cubs jersey (paid $20, retail $180)
Leather wallet from Duluth Trading (they make the Duluth packs, the big canvas packs used in canoeing/portage.. and yes they are based in my hometown of Duluth)(paid $7, retail $40)

And a few odds and ends we found:
A really cool geography lesson book from 1892.. possible signed by the author? $8
manga book for Noah
12" Revereware copper bottom frying pan with the lid (which is a miracle, they usually don't have the lids) $12 (retail $50... older model as they no longer sell the 12" as open stock and mine doesn't have the helper handle)

Trudged our way to the shopping center.. bought Chipotle , mmm.. yum! Saved half for later.

Then the fun began at the grocery store! I had a bunch of catalina coupons from prior shopping deals, some high value coupons, B1G1 and a store coupon for 1/2 pound of their new deli meats for free! (kinda peeved, they switched to one brand of deli meats.. pricey $9 per pound!! It's just like Super Target where they cut it to order only. Nice.. but holy pricey batman!)

Combined my super good coupons with a really good sale,
walked out with total of $52:

20 bottles of sobe and 20 bottles of Powerade
1/2 pound deli ham
bag of frozen chicken
p butter
2 packs tortillas
2 tubs sour cream
flour
bunch of candy/ gum for Eloy

Paid $17
PLUS will send rebate for $10 in gift cards.

It was so much in our little cart that it was hard to push and we were very careful about the curbs and bumps for fear the small wheels in front would snap off! Of course, the boys were not home we had to haul all of our goodies up the three flights on our own and we were exhausted after the walk already.

Today was chore day.. blech!
I used up my expired but not bad eggs, my uber cheap grated cheese and half of the squished loaf of bread (Eloy put a gallon of milk in the freezer.. on TOP of the bread, nice job dear) to make a breakfast casserole for dinner. Wish I had some sausage.. oh well. Hope it's good as I've never made one of those before.

 

[sameyeyam]

Great deals B! I needed you with me today. Guess I was tired, payed full price for everything today. BLEECH!

So on with the Magical Adventures of Megan & Alison....where were we? Oh yes, me spitting fish eyes in the garbage can at Southcenter Mall.

Don't be afraid to try a drink at the Bubble Tea place B. They actually have good smoothies (with no fish parts!).

So we cruise around the mall a bit waiting for our movie to start. Went to Claires and I found a pair of earrings that I liked and Megan found some for her and her DD.

Onward upstairs to the movie theater, where I being the popcorn addict that I am decide to get the Combo pack (which I believe could accurately be described as a grocery sack full of popcorn and two 50 gallon drums of soda pop). That's when I spot something that I've dreamed of my entire life....OMG! A spigot full of BUTTERY FLAVORED OIL!! I get to put my own butter scented 100% transfat full oil on my popcorn....as much as my little heart desires. But then I spot something else, they have little plastic cups with lids that you can fill full of BUTTERY and take into the theater with you. OMG!!! I can feel my arteries clogging full of this wondeful gold elixir. I was almost like a kid in Disneyland, giddy with delight. Of course we also had to get protein, you didn't think we can survive on transfat & sugar only did you? So Megan got a hot dog and we also got peanut butter (in the form of Reese's Pieces, that does count as PB doesn't it?)

We arrive to the theater early and find nice stadium seating waiting for us. So we sit and chatty, chat, chat away until it's time for the movie. The movie was pretty good and some really funny parts...dance scene was hilarious and Betty White was so funny when she gave a young guy her phone number and then told him she was also on Facebook and The Twitter.

 

[sameyeyam]

P.S. Megan really does not live in the ghetto! Not a bad neighborhood really...well except for strange babies running around in diapers all by themselves.

P.S.S. Forgot about our first stop...the Goodwill. I had about 5 bags of stuff that I cleaned out of our kitchen and trailer and forgot & left it in the back of Bea. So we swung by and dropped it off at Goodwill.

 

[sameyeyam]

I don't know if anybody is ready for this part of the adventure, but I soon learn that Megan & I are really perverts.

Seems Megan likes to chat on the internet when she's 8 months pregnant while wearing only underwear on the bottom, no pants! She said it was due to the pregnancy, but do you notice how she has 4 kids? Could be that she uses the pregnancy as an excuse to not wear pants???

I sit watching the movie and due to the excess buttery, I start losing popcorn down my shirt. Well eventually I decide that I have way too much popcorn stuck in my bra, so it must be removed. I secretly steal glances over at Megan and pray that she doesn't turn and look at me as I have my arm clear down to my elbow stuck down the front of my bra in the middle of the movie theater! I know when she asked me where I wanted to sit, I should have said the back. After all isn't that where all the perverts sit at the movies?

Wow, does it get anymore magical then this?

 

[sameyeyam]

Movie is over, where we soon retreat to the ladies room to relieve ourselves of 50+ gallons of soda pop. And also where I, the country hick decide that the Dyson hand dryers are too cool! Seriously, I could have just stood in the bathroom all day and dried my hands. It was almost as cool as the Chicago airport plastic toilet seat covers that change themselves.


But I digress, so on to the Magical TR...hands clean and dry of Buttery, bladders emptied of soda pop, we head on thru the mall and look at a few different things. Megan buys a pair of comfortable internet posting pants and I get a pair of $4.98 shorts from JC Penny. Then we head out for dinner.

I'm giddy with delight as we head to the CHEESECAKE FACTORY. We give them our name and saunter over to the dessert area where we drool over cheesecake and pick out our dessert. OH YEAH. After just a couple of minutes they call our name. Megan has to unpry my arms from the cheesecake display and I reluctantly head out to the patio to our seat. Being the nice person I am, I sit with my back to the sun and let Megan have the full on sun right in her face. I figure she lives further north then I do and needs the extra dose of Vitamin D before winter sets in.

We decide that we are still a bit full from the movie feast, so we order from the smaller lunch menu. We both order the lunch salad and personal pizza, along with iced tea. I swear we both had the same look on our face when the lady starts spouting off the types of iced tea they have. We decide to order black tea as "normal" iced tea was not one of her options.

They leave behind a list of calories & fat that each menu item has. We are shocked at the fat & calories in these items. We soon figure out why the calorie counts are so high....they arrive with our smaller lunch size portions, a big salad and a pizza that would feed at least 2, possible 3 people. It has about 8 pieces and we each get one! Megan had the meat pizza and I had the white pizza. We tried a slice of each other's pizza, both were very good.

But of course we saved room for dessert. Out comes the strawberry cheesecake and the red velvet cheesecake. They were good, but honestly I've had better cheesecake. I really did think since that is their name, that it would be awesome. Don't get me wrong, it was good, but maybe I was expecting more.

 

[sameyeyam]

We head across the parking lot and head out towards Megans. But not until we've stopped for a nightcap at Grocery Outlet. Seems Megan only lives a few blocks from it and has never shopped there. I stop and give her a quick tour of all the wonderful strange brands that a salvage grocery store has to offer...along with the wonderful reduced prices. She grabs a few items and I grab a big box of cookies (hey, it's a long ride home).

We turn into her apt. complex and children scatter everywhere. We take the things up to her apt. and then I head out for the long trip home. I get back in Bea (carefully checking underneath for stray children that may be clinging to the exhaust pipe) and head on down the freeway. Traffic was a bit heavy until the Centralia area and then thinned right out. Left Megan's at 6:30 and pulled into my driveway at exactly 8:00pm.

And that was the story of Megan & Alison's Magical Day! Did I forget anything Megan?

 

[sameyeyam]

You know B. we were thinking it was too bad you lived clear in MN. It would have been fun to hang out, just the 3 of us. Brings back memories of last February's soggy DL trip.

 

[kelmac284]

Wow sounds like you guys had a blast!! LOVE the TR Allison!! I think we would have done better to see You Again then Vampires Suck. It was REALLY lame as I feared it would be but totally meant for tweens and teens and the girls thought it was hilarious soooo it was ok I guess. We took one for the team and let them have their way.

B sounds like once again you had a GREAT shopping day and got lots of great deals!!

We had a fairly nice day yesterday. Mom picked us up and we got some coffees on the drive up. We got there and it was unseasonably warm for Truckee. Esp this time of year. It was nice to see the mountains and the trees though. We only had a few clients stop by and they don't have their "own" model with their furniture and stuff so we were using a re-sale house of one of the existing tenants and so it was sparsely staged with just a little furniture. At least we had a place to sit

Then Katy and I ran up to Safeway to get some deli sandwhiches for lunch and they were TOTALLY unorganized but we finally got our lunch. Then we just pretty much hung out and the lady who owned the unit wanted to bake some bread to make it smell "inviting" so she did that and we were lucky enough to get to take it home with us. It was yummy and I'm not a big bread person. She also stopped by a few times and visited with us. Then Katy asked if she could go to the kitchen store in town as she really wants to be a chef someday and loves all cooking items so they looked in there and I looked at this fun jewlery store next door and then we headed home.

So it was a nice kick back day.

Sounds like we all had good weekends!!

Tonight they are having a meeting at one of the local schools to discuss keeping 6th grade at our school. They had pretty much decided to get rid of it and send it to the jr high but a lot of parents don't like the idea so we are going to the meeting and it will be interesting to see what happens. Katy will be a 6th grader next year and Shelby the following so I hope that at least THEY get to stay through the 6th grade but who knows!

Then I am working tomorrow instead of today cuz mom is swamped at work today and then Wed the girls have jogathon at school and I decided I am going to go this year and take some pics. And this weekend is the swim team bike ride. Shane and Katy are doing it as I haven't ridden in years and am WAY out of shape and it is a pretty long ride with some serious hills. So Shelby and I are going to stay home and decorate the house with all the halloween stuff. She doesn't have a good enough bike yet to go that long of a distance.

Anyway that's my week. Hope everyone has a good one and talk soon.