I’ve got some stuff going on this week.  And you know I hate to leave you.  But alas, I must.  So I’m going to be away from both posting and commenting this week.  Forgive me?

I’ll be back one week from today.  Pinky swear.

If I can squeeze a post or two in, I most certainly will.  But I’m not holding my breath.

See you next week.

Make this a good one!

About this time last night I got the brainy idea to just stay up all night! instead of getting up early to hit the sales.

Let’s just say that wasn’t my brightest idea ever.

I’m going on 39 hours without sleep now.

And I’m fading fast.

I’d love to tell you about the deals I scored.  About camping out in front of Old Navy for two hours.  About how much of a trooper Gram was as Becca, Torri, Kennedy and I drug her around town all day.

But alas.  My head is foggy.  My words are mayberunningtogether.  A little bit.

So you’ll have to take my word for it.

Feel free to share your Black Friday experiences with me in the comments though.

I’ll come back and read them once I can see again.

Remember how last week I wimped out of a blog post by showing you some of my web hotspots?

Guess what.

Here we go again.

I thought it was fun.  And hopefully you did too.

But if not.  Well then.  You might find Saturday’s posts boring from here on out.

Just sayin’.

For those of you who are sticking with me though…thank you.  I shall try to serve you well. :)

Hosting Thanksgiving?  If you’ve yet to design your table centerpiece, you may be in for a bit of trouble.  It seems the stores have already cleared out all of their leaves and things to make way for holly.  But fear not my festive friends!  I’ve got an easy fix in mind just for you.

Since we’re talking Thanksgiving…do you know which three Turkey day foods pack the most nutritional punch?

Have I made you hungry yet?  If you have a Buca di BEPPO near you this $10 coupon might come in handy.

Write much?  Enter your family’s most memorable holiday moment for a chance to win a $5,000 vacation.  Think white sand beach and you’re on the right track.

Okay.  Last but not least.  I can’t stop playing this song.  Seriously.  It’s beautiful.  And if you don’t think so then you need to go have your ears cleaned out.  For real.

My family has suffered a horribly traumatic event.  We are all safe and healthy.  But I will be taking some time away.  Your prayers are much needed and greatly appreciated.

People who know me in real life know three things about me.

1. I keep it real. Probably too real sometimes.
2. I’m a stickler for routine.
3. I’m frugal. Some people use other terms, ahem, but for the purposes of this discussion we’ll go with frugal.

If you’ve been reading my blog for long then you, too, know I’m pretty open. And I’ve mentioned my spastic tendencies and Type A-ness many times. So today, we’re going to focus on my frugalism. (Maybe tomorrow we’ll talk about my tendency to make up words).

I’m a chronic deal-seeking, bargain hunter who manages to find a way to get most everything at a discount, one way or another. Even things that don’t go on sale. Take, for instance, Lucky Brand Jeans. Love them. Not so much a fan of the price tag though. And while they do have those once-in-an-ion 40% off sales, I prefer to do my shopping when my bare closet hangers dictate a need, rather than wait for the day after Thanksgiving sales that may, or may not yield a pair of jeans that suit my fancy. And really, who wants to go jean shopping with that lovely post turkey bloat going on anyway? Not I.

And luckily, I don’t have to.

I use ShopDiscover. It’s but one of the reasons I L.O.V.E. my Discover card. ShopDiscover is available to Discover cardholders. It’s sort of like a virtual shopping mall where you can go in and choose one of the many retailers, follow a link to their site, and be rewarded – simply for linking through the ShopDiscover section of the website and paying for your purchases with your Discover card. Each retailer is different. Some offer a 5% Cashback Bonus (which is credited to your account) whereas others offer 20%. Really. 20% just for clicking through and using your Discover card. For me, it’s a really a no brainer.

I’ve used ShopDiscover for countless purchases. From magazine subscriptions to bunk beds to floral arrangements. And I’ve taken great satisfaction in sitting back and watching my Cashback Bonus balance skyrocket. And then I take my frugalism a bit further by saving up those credits and using them to buy Christmas gifts at the end of the year.

I know. It’s brilliant.

And easy.

***This post represents entry into the ShopDiscover blog promotion with the chance to win a Discover gift card. That said, these are my firsthand experiences with ShopDiscover and the perfect illustration of my tendencies to find a way to squeeze the most mileage out of every dime I put into the marketplace. Toodle-oo.***

It’s official.  We are now a household that includes just eight tonsils.

Cass was a little champ for her surgery.  And there was only a fleeting instant during which I thought my legs might crumble beneath me.  It was as they wheeled her bed through the OR doors that we weren’t allowed through.  Jeff and I turned to head back to the waiting room and at the last second I heard her yell “Mommy…”

Tell me your heart wouldn’t have broke in two had it been you.  Because mine totally did.

I am such a weenie.  But I managed to reign in the tears.

The surgery only lasted about forty minutes.  And then we were escorted to the recovery room where Cass was waking up WAY more gently than she did from the tooth debacle.  She was in and out (mostly in) of sleep for a long while but when she was awake she kept asking me to “pet me” and by that she meant for me to rub her hair.  How cute is that?  Pet me.

It was really, really tough to leave her at the hospital with Jeff.  Part of me wanted to stay.  But the other part knew Jeff was much better suited for the job because at one point this afternoon Cass vomited and I about threw two nurses through the curtain because they weren’t properly reacting to what I just knew would lead to a choking/bleeding fiasco.

Turns out it wasn’t so much a choking/bleeding anything.

Just vomit.

My overreaction is the result of one too many memories of Cass being hooked up to scary beeping machines in the NICU.  Or the sight of her being taken by ambulance from one hospital to another as she fought a true respiratory emergency.

Thank God I had my level-headed Gram there to rein me in during both of those previous instances.  But she wasn’t here today.

So you’ll have to forgive my tendency to freak out.

I’ll just be happy when that risk of bleed out at days 5-7 passes.

Blissfully uneventfully.

I hate it when my brain is so fried I can’t come up with a blogging topic.

My brain is precisely that fried though.

Because I’ve been writing.

A lot.

A whole, whole lot.

Just not here.

I’ve resumed a local paying writing job.

But more importantly…

I’m doing some major revisions on my novel.

It’s taking all the brain power I have.

The blog is suffering.

The kids are suffering.

And Jeff is most certainly suffering.

But it may just be worth all the suffering in the end.

Please bear with me.

I miss you too.

Last year on St. Patrick’s Day our whole family was in the middle of a Spring Break vacation.  We spent nine days exploring all the sights in Washington DC, with a brief stopover in New York City.  Jeff and I were able to sneak a date night in during the trip and it happened to fall on St. Patrick’s Day.  We donned our green attire (even a green feather boa for me!) and had dinner at Old Ebbitt Grill, a restaurant rich in political history.  Afterwards we headed across the street and made history of our own trying to find the front of the White House so I could get a picture.  It probably wouldn’t have been as difficult of a feat had we not been just a tad impaired.  Luckily our sprinting from here to there didn’t break any national security laws and the secret service left us alone.  We eventually found what we were looking for and I snapped a few quick pics before we boarded the Metro to head back for the night.

Oh what a difference a year makes.

St. Patty’s 09 found us on an an entirely different kind of date night: a date with two little ones in tow.  A couple of weeks ago the Broadway version of Grease was in town and Jeff and I took the two older girls on a “date” to lunch and the show.  We had to make it up to the younger two somehow, and that’s exactly what we did last night.

I donned my green feather boa again (c’mon I can only get away with it once a year!) and we headed out to dinner at our favorite family Mexican restaurant where Jeff enjoyed corned beef flautas and a couple of beers.  Not green beer, but beggars can’t be choosers.  My margaritas had a green tint to them though.  That counts right?

After dinner we headed over to the convention center where Thomas and Friends had pulled into town.  Thanks to an opportunity presented by MomSelect we were given four tickets to the show.  And wouldn’t you know that just happened to be the perfect number?

We tried to keep the Thomas part a surprise but it wasn’t easy seeing as how every child in the vicinity (except ours) was dressed in striped overalls and conductor hats with the Thomas logo splayed all over them.  And then of course there were all those mothers using Thomas as leverage to bribe good behavior.  It was a tough secret to keep let’s just say.

The jig was up once we walked into the arena and saw the stage set up.  We didn’t have to wait long for the production to begin.  Jayce was, quite literally, on the edge of his seat as the first scene came to life.  And when Thomas puffed his way to center stage Jayce went stick straight, raising up to get a better view.  It was so funny to hear the gasps in the audience.  Thomas got a reaction from that tot crowd like the American Idols get on stage every Tuesday night.

The whole family got into the action, moving our arms like chugga-chugga locomotives and pulling an imaginary chain for the toot-toot of Thomas’ whistle.

Yeah.  What a difference a year makes.

It’s tough to say which of the engines Jayce prefers: Thomas or Percy.  Luckily he got to see both of them on stage, as well as James, Gordon, Harold, and Sir Topham Hat.  The show lasted about an hour and a half, which was maybe just a touch long.  There were quite a few musical numbers and lots of dancing and audience participation that helped to keep the short attention span of the audience members.

All in all both of our most recent dates with kids have been quite successful.  Not that I would turn down another trip to Washington DC or NYC for a “real” date night.  Sans the green feather boa this time.  :)

Thomas and friends live on stage is touring now.  Click here for scheduling and ticket information if you’d like to take your little ones for a date night of your own.

You remember how I told you that I spent the first weekend in December painting, rather than baking and wrapping and doing all the other things I should have been doing?  Well, I had good reason for putting myself through all that work.  Kennedy, you see, had requested a ‘new room’ for her birthday this year because she felt she had outgrown the old one.  The Pottery Barn Kids catalog served as inspiration for her as she began putting together the components that would make up her dream room.  She had something like this in mind, with slight changes here and there:

Unfortunately for her (and me too really) the furniture alone from the Pottery Barn room cost well over our budgeted amount.  So, I did what any brilliant woman would do and I enlisted my husband’s help in scouring the internet for a cheapie lookalike.  It didn’t take long for us to find one at Target.

We promptly ordered it and saved ourselves both an arm and a leg in the process.  Then the hunt was on for the bedding.  I was drawn, time and time again, to the Pottery Barn website.  I really couldn’t swallow the price tag that soared over $600 (in bedding alone!) just to put together the look from Kennedy’s dream room.  So we improvised again.  I searched high and low for just the right thing but I really couldn’t find ‘the one’.  I pretty much gave up temporarily, hoping that at the change of the season the stores would put out a new line that more closely resembled what Kennedy and I had in mind.  Meanwhile I stopped by the Linen’s and Things store hoping to find some clearance deals before they went out of business.  I had no luck in the bedding department, but I did find packages of vinyl polka dotted wall stickers that struck my fancy.  And at just 2 bucks a pop they were totally within budget.  I picked them up hoping I’d find something that would work with them.

Back on the bedding front I made one last go round at Target.  The stars must have aligned for me that night (either that or I was struck with momentary design genius) because I scored.  Big time.  I mixed and matched and in the end I ended up with what could totally pass as a Pottery Barn designed bed evenifIdosaysomyself.

My mom and I went out in search of the finishing touches and then she, Jeff, and I worked hard to finish the room up before the girls came home from Christmas Dad camp.  Enough for the back story right?  Now for the internet unveiling…

And there you have it.  Kennedy loves it.  Cassidy loves it.  Even I love it.  I think it’s mature without being to grown up for a 9 and 11 year old.  Hopefully it’ll transition really well as they enter the tween/teen years.

Based on the cost of this project, though, they’re pretty much stuck with it either way.

Twice each year the girls go off to visit their dad and while I absolutely miss them like crazycakes I try to make the best of the time by enjoying a much, much slower pace with just Jeff and Jayce.  We tend to do a lot of shopping and eating out seeing as how those things are greatly complicated when you add three more kiddos to the mix.

They’re only gone for seven days this time.  And wouldn’t you know that both Jeff and I have been sick and confined to the house for the last two days.  Figures doesn’t it?

On the bright side, Jeff works for a wonderful company that recognizes the entire week between Christmas and New Years as holiday time.  So we’re hanging out at home watching movies and blowing our noses in unison.  Lovely, no?  But at least he’s not having to take any sick time off of work.

You know me, always looking on the bright side right?

So, I just wanted to check in and let you all know that I haven’t disappeared into a post-Christmas funk.  I’m alive and well.  Looking forward to this nasty sickness passing.  Hope all is well in your little corners of the world.