Fun at the Oregon coast

Yesterday I got back from a trip with my sister Kelly, my sister-in-law Tricia, and my good friends Sarah and Laura. I find it interesting that last year none of us were bloggers and now 4 out of the 5 of us are. Weird huh? Bloggers unite! 

I should preface this recap to say that while I was at the Oregon coast, I never actually went down to the beach. Oh no, that was not the purpose of this trip. This was a scrapbooking getaway, people, and if you have ever been to a scrapbooking getaway you know that it is ALL about the HOUSE. 

The living room

Ours was sweet. New, roomy, nicely furnished, and within view of the ocean, with the one downside being that the main living area was on the second floor of the three story home and we had to lug four 6 foot tables and all our scrapbooking gear up a precariously steep and narrow staircase to reach it. 

That's a lot of scrapbooking gear!

This was actually a major downside. If we didn't know we were going to be there for a whole 4 days we might have thrown our hands up in the air and decided to keep our gear in the car and watch movies all weekend long. As it was, by the time we finished loading in our stuff we were winded and sweating. And ready to letter a strongly worded note to the homeowner for nondisclosure. Instead we took ourselves out to dinner and then headed back to the house to get into comfy sweats and not emerge for 3 more days. It was wonderful. 

our setup

Laura, Kelly and Sarah in the kitchen, where there was MUCH eating of delicious food.

Except I did dress for a trip to the outlet mall on Saturday with Sarah. Out of the 5 of us we are definitely the shopaholics of the group and the others knew they would tire loooong before we ever did. Very wise. I decided to not buy anything that was not on clearance or super sale, and that is how I emerged from the outlets with $261.00 worth of merchandise for only $55.00. That's right, I was a shopping SUPER-STAR. 

Sarah and I high on shopping success

Trip #1 haul

The next day Tricia and Laura decided to go on a quick run to the outlets themselves and I could not help myself, I had to go back. I emerged with $58.00 worth of clothing for only $22.00 that time. It was epic. 

Me, Tricia and Laura after shopping trip #2

But that is how I spent all my money at the coast and then had to have my sister buy my lunch at Red Robin on the way home on Monday. And then I realized that I'd forgot to give Tricia gas money on the way down and had accidentally spent it on myself instead. BUDGETING FAIL. 

But did I tell you that I now have 10 new clothing items for $80.00? And that I saved a grand total of $242.00? TRIP SUCCESS.   

(But I owe ya Trish!)

Monday confessional

The girls are back in town! 

We returned from the coast today after 4 blissful days of crafting and shopping and chick flick watching and talking. 

Oh the talking!

It is what leads to my confession: I stayed up really late every night, and on the final night I stayed up reaaaalllly late. Like possibly, maybe, almost 5:00 am late. 

Yes, I am very tired. And happy to be home with my husband and children again. And not quite ready to accept the fact that my youngest got his hair buzzed off while I was gone. 

Russell the hair clipper maniac strikes again.

So I will recap the weekend tomorrow... and tell you about my AMAZING 90% OFF SHOPPING EXTRAVANANZA! Oh yes, it was THAT exciting.

Good night my friends!

The good, the bad and the ugly

That pretty much sums up my week. Luckily the good has outweighed the bad, and it’s about to get even better!

Today I leave for the coast with four girlfriends for a scrapbooking getaway, and we’re not coming back until Monday! That's right, four GLORIOUS nights without kids or duties, just lots of girl talk, eating, crafting, shopping and relaxing. I CAN. NOT. WAIT.  

Yesterday, while shopping  for food for my family to eat while I’m away (read: frozen pizza, taquitos, pop tarts, and other nutritious snacks), I stopped in at Plato’s Closet and found these adorable puppies for $6.00. They look like new, are purple and have a slight wedge… a winning combination in my mind.

And even after blowing my Weight Watchers points for the second week in a row while out on our date night last weekend, I was still down another pound at weigh-in last night. Sweet! Slow and steady wins the race right?

All of these things lightened my spirits after my hellacious Tuesday in which I discovered our visa debit card had been compromised and someone in South Korea had gone on a shopping spree with it.

And spent $380.00 of our money.

Instead of going to bible study like I’d planned, my day turned into a mess of back and forth trips between the bank, my house and the police station, waiting for call backs and filling out fraud forms. My nerves were frayed and at one point I may have hung up on my husband out of frustration. 

Oh yes, I rise to the occasion and shine under pressure!

And speaking of the ugly, look who continues to get himself into all sorts of trouble!

That would be Covergirl lashblast mascara. I guess I should be grateful he's watched me put it on enough to know that it goes on your face and not all over your body.

I'll tell you what I am grateful for though: GIRL'S TRIP! Restored money! Cash for the outlet mall! A great guy that's staying home with the kids so I can get away! And NEW SHOES! :)

I love to laugh

Which is a good thing since I've been doing it a lot lately. 

- Like on Sunday afternoon when I walked into my kitchen and saw two German shepherd dogs I had never seen before slowly trotting past the window. Interested, I looked out back to where my husband and his best friend David were working on a project to see if they would notice the dogs and start yelling at them to scram. 

Oh they noticed alright, the dogs were headed straight their way. But instead of yelling at them, I watched the guys RUN FOR THE TRUCK AND JUMP UP INTO THE CAB, getting clear out of the way. I busted a gut right there and then in my kitchen. And then opened the window to make sure they could hear me laughing my head off at them. They both grinned sheepishly before climbing back down and watching the dogs continue across our tree field and onto the neighbors property. Best moment of the day. 

- Or yesterday, when Kendall said she wanted to tell me a cool thing she made up about God. It went like this:

G stands for Good to us

O stands for Always there

D stands for Does good

Of course I told her it was lovely. Especially if we prayed to GAD.

- Or last night, when Russ decided to live on the wild side and watch TWO episodes of Monk on Netflix after his basketball practice, explaining that we better start getting the maximum enjoyment out of our new flatscreen as quickly as possible before he starts regretting his purchase.

Oh I really laughed then. In what could possibly be interpreted as an evil "I TOLD you so!" kind of way. Which it totally was. I just love being right :)

Let the record show...

I'm going to tell you something that happened yesterday because I would like it in writing for future reference. 

First off, we have been without a properly working TV for the past couple of months. At first something happened that stopped us from being able to watch regular television, and then a couple of weeks ago the sound went out so we couldn't even watch dvds or Netflix. 

Yesterday Russell had enough. There were important football games going on for goodness sake! After multiple failed attempts to try and fix our set, my FPU loving, budget fanatic husband went against ALL he knows and loves about finances and made a LARGE, SPONTANEOUS purchase on a brand new flat panel LCD TV.

my excited peeps

And this is the important part: I, Mrs. free-spirit spontaneous shopper herself, tried to talk him out of it! Not that I wasn't ready for a TV again myself, I just didn't want any part of the future guilt that may or may not occur when the shiny new TV excitedness wears off.

ALSO: Why is it that we can break all of our self-imposed budget rules for a TV when someone suddenly wants to watch sports, but not for a laptop for a certain someone else who has important blogging business to take care of and doesn't want to get kicked off the computer when her husband wants to look up basketball game results?

HMMM???

I would like to file a complaint please. 

*Russell says my complaint is denied and thanks me for all my help looking up TV's online and giving my opinion on which brand I prefer.*

Alright fine. My opposition to the purchase was brief and gave way to pure joy within moments of the thought of viewing live television once again.

Instead, I would like to file a petition please. Something large and spendy for myself... I'll take either a laptop or a DSLR camera, thank you very much. 

Chop, chop honey! ;)


p.s. In all fairness to my husband, let the record also show that no credit cards were used in the purchase of this item. In addition, I think my hubby is a stud provider for our family and deserves a spiffy TV to watch his games on. Or at least a working TV. But I'm still rooting for that laptop! The end.