Let's Talk about Shopping and Holidays and Rambling Stuff - November 25, 2012

I always watch the whirlwind of gift-buying swirl around me at this time of year. I grew up with Hanukkah - and a low-key Hanukkah at that. Yes, I received a present every night (sometimes it was one to share with my brother, and when my parents got divorced my dad always made sure I still had eight presents from him) but they were usually small things. I don't remember ever really getting a big gift, just something small that was exciting to open. One year my brother and I got a cassette recorder that we used for years to make our own radio shows. I think one year we got a 2XL to share. But mostly it was candy or a small toy or an item of clothing. Plus, Hanukkah moves around - as you probably know - so sometimes it was over and done with by the time my classmates where crowing over their Christmas haul.

When I got older and started dating my not-Jewish-at-all husband, I did enjoy a few Christmases with his very generous and welcoming family. Even then, we kept our own shopping pretty contained - until everyone started having babies and babies and more babies and there were more and more gifts for the kids, as the grown-up gifts dropped off. But then we moved away and needed to start our own traditions, and then we had a child with a disability and our focus moved from getting her presents to, quite honestly, getting her therapies.

So basically most years I'm not the one at the malls or online with a giant list of every single relative and a budget that is strained. It's just not how I was brought up (though seriously, sometimes it looks FUN). Our finances are tight this year - we're both freelancers, though I did just start an exciting new gig that hopefully will help things out for a few months - and most of our money is going toward boring things like bills and food. The kid's teachers and therapists (and oh there are a LOT of those!) are getting a locally made gift from a friend of mine - I've already ordered it (as one big lot) and I just need to pick it up from her.

That said, I indulged in a little shopping on this kick-off-to-the-season weekend. On Black Friday I stayed in, away from the stores and the crowds (nobody in my family does well in crowds - we all get overstimulated, though some of us handle it better than others...and by some of us I mean my husband). I wasn't going to shop at all, but then I poked around online a bit and grabbed the Toys R Us Groupon - available for about 15 more hours as of me writing this post! - so I could get my kid a few extra little things (and I bought it with Groupon credit I'd earned so it was free!). I also bought a replacement pair of headphones for my iPod/phone thanks to a very rare Apple sale (and you know, for all of my coupony-savey ways, I forgot to click through eBates to save on them, though Apple only gives 1% cash back - other stores give 6% or more!) - I had both birthday money and some cash I'd earned from Swagbucks.

Then I thought, well, I've been hoarding the Amazon gift cards I've been earning from Swagbucks, so I'll check out the deals over there - and there was a bonus $5-off-$25 coupon that was floating around that was about to expire. So this is what I "bought" myself (it was also all free* - and I even scored a free month of Prime - and now I am, again, oh so tempted to just pay for a year of Prime...):

I buy the Best Food Writing collection every year.

I needed something to get me to the $25 threshold to use the coupon - and I've been drooling over this book for some time. I love Lynda Barry!

Apparently this was a super-score, as when I decided to buy it, it was only $7.99 - it's more now. I needed something to get me off my ass since I haven't been running at all lately. I know, I know....

So yes, I bought myself Hanukkah presents - thank you Swagbucks!

But Saturday was Small Business Saturday - and I'd won a $25 gift card from FedEx's big promotional drive! Plus, my little city was having all sorts of festivities - music, massages, free snacks, free gift wrapping, and welcome mats in front of most of our amazing local businesses. So after we poked around at the farmer's market and then stopped off for some free popcorn and goodie bags, I bought the kid her big Hanukkah present - a wooden-and-felt toy salad set, because she loves to cook and to play in her toy kitchen and because the upscale toy shop was having a big sale on everything. I also bought my husband a small gift of a gourmet rubber tea infuser. It's super cute and he's quit the coffee habit and only drinks tea, so he was really excited about this one. (Yeah, they were both with me. I still made sure everything was wrapped so that we'll have the fun of unwrapping on the first night of Hanukkah!) And I bought a glass oil spritzer for me and my husband to share as well - a little bit of extravagance for our kitchen.

And I think that just about does it. Hanukkah starts on December 8 and so it's coming up soon and then, whoosh, it will be over...

Every single link in this post (except the 2XL link!) is a referral link that will give me a kickback of some sort if you click through and purchase something. I really appreciate it!

*I do spend my time to earn the credits on sites like Swagbucks, but I do the tasks while I'm taking care of other things. I consider the earnings from these activities to be "free" money as opposed to the earnings from my freelance work.

Thankfulness 2012

1. I am thankful that my daughter now sits, stands, claps, is closer to talking than ever before, can take seven or eight unassisted steps at a time, is a speed demon in her walker, has adapted remarkably to her AAC device, and grows smarter and more gorgeous every day.
2. I am thankful that my husband's amazing business - he's a voiceover guy! - has grown and thrived.
3. I am thankful for new opportunities that have come my way in the past few weeks, giving me new challenges and, well, more money.
4. I am thankful that our rather random move to Georgia years ago continues to be a good, solid choice for my family and that even with the unexpected things that were thrown in our path, it still works.
5. I am thankful that I have had the opportunity to meet some amazing people here in Georgia.
6. I am thankful that I have stayed in touch with many wonderful people up North.
7. I am thankful that Facebook - while it drives me crazy a lot of the time - exists and lets me keep in contact with all sorts of people from all sorts of periods in my life.
8. I am thankful for my little blog because it gives me a bit of freedom to say whatever it is I need to/want to say at the moment. 
9. I am thankful for my kitties, who bring me a lot of love and joy.
10. I am thankful for you, if you're reading this, because I'm not, nor will I ever be, a famous blogger and yet you took a few minutes out of your day to come over here and check out my words. Stick around!

Today I Turn 39 - November 13, 2012

Today I turn 39. For real. The year of all the jokes. That big cliff over which I am staring. Supposedly this is the last age before, you know, the Big One.

"And I'm going to be 40!"
"When?"
"SOMEDAY!"

Well, someday is closer than ever before, but for now I'm 39 and I'm going to celebrate. And when I do turn 40, I'm going to rock the hell out of it because I do love a fresh start.

Thrifting Thrifting Thrifting - October 29, 2012

It's been a while since I had a day to run off and spend time with my friend Amy and hit a few thrift stores. Friday I was back in business! Well, er, except that you'll see that I didn't have a fantastic treasure hunt day - it was mostly kids clothes this time, with a few odds and ends thrown in.

I've found enough make-fun-of-bloggers sites to know that if anyone read my blog beyond the...three of you or whatever...I'd be on there instantly for the following really craptastic pictures, but I'm trying to silence that voice in my head and press on. Because...THRIFTED CLOTHES, right? Right?

We went to three stores but I only bought things in two. That's right - I walked out of one store EMPTY HANDED (except that Amy bought a rocking chair that is gorgeous and that kind of counts because I was there, right?). The first store was a brand-spanking-new Goodwill - so new that the bathrooms were not only spotless but fully automated. Stop giggling! This is important! The fitting rooms were also nice - I tried on a few things but nothing clicked for me, and as I've noted before, I'm not as thrilled with the GW prices as I used to be. But I found a bunch of things for the kid. All kid clothes cost around $3 per piece...

Cute cute kitty shirt!

Hanna! Too big for her right now but in perfect condition and adorable, so I'll put it away for next year. (I found another Hanna piece that was faded and worn, so no, I don't buy every single thing just for the label, I promise.)

Cute Old Navy sweater. I rarely find sweaters that aren't felted or pilly or just plain ugly, so I was happy. It's lightweight, but in Georgia that's usually juuuust fine.

Vitamins shirt. I *think* this is a department store brand, but I'm not sure. In any case, I liked the shiny gold and silver accents so I got it for her.

I tried to put this back a few times but it just was too cute, even if it's the wrong season for it

I also bought...stuff.

Perfection. Certificate-size frames for my Reiki certificate and my calligraphy Reiki symbols. These were about $1.70 each and exactly what I needed.

A combination of stuff from the GW and the Humane Society. The Fox Inheritance is a sequel to the Adoration of Jenna Fox - a book I really enjoyed. I plan to read it and give it away - I'm about halfway done. $1.50. Charlotte's Web was a total last minute impulse buy but I just love that movie so much I had to have it. $3-ish. The heart-shaped candy/baking tray was $1.10 as was the set of tiny Noah's Ark cookie cutters (a set I've considered buying at Michaels with a 40% coupon a few times). I may finally make the melted heart-shaped crayons I've had my eye on...

Then the Humane Society where, shockingly, I barely found anything! Oh well, that's how thrifting works, right? I bought the kid some clothes - 50 cents a piece....always makes me swoony...

Gap jeans and Children's Place leggings that are both too big but in such good shape that for 50 cents, I grabbed them.

Pretty purple skort (scooter?) that I hope she'll wear once or twice.

Peace, dude.

And a skirt for me that is ridiculous - short and tiny, but I thought it would be cute over leggings. Also I wanted to get SOMETHING for me and of the giant pile I tried on, only this kind of fit. $2.

Winners of my Purex contest!

The winners of my Purex contest are now displayed on the Rafflecopter widget in the original post - Ashley, Amanda, and Alison (hee), I will be in touch over the weekend so I can get you your prize!

Her Wicked Sense of Humor (and an AAC update) - October 25, 2012

My kid continues to make excellent progress with her AAC device. Nope, we didn't have overnight magic - I have learned not to hope for that anymore. Things take time, patience, energy, and...well...time time time. And time. But. She takes it to school every day and the teachers work with her to help her find words and participate in discussions. Her therapist is carefully leading us through the maze of how to use it, where words are, and how to help her communicate - and she keeps me in check when I want to move things along too quickly. (Plus her therapist is great at slowly unlocking more words/pages each week--she just added a hippotherapy page!)

At home, the kid uses it when she feels like it and doesn't when she doesn't (to mama's dismay - but I am learning to back off) but she does things like ask for milk vs. juice spontaneously, and she also has been sharing her excitement about an upcoming field trip. Overall, I am just thrilled with how everything is going. I'm so glad we went in this direction with this particular device! But...I want to fast-forward to mastery, as I always do, and I want to jump into sequencing, and...yeah. But when I step back and see how far we've come, I'm bouncing off the walls again.

Meanwhile, she is absolutely obsessed with me taking videos of her dancing. She will take her iPad and put on the song "The Sid Shuffle" from Ice Age 4 (they danced to it at school), carefully prop it up on the couch, step off the couch, and then whine and point until I get my phone out and film her. If I fake it, she knows. So I have lots of short videos of her dancing, falling, wiggling, whining, and more. Yesterday I caught what is probably my favorite, so I decided to share it here.

In brief, she notices her SMOs (ankle braces) on the floor, picks one up, dances with it while standing completely unassisted, and then tosses it aside. That little smirk on her face at the end kills me as my giggles probably reveal. I imagine her thinking, "Pssh. I don't need those, I stand and dance just fine!"

I will leave you with some referral links, if you have any interest in buying or clicking or whatever to help me out a bit...

• You have one day left to take advantage of the MacHeist 4 bundle. For $29 you get over $600 worth of Mac apps. Amazing! (There are also free apps that you can access with a tiny bit of hoop jumping.)
• You can enter the Purex contest to win $1,000 cash, and by clicking my link, you help me because they're giving prizes to bloggers who drive the most traffic there.
• Groupon's deal of the day is $10 for a $20 Body Shop gift certificate. You can buy up to three - they make great holiday gifts and/or you can buy holiday gifts with them and/or you can do what I do and pamper yourself! (Seriously, I neeeeeed some pampering!) If you buy it through my link and you are a new Groupon user, I get $10 in Groupon credit. And then you can share your very own referral link to get your very own $10 credit!

Contest: Win a bottle of Purex - and maybe win $1,000!

As a Purex Insider, I get to try a lot of fun things (and host contests!). Right now I'm trying out the new Purex plus Oxi, which the company claims is "the most powerful Purex detergent available." I'll share my review of it soon. Meanwhile, you can win one of three coupons for a free bottle of Purex plus Oxi laundry detergent so you can try it yourself!

To win one of the three coupons, use this handy dandy Rafflecopter thing!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Contest open to U.S. residents only. Contest ends October 26, 2012. Purex provided me with a sample of Purex plus Oxi so I could review it, but all opinions expressed on my blog are my own - obviously.

But wait, there's more! Purex is hosting a contest where the first prize is $1,000! ONE THOUSAND DOLLARS! Pretty sweet, huh? For that contest, you can enter right here or enter through the Rafflecopter widget! (Second prize is $25, which isn't $1,000, but it's not bad either, right?) You'd be doing me a huge favor if you'd click that link, whether you'd like to enter or not, as Purex is rewarding the Insider who drives the most traffic to the contest page with an extra prize. (Hooray, transparency!)

Good luck!!!