Ghosts of Black Fridays Past

Once we moved to Boise (a big city with actual shopping) I remember Black Friday shopping with my mom as a Thanksgiving tradition as important as turkey, the burning of the beak, and our family football game. I remember well the sights and smells of Black Friday - women in sweats with messy hair and terrible morning breath!

The first few years I went we basically planned our schedule around the free gifts that stores would give to lure customers into their stores. One year I remember coming home with a tin of carmel corn from Shopko, stuffed penguins from JC Penney, a Christmas ornament from somewhere else, and more...I came home with a full bag of freebies!

Then there was the year of the furby! Furby's were the HOT toy for Christmas and impossible to find. My aunt Leslie was in town and wanted 2 for her kids, my mom wanted one for my little brother. Walmart had announced they would have fuby's so we stood outside early in the dark waiting for the doors to open. My mom has always been a dignified Black Friday shopper (she would curl her bangs, brush her teeth, and wear real clothes). Right before the doors opened she said, "I'm not going to run, I'm not going to run...but you are young, RUN!!!"

So I made a mad dash with a mob of people to the fuby's. The shelves were picked over fast and there were a few casualties, so I dove low. From the bottom shelf I was able to snatch 2 fuby's giving no thought to color or style. Immediately people tried to grab the furby's from my hands, I had to escape the mayhem and hide in another aisle until I found my mom and Leslie. Victory was sweet and the whole experience was quite an adrenaline rush...that is when I realized Black Friday is really more of a sport than anything else.

Risked my life for this little guy...still don't get this toy, they were creepy, weird and not very fun to play with!

A few years later I was taken out by a shopping cart, rammed down. Once again at Walmart going for a $20 DVD player. I ran back to the electronics along with a mob of people (with shopping carts) and we couldn't find the DVD players anywhere. I found my mom a little while later calmly pushing her cart with a few DVD players. She informed me they were in a display next to the meat...of course, why wouldn't I think of that?

I haven't really been home for Thanksgiving since before my mission and haven't been in a position to participate in Black Friday...so this year I was stoked that I could!

What would possess a pregnant girl who is still struggling with morning sickness get up at 2:30 to stand in a cold line at Best Buy you might ask?

A $200 laptop (our home computer died) of course. At Best Buy they hand out tickets for the door buster items between 3 and 5 am. I had the unfortunate luck of arriving in line right before an alcohol reaking, constantly swearing drunk guy, who enjoyed telling all of us in line about his night at "Uncle Buck's" and his drunk buddy that was passed out in his car. I started to feel a little unsafe when a police officer arrived to walk up and down our line keeping control of the situation. A guy from a neighboring gas station also came with doughnuts for everyone...it was an experience. By 4 am the laptop tickets were gone and I didn't get one. So I headed to JCPenney for the $20 pots and pans set (for a family my club is sponsoring for Christmas). I looked all over the store and couldn't find them. When I asked the employee he informed me that they are actually at JCPenney home store in a completely different location and he was sure they were gone.

So by 4:30 I was feeling tired, nauseated, and like a Black Friday loser...so to cheer myself up I went to none other than Walmart!

Oh my. It was mayhem, I have never seen so many people in one place, or smelled so many terrible after Thanksgiving smells! It took patience and a lot of smooth maneuvering to get my cart from one of the store to the other. I felt really bad for the employee in charge of the $5 Barbie and Bratz dolls display. People were diving for the pile and dolls were flying everywhere. The whole time he just stood in the middle of it and tried to stand the dolls up again, as soon as he would get them up they would get knocked down again. He was pretty much in tears by 5:30. I missed out on a few door busters but was able to get the family we are sponsoring tons of things on their list for only $100. The checkout line took 1 hour, by 7:00 the sun was up and I was feeling my Black Friday groove. I drove to a mall to meet up with my friend Jessica. Then it hit me, I was sleepy (too tired to shop which is weird for me), so I ended up coming home shortly after to Clark and Ethan just waking up. I kissed them goodnight and took a 3 hour nap. I still feel like I have jet lag!

Did I learn my lesson? Yes, 2 actually. I learned that Black Friday is definitely not as fun without my mom, and I would totally do it again!

A Weekend of Many Moons

Friday night was the first moon...a trip to "New Moon" for me on a fun girl's night out. I have read the Twilight books and enjoyed them, but I don't really consider myself a "super fan." However, I went on opening night last year when Twilight came out - it was such an adventure (swooning fans, fighting over seats, etc.) I had to do it again this year!
I decided to go all out and make myself a shirt. It's hard to tell from this picture...but my shirt included blinking lights!

A little video so you can see the blinking lights in action!

Yes my shirt was a hit...and yes I am taking orders for Christmas if you are wanting a blinking twinkling shirt just let me know!

The second, third, and fourth moon happened this morning when the team of male runners wearing only thong underwear came by me during Clark's big race at Living History Farms. (Clark was not a part of the thong team). He did this race last year as well, it is a crazy 7 mile race through mud, creeks, streams, trees, and corn fields. It was good and muddy this year and Clark had a great time! We had fun cheering him on. The fifth moon happened trying to get out of the parking lot. A man in a pink speedo was washing the mud from his body using 2 cans of beer! This race has such an Iowa feel...the winner of each category receives a turkey, the second and third place runners receive chickens. They also served beef stew at the end of the race, "where's the beef!?"

Just a little muddy, he faired better than most.

Can you spot the 3 mullet men?

Ethan and I enjoyed watching the moon most of Friday night...he came down with a cold suddenly and didn't go to sleep until 4:30...makes for a grumpy Bubby and a grumpy mommy in the morning!

Ethan's new favorite toy! We picked this up at a yard sale this summer for Christmas. Well Christmas came early when I really needed him to be able to entertain himself. He calls this car mountain the Wii, because as the cars go down he shrieks, "weeeee." I love telling him to "go play with the Wii."

A Man of Few Words...

Ethan is definitely a man of few words (unlike his momma). He just doesn't quite have the whole talking thing down yet. However, the words he does say are really cute...he is so dramatic and expressive.

My favorite is when he says, "oh no." He says it with such a forlorn voice you would think it was the end of the world. He loves to say, "oh no" when he breaks things, when things fall apart, or when he reads his favorite Thomas book and Thomas gets paint spilled on him. Poor Thomas!

Here is an example of "ooooh no!"

We also love how he says please. It is in such a sweet little voice it is hard to tell him no when he says it.

An example of "Peeeeez."

I'm also loving his cute little "bye-bye."

It would be nice to have a few more words in the vocabulary. My lack of understanding has caused quite a few monumental tantrums! The last 2 nights he has had a really hard time going to sleep at night, there have been many tears and screaming. We haven't known what he has wanted...some verbal clues would definitely be helpful!

Just loved this picture sleeping after church with his feet out the bars!

Top 10 Reasons you know you are a PREGNANT LADY (First Trimester Edition)

10 - You should never buy things in bulk at Sam's Club that look good at the moment...it doesn't look good after day 3 and you are stuck with a lot of peanut butter filled pretzels.

9 - You start getting teary eyed, and then end up full on crying as you drive down the road when an old school Celine Dion song comes on the radio.

8 - Your toddler who tries to do everything you do begins to imitate gagging noises.

7 - Your toddler who has never watched TV is now very familiar with Thomas the train, and Elmo.



6 - The Thomas the Train Engine theme song now has a psychological effect on you and triggers vomit.

5 - You take a nap in the parking lot at the mall to avoid losing your lunch.

4 - You decide to keep your pedometer on at night so you can log the hundreds of steps you get going back and forth from the bathroom.

3 - You lay in bed eating crackers trying not to move your head mustering up your courage to get out of bed, all the while hearing your toddler in the next room jumping in the crib yelling "Ma!"

2 - You sneak snacks in the bathroom at church because you feel ridiculous eating in front of the primary kids on Fast Sunday.

And the number 1 reason...



You drive away from Papa Murphy's with your pizza on the hood of the Jeep. You make it all the way to the grocery store and wonder why everyone is staring at your car in the parking lot. You are very grateful that Papa Murphy's uses ultra sticky plastic wrap!!! (Oh DEAR...at least I didn't forget Ethan on the hood of the car)

The Heart, Brains, and Courage of a Family

If I only had a brain...

a heart...

some courage...

Watching Wicked earlier this October gave us the inspiration for our costumes this year! We had so much fun celebrating Halloween with our friends at a fiesta Friday night.

Clark had a hard time bending and moving in general.

It also turned out to be more fun surprise birthday celbrating for me. Thanks Jessica F. for the awesome cake!

I had so much fun putting our costumes together. Poor Clark was a good sport to basically wear gift bags from the dollar store duct taped to his clothes! The silver spray I bought for his hair ended up being silver glitter spray...which we are all still enjoying the sparkling effects! I made my scare crow wig out of 3 little girl hula skirts I got for a dollar. I think the lady that rang me up was a little skeptical of how those skirts were going to be "perfect for my costume." I thought we looked pretty darn good for costumes made from the dollar store.

Still has a wild mane even with the hat off!

And Jessica was our wonderful hostess who looked amazing as a bunch of grapes!

That's a RAP!

So today I got a birthday gift in the mail from my brother Weston and my sister in law Erica. It probably is one of the best birthday gifts ever! First I opened a small package that included a CD entitled Sweet Nothings. The first track was Weston and Erica performing their original rap about Ethan: "E's da Bomb"

The lyrics were pretty hilarious and I wanted to share it with the world, so here is the video of Ethan hearing his rap for the first time. He had just woken up from his nap so he doesn't seem too excited by it, but I'm sure he will soon love it!

These are 2 of my favorite lines-

"His smile is cute, and his curls never lack, business in the front party in the back."

"A lot of people thought the mullet was a fad, he's the first to rock it proper since Hannah Montana's dad."

The following tracks on the CD were lovely renditions of Weston singing "Stormy Seas," and "You are the Wind Beneath My Wings." Then I was instructed to open the long tube. That is when I found this lovely poster:

You can't see it, but coming out of Weston's mouth it does say, "You are the wind beneath my wings."

Thanks Weston and Erica for the good laugh! I think listening to "E's da Bomb" each morning may help with morning sickness!