I hate Walmart

Someday, I'm going to figure out how to juggle everything. There's just so much to do in life these days, that it overwhelms me. So I don't do any of it! Hence the Messy house and lack of Christmas presents under the tree! And then there's always the stress of the empty house in Twin this is STILL on the market. If that isn't enough of burden to cause stress, I don't know what is! (Ashlee, I feel for ya. I didn't realize your house had been on the market for 18 mos!!!)

I called Cory the other day and asked him to stop by the store and pick me up some motivation. He couldn't find any. Dangit.

I have a feeling this is going to turn into a mighty random post. I've been meaning to post every day, then I don't. Too much to catch up on. So much for keeping a journal for posterity, huh?

We had a fabulous Thanksgiving. We spent it with the Blad side of the family at the cabin. I love it there. It's so relaxing. The kids love playing with there cousins, and pretty much have fun doing whatever. But of course, we had to continue the Blad tradition of Black Friday Madness, so we came home Thursday night. Madi's old enough to babysit, so we left her in charge, and Cory and I ventured out into the cold bright(actually dark) and early at 3:45am. Headed to Walmart. I hate Walmart. I had a feeling it wouldn't be all that great when I saw the two Sherrif's cars parked at either entrance. We went to the Walmart closest to our house, since it was closest to all the other stores, too. Just had to get those $4 jammies, and a few other gems. Just let me clarify something here. The other shoppers were great. (Well, the ones I encountered were. Apperently there was a brawl over the cricuts.) The thing that bugged me the most was the employees. First, as you walk in, you are welcomed by the happy ol' greeter, and handed a map of where the doorbusters will be. The map is never right, and this year was no exception. Cory went off to get the things on his list. I stayed in the area of the $4 jammies and track suits. This Walmart did not have anything gaurded or wrapped up. It was all open with the understanding that you don't take it until 5am. Okay. I'll play along. Afterall, that's the fun of black friday, right? So, there were some rulebreakers who grabbed what they wanted, then moved on to the next thing. Those of us playing by the rules would pick up and look, then put back. Everytime that would happen one the the pajama nazi's (aka-Walmart employees) would scold us like little children and yell at us not to touch anything until 5am. I finally said "Look. There are people coming up, picking out the pj's they want, and walking off. Those are the people you should be yelling at, not us!", or something to that effect. At one point, a customer came over with some of the doorbuster track suits and said, they told me I could go ahead and take what I wanted. So one of the pajama buyers had us save her place in line and went to pick out what she wanted. Once again she was told "You can't touch anything until 5am!! You have to put them back!" She retorted, "I have been watching people come and go with these. There aren't that many left, now. I'm not putting ANY back!!" So that's how it went with Walmart. None of the employees were on the same page. Some were saying go ahead and take it. Others were yelling to put it back. I know Walmart has alot of employees, but they could have sent out a memo or something as to what the employees were supposed to do! At the very least, if they didn't want people touching stuff, they should have had it covered. Walmart ruined my Black Friday fun this year. Unfortunatly, with finances the way they are, Walmart was necessary.

What else have we done??? Oh yeah.

On Wednesday, my sil had some free tickets to the Nutcracker. I've wanted to take my girls to this forever! But the tickets are always so expensive. So when we were offered free tickets, we jumped! Now, let me just say...we had a blast. It was fun and entertaining, and the girls enjoyed it and loved being with cousins. But, this was not your everyday Nutcracker performance. I can only guess that it was a dance recital with a Nuctcracker theme. It was the weirdest thing I've ever seen. I kept expecting to see a few professional ballerinas. Not so much. The older girls who danced en pointe were pretty good. But there were no professionals in the place. And Clara didn't do much but walk around on her tippy toes at the beginning, then sat on a bench at the back of the stage, with who I assume was the nutcracker, and watch everyone else dance. I think that when the cloggers came out and performed is when I realized this was not your traditional Nutcracker Ballet. All that being said, the dancers did a great job. The cutest was the little tiny girls. They were the princesses, I think. Must have been 3 years old. They were ADORABLE! They were supposed to run across the stage and jump over a wand in the middle of the floor. There was this one curly headed cutie who tip toed her way across, with her arms out to her sides, and her nose up in the air...so very dainty like. It was so stinking cute. And, there were some portly ballerina's, older like 14, 15, 16, who were really good! Much more flexible than you would think! And then, another little girl's class, probably 4 years old, danced. There was a little girl who was quite heavy. She sooooo did not want to be there. She just kept looking around at the other little girls, then she would flap her arms a little, then do a little kick, all the while with a look that said "Why did my parents make me do this?" It was funny and sad at the same time. Thanks to the Bawdens for the tickets. We had fun!

Can't think of all the other fabulous and interesting stuff I was going to share. One of these days I'll post a pic of my Christmas tree. And I have some links to some fun Christmas sights, and some money saving sights I want to share. Until then, have a fabulous day!!