Rambling on and on and on and on...

*** Edited to say I have the date wrong for Joel's surgery. The correct date is Dec. 31. New Year's Eve.

The past week has been wild and crazy. Well, wild and crazy for me anyway. It started Thursday with the dentist appointment, shopping marathon, and an optometrist appointment all mixed in with a snow storm.

Saturday afternoon I headed over to a friend's house for our church's Annual Ladies Cookie Exchange. Tea was drank. Way too many cookies were consumed. Most ladies got lost trying to find Lori's house. And a great deal of talking, not to mention laughing, took place.

Sunday morning we woke up to a rain, sleet, snow mix. Another 4-6 inches piled on top of our already white lawn. And, once again, the plows did a lousy job. And, once again, activities and organizations canceled for the day. Our church, which meets in down city Providence, joined many churches across the state in canceling services. I confess to being excited about a day spent at home. I even stayed in my pajamas until 2 PM!! Poor Joel cannot make the same claim. He resigned himself to the snow, pulled on work boots, coat, and gloves and shoveled out the driveway one more time.

Monday morning we left the house about 8:30 AM. I dropped Joel off at work and continued to the Mall (not the same one that closed Thursday but very near it) where I spent a JC Penney's "Spend $10 Get $10 Off Coupon. Naturally they priced everything in the toddler girls section $4.99 or $9.99. Believe me, I tried to use the coupon on 2 $4.99 items (a total of $9.98) and for the want of two pennies they would not redeem the coupon! Argh! Frustrating! In the end, I paid a total of $4.99 for a pair of dark brown corduroy pants and a navy with pink flowers cardigan sweater. Still not a bad deal but it's the principle of the thing that irks me.

From Penney's we continued to Bath and Body Works where the boys walked around with their hands inside their pockets. I took no chances of little hands reaching out to "look." Our purchases made, a brief pit stop in the bathroom, and we climbed in the van again to drive north of Providence (we live and work south of the city).

A birthday party for Jesus at a friend's house was our next stop. Games. Presents. Lunch. Cupcakes. A few tears. And lots of fun. After 3:30 the kids and I headed south again. Through the city. On I95. O fun. Not. At least Ben & Ellie fell asleep before we ever made it to the Interstate.

At 4:15 I finally neared our exit. Not much point in going home for an hour. So we turned right instead of left at the exit and went to Wal-Mart. I always tell Joel we'd have money if I could stay out of Wal-Mart. After killing an hour or so I called Joel to tell him we were headed his way, I was tired, and where did he want to eat supper. = ) He kindly left the choice up to me. Any guesses on where we went?

We finally arrived home after 7 PM. I left at 8:30 AM. I don't remember the last time the kids and I were away from home an entire day like that. Boy was I tired the next day!

The rest of the week has mainly seen the arrival of packages via UPS, USPS, and FedEx. Since the first week of December we have received, by best recollection, 23 boxes! I'm still waiting for 2 more Christmas presents and my new laptop (that's a whole other post) to arrive.

Today, Thursday, returned us to crazy mode. Joel saw an oral surgeon at 1:30 (a visit resulting from the dentist last week). He will have "surgery" to try and save his tooth on December 29. (If anyone is available to watch my children at my house from 9:30 am until lunch I'd surely appreciate it!! I might even pay real money!)

He arrived home and I left with a huge list of places to go and things to buy. Price Rite. Barnes & Noble. Christmas Tree Shop "Don't you just love a bargain?" It was there that I lost my mind. 12 mugs, a box of tea, a 2 tier plate stand, a 3 section rectangular tray, two round serving dishes, 3 mini muffin pans, 12 decorated paper bags (for the mugs), and assorted paper goods later I finally left the store. I couldn't help myself. They had the cutest snow man pattern!! And I heart snowmen!

Did you know God cares about paper goods? Last Thursday I bought the paper goods for Christmas dinner. I could only find napkins for the pattern I liked and settled for plain plates. Then Lori had my plates at the Cookie Exchange! We had bumped into each other at the store last Thursday and if I had seen those plates in her cart we would have thrown down right there in the aisle! Anyway... over the weekend I realized I didn't have enough plates. God graciously allowed me to find more napkins, dessert plates and dinner plates in the exact pattern that I liked and already bought!! Yippee!

So, after the reality check of paying for my shopping spree, I returned home long enough to unload the van, visit the water closet and hand Joel a frozen pizza. Then I headed for the Mall. Again. Once more to Bath and Body Works where I bought a nice set for Joel's boss (a woman) and a small set for me. Once that item was checked off my list I drove the quarter of a mile to Wal-Mart. Yes, that's the THIRD time in a week.

Do you know I could not find a candy cane in the whole store. And I walked all over. Food section, holiday section, seasonal section. Checked the aisle end displays. Checked the middle of the aisle displays. Nothing but Spiderman candy canes. Those would NOT have matched my snowman mugs. I talked with 3 other ladies who were also looking for candy canes. What is up with not having candy canes?!

Anyway, I paid for my items and have returned home. After eating cold pizza and putting the boys to bed I have spent the rest of my evening writing this extremely long and pointless blog post. Don't you feel better after reading it? I know I do now that I've written it. I can check off all those things I've been trying to remember to tell you. = )

One more thing and then I'm done. Will's made-up joke for the day: "Why did the turtle cross the road? So he could get some gas." hahahahahahahahaha!