Black Friday Mayhem

Friday morning at 5:00 a.m. found me in my car, headed to Walmart to begin my Black Friday shopping. Given that I had not gone to sleep until after 11:00 p.m. the night before, I was quite shocked to discover that I didn’t have much trouble climbing out of bed at 4:15 a.m. Mind you, getting up at that hour to go to work, and getting up at that hour to go SHOPPING are two very different scenarios. And you can bet that I was ready for some serious shopping.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I love my boys (hubby and kiddo), but on Thanksgiving I spent all day with just boys. This year we were supposed to spend Thanksgiving in Quincy with Justin’s family, but his grandma was admitted to the hospital the day before Thanksgiving so we decided it would be best for us to stay and help out. Justin’s dad drove down on Thanksgiving Day to see his mom, so he joined us for dinner. And we invited Grandpa Wayne to come to dinner as well, after he was done visiting Grandma at the hospital. So, our Thanksgiving dinner consisted of three and a half men, and me. It was a wonderful Thanksgiving, but I’m sure you can understand why I was in desperate need of some serious girly shopping time the following day. I had scoped out all the ads the night before and planned my strategy of attack. If only I knew what awaited me…

For starters, our brand new Walmart parking lot was packed! Seriously, that store didn’t see that many cars when it opened just two months ago, and that is saying something for this neck of the woods (no offense to my fellow LC Valley residents). At that point I knew I was in over my head. I went straight to the toy aisles to achieve my first mission: gifts for nieces and nephews. On my way there I think I was nearly run over three different times by shopping carts. In fact, I think two of those three near death experiences may have been by the same crazy shopper. They were out to get me, I tell ya!

As I hightailed it through the store, picking up my mere four items, I was shocked to hear people detailing how they had been at the 24 hour store since 1:00 a.m., just loading their carts with the sale goods and then waiting for the official 5:00 a.m. store price so they could checkout. Can you say crazy!? Where do these people come from? I was still at home in my turkey coma at 1:00 a.m.

My one blessed experience at Walmart (and perhaps my greatest Walmart experience ever) was when I asked a store manager, who just happened to be strolling by me, where the Tupperware set I was looking for might be located. He helped me search the area where he thought it had been stocked, but then admitted they were probably all gone. I decided I wasn’t going to look all over the entire store for a stupid Tupperware set and wandered off to another department. But about thirty seconds later I heard someone behind me shout “I found one!” Of course, I didn’t turn my head at this exclamation because I just figured it was another crazed shopper. But in fact, it was the manager. He had found the very last Tupperware set, which was on a spectacular sale by the way, and had spotted and followed my green hat as I wandered into the other department. Talk about amazing customer service, especially on Black Friday. So, a shout out to Walmart manager Brad - you rock!

I had also hoped to find some new pajamas for Kendry on this shopping trip. My little sprout of a child is now wearing pajamas in the 12-18mth length since he is so long/tall, and I think he grows out of a new pair or two every week. I could probably make his current pj’s last longer by snipping off the feet, or by simply buying pj’s with no enclosed feet on them, but the footie pajamas are just so darn cute on babies! Walmart had advertised $3 pajamas for kids on Black Friday, so after Rock Star Manager Brad got me my Tupperware set I set out in search of the pj’s aisle. Once I spotted the pj’s, however, I knew it was time to leave. The other mothers like me were scavenging over the bin like vultures. Even if I had wanted to bust out my high school basketball “boxing out” skills to vie for position around the bin, I knew it would be impossible to find what I was looking for anyway. The pj’s were no longer neatly stacked by size and pattern, rather they were all in one big heap, having been rampaged by the mothers before me. Fortunately for me, I had less than 10 items for checkout so I didn’t have to wait in line for an hour to escape the mayhem that was Walmart.

I will admit that after this start to the day the other stores seemed a lot less crazy, or maybe I was just acclimated to the shopping chaos. Either way, aside from my half hour wait at Kmart just to checkout, the rest of my stops were quick and successful. I got my three huge awesome-smelling candles for just $9, an adorable holiday sweater with matching hat and mittens for Kendry, the regular socks and underwear stash for Justin, and pretty much the rest of my Christmas gifts for everyone else on my list.

The one drag was not finding our California King sheet set at Costco, even through they had advertised Queen, King and California King sizes. Oh well, you can’t win ‘em all, right?

So, in summation, I’m not sure this whole Black Friday thing its all its cracked up to be. I suppose if I was looking to buy something more pricey like a TV, furniture or computer, the Black Friday sales might help me out. But until I have extra cash to shop for items of that caliber, I think sleeping in and having a lazy morning with my boys wins hands down.

Homesick for Alaska

Something about the holiday season always makes me a little homesick for Fairbanks. The holiday season is generally a time to be with family, and at this point pretty much all of my family still lives (or will soon live) in Alaska. Since we can only do one Alaska visit per year, if we're lucky, it is so much easier for us to travel up there in the summer as opposed to Thanksgiving or Christmas. Not to mention how much cheaper it is since mileage tickets are impossible to use over the holidays. In fact, the last time we spent Christmas in Alaska was the first Christmas we were married (2005). Ahh, the infamous "everyone crammed into one house and everyone got sick" Christmas. Talk about memories. Not only were Justin and I in culture shock from the vast darkness and the sub-zero temperature, but we also had to battle a stomach bug. I'm sure the Christmas dinner was delicious, but I don't remember being able to stomach any of it.

That was also the Christmas where I actually failed my driving test. Yes, me, the perfect driver who practically aced the driving test on my 16th birthday. Who knew you could gain so many years of experience behind the wheel and at the same time proceed to forget all the stupid driving factoids that never mattered to begin with? Hello! I'm not applying for a motorcycle license, so why would I need to know how many motorcycles can travel side by side and one behind the other on an interstate freeway with four lanes, in New Jersey, headed north, when its raining, if no one is around to hear them...

Okay, so maybe it wasn't that bad. My ego is still a little bruised. But really, the only reason I even tried to take my test (without studying) is because I had turned in my Alaska driver's license only weeks before in Washington in order to have a proper Washington license with my new married name on it. I was worried I was going to be restricted from boarding the plane to Fairbanks if I didn't have the proper ID that identified me as Jody Gimlin rather than Jody Binder. But my assumption that I could get up to Alaska and just get a new Alaska license was incorrect because they made me take the stupid test.

Now, you might ask: Why all this trouble for an Alaska license when I am no longer a resident anyway? Well, in case you didn't know, Alaska has no sales tax. So, my handy dandy Alaska license has saved me a pretty penny or two on large purchases in Washington over the years. Thus, you see why I was so adamant about getting the license replaced.

After my complete failure of the test - and I say complete because I didn't even get through 16 of the 20 questions before I had exceeded the maximum amount of incorrect answers - the Alaska DMV told me I could try the test again in two weeks. Yeah, right! Even if I was going to be there two weeks later there was no way I was going to put myself through that embarrassment again. So I settled for just getting an Alaska ID instead of a license. By the way, Justin was not with me when this whole DMV incident occurred and it took me a few days to overcome my pride and admit it to him. He has never let me live this one down, and I'm sure as soon as Kendry is old enough to understand what a license is Justin will be telling him that his mother can't pass driving tests.

But I digress... obviously, being so far from my family this time of year is the first reason I get homesick for my home state. The second reason would be: SNOW! It is completely unreasonable to expect an Alaskan girl to survive through the holiday season without the most magical form of precipitation. When we moved to the LC Valley three and a half years ago everyone failed to tell me that the valley gets very little snow each year, if any. I have been going through withdrawal ever since. And I think its especially hard now that we have Kendry because I am so excited for him to experience snow for the first time. And I mean REAL snow, not this half inch stuff you wake up to at 7am, only to have it melt by noon. No, I mean the foot of snow that keeps you inside (except to go play in it) and that sticks around at least until Christmas. The kind of snow where a kid can make a snowman without having to use all of the snow in their front yard. Really, how sad is it to see a snowman who looks like he is half grass, half snow sitting in a perfectly snow-free yard. Pa-the-tic! (said in sing song voice)

Alright, I'll openly admit that after a month of being back in the Alaska cold and snow I would probably be ready to come back to Washington, but for now I'm going to be a bit nostalgic. Oh, Alaska, how I miss thee...

Another year...

HAPPY 4TH ANNIVERSARY TO US!

Its amazing to think that another year has passed. On one hand it feels as though we just celebrated our third anniversary, and on the other, after going through our first pregnancy and having a baby over the last year, it seems like we've been married a lot longer than just four years.

A lot has happened since November 12, 2005: our first Christmas together in Alaska, bringing home our first furbaby, Justin graduating from college and getting a job with Regence, our move to the LC Valley, purchasing our first home, taking up backpacking, summer vacations in Alaska, home improvement projects (and maybe a little buyer's remorse), fertility struggles, the success of our first IVF cycle, the loss of our first furbaby, the birth of our miracle baby, parenthood... Joys and heartache, laughter and tears - through it all we remember just how much God has blessed us.

Pearly White

Kendry had his six month check up today. Mommy's little beanpole is now 28.5 inches long (97th percentile) and 16lbs 15oz (39th percentile). It still puzzles me how he could be 10lbs 5oz at birth, and then have his weight gain taper off so much while he keeps getting longer and longer. But he really has put on a belly and thigh rolls over the last few weeks, so maybe its just a matter of time. Of course, the 6 month check up also meant shots. Not to mention that the appt was during Kendry's morning naptime. Needless to say, he didn't have the best day at daycare and was tired quite early on this evening. However, I managed to entertain our very tired little boy for a few minutes while Justin captured some photos at just the right angle. Can you see his very first pearly white poking through? Look very closely and you'll see it on the bottom right.

I think Kendry is confused as to why we aren't letting him playfully chew on our fingers anymore.

Birthday and Half-Birthday

Over the last week we celebrated Justin's 29th birthday and Kendry's half-birthday. Justin never cares to make much of a fuss for his birthday, but I still try to put my creative skills to work to make it special and memorable. We always go out for dinner with Nana and Grandpa, but when I asked Justin what he wanted to go for dinner he joked that a Costco hot dog and slice of pizza would treat him just fine. Well, we ruled that out for obvious reasons - somehow it doesn't seem all that grand to dine on your birthday dinner while surrounded by shopping carts filled with economy size laundry detergent and toilet paper (these are the first Costco supplies that came to mind because both are currently on our shopping list). We ended up going out for an Italian dinner, which was delicious. But I still found a fun way to give Justin a hot dog for his birthday.
Yes, that is a birthday cake in the shape of a hot dog and fries. It was incredibly easy to make; the only hard part was making three different color frostings. Once we got home from dinner with Nana and Grandpa we celebrated with cake, ice cream and, of course, presents.
Four days later, we found ourselves in Quincy for Kendry's half-birthday. I still cannot believe he is six months old already. But Kendry was determined to show us just how quickly he is growing up and marked the occasion by cutting his first tooth. He also did a wonderful job of sitting up all by himself for the photo shoot we did with Andrea on Saturday. Could he be any cuter?Of course, now I have to come up with an even better cake idea than the hot dog for Kendry's first birthday. The first 6 months went by so quickly, you can bet the next 6 will go even faster. Should I start planning the party now?