Happy Wednesday, Blood and Retail
Yes. I do know that it is, in fact, Thursday. However, I didn’t figure that out until almost noon. Somewhere in my grey matter the concept of numbers and days of the week got a little confused and I felt that since it was the third of March, it should be the third day of the week. And if you figured out the flaw in that statement you get a cookie. My weeks start on Monday and end on Sunday. . .I think it’s because my planner does that. Anyway, it’s just how my mind works, or should I say, doesn’t work.
Today I joined the teeming throngs of shopping mommies that mobbed Gymboree this morning. Gymbucks are redeemable today and I have found that if you don’t get there within seconds of the store opening there will be no clothing left in your child’s size. I thought I had this problem solved when the store employee informed me that I could come in a day in advance and put whatever I wanted on hold for the next day, allowing me to come in, pay and leave without having to crawl over two hundred people crammed into one little shop. However, when I did that yesterday, they didn’t have the pants I wanted, but they told me that there was a bunch of stock in the back and it would be out the next day and that there were pants in the boxes. So, there I was at opening time today, ready with my two kids, one in his stroller, the other strapped to my chest in the Baby Bjiorn, we were the first people in the door!!!
I pushed my stroller directly to the rack where the pants were supposed to be. No pants. They didn’t have any in stock. So I had them order them for me and ship to my house. The cool thing about this is that I learned you can get free shipping by ordering out of stock items through the store instead of the website.
At any rate, I came, I saw, I spent. No one had better need any new clothing until April because I just blew the kid budget in one shot. The good thing is that both children are fairly well dressed, and I’m even ahead of the game for Maggie. Jonas got a hat that makes him look like a frog and I bought it specifically because I’ve been wanting to do a scrapbook page with my cute frog stamps and green embossing powder, but haven’t been able to come up with a good reason to. Jonas does love the hat. He hopped all the way to Barnes & Noble and said “Ribbit!” when I asked him “what does the frog say?” Once we got there he acted more like a cranky bear than a frog because it was pushing naptime. In an attempt to avoid being taken to the restroom for a bathroom break he cut his chin open on the corner of the train table (big bruise, no stitches required). This is our second Barnes & Noble injury this year. He still has the scar from running head on into a display table. That cut his cheek open. Both times staff has been very helpful and gotten us ice packs. If I were the suing kind, I suppose I could sue for free books or something. . .wouldn’t that be nice! “My kid is a spaz and ran into your table- give me free books now! And throw in some Thomas trains while you’re at it!” Do you think a letter to the owner would do anything?
Upon arriving home, I found that CorrespondenceART magazine wants to publish one of my scrapbook pages. This is good, as any publication is definitely better than not being published, but it isn’t as exciting as being published in a magazine that actually pays you money instead of giving you a free copy of their magazine as compensation. I submitted this particular layout to a few different mags- so now I am torn between saying yes immediately and waiting til Monday to see if a better offer shows up. My last published layout drew $75 and that kind of money is a lot at my house! My goal is to get enough stuff published (and paid for) to provide a small Christmas budget come the end of the year. Probably a pipe dream, I know. But I can TRY anyways. It’s a good excuse to scrapbook.
