My kids are (surprisingly) yogurt eaters. Even my picky 8 year old son! They don’t care what kind of yogurt they get, but their preference is the kid friendly brands that have fun flavors. As a result, I not only buy store brand vanilla for myself, but Yoplait Kids for the kids. Right now, you can go to the Yoplait Kids website and get a coupon for a free sample of Yoplait Kids yogurt. Yoplait offers drink-able and spoon-able yogurt and it’s free of artificial flavors and sweeteners!

I haven’t returned to Old Navy to shop since the snail trail pants incident, and I don’t know that I ever will. They did send me $50 in gift cards for my trouble, and I used them at OldNavy.com to buy 2 pairs of jeans, which came sealed in plastic bags. (Sanitized for my protection!) You can bet I inspected the crotch of both pairs of jeans as soon as I opened the package, and I washed them in hot water before they ever made it onto my body.

Live and learn.

I’ve got very lengthy post on my main blog talking about a pair of disgusting Old Navy pants I purchased recently. I hope it will serve as a warning to all of you - wash your “new” clothes before you wear them & inspect clothing carefully in the store! Hopefully my cautionary tale will prevent one of you finding a snail trail, or some other bodily fluid left in your new clothes by another shopper.

For those of you who are looking for the snail trail pants auction - it was yanked by eBay. While Old Navy let me purchase items with dried bodily fluid inside, eBay prohibits me from selling those items.

:::squeal:::

My husband not only got me several shirts from The Limited and Express for Christmas, but he also got me a pair of Editor pants in black. They’re everything a pair of black work pants should be - comfortable, form fitting in all of the right places (but not too tight!) and above all, professional looking without being dowdy or matronly.

When I return to work after vacation, I’m going to be on well dressed woman!

My kids didn’t get this game for Christmas (we have the original version), but after playing Harry Potter Scene It with them last night, I can appreciate a game that gives everyone a fair chance to win! If I had to hear “no fair” one more time…I was going to scream!

Old Navy has been good to me this week!

Monday night I stopped by the store with my 8 year old son in tow. He had torn up the knees in his last two pairs of school pants, and with the temps dropping into the 30’s this week, he definitely needed long pants. He’s terribly hard to fit, being that he’s tall and skinny (hmm, wonder where he gets that from?) and the pants that are long enough for him are always too big in the waist.

To my surprise, we found that a 7 slim in the Old Navy boys khaki fit him, and even better, they were on sale for $10 each! Better than that, they had three 7 slims left in the color we needed - score!

Last night I went back and found a fleece for my 10 year old daughter. The price tag said $12.50, which is a great price, but it rang up for $7 since they were on sale. Another score!

I also snagged flip flops on their website at a clearance price of $.99 each - perfect for stocking stuffers for all of my kids!

I use the Kodak Gallery to upload and print my digital camera pictures. Last year, I also used the site to create personalized photo calendars for my mother and my mother in law. I created new versions of the calendars for this Christmas, and then couldn’t find a decent coupon! I saved the calendar projects, and decided to wait a few days to see what popped up. This morning I was rewarded with a coupon for 20% off cards, photo books, and calendars. Just use code “JOLLYGIFTS” in your Kodak Gallery cart. I saved $8 off my calendar order.

What grandmother can resist a calendar filled with pictures of the cutest grandchildren around?

I’m not that tall (5 foot 8 inches) but I do have long legs, and that makes it hard to find pants. Manufacturers and designers tend to think that only people over a size 6 can be tall, and it’s very difficult to find pants in a size 1 or 2 that have a long enough leg for me. I’ve been able to find pants in my size, in a longer length, at Old Navy and Gap, but they usually need to be special ordered. They don’t tend to stay on the racks long.

That’s why I was pleasantly surprised when I tried on a pair of pants at Express, from the Editor line, and they FIT! Not only did they fit perfectly in the waist, hips, and butt without being too loose or too tight, but they were plenty long enough. The regular size 2 has a nice long leg, which is great, since they don’t offer a long length option. I snagged a pair off the clearance rack for $40, which is a steal considering the regular price is closer to $80. Trust me though, these pants are worth it! I get irritated when I try pants on and they fit well in the butt, but leave a big back above my butt…I could fit another person in there! Not so with the Editor pants from Express, and I’m hoping Santa brings me another pair. They’re a classic tailored look with a not too wild flare leg that’s perfect for work.

Thank you Express, for realizing that skinny girls can be long legged!

When I saw my sister over Thanksgiving, she was telling me about her brand new clock. Well, not completely new, but new to her! And we don’t normally get excited over clocks, but this clock is a special cuckoo clock that belonged to her grandmother once upon a time. Shortly before Grandma died, she gave the clock to her daughter and son in law, and now they’ve given the clock to my sister. She had it fixed, polished up, and hung it on the wall in her living room. The clock was a gift to Grandma when she retired from her job in New Jersey, and it was so nice, the clock shop where my sister had it repaired offered to buy it!

Myself, personally, I’ve always been partial to grandfather clocks. I think the constant cuckoo sound of a cuckoo clock would eventually drive me…well, cuckoo. I’ve got nothing against the deep chimes of a grandfather clock though! My mother has always wanted a grandfather clock, and she was (I think) a teeny bit jealous when Jim and I received one from his grandmother. I’d love to get her a grandfather clock of her own for Christmas one year, like these Howard Miller grandfather clocks, but I’ll definitely need to convince the siblings to chip in on that gift with me. Knowing my mother, she’d love the Howard Miller Majestic Grandfather Clock I’ve shown here. It’s got additional shelves inside where collectibles can be displayed, making it a clock and a curio cabinet of sorts. And did you know that Howard Miller clocks are made in the USA?

I’ve done quite a bit of Christmas shopping online this year (thank you, Old Navy!) and packages are arriving on my doorstep daily. That means I’ve got a lot of gift wrapping area of me! One of the things that I miss when I order online is being able to grab gift boxes to put clothing in. Around this time of year, most stores have stacks and stacks of gift boxes available for customers to grab. I snagged a few from Beall’s, and a few more from Kohl’s, completely free of course.

Imagine my shock when I was recently inside Old Navy and they told me they CHARGE for their gift boxes! What? I just spent $100 in the store, and you want me to pay $2.50 for a cardboard box that says Old Navy on it? I’m sure such a box costs all of a few pennies. If Old Navy wants to “regulate” who gets a gift box, by all means - do so! Hand them out to customers who purchase from your store, and don’t let people snag a stack of ten. But don’t charge us for them!

Overstock.com is running a huge Christmas promotion, and they’re giving away huge prizes! You can win a prize a day, up to $1000 value, and YOU get to pick the prize! I just picked out diamond studs for myself, but you may find a new laptop or a plasma TV or some furniture…the sky is the limit. Well, actually, $1000 is the limit, but that’s a nice budget to work with!

Did you venture out on Black Friday, or during the Thanksgiving holiday? I did, but I was still sleeping in my bed early on Friday, when some were out trying to grab the best deals. My best deals so far include Guitar Hero III (with 2 guitars) for $89 at Target. I purchased it for $109 earlier in the week, and noticed it was on sale Friday, so I got the difference back after a short wait at guest services.

Another great deal was at Beall’s, which is a department store chain in Florida. All of their clearance merchandise was 50% off the original price, plus another 50% off that. I got my oldest a pair of Roxy shoes for $8, and Roxy t-shirts for $4!

What was your best deal of the weekend?

While in Las Vegas this weekend, we decided to make the 4 hour trek to the Grand Canyon in Arizona for an overnight visit. My husband had been to Las Vegas 3 or 4 times before this trip, so the kids all have Las Vegas t-shirts, and even glasses he bought at one of the hotels he stayed at previously. We opted to not buy them anything in Vegas, and waited until our arrival at the Grand Canyon to go souvenir shopping.

While on the shuttle route through Hermits Rest Road, we stopped at a small shop at the end of the line. We found beautiful matted photos of the canyon there, and got a few for family members, as well as for ourselves. We shuttled back down to Grand Canyon Village and hit Verkamp’s, which the original Grand Canyon souvenir shop. The store has been in the same spot, in the same building, for over 100 years, and the building is on the National Register of Historic Places. The store actually started prior to that though, when John George Verkamp began selling trinkets on the south rim of the Grand Canyon in 1898! Talk about a visionary!

Inside, we found t-shirts for the children, as well as an ornament for our Christmas tree. Every single ornament on our tree has some meaning behind it, so I like getting new ornaments on our travels to add to our collection.

If you’re ever at the Grand Canyon, plan to stop at Verkamp’s, even if it’s just to see the building and admire the view!

I have quite a few purses, but I generally don’t swap them out too often. I’m lazy, I guess! Yesterday, I was in Beall’s and saw a purse I couldn’t live without. It was the Liz Claiborne Money Maker in red, and it was calling my name.
I normally never spend over $30 on a purse - I’m just too tough on them! This purse retails for $60, but it was on sale for $40. With my trip to Vegas in just a few days, I decided a new purse was just the boost my wardrobe needed!

The purse is compact, but it has plenty of room for my fat wallet, my cell phone / PDA, my allergy medicine, and the case for my sunglasses. The strap is short enough that it fits under my arm when I walk, instead of banging against my rear end, like my last purse. And it’s red, which is my favorite color. A red purse goes with anything! Black clothing, brown shirts, prints, solids. I’m wearing a black skirt and a black sweater today and the red is a nice punch of color against the black.

Remember that show, Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous? I guess todays version is Cribs, where we see how rappers and rock stars live. Bath tubs big enough for 10 people and a tour bus full of guitars…right? When the rich and famous want to relax and unwind, do you think they head to a regular, plain Jane, family vacation resort like I do? Do they rent a little cabin at the ski slopes for a week like my family? I think not. The rich and famous, or in some cases, just the right, tend to stick with their own kind by visiting luxury resorts, the likes of which you and I only dream of. A typical luxury vacation can be completely over the top, including expensive spa treatments and gourmet meals, or it can be about seeing a part of the world most people won’t ever get to venture to.

This website also has a section on luxury gifts - you know, when a gift card simply isn’t enough! The blog is a fun read, if only just to see how the other half lives and gives!

Looks like my Nine & Company order just wasn’t meant to be.

Last week, about 3 weeks after I placed the order, it was canceled, and my cash was refunded. I’m bummed that I didn’t get the shirt I wanted, but on the other hand, I appreciate that once the store realized my shirt was on backorder, they attempted to find it. They actually went to the trouble of attempting to locate the shirt I wanted in their retail stores before canceling my order.

While I am disappointed that I didn’t get what I ordered, this won’t keep me from attempting to shop with Nine & Company again. I just need a little time to recover from my heartbreak. And, given that the shirt I ordered was for my trip to Vegas next week, I’m going to shop at brick and mortar stores for now - I don’t have much time left!

An old friend of mine recently announced she was pregnant, for the 3rd time. Her children are 7 and 10, so this baby is quite the welcome surprise, and she’s looking forward to doing all of the baby things all over again, but things have changed a LOT in 7 years. When she and I last had babies, styles were more cutesy and cuddly, and while they still are, for the most part, parents are also buying trendier styles for their infants. Baby bling from Aristabrat.com is one such up and coming brand specializing in high end baby gifts and bling. I absolutely love the onesie that says “Cereal Killer”. They’re not for every parent, but if you’ve got a friend with a sense of humor, it’s certainly a memorable gift!

With a week left until Halloween, I’m actually ahead of the curve for once. I bought the kids their costumes weeks ago, and I even have my Halloween candy already. The only thing remaining to purchase is a pumpkin. Being that we live in Florida, this isn’t something that can be purchased and carved weeks in advance. The heat would literally rot it in days. We won’t get our pumpkins until the weekend. Until then, we’ve got two fake pumpkins in our front yard that look exactly like the real thing.

I’ve got two pirates and the Bride of Frankenstein in this house for trick or treating - what are your kids dressing up as?

I’m not one for fancy collections, crystal, and china dinner plates, but I have several family members who love and and appreciate gifts like that. One in particular has a thing for unique nutcrackers, and she has several in the Seiffner style, as well as a few that resemble Disney characters. I came across this site selling Ulbricht nutcrackers and Steinbach nutcrackers - while they aren’t in the style that I’m used to seeing, I like them quite a bit. The nutcrackers that resemble Santa make it the perfect crossover gift for a Santa Claus collector as well, and we’ve also got one of those in the family.

As for me, I do have a thing for Christmas tree ornaments, and buy a special one each year. I absolutely love these Lalique crystal ornaments. With a different design each year, they make a great heirloom gift!

Leave it to the 3-Day people to bring a store along to a charity walk. If you want flip-flops with pink ribbons, or a 3-Day t-shirt, or something for the kids, you can get it at 3DayGear.com. They have a tent set up at the camp each night, and the “store” is mobbed with walkers getting extra gear. I wasn’t immune, either. I got a shirt for each of my girls that says “Someone I love walked in the 3-Day” and a shirt for myself. Knowing my son wouldn’t want to wear a shirt with a pink logo on it, I bought him a simple silver 3-Day necklace that reads, “What kind of world do you want?”