Black Friday Adventures

The majority of my life Black Friday has consisted of me sitting at home, hanging out, enjoying the day off school. My mom always did her Christmas shopping on this day and was gone ALL day long. Around lunchtime my dad would heat up leftovers and we would all search for the rolls--my mom would hide them because she knew we would eat them all while she was gone, so instead she hid them so we couldn't do so. Once I got in college we would go to South Coast Plaza and pick out what we wanted and my mom would "take notes". 

This year I decided to see what all the Black Friday Hype was all about. I sat down after eating Thanksgiving with the family and looked through all the ad's. From Home Depot to Toys R Us I looked and looked to see if anything caught my eye. I was pleasantly suprised! Here was what I wanted/needed:

1. Item A (Cannot disclose because it is a gift for my mom)--Usually very expensive, but on sale for a VERY good price if I got the earlybird deal.

2. Cricut Expression- Wal-mart was selling them for $188! (Usually they cost $300+) 

3. Cricut Cartridges- $30

3. Roomba- $99! Andy and I have wanted one of these since we got married.

4. Christmas Decorations 50% off

5. Infant clothes- 60% off

6. Office chair- $35 (Usually $80!)

7. Space Heater for nursery- $19 (Usually $50)

After deciding getting no sleep would be worth all the great deals, I had to convince Andy that this was a worthwhile decision. I needed his help lifting items and wrestling people to the ground if necessary since I am in no condition to do so. 

Stop 1: Kohls. Store Opening: 4:00 AM, Arrival time of Team Coons: 3:20 AM.

I could NOT believe the amount of people in line already. I think Andy was in total and complete shock at how many people were as crazy as we were. We bundled up and got in line. We met Sue, who only wanted a waffle maker. Beth brought her two children with her so they could split up and get what the needed. By the time 4:00 rolled around the line almost wrapped the building! Our dilemma was we only needed 2 things, Item A and Roomba, but we needed to be out of Kohls by 4:15 in order to get to Wal Mart in time. When they opened the doors it was a mad dash to get our items. Within 30 seconds there were people EVERYWHERE!!! I couldn't believe it. Sue was pushing people to get her waffle maker, and I was frantically searching for the Roomba while Andy searched for Item A. We both found them, got in line, and were back in our car by 4:08. Phew! We made our deadline.

Stop 2: Wal-mart. Store Opening: 24 hours, putting out Black Friday items at 5:00 AM. Arrival of Team Coons: 4:20

We were most scared for this adventure. I wanted the cricut SO badly, but knew it was going to get hairy. I dropped Andy off to run in while I parked. I grabbed a cart and asked the first employee where the cricuts were going to be... he asked what a cricut was, and I went on to the next employee--obviously he didn't know. I found a woman who looked legit and she showed me a map of the store and pointed to where they were. I found Andy and we began hunting. There were people EVERYWHERE frantically searching for that one item they wanted most. Lines were forming for different items in anticipation for the 5:00 AM time. I needed to find the cricut line! Out of the corner of my eye I saw David--dressed in a shirt and tie with a tag that read "Store Manager"... he had to know where the cricuts were! I asked and he pointed to the electronic station and said, "Survival Alley". I then told Andy to make his way through and not come back until he found them. (**Sidenote, I had 2 hours of sleep and was not going to go through all this effort for nothing, I got a little ruthless--sorry love!) I then walked to the back of the aisle and sitting in front of me were the cricuts... only 2 left!! I just about fainted. I called Andy back and we put both in our cart. (My SIL wanted one too, so I we picked it up for her). YAHOO! We did it! We got the cricut. I was a little ticked that not one employee told us they were already out before the 5:00 AM time. Then I was ok with it because we got one! We then found the other items on our list and headed out. 

Stop 3: K-Mart. Store Opening: 6:00. Arrival time of Team Coons: 5:10. 

We were about the 100th person in line and by the time the store opened the line wrapped around Kmart. It was crazy! At one point the people in the front of the line got mad about something, tried to break in, and the cops came. We made friends with Bob who just wanted a Digital Camera for his son who is a senior. The lady in front of us didn't even look at the Ad! She just wanted to see what was on sale and grab as she went. At 5:55 they opened the doors. We ran in, grabbed a Roomba (they also had them on sale for $99, but it was a different model, so we bought both the one at Kohls and this one to see which was better and are going to return the one that we don't want), we got the space heater, the random christmas decorations we needed and called it a day! 

All our Black Friday Finds... it seriously looked like we robbed a store. 

Overall I think Black Friday was a huge success. We are both exhausted, but are so excited about our purchases and all the money we saved. We are done with all our Christmas Shopping and can't wait until next year. 

FYI- Kmart had the best toy selection and the best toy prices of the three stores we went to. 

37 Weeks and the Nursery!

Here I am at 37 weeks:

I feel great besides the occasional backache and constant bathroom breaks. I finally feel like I am ready for this baby to come, especially now that the nursery is done! YAY!

Here it is:

1. Darling Changing Table- We went back and forth on whether or not to get a changing table. We decided to get one last week and I am so happy we did. I LOVE IT! I am so excited to have a designated changing place with all items in one place. (It's the organizational side in me)
2. Dresser- This dresser was my dad's when he was a boy. I wish I had taken a before picture because you would not recognize it. Andy spent so much time sanding and making it perfect. We removed the base and added legs and I LOVE it. It turned out perfect and just as I had imagined. I also love the knobs. The Willow statues on top I also love... a gift from the soon to be dad. 3. The reading corner- Here is our wonderful book collection! I love all our books and cannot wait to read them to our little boy someday. The bookshelf is perfect, and we are almost out of room! The bookends are from Great Grandma Glenda and I love the way they look. For those of you wondering.... the rocker is from La-Z-Boy! My mom kept telling me to stop by and just look at what they had, but every time I thought about la-z-boy I thought of big and bulky chairs. On Labor day we finally decided to stop in and see what they had. This chair was JUST what I was looking for, I LOVE green and it was marked down 70% for the holiday. I could not be happier about it!
4. The Crib- The crib and bedding are darling. Not much to say.... luckily we now have a Nochi for little man that matches perfectly and I am a little jealous. I wish they made Nochi's in adult size...hint hint Stapleys!!

Now all we have to do now is wait.... I think that is the hardest part! We can't wait to meet our little monkey!

Catch Up!

It is time to play catch up...so much has happened in the past few weeks!

1. Halloween

Halloween was so fun! I only have a few pictures... It was fun to have the whole family over and celebrate together.

Cute Baby Avery

Me and Bosty

Me and my Polka-Dot Pumpkin

Andy and his Pumpkin


2. Baby Shea

While we were in California Shea spotted the Animal Cookies and decided to do anything possible to get some....

"Oops... I got caught"

"Hmm... these are pretty good"

"Andy, try some, they are tasty!"

3. Trevor Dean came home!!







4. 36-weeks

Today I am officially "Full-term"... only 4 weeks to go! The nursery is almost 100% complete and then I will post pictures. We are anxiously waiting for our little guy to arrive. I am still feeling good and comfortable. I could take a nap at any point during the day, but other than that all is well!

Consider yourself caught up!

Elder Bruce is back!

The Bruce Family

...more to come. 

LONG night!

Saturday night was a LONG night. Halloween was great (post to come) and it was so fun having John and Jane (home for a 2 week stretch before heading back to the mission field) to celebrate with. The guests left and I started feeling a little queasy... I took a bath hoping to calm my stomach, which worked for about 10 minutes. 10 minutes later everything I had eaten in the past 24 hours decided to resurface. I laid on the bathroom floor ALL night long until about 3:00 AM. I then realized I was getting dehydrated so I tried drinking some fluids. 10 minutes later that decided it didn't want to stay down either.

Andy and I then decided to go to the hospital to make sure baby was ok....**Sidenote--ask anyone in my family they will tell you when I have gotten the stomach flu in the past it is NO joke. I usually lose 10+ lbs, lose all fluid, sound like a dying seal, and work myself into such dehydration that I have to go to the ER to get an IV. Ask Ashley about the time she was babysitting the kids while my parents were out of town and the Doctor gave me an anti-nausea medicine that I was allergic to...it ended up with me getting Lock-Jaw and rushed to the Doctor so my throat wouldn't swell up and basically kill me...good times**

Anyway, back to Saturday night. So we get to the hospital and they sent me straight to Labor and Delivery. After I reassured everyone I was NOT in labor, they got me hooked up to the monitors. As it turns out what I thought were upset stomach pains were really contractions! I had been having them every 3-5 minutes! I knew I always wanted an epidural, but now my feelings are confirmed! I will be getting an epidural FOR SURE! They got my hooked up to an IV, gave me 4 Liters of fluid plus some anti-nausea medicine. The lack of fluid was what started my contractions...but the 4 Liters didn't solve the problem. So they went to Plan B which was a muscle relaxer. After giving me the shot the contractions finally slowed down and eventually stopped. Phew!

I was sent home with direct orders not to do anything but rest and drink LOTS of fluid. I now only have about 1-2 contractions every hour which the doctors said is normal and will be just fine.

So if I jump off the blog wagon for a few days/weeks it's because I am not supposed to be blogging :-)...

In other news.... this fine young gentleman comes home THIS Saturday!!! 9:10 AM, Orange County Airport!!!
The doctor said so long as I stay stable the rest of the week as I am now I can go to California... oh and if I make sure I don't go to a "Podunk (sp?) town". When I told him I was going to Orange County, he just looked at me and said, "Well, make sure you are close to a good hospital in case you need to see a Doctor"--Obviously he has never heard of Saddleback Memorial. So I will be taking it easy so we can welcome home Elder Trevor Dean Bruce!!!