Guest Blogger: Black Friday by Sweetie

WalMart's Checkout line

I detest standing in lines…it drives me nuts… makes me kranky…etc…  My dear wife loves a bargain. In the past that has caused some conflict on Black Friday. Luckily, my wife hates early mornings about as much as I hate standing in line, and she doesn’t like confrontations, bad manners or ugly behavior. So after she witnessed one of those ugly incidents of people fighting over an item, she has decided it’s not worth getting up early to see people be rude. So I was a bit surprised on Wednesday when she casually mentioned that she might want to go to Kohl’s Black Friday sale. I just smiled and said, “Whatever you want, Beautiful.” She’s been staying up quite late, and she would never want to get up, so why not pretend to be supportive? That’s when she hit me with “it starts at midnight so we don’t have to get up at 5…” Oh crap, shopping at midnight…she would love that! I guess I was going Black Friday shopping.

As I was looking through the ads, I spied something. I can’t tell you what because, well because ‘tis the season for secrets. Anyway it looked like a screaming deal on something I had been wishing I could find for the past few years. It was on a two-day sale, not a six-hour sale, but it was at WalMart. Having been to WalMart once on Black Friday, I knew better.   Armed with a name and description I headed to the web to find the prize on line. A quick search revealed they weren’t easy to find. There were some on Ebay for roughly 4 times what they were at WalMart. Oh the shining glimmer of hope; they were listed on walmart.com… a quick stroke of the mouse (isn’t it funny how mice and Christmas associations have changed?) and most of my hope was gone. They were currently not available at walmart.com and according to the web they were not stocked in Utah Walmart stores .  WalMart was opening at 10 PM and Kohl’s at midnight. We could quickly run up to WalMart, see if they had the one item, then drive out to Kohl’s. Three hours and I could probably be in bed shortly after 1:00 AM. It was a good plan.

As I approached WalMart, I turned to my wife and said, “I didn’t know the Sam’s Club was open.” She smiled and said, “They’re not.” So the entire WalMart and Sam’s Club parking lots were full. Frustrated people were poring out of the parking lots after vainly searching for a spot.   I should have run…given up…gone home and crawled into bed where I belonged… but just then my wife noticed there were people leaving the store with purchased items. We could follow them for a parking space and a cart! I quickly followed a basket into the Sam’s Club portion of the parking lot, but three other cars were also converging with the same idea. Then I thought I saw a space…nope just the cart return. But maybe...we were driving a little Suzuki Grand Vitara.  It was small and Sam’s Club cart returns are huge…I think I could fit. Sure enough…I had a spot!

On the way in we found a cart.  It was all going to work out ok. Two strangers warned us to turn back, but we kept on walking. Finally we worked our way around and to toys, but no sign of the prize. Desperately, I swallowed my pride and prepared to lose a man card or two and ask for help, but what I wanted were all gone. We should have just walked away then. But wait, my wife had borrowed my daughter’s sewing machine and they were a really good price. We figured the Garden Center would be faster, so we headed for that line. The line took almost two hours. I would leave about every 15 minutes to scavenge for abandoned merchandise and we did end up with a few more items.

As we pulled out of the cart return, I was glad I let my wife drive. I was too tired to think. Then I realized she wasn’t gong  home but to Kohl’s! It’s hard to believe, but Kohl’s was worse than WalMart.  The lines literally covered every major walkway in the store. We decided to stash our finds behind clothes on the clearance racks and come back later…  I thought that meant about 9:00 AM… but evidently the plan was to go back about 2:30 AM.

As we re-arrived at Kohl’s, the lines were now only covering half of the walkways…we had been lucky enough to find a cart… we retrieved our hidden merchandise and picked up a few more. With the lines still halfway down the hall, I succumbed to blackmail. You could get in a shorter line at customer service if you applied for a Kohl’s card… I would do anything to get out of there ASAP.  We had a few issues and by the time we strolled out of the store, there was no line…and it was 4 AM… the regular line for early morning vs. late night Black Friday were forming…thankfully, we were headed to bed.

Oh, one other thing. When we were home waiting for Kohl’s to clear out, I checked walmart.com and was able to get my item at the sale price. I was only slightly annoyed with the hours we had wasted shopping, but then I remembered the thrill of the chase…Besides, I couldn’t park in a cart return on a normal day.

Double Discount Days

When Teach was just past 16 years old, she began working at a local grocery store. My sweetie says I can’t tell you the name of the store mostly because Teach and the Drama Queen both still work there. I’m a little sad about that because we are definitely fans of this institution! They treat their workers so well!

When Teach broke her foot playing basketball with me (I should get her to write that story for you), they gave her a couple of months off even though she was part time, and she was even paid for some of it. The girls receive coupons in the mail all the time asking them to try various products or become more familiar with store-brand stuff. They have team meetings where they are often given gift cards or other incentives. They gave out bonuses one year near Christmas time and the Drama Queen got about $300.00!

There are so good to work with schedules and school and even dates. But my favorite part about this store is the extra percentages off food and gas. Employees get an extra 5 cents off gas and they get 10 % off store brands. You know I go through tons of milk! That’s at least 25 cents less per gallon times 12 gallons a week…it adds up!

But my favorite discounts only come a few times each year. Usually right before holidays, their sister store offers what they call Double Discount Days. So instead of getting 10% off everything in the store (except food) we get 20% off. Yesterday was one of those days.

We like to do our Christmas shopping there and I got a huge chunk of it done yesterday. (Can’t tell you any secrets cause my kids read the blog…). We plan other purchases on DDD too. Like my sweetie needed some sandpaper so that he could sand the crack out of our ceramic cooktop. For some crazy reason, Princess thought she would give us all a shock by smacking it with the yardstick like her teachers do in school. Unfortunately, she didn’t realize that "ceramic" meant breakable, and when she was finished, I think she was more shocked than we were. The crack is about 4 inches long…

We also bought a new space heater that looks like a fireplace to go in our downstairs family room. Instead of paying the regular price of $200, we got it for about $100. I’m excited about that because I always freeze when we watch a movie together even when I’m snuggling with my sweetie. I’ll let you know how it works out, since we have a movie party planned for tomorrow night.

But the best thing I bought today was for Baby Doll. Look at these cute little boots! We have had zero success keeping shoes on that girl. I’m hoping she can’t get these off.

My New Role

Did I ever tell you it’s hard to actually pull off going anywhere with this crew of mine? You know ever since I wrote about the Mormon Miracle pageant a couple of weeks ago and how much I enjoyed being part of that cast as a kid, everybody but my sweetie has been dying to go see it. I was most anxious to see if it was as amazing as I remember from my youth and some of the kids insisted they had never been. We say that we will go every year, but something always comes up and it doesn’t happen. This year was no different.

Princess and the Prima Donna spent all week at Girls’ Camp, so Saturday night was our only option and it also happened to be the last performance. Teach, Drama Queen, and the Dog Walker all survived Friday night at their Relay for Life, walking the track and helping raise money for cancer research and cure. (Thanks to everyone who donated, btw!) Then we had three soccer games (except that Crafty threw up right before her game, so she didn’t go) and I had to make a quick trip to Kohl’s that turned into a long trip…they have some amazing clearance and I have an extra 30% off this week! But I think I’m pretty much done with school shopping.

Anyway, by the time everyone got back to the house, tired and exhausted (and a little ornery), I almost wrote it all off. But we were still in the same boat, everybody but my sweetie said they wanted to go so we quickly loaded a cooler and some sandwich makings and stuffed everyone in the van. With the older girls along, every seat was full. And believe me, we heard about it for most of the 2-hour drive! Thankfully, a bunch of them took the opportunity to nap, so that helped. We spent a couple of hours at Grandma’s house, then we headed for Manti.

We arrived just before 9:00, found a parking place, covered everybody but the baby in bug spray, and hiked three blocks to the temple grounds. I could tell right off that things were different. First of all, the blankets we brought were mostly not necessary. Almost the entire area was covered with folding chairs. When I was young, they only had a small section of them for the “old” people and everyone else spread out on the ground. My sweetie grumbled about not getting to cuddle on a blanket, but then led the troops right down front. We waited for about half an hour for the show to begin. Curly kept bouncing around from seat to seat, a combination of the donut I fed him and the fact that he hadn’t remembered to go to the potty.

Finally the show began at dusk. The kids were annoyed that I knew all of the words since the soundtrack is mostly the same, so after about the first 10 minutes I stopped quoting and started listening. The part when Joseph dies still made me cry as did the Mormon Battalion scene. It was not the same, but then it couldn’t be. There I was, no longer a young girl who was part of the cast, but a mom with ten of her children gathered around, watching the scenes unfold. I had Baby Doll tucked in my jacket to nurse and keep the bugs away. Curly and Teach on one side, Drama Queen with Scout on the other. All the normal quiet chaos we have at any church meeting and I found myself feeling very comfortable in my new role. I guess that’s how life usually works. You can’t really ever go back…but maybe forward is better anyway.

Friday Freebies: Coupon Night

 
I am still so new to this blogging thing that I have to call Bossy every time I need to understand the rules.  She would love it if I would spend hours every day promoting various blogs and reading examples from others.  I prefer the writing part and I truly don't have time to spend more than a few minutes a day while Baby Doll is nursing, Curly is climbing on my back and kicking my chair, and Scout is pestering me for just one more book. 
 
That said, I have read some of the blogs she forwards to me and one of my favorites is "The Meanest Mom."  I want to be more like her when I grow up.  Today Bossy forwarded me a contest on her blog I couldn't say no to. The Meanest Mom, Walgreens, and BlogHer are teaming up and one lucky reader of her blog will win a $100 gift card to Walgreens. 

Since there are about 100 Walgreens in a 2-mile radius of my home, I've had plenty of opportunity to shop there.  I love their rebate program where you can go in and buy some weird thing you've never tried before and then get all of your money back.  Check out her contest here.  Be sure to tell her twelvemakesadozen sent you.  

Don't forget to enter in my giveaway.  I have enjoyed reading your emails and comments.  Don't forget to enable your email on your blogger account or leave an email in your comment so I can contact you if you win!  Submissions close TODAY Friday, Feb. 25th the winner will be contacted on the 27th.   Onto the Freebie Friday:

We love to eat out! To us, it means no dishes and no clean-up. The only problem is that it’s expensive! Although I haven’t come up with a cost-free method of eating out every night and twice a day on weekends, I have figured out a way we can eat out about once a month with very little cost. It’s called Coupon Night, and my kids think it’s great (mostly because we usually get at least two desserts). In most of our public schools, teachers give out lots of coupons. Our kids have received coupons for kids’ meals, chicken sandwiches, frozen yogurt, ice cream cones, cookies, movies, water-parks, and plenty of other things. We also cut out coupons from the local newspapers for free candy bars, buy 1 get 1 free dinners at fast food places, and other things that we can share. Then we find a night on our busy calendar when most of us are home, and we map out our strategy. 

It is important to plan our stops so that we actually have a meal before we get any desserts. We also want to make sure that everyone gets a share of our collective booty. Sometimes we have to supplement our coupons with a few dollars, but we try to keep our cash outlay at less than $10.00 for the night not counting gas. I have a large manila envelope on my desk where we stash all of these coupons until the chosen day. First, we gas up the van and get our free car wash. We’ve got to look good, even if we are being cheap! We might start at Fat Jacks pizza where three of our kids had earned free small pizzas. After getting their pizzas we head to Chick Fil A where we pick up four free chicken sandwiches and then stop in at Sonic and grab some buy 1 get 1 free hamburgers. We share and munch on our way to Smith’s. 

At Smith’s, we usually stop at the bakery and get free cookies. Then we grab a cart for a few more goodies. I have a couple of buy 1, get 1 free coupons for two-liter bottles of soda pop, so we pick up several kinds for later. On our way out of Smith’s, we head over to Menchis and everyone gets a frozen yogurt (free, with coupons, of course). We stop by the RedBox on our way home and pick up a couple of free movies. After we arrive at our house, we pour everyone a free soda, pop in one of our free movies, and sit back to relax and digest with no dishes, no clean-up, and no financial guilt.

Speaking of free food check this out: http://www.chick-fil-a.com/FreeFryDay.html 

Cow Appreciation Day

Have you ever heard of Cow Appreciation Day? Neither had I until a couple of years ago. We don’t eat out very often for obvious reasons. There are a lot of us and even McDonalds dollar menu costs about $30.00 for a lunch that won’t keep them full until suppertime. So we weren’t that excited when we heard that they were building a new Chick Fil A in our hometown.

I had no idea how often we’d enjoy their yummy chicken sandwiches and at very reasonable prices, sometimes even free! Chick Fil A is very supportive of the schools by handing out coupons at various activities, often for free sandwiches or ice cream, but nothing is as good as Cow Appreciation Day.

It falls the second Friday of July (this year it is on the 8^th). When Bossy first told me about it, I thought she was crazy, but like her, I just can’t pass up the thought of a free meal even if it means I have to make a fool of myself. If you show up at the Chick Fil A dressed as a cow on the appointed day, you get a free meal! If they think your costume is only a partial cow (like a hat), they will give you just a sandwich instead of a sandwich, fries, and a drink. The first year we participated in this ritual, we got white t-shirts and I sewed black spots on them. Then we taped white spots to dark pants and headed to Chick Fil A. We were winners! We all received free food and a great time playing their carnival-type games and jumping in the bounce house.

Last year we decided this was something we wanted to be involved with each and every year it was offered, so I headed to the fabric store. When I got to Hancock Fabrics, I knew just what I was looking for, black and white cow print in something heavy enough for shorts. I was so excited to find exactly that on the clearance rack! I paid $1.15/yard for enough fabric to make shorts for just about everyone. With the cow shorts done, I needed to find something to give us a complete outfit. I had purchased some white painter’s caps several years ago from the Oriental Trading Company. With a black sharpie, we turned them into cow hats. All that was left was a white t-shirt and some black felt spots. (The shirts from the previous year had all frayed out.) Bossy came over and took the scraps of fabric home.  She returned with cow-tails some with yarn for hair for everyone.  We looked amazing! Or should I say "amooozing"! And if you start early, you can visit one Chick Fil A for lunch and a different one for dinner. It really makes me appreciate cows, coupons, and Chick Fil A.

Happy Birthday

Happy Birthday to me! I’m older than a tree! Fewer brain cells for me! …What day did you say it was again?! Not to belabor the birthday thing, but I am one year older. I’ve been thinking a lot about birthdays this past week. My older brother celebrated his on the 22^nd. I’m comforted by the fact that no matter how old I get, he’ll always be two years older than me! My oldest sister turned 51 a couple of weeks ago and celebrated it by becoming a grandma for the first time. ‘Grats on the birth of the twins!

My sweetie wanted to take me out to dinner last Friday to celebrate my birthday. We had a giftcard to Outback Steakhouse. I’d never been there before so I thought it would be fun. We drove across town, discussing the menu he had pulled from the internet. I was excited about the prospects of a big, juicy steak until we turned into the parking lot. There was not an empty space to be found. Vehicles were even parked on the street. I wanted a steak, but not that bad. My sweetie offered to take me to another place, but I didn’t want to spend that kind of money so we pulled out the Happenings book.

After flipping through a few pages, we found a coupon for a Chinese restaurant that shall remain nameless since I don’t want to be sued. The salad was OK, but that’s the nicest thing I can say about the food. The company was fantastic (it always is when I’m with my sweetie) and the fish tank was cool. Other than that the only good thing about it was that it wasn’t busy. I guess that should have been a clue, but as I already mentioned, more birthdays for me means fewer brain cells

Bossy

I’ve done it already. Less than a week into this new blog and I’ve managed to offend someone. It’s not that I didn’t think this day would come, I just didn’t expect it so quickly. Big Daddy (who doesn’t particularly love his name, by the way) said that we had to be oh so careful because this stuff stays on the web forever. Sharing secrets and personalities could make people hate us. But the big surprise came when the e-mail arrived from my oldest daughter. 

She thought maybe I was portraying her strengths in a negative light and I just wanted to set the record straight. She is an amazing person! She gets things done. That’s why we call her Bossy. But most of us love being bossed around most of the time because it produces the results we want. I take her shopping with me because I know she will find the best possible deal even if it drives me crazy! 

When I need to send someone to the grocery store with my pile of coupons, she is my first choice because she watches and makes sure everything comes up right and I never get ripped on when she is holding the receipt. She sets goals and makes them happen. 

She’s one of my exercise buddies because she won’t let me quit. Nobody defends me on the basketball court like she does! She organizes our little army into a mean cleaning machine; attacking the garage, the yard, the basement, you name it. We let her be in charge because she is good at it. So Bossy is a very appropriate, well-earned title and one that she should be proud of!