Recovering Shopaholic

OK so totally not trying to recover :-) I used to go to the mall almost every day...seriously, 3-4 times weekly. That's harder to do now with a baby in tow. I hate staying home though. You can only clean and do laundry so many times (OK so I have a housekeeper, takes care of the cleaning part) a day. I compensate now by going to lunch with the girls 3-4 times a week. Usually just the girls because Kaylor is a night owl and prefers to sleep till at least noon. He's homeschooled so that works well for him :-)

Anyway, we found that we were spending 20 min trying to decide where to go or arguing over who had to choose last time. We devised a plan....We wrote the names of the 25 places we eat on slips of paper, folded them and put them in a bag. We choose a restaurant and that's where we have lunch! The first day we put the plan into action, Britt didn't want to go to the chosen restaurant so she vetoed it. We decided then we could each have one veto a day. The next restaurant chosen was good with us all so we go there only to find out they're not open for lunch :-( Was the plan really gong to work? We just went to a place close by and decided to try again the next day. Since then the plan has worked great! We ended only going to each one like once a month and the choice gets made quickly!! Awesome! Today we're having barbeque!!

As for the shopping, I still freakin' love to shop! I'm obsessed with Coach purses and shoes of all kinds. I love love love to shop for the kids and Jerry. Now that it's almost time for Christmas shopping (I can't officially start until the day after Thanksgiving) I'm all in a tizzy about it! I can't wait!!!!!!!!

I give each of the kids a Christmas list to fill out, due back to me by Thanksgiving. Everyone has to have the same number of gifts. I'm OCD like that. I still like to play "Santa". Every year all the kids would stay here Chrismas eve night so Santa could come. Every gift was wrapped and under the tree. Christmas morning everyone would open a gift and then figure out to whom it belonged because I didn't put names on anything! It was awesome!

Christmas was always nuts around here for 2 days because of tradition. Christmas eve was at my grandmother's house with my extended family. Then the kids would exchange gifts here. Christmas morning was Santa at like 4 AM then breakfast here with my mom and grandmother. Then at 10 we go to my mom's to let he do "santa" too. Back to my grandmother's for Christmas dinner then the kids would go to their dads or their significant other's family and everyone would be exhausted by 3 or 4 Christmas day. Tradition will change this year. Hopefully for the better. Christmas eve still at my grandmothers (she'll be 92 in Jan so who knows how much longer we'll get to have that tradition) then here for the kids to exchange gifts with each other. Britt, Keith and Maliyah will stay at their own home this year but the rest of the kids will be here. When Maliyah wakes up (usually around 7:30) we'll all go there to be with her to open her gifts from Santa. We'll cook breakfast there then still go to my mom's around 10. All the kids will come here then for 'santa' about 5 Christmas afternoon. Hopefully everyone won't be exhausted because we won't have to get up at 4 inthe morning to cram everything in. I think instead of cooking a full meal though we'll do finger foods and desserts though.

I HEART CHRISTMAS!!!

OK enough of the past......I think I've just decided all my posts now are going to be about the present and the future. Unless, of course, I think of something I just HAVE to share. :-)

OK......I admit it..........

I LEFT MY SON AT THE MALL...........FORGOT HIM!

Britt & Keith had been trying for a while to have a child. After going to a fertility clinic for a couple of years, they had started looking into adoption. One Thurs in late Jan, it was the 19th I think, I was Britt's house and she was showing me some adoption literature she had rec'd in the mail that day. The folliwng Mon Jan 23rd Britt called and asked if we wanted to go out to dinner. I had a doctor's appt at 4:45 but figured I'd be out in time to make it. She even wanted me to call Jerry to see if he could meet us at the restaurant. She asked my mom to go, Amber, Davin and their respective boyfriends at the time, and Kaylor. I knew something was up. Could she be pregnant? No way, she had just looked at adoption literature 4 days earlier. That was it, they were going to announce that they had decided to adopt. How exciting!! I was so happy for them.

So halfway through dinner Keith says "Do y'all want the good news or the bad news? The bad news is someone has to pay for dinner. There is no good news". So I sat there waiting...and waiting...and waiting. Finally Britt couldn't take it anymore and said "Ok I can't stand it, mom you're going to be a grandmother". After spitting out my mouth full of tea, I screamed. Everyone in Logan's steakhouse looked at me like I was nuts but I didn't care. I WAS GOING TO BE A GRANDMOTHER!!!!!! Sweetest words I've ever heard (well besides "You're going to be a mom") Turns out that at Britt's appt at the fertility clinic that day, her pregnancy test as positive. I couldn't eat. i was waaayyyy too exicited! I was ready to shop (yah, I always want to shop but really really wanted to then). As soon as we were done Britt, kaylor and I headed to the mall. We parted ways with Kaylor at the door and told him we wouldn't be there long...it was already almost 8 PM. We hit Gap, Belks, Parisians and cleared out the baby depts of every cute outfit we could find, boy or girl (figured we're return whichever we didn't need later). Still chattering away, I dropped Britt off at home, went to our house and showed Jerry & Amber the cute things we had bought. After about 20 min Jerry said "Where's Kaylor?" OMG.........I HAD LEFT MY SON AT THE MALL!!!!! I jumped in the car, called his cell phone and said "Where are you?" He said "I'm outside the closed mall, where are YOU??" Yah, he still reminds me of that to this day, usually when he wants something :-)