What a day. I am on Hilary's laptop right now. The kids went to bed -- we watched Over the Hedge which sucked...I stopped it half way through to read books because the girls were getting bored. After a few books we watched the end of it, and there was still 15 min to go for brushing teeth and bed time. So they went to bed a tad bit early, but Leta did say she was tired. So. Then I raided the house for food. I hadn't eaten dinner yet, and was hungry. I managed to find: a all natural peanut krispie bar, and a piece of cheese. Oh and they got me some diet coke, but you sometimes you just need food.

Afterwork today I took the bus and went to East Towne mall to do some Christmas shopping -- which was a 45 minute bus ride, so it was 3:00 by the time I got there.... Before that I called my brother Shane to see if he had found his coat yet -- he didn't. While I was at it, I got his pants size and tried to get my other brother Josh...but no one knew. In the end I decided to just get him fleece lounge pants...and just guess double X's on all the clothes. They said to get him clothes because he spends all his money on that XBox 360. I told Tim that when he came to pick me up (what a sweetie!) he replied "It's a sucky world when Josh gets a 360 before I do."

"Yeah, but Josh doesn't have any clothes. You have to sacrifice something for it," I said.

"I don't have to have clothes," he replied.

"But then you wouldn't be able to leave the house," I answered. "You know Josh rarely leaves the house. Is it really worth it?"

"No," he sighed. "I guess not."

So....I got Josh, Shane and my Mom stuff...and I think I am done. I mean, I was going to get my stepdad a space heater from Menards...but other than that...I might be done with shopping. I can't figure out what to get Tim. He's still the kind of person that if he needs something he just goes out to get it. Although, he is buying ME stuff for Christmas. He said it's because he knows there is stuff I want, but never get. He's right on that. I don't often shop for myself too much...well except for the other day. I wore that skirt to the doctor that day and MAN oh MAN did it make me feel great. It's super full, like a flameco dancer kind of skirt and it totally gave me the confidence I needed. I also love the bracelet. But let's consider what else I got...hm I did get that orange long sleeved shirt at Target in the clearance rack for 3 bucks, and before that I got a powder blue fleece from Old Navy (12) when I went to buy gloves (6) and ear warmers....and before that it was the Armoire that I had waited for over a year to get for the television/entertainment gear. Trust me that was money well spent...although it took 8 hours for me to put that bastard together. What am I saying here? I am saying that if I wanted there are lots of things I could run out and buy...and be a normal american who lives paycheck to paycheck.

So, after all that shopping -- man was that hard. I mean seriously, shopping for men is ... hard. The clothes are in out of the way locations, the clearance racks were hidden, and the longer I shopped the heavier my bag got. I did learn something about department store shopping though -- and that is they usually have boxes! Yeah, I totally got boxes for all the stuff I got, so I won't even have to worry about it! While I was at the mall I picked out one of those wish things and got a 12 year old girl a nice pair of earrings. I almost traded it in for a matching necklace/earring set -- but the metal looked cheap and I wanted these earring to be good. They were red and crystal, drop like earrings...anyway, I would have been thrilled to get a pair like that when I was a teeenager, I hope the girl likes them.

The only thing I allowed myself to get was a cinnasticks when I bought a diet coke to quench my thirst before Tim picked me up. We split them in the car on the way home, when I realized how exhausted I was! Even now, I am quite tempted to just finish this post and take a nap. I very well might do that.

Tomorrow will be nice. No work. I can start to figure out the food stuff's I am going to make and disperse.

Lori, we are planning on using NEXT (the weekend of Christmas) as a travel day up North and doing some visiting along the way -- namely you/Andrew and then Dad. Do you guys have plans that day?