Today was just another blah day. The weather wanted to make me crawl into bed and go back to sleep. However unless you have the most awesome child in the whole world then chances are you are going to be up all day. We hummed around the house wishing we could get out and do something. Snow isn’t thick enough to build anything and let her enjoy it and there wasn’t any money to go shopping like I wanted to. Sometimes I wish that money was never an option for anyone so that when I got ready to go out and do something I had no restrictions. However we do in this life and so we stayed at home trying to figure out what was for lunch. My daughter always wants to have chips and hot sauce so we made homemade chips from corn tortillas and had some hot sauce and sat down to watch a Christmas movie. I love when it seems like that time of the year were everything is snowy and Christmas music is playing and you can cuddle up with your kiddos and enjoy their company all day long. After watching a Christmas movie and just relaxing in the warmth of our home blessed to have the things we do have we curled up in a blanket and went to sleep. Little did I know I had a sleeping possum so our great day soon turned into a fun filled clean up the nail polish day.

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I do the majority of my shopping at Wal-Mart, because things are usually cheaper there, and if you need to get things that aren’t grocery items it’s nice to just go to one place and it all out of the way. When ever I go to United and realize that I need to get shampoo or something like that, I can’t bring myself to buy it there because I know I’m spending so much more money and not even getting the product that I would really purchase if I had more of a selection. So, most of the time, just hit up Wal-Mart and get everything out of the way. BUT… today, I went to United. By choice. Because they most certainly do have one thing that Wal-Mart can’t compete with… grocery baggers. At Wal-Mart the cashier is also the bagger, so they just spin that little wheel and you get your own bags off the trolly and then put them in the cart, then you just take the cart outside and put your own groceries in the car and then put the cart in the cart holder and then you can leave. When you go to United, they have people in there whose jobs are to bag the groceries, put them in the cart, then go outside with you and load them into your car. Tonight, it was freeze raining. So you can understand why I went there and how awesome it was to have someone go outside with me and help me out in the cold, and then take the cart away themselves. Thanks, United, for paying someone to take out my groceries.

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Have you ever wondered what was the best method to get your Christmas shopping done? They say that this year they are trying to get the consumers to order their Christmas shopping online to cut down from the holiday traffic and chaos. However I think that holiday shopping online is the worst if you are not prepared for items to get lost in the mail or even not ship out till after the holidays. There is also the possibility that the items you ordered will not be in stock by the time they get to your order, and what about back order? This could cause a major panic for consumers which causes an even more chaotic shopping day in town. I personally would not order anything over the internet unless I started the first of November. I am still leery of whether my child will have her Christmas when I do order online even if its during the first of November. I do not seem to be the only one in my family that chooses not to order things online my in laws and my mother state they wouldn’t get online either to order anything with the fear that its not going to be here in time for their children or grand child to enjoy anything. Lots of people have no issues with ordering online however but sometimes I wonder how much more they pay in fees to have it shipped over night. Not something I want to find out. I will just continue to get in the shopping race.

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I looove Christmas shopping. What I don’t love is keeping secrets. I have the hardest time not telling people what I got them, or giving them their presents early. My sister and I are both really bad at this, so it’s always been our tradition to give each other our gifts as soon as we get to see each other over the holidays. This year, I already have pretty good ideas of what I’m getting everyone, and I want to make sure that everyone is happy, so it’s really hard for me to not ask them and make sure it’s going to be a good gift idea. And, I’m always really scared that I’m going to get something for someone that someone else got them. I hate when ever I get someone a double gift, it makes me sad that they are going to have to return it and get something else to replace one of them. I always try to talk with everyone before hand in the family to make sure and find out what they are getting so there are no duplicates during Christmas. This year, though it’s pretty early, I already know what my brother is getting for his girlfriend and what I should get for him, so I just have to fill in everyone else and we will all be on the same page. Now, I just have to make sure that I can do that for everyone, so we are all good with the entire family. I can’t wait to go shopping!

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So, this year they came out with the new holiday “It Toy”, just like they do every year. This year, it’s a Zhu Zhu. I hadn’t heard of them, either, if you haven’t, so don’t feel bad. It’s little hamster that’s fake, but does all the god stuff that a hamster does with out the bad. So far, they have calculated that over 97,310 of these little critters have been sold, and that they are now impossible to get for Christmas. When I was younger, I remember Nano Babies being the huge thing one year. Then, I can remember everyone wanted a Furbie. Once I got older I still head about these toys causing so much stress, Tickle me Elmo, so on, and every year this happens, and I don’t understand it. All you have to do if you really, really want to get one and can’t find one anywhere is wait a month after Christmas, and they will be all over the place and even cheaper than most paid for them in the first place. I can understand trying really hard to get one, but I can’t understand almost killing yourself over stressing out if you don’t. Just tell you kids that they will get it, but it just can’t be on Christmas morning. I wish people wouldn’t stress out so much over something that is supposed to be a fun thing. Getting and receiving presents is supposed to be the best part of the hoildays, and if you stress out so much it just ruins the fun. So, get them what ever you can, make sure they are happy and have fun and safe, and enjoy the holidays yourself, as well.

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Gander Mountain is one of those stores that remind me of my dad. We can go into Gander Mountain, and he can get lost for hours and hours just looking at stuff. He does this with only a few places, those places have to have either guns, fishing stuff, knives, or home repair stuff. I love going to Gander Mountain because they have so much stuff in there to look at. It’s like the best place to go and look at different guns and one of the only places you can ever find certain ammo at. And their selection of fishing stuff is INSANE. I don’t even know what some of it is for. I like to just go in there with my dad and follow him around the store around Christmas time, because it makes shopping for him really easy with out him even knowing. He can talk about everything in that store, and anything you pick out he can tell you what it is, who made it, what it does, and if it’s good. It’s like he studies those outdoorsman magazines all day, because he knows EVERY thing there is to know about the stuff in there. When I go in there with out him, it’s just not the same trip. My mom and I like to go walk around and look at the girls stuff, and then we try to see who can guess where my dad is and find him the fastest. I can’t wait for a trip here soon, because I need to get him his Christmas present!

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I love to shop just like any other girl, maybe a little bit more. I have always been addicted to buying shoes and dresses mainly, but I love to get anything. I love sunglasses but I have a really hard time keeping track of them. I also love to get jewelry, but I lose things that are small a lot or I lose just one earring and can’t wear them anymore. I love to go to the mall right before a night out and get a new outfit to wear with my friends, or get a new pair of shoes for the night to match what I’m already wearing. But, the one thing that I don’t understand is name brand clothing. Now, I love nice things just like everyone else, and I love things that are made with quality and that I know will last, but I don’t like getting tricked into paying three times the amount something actually costs because it has a specific label on it. I am fine with shopping at any old store, and the only tag that I’m interested in seeing is the price tag. Would my high heels be any more comfortable if they had a designer name on the bottom of them? No. There are some things no one should be cheap about, but most of the time it isn’t going to matter if you paid 20 dollars for a pretty dress versus 120 dollars for that same look at a different store. Some people for some reason really care about this kind of thing, and I just don’t understand. If I look back at all the sunglasses I have lost that cost me 20 bucks or less and say that I spend 100 bucks or more on them, then I’d feel like an idiot. I’ll keep buying what I buy, and if someone has a problem with the brand I am wearing then they don’t need to be standing so close to me that they can tell.

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I have a very powerful weakness for shoes. Shoes can sometimes steal my entire paycheck. I have gotten a lot better and making myself wait before just buying a pair that I like. I used to just go to the mall and buy a pair of new shoes every time. I just love the way heels feel and look and that I can get any color to match exactly the outfit I want them to. It started my freshman year of high school, with my first pair of black stilettos. To this day, they are still my favorite shoes. All you have to do is take care of them, and replace the tips, and you can keep them for years. I have never cared about comfort, just looks when it comes to shoes. I have the worst weakness when it comes to black heels. I have several pairs of black heels, but it seems to make sense that I would only need one. But, I find them and I want them, so I get them. I go through phases where I wear a certain pair for awhile when I need black ones, and then I remember another pair that I have and I decide to wear them. My most recent shoe purchase is a pair of really cute lime green heels. It’s hard to find an outfit that goes well with them, but when I tried them on I had to have them. I’ve worn them twice, so I think they are worth the purchase so far. My closet is overflowing, and I hope my feet never grow!

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Pawn shops are a really cool thing. There are a bunch of different things that different people can use them for. Some people use them just to shop for things at a discounted price, others use them to sell their items they don’t want any more, and others use it as a type of loan where they take in something of value and then get some money, and the pawn shop holds onto it until they come back and purchase it back with a small interested rate included. They do try to rip people off a lot, because they can. Derek went in there to try and sell a gun of his that was worth more than six hundred dollars and they tried to only give him one hundred for it, including the case. They will buy things from people at a really low price and then put them back out there for sale at what the item is actually worth. But, you can’t really blame them because they want to make money. I’ve sold a few pieces of jewelry there when I needed a bit of cash. I know I didn’t get enough for them, but I wasn’t using them anymore and it was more than I would have gotten at a garage sale if I tried to sell them. When my TV went out last year I went in and bought a really good one at the pawn shop for a lot cheaper than it would have been at Wal-Mart brand new, and it worked perfectly. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with buying something used if it work perfect, and that TV is still alive and kicking!

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United Market Street is AWESOME. You can get anything there. And, now that Lubbock can sell alcohol, they have the best selection in town. It’s one of my favorite places to go for lunch, because their giant food area has so much to pick from you can get anything. I usually get sushi when I’m there, you can actually go over to where they make it and watch them or ask them to make something special for you. They have tons of options, sometimes I like to get random things that don’t go together because it all look so good. The last time I went in there I got chicken strips and sushi, a strange combination but it just sounded good. I love their soup, too. They always have different ones. And they have a guy that will make your salad for you just how you want it, or you can go back and they have a big salad bar and you can make it yourself. They have some of the most random things, but that’s what makes it so cool. It’s really like a market instead of a grocery store. It has a pretty sweet selection of seafood, and you can buy different products that are already seasoned perfectly so all you have to do is go home and put them on the grill. I totally love going here just to eat or to do my grocery shopping. United Market Street cannot fail!

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