Just Say No!

I hate Wal-Mart. I know hate is a strong word, but yes, I do in fact hate Wal-Mart.

On Black Friday my mother and I began our shopping day at Wal-Mart. We were out to get a 32" Emerson TV and a few odds and ends. I bumped into a friend at 4:40 AM and we chatted a few moments as my mom kindly went to get in lines for the TV. Unfortunately, they handed out tickets for the TV's before we even got to the store. Another special Wal-Mart ran was a Cricut Expressions Cutting Machine for $188. A really great deal and I snatched one of the last two up. Sam's Club also had Acer netbooks for $198; Mom wanted one but that too we didn't get.

I promise that paragraph is leading somewhere!

Being the true shoppers that Mom and I are, we shopped all day on Friday. My mom remembered that Target honors all competitor ads and asked about the netbook and said they would be happy to honor the ad, except that they were currently sold out of the item...Boo for Mom!

Later in the afternoon we were at Wal-Mart again and saw the netbook that was advertised at Sam's Club and Wal-Mart would not for any reason price match the ad because the color of the Sam's ad showed red and Wal-Mart didn't have red. Big disappointment.

So Saturday rolls around and my mom points out that cartridges for the Cricut are on sale at JoAnn Fabrics for $28.88. Mom and I ran over there and learned they were sold out of the cartridges. So later after lunch and a few errands we went to Hobby Lobby to see which cartridges they had on sale...I got one of the three I was after. So we decided to try Wal-Mart to see if they would match the ad...this is where things get interesting.

We found the cartridges at Wal-Mart and looked for someone to see if they would match the JoAnn's ad. Of course the employee didn't know because she didn't work in that department and had to go find the lady who did who was on break. Two trips back to see the lady on break this person ends up with the manager of the store. He wasn't going to honor our Joann's ad because we had torn coupons out of it so my mom told him to go call the store and find out. So he did!!! Well, 15 minutes later we got our cartridge price matched. The whole fiasco took 40 minutes!

I am now boycotting Wal-Mart. I don't care if anyone else shops there but I will not.

Go Sioux!

Never thought I would type that!

Last weekend Bryce and I had the opportunity to take Emily to her very first UND Fighting Sioux hockey game!

Bryce and I have always enjoyed watching hockey and even attend the occasional game. Fortunately for Bryce, he attends a few more than I do. This time we had enough tickets given to us to take Emily with, just in case she would require a ticket. Luckily she did not.

Emily cheered the Sioux on like a true fan, shouting, "Go Sioux!" and "YAY!" when other people around her cheered and when Bryce and I told her to cheer the Sioux on.

The Sioux went on to win the game that evening against Mankato Stat, 4-2. :)

Happy Halloween

As you can see we had a little princess on our hands for Halloween. And I must say she was the prettiest Cinderella I had ever seen! While it took some time to put the curls in her hair, I do feel that the end result was perfect...and the candy Emily recieved from the five houses she trick or treated at showed it. She had a full bucket!

Bugger

Well it has been a long, long time since I have posted anything. I think I can do a pretty good job of catching up now that I am home sick with the flu for the next couple of days.

My dad is doing well. He finished his chemo in August and felt fine throughout the treatments. He has scans scheduled at certain intervals. He had his first one 3 weeks ago and it was determined there was "something" there. He had x-rays last week to determine if it is scar tissue from surgery or something else; results have not been read at this time as the doctor is out of town.

I got my braces off in September finally! That was the biggest event for me so far this year.

Emily started dance class in September as well. She loves to go so she can wear her dance slippers and tap shoes. Heaven for a little girl who loves shoes!

Bryce and I booked our first vacation with just the two of us...Playa Del Carmen, Mexico for a week in February! I can't begin to tell you how excited we both are to go somewhere warm as ND gets even colder!

We had our family pictures taken by a coworker's husband at the end of September and they turned out great!

We are looking forward to Halloween this week. Emily will be going as Princess Aurora, her favorite Disney princess. She is obsessed with princesses and has already decided that her birthday will be a princess themed party.

Simple Pleasures

Today Bryce went to Watertown to help out his uncle Steven so, I got the pleasure of spending the whole entire day with my favorite person in the whole world ~ Emily! We began our morning by watching Dora the Explorer and eating unhealthy cereal on the couch; Trix and Cocoa Puffs.

After we both made ourselves presentable we went to Barnes and Noble for story time. I read her Pinkilicious and another story about a Gorilla who wants a friend and gets a kitten and then the B&N employee read two stories about how to make a friend. They were called Grumpy Cat and Big Smelly Bear.

After having a snack and browsing the aisles of books and music we headed to lunch for some delicious McDonald's. We had burgers and fries and apples and Emily even got the toy she wanted that she saw pictured! (Was it her lucky day or what?!)

After our lunch date we went home and took naps. After naps we went to Target and then the mall. Emily ate most of her supper at the mall, so as promised we went to DQ and shared an Oreo Blizzard with extra Oreos. It was during this treat Emily looked up at me and said, "You're my bestest friend in the whole wide world!" Then she hugged me and kissed me and went back to her blizzard.

Simple pleasures...what more can I say?

A Ton of Bricks

Last Monday my family and I received some devastating news: My dad has been diagnosed with Transitional Cell Carcinoma. In short he has cancer and a tumor located in his bladder. My mom said the doctor believes it is approximately the size of a golf ball and located near the top of his bladder. He will have surgery to remove as much of the tumor as possible on Thursday. After the surgery they will know what type of chemotherapy he will receive; it will either be the regular old IV chemo or the chemo will be injected directly into his bladder. We are all hoping that it is able to be injected into his bladder, because with this route of therapy, he will most likely not suffer most of the side effects that go along with chemo- hair loss, energy loss, nausea, etc.

I think and feel like most every person who has battled cancer or has a loved one who has battled it. My first thought was, 'why my dad? what did he do to deserve this?' Sometimes I get upset with God because he did this to my dad, but I immediately regret being upset because we need God on our side to get Dad through it all. Sometimes I dream the doctors will do the surgery and will come out and say that everything looks great no further action is required; it's not realistic, and I know that. Sometimes, especially after I had just gotten the news, I felt like there was a ton of bricks sitting on my chest and I could hardly breathe. I couldn't even catch my breath.

Since we learned about the cancer and tumor, I have asked my mom a ton of questions- sometimes they are the same ones over and over- I have been praying, thinking the worst, pretending it isn't real, realizing it is real, and then praying again. I cried a lot. I cry daily, not a lot but at least a few tears. Bryce and I talk about it a little bit, but I am not really ready to talk about more than the medical aspect of things. Emily, being the smart child she is knew something was wrong as Bryce and I were discussing the situation so I told her that Grampa Don is sick and that he has owies in his tummy and it was called a tumor. She prays for him too every night.

This is a week for prayers and love and battling the things that we wish weren't real. Please, if you remember, say a prayer for my dad to get through this.

Emily and Grampa when Emily was about 6 weeks old.

First Haircut

Today was Emily's first haircut. I had been thinking about getting it trimmed for a couple of weeks. I got the prompting I needed after I saw how much hair Emily's cousin Kiya seemed to lose after her first haircut. I knew that it would be better to trim just a little bit off now rather than lose inches if I waited any longer.

I went to a local children's hair cutting salon in Fargo called Lil' Whipper Snippers. I decided to try this place out after a parent at the center very highly recommended the place to me. So, I made Emily her first hair appointment.

I told Emily when I returned to work after my break that Daddy and I would take her to get her haircut after school. Emily has been asking for and wanting a haircut for months now, so she was pretty excited to learn the news.

Here is Emily before we left for her haircut:

A picture of Emily while Lindsay was cutting her hair:

Emily after returning from her haircut:

The experience for me was great. I was allowed to take pictures of this very special first for Emily and we got a lock of Emily's hair that was cut off, a keepsake photo, and a t-shirt that says, "I got my first haircut at Lil' Whipper Snippers."

All in all Emily did really well. She was excited to go get her hair cut and she was very interested in watching her stylist cut her hair. She was a little nervous to sit in the chair, but enjoyed wearing the cape with penguins on it and watching Curious George. Her favorite part was getting a pink sucker at the end of it. I don't think we will have to convince this girl that haircuts are great!