Birthdays on the cheap

So we got this Sundance gift card... I went window shopping today with an e-mail to AB open to provide links to him. I love their big thick silver rings like these two in particular... Love them.






AB... notsomuch with the love for the big thick rings... he thinks my fingers need something dainty for some reason.


So my goal was to only provide links to those to him and hope he doesn't deviate... it is taking a chance, but it is Sundance and I love everything there, so if it was dainty, I would still love it.


Then I clicked on the "Shoes and Bags" tab.



HAD to have it. HAD to. You will understand why.


Regularly $295 on sale for $99... and then we have the $50 gift card courtesy of Mr. Redford and all. They were practically paying me to take it.


Nope there wasn't any letting AB make the decision... my birthday present was set as I reminded him how $49 compared to a Coach purse.


He got a 1.5 hour hot stone massage scheduled for Saturday in exchange.


Oh and that hot stone massage? Apparently we paid twice at some point earlier and never noticed it... or something... we had a credit for one 1.5 hour hot stone massage much to our delight.


Now THAT'S the way to do birthdays!

My favorite things

Taking a cue from Jo (who needs to finish her list still - ahem!)... who took her cue from Oprah... these are 20 of my favorite things in no particular order:


1. Citrus Spice Herbal Tea


2. Thanks to my MIL for this addiction, Enstrom's English Toffee


3. Classic Coach purses


4. My great grandmother's sugar cookie recipe


5. Fleece pajama pants


6. Professional pictures of my kids


7. Sunset magazine


8. Washington Red blends - Fidelitas Optu, Canon de Sol, DeLille's D2 and even though I have only had it once Col Solare rocked my world.


9. My mom's pies.


10. Comfort foods, hamhock and bean soup, chili, Homemade chicken/turkey pot pies and V's Tortierre.


11. My bookshelf that AB built me for Valentine's Day 2003. (Laughing at how sparse it looks... oh the days.)



12. My gold and platinum diamond solitaire engagement ring.


13. Aveda Rosemary Mint Shampoo and Conditioner... so I can smell like a baby lamb... roasting (according to AB).


14. Books, my favorites - The Time Traveler's Wife, The Life of Pi, books by Jon Krakauer (Into the Wild, Into Thin Air, Under the Banner of Heaven)...


15. Volkl skis... should I ever move beyond demoing again someday.


16. Origins Ginger Float bath creme


17. My collection of unique wine stoppers... especially my Medusa, kind of like this one, but mine is frosted clear, it is better (and apparently now rare!).


18. Dankso shoes


19. Satsuma mandarins


20. Blue Moon Belgian White Ale

A new purse

After telling myself there would be no, nada, zippo online shopping in the next few weeks as we are going to Portland, I was beckoned.

I called AB this afternoon and confessed to buying a new purse.

There was silence on the other end of the line.

I told him it cost me four fifty.

Silence.

Then I let him in on it... I got a great deal, really I did. It was regularly thirty nine fifty, but I had a twenty dollar rewards certificate and a fifteen dollar off purchase code, bringing it down to a whopping $4.50, oh and free shipping. (Sneak peek.)

I heard a sigh at the other end. Well that is a ton better than two hundred he tells me!

(Ha... he is so in the dark... two hundred... in his dreams. Someday...)

It's not you, it's me.

It has been six lovely years with you. We met in Mammoth, California on AB’s and my first anniversary. You have been there for me, catching all my needs, keeping my necessary baggage private and safe. But I have grown, and you have not.

Those stains on the outside are telling. They used to be the occasional sloshed cocktail. But more recently you are spotted with applesauce thanks to your unfortunate placement during a minor table mishap. I still love you despite your spots.

You have held up like I never thought you would over the years. Still maintaining your shape (let’s focus on you… we can address me later). Not a stitch or seam broken or out of place. Given everything I have put you through, I am amazed. You have amazing resilience.

Still you look sad to me, a little worn. You see my frustrated face as I continue to ask more and more of you with every passing year. Just tonight, sticky toddler hands were rummaging around your interior in search of snacks. I saw you looking as I browsed your replacement on the internet. The new models! The options! The excitement! Yes, I know… the money. The money I don’t have right now.

But can you handle it? Can you handle the increased demands on you when this baby is born? You picked up your load a few years ago when I asked you to transition from not only just carrying my wallet, keys and sunglasses, but adding in there snacks, wipes, Kleenex, and occasionally moist sippy cups. How will you handle another child?

Retirement can be nice I hear. You have my word that you will never see the inside of a Goodwill truck or a garbage can. I promise. I am just asking for your blessing.

Don’t worry. It will take time. AB doesn’t come around very quickly with purchases like this. Although if one of those two patents comes through and yields an OPA… it could happen quickly, and I want you to be prepared. In the meantime… which of your offspring can carry my load?

This beauty? Or maybe this one... Am I aiming too high if I lean this way?
Remember, I love you my Coach purse. And it’s not you, it’s me.