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I am jumping on the band wagon with this one.  Many people are blogging about this today and I think with good reason.  For those of you who haven’t heard, a Walmart employee died because he was trampled on by a stampede of shoppers that pushed open the doors to rush the store for the sales yesterday morning. 

My heart goes out to the man’s family for their loss.  I honestly don’t know when a sale became more important than a human life.  His death has brought new meaning to the term “Black Friday”.

I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving day yesterday.  I’m sorry to tell you that I have NO drama or anything remotely funny to share about yesterday.  It was an insanely calm and almost ordinary day for us.  It was fantastic! 

We traveled to my mom’s house, about an hour and a half away.  Everyone who attended liked each other, so there was no bickering or sensing of any attitudes.  It was just a family day.  The turkey wasn’t my best, but it was edible.  :) The rest of the food was great.   Everyone was in great spirits.  The kids behaved great.  All around the day was great.  Even the weather was great.  Seeing the pattern?

While I would have enjoyed regaling you with amusing stories of utter disarray and a failing family infastructure, I simply can’t.  We weren’t that family this year and that was a wonderful feeling.

Happy Thanksgiving to all of you!!

We are off to my mother’s house for some great food and some family traditions!

I hope you all have a wonderful holiday!

I got some dirty looks when I went shopping at the grocery store today.  It was a little more packed than it usually is at that time.  I had 11 items, but 2 of the items were gravy packs.  Come on!  Isn’t there a rule written down SOMEwhere that if 2 of the items are identical they count as 1???  I’m pretty sure I’ve seen it. 

Anyways, I didn’t think I would be doing any harm for getting on the express “10 items or less” line.  I surveyed the other 2 lines that were open and there were about 2 or 3 people on each of those lines with their carts full AND underneath.  I had 10  11things.  Two women behind me each had 2 or 3 items they were holding in their hands.  They came up to the line as I was unloading my cart.  I turned to look up and smile at the woman behind me.  When I did she gave me a dirty look.  I was about to let her ahead of me, but she looked at her friend and thought she saw another line open up so they practically ran over there to be the first in line.  I heard the cashier say, “I’m sorry ma’am.  I’m not open actually.”  I heard the woman sigh angrily and the next thing I know they were behind me again, glaring at me.

They really gave me a complex.  My palms were starting to sweat.  I thought maybe some undercover agents were going to pop out of nowhere…”Excuse me ma’am…come with us please.”

It was my turn next.  I bit my lip and sheepishly smiled at the cashier hoping she wouldn’t count my items.  She just looked at me with a huge smile and said, “Hi!  How are you?  Did you find everything ok?”

Me: “I did thank you.”

I couldn’t help myself.  I leaned into her and whispered, “I’m sorry.  I have an extra gravy packet and that puts me at 11 items.  The other lines were loaded with people with loaded carts.”

She giggled, winked and whispered back, “I’ll let you slide this time.  Don’t let it happen again.” 

Me: “Thank you so much.” I giggled.

I looked at the ladies and smiled.

This reminded me of the scene in You’ve Got Mail when Meg Ryan’s character goes through the “cash only” line and only had her credit card so all the people behind her were hassling her and wanted her to get out of line to go wait on another line in order to pay. 

Have you ever tried to sneak 1 or 2 more items than you were supposed to in the express lane?

Did you guys see this meteor Friday night?  I ask because this meteor flew over Canada and was in the news today.  I’m in FL  and I saw it.  My husband, the kids and I all went to see a movie outside at my son’s school.  The meteor appeared right above the screen where the movie was showing.  I just happened to be gazing up at the darkness and thinking to myself “Wow, what a clear night, I wonder what I can see.”  I swear about a second later, boom…..a tiny little bright dot appears out of nowhere and drops from the sky then suddenly vanished.  My friend’s husband who was at the movie with their kids saw it too, but my husband missed it.  I saw another dot fall from the sky less than a minute later.  I kept looking up at the sky and forgot about the movie for a bit, even though it was WALL E  we were watching.  Who can look away from that movie?  Me apparently.  I was star gazing, until I asked my husband if he had seen what I seen.  He said “Nope, I missed it.  Maybe the aliens are landing and coming to get us.”  <—- A remark that probably seems odd, but if you knew me and knew how I can’t even watch a commercial for the movie Aliens without having nightmares, you would understand the fun my husband thought he was having with me.  I watched the movie Signs with my face turned the other way practically through the whole movie.  So yeah, after he said that, I found my eyes suddenly shifting back and forth between the skies and the dark forest that was to the right of us.  I quickly noticed how we were on the outter edge of everyone…the closest for an all out attack, the front lines if you will, should an alien army decide to land and come charging out of the woods.  Overdramatic, I know. 

My point?  Watch the video I found on YouTube from a newstations in Canada. Some witnesses in Canada actually caught it on video.  Keep in mind I only saw a dot and freaked a little.  Could you imagine if I was in Canada and saw what they saw in the video.  I’d be in a hospital somewhere sucking down anti-anxiety meds like they were Halloween candy straight from the kids bucket!

I received several messages in my inbox from people who didn’t know you could buy prepaid gas cards. My last post I really was just randomly posting about my own thoughts on how prices have gone down so drastically that I am now paying over $50 less at the pump than I was about 3 months ago. I really should have taken more time to do some research on the subject so that I could have supplied more information about this topic. Let me just say, when my husband and I sat down and did the math about the savings we were surprised, but not at the same time…if that makes ANY sense.  I knew there would be a ginormous savings…but when you actually see the numbers for your own eyes it’s kinda crazy and unsettling that we as hard working consumers, get subjected to astronomical prices that make the owners of oil companies filthy rich while we suffer for it.

OK. I’m stepping off my soap box now!!! Sooooooo, I did a little research and I hope this answers the questions some of you had.

The main thing many people said was “If you buy a gas card at today’s prices, later you are only using a gas card and paying those current prices.” That would be true if you were just buying THAT kind of card.  Those kinds of cards are similar to gift cards. Those are not the cards I’m talking about. That’s not what THESE prepaid cards are. The ones I am talking about allow you to purchase GALLONS. There are several companies out there that you can sign up with, pay a membership fee and purchase gallons of gas at whatever the current rate in your area is. Then when gas prices go up you can use your card to pay for the gallons. The company that you are signed up with will actually pay the gas station for your purchase and will deduct the GALLONS from your account.

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This image reminds me of just a couple months ago and how it felt to put gas in our truck. (We have a Ford Expedition) When gas prices were about $3.90ish..it cost me around $107 to fill up if I let it go to empty. Prices had been so high for so long that I got a HUGE reality check when I went to fill up today. It was $1.99 for Unleaded!!!! Big difference. Quite frankly I don’t even remember when it was below $2.60 last out here. When I filled up today, it cost me $52.00. That is a difference of $55.00!!!!! NO wonder why our monthly budget was so mangled. We fill up 1 time a week…so $55.00 times 4 is an extra $220.00 a month we were spending in gas alone. Considering we didn’t get a raise we had to take that money from elsewhere. That meant less road trips, less eating out or if we did it was fast food and less extra ativities that you have to pay for like bowling or theme parks. My husband and I are considering buying a bunch of gas cards with these prices and leaving them in a drawer somewhere so that when prices hike back up to $3.60-and you know they will!-we will have prepaid gas at a much easier price to swallow. Go buy some gas cards for yourself!!!!

What did you have to cut back on while prices were so high?