The Friday after Thanksgiving Dwayne was reading the paper when he spotted an ad for his work boots on sale at Sears. We soon realized this particular sale started Saturday and were trying to decide if we would try to hit a mall on our trek back to Virginia from Florida or if it could wait. Seriously, his boots were half price!
What does this have to do with anything?
I actually do have a point AND I know what it is. Yippee!
Sunday morning I checked my email and waited. If a sale were forthcoming I would eventually know about it. The email finally arrived and off I went. I verified his shoe size and order two pair. I saved an additional $5 by checking out RetailMeNot & earned $2.85 from Mr. Rebates. I opted to pick these up at a local Sears store, so I saved on shipping. I bought two pairs of $80 work boots for just under $75 [$38 each].
Again, why is this relevant? Later in the week I picked up his boots. Dwayne checked them out and then asked if I was going to blog about my great deal.
Are you my friend on Facebook?
If you are, then you already know Amanda [my middle child] made 3rd Chair Symphonic Band in her All-District tryouts on clarinet. This means she was rated the 3rd best clarinet out of the 79 to try out in our district. Amanda is 16 years old and has been playing clarinet since she was 11.
Yeah, I’m bragging a bit.
Amanda calls me to let me know. She was crying tears of joy and of accomplishment.”Mom, this is better than 8th grade,” she says. She made 3rd Chair Symphonic for middle school band, too. But high school All-Districts is harder.
Amanda comes home and says I should call Dwayne and have him pick up a cake. 
She’s not too proud to ask. He is making her a devil’s food cake today. She also asks if I am going to blog about it.
I found money!
Gosh, this is a hard thing to say. I have a lot of clothes and a very, very, extremely small closet. Really. And our bedroom should probably not house a bed bigger than a full, yet we managed to get a king size in there. Well, we thought we might be moving when it was purchased. So, anyway, I was putting all my massive piles of clothes away and ran across an old Valentine’s Day card ~ from 2008! Shocked me, too!
And in this card, from my parents no less, is a check for $50 [no good as it's almost 2 years old] and two $5 bills. I decided Megan must have taken hers and these most likely belong to Amanda and Stephen. So, they made out anyway. And Amanda asks if I’m going to blog about that, too.
It’s kind of like that
My family knows when something interesting, funny, educational, or anything random just pops into my head I just may blog about it. As it turns out, I think they want me to. It makes them feel a bit bigger than our small town [no stoplight, that's small]. Really, if you blink, you missed us. It’s that small. And maybe I will blog about that, or maybe not. Who knows really. I say ‘really’ an awful lot, don’t I?
So, there you have it. Amanda, Dwayne, I blogged about it. And because I like the song, here is a little Trans-Siberian Orchestra for your listening [and viewing] pleasure.
Twitter: HeatherKephart
Congratulations to Amanda! I had no idea! I don’t hang out there as much as I used to with all this blablamovingstuff yadda…I know everyone’s sick of hearing about it. I never see anyone’s posts in my news feed. My husband’s even. Like once a month one of his shows up there. What’s the deal.
Amanda, congratulations! You are so beautiful too – just like your Momma.
By the way Anne, I love the last line of your most recent short story. I tried to comment, but I think you have comments turned off of that one. Just beautiful & should be quoted often.
.-= Heather Kephart´s last blog ..Facebook Dislike Button =-.
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Anne
Twitter: AnneOnline
Reply:
December 14th, 2009 at 12:00 am
@Heather Kephart,
Thank you. She was so excited I think she wore herself out. And moving is hectic. We packed up everything and moved from FL to VA. We spent the first 2 nights in a hotel [we had no functional bathroom], then the next 2 months we spent cleaning and painting and organizing. But my kids were a bit older [6, 9, & 10], so you will have your hands full with more than just setting up. I had to subscribe via email for any I want to see or I miss them – for days, then I feel like a bad blogging buddy.
As for the last line of my short story, that was the opening of my NaNo novel. When I re-read it today I saw the part about the pie and immediately thought of you.
Of course now I am trying to figure out why my comments are not working. @#$%*! Just another day in the life of a blogger, right?
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Twitter: AussieSire
Anne, I headed on over here as soon as I saw the trackback. Stuff me if I couldn’t find the link. It took me awhile to find that it was linked to the word king, as in the size of bed.
Sort of scratching my head over that one. Is it because I’m the king of bloggers or something to do with size.
This could almost be a new. “Spot The Link” game.
.-= Sire´s last blog ..Why Marketing Your Ad Space Should Precede Marketing Your Blog =-.
[Reply]
Anne
Twitter: AnneOnline
Reply:
December 13th, 2009 at 11:51 pm
@Sire,
I noticed a lot of bloggers use words in their posts to point to previous posts or to other sites, so I thought I would try that out. I may have gone overboard, but, eh, it’s my blog, right?
I figured Sire is just another term for King. Well, and the play on words thing, which I figured you would appreciate. I always get curious and click on the links and thought others might as well. That is, if anyone ever visits me they might.
[Reply]
Sire
Twitter: AussieSire
Reply:
December 15th, 2009 at 2:49 am
@Anne, Makes perfect sense Anne, and I can see I’m not the only one visiting your blog. Should I be jealous, and perhaps insist on some sort of decorum from my royal subjects?
.-= Sire´s last blog ..A Recap On My Hottest Poems =-.
[Reply]
Anne
Twitter: AnneOnline
Reply:
December 15th, 2009 at 9:04 pm
@Sire, Should we bow before you or kiss your ring or both? Maybe come by and spread some comment love on one of your many blogs!
Not sure if you covered this, maybe you have and I’m just too lazy to search for it but how does your family.. specifically your children react to your “blogging”?
I’m pretty darn close to your daughters age I think and for some reason I hate the idea of my parents reading my blog, facebook or anything of the sorts. My guess is that with my friends I have established boundaries, obviously they wouldn’t be my friends if there wasn’t a mutual respect but with the parents they’re there regardless of who you are and so I may go on a socio political/religious rant swearing left and right as that’s something I would do around my friends but not my parents.
Anyway it sounds like it’s all gravy with you guys but if it’s been weird at all I’d like to hear it.
.-= Anthony´s last blog ..Beginning Research for Your Blog Site =-.
[Reply]
Anne
Twitter: AnneOnline
Reply:
December 14th, 2009 at 8:53 am
@Anthony,
None of my children mind me blogging or blogging about them, for the most part. They don’t want embarrassing information shared and I work hard to respect their wishes. My girls are on Facebook and have friended me [along with some of their friends] so I don’t think they mind me being able to see what they’re doing. I don’t spend an enormous amount of time checking out their pages ~ I have a life, too. I try not to be controlling [I admit I'm not always successful]. I actually have the passwords to their email accounts, but never use that information. It’s called trust. All parent/child relationships are different.
As for your not wanting your parents to read your rants, that’s normal. I don’t want my children to read some of the things I write, but if they do they do. And we’re weird in general. That could be why it works out.
[Reply]
Hi Anne! I think this is my first time to comment on your blog as workload in the office cannot permit me lately to blog hop.
Nonetheless, I am glad to make it here, eheheh!
.-= elmot´s last blog ..A Meaningful Existence for Filipinos =-.
[Reply]
Anne
Twitter: AnneOnline
Reply:
December 14th, 2009 at 8:54 am
@elmot,
Thank you for stopping by and comment and visit when you can. Work and family come first.
[Reply]
Congratulations, Amanda. Wow, you’re one gifted kid. Of course, achievements like yours need to be blogged. Anne should have her head examined if she did not. Ahehehe.
Love the rush of excitement so palpable in your post. Reading it is like discovering $5 bills in old Valentine cards. Who would have thought really.
[Reply]
Anne
Twitter: AnneOnline
Reply:
December 14th, 2009 at 12:55 pm
@jan geronimo,
I love finding money and so do my kids. I only considered for a mere moment keeping the money, then dispensed it to my children. I just knew it wasn’t mine. {shucks} They also like it when I clean out the change from the bottom of my purse.
[Reply]
First congrats for Amanda’s achievement. That it wonderful and you must be a “drooling” mom:)
Now, I could not help but noticed the “disguised” link luvs you have made. That is another form I must admit. On my side, thanks for the link. Clever, lol
.-= DiTesco´s last blog ..Google Zeitgeist 2009 – And The Winner Is? =-.
[Reply]
Anne
Twitter: AnneOnline
Reply:
December 14th, 2009 at 12:57 pm
@DiTesco,
Sire thought it a neat game ~ Find the Link, Win a Prize. Hopefully, the prize is many clicks and visits to other great sites. And now to spread the word far and wide!
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Congratulations to Amanda, and to you too Anne, I believe that you have a great family!
By the way, you succeeded to keep me on your blog enough to feel good entertainment by clicking links on your posts
.-= Hesham @ FamousBloggers´s last blog ..The BlogoGalaxy of Famous Bloggers on Flickr =-.
[Reply]
Anne
Twitter: AnneOnline
Reply:
December 15th, 2009 at 9:00 pm
@Hesham @ FamousBloggers,
Thank you, Hesham. And I’m glad my link hunt worked to keep you checking out some other posts.
[Reply]
Social comments and analytics for this post…
This post was mentioned on Twitter by AnneOnline: New blog post: You Know You’re A Blogger When… http://6me4e.th8.us...
Congrats Amanda!! That is awesome. And you found money!! I love that. I found $20 the other day… I was thrilled.
.-= TogetherWeSave´s last blog ..Santa’s Guide to Easy Christmas Crafts =-.
[Reply]
Anne
Twitter: AnneOnline
Reply:
December 15th, 2009 at 9:02 pm
@TogetherWeSave,
Thanks for stopping by, Denise. I love finding money. I used to hide random bills in pockets of coats and pants as a way of saving. It wasn’t much, but it was great when I would find a $50!
[Reply]
I love the energy in the post, you must have been having a great day and what a better way to top it off than by finding some cash
.-= Extreme John´s last blog ..Toys for Tans Free Week of Tanning Details =-.
[Reply]
Anne
Twitter: AnneOnline
Reply:
December 15th, 2009 at 11:37 pm
@Extreme John,
It’s always a good day when money is found!
[Reply]
Twitter: Bloggertalk
Anne what wonderful news for Amanda. You must be so proud and what are personal blogs for, but to blog about our family. lol
.-= Rose´s last blog ..7 Great WordPress plugins for comments =-.
[Reply]
Anne
Twitter: AnneOnline
Reply:
December 18th, 2009 at 7:15 pm
@Rose,
I am. Her sister has been bragging on her the most, though. Megan is a freshman in college and a music ed. major. What’s even more exciting is the concert is going to be held at Megan’s school.
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i was like that when i had started out, i blogged about everything, yep, literally everything. lately, i have not posted much personal stuff, got busy in the ventures that am taking on, but you remind me of those days when i used to blog about everything, and it was good
.-= Uttoran Sen shares some words of wisdom ..DOCOMICS – Read Comics on Cell Phones =-.
[Reply]
Anne
Twitter: AnneOnline
Reply:
January 14th, 2010 at 10:57 pm
My family asks me if I blog about things like I’m supposed to remember everything and then share it all with the world. It’s quite cute. Especially when it’s my 16 year old who is constantly doing weird and funny things and wanting me to write about it all.
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Congratulations on Amanda. That’s great to hear!
Also, blogging should be fun no matter what you’re blogging about. It should entertain your readers and basically make them think about what they would like to add to the conversation you’ve asked them to as you should always ask what people think.
I get ideas from just about anywhere though sometimes they just stop, which is why I work to write in advance so there’s always something up and going even when ideas die.
Great article!
.-= Eric shares some words of wisdom ..Lets Help Each Other =-.
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