Tuesday, February 26, 2013

Shame, Shame I Know Your Name

I'll replace that with "Lame, lame..."

....because that is what we are.  It's also why I have a hard time writing.  I don't feel very interesting.  Do you all want to hear how I found a plunger on our bed this morning?  I can't take my eyes off that girl for two seconds without somethin' happening!  (If you're on facebook, you know this isn't her first incident with the plunger.)  She will be getting one at her bridal shower one day.

I promised to share some of my husband's and my giftings to each other.  We are not flashy by any means...and usually, cheap is the name of the game.  (Enough with the ames already.)

This Christmas was one of my very favorite Christmases ever! 

Matt received some tools from me (some grinder? he asked for and work gloves), and I became a big fan of Harbor Freight this Christmas.  Awesome coupons...even for freebies.  Matt got a free screwdriver set with purchase (so that was a good gift from the kids).  Matt works on our cars himself if he's able...and in general, he loves to tinker.  I also got him some books to use for our devotion time together...some that he would like.  That's the key. :)  The "The Love & Respect Experience: A Husband-Friendly Devotional that Wives Truly Love" and "Wrestling Prayer: A Passionate Communion with God" by Eric and Leslie Ludy.  We are big Ludy fans around here.  Do I share I found the couples devotional at Ollies for $2.97? Maybe not, but I just did. And yes, it's the same copy Amazon has for $9.20 at the moment.  I'm alllll about the deals. We are a good chunk through the devotional.  The jury's still out for me.  Matt likes it.  I guess I like it.  I'm just not "in love" with it.  It might be the fact that we do our devotions at 6am due to Matt's work schedule.  I cannot wait to read "Wrestling Prayer."   I also got Matt a new MP3 player.  We are not an Ipod family.  Did I mention how cheap we are?  We're cheap because it's thrilling...and also out of necessity.  So, I got him an Ematic 3 inch touch screen MP3 player (because if you want to watch a movie, a 1 1/2 inch screen just doesn't cut it for me).  It's only 4 GB, but you can add an SD card and it has a 5 megapixel camera.  He now fits right in with the 6 year olds in town, haha!  So, it's not super duper, but let me tell you, he was thrilled with it!  I know my man!  He can use it at work, can carry pictures of the kids around (umm, we aren't smart phone people...just stupid phone people), and can take pictures in a pinch at work of projects.  It was 19.99 ebay bucks well spent!

So, what did I receive?  No blankets this year!  (Inside joke...he ALWAYS gets me a blanket.)  Matt got me some electronic books that were perfect...and literally made me cry.  The topics were on my heart, and he knew it!  He got me a shirt!  This is huge because he never buys me clothes.  Other than not fitting right (the size was correct), it was perfect!  We unfortunately had to return it though.  I'm sure I'm forgetting something...  And the big one, haha.  I got my free month of Netflix!  For real, we only used it for a month.  We had been Netflix subscribers when Stevie was little and left them when they changed their policy.  We aren't planning to return...umm, ever, but we took them up on the free offer again!  The kids and I had a month of different shows and movies.  I admit it, I'm an Army Wives fan with Matt having been in the Marines, and that Roxy can't make me laugh any harder.  Ok, maybe BJ from Reba is almost there. 

The kids had a good Christmas too.  The vacuum was a hit with Stevie (even though it was sort of Lydia's gift).  I had to go to 2 Target's to find the last ones for $9 on Black Friday.  (I got the other last one for the church nursery.)  Worth every penny...and so glad the Lord used someone to tuck it behind some other big vacuum to save it for him. ;)  He also likes his air craft carrier...almost as much as Matt.  That was a fun surprise for them both.  A half price score from Dollar General for $10.  Lydia got the most adorable bunny slippers....and she cried and cried when Matt put them on her.  What??  Her favorite lovey is her bunny, and she loves shoes.  How could she not love them?  Well, Matt forgot to take the paper balls out of the toes! hahaha  After that got taken care of, she loved them.  Stevie also got one of those CAT take apart trucks with the drill (thank you, Craigslist $10 deal).  The lady selling it happened to have two drills for it, so each of our kids has one!  Seriously, we had so many "God surprises" for our Christmas gifts this year...extra touches we would've survived without, but we just got a glimpse of how much He cares about things we might not have even thought about yet.  They both love the truck and drills...and Lydia has to take a wheel off right before bed at night.  After we pray, she runs over to use the drill.  Some kind of ritual I guess.

Most of all, we spent the entire month of December doing something special....even if special was just reading a Christmas book or two or watching a movie with those chocolate pretzels.  (Seriously, look on Pinterest for those pretzels with a hershey kiss and M&M.  I ate my body weight in them this Christmas.)  We just really soaked it up and tried to find creative ways to give more to others.  Maybe one day, I'll share about the McDonald's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle toy.

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