Shopping Law of Attraction

I love to shop... when I have money (don't we all). I hate window shopping especially since I don't have enough pocket money to buy everything I would like and it usually just reminds me of how much I don't need anyway.

However, some things just fall into my hands... I call it my shopping Law of Attraction. Last Christmas I decided to get Ron a gaming system. I had no idea which one or how much to spend and on a random trip to the Navy Exchange, picked up an XBox 360. It was while I was looking at it, reading the specs, wondering if it was the right one, I realized that I had grabbed the last one on the shelf and 3 people were waiting for me to put it back. I put it in the cart and cast an apologetic smile to the onlookers while I made my way to the teller. Of course the whole way home I second-guessed myself, but it turned out to be exactly the one Ron wanted... and I didn't have to drive all over town looking for it. Nice!

For Ella, I've always wanted to get her a dollhouse for when she's a little older and this Christmas have settled on getting her a play kitchen. She can play dolls and "cook" in the play kitchen at play group the entire time. She loves playing pretend. We stopped at Costco on the way back from Gymnastics this past Tuesday and while entering I saw a lady with a wooden dollhouse. My thoughts were only that they must already have their Christmas stuff out. When we walked past the display, there were 6 dollhouses left and 2 women looking at it. I put one in the cart... some sort of instinctual thing I think, and finished shopping. Of course I questioned myself the whole time and had decided to put it back... there were none there and a staff member was looking to see if they had more. (They only got the shipment in that morning and we were there an hour and a half after opening). I bought the dollhouse at half the price other stores are selling it for and we've put it away until next year. It's got an elevator, comes with doll furniture and is about 4" tall and 3" wide.

On our way home today, I stopped, randomly, at Toys R' Us. What would you bet that they had the wooden play kitchen, on sale, only 1 left?? The box was damaged and re-taped so I asked if it could have been a return. The lady had someone bring me the nicest box out of the 3 in the back. Yes, it's true, I have some sort of luck that if I spend time looking on the net and finding exactly what I want, it somehow appears in the store (yeah no shipping costs) and on sale. Now seeing as I've bought a dollhouse AND a play kitchen this week, we'll see how lucky I feel when I explain to Ron why there's a substantial dent in our bank account... :)

Blow Dry

After Ella's bath I used my straightening blow dryer to blow out Ella's curls. I was just bored and curious. I'm also totally jealous! :) Her hair has so much volume and the big curls would take me hours in rollers...Ella only 5 minutes. She's also become quite the poser... :)

Happy Thanksgiving, Canadians

I'd like to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving back home. We won't be celebrating until the end of November but I am looking forward to a big turkey dinner as usual... hope you all enjoyed yours! :)
It is however, Columbus Day here and Ron had the day off, a long weekend for him which was a nice treat. The weather wasn't all that great so we went for a little hike up Kolekole Pass.

North Shore Drive

We headed out to the North Shore to see some waves... you can't tell in the photos but there were tons of surfers out riding some huge waves.

Sleep Over

Ella and I spent the night at Emmi and Christina's house last Wednesday. Manny is out of town on business so we thought it would be fun to have a sleep over. For the kids, an opportunity to run themselves ragged and for us a chance to enjoy a few pina coladas without having to drive home. We made pizza, put the kids to bed, and watched chick flicks over pina coladas. Ron says I'm too old for sleep overs, but if they involve alcohol, one's never too old. :)

Emmi's Photography:

Favorites

Ella just came up to me, hugged me tight and said: "Mommy, my favorite." Do you think she'll remember that when she's 13? :)

Another Test

In the spring Ella went through a short phase of testing me. Just misbehaving, terrible two stuff that was short lived. I even warned Erin that Ella had gotten really bad when we were talking about visiting her in Victoria. Because the phase didn't last very long, I had totally forgotten about my warning until were in Victoria and Erin said how good Ella was, that she wasn't "bad" at all. I felt so guilty because in comparison to some kids... Ella really is very well-behaved - even in her testing phase.

Yesterday, while Christina was over, Ella refused to pick up her toys after I asked her to ("No, Mommy"). So I told her in a stern voice: "Ella, help clean up your toys, or you're going to your room." The little stinker replied: "No, Mommy. I not scared you." What???? Christina burst out laughing and I was somewhat shocked.
(I know Ella knows the correct use of "scared" as sometimes when she's playing and Ron chases her, she'll run to me laughing and say "Daddy scare me" and then giggle when Ron catches her and tickles her. It's her favorite game.)
Ella refused to pick up her toys and again said, "I not scared you Mommy." I put her in time out with a warning: "you don't speak back to mommy like that." Geez kiddo, you'd think I torture you. Just another test, but in the words of all parents everywhere at some point: "You may not be scared of me now, but if you keep it up, you will be." :)

Play House

Our neighbors moved and left their play house for us. I cleaned it and de-bugged months of spider webs and geckos from lack of use and now it has become Ella's favorite outside toy. She goes in and out, makes "coffee" and mud pies for us. She loves to play pretend and this has been a great outdoor activity. I'm also hoping to get Ella a play kitchen for her room - at her play group she spends most of her time in the play kitchen "cooking", "eating", and serving me "dinner" or "coffee".

Moon

There is a half moon tonight... Ella says to me: "Look Mommy, moon is broken. Oh no!"

This Week in Pictures

I've been lazy with the blog - sorry about that. All the reading and new fall line-up on TV has consumed this household... Here are some pictures of Ella this week:We went to a wedding today for one of Ron's co-workers. Of course Ella was excited to see a "princess" and though we only met the bride today, we couldn't keep Ella away from her!