November?

Happy belated Halloween! Hope everyone had a lovely day. :-) I watched Nightmare Before Christmas (of course) and Hubby took me on a "Halloween drive" to see some of the awesome decorating people do around here. We had pumpkin pie blizzards from DQ and we watched the new episode of Criminal Minds. It was a good day indeed!

However, every year I forget (and am abruptly reminded) that there is a down side to Halloween; the next day is November.

While it's true that November does mean good things (Thanksgiving, semester ends next month, etc), it also means that winter is on its way and that another year is quickly coming to an end. I'm not necessarily opposed to this, it just kind of freaks me out. Wasn't it just summer? Weren't we just talking about how hot it was? Didn't I just change my clocks an hour forward!? WHAT KIND OF CRUEL JOKE IS THIS?!

Ahem. Sorry about that.

Anywhoozles, I'm going to try something for this November, to try and keep things positive and forget about the impending madness of winter in Wisconsin. With Thanksgiving in mind, I'm going to try to write a quick post each day about something I'm thankful for. At the end of the month, I should have a nice list of things I'm lucky to have to remind myself of whenever I get down. Or a list of really random things that makes me question my sanity and/or priorities. Seems like a win-win.

And so, here we go.

November 1st - I am thankful for...

Online shopping.

OK, this seems like a weird one to start with, but hear me out. I am, as many of you know, a very shy person. Some might call me anti-social. Some DO call me anti-social. In addition, I pretty much refuse to drive in Milwaukee. I've had my share of getting lost around here, and I am by NO means an aggressive driver (which usually means I'm the one who gets screwed over), so other drivers scare the crap out of me. Add those up and I don't get out much on my own.

While Hubby is great at taking me places and going shopping with me, I don't always want to bug him and he's not always available. Enter online shopping. Amazon has been my savior for years now, and I love my Amazon Prime account. (No, I'm not being paid to say that. I really just freakin' love it!) They don't have everything, of course, but more than enough for this gal. 

Besides, there are so many other sites out there! If I need stuff for the dog, BaxterBoo is amazing. If I need clothes, I head to OneStopPlus (big girls need clothes, too). If I want to browse random stuff, I head to places like Shopko, ThinkGeek, or Disney Store. And whenever I'm struggling with present ideas, gifts.com is awesome. Even if I don't find the perfect present, it never fails to give me some awesome ideas.

The benefits are almost endless. I don't have to go anywhere. I don't have to look presentable or even be fully clothed. If I change my mind, removing something from my cart is as easy as clicking a button. There are always deals to be found. Things get delivered right to my house. And a lot of stores will even let you return things (for free or the price of shipping) with little to no hassle.

So, yes, I am thankful for online shopping. It sounds silly, but it makes my life a lot easier and lot more pleasant. And that's worth a ton to me.

The Gift Whisperer

I have a knack for getting people pretty good (if sometimes quite random) gifts.  I pick up on what people like and do my best to find something that I think they'll enjoy.  

My hubby's probably the easiest person to shop for (in my world, anyway).  I'm pretty good at getting stuff for my bestie and my sister (at least I think so; let me know if I'm way off, ladies!).  At minimum, I put a lot of thought and effort into giving presents because it's one of my favorite things to do.  Honestly!  I have more fun buying gifts for other people than I do shopping for myself.  

Unfortunately, there are two people in his world that I always have problems buying things for: my parents.  

Let's get some background, shall we?  Mom is a part-time physical therapist who works with small kids (infants to about 3 years old) in their homes.  She loves playing puzzle games on the computer (last year I got her hooked on Pogo) and is probably the nicest, most patient person on the face of the planet.  She loves spring (gardening is one of her hobbies) and on nice weekend afternoons, you're likely to find her on the front porch with a drink in hand.

Dad is a traveling sales representative (he pretty much covers the good ol' Midwest) who isn't happy unless he has a project to work on or something to fix.  Since he travels so much during the week, he spends most of his weekends at home with Mom.  He has a dry and somewhat twisted sense of humor (he loves Family Guy), is a history buff, and the first thing he'll probably do when he retires is get a dog.  He's right next to Mom on the porch on those nice evenings, drink in one hand and cigarette in the other.

So, you'd think with even that much to go on, that gifts wouldn't be too difficult, right?  Wrong.  So very wrong.  

Mom already has everything she needs for gardening, and has access to all the computer puzzle games she can ever want.  Dad can be hard to read sometimes, but for the most part, it's a good bet that if he really wants something, he either already has it or Mom will be getting it for him.

My mom's birthday is coming up next week, but we're going to see her this weekend, so we decided to celebrate early.  For the past two weeks, I've been scouring the internet for something that says, "Hey!  Your mom would love this!"  No such luck.  Spent a long time at Target the other night; got a bunch of stuff, but the only thing for Mom was a card.  Crap.

With time running out, I turned to Pinterest.  I figured either I could find a gift idea or there would be a craft I could work with, so I searched.  And searched.  And searched some more.  And eventually, I found something that looked fun and easy.

So, in all its nerdiness/goofiness, I present to you, the Bucket-O-Sun!

Inside this bright yellow bucket are a bunch of sunny gifts.

• A yellow sun visor.
• A yellow candle (scent is called: Eternal Sunshine).
• Sunflower clips (on the outside of the bucket).
• Sunglasses.
• Some yellow candy (suckers and Lifesavers).
• A sun stamp and orange stamp pad.
• "Sunny Songs" - a CD I made that's full of sun-themed songs (starting, of course, with the Sesame Street theme song).

There are also some coasters with suns on them that will go in the bucket, but they're still in transit (c'mon, UPS!!).  

OK, so it's sorta lame, but I spent HOURS trying to figure out what the hell to get her, and this is way better than nothing, right?  Let's hope...

Anywhoozles, to my mom, happy early birthday!!  To everyone else, happy early Easter!  May the bunny be kind to you all. :) 

Edit: For those curious, this is the box of sunshine idea I saw.  Yeah, I butchered it pretty bad, but it's my present, dammit!