Blizzard ®

Mary Claire called from school again, and guess what...?  Her tummy hurt.  She forgot her Zantac this morning, so she was asking for it.  I hate when she calls before I'm showered and um.."presentable".  I like to do all my work before I take a shower, so I can be comfy-and sweat!  But, it doesn't always work out.  I pulled my hair up, and headed out.  She was okay, and took her medicine (the horrible, nasty medicine.  I can vouch for her-I tried it!)
I also did something fun today!  I keep seeing these commercials on tv about buying old gold.  I was cleaning today, and looked through my old jewelry boxes, and had forgotten about all that old stuff!  I mean, I haven't worn gold since like..1999! (or 2003 maybe?)  I had bracelets, old necklaces (do you remember the gold ball necklaces-the ones that were hollow gold, and you got a new ball every year on your birthday? and if you sucked on them during tests, you'd accidentally bite/dent them?), and old rings, gold w-i-d-e earring hoops, and so much more.  I took it to my kitchen scale (*love* that thing!), and guess what it weighed?  7/8 of an ounce!  (They are currently paying a whopping $1390 an ounce!  Well..it says here it's at $1409!)  I thought I'd check into it!  I knew it was up to $850 a while back, but 1390 caught my attention.  Here's the Lowdown:

I took all my cute gift boxes (some original!) to a local jeweler that's been advertising on television, and thought I'd see what it was worth.  I had one ring with some platinum at the top, and a few things with stones & pearls in them.  The guy (seemed kinda nervous) read all the labels to check for karat weight-all 14 karat.  Then he weighed it all, subtracted for the platinum, and I got a little more for that.  He told me he thought I had enough for a small vacation, so I got excited!  Then he told me my grand total: an ounce, and it was worth $582.  (I wanna know-a vacation to where!!?)  I looked at him, and said they'd told me earlier that today's price was $1390 an ounce-and he said that's for pure 24 karat gold (of which I had none-it's so bend-y!)  So.  I debated on the pile he'd just mangled (after I'd kept the chains so perfect for so many years).  I decided to take it-I wasn't even using that stuff!  I love silver soo much more!  This other guy comes out, and starts laying out hundred dollar bills, then twenties, and then ones.  That was it.  No paperwork, no signing, just cash.  Huh.  So, there went my old eighties necklaces, and I was done.  I guess it was a teensy bit thrilling to walk out with hundred dollar bills and wonder what on Earth I was going to use it for! : )  Hahahaha-that was a fun trip-I totally suggest you try it-especially since it's at an all-time high!

So, then back to my life.  I cleaned, washed sheets, made beds, and started chopping broccoli (do you remember this song from Saturday Night Live? Love it!) for dinner (we were going to have the Sesame Broccoli Beef from Double Delicious with carrot puree).  I got Ethan, and ran by the bank to make a deposit (heeheehee) since it should not sit in my purse-it'll burn a hole!  Then we came home to play ZhuZhu hamsters and cars and firetrucks while we waited for the big kids to come home!  Did you know Batman hangs out with hamsters and firetrucks in our world?  Yeah, only at our house.  Baby Jesus also gets to ride the ferris wheel at Christmas! thanks to Fisher Price : )  We're cool like that.


Anyway, we had to get dinner on fast, since my van was ready!! : )  I was so excited, I've missed that big hunk of metal.  We had to barter, since the beef broccoli wasn't as tasty as the kids might have imagined (although Ches and I really did like it-with more salt-and Ethan ate all his "trees"!).  The kids had gotten free Blizzards as trick-or-treat Treats on Halloween, so we decided it was a good incentive, although we forgot we'd have two vehicles!  Ethan cried to go with me, then when we got back on the highway to come home, he cried to go with his daddy.  We took an exit, and traded him out.  Then back home to drop a van, and on to Dairy Queen!  When we were almost there, we realized we'd forgotten our coupons. : (  Well, we just got them anyway.  We'll have a treat another day-for free!  Have you ever gotten a Blizzard there-seriously?  We get those McFlurries at McDonald's all them time, but never There.  They have like a million, check out these pictures!:

For Cookie Lovers:

Cookie Dough
Mint Oreo
Oreo CheeseQuake
Cookie Jar
Double Fudge Cookie Dough

For Candy Cravers:

Reese Peanut Butter Cups
Butterfinger
Heath
M&Ms
Cappucino Heath

For Fruit Fans:

Banana Cream Pie
Strawberry CheeseQuake
Banana Split
Choco Cherry Love
Hawaiian
Chocolate Covered Strawberry
Rasberry Truffle

For Chocoholics:

Chocolate Xtreme
French Silk Pie
Turtle Pecan Cluster
Georgia Mud Fudge
Mocha Chip
Midnight Truffle

Let's see..we ordered Butterfinger, M&M, Cookie Dough, and Reese's (and Ches ordered tea-Wild Man.).  Don't give us those silly fruits-we dessert seriously!  I mean-we ate our broccoli!

Then, home and back to it.  Mary Claire's sweet friend, Jane, is loaning her some books since the school library never has them available for check out!  The first one, The Doll People, which I totally brought home for her this summer-and she didn't read-is so popular!  Anyway, we made Jane a Thank You/Bookmark!  Here is the front (oh, and Mary Claire had to have one too):

I just wrote, "Jane's Favorite Books", then some lines, then I was looking for clip art fonts, and Mary Claire liked lots of the pictures, so we put them all on there!  Maybe they can color them?

Mary Claire first picked a scrapbook zebra paper instead of cardstock, but it wasn't stiff enough, but she wanted to use it anyway.

Then it was time for Clay to get back to work on his thank you notes.  He had a lot of them, and he only started today!  It's probably half my fault.  I couldn't decide what to put on them, or whether to get picture thank you notes again.  Decisions.  And I really felt he was old enough (and fast enough) to write his own thank you notes.  Isn't 10 old enough?  (correct answer: yes)  So, I printed some cards and added little pop-ups of cardstock with movie pictures-like I used for the cupcake flags:

All the cards have different pictures on the fronts

And I have to show you one of the cards.  He makes me laugh!  (to myself, of course)  Whenever he used a brand name, he put the tiny R with a circle for Restricted (®) next to the words:

Can you see the tiny ® next to Monopoly?  (Totally ignore the mistakes-he did it himself, and I was thankful)  So cute!

I'm so thankful he can write his own thank you notes.  Even with the mistakes-it makes them real.  He's just so big now-they really do just grow up right in front of you. : )