No Average Mom

The majority of my Christmas shopping was done in the summer. I am just one of those people who cannot stand to pay seasonal “sale” prices or battle the crowds around the holidays. I love having my shopping done and being able to sit back and truly relax during the holiday break. I still need to get a few stocking stuffers for my children and husband. My husband has a great deal of paper work associated with his job so I am thinking about getting him a few custom pens for his stocking. The boys are pretty much happy with anything which makes filling their stockings an easy task. Pens, candy, and some trinkets and my holiday shopping is complete!

It has been quite a while since we have had a really little person in the house. This year our son is just about 1.5 years old and there is nothing that he can’t get into given the right tools. If the right tool isn’t handy he will find a way to stack different items together to achieve his goal. Now that it is time to pull out the christmas decorations I am questioning just how much decorating we will do this year. I know that if we put a tree in the usual location he will pull it down on himself in a matter of minutes. Our older son still believes in Santa making it important that we keep every tradition going in full effect. I am wondering how silly a Christmas tree would look in our kitchen? The little one can’t get in there but Santa could definitely maneuver his way over the baby gates and safety locks! Any suggestions for pairing toddlers and Christmas trees?

My husband is one of those people who is just gifted at buying truly thoughtful gifts. Somehow he knows exactly what it is that each person on his gift list will appreciate. This is a knack that I envy. The only downside to his gift giving is that he really doesn’t concern himself with comparing prices and often pays far more for the gifts he gives than is necessary. For example, every few years he gives me a piece of pearl jewelry. This all started when he gave me a beautiful pearl ring for our first anniversary. Over the last 16 years of marriage I now own several beautiful pearl jewelry items. The hard part is when I see the over priced bills for these gifts roll in. I wish somehow I could direct him to look at the jewelry available at premiumpearl.com.

These are some of the beautiful pieces available at Premium Pearl. This pair of earrings is very similar to a pair I have in my jewelry chest. These earrings are priced at PremiumPearl.com at just $145.00! I can tell you that my husband spent at least twice that much at our local retail jewelry store. Premium Pearl offers an incredible selection of all types of pearls including Akoya, Tahitian, Freshwater, and South Sea Pearls. These items are available in all types of jewelry such as bridal sets, bracelets, and pendants. I can only imagine how large my pearl jewelry collection would be at this point had my husband discovered PremiumPearl.com before he purchased that first ring so many years ago!

The idea occurred to me this week that one possible solution to coping with my noisy neighbors would be to change bedrooms. This would be quite a bit of work with no guarantee of a good nights rest when it is all said and done. Our son can sleep through just about anything and everything which would be great considering the proximity of our bedroom to the neighbors. Maybe before moving all the little stuff like the wall sconce, pictures, and knicknacks we should just move the bed and see how it goes. Of course there is always the chance the people on the other side will start acting up again and we will be no better off than we were in our old room. Moving really is the only solution to our problem but that is a couple years away at this point.

Whenever somebody asks me what I need for Christmas I can never come up with something that I actually need right at that moment. Not long after I am usually able to come up with several ideas that I could really use. This year if anyone out there could direct Santa Claus this way I would really appreciate it. Maybe you could just tell him that I have a keen interest this year in microwave ovens. Both my microwave and regular stove decided to go on the fritz this week. All but one of the burners on my stove is working properly and my microwave seem to only be good for defrosting things.

I am beginning to think that I am loosing touch with the world. It has been several month since I have watch any thing on television or even read about current events. This is actually the way I prefer things except when it comes to keeping up casual conversation. During Thanksgiving dinner with my family a couple of people were discussing Jane Iredale and I had no idea what they were talking about. I suppose I really should look her up on Yahoo to find out what they were talking about. Maybe I will do that after the 10 loads of laundry waiting in the basement are done.

What is the deal with some banks and outrageous fees? I just finished looking at our checking account and noticed that a fee was charged almost every time we used one of our local ATMs. Then I looked a little deeper and we were charged almost $10.00 just for the privilege of banking. I don’t understand why our bank charges so much when WaMu offers a Free Checking account. There is no monthly service fee for this type of account at WaMu and it comes with many free services. WaMu free checking means no more ATM withdrawal fee and free checks for life. I seriously need to make the switch to WaMu!

Our little guy is into absolutely everything he can find these days. With his new found mobility it seems there is a weekly boo boo to accompany it. Last week he fell twice into the television stand. It is something my husband made and is sort of like a plasma stand. I am hoping that at some point the little fellow will start to take more of an interest in looking at the world around him rather than using it as a jungle gym. Quickly we have found out that there isn’t anything he can’t climb or scale if given the right leverage. Hopefully, his ingenuity is something that remains with him for life but on a slightly safer dimension.