Mother's Day
Well, it's Mother's Day. Wow, two years in a row I actually have it off - although both times I was originally scheduled to work it. Somehow, even when we switched Sunday teams up, I always ended up with the Sunday by Halloween and Mother's Day. Last year, I ended up switching with someone because she needed a different Sunday off. This year... well, only Main's open on Sundays now. (g)
Mom knows everything that she's getting, but at least she's getting nice stuff. She wanted this "build-your-own-bead-bracelet" from Belk, which was on serious sale. Of course, even with that, I still freaked out when I saw the prices for the individual parts. Before the 60% off, the bare silver bracelet was $40, but the beads started at $20 - EACH. So, since we have a shared bank account and right now we can't do any big purchases (more on that in a bit), I had to call her to make sure I could afford it. She also got two shirts (on serious sale) - I slipped and mentioned that to her, but when my sister complained about having no surprises, Mom replied that she already knew she was getting a shirt since Sarah had asked her what size she was. (g)
Then, there's the big gift from me, and why I love 94.3 FM, WSC, right now. Back on 10/15/07, my sister won tickets from them to see Glenn Beck's Christmas Show. Now, I win their Spoil Mom Rotten prize package: a pair of pretty pearl earrings from Campbell's Jewelers, and a slew of stuff from Seeking Indigo: a $200 gift certificate to their retail store, 60 min. Japanese facelift massage, 60 min. ginger compress signature Ayurvedic treatment, 30 min. ionic detox foot bath (with scaler laser, because everything is better with lasers (g)), 30 min. Migun massage experience, 30 min. far infrared sauna, 60 min. hyperbaric oxygen chamber session (which I will admit makes me think of the late Michael Jackson), lunch at their cafe, and a private Pilates session. All in all, it's worth over $700 - I had to fill out tax forms when I picked up the earrings and gift pass. Yes, Mom knows what she's getting, as I was seriously excited Thursday morning when I found out, plus she's on WSC's mailing list also, so she could pull up the email about the contest. She made people at work jealous of her that way. (g) Stu at WSC did ask me if I was going to give it to her or keep it for myself, and much as I wouldn't mind some of the spa stuff, I did enter it for her, and she deserves it, so she'll get it (although my name is on the gift pass, so she could share it if she wants (g)).
Thankfully, the gift pass is good until November, since she can't use it right now. Why? We're moving at the end of the month, if the closing goes well. Mom finally sold the last of the stock she inherited from my grandmother, and is using most of that for the down payment on a house. It's a small house, not much larger than our apartment actually (and my tentative room will actually be slightly smaller, sigh), with 3 bedrooms (so my sister will finally get her own room, instead of having to share with Mom) and 2 bathrooms. Sadly for my sister, this means that her boyfriend, who has been living in our living room for a year and a half (which was only supposed to be VERY temporary originally), will have to move out. Please note that I say this is sad only for her. The place does have a nice front and back yard, a screened porch (perfect for smoking sisters), a nice sized driveway, and a garage, which is something that isn't often available here (a lot of people turned them into extra rooms - why?????? You would want your car inside in bad weather, and we do get hurricanes here, people!). It is an older house, and so needs a little work, but overall it is in typical shape for a house its age. Assuming that nothing goes wrong (and after poor lifestudios experiences lately with house buying, I know better than to assume that all will be well until after it is done :^( ), we'll close on 5/27.
Best bit that I said will not get covered up: a previous owner wrote math equations on the garage wall. There's the golden ratio, a bit of geometry featuring that, and the beginning of the Fibonacci number sequence (which I'm VERY familiar with, having had to learn how to program it in school ages ago). I giggled madly when I saw it. The inspector was amused by that (he was a structural engineer, so he got it), while our real estate agent was confused by my reaction. Yes, I am a proud geek. (g)
Mom knows everything that she's getting, but at least she's getting nice stuff. She wanted this "build-your-own-bead-bracelet" from Belk, which was on serious sale. Of course, even with that, I still freaked out when I saw the prices for the individual parts. Before the 60% off, the bare silver bracelet was $40, but the beads started at $20 - EACH. So, since we have a shared bank account and right now we can't do any big purchases (more on that in a bit), I had to call her to make sure I could afford it. She also got two shirts (on serious sale) - I slipped and mentioned that to her, but when my sister complained about having no surprises, Mom replied that she already knew she was getting a shirt since Sarah had asked her what size she was. (g)
Then, there's the big gift from me, and why I love 94.3 FM, WSC, right now. Back on 10/15/07, my sister won tickets from them to see Glenn Beck's Christmas Show. Now, I win their Spoil Mom Rotten prize package: a pair of pretty pearl earrings from Campbell's Jewelers, and a slew of stuff from Seeking Indigo: a $200 gift certificate to their retail store, 60 min. Japanese facelift massage, 60 min. ginger compress signature Ayurvedic treatment, 30 min. ionic detox foot bath (with scaler laser, because everything is better with lasers (g)), 30 min. Migun massage experience, 30 min. far infrared sauna, 60 min. hyperbaric oxygen chamber session (which I will admit makes me think of the late Michael Jackson), lunch at their cafe, and a private Pilates session. All in all, it's worth over $700 - I had to fill out tax forms when I picked up the earrings and gift pass. Yes, Mom knows what she's getting, as I was seriously excited Thursday morning when I found out, plus she's on WSC's mailing list also, so she could pull up the email about the contest. She made people at work jealous of her that way. (g) Stu at WSC did ask me if I was going to give it to her or keep it for myself, and much as I wouldn't mind some of the spa stuff, I did enter it for her, and she deserves it, so she'll get it (although my name is on the gift pass, so she could share it if she wants (g)).
Thankfully, the gift pass is good until November, since she can't use it right now. Why? We're moving at the end of the month, if the closing goes well. Mom finally sold the last of the stock she inherited from my grandmother, and is using most of that for the down payment on a house. It's a small house, not much larger than our apartment actually (and my tentative room will actually be slightly smaller, sigh), with 3 bedrooms (so my sister will finally get her own room, instead of having to share with Mom) and 2 bathrooms. Sadly for my sister, this means that her boyfriend, who has been living in our living room for a year and a half (which was only supposed to be VERY temporary originally), will have to move out. Please note that I say this is sad only for her. The place does have a nice front and back yard, a screened porch (perfect for smoking sisters), a nice sized driveway, and a garage, which is something that isn't often available here (a lot of people turned them into extra rooms - why?????? You would want your car inside in bad weather, and we do get hurricanes here, people!). It is an older house, and so needs a little work, but overall it is in typical shape for a house its age. Assuming that nothing goes wrong (and after poor lifestudios experiences lately with house buying, I know better than to assume that all will be well until after it is done :^( ), we'll close on 5/27.
Best bit that I said will not get covered up: a previous owner wrote math equations on the garage wall. There's the golden ratio, a bit of geometry featuring that, and the beginning of the Fibonacci number sequence (which I'm VERY familiar with, having had to learn how to program it in school ages ago). I giggled madly when I saw it. The inspector was amused by that (he was a structural engineer, so he got it), while our real estate agent was confused by my reaction. Yes, I am a proud geek. (g)