Sales and Sophie!

Today is Black Friday, which means there were huge sales everywhere. Being as I did not indulge in turkey yesterday, I figured that gave me a leg up, right? ;) After all, it just makes you tired and slows you down, and who needs that when there's SALES going on?!

A sister from our congregation, Shelly, who watches Sophie for me when I'm at work, offered to take her last night after the meeting and keep her overnight for me. I gladly accepted. Who wants a sleepy, cranky baby when you're standing in mile-long check out lines? Besides, it would be cruel to take her out Black Friday shopping this young. She'd be too heavy to carry and too little to keep up, and she'd be more than exhausted. She'd be downright hateful (NO idea where she gets THAT from - ha!). If Shelly hadn't taken her, I wouldn't have gone out at all.

Luckily, however, this gave me the opportunity to stay up alllllll niiiiiight loooooong. I don't think I've done that in years. (I'm still amazed that the clock says 10:30. I'm thinking it should be closer to 6 pm.) First stop was Tanger Outlets for the Midnight Madness sale. I over-indulged in Rue 21, but I'm as happy as a fat cow :) I got a few nice floor length dresses for the meeting (summery, so I'll have to put a jacket over them, or a shirt underneath), a sweater, a bunch of shirts for wearing under my scrub tops (I get SO cold!), and a bunch more senselessness. We went to Music for a Song and I found a t-shirt for Sophie. It's pink and advertises an old record shop down at the beach. It was $1.40. Really, who can pass that up? There wasn't much else to find down at the beach, though. I am amazed at how many people REALLY show up at midnight to shop!

Wal-Mart in Rehoboth was ridiculous. I got there just before five, and the line to get in stretched alllll the way to the back of the store. There were a bazillion state troopers out front. It was mania. I can't say that Milford Wal-Mart was any better. It was a mess, too, even though it's 24 hours. However, I got my $25 HP printer! (Thanks to my mom, who got to W-M earlier than I did.) That's awesome because our old printer with our old computer isn't compatible with Vista.

I didn't get home til 8:30 am and didn't go to sleep until after 9 am. I awoke to a banging sound. At first I thought it was my brother in law banging on my bedroom door. I didn't get up or acknowledge him because I figured maybe he might go away. Then, as I started to wake up more, I realized it wasn't my bedroom door, it was my window. The banging stopped, though, and I started to go back to sleep.

That was when I realized that my room was getting darker. I looked at the clock. It was almost 5 pm! I picked up my cell phone and groggily checked my messages. Two from Shelly, two from my husband, all letting me know that Shelly needed to drop off Sophie by 4. Um. Oops.

I called Shelly, and she gladly came back to my house to return my Pookie, who, by that time, was sleeping. Shelly explained that she thought Sophie had missed me because she had been pretty irritable all day and refused to use the potty (with which we've been having GREAT success recently!).

I got my baby inside, car seat and all, unbuckled her, and took off her jacket. She was still sound asleep, snoring in fact. Looking down at her, I was overwhelmed with an intense feeling of love and amazement. When she is awake, she is mostly silly and smiling and happy. When she is sleeping, she is quiet and peaceful and beautiful, and I can't figure out how I ever helped to make something so amazingly wonderful.

It's true that children are a gift from God.