Good Deal

Lilly's first day of soccer is today. The coach said its just going to be an hour of the kids running around. He wants to see if any of them have any 'skills' or whatever. She's super excited about it and so am I.
About 2 weeks ago I bought Lilly a camera that I was going to give her for Christmas. It was one of those kid cameras that is like a tank. You can drop it or throw it and it'll be ok. After a lot of thinking about it, I came to the conclusion that this camera (it was one of those Discovery kids cameras) was a little too baby-ish for Lilly. She's almost 7, not 3. So..... I decided to take the camera back yesterday and get my money back. I had seen this one camera that I wanted to get her online and it was half the price. Still a kid camera, but not a tank. I went to the store, receipt in hand and told the cashier that I wanted to return the camera. She looked at me funny and I assured her that I had not even opened it, I just wanted something more 'grown up' for my daughter. She said that I was past the 10 day return policy.........by only 4 days!!! She said she could give me store credit and I just sort of stared at her. I would have taken it, but the manager came by and showed me another camera. Its a Vivitar and was $80-a much more grown up camera. I would even like to have this one. The camera I was trying to take back was $40. I held the new camera and told them I didn't think so, I wasn't going to spend $80 on a camera for a 7 year old. $40 was a stretch. The manager took the cashier to a corner away from me and they huddled and whispered. The cashier then looked at me and said that she would do an even trade. What? Do my ears deceive me? I try to look unexcited and tell her thank you, I'll do that. I'll take the new camera. When I got out of the store, I did a little happy dance. I got an $80 camera for 50% off!! And its not even a big shopping day where there are good sales.
I got to see my best friend yesterday. I hadn't seen her since her wedding day back in August. We only had an hour together, though. She was with me during the whole camera ordeal. We even discreetly high fived while the cashier was ringing me up. My bff treated me to some coffee at a new coffee/tea place in the mall. Its called TeaCo. She ordered a Chai Tea and I ordered a Caramel Mocha. The lady behind the counter handed us each our drinks and told us what they were. Well... of course we couldn't drink it right away since it was so hot. My bff dropped me back off at work and a few minutes later I took a drink of my mocha.... it was kind of gross and tasted a bit like pumpkin. Then, my bff called and said that she is not happy with her drink. The lady got our drinks switched! Now I don't know if I like that place since I didn't get to taste the drink I had ordered. I got some gross pumpkin-y drink. I don't like anything pumpkin. I don't even like pumpkin pie...yeah, I know I'm crazy.
So anyway... I think I've decided to save Lilly's camera for her birthday in March. Then, I can get her all kinds of stuff to go with it- a case, photo album, some scrapbook stuff.... I'm actually really excited about it. Last year for her birthday, her big present was a diskman and 2 CD's and she was so happy about that she almost fell out of her seat. I would like to repeat that as often as possible. I was originally going to get her a Leap Frog Leapster Explorer for her birthday. Its a learning hand held game. That was going to be her big gift, but I'm going to give her that for Christmas now along with her scooter for her big gifts.
Seriously, Christmas has taken over my mind. That's all I think about.