One of the kids asked me this morning how long until Christmas. First I said something irritable (he asked right in the busy part of the morning routine, and it is NOT EVEN HALLOWEEN YET), but then a few minutes I relented, sighed, did the math…and huh, it’s two months from today. So when I was at Target later, I started something I should have started last month, which was my “buy a gift card every time I go to Target to spread out the financial impact” plan. They didn’t have the holiday ones by the registers yet (sometimes they have them earlier over by the greeting cards, but I forgot to check), but they had this nice vaguely-holidayish one so I got that.
I also bought this cute little fox thing in the dollar section:
It says it’s a candy dish, but it’s more the right size to put on the bureau for, like, a few small pairs of earrings or a couple of hair elastics. Or it would be good near the sink if you take your rings off to do dishes.
Incidentally, that post I just linked to above for the gift card plan also mentions The Girl My Boyfriend Cheated On Me with in High School. There is an update on her, which is that now she’s one of Elizabeth’s Girl Scout leaders. Imagine my surprise. And hers. She seems like a perfectly nice woman; I wonder if things will ever decrease in awkwardness enough for us to make eye contact?
You want awkward? It turns out one of the kids in my son’s day care class is the daughter of my husband’s ex-gf. It was the last serious gf he had before me. What’s funny is I had seen her several times, said hello, etc., and never knew it was her until one day when DH went with me to pick up our son…and she was there. So now it’s super awkward and we avoid all contact whenever possible.
I think about your gift card spreading out plan pretty much every time I’m at Target. It’s just so smart!
About the girl from high school: HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
I do a similar thing with diapers, once the nesting urge hits. Of all the new baby expenses, the cost of diapers FREAKS my husband out the most, so I’ve learned to cash in points/watch promotions and sales, etc. about 6 months into the pregnancy and score some good deals on the BIG boxes of at least size 1 and 2 diapers. I try to grab one box every time I’m out doing other shopping anyway. WinWIN, because then I already have them when I’m dealing with the craziness of adding a new person to our household routines, my husband doesn’t see giant boxes/diaper bills when he is most freak-out-able over things I have the least patience for fraking out about *ahem*, and actually acquiring the diapers doesn’t feel like any kind of bump in our budget. Of course, there are still some feelings of superstition (but I reassure myself that if anything went horribly wrong, diapers are an item I always feel good about donating), and it doesn’t perfectly solve that verrrrry early question about “will my baby be small enough for newborn sized diapers, and if so, for how long?” – but since I re-use diaper boxes to store baby clothes, I have SOME historical data on my actual babies and how many diapers of each size they went through.
*freaking* out, not fraking out…but that’s also remarkably apt.
Oh wow… that would definitely be a surprise. I guess there’s something to be said after all, for moving 1,000 miles away from home when you get married.
In my imaginary universe, where I’m not tongue-tied and awkward, I would say something to the Girl Your High School Boyfriend Cheated on You With like “Man, if our high school selves could see us now!” or “Should we call High School Boyfriend and invite him out for a coffee with us? Hahaha!”
Yeah. It doesn’t sound cool or possible to me either.
Ha! Actually, I really like that first one! I MIGHT be able to do that one! Or “You know, back in high school I would not have pictured this.”
Things like the ex-boyfriend thing make me remember why I moved 3,000 miles away after I graduated from college and haven’t looked back. I do have two exs floating around where I live now, but we dated in our 20s and ended amicably so it’s not horrible. Whereas there is at least one HS and one college BF I never want to see or be reminded of again. My social awkwardness doesn’t need any additional help.
So, I ran into that girl once – when I went in to get a bikini wax. From her. I just moved after college to a bigger city two hours away from the town I grew up in, found an Aveda salon and “oh! um, hi!” But, honestly, I think what happened in high school – we were all kids. It doesn’t bother me any more. I didn’t go back, but mostly because it was a frivolous expense I gave up when I started looking at my ‘grown up’ bills – rent, food, etc.
There was a girl I really didn’t like in grad school. And when she found out I was dating the boy who previously had a major crush on her, she finally showed some interest in him. He broke up with me, went out with her for a few weeks til she ended it – because she was more interested in stealing him from me than actually dating him. It’s 15 years later. We’re all friends on facebook, and I’m even ‘friends’ with his wife. When I comment how cute all their kids are, I really mean it. I only wish I were this mature back then because it was silly to not like her in the first place.
Turn this around – you two have an awesome backstory. It was way too many years ago to care anymore. Laugh about it and be nice to her. You’re totally the blameless one here so she’s definitely following your lead. You will feel so good about yourself, really. Also, if you want to be a little evil about it, if she sees you’re nice, she’ll feel even worse about it all :)
Last time I was visiting home, I went to lunch with my mom and kids with my ex boyfriend’s parents. We’d known their family for ages, and the parents area ll good friends now. Ten years ago I never would have guessed.
All I want to know is this: DOES SHE WEAR HER WINNIE THE POOH SWEATSHIRT?
I’ll bet she BURNED IT after that one time!
Can I ask the audience a question?
I live in Chicago, and I have friends who are teachers both in Chicago, in the suburbs, and in other states.
I’ve heard from some parents, like Swistle, that they get gift cards or other gifts for their kids’ teachers and I’ve run across a lot of lists of good gifts.
Some of my teacher friends get gifts of various types, others don’t. Some are forbidden from accepting gifts that have a monetary value… home made cookies or some photos or a hand crafted bookmark are ok, but gift cards or books or make up or whatever are right out.
What is the teacher-gift-giving deal where you live?
This is my first experience with a kid in school, and he’s in public school, where I know for a fact his teacher & teaching assistant are under paid.
Most of the kids at his school qualify for free lunch, too, so I don’t know if their parents have the means to give gifts, also.
@Brigid my son attends a public school in a SE state. Last year the parent who volunteered to be the classroom coordinator (I forget the term for it and that’s not right, but we have a system where there is one parent who coordinates other parent volunteers for the class for various activities) sent around an email and invited those of us who wanted to, to make a contribution both at the holiday season and again at the end of the year, toward an (I think) Amazon gift card for the teacher. I’m hoping we’ll get the same setup again; I liked that we were able to contribute and also that it was a “class gift” rather than a family-by-family thing where I could imagine comparisons happening or families not being able to participate and feeling awkward (I guess the same could happen with the parent organizer but that seemed more OK to me, it was very nicely handled as in, “Don’t feel obligated to participate and some families may prefer to give a gift they have chosen or made …” so not giving to the group effort didn’t need to imply not giving at all.
In your circumstance if you are able it might be a kindness to invite other parents to give to a class fund for an Amazon card and to make it a “class gift” rather than a your-family gift, if other families are likely not to be in a position to give (and this offers them a gracious way to participate without needing to spend money. I think our coordinator parent also circulated a card to sign and that signing it was not directly linked to contributing (i.e. everyone was invited to sign and the card went with the class gift card, but one didn’t need to have contributed to the class gift card to sign the card that went with it which thanked the teachers for their work and wished them happy holidays).
Thanks for the feedback!
I loved your idea of purchases Target gift cards early and often. So last year I started doing just that. And then my old brain forgot and in March I found all these gift cards scattered around the house. No idea what their values are. Need to gather them all and get ready for this gift-giving season!
I saw that little fox dish at Target last week! My immediate thought was “I should get that for Swistle!” followed by “Oh yeah, I don’t really know her!”
Before I even finished reading the title of this post, I started wondering about the Winnie the Pooh shirt.
I tried the “buying cards a little at a time” last year, and it worked great, last week I got a letter from the school stating that a law was passed in our state that teachers were not allowed to accepts gifts with a monetary value. so my whole plan of fun scarf the kids picked out with a gift card, no longer works, drat, back to square one
OH NO. I hope this doesn’t spread! But I wouldn’t be surprised if it did! I’d better look into my state’s laws before I buy too many more cards!
Okay, I checked my state, and it says if it’s under $25 it’s okay. STAYING THE COURSE.
I never thought about not being able to give a gift to the kids’ teachers! That is crazy, I think I’d mail it to their house or something. This year I have one in an ABA therapy school (he has autism) and he has a program manager, a speech therapist, and an am therapist and pm therapist, but he switches them out during the year so he has had two morning and two afternoon therapists by now. I am giving six gift cards to those guys and then I usually bake cookies and send them in the week before the holidays and I hope that makes it even. Then I have one in Kindergarten at Catholic school, I assume I’ll just give her teacher a gift card, as well as my other one’s preschool teacher. She’s in the same Catholic school but just in the preschool. THEN I have my two year old in a mom’s day out type thing, and I am the parent liaison for the class, so we collect money for a gift card and I usually do a big ornament with all the kids’ names on it in fancy sharpie and the year. I used to work in a shwanky private day school and the parents gave great big giant gift card gifts.
I tell everyone about your brilliant gift card plan, Swistle, and use it myself. I am buying gift cards from other places this year, so I buy them all at my grocery store because then I get double points for gas. So I buy some Amazon, some movies, some Bed Bath and Beyond. I appreciate the tip, I never would have thought of it without you!