I got to SLEEP!!!!!

Today is going to be the best day in the history of the world! Miss Angel Baby slept through the night!

My heart is POUNDING with energy. I can't even describe this feeling, it's so good. I think I'm just going to bask. And clean.

But not before I tell you about this weekends shopping trip! I had a great and yet awkward time at Shoprite, because I'm still not used to shopping this way. It was snack food week at Shoprite, lots of junkie junk food on sale. My goal-to stock up on at least a couple of weeks worth, and bootleg it into the house unnoticed, at approximately half the cost of what we've been paying on one bag of store brand chips a week.

I got away with the first part. I walked through the the store with a mountain of chips, snacks, organic salad mix and yet more body wash, and avoided eye contact with everyone I passed. At this point, I appear to be THAT mom that feeds their kids Cheetos and soda for breakfast. I want to hang a sign on the front of my cart that says, "I'm only buying loss leaders here, people." I've always been kind of haughty about the contents of my cart, a well balanced mix of fruits, veggies, lean proteins, and a miniscule amount of snack food. To walk through a store with a mountain of chips makes me want to crawl under something and hide.

It is saving us money in the long run though. My cart rang up at $100.84 before store card and coupons, and I paid 42.64 out of pocket, with over 33.00 in coupons. I brought home 6 stacks of pringles, four bags of cheese curls, two bags of tortilla chips, a bag of potato chips, two bags of veggie pasta, two tubes of toothpaste, three tubs of organic salad mix, two bottles of body wash, two containers of deodorant, three containers of chocolate milk, two quarts of half and half, three cartons of yogurt, two bottles of Coffee creamer, three stacks of paper plates, a grand total of thirty seven items for $42.64. Not too shabby.

Let me explain the allure of Shoprite- it's their coupon policy. They double everything to full value up to 99 cents, so if you have a $.99 cent coupon, you receive $1.98 off said item. It's like I've died and gone to Heaven, but it is a good half hour away. Fortunately, my dad lives in the same area and the Walgreens is also pretty close to it, so it works out in my Sunday morning rotation.

I know everyone is dying to know how checkout went after last weeks incident, right? Well, we had another incident this week. Totally and completely different, though. As usual, I carefully grouped my items according to coupon and handed the cashier the coupons in the order they were on the belt. She slapped my coupons down on the counter with vigor...I've never seen anyone else so enthusiastic. She didn't call a manager to look at my internet coupons, which I was surprised about, and she meticulously rubbed her fingers over each printed coupon to make sure there weren't two stuck together. (((LOVE)))

When she got to the last two coupons, the register jammed. The better I get at this, the more this happens. She called for a manager key...and here's the incident. We waited. At this point, another customer was behind me, and I was starting to get embarrassed. What felt like an hour and was probably about two minutes passed, with me apologizing to anyone that would listen, and the cashier picked up her phone again, this time turning away from me. (This seems to be a bad habit at Shoprite.) Whatever she said worked, and a girl with a key appeared like magic.

The cashier looked at her and said, "the lady has everything on here, take these coupons off for her, now, please, and don't you dare make her fish through those bags to show you things."

Jaw drop.

Not just at being called a lady, mind you. Mentally, I'm still adjusting to the fact that they let me have children and drive a car and that I can have chocolate cake for breakfast if I want to.

The coupons were removed promptly and without incident, and the manager apologized for making me wait, and I left with my little happy coupon dance. Decent people make all the difference.

I was unable to hide the goodies as the children met me at the front door. So now everyone KNOWS there is more than a months worth of junk food on hand. This is NEVER good.

I did make a trip to Weis last night, however, and I broke their register, as well, despite purchasing over seven dollars worth of balls for the screaming children. For seventeen dollars (removing the cost of the bribe) I brought home four cases of coke, for boxes of Cheerios, two boxes of Berber chicken, and two bags of 8 o'clock coffee. The coffee was a bogo with a two dollar off two coupon right on their site, the Berber chicken was on sale three for ten with two $1.50 off one coupons, the coke is $1.88 each (!!!!!!!!!) when you buy four. The Cheerios are 4 for six dollars, and there are 50 cent off one coupons over the internet, so I paid two dollars for four boxes. The manager came over and said I was saving too much money so they have to double check everything. (Possibly because I self check out at Weis now. Too much trauma.

I promise, my children do get fruits and veggies. Lots of them, actually.