i have no clever title for this long ass post.

but hey, it was quite a fun weekend - lots of fun, sleep, and shopping!

we all slept in on saturday morning, which was lovely. even the bean! and then the kid and i remembered our 10:00 appointment to get our brows done - about a week overdue, as the hub was quick to point out at dinner the night before. have i ever mentioned wanting to smack him upside the head before? heh.

so we took the bean with us, who slept through the brow snatching and the errands we ran afterwards - boring crap like picking up mail and dry cleaning. blah. and then we stopped at home, scooped up the hub and headed to the local verizon store, for the kid's most favorite errand of all - upgrading her phone. whee!

earlier, she'd absolutely begged me to take her and BFF to see the 3D hannah montana concert movie, so after dropping the hub back off at home (duh, like he was going to go to THAT), we raced down the freeway to get there in time for the 3:00 matinee show.

we pulled into the parking garage at 2:50. and remember this was saturday afternoon - practically rush hour at the mall, right? riiiight. so i was following this car that was really pissing me off - i certainly don't mind the parking lot-stalkers, because i'm no stranger to that dance - but the driver was being an asshole, crawling at a 2 mph pace right. in. the. middle. at the very least, you could be considerate enough to pull over to the side and let others pass you. but noooooo.

and when she found her victim, she'd almost driven past their car, and immediately threw her ugly ass jalopy in reverse. i honked, motioned for her to scoot over, and shook my head - not to steal her precious parking spot, but to get her to move over a bit so i could just go around her. she finally got it and pulled over ever-so-slightly, and i could at last pass her.

and as i squeeze by, what does that bitch ass twat do?

she totally flipped me off, just like that (only she was asian), old-lady style. ugh. two and a half kids in the car and i have to put up with this kind of shit for a parking spot?? fuckin' A.

so at last, we get to the ticket window and it turns out that there's no such thing as a "matinee" for this particular movie. oh, no. it was originally supposed to be a limited release - running for only one week - but it sold out for every showing and made some ridiculous amount of cash with demand still on high. so disney being disney, they decided to release it for a longer run. to the tune of $15 per ticket. mm-hmmm. i coughed up the cash and handed the kid some more for snacks, and they ran off happily to collect their 3D glasses.

i stopped at lollicup to scoop up a nice almond milk tea drink with boba and immediately felt better. plus, i was at the mall with cold hard cash from the hub AND a 20% off coupon for gymboree. does it GET any better? well, yes. yes, it does.

a stop at baby gap resulted in this for the bean:

and then these from gymboree: baby gap and gymboree are like crack for me. i could spend gobs of cash in there, if i could get away with it.

next, i decided to hit up nordstrom to see if i could find the joe's jeans i'd been eyeing. i still had store credit from returning the paige premiums i got for christmas that didn't fit just right, and joe's was a brand i hadn't yet tried. out of habit, i stopped in the shoe section first, and managed to find a pair of steve madden flats on sale for $35.

um, and they came in brown AND black. yeah. let's just say that i got two pairs of shoes for the price of one ;)

and those jeans? found 'em. they're being altered and i get to pick them up on thursYAY! it was quite a successful day at the mall, indeed. and as expected, the kid slept over at BFF's. the weekend isn't complete if there isn't at least one sleepover.

today we managed to sleep right through all three church services. oops. and so the entire day was a blur - brought the girls some food from carl's jr. (after waiting a full 15 minutes at the drive-thru - i've got to remember to call and complain about that one), had lunch at sushi roku (baked crab rolls are still the best thing on the planet, period), made a quick pitstop at paper source, got the hub's hairs cut, and then hung out at home a bit before going out to chipotle for dinner. this was only my 3rd meal from chipotle, and i think i'm addicted. i actually think i like it better than *gasp* baja fresh! wowzers.

and in the car, the kid hooked up her iPod and turned on some jonas brothers tunes. when one of the slow songs came on, i said to the hub "she says this is going to be her wedding song. gee, i sure hope her husband likes it as much as she does."

she hesitated for about a millisecond, and then my quick-witted, wonderfully brilliant daughter said "he already does. he wrote it."

i fell out. i tell you, i thought i was going to pee my pants. i'm so glad she didn't inherit my tendency to come up with great lines/comebacks when it's about a day too late. man, i love that kid.

no almond milk for you!

good god a'mighty. the bean and i left the house at 10 this morning and just BARELY got back in time to pick up the kid from school at 2:30. sheesh. although i must admit, we were quite productive, so that's a good thing.

we got to the county recorder's office in norwalk in about half an hour. it was fairly easy to get there, but we did encounter a really ugly accident that shut the freeway down to just the carpool lane. the ambulance was getting there just as we passed it - there were a few cars plus two big rigs involved, and those cars were seriously jacked up. i caught a glimpse of one guy sitting on the bumper, holding his arm, and i just sent up a quick prayer, hoping that everyone involved was okay. yikes.

once i pulled into the parking lot, i realized (too late) how big of a mistake it was to try this on a monday. what was i thinking? it took a solid fifteen minutes to even find a parking spot. i had to pass up a couple of openings, even. damn those stupid compact spots.

after missing at least a dozen opportunities to parking spot-stalk (you know what i mean - when you sit and watch for folks exiting the building, and totally follow them really closely, like a freaky stalker, and then flick on the signal and do a victory dance, laughing at the disgruntled drivers who are either stuck behind you or go around you, grumbling and mad-dogging you all the way), i finally got a sweet spot, right in front. patience is a virtue, people.

i strapped the bean into the s&m carrier and headed inside the building, all the while praying that i wasn't going to have to stand in the line that went all the way down the stairs and down the sidewalk. what was i thinking? of course that was where i had to be. i glanced at my watch when i got in line, and decided to keep track of how long it really was.

it was damn cold outside. plus, we were standing in the shade. thank goodness the rain was over, though! phew. as we stood there, i held the bean close and wrapped my jacket around her, even though she was wearing several layers and sharing my body heat. and then a girl walked up to me, holding out a pink blanket, and asked me if i wanted it for the bean. i was really touched at her kindness, and told her so as i thanked her and showed her the extra jacket i had in my bag. i watched her walk back to her place in line - which was waaaaay up in front, almost at the door. i thought it was even sweeter that she took the time to walk all the way back to where i was. huh. there IS such a thing as the "kindness of strangers," after all!

by the time i finally got up to one of the windows, it had been just under an hour. i was actually pretty surprised, because as one of the guys behind me said, that line looked like it was about three days long. and the bean had fallen asleep and was snuggled up all nice and warm. i paid my $34 and walked away with two certified, authorized copies of the bean's birth certificate. woo-hoo!

i managed to get to fabric barn in about 15 minutes and then got in and out in about 10. thankfully, i knew exactly what i needed and where to find it, and i'd even scored a great parking spot on the street right in front of the store. yippee!

i made my way back to the freeway and realized that if i drove straight home, i'd be about half an hour too early to pick up the kid. yay for navigation! i love that thing so much. anyway, i had a couple of things i needed (yes, NEEDED) to pick up at nordstrom. sadly for me, i didn't think of this before i blew past the one in the cerritos mall, so i decided to head to santa anita mall instead. plus, i could swing by lollicup and pick up a nice hot almond milk drink! mmmm.

i was quite astonished at how busy the mall was - it was 1:30 on a monday afternoon! don't these people have jobs?? heh. anyway, the parking gods again smiled down upon me, and granted me another fabulous spot. i headed straight to the cosmetics department to find my stuff, and then to women's lounge to change the bean's diaper. i was practically drooling at the thought of that delicious almond milk, but as i zoom-zoomed through the cosmetics on my way to the lounge, a display of shu uemura products appeared before me. i took a quick walk around it, found the mini eyelash curler that amber mentioned last week, and realized that i had a choice to make. eyelash curler, or almond milk? i only had time for one or the other (if the monkey is reading this, i know she's imagining smacking me upside the head for this one).

as i got the bean all nice and comfy in a clean diaper, i chattered to her about the choice i had to make. of course, she looked up at me, blew a raspberry (oooh, i forgot to mention that she discovered how to do this fun thing on friday - so damn cute), and smiled. i asked her which one she thought i should get, outlined in detail the pros and cons of both, and said "if you think i should get the curler, blow me some spit bubbles."

and that's what she did.

so my choice was clear. and it's totally justified, dammit!