Can I Go Back?

Oh my goodness, our trip to the beach this past weekend was so much fun! The weather was absolutely gorgeous. It was in the 70's and sunny both days we were there. Friday morning I left Brianna with mom and dad and set out with four other ladies to Myrtle Beach. We later met up with 14 other women who drove down at all times of the day. I am so glad I drove down with the people I did because it turned out we are all thrift store lovers!! We were in no hurry to get to our hotel, so when we arrived in Myrtle Beach around noon, we just started driving around spotting thrift stores. When we were checking out we'd just ask the cashiers about others in the area. It's so much fun just to cruise around town finding them on your own though. It reminded me so much of the trip Jenn, Mom and I took to Greenville. I told everyone in our car about that trip!! Anyway I got some AWESOME deals!!

At our first stop, I got this CUTE pair of pants for Brianna (they are 2T). I guess you can't really see but the buttons are flowers and they are kind of glittery.

I also got a dozen toddler spoons/forks brand new in the box for our children. My friend Renee who has a toddler says you can never have too many of these. And they were $1.00! When I went to check out, the guy rang the pants up at $2.50 (!!!) and I pointed out the sign to him which stated "All children's clothes 0-3T $1.00". I said, "These are 2T!" He apologized, said he didn't have any children, and rang them up as $1.00. Woot woot!

We stopped at TJ Maxx and I got these cute cards for $2.00. I write a lot of letters so I am always looking out for interesting notecards! Plus, they were marked down from $6.00, so sounds good to me!

Later on the trip we went to the mall and at the Old Navy they were having some great sales! I found a tank top that I loved and it was 50% off it's marked price - which was $1.99! So I went through the racks and got all the tank tops selling for that price. I'm keeping one and selling the others on eBay. You can't beat a shirt for $0.99!

At another thrift store, I was able to get Bri a cute 18-month outfit for $1.00. It was actually marked $2 but I haggled with the lady. I can't stand to pay over $1 for anything!!

We went to the Salvation army where I got a great wooden spoon (I love cooking with wooden spoons!) and a baby spoon for Brianna for $0.29. When I got in line my friend Linda pointed out that kids clothes were Buy One Get One Free, so of course I had to go look! I found a brand new Old Navy jacket so I picked it up thinking I could sell it on eBay. I picked up another cute outfit for Brianna that she didn't need, but hey, it was going to end up to be 50 cents or something. So as I was checking out I realized my friend Renee has a little boy who the jacket might fit. So I asked her if he could use it. Turns out he needed a new jacket and she was going to get him one on the trip! I mean, this jacket was super nice and I really think it was brand new. Of course she wanted it! She offered to pay for it and I said, "No way! That's the free one!" Haha! I love it when things like that happened. When I checked out, the cashier said, "Can I please keep the two pennies that would be your change? I really need pennies!" Of course I said SURE! And then started digging through my wallet to give her all my pennies. Well then the four other women I was with overheard and started digging through their wallets! Then two other customers saw what we were doing and did the same! Soon this lady was having to cup both her hands to get all the pennies, dumping them into her cash register and holding her hands back out! One of the other customers said, "What about nickels? Do you need any nickels?" and the lady said, "Lord no! I just need some pennies! Look at how the Lord is providing! Pennies from heaven! Ask and you shall receive!" She was just laughing and we all started laughing. It was so funny! I've thought about that several times since it happened - this cashier who was so grateful for pennies. What a great moment!

At the Kitchen Collection, which is one of my favorite stores, I bought four of those can toppers so your soda won't go flat. Also so bugs don't fly in there. We had those growing up and I've looked everywhere for them. They were only 59 cents each so I bought four. I also bought a chopper/scooper for the kitchen which everyone on the Food Network uses and I've been so jealous. I splurged on that ($2.99) but it will be so worth it!

I splurged in another store too, called $5 Christian Books. Although after you walk in the signs say "$5 unless otherwise marked." Don't you hate that?? Anyway I paid big time for two books. One is a Comparative Study Bible. It compares the Bible translations of NIV, KJV, NASB and AMP. I paid $30 big bucks for that one, but I love looking at other Bible translations although we primarily use KJV and NKJV. I know you can look them up online but there's something about having them on hand as well. The other thing is a gift for Brianna. It's a book called "100 Ways to Know God Loves Me!" and comes with two CDs. So you can read a page in the book about something specific, say discipline, and it has a short story that says something like "Just like your mom and dad may punish you when you do something wrong, God may punish us to teach us to obey." Then you play #13 on the CD and it plays "Trust and Obey". I love it! It was definitely worth $7.

At Home Goods I was able to get this great skillet for only $15! It had a little scratch on one side which you really can't even see, so they gave me a 10% discount. I'm gonna scratch it up anyway, might as well take the discount!

I also got a great soap caddy for $1. It will replace the ashtray we are keeping our soap in right now. That will make us one step further from Redneckville.

And then at one last thrift store I was able to get 8 books for $2. Six for Bri and two for me. One First Dictionary, one Bible dictionary, and a few of my favorites and "I Can Read" books. Yay!

That's just the shopping portion of the trip. This trip was so memorable and I learned way too many things about some of these girls. No, it was so much fun. I have to admit it felt so good to hold my baby girl again when we got home late Saturday night!! But I wouldn't have missed the trip for the world. Thank you mom, dad and Stephen for making it possible for me to go!!