All right, 60% of you thought changing the date of Halloween was a dumb idea.  But hey, those of us who don’t live in lovely little towns that are small enough to be able to dictate when the citizens should trick or treat might disagree with you.   “Those of us” meaning me.  Well, 25% of us, anyway.  14% didn’t think it would make a difference, and boy did you guys squander your vote.  Of course it makes a difference!  These are important issues we are discussing here!

Humpfh.

Today, I want to know how you hunt for deals.

$7.99 and under Juniors at Macys.

Lancome free 7 piece gift with 32.50 purchase.

Spend $60 at Beauty.com and get $10 off.

Take 25% off all Tom’s of Maine products at Drugstore.com.

At Hanna Anderssen, get free shipping on orders over $100.

Also at Hanna Anderssen, select items are on sale for back to school!

For great prices on polos, tees, jeans, and more, go here!

For bargains on backpacks and lunch pails, go here!

Giggle is having a Summer Blowout Sale, with prices from 15-50% off!

And Macy’s is having a Home Sale Event!

One word: Target.

It’s many a mom’s dirty little secret when you’ve got a kid who is moping around the house, claiming they have played with all of their toys and read all of their books. And even if they haven’t really, they feel as if they have, and so their perception becomes your rather unpleasant reality.  Most days you can threaten them with chores or whatnot, but even that gets old after a while.  Being a mean mom is only fun for the first month or so, and then it just gets to be a drag.

In all my years of parenting, I have yet to see a child reject a cheery, “Let’s go to Target!”

I don’t know if it’s me and a reflection of how awesomely boring my life is, but a trip to Target is always a welcome reprieve.  I can’t always buy what I want, but most of the time I am content to look at the pretty serving trays I don’t really need and the cute plates I definitely don’t need. But, there is always something that needs to be bought, even if it is boring.

And as everyone knows, there is cheap, yummy food at Target.  A friend of mine gets her son a soda and popcorn.  Mine?  Make it a pretzel, salty, and an Icee, extra cold.

If you are a kid, the day becomes automatically better when an Icee is in your grip.  And you never know if this will be a brain-freeze kind of day until you try.

Also, there seems to be something magical about accompanying Mom to Target because usually she will cave over buying some sort of little toy or book, because kids are smart enough to know the approximate price range/toy category wherein your weakness lies.  For instance, my son knows better than to ask me for a video game, but is correct in asssuming I will usually buy him art and creativity-related items.

So my advice to you if you have a Target within driving distance, use it to your advantage, and use it wisely.  Else you just might wind up with a much lighter bank account.

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When I was about seven months pregnant this summer, a bunch of the women in my family went shoe shopping at one of our favorite stores, Nordstrom Rack.  If you’ve never been to the Rack, you have spared yourselves a marathon day of searching for that perfect something, but you have also lost out on an always fun shopping trip. It is where all the local Nordie items that were deemed unworthy by the wealthy are deemed fit for us poor people to desperately paw through.

Anhyhoo, I couldn’t really do any clothes shopping, so of course I went directly to the shoes.  Oh, the shoes.  Racks and racks of shoes, some of them obviously deserving of a place on the clearance table, others not so much.   I almost always find a pair that I’m willing to buy, it just depends on the budget at the time if they will actually accompany me home.

As I was perusing the aisles, my eyes spied what looked to be very cute loafers.  I’m a sucker for loafers.  At places like this, you have to be very quick, because there is always some chick shadowing you and trying to invade your rightful personal space (and shoe picks) so I grabbed them and put them in my basket.  My M.O. is to collect all the promising looking shoes into my personal possession and away from the shifty-eyed bitch to the left of me, and then take a look at them all when my basket is full.

Well, when I got to this particular pair of loafers, I saw immediately that I loved them.  They were sort of spectator-ish and looked to be made of linen, which I thought was really interesting.  Then I looked at the label.  They were from Taryn Rose.  Oh my! And the price?  Only eighty bucks, which if you know anything about Taryn Rose shoes, that is an absolute steal. 

So I tried them on, and noticed that there was a very tiny black mark on the left heel. Aha, that explained the discounting.  I was willing to overlook the mark, it was toward the inside and I didn’t think anyone would be looking that closely at my feet as I was walking.  I mean, you never know, but I was willing to take the chance.  It wasn’t an egregious mark, and hey, I could always blame it on my kids and no one would think twice.

When I modeled them for my family, they loved the shoes, but a few of them had puckered brows as they looked down at my pregnant feet.  It seemed that my swollen-ish feet were stretching the linen on the top of the shoe in an ugly way.  An ugly way that meant the shoes weren’t worth buying.

But wait, the swollen feet were a temporary condition, I exclaimed.  I can still triumphantly purchase these lovely, comfortable shoes!

However, I was counseled against buying them since I couldn’t be absolutely sure if the stretching was a part of the shoe, or if it was my feet, or any other number of uncontrollable factors.  I wept, but they were right.  I didn’t want to spend eighty bucks just to have them sit in my closet forever.

So maybe I’m just in denial and I have fat feet, but I’d like to think that if only I hadn’t been pregnant when I tried those shoes on, I would in fact be wearing them right now.

What was your pair of shoes that got away?

Almost everyone has a young gamer in their lives, but it’s hard to know exactly what the best new video games are.  You know, because we aren’t really gamers ourselves a lot of the time.  But, never fear, I’ve got your list right here.

Nintendo DS and DSi

Click the links to purchase an actual  Nintendo DS or DSi system.

Mario & Luigi Bowser’s Inside Story  Join Mario and Luigi’s newest adventure with Bowser!  They work their way through challenges and puzzles.  Also contains innovative interactive features where the player must turn the DSi sideways, blow on the microphone, and tap the touch screen to advance the game.

Scribblenauts Scribblenauts is a unique single player side-scrolling action game for the Nintendo DS that challenges players to solve spatially oriented puzzles like no game before it. In it players use an in-game notepad/keyboard, as well as the touch screen and stylus of the Nintendo DS, to conjure up solutions to the obstacles placed in the path of the game’s hero.

Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box  He’s baa-aaack!  From the ever-popular Professor Layton and the Curious Village comes the latest in puzzle-solving, brain-challenging fun! Join the famous Professor Layton and his sidekick Luke as you take on more than 150 puzzles included with the game, and more available via download, as you challenge your senses and logic to eventually solve a puzzling mystery.

Rabbids Go Home Departing from traditional mini-game centric action of previous Rabbids games, Rabbids Go Home features Puzzle-Adventure gameplay centered around the Rabbids harebrained scheme to get to the moon.

Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days Chronologically set between the events of Kingdom Hearts and Kingdom Hearts II, Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days is the newest installment on the Nintendo DS of the wildly popular role-playing game series. Featuring supporting details of Kingdom Hearts II character Roxas, as well as single and multiplayer modes and the new “Panel System” game mechanic, it is destined to be find a cherished place of its own in the beloved RPG franchise.

Nintendo Wii

Click link to purchase a Wii gaming system.

The Beatles: Rock Band You won’t just watch and listen as the Beatles make rock history, create landmark records and conquer the world-for the first time, you’ll be part of the band.

New Super Mario Bros Supporting 2-4 players in side-scrolling co-op and competitive platforming action, and featuring a mix of fan favorites and new characters, new powerups and various input options via the Wii Remote, it is destined to become an instant classic in one of the most beloved game franchises of all-time.

Wii Fit Plus Users will also be able to choose from specialized workout routines that focus on all-around individual personal fitness goals or certain target areas. And with the addition of activities like Skateboarding and Rhythm Kung Fu, players will be using the Wii Balance Board accessory in a variety of new and fun ways.

Rabbids Go Home Features open-world style mission gameplay centered around the Rabbids harebrained scheme to get to the moon. In true Rabbids form this entails over-the-top single player and multiplayer gameplay built around creating a pile made up of everyday and not so everyday items stolen from the consumer-crazed humans of planet Earth, that is literally tall enough to reach the edge of space.

NHL 2K10 Whether you’re a die-hard NHL fan or a casual player, NHL 2K10’s combination of pick-up-and-play controls ensuring accessibility, the game’s true-to-life professional hockey authenticity and its variety of on and off-line multiplayer modes promise hours of entertainment for every gamer, regardless of experience level.

I know, it’s only September.  But hey, all the stores have their Halloween stuff out, so I consider the holiday to be fair game. But, if you need to order a movie, it takes a while to ship and all that, so before you know it, Halloween is almost upon you!

Besides, Halloween is one of my favorite holidays, and it doesn’t take much for me to get into the, uh, spirit.  So sorry, couldn’t resist.

But as with all “scary” movies, buy with caution and forethought into how your little viewer will be likely to handle it.

The Nightmare Before Christmas This movie is really two movies in one, because not only does it work for Halloween, it works equally well for Christmas. I’m all about the value, you know. This is a new re-release, and you’d better snap it up quick, because once they are gone, it’s unlikely Disney will do another for a while. Take it from the woman who lost her DVD oh, eight years ago and wasn’t able to buy another until this month.

It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown Can this 1981 gem be any more classic? Can Linus be any cuter? And Lucy any more endearing than when she collects her brother from the pumpkin patch to put him into bed? Can Glinda just be done with the questions?

Casper Debate abounds about this movie, actually. Some people think it is horrible, while others see it as light and fluffy bit of entertainment. There are no Oscar noms here, but the kids will probably really like it.

Clifford’s Big Halloween Clifford is just one of those enduring, endearing creations that will be loved until the end of time. Trust me, you can never go wrong with Clifford.

Mickey’s House of Villains Not a movie but a collection of animated shorts held together by an admittedly thin plot device. It is a mixture of old and new shorts, along with a sing-a-long by all the Disney villains.

Bedknobs and Broomsticks Who doesn’t love Angela Lansbury in a live-action/animated movie about a magic bed? The young Ms. Lansbury plays an apprentice witch who goes on adventures with three adventurous orphans. This is old-skool Disney, and what’s not to like?

Something Wicked This Way Comes The scariest, thematically, of all the movies on this list. And it technically isn’t really about Halloween. But, this movie adapted from an excellent Ray Bradbury novel will leave you with tingles.

Corpse Bride All right, another movie not truly about Halloween. But with the underworld, ghosts and ghouls, it is sure to get you into a Halloween frame of mind. Victor Van Dort is already engaged, but somehow finds himself accidentally married to the Corpse Bride. Which bride will he pick, the one that’s alive, or the one that’s dead?

The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad This DVD has both a version of Wind in the Willows (one of my favorite in children’s literature) and Sleepy Hollow. Both are definitely worth owning, and the vision of the Headless Horseman is enough to send almost everyone in the family hiding under the table.