Black Friday

Yes, we really left at 3:41am

Our spot in line. If you look closely, you can see the front of the store.

Candace and me in line

Black Friday was as successful as we hoped it would be. It started on Thursday with Candace going to get the paper because my mom's paper didn't come with the Kohl's ad. After Thanksgiving dinner, we "plotted" out our purchases and devised our plan of attack. We felt well-prepared....much better than last year.

Since we would be waking up at 3:15 am, we wanted to make sure we went to bed early. So when the kids went down, so did we (at least we attempted to); but trying to sleep at 8:00 pm just doesn't work out quite well. I was also receiving texts from Kelsey (who decided that JJ and she would wake up and head to Kohl's, Target, and Home Depot), who was, as she put it, a "virgin" and wanted to know what to expect. I told her to create a plan, get there early, and attack!! I received a text and phone call from JJ at 3:11 am saying that "this is crazy!" Candace and I arrived at Kohl's at 3:45 to find that the line was wrapped around the block. When we got to the front we saw a guy with 10 carafes from Starbucks and cups....he was selling coffee to those in line. WHY DIDN'T I THINK ABOUT THAT? I could have made a killing!! The ironic thing is the day before I said we should bake muffins and have Bennett sell them. Who wouldn't buy a muffin from a cute 4 yr old. The only problem is who would watch Bennett while Candace and I fought for our door-busters?

Once we got in, it was a free-for-all. We grabbed everything that we could. Our motto was "buy now, think about it later, and then return it when you decide you don't need it." This was the motto that allowed me to purchase 3 of my 4 vacuums that day. I was in the market for a vacuum, but didn't know which one to buy and Candace put so much pressure on me to just purchase them and think about it later. The funny thing is I don't even clean my house. Hope my cleaning lady likes my new vacuums. This motto worked quite well until we got to the checkout. We thought we'd be denied due to our credit limit on our Kohl's cards. Candace thinks they "waive" the overage charge for today. Let's hope so.

After Kohl's, we headed to Ulta (a beauty store), where we got the last 2 smashbox door-busters they had and felt REALLY good about it. The stars were aligned for us! We then headed to WalMart for some more deals we couldn't refuse. I purchased my 4th vacuum there and Candace was equally successful.

We headed home to fuel up for the rest of the day. We "encouraged" the boys to go to see a movie, so we could head off to the mall. We again were successful at acquiring a Philosophy door-buster!! A rare find, as they are always sell-out within minutes. How lucky were we? And we aren't even Irish!

After the mall we headed to Old Navy and did some more damage. The funny thing is, this was all before 1:00 pm. I mean seriously, we had been to four stores and the mall, eaten two meals, and it was barely 1:30. Did I mention that we even hit the pool between WalMart and the mall? We had to take a "pool bath" from all the sweating from our morning activities!! No time for showers.

All in all, we had a very successful day and were very proud of ourselves. Now we have to reassess our purchases to see what we really "need" and can't live without! We are already looking forward to next year and "planning" our day! If only they could give us a taste of what's to come with a catalog! I mean, how can we properly plan our day with only 364 days to "Black Friday 2008" in which to plan?

With our "door-busters"

Kohl's Needs Another Delivery

Robers Out!