It's really only 12:19am...

not 1:19am, thanks to the "fall back" of daylight savings time. So I figure that gives me a little bit of time to toss some thoughts out into the blogosphere.

Today was the first full day of our free weekend. It was great. I had to return Charlie's football equipment to the school in the morning. While I was out, I popped in to my favorite farmer's market and picked up some apples, lettuce mix and green peppers. I looked at the butternut squash, but decided to pass because the last one I bought fell victim to Robbie and Charlie and an ax in the backyard.

After the farmer's market, I stopped by Goodwill to look for a winter coat for Annie. No luck there -- though I did find a couple of cozy big shirts that would be great for the winter. But I wasn't there shopping for me, so I walked out empty handed. Next stop: JC Penney, which was kind of a madhouse. They were having some really big sales.

But I was only there to spend small money. I had a "get $10 off a $10 or more purchase coupon" and I wanted to see what I could buy for practically free. I picked up 2 pillows for Charlie's room -- his must have been caught under a steamroller at some point -- and a small birthday gift for one of Annie's friends. Regularly priced, those three items would have cost me $34. On sale without the coupon, it would have been $13.84. But I paid only $3.84! Woohoo! I did return later to buy Annie a winter coat, regularly $200 on sale for $59.99, minus another $10 coupon. It's a great coat, so great that I wish I would have bought one for me too. Unfortunately, only one coat is in the budget right now.

Mike and the boys spent the morning watching movies on the Netflix. After Penney's, Annie and I headed to Target to pick up some groceries. I looked at the Halloween costumes -- now 75% off -- but decided to pass because I wanted to only spend $40 and didn't think that using 1/4 of that for costumes was a very good idea.

Once we got home and got the groceries put away, we decided to take Gabby to the dog park. I don't know who had more fun, Gabby or the boys. It was funny to watch the dogs all run around and play together and to see how friendly all the owners were with each other and all the dogs.

There was one dog there chasing down a soccer ball kicked by her people. She was a lab mix of some sort. The ball got kicked toward me and before I knew it "Laney" was barreling straight in my direction. She ran into me with such force, I was certain for a few seconds that my leg was broken. I don't think I've ever been hit so hard! A little bit of shaking it off,  however, and I'm good as new.

The park pretty much wore everyone out. Dinner was the boys' favorite grilled cheese and tomato soup. Then we sat down for "family movie night," which Robbie wants to have every night! On tap for tonight was "Imagine That" with Eddie Murphy, followed by "The Little Shepherd," a Christmas movie Robbie chose that looks like it was animated by the same people who did Dragontales.

It was after 8pm before I ended upstairs with Annie to watch "Cake Boss" streaming on my laptop in my room, followed by "The Proposal." I think this was my 6th time to see that, which made it a great movie to have one while I cleaned up my bedroom. I must say, I'm quite proud of my progress. At this point, my dresser needs to be cleared off, but I probably put away at least 3 loads worth of clean laundry, emptied out one box of old papers and, miracle of all miracles!, found the floor!

I kept thinking I should go to bed, but that extra hour from daylight savings time kept taunting me. My reward for spending my extra hour cleaning the bedroom? I found $20, a Netflix DVD that's been missing since August, $55 worth of gift cards and my glasses! Those kind of finds just may motivate me to clean out my closet tomorrow.

For those of you who are wondering, I haven't made any decisions about my hair. I'll probably go with some kind of bang thing. I'll be sure to fill you in as soon as it's done.

Now it's almost 1am, which to my body feels like almost 2am, so it's time to call it a night. I'm absolutely looking forward to another day tomorrow where I don't really have to be anywhere -- until 6pm when Charlie has to serve Mass. I think the day will include a Netflix movie, a walk with the dog, laundry and a nap.

Hope your weekend is just as enjoyable!