I love shopping, and I love it even better when I can shop with deals! Here are some tips I have learnt over the years, some through experience, some through friends and family.

1. Gap - Gap lowers prices every Wednesday. And they will do a price adjustment within 14 days. So, best thing to do is visit a Gap after Wednesday and check back in the store within two weeks later. All you have to do is walk up to the register, hand them your reciept and say 'Can you check if I have any price adjustments?'. Thats it. You might get lucky and get tons of money back. You see more savings towards season end.
PS: 14 day adjustment policy applies to most stores. I know Old Navy, Ann Taylor do this for sure.

2. Bed, Bath & Beyond/Linen N Things - If you see any coupons from these stores, save them forever! Their coupons never expire, even though they have an expiration date. And on top of that, BBB coupons can be used at LNT. And vice versa. Only catch is that both stores won't accept expired coupons of the other. You can use more than one coupon at a time. So, if you buy 10 items, take 10 coupons. You can use the $5 off and the 20% off together.

3. Grocery Store coupons - You know those coupons you get at the end at checkout, these may be used at another grocery store across the street. But, you have to check the store policy. Some do, some don't. I know, Acme and Stop & Shop accept each other's coupons.

4. Piece of advice - Before you shop for anything or go out to eat, check online for coupons. There is always a coupon for everything. You just have to look. And my favorite site for info is fatwallet.com. The people on there are just amazing. There are forums for Target, Gap, Old Navy, Circuit City, Best Buy, etc.

These are just some tidbits from my experience. Use them as guidelines only.

'Life has a funny way of sneaking up on you
when you think everything's okay and everything's going right'

I absolutely love the song 'Ironic' by Alanis Morissette. It is an everyday song I can relate to. Here is a list of just a few things:
1. Kids wake up by 2pm everyday, except when we have to be somewhere at 4pm, they will get up 3:30pm.
2. I order pizza for them, but they will eat my pasta instead.
3. Right when I am walking out the door, either little one declares 'poopie!'. Or the older has to go poop. (What is with kids and bad timing!!!)
4. Kids don't need to go potty, until they get to the mall or in the middle of nowhere (road trip).
5. I pack apple juice for them, but this time they want grape juice.
6. ETC, etc, etc....................
Top of the list:
Meeting a gorgeous guy, then seeing his beautiful wife. There is a rule to be followed here, one or the other has to be average looking. You both cannot be good-looking!!! Its against the law somewhere. It hurts my eyes :)
Anything ironic you want to post from your daily life? Comment away.

Little D is such a drama queen these days. Anything and everything can get her into a crying fit. 'My socks aren't folded right' to 'How could you turn off the TV'. It's a big drama stage at my house these days. And talk about big crocodile tears. She could give the top movie stars a run for their money. My favorite incident: I yelled at her the other day saying 'How many times have I told you.....' She decided that it was high time she helped me with my math and said 'I think it was 8 times'! My temper disappeared in a second with that response :)
We had a huge storm at 8pm Tuesday night. D goes to bed at 8:15ish. So, the usual bedtime routine took place, brush teeth, read book, kiss and hug and walk out of the room. 5 minutes later she comes out of the room saying 'I had a bad dream'!!! I told her 'D, you have to be sleeping to even have a bad dream' And she says (drum-roll here) 'But, I just know that when I am sleeping I am going to have a bad dream!!!!' My child is a genius. She knows what is coming next, even in her sleep. And all this drama was taking place because there was a lot of thunder and lightning outside. A few more kisses and hugs got rid of all the bad dreams that were going to happen :)

It has been a long time since my last post. I have been extremely busy with mom and nephew being in town. Not that they are taking up all my time. It is just nice to sit around and chit chat and do nothing. I took all of July 4th week off. It was amazing. What a vacation!!! Here is a all we did the whole week:

Sunday:
Went to Six Flags Great Adventure. It has been a few years since I have been to this place. Wow! It has changed. They have added so many new rides. And I hate to admit this, I can't enjoy the rides as I used to be able to. No, I am not old!!! :) After having two kids, my body is not the same anymore. They have a new ride called Kingda Ka. 10 years back, no problem, I would have been first in line. But, this time, no way!!! Just the drop from that height was a scary thought. Unfortunately enough, we were only able to do half the park. It was a hot day and everyone was so tired. Leaving the park was an adventure itself. We decided to leave the park at 7pm and as we were heading to the gate, the sky started getting dark. The park was shutdown and a million people started running for the exit. It was a scene from a movie. It was as if the sky was falling or something. Thunder and lightning everywhere and people running to their cars. We made it to the car and it started pouring cats and dogs!!! Talk about timing. But it was a sight to see, everything was pitch dark and all the rides in the park were lit up. Wish I had taken a picture.

Monday:
Day spent at home recovering from the Six Flags trip. Everyone was tired and wanted to do nothing. Just sat at home and relaxed. My kind of vacation :)

Tuesday:
July 4th. We inaugrated our new grill. I bought tons of corn and fresh veggies to grill. NJ has abundance of corn. And not just any corn...tasty, sweet, juicy corn. Mmmmm Yummy! We hooked up the water sprinkler and let the the kids enjoy themselves.
While they were getting drenched, we were cooking up some yummy veggies. I put a bunch of veggies on the skewers and put all the spices I could find in my pantry and put it on the grill. I can't even begin to explain how amazing the taste of fresh grilled veggies is. Sorry, no pictures. I was too busy grilling and eating to take any pictures. Next time for sure. Next time I am also grilling paneer, pineapple, and anything else I can find :)

Wednesday:
Wild Safari. We got free tickets with our Six Flags admission to the Safari. It was good. Loaded up the car with mom and the kids and headed off to the Safari. It was fun, animals roaming around. They even came up to our car to see if we had any food. The kids had a blast looking at the animals so close to their faces. And the best part was, we stayed in the car the whole time, no parking worries, no tired or cranky kids to deal with. It was good.

Thursday:
Off to the beach. When we went to Six Flags it was almost 90 degrees. At the beach, 68 degrees!!! Yes, we do pick our days well :) The water was freezing cold, but that didn't stop us. We still went in, ok, only knee deep. This was the favorite part of my week. I love the beach. There is something very relaxing and calm about sitting on the sand and watching the waves. And since it was a weekday, not too many people
around. We packed a bunch of snacks for the kids and laid out the picnic blanket and let the kids play. Everyone had a good time. This was my little one's second trip to the beach, first one doesn't really count, since she was only 6 months old. So, this was her first time on the sand. She could not walk properly. It was such a cute site to see. She found a spot for herself and that was it. She crawled around on all fours the whole time. Highlight of her day was stuffing her mouth with fistfuls of sand. Thank god, I was not around for that one. I would have had a stress attack. Mom took care of it. But, what a great way to spend the day!!! Can't wait to go back to the beach again. BTW, this is my favorite picture taken at the beach. It is Lil' D's footprints in the wet sand, when she was jumping with excitement at the waves hitting her feet.

Friday:
Shopping. Yes, it is my favorite thing to do these days. But, this time it was more to take mom around. Spent the day going around the shopping mall.

Quick update and thanks to everyone for their suggestions. I didn't get to any of the places that Sachin suggested. And I didn't rent the PS/2 that Paresh suggested. I bought my nephew a skateboard. And he loves it!!! He goes around the neighborhood on his skateboard. He found something to pass his time. And ofcourse chatting with his friends takes up all his morning. So, he is not bored anymore.I hope you guys enjoyed reading my week's update.
Until my next post, C I A O.