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It’s time for another edition of Tuesday Troubles. I’ve said it before, but this should be named “things i’m annoyed / confused / want to complain about”, however I couldn’t figure out how to make any of those into a snappy title, so Tuesday Troubles it is. And yes, I do realize that these aren’t true “troubles”. I know that many of these for sure could be defined as first world problems!
~I Santa went to order L’s bunkbed from PBK on the last day their bedroom furniture sale last week and what do you know, the sale ended early and it was back to full price. WTF? So I called and the lady on the phone was like yeah you should have called and checked the stock because when stock levels get low, we raise the prices back up. What? Where does it say that on your site lady? I was like your sale was suppose to run through TONIGHT and you just ended it? She’s like yep and besides, we don’t even have any more of beds coming back in stock until January. I was so annoyed that I ended up sending PKB a Facebook message. Long story short they fixed everything, gave me the sale price and turns out the bed is in stock after all and the fabulous customer service person I talked to in the end was the nicest man ever. But really? Who just randomly ends a sale early like that? And why would I have called to check and if something that was supposed to be on sale through 11.12 would actually still be on sale on 11.12?
~So I signed up to bring something for L’s Thanksgiving Feast this week at school and just told them to assign me something. Well I got turkey. Three pounds of rolled turkey. Which is exactly what I was hoping NOT to get. No matter now though. What is the best way to do this? I can’t umm, buy something like this can I? Or will I be rolling up late one night? Is this not the dumbest trouble I have ever had?
~L didn’t have school yesterday because the power was out at his school because of some storms we had Sunday night. Anyway, guess who had no idea about this and never even thought to check the news? This girl. We were IN the car on the way to school and I go to plug in my phone and see a text from my mom asking if L was excited he didn’t have school. Huh? We hadn’t gotten out of our sub yet, but I can’t believe I was so clueless. I need to remember to check that kind of stuff! Or we need to get text alerts on stuff like that. Or wait, I got one. From my mom. I just didn’t check my phone in time. Oops.
~I asked year and got some good ideas, but I’m still struggling with where to hide holiday gifts. Some of the stuff is just so big. Well the boxes are anyway. And I don’t know that I have the ability to just lock them away in a room because I don’t think our guest room door has a lock. Where do you hide gifts? What about the big ones? And how on earth am I going to hide a bunk bed (B is going to building it on Christmas Eve) in the garage for weeks?
~Not really a trouble, but I am headed to Trader Joe’s this week for the first time in ages and need some ideas! I don’t want to miss the most fabulous thing ever, so tell me what I need!
That’s it from here for now! What’s troubling you today?
When we go to Trader Joes I love getting the 100-calorie Milk Chocolate bars (they have Dark Chocolate too)!
Those sound amazing.
Sea Salt & Turbinado Sugar Dark Chocolate Almonds! A MUST have from Trader Joe’s!
Noted!! Thanks!
Do you have any friends or family that live close? My sister always stores my nephews’ gifts at my house but I’m only 1/10 of a mile from them.
Rolled turkey…do they have a platter somewhere you can get it? Like at the Honeybaked Ham store or maybe even Costco? I’m picturing just rolled up deli meat…is that right? Gosh, I’m so not ready to be a mom. LOL
I do. I could drop it all off at one of their houses I guess. I should google turkey platter and see what comes up. yeah, it’s just rolled up lunch meat that I need.
so for the turkey I’d call local delis or local grocery store delis and ask if they roll meat by the pound… I think they would? I wonder if it wouldn’t cost anything to order it rolled. I’m dying to know!! (I almost called wegmans to ask – though, I don’t think they have wegmans near you or I’m sure you’d write about how amazing it is) Then I thought about how long it’d take to roll 3 lbs of turkey… maybe not as long as you’d think… like 20 minutes I am guessing. but what if it’s not neat and you end up ripping pieces and then eating the ripped pieces. I’d def order like 3 1/2 just in case. I am way too interested in this Tuesday trouble.
I know. I am so weird. I will have to like cut it and make sure it’s perfectly rolled. I should ask when I go to the store.
So excited you were still able to get L’s bunk bed for the sale price. I have zero ideas about how to hide it until Christmas Eve though.
As for the rolled turkey, probably not the most cost efficient but I bet you could just order a deli tray of turkey. The meats on the deli platters are usually rolled and all you would have to do is pick it up.
Me too! I was a tad annoyed for a second there.
Do you have a friend who you could swap hiding places with? My best friend always hides her kids and husbands gifts at my house, and I always hide my fiancee’s and sisters gifts at her house. (Yes, my sister is worse then her kids and always goes searching for her gifts like a 5 year old). This has always worked out great for us except for the year the PS3 came out and her husband found it and thought it was for him (it wasn’t it was for my now fiancee) and he kept hinting all morning at her I know you have another gift for me and she was like no I don’t. Luckily that all got cleared up when we got to their house for dinner. Me and her no longer live in the same state (so sad) but she still ships most of her gifts to my house, and I just forward them to her a couple weeks before Christmas.
I guess I could. But I don’t want him to see other kids toys from Santa either?? I think he’d wonder why we had all those random toys that weren’t his?
When we bought our current house the former owner was showing us the bathroom cabinet built into the wall and we were like ok I’ve seen cabinets before but he proceeded to pull up the bottom shelf and he winked at us and said this is the secret place to hide xmas gifts from the little ones. This isn’t a tiny nook either so once Livy gets old enough to hunt for them we’ll know where to put them.
Ohh, that’s awesome!!!! I want something like that!
You gotta try the cookie butter from TJ’s!
What do you put it on?
My favorite is with pretzels but animal crackers or vanilla wafers are yummy too!
I eat cookie butter straight from the jar. Its amazing.
Allright, I bought some! Tomorrow is the day.
There is a reason you can only buy two jars at a time. It’s that good
Trader Joe’s Speculoos Cookie Butter & Cocoa Swirl Spread
What do you put it on?
There are some recomendations on the jar but my recomendation is a spoon! Just eat it straight from the jar!! I have to remind my son not to double dip.
So I should get a really big spoon huh?
I got a large gift for my mom, and since I’m currently living with her, (I’m a college student) I didn’t have anywhere to stash it, so I just went ahead and wrapped it. At the beginning of November. LOL but at least she won’t accidentally see it!
I know that may not work well for a mom with several gifts, and several people you’ve bought presents for…
Last year we drove all the way to New Hampshire from Florida for Christmas, so of course I had to wrap my presents ahead of time (ALL of them) & I put a number on each gift tag, then made a list in my phone with what each number meant. That way I couldn’t forget what was in each present!
I just don’t want the kids (well L) to see any of the gifts. Wrapped or not. I don’t want him to see anything that Santa is supposed to bring!
When I am trying to hide Christmas gifts I always leave them with a relative or friend. My kids and now my grand kids are like bloodhounds. If the gifts are in the house they find them. I guess they come by it naturally, my poor mom could not keep a gift without my brothers and I finding them.
LOL!! I don’t know that L is a snoop really (I mean he has no idea there are even any gifts for him in this house), but he is everywhere goes in every room in our house.
Trader Joe’s= Mini Peppermint Waffle cookies! They are insane and I am not even a big peppermint fan. I bought 4 boxes on Saturday and only 2 remain.
Those sound nothing short of amazing.
I would check L’s school.. because ALL the schools around here have text alerts that they do send out for that! or you could check into getting text alerts from a news station we have those too that send out text alerts that schools are closed pretty much as soon as they hit the news 🙂 🙂
As far as hiding gifts i have them all in our spare bedroom with a blanket over them.. LOL so i guess not really hidding them but if they decide to peak thats their own loss..
now the bunk bed.. maybe you could hide it at your moms?
LOL. L would be suspicious of that I think.
I need to check into that school thing. Why didn’t I think of that?
I would, but I have no idea how I would transport it? It’s big and we don’t have a truck or anything.
We get texts, phone calls, and an email for good measure whenever school is closed or delayed 🙂
I’m sure if I had a fax, they’d send that as well. It’s also put on the PTA facebook page. LOL
I need to sign up for that!!!!
Hiding gifts is such a pain! I have a 8 year old and a 6 year old. I used to be able to hide them in my closet, under the bed, etc. Not anymore! I hide them in the attic now. If it’s really big, like the dirt bike I plan on getting. It’s going in my neighbors basement!
That’s a good idea. I would have to hide in a the basement of a neighbor who doesn’t have kids though.
I’m a big fan of hiding things in plain sight. i know that there’s been some things I’ve bought for N that have been ‘hidden’ in a box on the bookshelf since like..March and he still hasn’t figured it out.
Oh – and trader joe’s used to have these amazing peppermint cream pseudo-Oreos. from what I remember they’re better than the candy cane oreos by far.
OH! and i tried my first thing of Spark yesterday. I was awesome. I’m an addict. So thanks for that.
Ahhh, which flavor did you try! I am glad it arrived so quickly. Doesn’t it make you feel amazing?
I don’t know that I could pull that off with L. Well, maybe if it were small?
Hey there-
I just have one child so hiding was easy when he was younger. Closets worked the best for me and under the bed but now that he is older it gets harder, now I hide things in the garage, the attic and in the trunk of my car.
Good Luck!
This would be where a car trunk would come in handy!
Trader Joe’s Cookie Butter. Buy it and get a spoon to eat it on the way home.
Everyone talks about this, but what do you put it on? Other than a spoon.
Hubs eats it out of the jar or puts it on graham crackers, I ate it once and never wanted it again. It is literally those cookies you used to get on airlines ground up with oil. My TJ faves are: hollandaise sauce, rounds of unripened brie cheese, chocolate cheddar cheese (sounds icky, so good with a glass of the epicuro red wine they sell, gold label), burrata cheese, cinnamon toscano cheese with the raisin rosemary crisps, fair trade organic french roast coffee, creamy basil pasta sauce, yeast (it is so cheap there), apple blossoms (for breakfast!).
LOL! I don’t consider those airplane cookies to even be cookies! I need to make a list!
Apples are really good with it. So are Nilla wafers. You can pretty much treat it like peanut butter…but better
Okay, I like these ideas!
Boy, rolled turkey sounds like so much fun! LOL Sounds like something I would have to bring. There are TJ cookie butter recipes on the web but I am embarrased to say that we have went through two jars & it was never put on anything besides a spoon. It is sooo good.
LOL!!!!!!! I bet no one checked that box and that’s why I got it!
Trader Joes:
Have you had their Cookie Butter? it is an absolute must and is perfect for this time of year!! If you have never tried it you NEED to!!
Also they sell bags of mini stroopwafel type cookies that are AMAZING i like them better than the Rip Van Waffel ones….
I’m trying to think what else… I shop there multiple times a week and always get the same products because I get so addicted to their stuff… their mango sorbet is to die for also, so is their vanilla ice cream, it is like the most vanilla-y and creamiest vanilla ice cream ever! I could go on for ever but the most important thing it the cookie butter 🙂
I feel like I want to go there right now?..
My two favorite things from Trader Joes are their Midnight Moo (their chocolate syrup) and their Creamy Tomato Soup. Neither of those items have HFCS in them and I’m trying hard to eliminate from my family’s diets.
Good to know. Thank you!!!
cookie butter goes great on:
toast
waffles
crepe
ice cream
other cookies
i like it on apples
basically anything you would eat nutella on… or anything at all!!
Ice cream! That sounds amazing!
I would just go to my local grocery store deli and ask them for three pounds of turkey rolled up and on a platter.
Will they do that??
My dad had a shop at out house where he did all his woodwork/DIY type things and stored his tools. We weren’t allowed in normally (saws and nails and small children shouldn’t be unsupervised!) and around Christmas they locked the door. If you’ve got any sort of space like that it’s a great hiding spot. I’m thinking when my little is old enough to be curious we’ll lock presents in our shed.
If you have or know someone with a camper that’d be a good spot to hide too!
Trader Joe’s: I love the curry sauces, the chocolate covered pretzel thins, the corn salsa, and buying way too much wine. And as boring as it sounds their round multigrain crackers are AMAZING.
You know, I do have a room in the basement that locks. I need to look into where the key for that is?..
And thanks for the recommendations!
I just put all the kids presents in my storage totes in the basement. The boys never look in them because they think that the totes are just filled with clothes. And they know that Santa brings the presents so they never actually go searching for them anyways haha!
This is true! L would have no idea even to look!
I laugh a little because people are offering a lot of snack suggestions for TJ’s. I laugh more because I have ANOTHER snack suggestion. Their caramel corn. It’s dirt cheap, supposedly less fattening, and some of the best around. I could kill a bag in a day. Also, the honey wheat twisted pretzels are a great snack. Oh, and they have these little sea salt brownies. The. Best. Ever.
LOL. I know. I went today and seriously there is no way I can even make a meal with the random assortment of things I bought!
I need to try those brownies next time. OMG!
The dark chocolate covered candy cane Joe-Joe’s should be in stock later this week. The regular candy cane Joe Joe’s are pretty spectacular as well.
Ahh, I just went today. I’ll just have to go back 😉
Well, now I have to go to Trader Joes! I never know what to get there but now I do! I do like their Basmati rice – it’s got other stuff in it and tastes great. E’s too little to care but my niece will be over for Thanksgiving so I have to move stuff to the basement but the storage tote idea is a great one!
I need to get a big storage tote. Or maybe I’ll just do garbage bags in the storage room in the basement. I don’t think L would be suspicious about that!
I am such a trader joes junkie! Here are my new seasonal favorites.
The bars that are a lot like nutri grain bars called “so a pumpkin walks into a bar” everyone in my house loves them.
Their pumpkin spice chai mix is pretty good too and a great alternative to $$$ pumpkin spice lattes.
Their sipping chocolate mix. Like hot chocolate but thick an yummy
Peppermint Jo jos – trader joes equivalent to Oreos. Insane!
The kids love their yogurt stars. They only come in pink and purple but my boys don’t mind. 😉
Oh and their frozen oatmeal tastes exactly like the homemade stuff that takes forever except it takes 5 minutes.
I really haven’t had anything horrible from there so I it sounds good I’m sure it is!
Happy shopping!
I went earlier and picked up those yogurt stars! I cannot wait for the boys to try them.