Mother's Day and more

I didn't get a chance to post yesterday, but I wanted to say happy belated Mother's Day to all of the wonderful mothers out there!! I know there are at least a handful of moms who periodically check my blog and I hope you all had a great day yesterday. :)

I had a nice day myself. After Jody made me breakfast and gave me cards from him and Ava, we went to Boulder to the Mother's Day Parade put on by Mothers Acting Up. There was a great turnout and we had a good time walking in the parade and even ran into someone from Jody's work who was there with his wife and children. (I had my suspicions that they were a pretty crunchy/AP-kinda family and that confirmed it.)

At the conclusion of the parade, there was a rally held in front of the courthouse. A few different moms spoke, as well as some children. It was especially touching to hear from the kids who have real concerns about the futures of children much less fortunate than themselves worldwide. I signed a petition for clean air regulations and donated some money to send postcards to Condoleeza Rice about reducing defense spending and increasing spending for children's educations.

I knew that parades and other events celebrating Mothers Acting Up and Mother's Day were taking place in various U.S. states, but was excited to hear that even Jerusalem was having a parade yesterday! How cool that this group that started in Boulder a few years ago has spread so far across the world!! :)

I was also excited that, thanks to yours truly, our local paper ran a story about the MAU organization and parade. I sent an e-mail to one of the reporters a couple weeks ago to let her know about MAU and the parade and suggested she write a story on it. Well, she said she was in need of a good story for Mother's Day and was very happy to get my e-mail. So that worked out perfectly!

After the parade, we hung out in Boulder for a bit (it was a gorgeous day), then picked up some lunch and headed home where Jody spent a good chunk of time hauling dirt. (We had a pile of dirt/compost delivered in the street in front of our house earlier in the weekend and Jody had to move it all to the backyard, where we're getting ready to lay sod.)

And as for my Mother's Day present, I got a Dyson Animal vacuum!! :) I've been wanting one for a while now and since we managed to finagle a really good deal this weekend, we decided it was time to take the plunge and get it.

Now if you are sitting there with baited breath, waiting to hear the details of my good deal, I will indulge you (because I can't stand keeping a good deal to myself). ;)
Kohl's had the Dyson Animal on sale last week for $404.99, down from $449.99. They didn't have any in stock, so I got a raincheck. I also had a coupon for an additional 15% off that I planned to use (provided one came in while the coupon was still good). So on Friday, I made some calls to 4 different Kohl's, finally finding one that had the Animal in stock. We drove about 35 min. to the store to get it and I found out that not only would I get the sale price, plus 15% off, but they were giving away $10 gift cards for every $50 you spent. So the vacuum total (before tax) came to about $340, so I got $60 in gift cards (which are good this week). So all in all, we got the vacuum for about $370, plus $60 of other merchandise for "free." Not bad at all considering when we were at Home Depot last week, we saw the same vacuum selling for $499!! Yay for deals! :)

That's all for now, except I need to say Happy 26th Birthday to my dear sister Carrie!!! I love ya and am really looking forward to seeing you in a little over a week! :)