This week's 7.

1. I really love going home to South Dakota. I love that my family lives in the middle of nowhere (literally, our house was built in one of my dad's fields). And the 7-hour drive from KC is infinitely better compared to the 12-hour Chicago route.

2. While home, I got to see mini-me graduate.

3. Then mini-me and the little bro decided to hitch a ride back to KC with me for some quality sibling time. Mainly, mini-me is visiting a hair school out here.

4. Their visit has enlightened me on what I will be like as a mother:  an overprotective, always texting "What are you guys up to?" worry wart. Pray for my future children.

5. I really like my new camera, but we're still in the getting-to-know-each-other stage. Crossing my fingers that this is something real.

6. Need an excuse for a Target run? Live in an apartment complex with an amazing pool and realize you completely forgot to register for beach towels. Excuse achieved.

Target's $5.50 version of 'his & her' towels. 

7. You would think that baking bread from frozen dough is too easy to mess up. But it can (and did) happen.

...Ye-ah, it's not supposed to droop over the side like that.

E proves he can shop.

Let's set the record straight. The title of this post may lead you to believe that E lacks skill in shopping. False. The E man has always been a good shopper, and a recent excursion to my beloved Target led to a dream coming true.

To me, there are two kinds of shopping:  the shopping that a lot of people do when they see something they like and buy it, and the shopping I do - bargain shopping. If you know me, you also know that I won't buy anything unless it's marked down 75%, or if it's 10$ and below. My extremely wise mother, the ultimate shopper, taught me at a young age that garage sales and clearance racks are our friends.

I've tried to impress these philosophies on everyone I know, and one Saturday night, a students became a master. E and I were in Target's shoe section, scavenging the shelves of on-sale shoes looking for a pair of slippers. I made the mistake of walking into the store knowing exactly which pair I wanted, and to my predictable displeasure, they were nowhere to be found. I dreaded admitting to myself that waiting for them to go on sale would bite me in the butt, and just when I was about to settle for a lesser pair, E saved the day. He called my name, and as I turned to look, he was strolling towards me with the slippers. I could barely contain my excitement as he asked, "What about these? They're your size."

I almost screamed when I saw that my husband had found the fancied moccasins, originally $19.99, for $4.98. We left Target a happy couple - me with my cheap, awesome slippers, and him with the new Dark Ascension Magic deck. And two weeks later, E outshone himself with another fantastic bargain display at Kohl's. Gosh, I love that man.

$4.98 has never felt so warm.