Stuff we heart

When I was a little girl, I loved getting new stuff. I mean, I HEARTED it. My kids heart new stuff too. I also heart a good deal. My boys, they have always just liked stuff - the price of the stuff was no concern. Until now. I have introduced my children to an amazing place, a virtual heaven on earth. Kind of. I have revealed the secrets of the Thrift Store to my boys...and they heart it.

I took them for a date day a few weeks ago. We went to Chic-fil-a for lunch, and to the Thrift Store. I told them that they each could get 1 bag of goodies. You know how the Thrift sells stuff in those clear bags...it's like getting a goodie bag of treasure. You can see what you are getting, and there are literally HUNDREDS of bags to go through. And we went through all of them. I knew that Keith would be in Heaven with the Hot Wheels and toy horses. My 1 bag rule, it didn't last. How could I only get 1 bag, when there were awesome horses, Hot Wheels, AND army men? And all 3 were cheaper than 1 blasted toy at blasted Wal Mart! Zack isn't into cars or action figures, so he wasn't really impressed. Yet. Griffin found lots of action figures he liked, but nothing that he really hearted. Until we went to the magical place called...the showcase.

Ah, the showcase. The place where the true treasures are located. I happened to look behind the glass counter and what did my eyes land on? The holy grail. The jackpot. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle carrying cases. Not one, but 2 of them. Be. still. my. HEART. To say that Griffin likes the ninja turtles is like saying that it's warm outside. He HEARTS the ninja turtles. He hearts them a lot.

I asked the sweet lady working the showcase if those TMNT cases had anything inside. She said, "Girl, I don't know. Here...look." She handed me the cases. They were FULL. Griffin was in full hyperventilation, seizure, hysteria. I guessed there to be about 25 TMNT figures inside. I told him that if we got them, that would be all he could get and he'd have to put back his other stuff. He was cool with that. Each case...$12.88.

Zack quickly realized the magic of the showcase when he spotted his prize...a binder of baseball cards. He asked if he could see the binder, and the sweet lady handed them across the glass counter to him. The heavens opened up and angels descended and for a minute, I think I heard the Hallelujah chorus. It. was. FULL. Chock full of cards. Once we got home, he counted and told me exactly how many cards...252. It was a good day.

Once we checked out, we realized that it truly was a magical day. The turtles were 30% off. They were a green tag item, green tags were 30% off. The baseball cards...70% off. Are you KIDDING ME? It was SO meant to be.

3 happy boys, 1 happy Mama. A little Clorox water bath and voila...those toys were like new. On a side note...those TMNT cases actually held 48 TMNT characters. Most of them can't even be bought today, except for on Ebay. Just last night, I found one on ebay for $39.99. 1 Turtle. I got it, plus 47 more for less than that. That my friends, is why I HEART the thrift store.