#511 no earrings this time

I was eligible for a service award from my work. Last year was my 15th year there! The service award was generous and the only stipulation is that it has to be spent in one of three places: a jewelry store, or sporting goods store or a furniture store. What would I get?

The awards were supposed to be purchased by Thanksgiving. My problem was that I couldn't decide what to get. I thought about getting some bedroom furniture, but MT and I couldn't agree on anything. I thought about getting some diamond earrings.

Here's a note about the earrings: that's what I want to give myself as a reward when I lose the 100 pounds. Of course, I would spend significantly less on the earrings if I paid for them myself than if I got them with the service award. I went to the jewelry store and found a pair of gorgeous, sparkly, big diamond stud earrings. I've carried around the salesperson's business card since December. I talked to my boss about going to the store a few times, but we never went. (Your boss goes with you to get the service award.)

Bottom line - I couldn't justify the earrings. First of all, it's too much money for me to feel good about buying jewelry. There are other things I'd like to have that would benefit the family, and in the end, I felt better about what I'm getting. I'll still get myself a pair of earrings when I reach my milestone, but they will be within my budget and will mean more to me (I think) because it will be a reward to myself. (Not that losing 100 pounds isn't enough of a reward, but earrings are better than a tattoo, which I briefly considered.)

Anyway, the family headed to the furniture store tonight to pre-shop for the service award. I decided to get some laminate flooring for the two bedrooms upstairs that still have carpet. One of the rooms is T's, and he picked out the flooring. I think he made a good choice. It will look nice. The flooring only took part of the award, so with the other part, I decided that MT and I needed a new mattress, a pillow-top. Ooh it's nice. It's not an Aireloom, but it's a step up for us and I think we'll really enjoy it. I didn't really need a new mattress, the one I have is fine, but this new one is more cushion-y. I'm pretty excited about it.

So that's my story of how I spent my Friday evening. We capped all the pre-shopping off with a stop at In-n-Out Burger. I know. I know. Losing 100 pounds will be slower if I eat a burger and some fries from In-n-Out. That's ok. I still want to enjoy things like cheeseburgers here and there :)