Confession #2: Life is too short. And expensive.

It has been an extremely sad and somewhat frustrating yet incredibly exciting past few days! I'll start off by explaining the events of this past Thursday, June 21. My high school had an alumnus pass early Thursday morning (or late Wednesday night), Alex Ford. She was coming home from her boyfriend's house and was hit by a car that was driving on the wrong side of the highway (full story can be found here). It was shocking to wake up that morning and see the numerous posts on Facebook as a mood of remorse plagued the entire site. I mean it was insane how many people were truly affected by her death...her family, closest friends, people who hadn't spoken to her in months, kids like me who went to school with her but didn't know her very well, and even current freshmen or sophomores who had never even met her. Everyone was in despair as such a randomly incidental event took the life of such a beautiful and talented girl. Alex cheered at Richland for years and was an amazing gymnast. It's still so surreal to know that she isn't here with us anymore, but I know that Heaven has been blessed by her presence. Rest in peace, sweet girl. Keep Jordan Harris company. You two will live on in our hearts forever.

On a more positive note, yesterday I spent nearly seven hours shopping with my mom. I went out after church at 11:00 just to look for bedding, but I ended up driving about 50 miles to about 10 stores, including 3 different Ross locations. I also managed to squeeze in my second interview at McAlister's and treated mama to lunch! It was a successful day that made me even more excited to move into Mizzou. I really tried to bargain shop and get good deals on everything, and I think I did rather well. As surprising as it may sound, I seriously got probably about 90% of my dorm stuff from Ross. I was shocked to find just about everything I needed there, but I knew I wouldn't be able to find better deals elsewhere.

As you can tell from the picture, I got a whole heck of a lot...and paid extremely reasonable prices for everything! I'm going to go into a bit of detail about all of it, sort of as a means of documentation for me, but if you don't care for the nitty gritty then you are more than welcome to skip to the bottom of this post for the awesome number breakdown.

Dorm supplies:

Silver Waste Basket
Cambridge Casuals 16 pc Silverware Set
Anchor 3 pc Food Storage Container Set
4 Frigoverre Glass Food Storage Containers
4 Rubbermaid Plastic Food Storage Containers
4 Preserve Mini Food Storage Containers
2 White Ceramic Mugs
4 Blue Plastic Glasses
4 Blue Plastic Bowls
4 Blue Plastic Plates
Set of 4 Magnetic Chip Clips
"Shoes Under" Under Bed Storage Aide
Kangaroom Grey Shower Caddy
Apt. 9 Grey Towel Set
Apt. 9 Purple Towel Set
Steve Madden Twin Comforter Set
Esprit Purple Twin XL Sheet Set
Allergy Defense Hypoallergenic Pillow
Grey Plush Throw

Ready for the total?

$190.91!!

I'm seriously so excited that I was able to get all of that for under $200...I can't even explain it to you. If you haven't begun to compare prices on stuff for your dorm, I would suggest you do it ASAP! Kohl's is having a huge sale on kitchenware and towels and such right now, and Ross is a really awesome place if you're willing to search for treasures.

And of course, as a teenage girl, I just HAD to spend a little more money on some non-essentials....

Everything else:

Jac & Annie Black Purse/Book Bag
Nine West Coral Satchel (not pictured)
Sonoma Brown Sandals
Sonoma Poppy Sandals (for my mama)
Merona Black Sandals
ISO Bouncy Curl Cream

But technically those things were somewhat essential. I ran out of hair cream a few days ago and had to use a travel size of product I had stashed...but now I've run out of that. The silver Nine West satchel I use every day is literally being torn apart at the seams and is no longer usable. My brown sandals that I bought from Target about two years ago are also tearing apart at the sole from being worn so often. I also have black sandals from Ross that don't fit me properly (they really never have...) and are extremely uncomfortable so I wanted to replace them. And lastly, I don't have a bag for next year and I didn't wanna buy a classic Jansport backpack... Oh and of course I wanted to bless my mama :)

So that added $97.70, bringing my weekend shopping spree to a grand total of...

$288.61!!

Despite the deals I found, it still pains me a little to know that I've dished out almost $300 over the past two days. But I know that I did dang good considering how big the ticket could have been for that much stuff.

So stoked for the changes to come. Not so stoked to pack all of this in our roomy yet space-lacking Lexus come August 12....yikes.

Here are a few close-ups of the dorm stash in case you couldn't depict items from the general picture...

If you have any questions as to where I got anything or what to buy when, feel free to ask. I'm no expert, but I feel rather "experienced" in the dorm shopping department after yesterday.

I hope everyone has a blessed week!