Self-Defense Class — $37.00
The Daughter participated in a self-defense class today.  We weren’t sure what to expect but the class turned out to be excellent!  Very empowering and instructive.  The class was filled with girls from The Daughter’s school including most of the girls from her class — so it was a bonding experience too.

While The Daughter learned to break knee-caps and do donkey kicks, I was busy melting my credit card 

T.J. Maxx — $72.01

• pair of Life is Good women’s boxers/short jammie bottoms — $7.99
• pair of Life is Good women’s long jammie bottoms — $12.99
• 2 shower curtain liners — $6.99/ea.
• 2 beige organic cotton bath towels — $7.99/ea.
• 2 seafoam green organic cotton bath towels — $7.99/ea.

T.J. Maxx — ($8.60)

• returned the 2 beige towels and exchanged for two more seafoam green towels — $0.00
• returned Life is Good women’s boxers (too small — I couldn’t remember if I wore a M or a L) — $7.99

Runner’s Shoe Store — $82.80
A new pair of athletic shoes for me.  My current Addias sneakers have served me fairly well — very comfortable and good arch support.  But the heels broke down awfully quickly and I’m experiencing a great deal of knee pain when I have to stand up for any length of time.  I don’t think the knee pain is associated with my Fibromyalgia; I think it has to do with the shoes.  I didn’t like the new model of Addias but did find a pair of Mizuno running shoes that were quite comfortable.  The best part was they were on sale — $72.00.  I also bought a new pair of bungee laces — these have been an absolute godsend in helping alleviate the pressure/pain that traditional laces cause in my post-Fibro feet.  Cost:  $4.95.  The guy provided me with a pair of bungee laces that were too short, however.  I need to get back to the store and exchange them.

 Aeropostale — ($43.18)
Returned the two pair of khaki cargo shorts I bought for The Son.  They were too long but most of all he hated the internal drawstring waistband. 

Crabtree & Evelyn — $29.41

• 6 bars of La Source triple-milled soap — $3.60/ea.
• 1 bar of Aloe triple-milled soap — $5.60

It appears as though maybe they are discontinuing the Aloe soap which will make me very sad.  I personally prefer the glycerine to the triple-milled, especially in the summer but it doesn’t last as long and The Husband doesn’t particularly care for it.  Everyone likes the new La Source soap — it has a nice fresh, clean scent but the scent’s a little too strong for me.  It does disappate fairly quickly though and thus far hasn’t induced any type of allergy or asthma attack — which is good  

Gap Outlet — $55.09
Three pair of khaki shorts — two pair of cargos and one pair of flat-front plain shorts.  He ended up liking the Old Navy shorts the best so I’ll return these for full credit soon.

Old Navy — $105.99

• 2 pair of cargo shorts (Real Auth) — $15.00/ea.
• 1 pair of cargo shorts (Built Up) — $29.50
• 1 pair of swim trunks — $19.50
• 1 pair of flat-front shorts — $19.50

Everything has to be returned or exchanged.  The two pair of $15 cargos are good but we need to go up one size to a 30w.  The trunks had an amazingly poor fit; we’ll stick with the Speedo trunks I found at Costco.  The expensive cargos were rejected without even being tried on — I hadn’t realized how expensive they were when I bought them plus they had drawstrings at the waist and cuffs (yuck).  The flat-front shorts were okay in style but rejected when I realized that he had no growing room in the waist.  I could have exchanged them for a bigger size (30w) but it’s probably better to stick to a single style otherwise The Son will eventually decide he likes one style over the other and stop wearing the less preferred shorts effectively cutting his already small summer wardrobe in half.

Old Navy — ($31.75)
The cargos were exchanged.  The expensive cargos were returned.  The swim trunks were supposed to be returned but somehow that didn’t happen.  And the decision to return the flat-front shorts happened after the exchange/return so they’ll go back later this week when I return the swim trunks.