Today is Martin Luther King Junior day. Lucky students, employees, and city workers got the day off.

By pure luck, my entire family got the day off from work, school, and bible studies. And a follow-up question, bright and sparkly, presented itself: So what are we gonna do?

We’re the Koontzes. We hike, and camp, and go to the movies, and eat junk food, and go thrift shopping.

Well we started with pizza at our favorite local pizza place.

We’re such regulars, they know our order by heart there. However today, my mom ordered a sandwich instead of pizza. I looked at her in hurt and horror and said I didn’t know who she was anymore.

Then I ordered a salad. And I didn’t know who I was anymore. It was quite an emotional day.

After lunch, it was off to the thrift stores. I haven’t been thrift shopping in so long. No wonder the worlds weren’t aligning.

I have a system I’ve spoken about before. First, I scan through the books.

Then I wander aimlessly and find myself in the clothes, where I usually find something I must try on. In today’s case, it was a vintage dress for 99c that I almost got stuck in once I got it on. Through the hysteria of me thinking I might have to rip or cut this dress off me and still pay the 99c, I forgot to take a picture.

It was too wide in the chest and had huge shoulders anyways. I’m glad to say I finally got it off.

OOTD: Purple cardigan (given to me, secondhand), blue floral blouse (given to me, secondhand) and high-waisted jeans from the Bethany Mota collection that I bought on sale for $7.

Finally, I must casually browse through the mugs.

I almost had a heart attack when I saw this sign. Sadly, no mugs stood out to me. I’m not really sure if they considered a mug and a cup the same thing anyways.

Is this not every thrift shopper’s favorite sign?

There comes a point in thrift shopping where you have to look at the stacks of (junk) and keep searching until you find that one treasure.

That’s the beauty of it all.

I found this owl candle holder that I carried around the store as I kept searching. As I carry stuff in thrift stores, especially in thrift stores like this . . .

Messy = “make-me-an-offer.”

Carrying it around, I begin to decide if I really want it, and if I want it how much am I willing to pay for it. I decided on 50 cents being a great price.

At the counter, the man said “half a dollar,” and I said “sold!”

The last place I looked was in the jewelry case, per my dad’s suggestion.

He teased and asked if I was buying the tiara, but it was my little brother who pointed to something else.

A bullet pin. At first, I wasn’t very interested, but it was 75c, and so unique.

Yeah, I bought it.

For $3.25, I bought the first book of the Twilight series (I’ve never seen the films or read the books. But they’re popular for a reason, and a writer should study those reasons) — $1. I let out a manic “ah-ha!!” when I found the first two books of the Hunger Games series (I’ve already read them, but by renting from the library) — 50c each. My bullet pin (the man at the store said it looked like it was from a twenty-two but twenty-two’s usually don’t have a center like this bullet has) — 75c. And the owl candle holder — 50c.

I think I did very well if I do say so myself.