decorating with panties

 As I tried to manage my truck of a double stroller through the small aisles of lounge wear and skinny tanks at our favorite clothing store  I stopped briefly to look at the workout pants hanging in front of me. Both girls were neatly tucked in the stroller.

When I turned back around, the canopies had been pulled up on both the front and back seats and the girls had decorated them with panties. Yes, the surprisingly frilly panties were now all over our stroller. And they were reaching for more! Dear heavens!  I quickly threw them  back on the display table (you should always wash your panties before wearing them ladies, and this is why).  We went along our merry way unsuccessful at purchasing workout clothes for me and ventured over to the baby and kid sections of the store.

After we'd made our purchase (Easter dresses, check!) we swiftly exited the store because Audrey had to go potty. Froggy, our portable potty seat,  still lives in the van for this very purpose. I buckle Allie into her seat and go back to fold down the stroller and realize there were two items that we did not purchase in the bottom. (Heavy sigh). 1 pair of chic child's sunglasses we had intended to buy and 1 boy blue onesie that we certainly did not. We don't do blue in this house. At least not yet. I call Audrey's attention to the fact that we had "shoplifted" these items and asked her if she'd put them in the stroller on purpose. I had seen her "shopping" earlier, pulling shirts and shorts from display tables and coordinating outfits  from within her seat. (I have created a monster, but a very fashionable one). After being told to stop, she did. One shirt must have slipped in without anyone noticing.

Oh I so wanted to just return the pink sunglasses and blue shirt the the next day. Allie was already buckled in and it was beyond lunch time. I  took the items out of the stroller in order to fold it down and set them momentarily in our bags of purchased items.

And Audrey, from her Froggy seat says, "No Mommy I don't want them in that bag! That's the store's stuff. We need to take it back now." (Audrey previously had an experience with taking a little stuffed puppy from the same store last year . We had a long talk about how we have to pay for what we take from stores. I made her go with me when we returned it. )

In my heart of hearts as soon as I saw the little blue shirt and pink sunglasses I knew we were going to walk back into that store. I ignored my empty stomach and aching legs and loaded them back in the stroller.  One of the managers, who knows us quite well, thanked us for bringing the items back.

I was so proud of Audrey this day. And myself, well, I was reminded to double check the stroller before leaving any store.

Thank heavens we didn't accidently steal any panties!






Sarah

My feet are singing

In my bathroom today while doing her potty dance with her barefeet on my floor Audrey noticed her feet were making sticking noises. She looked up at me with a smile and said, "Mom, my feet are singing."








Sarah

The numbers in my closet

18.  1.  4.  5 1/2.  3.  11.  7.


I bent over to wipe the macaroni and cheese off my floor and my favorite pair of jeans ripped in places you can't patch. It totally ruined my day. How crazy that a single insignificant piece of clothing can shift my mood.

It was my only pair of pants that fit. I almost cried.

Since my first baby was born I've been getting dressed out of plastic tubs that store clothing in a variety of sizes. Perpetually gaining/losing weight the past three years with pregnancies and post pregnancy weight loss regimes, nothing seems to fit for an extended period of time. Day after day, pulling clothes out, trying them on and throwing them back; It's exhausting. And it tends to leave my closet a bit of a mess.

I trudged up the stairs in hopes of finding another pair of pants from one of the tubs that line my closet. Still in disbelief at my misfortune I protested, "They weren't even tight!" as I rounded the corner into my bedroom. On the floor in front of me lay mounds of pants, some I'm ashamed to admit, still don't fit after 15 months of post pregnancy. I was struggling to find something, anything, to wear. I began to fold and organize. And two hours later, I'd organized the entire closet. Ahhh.  I could breathe again. I still didn't have pants that fit, but I had an organized closet.

Upon tackling this task I cleaned out a lot of stuff. Stuff that had been packed away or sitting for years, untouched. I got rid of a lot of it. Here's a few things of interest I  found:

18 bras I'll never wear again. As I held them up they looked like training bras to me. (Training bras you buy at Victoria Secret.) They looked like new, too. No wires poking out the sides, no stretched out straps. To think I was able to go nearly 3 weeks without having to duplicate. Now I'm lucky if I can go 3 days.

9 pairs of shoes that no longer fit. My last cortisone shot encouraged me to bid all those 5 inch heels and pointy toed shoes goodbye for good. I now have one pair of running shoes and one pair of crocs. My husband now owns more shoes than I do. (To think I moved a rather large rubbermaid tub home from college filled to the brim, and then some, with just shoes)

10 oversized bags.

11 bottles of red OPI fingernail polish. Eleven! All shades of red.

30-ish pieces of honeymoon lingerie and their matching underwear (if you can call it that) way too small to keep, but at the same time it's all so tiny it barely takes up any space.

Along those same lines,

12 bikinis that haven't seen the sun since 2004. The tops are so small they literally vanish if you crumple them into a ball.

3 heating pads

1 Emerald green dress I wore to my brother's wedding, size 4P. Ah to wear a size 4 again. ( I know that's large for some of you). I squeezed into this right after I was diagnosed with celiac and as I was gaining those dreaded 30 pounds. The wedding was in August, I bought the dress the second week of July and by the fourth, I could barely zip it. :(

and,

1 perfectly preserved wedding dress. (which I did keep)


Master closet, check!







Sarah

My hippy child

This is how Audrey accessorized her outfit today. To me, she looked straight out of the 60's. Here she is during quiet time brushing the hair of all of her princess dolls.  

Sarah

Allie sharing her milk

So adorable. So loving. So motherly. 

Sarah

An early Easter

 Easter Egg Hunt

My Aunt Linda and my cousin Krista came home for a few days this past weekend so Will (2), Krista's son, could meet Great Grandma. While they were here, Aunt Carol planned her Easter gathering early so they could attend. Aunt Carol's Easter egg hunt and dinner is a huge undertaking that normally involves hundreds of candy filled colored eggs spread out over a third of an acre. It's always the Saturday before Easter. Audrey loves it! What kid wouldn't? This year it was limited to only the little kids and they each got 7 eggs. This was Allie's first year participating and she did quite well considering I don't think she knew why she was picking up eggs. It was humorous to watch her take her first egg out of her basket, discover that it opened and then look twice as there was actually something inside!

 The sunshine and warm air kept us outside all day. What gorgeous weather, considering the never ending winter we've had this year. I actually worked up a sweat walking around and considered sunscreen a time or two.

Aunt Carol made her famous chicken and noodles which someday I will learn to make gluten free. I took a cake stand filled with strawberries and dark chocolate and my sister in law made a rockin' gluten free chocolate dessert (recipe below). Easter weekend won't be the same without Saturday night at Aunt Carol's this year, but seeing family we don't see every year made this year even more special.

Aunt Carol (left) & Aunt Linda (right) Yes, they are twins

The War in Wardrobe

The war that broke out over wardrobe in our house that day was close to monumental. Audrey likes to dress herself. Audrey is quite independent. I know I need to pick the battles and that clothing typically isn't an important one. But, the outfit she had on was from last year. It didn't fit. Not even a little. The skirt was so short she was showing her princess panties and the once short sleeved shirt was barely covering her belly. She had new clothes. Plus, I already had a bunch of photos from last summer with her in that outfit and I didn't want more. (Petty, I know). She was holding her ground. Jeremy couldn't believe how clothing was posing such a battle. If it had been WWII, he would have been Switzerland. When I come home from the store, we had 30 minutes before we were to leave. Audrey still had on the outfit from last summer. Desperate, I tell her that I'll buy her the Tangled movie if she puts on the outfit I picked out. She stops, looks at me, clarifies what I said and then says, "Ok!" I knew we already had pre-ordered that movie and that it would be arriving in 7-10 days. Bribery at it's finest. Don't judge. While in the potty at Aunt Carols she asks, "Can I change back into my other clothes when we get home?" At this moment, I didn't care. She attended the family gathering in the cute outfit. And not more than 20 minutes after we got home that day she was out playing with the neighbors, wearing the mini skirt and flashing everyone her princess panties.


Recipes

Gluten Free Berry Chocolate Dessert
(Autumn did not add any berries or jam, and it was delicious)

• 2/3 cup sliced almonds, toasted
• 1-1/3 cups semisweet chocolate chips
• 2 packages (8 ounces each) cream cheese, softened
• 2/3 cup sugar
• 1 carton (12 ounces) frozen whipped topping, thawed 
• 1 cup each fresh raspberries, blueberries and blackberries
• 2 tablespoons seedless strawberry jam

• Place almonds in a small food processor; cover and pulse until chopped. Sprinkle into a greased 9-in. springform pan; set aside.
• In a microwave, melt chocolate chips; stir until smooth. Cool completely. In a large bowl, beat cream cheese and sugar until smooth. Beat in melted chocolate; fold in whipped topping.
• Spread cream cheese mixture evenly into prepared pan. Mound fruit on top. Microwave jam on high for 15 seconds or until melted; drizzle over fruit.
• Cover and refrigerate for at least 3 hours. Remove sides of pan. Yield: 12 servings.

Sarah

St. Patrick's Day

Audrey woke up this morning and I told her that it was St. Patrick's Day and that we needed to wear green. She looked at me with a pouty face and said, "But I like pink!" Spoken like a true princess, who isn't at all Irish.





Sarah

Don't Try, Do.

4 generations; Me, Allie, Grandma, Dad and Audrey

My family visited Grandma, the girls' Great Grandma, today. She is in a nursing home and since our last visit they have moved her to the alzheimer unit. She has congestive heart failure and never leaves her wheelchair. Despite that, she'll still tries to fool you into thinking she's part of the conversation. When my Aunt Linda visited her on a different day she asked my Grandma if she remembered who she was. My Grandma said yes. Then my Aunt asked my Grandma, "What's my name?" And my Grandma responded, "What is it they call you?" Ha! Still trying to not let anyone know she doesn't remember. I don't really know if she's a classic alzheimer patient. She's had dementia for years; Ever since she fell off the work bench and hit her head on the concrete garage floor in the early 90's. (She had been cleaning the garage windows). 

We sat in the piano room and occasionally another patient or two would drift in and sit awhile until a nursing home staff member would usher them back to their room. Whenever someone would walk by she would look at me and ask, "Now who is that?" She honestly thought I might know. I sure didn't. I'm sure she didn't remember me and for sure didn't know my girls. I offered her some of the snack mix I'd brought and somewhere between tasting it and having too much she called me "Suzie." Oddly enough she used to call me this long before she was ever diagnosed with dementia or alzheimers. Perhaps a fluke, but I'll believe that for that one minute she remembered me. 

I love how her long term memory still kicks in and tells us stories. 

We gave her pictures of the girls to hang up in her room. One picture had all of my siblings and their wives on the Cub, the only tangible piece of the Farm that my family still owns. We asked her questions about that tractor and she told us the story of when my Grandpa bought it, all of which I believe was true. And how she told it was hilarious. She of course didn't know he was buying it and he told her to come outside so he could show her something. She asked him "What's that!?" And he told her. She then said, "What's it doing here?" I can just picture her standing in the yard beside the farm house in 1965, in her housedress and apron (possibly pearls) with her arms crossed looking disapprovingly at his new purchase. But that's what I love about my Grandma, she'll tell you what she thinks. 

At least once she said that she was, "happy" and that she had a "nice family." She had a great one liner that day.  I don't remember what we were discussing but when my brother replied, "I'll try" she said, "Don't try, do!" Pretty insightful we thought. 

It will be five years this August since she lost Grandpa. They used to be roommates. A huge picture of him is still hanging on her side of the room, right under the TV where I'm sure she stares at it hours everyday. 

She seemed really sad when we left her that day. She was almost teary eyed as they wheeled her down to the cafeteria to eat supper. It broke my heart when she said, "I guess I don't have a choice of where I go, they've got me in this thing (wheelchair) all the time." We gave her kisses and I said, "Love you Grandma." She said, "Love you too." 

I don't know if my Grandma originated the thought "Don't try, do" or if a worker at the nursing home says that a lot and she simply repeated it. But I thought that sounded exactly like something the "old Grandma"would have said to me. And in honor or her not being able to get up and walk around or be independent, I will no longer try. I will do.

Sarah