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One of the things I really enjoyed about my trip was spending time with my nephew and getting to hear him talk. He’s been a pretty reserved and quiet baby in terms of his vocabulary so far in life, but things had changed quite drastically since I last saw him at Christmas. Here are some of his charming and cute words that I just don’t want to forget:
Purpo. Which means purple. He loved pointing out anything that was purple and we always gave him the purple plate at dinner because it just made him so happy.
Turto. Which means turtle. He got a little beany baby type turtle at the General Store in Cooke City and loved to point it out and talk about it with whoever was around.
Tee. Which means tease. He got such a kick out of teasing us, especially my mom, his Granny. He thought he was soooo funny and would laugh and say “Tee! Tee!”.
Baby. Which (surprise, surprise) means baby. He loves to refer to himself as the baby but also likes to point out babies in his food (small fries, etc.), books, and out in nature. Some of my brother’s friends came for a weekend while we were there and they have a 4 month old little girl. Anytime she was in the room, my nephew had to say, “Baby, baby, baby” over and over until we ALL acknowledged that yes, there was a baby in the room.
Boo Daddy. Which means Granddaddy. That’s what my dad is called. Apparently he has been able to say Granddaddy quite clearly in the past, but Boo Daddy was his phrasing choice on this trip. And everyone except for Granddaddy just loved it, so we encouraged it to continue.
Dry. Which means Momma. The thing is he can say Momma and knows who his Mom is, but he likes to call her Dry instead. We think it might stem from getting a dry diaper. Which you know, that’s flattering, isn’t it? I think he really just does it because he thinks he is being clever and funny.
Buh Bye Bye. Which means bye or going bye bye or say bye bye. He said it a lot and it always had the three “b’s” in it, but could be said in different tones to mean different things. By the end of the trip the rest of the family was saying it too, it was so stuck in our heads.
Vroom. Which means car or truck or any type of motor vehicle really. He is OBSESSED with anything that has an engine and needs to point out every one he sees. He could also point out RVs but said it more like a-eee.
Bulldo. Which means Bulldozer. We saw quite a few of these as there was road construction going on in the areas near our cabin. And he would get so excited to see anything that even sort of resembled one.
Taity. Which means Caity. And just melts my heart. Even when he was annoyed with me and came and pushed on my chest with one hand and said “Taity” with disdain.
Besides his sweet vocab (which also included bow-wow for dog and he he for horse), he had the most brilliant laugh. It actually sounds a lot like fake laughter, but it is truly genuine coming from him. He laughs loud and clear, “Ha Ha Ha!” with a look of pure glee on his face. Sometimes I felt like he was laughing so much that I was watching the comedic stylings of Z.
I wanted to write this down here so that I wouldn’t forget about all of these sweet sayings. On the trip I said something to my mom about wanting to always remember his laugh at this moment in time and she pointed out that we will forget. Which in the grand scheme of things is probably true and that makes me a bit sad. So I’m writing it here in hopes that I will preserve this memory just a bit.
Meema is my great aunt. She is the oldest of my granddaddy’s younger (actually his only) sisters. Meema isn’t her real name. It is really Mary and Granddaddy always called her Mare. The name Meema actually came from her youngest daughter who is also named Mary. I can’t recall the exact story now, but somehow the daughter Mary called the mother Mary, Meema and it stuck. I, in fact, didn’t realize this wasn’t her actual name until I was probably 10 or 12.
(As a random aside – one of my most significant memories of Meema is from around that time and is of watching her carry a mug of tea really fast with no fear that she might spill it and burn herself. Such confidence! I commented on it at the time and she told me that if you move quickly and steadily, you have nothing to fear. Sounds like good life advice all around. But no matter what, whenever I have to walk with a mug of something hot I always, always think of her.)
Meema turned 90 this year. She has outlived her two older brothers and her husband (who actually all had very long lives themselves). Her birthday was back in March, but she had said that she would like to celebrate in the summer when people were at the ranch. And the only thing she really wanted was cheeseburgers and Asti Spumanti. And when your 90 year old relative gives such demands, you make sure it happens. Her son provided the Asti (and it was plentiful, as it should be for such a celebration) and my dad and brother cooked up the cheeseburgers. Then to top everything off, we lit 90 candles on one cake. There were so many candles that the ones that had been lit first were just wicks sticking out of the cake by the time she got them blown out. The joy on her face when she saw that cake was priceless.
We had a few other opportunities to spend time with Meema over the next few days and I was continually struck by how much kindness just flows out of this woman. She is happy and genuine and sincerely excited about people. I’ve thought a lot about writing a book (you know in the sort of fantasizing way of, “oh if I could just write a book someday!”) and writing each chapter about a different woman in my family. This stems much from having relatives who are as wonderful as Meema is and always has been.
I got back from a trip out to my family’s Wyoming ranch last week. I joined my parents and my brother and his family there. Then they all came back here to Bellingham for a few days. The bro and his fam left on Sunday and my parents left on Tuesday. And now I have four days to myself until cheerleading starts again. Oh summer, where have you gone?
The trip to Wyoming/Montana was good. The ranch is near Yellowstone and has been in my family since the 1930′s – my great grandmother bought it and it has stayed in the family ever since (although some of it was sold off before I was born). There were three things that made the trip great:
1. My niece and nephew were there.
2. I am now an adult and can make my own decisions about going on hikes and what I want to eat.
3. We did things in Yellowstone that I’d either never or rarely done before.
My niece is now 5 1/2 and she is fun, fun, fun. She and I stayed in a small cabin on our property. There are two beds in it – a single for her and a queen for me. The second night she was scared that wolves were going to come get us (an impossibility) and I let her get in bed with me. And that’s where she stayed every night after that. Anyway, she was quite the trooper during the day and it was wonderful having the chance to interact with her so much. My nephew is 2 1/2 and has decided that he is Mr. Independent, but still likes to refer to himself as Baby. He was a very easy going baby who would eat anything. Until now. Now he pretty much only likes carbs (and not all carbs at that) and he wants to do everything by HIMSELF! So that took some adjusting to. He was also obsessed with doors on this trip. Every door, everywhere. They needed to be opened. They needed to be closed. They needed to be opened, then closed. Luckily with the amount of opening and closing of doors he did he only ended up with squished fingers once and I think two head bumps (from slamming it closed and being surprised when it came bouncing back at him). But no matter how many two year old oddities he is going through he still remains one of the most adorable and kissable kids I’ve ever met.
The last time I went to the ranch was eight years ago and I was only twenty. I remember feeling pretty grown up then and that makes me laugh now. Not that I am more grown up now, but I at least recognize the folly of thinking you are super mature at age twenty. Anyway, as with any multi-generational family gathering, you are treated in a way that reflects which generation you come from. Now that there are grand kids (thank you to my brother for providing those!), I get to be more in the middle generation. Which meant that if I didn’t want to go along on a hike I didn’t have to. But some of my more outdoorsy friends will be happy to know that I elected to do this only once. Well, actually twice, but the second time I volunteered to drive into town (1 1/2 hours away) with my mom when she was going to order a new stove, so that doesn’t count since I was still doing “something”. Anyway, the day that I decided not to go on the big hike, my brother reacted with disappointment right away and my dad started to freak out and almost demand that I come. But, my mom stepped in and stood up for me saying that I was an adult and they had to let me make my own decisions. Yay Mom! Then I volunteered to help with some maitenence work my dad was in the middle of and he got super excited for me to stay back and do that instead. Typical.
The one thing that I really wanted to do on the trip was go on (or at least to) Yellowstone Lake. My family (the whole extended family) hardly ever goes to the Lake part of the park. We usually hit the falls, Mammoth, Lamar Valley, and occasionally Old Faithful. Since people from my family have been going to the ranch since the 1930′s, it is understandable that many of them have the “been there, done that” attitude when it comes to Yellowstone. But the last time I was there I drove by the lake with an uncle and some cousins and thought it was so beautiful. I had looked into renting boats on the lake before leaving for my trip so I knew it was a possibility but figured it would be difficult to actually get one since we were there during the height of tourist season. Anyway, in the end we drove to the lake’s marina, checked out what they had available and were able to rent two motor boats for an hour. My brother and his family went in one and Mom, Dad, and I went in the other. This ended up being great because it was really fun to be able to watch the kids having fun riding in the boat and to zip around each other and make waves and all that. It was an absolutely beautiful day and it was so fun to see the Lake Hotel from the water. It is the oldest hotel in the park and while it shows its age a bit, it is really beautiful.
We also went to swim in Firehole River which I’d never been to, plus checked out mud volcanoes and some geysers we’d never stopped at. It was nice having my sister in-law there because she pointed out new things from the map that most of us just glance over now. We also saw more animals (both in number and variety) than I ever remember having seen before. Tons of buffalo (my favorite), deer, elk (we spotted a HUGE bull elk one night), two grizzly bears, numerous birds, and a wolf. My sister in-law also spotted a yellow bellied marmot. Which I just think is a funny name.
Anyway, there is much more to share about the trip but I’ll leave it at that for now. Maybe I’ll surprise myself and get motivated to post some pictures. I will at least write about a few other special or funny things that happened on the trip.
Summer has finally arrived. We’ve had high temps these past few days and I’ve been surviving much better than I normally do for being an Alaska girl. Probably because it was rainy and cold for most of June and I was just ready for a change. But with summer finally being here and having a break from coaching, I am at a loss as to what to do. I’ve never been a super outdoorsy person (ok, super doesn’t even need to be in there – I’ve never been outdoorsy period) so its not like the nice weather calls me to the mountains or the lake, etc. I’m sure there is plenty to do around town, but I’m having trouble being motivated to actually get out and do it. This is actually pretty typical of me. It helps to have someone who just makes me go and do things with them and this summer I don’t have someone around like that (Tarin, where are you?). My parents are arriving this Monday so that will break things up somewhat. Although I always become the petulant teenager when they want to do things that mean I’ll be riding in the backseat of a car for hours (that always seems to be included in my dad’s favorite things to do). Anyway, what I’m trying to say is that I wish I was more of a get up and go person so that I would just be able to get out of the house and do things on my own. So, I think it might be a good idea if I try to do something like that at least once or twice a week so that I don’t feel as if I’ve wasted my summer days just sitting on the couch (which is what I did yesterday, granted I had a headache too). And if anybody is doing something fun and wants to invite me along, please do!
Well. It’s been a little less than a year since my last post. Which was written just a few days before cheerleading season began. And I just recently got home from cheer camp for this year and am on my official “break” from coaching right now. Which means I suddenly have time and a desire to actually write on my blog. One could gather some thoughts/ideas from that pattern, but we’ll leave it at that for now.
The truth is, this has been a difficult year overall. Cheerleading had its ups and quite a few downs. My co-coach and I are always somewhat mystified by the way each year always (ALWAYS) brings new situations/problems/joys/anxieties. We never (NEVER) have a year that just flies on by without any new and hard situation to tackle. This past year seemed to bring them in droves. But, I survived! And I’m planning to coach again next year (although to be honest, part of me feels like I’m crazy for doing it).
My health has given me quite a few problems too. Starting last fall, I had incredible pain that was brought on by tension headaches – really tension head/neck/shoulder/back aches. These lasted a good 4 to 5 months and still affect my everyday life to some degree. I am extremely thankful for physical therapy that basically just involves getting massaged in the specific problem area for an hour or so. My PT saved my sanity (or what was left of it). In more recent months I’ve been dealing with being really tired most of the time. I’m in the process of figuring out the cause (if there is one) and trying to deal with it. It is affecting my ability to be at work on time and stay focused throughout the day. Not the greatest when my outside of work schedule doesn’t always leave room for making up hours.
And then to add insult to injury, my parents both had health issues of their own. Mom had a bunionectomy right before Christmas (lucky for her I was able to be in town to help nurse her back to health – or really just keep her from wanting to kill my dad). Dad had a heart attack in March that he thankfully seems to be making a full recovery from, but my hope is that he is truly learning from the experience as well and will do a better job taking care of himself. We shall see.
Now enough with the whining. There have been exceptional (EXCEPTIONAL!) things that have happened as well. In October, I was able to travel to Italy with an old college friend. We did a week long Rick Steves tour in Rome and then we traveled up to Cinque Terre for a few days on our own. The tour was incredible and I fell in love with Rome. We saw and did so many amazing things, I still get a little giddy when I think about it. Like the fact that I’ve actually stood in the Colosseum and walked through the Forum. These were things I studied in college and to actually see them in person and breathe it all in was amazing. My very favorite thing we did on the tour was go to the Borghese Gallery. The statues by Bernini that are held there are some of the most fantastic pieces of art I have ever seen. So just a tidbit in case you ever find yourself in Rome wondering what to do. Oh, and another tidbit…the hot men work at the Vatican (and no, I don’t mean the Pope). I enjoyed our time in Cinque Terre as well, but to be honest I was so ready to be blown away because of all the wonderful things I had heard about it that once I got there it was a tiny bit of a let down. Plus we were pretty exhausted after our tour (there was lots and lots and lots of walking).
Other great things have happened this year as well. Lots of friends have had babies. And really cute babies at that. I was able to be in Alaska at Christmas and got to celebrate my niece’s 5th birthday with her. I served on a board for cheer coaches in the state. Which okay, does not sound like that much fun, but it helped me to be more involved with cheer on a wider level which is something I’ve been wanting for a long time. And along with that, I also trained to be a judge for cheer competitions and passed all four of the testing points on the first try. I’m looking forward to judging competitions this fall/winter. And this last spring I sort of got promoted. Technically I am still the administrative assistant, but I used to have receptionist responsibilities on top of that and it was getting to the point of being too much to balance. So I got to move up to a different office and I got a raise. All good things.
Anyway, I’d like to keep blogging on a regular basis, but I always seem to cave under the pressure. “What pressure?” you ask. Um. Just the pressure I put on myself. Because I am a perfectionist who only likes to do things if I can do them right and well and you know, perfectly. So of course we’ll see how this goes, but hopefully it goes somewhere. Maybe my next post can be less than 10 1/2 months from now? That’d be a good start.
Welp, I’ve been back from Alaska for about a week and half and am just now getting around to posting pictures and a recap of the trip. One reason is because my parents actually came down here the same night I did so I’ve been a little busy doing stuff with them. And another reason is just because I’ve been lazy and enjoying my days of having few responsibilities. But things are changing today! I’ve posted some pictures on facebook and now I’m writing this post. Crossing stuff off the list. 
So make yourself comfortable, I think this is going to be a long one.
The trip was great. One of the best trips home in recent years. I was able to see quite a few of my friends (sadly, for only quick visits with most of them), I got to spend quite a bit of time with my niece and nephew, I got to hang out quite a bit with one of my closest friends Carlie (and help out with her brother’s wedding), and I got to attend (and plan and set up) my 10 year high school reunion. The weather was amazing. As in pretty hot – it was in the mid 80′s for most of my trip. I only remember it reaching those kind of temps maybe once or twice growing up. I had of course packed completely inappropriately. Luckily I’d brought quite a few tank tops for layering, so I just dropped the extra layers. And I never once touched the fleece jacket that took up tons of space in my suitcase. Oh well.
The first weekend I was there, my niece (A) and nephew (Z) stayed with us at my parents’ house. A is 4 1/2 and Z is about 15 months. They arrived on Saturday evening and we had them until Monday morning. It was fun, it was exhausting, and it reminded me of just how amazing my sister in-law is to be able to keep up with them on a daily basis. It took my dad, mom, and I all of our effort to keep just 2 kids in line. Dad and I took A to the park where she ran around for 2 hours straight and someone thought my dad was either homeless or a creepy old man because he laid down in the shady part of one of the jungle gyms and was taking a snooze. When another lady asked me about him I was confused at first and then realized that she was talking about him. A little embarrassing to say the least.
That evening we took the kids to Kepler Park for a boat ride. A decided that her life jacket was killing her after my mom tied together the top set of ties. So, much of the ride was spent listening to her complain of choking and saying that her vest was “sooo heavy”. Finally she perked up a bit when she got the chance to row the boat with Granny. Then Z started fussing and we couldn’t figure out what his deal was. Turns out he wanted to row too. He’s very mechanically minded, which doesn’t surprise me a bit seeing as how my dad is a civil engineer, my brother is an areonautical engineer, and Z‘s other grandpa owns his own construction company. And while a bit small for actual rowing, he did seem to have a grasp on the concept and was as happy as a clam after that.
That night Z fell asleep in my arms while we watched Black Beauty (um, how sad is that movie?) and when I went to put him down on his makeshift bed of couch cushions, I couldn’t believe how much he actually looked like a little cherub. It helped that he was just in a diaper and wrapped up in his champagne colored silky blanket. His blonde hair didn’t hurt either. I wish I had a picture of him at that moment. So adorable.
I met up with lots of my friends for lunches during the week. I went with one of them to this newer restaurant called the Red Beet. They don’t have a full menu there. Instead, they make one entree a day and that’s what you get. It helps that the food is totally gourmet and delicious. I can be a picky eater so I was nervous they’d be serving something I really didn’t like, but the food was fabulous. I thought it really couldn’t get much better and then we ordered dessert! I got this amazing almond cake with cream and I couldn’t believe how good it was. I’ve been craving it ever since that day. I can taste it right now it was so great!
My friend Carlie was up from Tennessee for her brother’s wedding and our high school reunion. Her husband is originally from Florida and has only been up to Alaska once before. It was actually when he proposed to her and it was a pretty short trip with disappointing weather, so he was excited about the chance to visit again. I asked my dad if he would take the three of us up in his plane to fly over a nearby glacier. The sky had gotten pretty hazy because of wildfires up by Denali, but the view was still amazing. I think Tony had a great time and it turns out it was Carlie’s first time having a scenic flight like that (and she grew up in AK).
I spent my last Friday and Saturday there helping with the wedding. Friday was pretty fun because Carlie and I got to zip around in my dad’s Miata going from place to place. There was the normal wedding stress, but I had fun for the most part. Saturday was a bit of a different story. I had fun, but was a lot more stressed. I’ve coined the day as “running a marathon in bad shoes”. Seriously, one of the worst blisters I’ve ever had on my heel. But it all worked in the end and the bride and groom are married (they were high school sweethearts!) and everyone survived! (But I’ve only worn flip flops since then.)
Oh, and that Friday night we celebrated my brother’s 31st birthday. I made him a spice cake because my sister in-law told me that whenever they eat spice cake somewhere he always says something to the effect of “why isn’t spice cake in our life more often?” I got him the first season of Lost on dvd because a couple of months ago he called me on a Wednesday night about 10 minutes before it was on. I told him I could only talk for that bit of time because Lost would be on and I couldn’t miss it. And he had the audacity to ask me, “What’s Lost?” AAAAHHHHH, are you kidding me? I understand to some degree – they don’t have regular tv and basically just watch things through Netflix. But Lost just seemed up his alley especially with all the conspiracy theory stuff. So now I hope he does actually like it seeing as how I went ahead and just bought the season for him instead of telling him to get it on Netflix.
That night the kids ran around my parents’ yard for quite awhile. I just sat down in the middle of it and started taking pictures.
Sunday was our reunion. We had planned on having a potluck BBQ at one of the local parks. I’d gotten kind of anxious about all the details of it (but not about seeing any of the people). Luckily my friend Hailee really stepped up to the plate and got lots of decorations and nice things to make it feel more festive. I spent the better part of the week worrying about parking, which of course turned out to be a non issue. I’d say about 40 people from my class (out of 216) along with families came. So a little dissappointing size wise, but it was so great to see the people who were there. And everyone was so gracious about thanking me for putting it together. I was really glad we did it, even if I had anxiety about it for a whole stinking year. Everyone looked pretty much exactly the same and it was weird to see little miniature versions of them running around on the park’s jungle gym. And their were quite a few little babies there. So sweet.
That night I took the red eye flight back down to WA. My parents were on another flight that was scheduled to take off at the exact same time (I’m pretty sure we were on 2 different runways). Once we were in Seattle I took the shuttle bus and they had a layover and then a commuter flight up to B’ham. And I beat them there by 5 minutes.
Here are my goals for my trip to Alaska:
1. Take lots of pictures.
2. Post said pictures on Facebook or blog when I get back.
3. Spend time with people I love.
4. Do not sleep in past 9:30am so that I have a better chance at accomplishing #3.
5. Feel free to stay up until the sun sets (around 2am) or later if it means accomplishing #3.
6. Drive to the places that I always think of when I think of being at home.
7. Take pictures when I arrive at #6′s destinations.
8. Be patient with the parents.
9. Spend minimal time on the internet and avoid watching pointless tv (watching a movie with family isn’t necessarily pointless).
10. Spend lots of time outside.
I’ll let you know how I do. Or better yet, you”ll hopefully get to see pictures and then you can judge how well I did.
I can’t believe that tomorrow is the last day in June. It went by really fast. But looking back I realize I did so much and had a good time throughout it. Three cheers for June!
I just got back from cheer camp on Saturday. It was by far the best camp I’ve taken my squad to in the last 5 years that I’ve been a coach. It was a fairly small camp because some other schools that had been signed up were still in school due to making up for snow days. Can you imagine? Still in school during the 4th week of June? Ugh. But it made camp nicer for the teams that did make it because we got a lot more individualized attention. And the girls did great! I think 16 (out of 21) of them were nominated for All American and 6 actually made the All American team (I think there were only 12 total for the entire camp). One of the girls was named Top All American of the camp for the second year in a row (and she’s only going to be a junior this year). One of the seniors was “apped” at the end of the camp. That means that the NCA staff thought she was good enough to try out for their staff next year and she got a special application to do so. The team as a whole won the “Top Performance Team” award and received a Nationals bid. And the other coach and myself won a “Been There, Done That” award acknowledging our commitment, knowledge and dedication to our squad and to cheerleading as a whole. All in all it was a fabulous 4 days. Except for the mattresses we slept on in the dorms – we called them our “cement slabs”. It was seriously an adult version of a crib mattress. And there was a ginormous hill that we had to go down and up 3 times a day. Which was never fun, but at least I felt like my legs and butt were getting a good workout. Makes up for all the cafeteria food we ate there (which was actually pretty tasty). And now I have a break until August!!!
On to other summer plans. I’m leaving for Alaska this Friday. I’m going to be there for about 10 days, but already I’m wondering how I’m going to cram in all my plans. There are a lot of people to see. Last time I was there it was for a short trip around Thanksgiving so I didn’t get to see a whole lot of my friends for very long. I’d like to be able to spend a little more time with everyone. And some of my other out of state friends will be up there because it is our 10 year high school reunion and we’re all heading back for it. (Can I just say that I’m so looking forward to the day after the reunion? Not because I’m nervous about seeing anyone, just because even the idea of planning this event has caused me anxiety for the past year and now I won’t have to think about reunions again for another 10 years.) I also get to help with one of my best friend’s younger brother’s wedding. He is getting married to his high school sweetheart who I actually knew when she was just a wee toddler. And I’ve known the groom since he was in middle school. Whenever I think of him I just think about him doing calf raises on their stairs because he wanted to get stronger so he could make the 8th grade basketball team. And now he’s getting married! And of course I’m excited to see the neice and nephew. I sent a card to my neice to tell her that I’d be coming and that I hoped we could have a sleepover. My mom told me that she was very excited about this prospect and had already decided we’d do it at Granny and Granddaddy’s house rather than her own (I have a feeling that’s because she gets spoiled more there).
Anyway, lots of blah blah blah here in this post. But I’m excited. Excited about what this past month has brought my way and what’s coming around the corner. And thinking a lot about how blessed I am. And that I have a good life. And that I’m a lucky girl.
On Monday I took my 13 year old cousin shopping. I had stopped by her house on Sunday to drop something off and my aunt asked me if I would be willing to take her. My aunt and uncle are really not into shopping – especially at a mall. Like it’s the very last thing they would like to be doing. It probably falls behind getting a root canal. But my cousin had apparently been saving up for an iphone (um, what 13 year old needs an iphone?) and then changed her mind and decided she wanted to get new clothes instead. So on Monday, we headed to the mall armed with quite a bit of money (it looked like she was pretty close to being able to afford the phone).
We hit Kohl’s first because I thought it would be good to get her in a department store setting with lots of options and I knew they usually had several sale racks. At first she was like a lost little bird who had fallen out of the nest. She wasn’t aware of the need to look at the sizes before she took something off the rack and I think the amount of racks to go through was intimidating. So once we got the sizes figured out I helped her pull some pieces to try on. It’s funny how styles have morphed since I was in middle school. There were skinny jeans everywhere and I don’t think you could have paid someone to wear skinny jeans when I was in 7th grade. Later on in Pac Sun we did happen upon some brightly colored jeans that did remind me of my green and purple jeans I used to sport. My older cousin had a bright red pair. We looked GOOD.
Anyway, back to the trip at hand. We go to the dressing rooms and she starts trying things on, coming out to check my opinion on a couple of pieces. And here’s where I about died for the first time that day – she came out in a size 1 skinny jean and asked me if I thought they would be okay if she wore them with a belt. They were too big for her! The size 1 skinny!!! Oh, to be 13 again (or more like 9 in my case!).
From there we hit a lot of other stores and she scored in basically every one. Old Navy – polk dot bikini (we had to search for the XS). American Eagle – cute hoodie and shirt. Aeropostale – a hoodie that she gasped over because she loved it so much and some more cute shirts. Anchor Blue – jeans and a cool belt. Target – a “non-blue or green” shirt (blue is her favorite color to wear and she’d gone a little overboard at that point). By then she’d done so well that we left. We did all that damage in just under 3 hours (including eating lunch).
My favorite parts of the day were seeing the balance of little girl and teenager in her. It was really fun to help her find things to try and teach her little things about shopping (like what a jeans tag that says 1/2 S means – she kept saying “half S”) and it was cool to see her handle her money and make good decisions about what she should buy and what she should just leave on the shelf. When we went into Wet Seal I was relieved that she was a little overwhelmed by the sheer trashiness of it (when did it get so trashy anyway? or maybe I just got old?) But she was so excited to go into the Pink part of Victoria Secret even though I told her that if I let her buy anything there her dad would kill me. Thankfully she didn’t.
And she was sooo thankful about me taking her. She kept saying thanks over and over again. Very sweet. We’ve got plans for another go round before school starts again this fall. I wonder if the skinny jeans will still be everywhere.
Well that Abba post has been staring me in the face for too long now. And I really don’t have anything exciting to post (when will the monotony stop???) so I thought I would just post 10 random things that have happened recently. And no, this is not my facebook version of 25 random things about me – that’s already on facebook. You can look for it there. If you are facebook friends with me.
1. I finally saw Slumdog Millionaire last Friday. Amazing. So sad, but also so well done. The story had just the right amount of intricacies to really hook you in.
2. On Saturday I went bowling with some friends. We bowled 2 games and I didn’t break 100 either time. I should have the second time, but the stupid thing froze up and then knocked down my pins that I was supposed to hit for the spare. Also of note, my friend who is currently in a wheelchair (due to breaking both of his heels) bowled too. Definitely had a few gutter balls at first, but he worked on his form and technique and by the end he was giving us a run for our money.
3. I watched Once and Step Up 2: The Streets on Saturday night. I hadn’t seen Once since probably when it was in the theater. So good, but it always breaks my heart in the end. What can I say, I like happy endings. Probably why I ended the night with Step Up – nothing beats an awesome dance routine in the rain followed by a couple’s first kiss.
4. I ate brie cheese with a mixture of almonds and brown sugar melted on top. Oh my gosh.
5. My new cat woke me up at about 3:45 in the morning on Sunday night (and wouldn’t let me sleep again for at least an hour). I am so not used to sleeping with an animal. She definitely got thrown toward the end of the bed numerous times.
6. I’m actually looking forward to Valentine’s Day. Not because I have a valentine of my own, but because even though this holiday is supposedly a contrived holiday meant to make us spend money on useless chocolates and flowers, I still really like it. I mean yes, you should love the people you love everyday and let them know any old time. But why is it bad to have a chosen day where everyone celebrates love? It’s not saying that’s the only day you can love someone, it’s just helping to call all of our attention to love. Which you know, is “the greatest of these”. (Sorry, I couldn’t resist – but it is true!) Anyway, I’m hoping to make some Valentine’s for my cheerleaders and roommate and Grannie. I sent my niece and nephew’s out today. I’m sure the 10 1/2 month old boy will be very appreciative.
7. I’m going to take part in a blog share. That means that someday in the nearish future I will be posting a post written by someone else. In fact, a total stranger. And you’ll never know who it is. In fact, I don’t think I’ll even ever know who it is. And I’ll have a post of my own on some other total stranger’s blog. But I do think that there will be a list of all the participants or something so that we can check out the other blogs. You can obviously see that this is my first time being a part of anything like this. I am so the girl who jumps on technology after everyone else is pretty much on board.
8. I was able to finish a pretty big project at work in less than one total work day. It is something that comes up every year and we have to submit it to a higher entity in our work world. (Apparently I’m deciding right now not to go into detail about where I work. Even though I may have already talked about it in a previous post.) So I think this was my 4th time putting it together and submitting it. It is a crazy statistical report for things that we don’t keep very good records of (you would think we would have learned). Anyway, every year they send it out about a month before it is due. The first year I didn’t know what I was doing and it ended up being one of the most stressful couple of days for me to get it done. Each year since has been better but still difficult tracking down all these numbers in random places and from various people. So this year, I get an email last Thursday saying it is due today (Tuesday). I completely freaked out. Turns out none of us ever got the info they send out about a month before. ANNOYING. But in the end I got things figured out and I think we’re actually more accurate this time around than ever before. Ok, that was a lot of blah blah blahing about work.
9. I have been reading Gone With the Wind to Grannie. It is so long! And it takes me forever just to read one chapter. I read to her yesterday and I think we are on page 196 of something like 1,060 pages.
10. I have flossed my teeth every night since January 21st (the date of my last dentist appointment) and I’ve made my bed every morning this month (because of the new cat). I’m sure this does not seem significant to many of you readers, but let me just tell you that it is. At least to me and probably my mom who had to live with me never doing either of these things for all of my growing up years.
