I'm back

Wow. Mid-February since my last post. What in the world was I doing? I have been meaning to write but something always seems to take over my time and creative energy. I have even been saving info for theme ideas so that when the day came I would have some material. Not that my family isn't material enough.

OK for instance I took Sarah to Old Navy on Sunday. They said they had $12 jeans. Why do I always fall prey to sales? FYI - $12 for kids - adults $19. Still a bargain. Almost can't pay that at Walmarts.

Anyway I digress as I always do and it is my style. Sarah is not the A-list shopper that I have cultivated myself to be. Baby, I can do a shopping marathon. When other are tired, fatigued, hungry and ready to throw in the towel, I still have the stamina to shop. It was great when the girls were little and I could use the stroller to pick packages, lean on the handle and have a place for my drink in the cup holder. Now, can't use the stroller. Why has no one (a mother who's child has grown let's say) invented a shopping stroller? I'm not talking a geriatric walker thing with the wire cart on the front (although I did get my AARP card this past month - another blog another time). I think I will invent that. Hear that. Don't steal my ideas now. Just imagine how much more shopping could be done with a shopping stroller. The possibilities are endless. I could hook up a WIFI or an itunes port. Maybe a calculator and a swing table top (for lunch or writing checks). I'm doing it. Seriously.

OK back to Sarah and Old Navy. First we have to find clothes that we agree on. Please someone tell me who the fool is that thinks low rise on a 9 year old is a fashion statement. I want to slap them into reality. I do not want to see any butt cracks. No one tucks in shirts like they did in my day so what is a child to do when she needs to bend over? Next is it the same foolish designer of the low rise jean who also thinks a bikini bottom should be made of the least amount of material possible? Cutting costs on fabric? And the plunging neckline? Dear Lord. Please let me find some inexpensive options for a 9 year old that look good and cover appropriately.

So we get what ever appropriate and negotiated clothing into the dressing room and then IT starts. The goofy 9 year old erupts right there before my eyes in the 2'x 2' dressing room. She can't get the clothes off/on, she is standing on the clothes and can't pull them up, she is admiring herself in the mirror(s), she is driving me crazy. She is laughing uncontrollably and oddly.

Now we have about 16 items to try on. We spend about 30 minutes in there. I suppose the number average about 2 minutes for each item but it is actually feeling like 2 hours. I threaten, I bulge my eyes, I give that cutting look. I almost cry. I even use physical force - the old squeeze the arms - to get her to stop. Just stop acting like... like.... oh for Pete's sake I can't even explain. Those of you out there who have or had a 9/10 year old girl - you know what I am talking about. The child is 9/10 and acts responsibly most of the time, likes tween things and all and yet acts like she is 4 sometimes. Argh!

So just when I am ready to ground her for life she says to me, "Trying on clothes is hard work." HAHAHAHAHA. That was just what I needed to stop the craziness stirring inside of me. "Oh yeah. So many people die from trying clothes on. It's so tragic." I tell her. Wonder if that is true? I mean for the mothers?

I did end up walking out of the dressing room and not harming my child. Yeah me. We did find age appropriate clothes. Yeah Old Navy (and for $10 a pair of jeans). I did get a good laugh. Yeah Sarah.

Finally finished some things I have been working on in my scarce free time. Now I have more time to write about things that no one really cares about per se but to which many can relate. Thanks Denise for the nudge and encouragement. That was sweet and got me back on the blog.

Got to run. Going shopping with Sarah. Pray for a miracle.