AAAAHHHHH!!!!

Dear Parents of My Students,

I have come to the decision that even though you may wish to allow your child to take their very favorite doll to school to nap with, sometimes it might be better to encourage them to choose a different creature.
For those of you who have been inquiring, my panic attack was short lived and I have an appointment with my sister next week to cover up the instantaneous gray hairs that appeared - thank you for your concern.

Sincerely,
Mrs. Taylor

Hmmm...

Last weekend, one of the birthday parties the girls attended was at a place called Bouncetown. Bouncetown is one of those inflatable jumpy house places that - in all honesty - is a pretty well run one around our area. Inevitably, Caleigh had to use the bathroom within about 5 minutes of our arrival. She likes to check out new bathrooms & report on soap and sink color to her sister.

I brought her in, she did her business & started washing her hands. As I waited for her to finish singing "Happy Birthday"/scrubbing her hands with soap, I looked around at the border at the top of the bathroom wall. It was a long border of those interlocking foam squares with letters in them. One wall said "FUN", 2 walls said "BOUNCETOWN" and this is what struck me from the 4th wall...

Bits of Wisdom

We were driving home from school and I was only half-listening to my girls chatting with each other in the back seat. Apparently, Alessa really knows how to impress her sister, as I suddenly hear Caleigh gasp & exclaim:

"Alessa! You're AMAZING! You're like CRAZY magic."

Bits of Wisdom

We were stopped patiently at the traffic light on Expo. I told the girls that the fair was going to be earlier this year and that it would be pretty soon. I told the girls to look out the window so they could see the golden bears at the entrance.

Alessa exclaimed, "That bear is made out of shine-ness."

Bits of Wisdom

Caleigh's revelation during dinner tonight:

"Chocolate milk is healthiness & sugarness."

Turtle

Tonight, we were getting the girls ready for bed when I looked over at Alessa's side of the bed. She had covered herself with "Super Soft Green Blanket" & was claiming she was a turtle.

I played along, "Oh no! But I miss my Lessy! Where did she go?"

"Close your eyes!" she giggled.

I covered my eyes and waited for further instructions from the "turtle".

"Now open them!" she screeched with her arms held wide, "I'm back! It was all Disney magic!"

:::sigh:::

Just Between Friends Sale

I was so excited on Wednesday. I had the forethought to register online as a teacher with the Just Between Friends sale (JBF), a little wiggle room with the monthly budget & a willing bribed babysitter. So off I went to the presale. Unfortunately, I got caught in monsterous traffic (the normally 20 minute drive took closer to 50) and didn't get there until a half an hour after the presale started.

As I walked into the convention center, I saw women talking excitedly on their cellphones in the hallways & surrounded by mountains of newly acquired baby equipment and clothes. The looks they gave me were those of wolves standing over their freshly downed prey. I kept my eyes downcast and hurried past them.

The equipment section had been devoured in the first 15 minutes by the swarm of locusts that were the expectant parents & rightly so - if I were headed there with something in particular in mind, my plan of attack would have been much different. I quickly looked around at the toy section, made the decision that none of the toys there were worthy of me cluttering my newly culled living room (looking forward to the Sacramento Mothers of Multiples Clothing & Equipment Sale in a few weeks) & headed toward the clothing racks.

Quite a few pieces were really cute & I ended up with an armful of clothes - mostly fancy dresses/skirts & sundresses for $7 - $10 each. Here's where I had my main complaints...

If you're going to sell at a sale, be sure your clothing is stain/tear/FADE free. I will not spend hard earned money for clothes that look like they're on their fourth hand-down.

&

If I paid $5 at Target for a Circo t-shirt or Walmart for a pair of Garanimals shorts, I'm most certainly NOT going to pay $3 or even $4 for your USED ones. Come now people, we all know where those brands come from.

I headed toward the front of the hall to the games & movies section for a quick browse. I picked up the "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer" dvd selling for $4 and Little Einstiens "Firebird Rescue" going for $5, a cute book by Ronald Dahl called "The Birdwatchers" and a Tinkerbell fashion plate set (oh yeah - you know you remember how much fun you had with those things) before heading toward the line.

I didn't really have to move more than 5 feet.

The line stretched up the middle of the auditorium, along the back wall & back up to the very front. In the 20 minutes that I browsed, the line had grown from about 30 people to at least 150 people... all with huge piles. I sighed & stepped into line. As time passed, I did what every mom does: weighs the objects in hand against the price.

10 minutes. "Firebird Rescue"? Eh, the girls don't watch that show much anymore - even though Firebird Suite is one of their favorites. Down it went. 20 minutes. "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer"? I can get it with 3 other movies new during the holidays for $10. Down one more. 40 minutes. "The Birdwatchers"? I have enough books to rival many small children's libraries. One more item out of my bag. An hour. The $10 fancy dresses? Eh, I can look at the SMoM Clothing & Equipment sale. Down they go. An hour. The sundresses & $7 fancy dresses? One by one I started nixing them all.

At an hour & 10 minutes, I took final stock of my situation. There I stood in line, not even halfway through, with exactly ONE item that I hadn't decided against purchasing. 2 hours of my time was not worth a Tinkerbell fashion plate set (shhhh - don't tell the girls). I looked toward the checkout & the FIVE cashiers they had to handle hundreds of people at a time, sighed one last sigh & put all the items back as I walked out.

What did I end up with from the Just Between Friends sale? A $6 parking fee.