Resale

Uuugghhh!!! It's back to school time. I mean, yeah I am ready for my kids to go back, am just not looking forward to the expense of back to school. School lists now are 50 items long. The thing that bugs me is it's not just school supplies anymore, it's classroom supplies. All the educational necessities plus everything the teacher feels he or she can get us to contribute. Some teacher, some where, one day probably said at a meeting "just put it all on the student supply list, even if we get half that's a huge score." (If you're a teacher please don't leave me nasty comments, I'm just venting!)

Supplies are not even the worst part though. It's the back to school clothes. I mean first off, the stores are advertising all these great Fall clothes. Has no one figured out yet that it is 98 degrees with 100% humidity in the middle of August? I don't want corduroy pants with sweater vest and a long sleeve shirt. ( Like any of my kids would wear that anyway) Really, we need summer clothes until late October/November. I don't want to buy a bunch of new summer clothes when they have plenty and I don't want to buy Fall clothes and have them pass out on the play ground or walking from the bus stop from heat stroke, but,they MUST have new School Clothes for that first week or OH MY GOSH the horror!!!! Tommy and Trinity are not really that big of a problem. A couple new t-shirts and cool new book bag and they are feeling brand new! Taylor is "anti label" so he is not too expensive, but he has had a huge growth spurt and I really would win The Worst Mother Of The Year award if I made him wear his jeans from last year. Flood?!? Now, Tori is the challenge. She also has grown and not much fits. Tori is what I would call "not anti-label" she would be more like "label". Oh the challenge begins, because I do not have a Label budget.

There is one new piece of arsenal in this war fought between parent and teenager that has come on the scene in the past 10 years or so. The resale store. HALLELUJAH!!! Hallelujah!!!! When I was younger the only kind of resale store was Goodwill or Salvation Army. Back then Goodwill was nothing like Goodwill today. The Goodwill near my house even has a Boutique section of all name brand clothes. You know you are a seasoned resale shopper when you are standing in Goodwill on 1/2 price day and you actually say ( and out loud to boot) "Yea, that shirt is cute, but there is no way I would pay $1.49 for it". The best though is when you find what should be in the Boutique section, but it is in the Regular section, and its half price. Jackpot!! The next day when your friend is like " cute shirt" you actually say "Goodwill, 1/2 price" its like a badge of honor.

The nice resale stores are just that, Nice. (They usually won't buy the clothes I take in there because after my kids wear them they aren't nice enough anymore, LOL) People have caught on to the used clothes thing now. Its just like a used car. You can get just as nice a car for alot less money if you let someone else buy it first and drive it off the lot. Then 6 month to a year later you buy it after it's traded in and save so much money. The first guy looks silly. It is the same with clothes. Yesterday I went to a resale store and bought Tori 2 pair of Abecrombie jeans and 6 Abercrombie shirts for $51. That was great deal. Later I saw 2 of the shirts still in the Abercrombie store new.

I am very thankful though for the people who can afford all these expensive clothes new, because some one has to buy them new, or I could not buy them used. So chop! chop! Keep shopping people.

Okay people I think it is about time I let you all know the truth. I dumped my husband and ran off with Peyton Manning. I have tried to hide this from you all but Peyton would not leave me alone so I finally gave in and said I would marry him. He said I could pick any ring I wanted and this is what I picked. The best ring in the world!! He gave up a bit of a fight but in the end I won. LOL!!!

My father in law works for the company that makes the Super Bowl Rings. This picture does not even show a 1/10 of it's beauty. I can now say I have worn a Super Bowl Ring, not many people can say that!

Bugs Cure Denial

I am a hopeless romantic. I love imagery and atmosphere. Like in my other post where I referenced the image of the Kool Aid house. I love coffee commercials where there is always a woman standing, looking out a window, hands wrapped around the mug, snuggling her cup of coffee, inhaling the steam. That is how I wish I could drink my coffee. Like I said, wish, I usually end up with a burned lip from the first sip, then a cold cup when I get back to it after I am done getting toothpaste out of hair, or wiping butts or getting the kids dressed. I guess if I really wanted to I could get up earlier and have my peaceful morning, but I like the idea of sleep better. In the winter I have a fire going almost all day. I love the coziness it adds to the room. Especially after school. Fire going, kids doing homework, me working on dinner, it just all seems right.

When we moved in to this house two years ago the first thing that made me want to buy this house was the back yard. The back yard had a tree right smack in the middle. A big tree. In my head I immediately started picturing the kids climbing that tree. The future tree house with secret club passwords. The leaves from it that would be raked up in the Fall and then jumped into with laughter. I really loved this tree.

Well last year my beloved tree got buds, bloomed, was beautiful full and green, leaves turned yellow, leaves fell off, and then the tree went into winter mode all in one month. I was like "excuse me Tree ( that's his name), what are you doing? Please fix your self, now". However when the Tree Doctor came out there was no hope. Tree did not go into winter mode Tree went to tree heaven. I was so SAD!!! I could not believe it. "What? Why? How? Are you sure there is nothing left to do? No experimental treatment or new drug therapy?" "You have to save him Doctor!!!" I was in denial. I just could not accept that my Tree was gone. Tree stood tall (but still dead) all Summer, Fall, Winter, Spring and again Summer.

Well, the bark is falling off Tree now and it looks a little sad. No one plays on Tree anymore. The other day my 15 year old son came shrieking into the house. I mean screaming like a girl! As he was mowing around Tree the biggest nastiest bug he said he has ever seen attacked him. He would not mow near Tree. He did not care if I grounded him or what ever. He would not mow around Tree. Well I went out to look for my self and "Holy ****" is what came out of my mouth. They were everywhere. I still do not know what they were. But Taylor was right. They were GROSS!!! In one second I can truly say my denial was over. A tree cutting party was scheduled immediately.

Tree is now gone. Just a stump is left to remind me off all the lost dreams. I have fully accepted the loss. I have moved on. However, I can also say that Tree is still in our lives. Tree is now a very good drink holder while we play Corn Hole!

Kool Aid Day

Today was a good day. There are different kinds of days for me. There are days when I wonder if I never should have had kids (I call these Kryptonite days), and most days are just normal, and there are above average good days, and then there are days like today. Today was a Kool-Aid day. All was well in the Page house. I call it a Kool-Aid day because years ago a friend of mine said that her goal was to have the "fun" house for her kids. Like on the old "Hey Kool- Aid" commercials where all the neighborhood kids are playing in the back yard and the grown ups are talking and it just all seems right. I had the grandchildren of the neighbor to the right of me over so between her group and my group there were 10 kids. I gave them pop, she gave them cookies, I hooked up the slip-n slide, it was just a great afternoon. I got my housework done, Taylor actually came to me, let me emphasize came to me, and asked what he needed to get done today and then actually did it!!!! Tori did not do one single UHHH! or stretch mom into a two syllable word at all today. Dinner went well. Just got the little ones to bed. So the day finished well. I am going to go relax and watch some shows now, because if today was a Kool-Aid day tomorrow has a good chance of being a Kryptonite day. And that is a whole other story.

Chocolate Cake

Today is the day before our last court date for Trinity. Actually night before, it's 10:15 pm.
I am nervous. Trinty is doing so well living with us full time. She has great friends, loved school last year, and loves all her church friends and activities. I am nervous that she will go back to her mom full time and us on the weekends. Her mom will most likely get full custody of her other 2 kids back, so that means the court is finding her "fit" to parent. That also means they have to decide where Trinity is best off full time. I have not stopped thinking about this all day. Well, I did get a break because I went to dinner with Lisa. Even though we talked about the Trinity stuff, it was different than when I was dwelling on the thoughts. I hate when thoughts go through my head over and over as if they are going to be different the next time. Lisa and I had a great dinner. I really love my time with her. And she paid, WOO HOO!! Thanks Lisa, if you ever happen to read this. And OH MY GOSH, the Chocolate Cake. It was to die for. I went on a cruise a few years ago and I had the best chocolate dessert I had ever had, until tonight. This was awesome. Lisa said "this is a dangerous thing to try I am warning you". She was right I am already plotting on how I can get back there for more. Chocolate Cake is a wondrous thing to begin with, but this was like drug. I was in a worry free mood for a couple hours after that. Actually, Lisa and I planned this dinner outing a week ago and I almost forgot about it. I am so glad Lisa called to remind me. I think God whispered in her ear and said "call and remind Kristy about dinner, she needs a friend, and some chocolate cake" Amen... Praise Jesus!!! cause Lisa and Chocolate Cake hit the spot.

Simple things make the biggest memories.

These are the kiddos holding the star of the Alligator show. We went to Orlando for 10 days, condo, pool, a water park, Disney, MGM, and the highlight of their trip was the $3 dollar alligator show. Go figure. I think we adults really complicate stuff. I remember on an old Oprah show their was a little girl who had just lost her Mommy to breast cancer. The family did all kinds of things to create as many memories for this little girl to have. Oprah asked her what her favorite times or memories were and she said it was eating cereal in bed with her Mommy. I have never forgot that. I think of all the little things I could be doing with my kids to create lasting memories and not wasting the time, money, and energy, trying to make every activity a grand event. Don't get me wrong, Disney was awesome and we LOVED it!!! It created many many great memories too. One of my favorite things to do is catch lightening bugswith the kids. This summer I said its almost lightening bug season. After that we were looking every night for the first signs of their blinkers. Especially my 3 year old. A few weeks ago he came running and yelling, bug house in hand " it's lightening bug season, it's lightening bug season!!" Sure enough our yard was blinking everywhere. We caught as many as we could and capped off the night with Popsicles on the swing. That's my kind of memory.