I'm just finishing up a five day weekend. It wasn't a very exciting weekend. Mostly just spent my time getting things ready for the new school year. Things we did:
THE DAY WE SPENT BUTTLOADS OF MONEY
And on Thursday we went shopping.
The kids both needed new shoes for school. Zoe is now up to a size 6. That's a half size smaller than what I wear. Scarier, still, Sid is up to a size 9 in men's shoes. This creeps me out for some reason.
Zoe wore out a pair of Converse last year so I was planning on getting her a brand new pair for this year. But then we ran into the Vans store first so I ended up getting her a pair of cute black velcro strapped Vans. Of course the Vans store has other cute stuff so we ended up getting a shirt and belt for Sid and a bunch of those cute little socks that don't show when you're wearing your cute little canvas shoes and then I found a cute Vans t-shirt on sale for $12 so there you have my first big purchase. To summarize: CUTE
Next up, Limited Too. Huge mistake. I have been buying pants for Zoe there for the last several years because it is the only place I've found that sells decent slim sizes in cute styles. The Limited Too in the mall near us closed recently and I'd never been to this particular store. It was awful. Every rack was overloaded with clothes. Everytime I pushed anything to the side to check a size half the clothes on the rack would fall off the end. In the dressing rooms there were clothes piled 5 feet high all around us. And the sad thing was, the store had only been open for about 45 minutes. Obviously there was some poor managing going on in this store. I was so frustrated by the whole fiasco and I should have dropped everything and left. But I felt like it might be our only chance to find something that fit Zoe. Last year she wore 8 slims so I grabbed almost all 10 slims off the racks. Once we got in the dressing room I discovered that she's still way too skinny for a size 10 but too tall for the size 8s. Zoe was begging and nagging to get this hooker dress and my cell phone was ringing and someone walked in on us in the dressing room and I started to have a panic attack. I basically just grabbed what looked semi-decent on her and ran out and paid for it (and bad customer service...I had to wait about 5 minutes before one of the sales girls saw us standing there). I spent way more than I should have on some questionable pants, a pair of overpriced leggings, and a shirt. The only thing good that came out of it was a really cute belt that was on sale.
While Zoe and I were in the scary Limited Too, Robert managed to find Sid a new pair of shoes at a shoe store. At that point I figured we were almost done shopping. I knew that either one or both of the kids would need new gym shoes but decided to wait on getting them because if they didn't end up having gym this quarter they might outgrow them before then (the bloody school waited until that very day to send out schedules...we got them in the mail that afternoon and Zoe has gym now and Sid doesn't so I'm glad I waited). The last item on our shopping list was a pair (or two) of Levi's for Sid. I'd checked online earlier and I knew that JCPenney carried the particular style Sid likes. I haven't been to Penney's in a long while. I'm not sure what is was, but when we walked in the store there was this strange fishy smell. We couldn't escape it. I wonder if there is some kind of dye they use in their clothes that smells funny. The salespeople didn't seem to notice but I was a little ill. I planned on running in and running out. We found 2 pair of jeans for Sid right away (and he's lost some of his "baby fat" so he actually switched from a size 14 to a 12...he was really pleased about that) and were about to leave but then Zoe started noticing all kinds of clothes she wanted to get. Some were cringe-worthy in my opinion but then I spotted some really cute cargo jeans in slim sizes and decided she'd better try them on. They fit perfectly and were more than half the price of the pants at Limited Too. It turns out that Penny's has a huge slim size section as well as a huge plus size section for girls. Now I just need to wash the jeans a couple of times and let's hope the funky smell comes out.
So that was day one of shopping. I had intended to only spend about $250 but ended up spending closer to $400. Shudder.
THE EVENING OF INCONTINENCE
Zoe slept over at a friend's house on Thursday night so I bought Sid a pizza and Robert and I went out for drinks. We live down the hill from several bars so we decided to just walk up there. We had dinner and drinks (I had 2 margaritas and a whiskey sour) at one place and then walked over to another place where I got a glass of wine. I made a bathroom break as we were leaving the first place and really didn't need to go after the second place. This is where I get all TMI on your ass and tell you I have had incontinence problems since Sid's traumatic birth (forceps delivery and other scary shit). It's not nearly as bad as it was when I first had him (kegels rock) but certain things can bring it back with a vengeance. One of those things is playing tennis. Another one is running/jogging unless I go in the morning before I have coffee. The last one (that I'll mention, that is) is brisk walking, downhill, (especially after drinking alcohol). It was not a fun walk home. I won't go into details but when I got home I was really pissed off and of course, upset. I popped in Ghost World to cheer myself up and then spent the entire time not watching the show, but Googling for articles about cystoceles (that's the scientific term for a ...MORE TMI... herniated vagina that allows the bladder to drop down and cause havoc and make a girl's life miserable). I fell asleep asking myself why I didn't just ask for a C-section.
IT'S THE END OF THE 3-RING BINDER AS WE KNOW IT
Office Max school supply shopping. The main goal here was to get Zoe a new binder. She wanted one of those fancy ones that zips up so things can't fall out. In my opinion, they're ugly and overly huge. When she found one and I held it up, I was pretty sure it wasn't going to fit in the little High Sierra sling backpack we'd gotten for her last month. I told her we should just get a simple 3 ring binder but she whined and pouted. I shrugged my shoulders and said, "Well, I guess we'll have to get you a bigger backpack then." What's it matter anyway? I mean, I've already spent all this money and I didn't want her to carry a sling pack anyway. I don't think walking 1.5 miles every day with one of those is healthy for her back and I shouldn't have let her get one in the first place. I figured I'd just use it occasionally or let her use it for her overnight trips. We walked over to the backpacks and there were maybe 6 left. 6 really ugly ones. Or at least they weren't the right color. You see, Zoe wants everything of hers to be blue. Baby blue. We did find a Jansport backpack that was the correct color, but *gasp* it didn't have a headphone port! Or a cellphone pocket! The horrors. I convinced Zoe that we should look elsewhere. So after buying the binder and some random shit that I assume the kids will probably need (this middle school thing is hard because they don't get their supply lists until the first day of class and then they come home with 6 lists instead of 1). We drove over to Big-5 next to look for gym shoes and gym shorts for Zoe. She found a pair of frightening looking shoes right away and I had to pretend that they were too expensive but then she saw the price and that they were on sale even so I had to make up a story about how the soles had too much dark rubber and she needed to get white soles. I distracted her by having her look at backpacks. She didn't find any that she liked there either. I convinced her that we'd have better luck going to Fred Meyer next door to look for shoes and backpacks. Before we left, though, we looked for gym shorts. Nope, no navy blue or gray gym shorts for a tiny little 10 year old in that store. We left empty handed.
Next up Fred Meyer. We found a perfectly decent pair of Avia shoes on sale even! And we didn't find gym shorts, of course. And again, no perfect backpacks. Zoe saw a few that she kind of liked but I talked her out of them because they said stuff like "Pretty Princess" and I told her a kid in middle school could get teased for that kind of stuff. I should probably not be scaring her this way. She spent the last 2 years of school with a scary ass Bratz Doll backpack and no one ever beat her up for it.
I came home and collapsed.
That night the boys went off to their geekery meeting (DnD) while Zoe and I made soup with all my organic veggies and ate it while watching Charade.
I AWOKE WITH THE FEELING THAT SOMETHING IMPORTANT HADN'T BEEN DONE
What was it? It kept bugging me all morning. I knew I still needed to find a backpack for Zoe and we were planning on going to G.I. Joes after lunch. That wasn't it. Gym shorts? Nope. I was going to look for those at G.I. Joes as well. I walked around the kitchen and noticed some cobwebs stuck to that sticky, greasy stuff that builds up around the stove area. I tried to wipe them off but got all this gunk on my fingers. It's little things like this that will put me in a cleaning fit.
STOP! STOP IT RIGHT NOW! I know you're picturing me yelling "NO WIRE HANGERS EVER!" JUST STOP IT.
I pulled out the Formula 409 and took everything off the shelf and counters around the stove and started spraying everything. I figured I'd eventually realize what I'd forgotten while in my cleaning frenzy. The problem with cleaning around the stove is this: The store then looks gross. So I had to clean the stove top, the drip trays, the little knobs. Then I took out the racks and ran the auto clean on the oven. Just as I was cleaning the racks (2 hours after this thing began) I looked over into the living room and I saw Jon's viola case. Oh. Yeah. Zoe is starting orchestra on Wednesday. I needed to get strings and I needed to get the bow rehaired. And they usually have the instrument in the shop for a week before I get it back. Yikes.
We flew out the door and drove to the music store. I walked in with Zoe and said, "Hi. We need to get this ready for her to use in 4 days." The guy looked at me like I was insane. "You say this is your friend's viola? And she's gonna play it? I think not. It's huge!" He then did a measurement and chuckled a little. We then got interrupted by some crazy lady who teaches violin and was hooking for new clients. While she cornered us a bunch of new people came in and once we finally got rid of her we had to wait a while to get helped (find a solution to Zoe's instrument problem). While we were waiting, Zoe repeatedly requested that we just let her play the violin. She had originally signed up for violin but Jon had the viola and I figured it'd be handy to have a friend around to help her out when she needs it since I'm useless in the string instrument area. I asked Zoe if she was sure and she said she was. She added, "and Jon made me sing and I didn't want to so now I'm gonna do WHAT I WANT!" Okay, then. So we ended up renting a violin that's so tiny and adorable and we also got a mouth harp that we can't figure out how to play.
And backpack success at G.I. Joes! We found a baby blue North Face backpack with headphone ports!
And no gym shorts were found.
I came home and tried out a few recipes from my most recent Sunset magazine (grilled veggies and mint couscous) and ate them along with grilled steak. Steak is heavenly.
I also admired my shiny stove and oven.
FINALLY A DAY TO RELAX AND ENJOY OURSELVES WITHOUT ANY ANNOYANCES
For Robert's birthday last weekend, we were going to drive up to La Conner to eat lunch at the brewery and buy a bunch of their beer that Robert loves but hasn't been able to find here in Seattle lately. It turned out that Zoe was dog sitting on that day, though, so we didn't want to be away from home for more than 3 hours. We decided to go yesterday instead. Now, I've known Robert since the summer of 1988 and he's always been a good driver. He's never gotten a ticket or caused an accident. He does drive somewhat fast, though. After all this time, I guess it was bound to happen. He got pulled over on I-5 on our way up to La Conner (in bloody Lynnwood). It was one of those cases where just about everyone was going fast but we were in the carpool lane and that's where the cop was standing with his little radar gun. After the cop took Robert's license and walked back to his car, I started thinking about Robert's driving record and figured there was no way the cop would actually give him a ticket. I was sure he'd just get a warning. I mean, he's got these cute kids in the back seat and we're all so wholesome looking, right? Nope. He got a ticket. I suppose he'll have to wait another year before he gets his 2nd tattoo (that was going to be his birthday present to himself this year).
At least Robert got some of his favorite beer. Only he thinks they changed the recipe and he's a bit pissed about the whole thing.
We came home and I watched In Her Shoes. It made me cry. And jealous that I don't have a closet full of cute shoes. Or a sister nearby.
IT'S ABOUT BLOODY TIME I WRAPPED THINGS UP HERE
I was feeling a little melancholy this morning. Sad that I'd spent so much money. Sad that Robert got the ticket. Sad that the kids are going back to school. Really sad that the weekend was almost over.
I made the kids pancakes and fake sausages (not bad, really). We then walked over to the movie theater and saw Talladega Nights. Loved it. Sure, some of it was inappropriate for kids, but, oh well. They're growing up and we all needed a laugh.
Still no gym shorts.
