Elizabeth Update

So after mailing off Mattie’s prized possession the other day, I was doing a daily (okay multiple times daily) tracking check on her journey to the Doll Hospital in Wisconsin.  She seemed to be taking her time getting out of Memphis, but making progress just the same.   Then the unthinkable happened.  I was walking down the stairs on Saturday morning and just happened to look out the front door and saw a large, Priority Mail box setting on the front porch.  Nothing gets me quite as excited as mail and this was a nice, big , unexpected package……with my handwriting on it.  I truly almost screamed, what in the world was that crazy doll doing on my front porch?  I knew there was no way that she had made it to the hospital and was back already because A) that just wasn’t possible and 2) she was supposed to be mailed to my mom’s house not ours, so what in the world was she doing here.  I managed to call out to Brandon without sounding too terribly alarmed, and when he arrived at the front door beside me, I just pointed.  You would have thought the yard was on fire as fast as he dashed outside to retrieve the Priority Mail box and hide it in the back of our car before Mattie could see it.  It had been dramatic enough sending her off in the first place and now for her to be inexplicably back, we just decided it was best not to even let her know what was going on.

I have to say, I had a very hard time keeping my mind where it should be during church.  We don’t normally make visits to the post office following church and the kids were a wee bit confused by the whole thing, but we figured that the ox was in the ditch here and this doll had to get on her way to Wisconsin ASAP.  Brandon took our boomerang Priority Mail Box in and the mail lady couldn’t find any reason at all why it had come back to our house.  It hadn’t even been post marked and it’s almost like they never even put it in the “out” pile, more like it rolled all the way home by itself.  They just mailed it off again without really any explanation at all, it kind of seemed like it might have been a nice gesture to offer to send it overnight free of charge, but they didn’t think that was necessary.

I guess they also didn’t think it was necessary to do whatever they have to do to reactivate the tracking number either.  Today, when I logged in to check on Elizabeth’s status (and to make sure she had actually left Memphis and wouldn’t be waiting for me here at home when we returned from gymnastics), all it said was that she was out for delivery in Memphis as of DEcember 1st.  I would be lying if I didn’t admit to being a little tiny bit panicked.  I’m trying really hard not to worry about her whereabouts though at the same time, praying that the people at American Girl will phone me to let me know that she arrived okay.  That probably won’t happen, but one can hope.

But I just have to say, isn’t that crazy?  Just all of it.  How often do you have a letter or package come back to you for no real reason?  And what are the odds that it would happen to such an important package?  It almost seemed like Elizabeth wanted me to blog about her and the peculiar twists and turns she would take in her cardboard box as she made her trip to get new hair.

I made my special cookies today.

I woke up and had this fire in my belly that even if I did nothing else, I was going to make my special peppermint bark cookies.  And friends, they were lovely.  We didn’t get many other errands done today, but we made it to TArget to return a large portion of the things that we purchased the day before or so it seemed, and get cookie dough and peppermint kisses…..the essentials. And while there, I noticed this fun little section at the front of the store.  It was the special “Neiman Marcus” display only here for a limited time.  They had some precious little dresses for the little girls in your life, but wow the prices! Maybe I am just cheap, but $79 for a dress that you purchased at the same store as your pet’s dog food just seems wrong.  Now, don’t get me wrong, there was one little dress in particular that took a little piece of my heart and held on tight, but that’s a whole lot for a little dress anyway and especially one from TArget.  I realize that this is the special “Neiman Marcus” section, but it’s still Target.  I could be wrong, but I don’t think this special section is really going to take off.

And one last little thing, I am so excited to hear that Will and Kate are expecting a little one.  And though I feel terribly for Kate, dealing with her morning sickness, I have to say, I now feel a little closer to her.  We actually have something in common now, other than both being female and having a man named William in our lives.  Hang in there Katie, it usually starts to fade somewhere around 16-20 weeks and if not then, well, by that time you’re half way done.

 

Reese Will No Longer Be Going Out In Public

I’ve had all sorts of little incidents come up lately and thought, “this would make a great post” but then I realize I’m driving or its the middle of the night or even better, I’m sitting in church and that would be incredibly inappropriate.  Also, Brandon has been working a lot here at home and seeing as this is actually his computer, well, he gets first dibs.  So I have just been sitting here, hoping my good stories don’t get lost in the scattered files of my head.

Before any good stories though, I would like to do a little product review for you.  After some intense research, I have come to the conclusion that the whole fixing of my hair thing is really slowing me down.  I know I said a while back that it was the showering thing, but I have researched even more in-depth and it all comes down to  that ridiculous hair-fixing.  That’s the huge time waster and I have been determined to figure out a way around it.  Unfortunately, I have thin/fine and easy to become greasy hair.  And since its so fine and thin, trying to go for more than one day without washing, well, I look like a street person.  So I decided to give dry shampoo a try.  It seems like a dream come true for a daily hair washer who doesn’t want to be, just like me.  I went to Target, prepared to maybe even spend a little chunk if I needed to.  I scoured the shampoo aisle and only came up with the Tre Semme’ kind, which was great because it was only around $4 for a double package of it. Sold.

I went home all sorts of happy and all prepared to not wash my hair the next day.  The next morning, I shook up the can just like the directions said and held it about 8 inches away from my head.  The directions then said to let stand for 1-2, 1-2 what it never specified so I just assumed it meant minutes.  So that I did.  Then I kind of combed my fingers through it.  I don’t know that I was supposed to do that.  Also, my hair turned sort of gray, making me think that maybe I had sprayed it to close to my head.  It did seem to cover that gross greasy look right along my ears and forehead, but I was afraid to touch it much.  It looked okay, but felt kind of odd to the touch and brushing it was pretty much out of the question.  Overall, I’m not sure what I think.  I’m certainly not thinking its my miracle product.  It hasn’t been the unicorn that I was hoping for.  I have used it twice now and each time went to bed thinking that my hair was disgusting by the end of day two.  It might be better if you used it multiple times throughout the day.  Maybe that was my problem and maybe I’ll give it another try tomorrow with that strategy.  Maybe…..

The next little product review that I would like to do is for the Hershey Kisses peppermint kisses.  I won’t even beat around the bush in the slightest, they are INCREDIBLE.  Nana sent us a package of them in her annual Thanskgiving/Welcome To The Holidays package back right before Thanksgiving and Brandon and I have probably bought 2/3 packages since.  If you are a fan of peppermint bark (which I am very much so), these will be right up your alley.  I keep thinking of the yumminess that would happen if you bought some chocolate cookie dough and put those little morsels of christmas cheer right on top and baked it.  They would be like peppermint bark cookies!  I’m so excited about giving that little idea a try.

So Reese treated me to some real special moments on Friday.  We had a few errands to run after we picked Mattie up from school and one of those was a trip to Michael’s, the craft store.  The good thing about Michael’s is that the kids love it there and never have a problem with going.  The bad thing is that they don’t pay attention to me at all when we are there and often lose me.  Because my children are not quiet….I never lose them, I might not see them, but I know exactly where they are.  One of my children also always has to go to the restroom at every location that we go to for over 5 minutes.  So it didn’t surprise me in the slightest that after being in Michael’s for about 7 minutes, Mattie needed to go to the bathroom.  Reese was starting to sort of sway and sort of wiggle in a potty dance fashion but insisted that he was fine and didn’t need to go.  Suit yourself.  And on we went with our trek through the store for about another 20 minutes.  This is where I would like to say that Mattie and Reese got separated from me no less than 3 times during those 20 minutes.

It was finally time to pay and after waiting in a pretty hefty line, it was finally out turn and Reese speaks up in his very booming voice, “I need to go potty mommy.” I quietly asked him if he could wait until we got home.  He then boomed right back to me, “I already went about half of it in my pants.” Thank you Reese for not only doing this, but for spreading the word to all the happy crafters in Michael’s.  I asked him why he hadn’t gone when Sis went, or even still, why hadn’t he told me earlier?  Again he boomed, not wanting anyone to miss any of this fabulous conversation that we were having that was heavily highlighting my 5-star parenting, “It wasn’t coming out quite yet.” Oh Reese! So before heading out to our car, we went back to the restroom to survey the damage and finish draining him completely.  And in that short walk from the restrooms to the front door, Reese got distracted and left a few aisles back.  I was standing with the girls by the front doors of the store, watching him the entire time as he walked all over the place calling for “Mommy”.  He never seemed particularly panicked, but be was pretty focused on his task.  He even switched his call to “My Mommy” at one point and by the time he looked up and saw me, he had started calling for “Reese’s Mommy”. I guess he realized there were several mommies in the store and he ought to be specific.  People were at first looking horror-stricken when they see a little guy calling out for his mother, obviously displaced.  Then I think they realized that I was watching him and switched to disgusted that I would let him wander around like that and not go and rescue him.  I was calling back to him to follow my voice and he insisted that he didn’t know where my voice was calling from.  I told him to look straight ahead and he looked up at the ceiling.  Reese would make a terrible blind person.

He eventually found me, told me that I needed to make sure that I was looking at the same things that he was next time and all was right in the world again.  Reese will be getting a leash for Christmas.  And I really would like a t-shirt that says, “Don’t judge me…you don’t know”.

We had a talk about sticking with mom and maybe not giving all our bathroom information out in a really loud voice in front of a bunch of people.  That is a perfect time for a whisper.  We also made one last stop at Kroger and I thought that we ought to be fine.  Everyone was pottied, we only needed 3 items – in and out.  I was wrong.  As we walked through the produce section, right beside the floral area and the corral of helium gallons, unbeknownst to me – Reese had somehow reached the ribbon of one of the helium balloons.  Because he is a terribly ornery boy that comes from a very long line of ornery boys, he chose this moment to be quiet as a little mouse and walked behind me.  He got about 5 feet away from that balloon corral and then let go of the ribbon.  I had no idea what was happened and it was the woman picking out apples giggles that got my attention.  Of course, by then it was too late and that balloon was already way out of reach, making its journey up to the rafters.  So for no reason other than just because it was there, Reese had freed a balloon.  I’m not sure if that was considered stealing or not.  Thankfully, the apple lady didn’t seem disgusted by the whole thing and assured me that she too had a little boy and that was just par for the course with them.  Also thankfully, the floral people were phased at all by the whole thing and said that there was no way they would be selling all those balloons that day anyway so it was probably going to go flat anyway.  I just hung my head in shame.

You would think that would be the end of my stories for that little shopping adventure…..but there is one more.

While walking out of the grocery store, there was a Salvation Army bell-ringer standing by the door.  She and I exchanged pleasantries and I apologized for not having any cash, then I thought this might be a good opportunity to address charity work with my kids.  A little moment to share the joy of giving….a chance to do some good parenting seeing as I wasn’t exactly having a winning day.  I asked Mattie if she knew what that lady was doing and why, all the while prepared to tell her all about the spirit of giving and how its our job to help others have a magical Christmas, blah blah blah.  But before any of that could happen, she blind-sided me with this doozie, “She was with the sal…sil…shatnioienrnowiemumble mumble Army and they are raising money for children whose parents were in the Civil War.” I don’t think I even managed to get a “What?” out before I just stared laughing. Where in the world had she heard any of that?  And with all the wars that have gone on or are currently going on…..the Civil War?  We do live in the south.

I’ll have to ask her teacher about that one.

So on that note, go out and get yourself some Peppermint Kisses, remember not to wait until the things are actually starting to happen before you visit the restroom and to give to the Salvation Army.  Happy Monday!