loungewear...what's the big deal?!?!

one of my favorite bloggers is the pioneerwoman.  she is absolutely hysterical, and with the exception of her bazaar love of her dog, charlie... she has the makings of what could be my very best friend in the whole wide world.  well, in her blogs she often makes reference to black GAP yoga pants.  so, the other day when randy and i were driving somewhere, and we do that OFTEN....i told him i would like to try these amazing pants.  of course his response to this is one i would have predicted, as he is anti stretchy pants.  i think he said something along the lines of, why do women buy those if they aren't going to work out?  i don't understand.  you don't see men wearing them...  he said that he thinks women should do like men, wake up, put their pants and shirts on and be dressed for real already.  or something to that effect.  i don't know why it's a big deal to him.  i can't even begin to imagine my life without my stretchy black pants.  i cannot wait to get into them!  i love the days when i don't have to get out of them.  and dog on it, i want to at least try on those GAP pants!!!  all this to say, why do men have this weird hatred towards loungewear?  so i thought about it some more.  here is all i could come up with....our pants are fitted.  we have all of these things on under our clothes that are fitted.  being a woman has for centuries been one of the most uncomfortable things to be on the planet!  from corsets to girdles to spanx and back, women are uncomfortable!  no wonder we are cranky!  and i haven't even begun on underwire, push up, padded, or cleavage reducing bras.  good grief!  the lounge pant is the one comfy thing in our lives for crying out loud....let us lounge!  it's really awesome that you get to put on your loose fitting jeans and a shirt and be done with it.  but all that means to me is that you can't enjoy the blessing that the lounge pant truly is.  and so now i am done with that.  i am going to GAP.  i will fight for the right to lounge.  it's a worthy cause....in my opinion...

things i'm going to miss....besides the obvious, friends and family....

-mimi's cafe.  mimi's is single handedly responsible for 7 of the pounds that are currently on my body but are not wanted there.  i can point to the muffins exact locations....but i will not.

-target.  i only go a few times a month, but when i'm there...i am happy.  however, it is probably best that i will no longer have target to wonder around in.  for one,  i have conditioned myself to think that every time i check out there, i deserve a box of junior mints.  these junior mints have contributed to 3 of the pounds of unwanted weight i am currently carrying.  i can point to each mint...but i will not.

-the mall that is 5 minutes to my north, the mall that is 10 minutes to my south and the mall that is 20 minutes to my west.  i only go about once every six weeks, but i feel better just knowing they are there.  it's a safety thing mostly.   should i need something, it will most certainly be at one of these malls.  and that makes me feel right about things.

-braums' milk.  i really can't imagine a life without it.  i have to just block out the idea of drinking anything but braums' milk.  Lord, help me.

-pizza hut.  i make really good pizza at home.  i'm becoming quite a pizza'ria'er'ish kind of a person...but still, i love pizza hut.  i always have.  ever since it was the place that all church people went on sunday night after church when i was a little girl.  i really love the small town pizza hut...it's my absolute favorite!  but here in the city, i have to settle for the carry out place.  it isn't nearly as wonderful, and sadly, they do not have the great pizza hut buffet....but it works ok.  which brings me to my next thing...

-pizza hut buffet.  oh how i love you, pizza hut buffet!  i don't get you very often, but you make my head spin with happiness.   so much so that you are responsible for 5 of the extra pounds that are currently on my body.  if anyone ever sees the pounds that seem to be shaped like triangles on my thighs...well, you know...

-tex mex.  this is becoming painful to think about...

-dillards sales.  i love you dillards.  you have always been my most favorite place to shop.  and even though i don't shop very often, i always knew that i could count on you.

-netflix.  i didn't expect my relationship with you to be so fulfilling.  but it is...and now i can't imagine life without you.

but at the end of the day...i will live.  i will live without each one of you, and i will be ok.  and i might even lose a few pounds along the way....so long buttermilk spice muffins, you were good while you lasted!

some things are weird because we are moving to africa...some things are weird because we are weird.

-i figured out today why i made the switch to facebook a couple of years ago....it was b/c i had become too old to figure out how to attach music to my myspace profile.  why did they switch the way we put music on our pages anyway? was it really to get rid of all the old people?
-i have apparently packed up the toys that griffin and ella loved to play with a little too prematurely.  i left them some toys, but they don't seem to like them.
-i don't think they like them because they are getting into EVERYTHING...and they didn't really do that before.
-i caught griffin spraying all purpose cleaner into our water filter.
-it was all natural cleaner...so it was ok.  except that it made our water all bubbly.  which was not ok...
-i caught griffin spraying 409 on ella's cookie.
-ella was waiting patiently for the cookie griffin was "preparing" for her.
-fortunately,  i was able to intercept that cookie transaction before it took place.
-i caught ella sucking on my dishwashing sponge....twice.
-GROSS!
-my children are sitting in fan strollers while they watch tv....because we sold the sofa and chair.
-one kid always has to sit on a lawn chair at dinner.
-we haven't sold any of our dining room furniture, but there were only 4 chairs with the set.  and then we had 4 kids.  the math was not in their favor.
- if ella were old enough to be out of her highchair, we would have to buy her a lawn chair, too.
-the lawn chair was an upgrade.
-my kids use to have to take turns sitting on the exercise ball at dinner. but then we bought a lawn chair.
-this wasn't the lawn chairs original place, but that is another story for another day.
-the original place for the lawn chair was, oddly enough, not the lawn.  i will leave it at that.

our trash can story

we moved into this house over 8 years ago.  we had a trash can that came with it.  it was an older trash can, but it was fine.  nothing really wrong with it.  a few years into us living here, another family moved in 2 houses over.  they had a trash can that came with their house, too.  it had a big gash in the side, and rain could get in.  it was not a good trash can....at all.  about a year after they moved in, one day after the trash man picked up all of our trash,  the neighbor took my trash can back to his driveway.  i was certain it was by mistake, so i let it go.  the next week, he did it again.  the next week, he did it again.  wha?!?! this went on for a couple of months or so.  so one day i ran to get the trash can right after the city picked up the trash.  i beat my neighbor to it!  i also wrote my address on the top with my sharpie as fast as i could.  see, i had originally done this when we moved in, but the sun had bleached it out where it was not easily seen.  i guess that's when my neighbor decided to make his "move."  anyway, i had the trash can back in my possession.  the problem was solved.....  until that afternoon when he sent his son to knock on my door and tell me i had gotten their trash can.  wha?!?! i smiled and said, "oh, ok."  but did nothing about it.  after all, we both knew it was not actually his trash can.  but then he sent his son back to my house.  this time to get the trash can!  wha?!?!  at this point, i knew he knew this was not his trash can at all.  i also knew this was why he started keeping their trash can, which was actually my trash can, in the garage where i could not go get it.  it became clear i was dealing with quite a piece of work.  i told randy that i knew my neighbor knew this was not his trash can, and that he knew, i knew!  randy said i was crazy.  which is true, but i was not crazy about what was going on here...  so one night i was driving this neighbor's kids to church with me, and we happened to pass by the row of trash cans on our street.  as we did,  his daughter looked at me and said, "yeah, we use to have a trash can that had a big hole in the side like that."  I KNEW IT!!! I KNEW HE KNEW, AND THAT HE KNEW I KNEW HE KNEW...that I KNEW! i was not crazy!  and this trash can with a huge gash in the side was not mine!!!

the next week i called the city and told them my trash can, which of course was not really mine at all, had a big hole in it and that i would like a new one.  fortunately for me, and for my neighbor, they provided one for free.   as soon as it was delivered, i put my address on it with big numbers.  and no one ever took my trash can again.

that neighbor has since moved, which is too bad because  i liked that neighbor, and i loved their kids.  they were really great kids.  i'm glad we were all able to work  out our trash can situation...even if it was never really talked about.  i know he knows, and i know he knows that i know.  and that really is all that matters... well, that, and that i got a brand new trash can...for free.  and now every time i see the numbers on it, i think about my neighbors. and then i smile about our trash can woes.  and i wonder how they are all doing in their new place....do they take the neighbor's trash cans there, too?  sure i'm a little embarrassed about how i behaved over a silly thing like a trash can.  i shouldn't have done that.  the sharpie out in the street may have been a little much.  it's possible that the trash can situation was unnecessarily escalated.   next time someone steals my trash can i will order a new one right away and try to avoid such behavior....i hope....

public restrooms

i promise, i usually pee without incident.  really, i do......

we went to dinner with some wonderful friends tonight.  we made a real evening of it, downtown mckinney.  we went to dinner at a swanky place, then walked a block or so to have coffee. it was a great night to enjoy the outdoors.  we were chatting it up amongst the other locals having a grand ole' time.  but i had had quite a bit of water at the afore mentioned restaurant, so i excused myself to the restroom.  everything was normal... until i lathered up my hands.  i could not figure out how to turn on the water.  i tried and tried with my soaped up paws, but there was no water to be had.  so i thought, well, i will just use a paper towel to get all of this soap off.  try as i might, that paper towel dispenser was not sharing.  there was no crank, there was no wheel (just in case the sensor didn't work)....i was out of luck.  fortunately, i heard someone walking past the door so i opened it...best i could with my slippery soaped up hands, and asked for help.  yes, i had to ask for help.  "um, could you please tell me how to get the water on," i said...laughing at myself of course.  people like me can't take themselves too seriously.  the lady came in and turned it on.  it was simple really, but i have to say,  even after seeing her do it, i would have been in that bathroom all night long and never figured it out on my own.  it was strange.  maybe i can post a picture of it sometime.  there is more....

so after our night out with friends, we had to make a target run.  we are in need of some TSA locks for when we travel, and every now and again we are able to catch them on sale at target....if we are having one of those really lucky days...  but, before we could shop, randy and i had to use the restroom again.  for one, we had had coffee, and for two, we are getting older.  and actually, i didn't even have coffee, i'm apparently just getting older.

anyway, back to my story.  i went into a stall and began the process.  you know, the one where you cover the seat with toilette paper?   this should always be done for many reasons, but one handy reason is that it gives you a heads up for when there is no toilette paper in the stall.  this was one such time.  so i relocated.  i repeated the above process with plenty of toilette paper and did what i needed to do.  during which time, another person came in and went to my first stall.  the one with no toilette paper.  hmm, what do i do?  surely they will begin with the same steps that i did and realize that they, too, needed to relocate.  not so much. well, that's not good.  so i thought.  i decided to be a good neighbor, after all, i did have a "square to spare", and i tried to hand the lady some t.p. under the little stall wall.... she did not respond.  which made me feel kind of weird because i didn't know what to do.  do i take the toilette paper back? do i say something?  it was all kinds of awkward.  did she even see what i was offering.  did she even notice she had NO TOILETTE PAPER.  i looked at her feet, they were small.  maybe i was dealing with a child.  maybe that was why the beginning error happened in the first place.  i mean, who doesn't cover the seat with toilette paper?!?!?!  *sigh*  we ended up washing our hands at the same time.  it wasn't a little girl, it was a lady with really small feet.  i didn't say anything...and neither did she.  perhaps it was because we both knew she had had no toilette paper.  now, i'm not gonna judge, as i foresee some times in my new future where t.p. may not abound.  that was an africa reference incase anyone missed it.

so here are my P.S.A's for tonight.  always figure out how to turn the water on in a bathroom BEFORE you lather up, and  any time there is no toilette paper in a bathroom stall, go ahead and yell it out as people are entering the restroom.  that way, if people are ok with their being none, then you can be ok with it, too.