Tag-Archive for » Four by Four «

Closet Clean Out

13
Dec 2011

This was captioned: I got the better deal -- more material same price!

I attended the kids’ band concert last Thursday and ran into the lovely lady pictured with me at right. She let me know she still had the shirt she is wearing in the picture below and let me know I looked great and could fit into the smaller version of the shirt. She still owned it.

The picture was taken at our 20-year-class reunion. We live in the same small town where our shopping options are limited. We both had the same idea when we bought the shirt at Fashion Bug.

I no longer own my shirt. It is too big for me now that I’ve lost nearly 60 pounds. I donated it several months ago.

Today, in my bedroom, I have another very large bag of clothes to donate. I had been holding onto my size 18 pants because they were what I wore for work. But they were getting very baggy. The other day I realized I needed to stop wearing them when I was able to take the pants off without unzipping or unfastening them. Plus, they made my butt disappear.

It is now the end of the semester, which means I won’t be needing many dress clothes for an entire month. I decided it was time to bag up the baggy clothes and all of the size 18s are gone. So are the size 16s (well except for one pair that is pretty comfy).

I know that I am going to have to sort through my underwear drawer soon. I have bras that are too big (in the band and the cup) and some underwear too. I have read too many horror stories about underwear falling off to trust my larger stuff much longer.

I am now in size 14s, and I even bought a jean skirt to wear. It is a bit on the short side, so I’m going to have to invest in some leggings of some type as well. The skirt was at the Gap Outlet and on clearance plus 40 percent off, so I bought it for less than $3. How could I not?

There is a downside to being smaller. I live in a home with three teenage daughters. The youngest is still a small, but the two older girls wear medium sizes. I am a size large now, which means my clothing no longer swims on my children, and they are finding things they like. The other day my oldest arrived home and upon seeing what shirt I was wearing announced, “I was going to wear that.” It was mine.

I suspect it will only get worse when they start fitting into my pants as well.

And in good news — my middle daughter has a pair of black knee-high boots. I tried them on, and they fit my calves! The problem is she won’t let me borrow them. ;-)

Category: Fat Man's Daughter, Weighty Thoughts  Tags: , , , , , , ,  One Comment

Protecting Presents from Snooping Children

06
Dec 2011

An Oldie but a Goodie: Mom (me) and Justin at a Christmas several years ago.

Driving to work this morning, I listened to Finster (of WKLT’s Omelette and Finster) complain about his stepkids snooping after his wife wrapped up presents and put them under the tree. Finster described a scene I was pretty familiar with — kids counting and shaking the various presents as they wonder what the packages might contain.

A woman caller suggested a fantastic strategy. Instead of putting the kids’ names on the packages, the caller said to use reindeer names. You don’t reveal which child is which reindeer until Christmas morning.

Tonight, I mentioned the idea to my husband, but my kids overheard. My son immediately decided it was a bad idea. He proclaimed that shaking the packages was part of the Christmas experience.

One of my daughters immediately called dibs on being Rudolph. When I suggested it would defeat the purpose if she knew the reindeer name I assigned to her packages, she proclaimed no one else should be Rudolph except for her.

Tonight, I wrapped a bunch of gifts.

(By the way, my son mentioned that Congress just recently passed a law that you MUST have a Christmas tree up and decorated once more than two presents have been wrapped. I’m sure we’ll all read the news reports about this new law soon.)

I refrained from using the kids’ names, and I used the reindeer names instead. Right now, we have presents for Dasher, Dancer, Vixen and Prancer.

The presents are not yet under our tree because we are in clear violation of the newly passed law. We are still without a tree. Instead of under a tree, the gifts are on top of the containers holding all of our Christmas tree ornaments and lights.

I think to completely mess with the kids, I will add more presents for Comet and Cupid, Donner and Blitzen. That’s right. I will assign TWO reindeer names to each kid, and they will be completely confused about who will receive what.

(Insert evil laugh!)

Category: Parenting  Tags: , , , , , ,  Comments off

The Anti-Thankful Post

24
Nov 2011

Everyone is posting their reasons for being thankful, and I decided I needed to do something a bit different.

I’m going to whine about having to share.

It hasn’t been that long since my new Kindle Fire arrived. I have barely had any time to play with it, and some of my children hadn’t even touched it yet.

I made the mistake of bringing it with me to the family celebration. In no time, my children and cousins were using my Kindle Fire to do things like play suduko and solitaire.

I reluctantly allowed this. In that I said “yes,” but I really wanted to grab my toy and take it home while screaming “nnnoooo!” and “mmmiiinnnneee.”

I have since reclaimed my Kindle Fire and told all children that it is charging. I feel better. Especially after I cleaned off all of the fingerprints.

Category: Mother of the Yeeeaar  Tags: ,  Comments off

Children are Cute, right?

10
Nov 2011

My children have been crazy busy. They have also been very emotional, bratty and filthy. If my daughters do not clean their room soon, I am going to have to take drastic measures because the state of their room is messing with my mind.

The other day, my oldest daughter asked if her boyfriend could come over if he managed to find a ride to our house. I said yes. He came over. His ride? My daughter went and picked him up. This was not what I had in mind when I said yes. I’m not falling for it again this weekend.

Yesterday, I was in the middle of teaching my students when my cell phone vibrated. I glanced at it and noticed my youngest daughter was calling me. I checked the time and thought she should still be in school. I ignored the call and continued talking to my students, but when my phone rang again immediately, I had to excuse myself to take it. I was worried that a call in the middle of the day meant something was very very wrong.

I answered the call to find out that the school was without power. That was not the emergency I had in mind. Within minutes, my other daughter was calling me. So why were they calling me? They wanted a parent to call the school, so they could leave early. I was not impressed.

By the way, I did not take the second daughter’s call. I only found out the reason why as I was talking to my husband later that day. They had called him as well, and he had called the school for them.

(Off topic, but I am realizing it is very hard to eat peanut butter while wearing braces because the peanut butter gets mixed in the wires.)

Today is Veteran’s Day, and the children needed dress clothes to wear to the ceremony. I bought two outfits of my middle child because she is picky. I bought one outfit for my youngest child because she is not picky. The youngest child loved her outfit. The middle child tried on numerous outfits, including some she owned and the ones I purchased, declared something wrong with every. single. one. of. them., and then whined about how she didn’t have anything to wear.

I was not amused.

Needless to say, hubby and I got a great laugh over her angst. Somehow she managed to find something to wear today. Amazing.

Plus, my youngest daughter updated her facebook status, and it made me laugh out loud. Here it is:

 

Category: Parenting  Tags: , ,  Comments off

Braceface

08
Nov 2011

It has been less than a week since I had braces installed on my upper teeth, and I am still getting used to them.

Yesterday was my first day teaching while wearing braces. Almost immediately after my first class started, I noticed that I was getting a build-up of drool in the corners of my mouth. My lips were making a lot of weird movements. I decided I needed to say something to the students.

It isn’t always obvious that I have braces since they are clear. A student towards the back of the room might not be able to see them. I didn’t want anyone to think I was giving them a dirty look as I made my weird facial expressions.

I also have a sore forming in the bottom right corner of my mouth — probably from the excess drool.

And last night, my husband said I was snoring. I blame the braces.

They are not comfortable, and it makes me wish I had more sympathy for my children. Autumn is almost done with her SECOND set of braces. Maxine and Justin are just starting their braces adventure. Maybe I can show them more sympathy now.

I don’t even have a full set of braces yet. My bottom teeth won’t be in braces until my next orthodontist appointment in January.

Since my braces were installed, I find I am not eating as much. During the school day, I don’t want to eat anything because I don’t want to be teaching with food in my teeth. I am very concerned about food being stuck in my braces. I am constantly checking. I am going to have to purchase a pocket mirror to keep in my school bag.

I’ll try to quit whining about them soon. ;-)

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Category: Life with Linda  Tags: , ,  2 Comments
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