Girlymama

Man, that would have been a much cheaper way to fly to India. (Quieter too…)

I know you’re dying for the update.

I dropped the kids off right on time for their 9:00 school day at 9:15. (Free! For 4 whole hours!!) I zipped through the drive-thru at McDonalds for my 69 cent large coffee since today was all about bargain, after all, and I got on the highway to make the 21.5 mile trip to the new outlet mall. And hit a wall of traffic.

I’m not kidding. I was going along about 3 mph and then saw that the highway was closed. They made everyone get off the highway!! This has never happened to me before!! Normally this would not be a problem, but I’m not familiar with this particular area of Philly. So me and about 400 other cars are getting off on to this random road. That I have never been on before. In a town I’ve never been on before. Oh dear.
I call DCRmom who also had no clue where I was. Then we decided to call everyone programmed on our respective cell phone who might be able to help. I even called my mom, who while not being very familiar with Pennsylvania in general, did have a computer at her office. After spending 30 minutes going in the wrong direction, we struck gold with Lisa who was able to tell me how to go. I was able to turn around and get back on the highway and I was able to quickly zip up to the outlet mall. It only took me TWO STINKING HOURS for a 20 mile trip. And that was TWO of my FOUR hours this week without children, so those hours count at least quadruple. Bah!

Okay, so the new outlet mall is fantastic. Well, except for the parking lot. Which has about 864 fewer spaces than cars since the majority of the population of Pennsylvania, Delaware and New Jersey was there. (Seriously, don’t people have jobs??)
Anyway, great stores, beautiful mall. DCRmom and I found loads and loads of things we wanted, only some of which were purchased as we exercised tremendous amounts of self control. Especially in the shoe stores. With boots. (“But wouldn’t it be bad stewardship not to buy these awesome boots for $30?”)
I did find Christmas dresses for the girls, which I was very excited about. But, sadly, that was about it. Although I did try on and almost buy about 7 pairs of boots. I did only have 90 minutes to power-shop, after all, due to the ^$%^#* traffic jam.
And yes, we did buy our lunch. We had to, really, in honor of the hundreds of dollars we had saved 😉

Tomorrow, there is a new outlet mall opening in Philadelphia. And DCRmom and I will be there, opening day. Opening minute, actually. Oh yes we are. Are we nuts? Perhaps. Will it be worth it since  we live for a good bargain? You betcha.

We have been scouring the list of stores, coming up with our plan of attack. We only have 3 hours to shop like mad before we have to go get our kids, so we need to be organized, you see. We also need to be organized because on our last trip to the outlet malls together  we committed a crime. Seriously.  Betcha didn’t know that about DCRmom and me, huh? You’re all thinking we’re fine upstanding citizens. Ha. How little you know. Let me share:

We went to lunch to get nourishment after all that aerobic shopping exercise. (It really was a workout since we had two toddlers with us.)  We enjoyed a yummy lunch at Pizza Hut – a great favorite of both DCRmom and myself – gathered our toddlers, cleaning up the mess they made as best they could, and headed back out to the car for some more shopping.  We were doing some serious damage outfitting our two little girls in Carters when I went to pay for my purchase. And noticed my wallet was way, way down at the bottom of my diaper bag.
“That’s strange.” I thought to myself, “I just used it to pay for my lunch. Wait… DCRmom!! Did we pay for our lunch?”
Her jaw dropped. And we both started laughing in horror… we had walked right out the restaurant without paying for our lunch! Whoops! Clearly we two sleep-deprived moms needed a bit more sleep.
(We did go back and pay for our lunch and apologize profusely to our waitress, who admitted she was shocked that we hadn’t payed. “You didn’t look like someone who would do that!” “That’s because we’re not!” we replied.)

So hopefully we can complete our shopping tomorrow without committing any felonies.  You never know… we can get a little crazy around good bargains. Especially good bargains on shoes.

“Mom, how many are you? I’m 4.”
“I’m 29.”
“Wow, Mom, that’s a lot of numbers.”
“You’re telling me.”
“A LOT of numbers.”
“I get it.”
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“Wow, Mom! Your belly is big. Its really, really, really big.”
“That’s the baby.”
“No, I think its you.”
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“Mama, your hair is so pretty.”
“Thank you.”
“When I’m really really old, will I have pretty hair like you?”
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“Mom, that shirt doesn’t fit. Your belly is way too big. I think you need big belly clothes.”
“Thanks for pointing that out.”

So, basically my kids think I’m old and fat. With nice hair. Great.

Grace woke up from her nap covered in little red bumps. All over her body, including her face. My kids have zero allergies, I have zero allergies, so you can imagine my reaction: Total. Freak. Out.

Our wonderfully calm doctor, with her soothing English accent, says they are probably hives, but if they are worse by tomorrow or if she has any more symptoms, I should bring her in to the office tomorrow morning.

So I’m sitting here waiting for Husband to come home. Trying to stay calm, when I am convinced that something is wrong with my baby girl. (Grace, for the record, is sitting calmly watching Sesame Street, completely oblivious to the distress she is causing me.) To top it all off, we are experiencing some sort of sewage back-up in the drain in our driveway, so our driveway is littered with used toilet paper. Nice.

This looks like the start to a relaxing weekend.

update: She does NOT have hives. We gave her Benadryl, which turned her into an air molecule, bouncing around the house, but did nothing for the spots. Which are spreading all over. Including her fingers, toes and ears. She isn’t uncomfortable and she doesn’t have a fever, so we decided not to go to the ER, but we’ll wait for tomorrow morning and go to the doctor’s office first thing. Still freaking out.

Sat morning update: Spots are almost gone and she is fine. No one has any clue what caused the spots, but she’s apparently okay. She’s not acting the least bit sick or uncomfortable and looks much more normal now that she doesn’t have spots all over her face. Husband and I both woke up this morning and ran straight in to see her! So, I’m not freaking out anymore… well, anymore than usual 🙂

I know, as a good American, that I really should care about the upcoming presidential race. I know its important and all… but I really can not bring myself to give a hoot.

I’m already sick of it, and its an entire year away. Friends are debating different candidates passionately… and I have nothing to add. I just don’t care! Maybe if a single candidate was sticking out for me I would, but I really don’t have a very strong opinion about any Republican. Well, beyond not really liking any of them. I’m curious to see if Hilary orObama will actually get nominated, just simply for the historical significance of it.

Ugh. I am dreading the next year. Red, white and blue signs dotting the landscape, people arguing all the time, obnoxious bumper stickers on cars, those annoying presidential debates where neither person is listening to a word the other is saying, and the commercials… I hate political commercials! If a candidate decided to skip commercials and instead give those millions of dollars to a good cause… then that might influence me.

Is it awful that I care so little about all this? Has it solved the mystery why I never talk politics on my blog? 😉

Bump — did I mention that we call our unborn babies “Bump?” Well, we do. — Anyway, Bump is turning out to be extremely active. Bump was kicking around so much the other night that everyone was able to feel little baby kicks. Husband was so impressed by the strength of these little kicks that he is convinced I am carrying the next Beckham. Seriously. Personally, I was sitting there wondering how many babies were in there exactly. Cause it felt like at least three 😉
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We scheduled our ultrasound in about two weeks. We are completely undecided about whether to find out if its a boy or a girl. We obviously want to know, but we’ve never found out before… Ugh. Big decision. Find out or not find out?????
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New cravings:
1. Vanilla yogurt with granola. Cannot get enough!!
2. Fruit, fruit, fruit – still. Especially clementines and berries.
3. Apple pie.
4. PIZZA!!!!!!!!!

Foods that completely gross me out:
1. Cheetos – overdid that craving. Yuck.
2. Chocolate. Still makes me sick… Sob!
3. McDonalds/Wendy’s — fast food soooo grosses me out right now.