Shopping Marathon

Friday. Well, I cannot remember much from Friday other than we rushed here there and everywhere. It started at the crack of dawn rushing around the house to get ready for work and school. All day at work I rushed to get things done then waited for this and that to come back with important information.

During my lunch hour ManSon said "My wallet was stolen." Oh My Gosh! When? Where? What happened? "Well, it was at so and so's house." But that kid lives in another state. You haven't seen him since..."Yes. I know. Since May." Why are you...What do you mean..Are you pulling...Your Social Security Card? License? WHAT?! {deep breath} How is it that you waited this long to say something?

I make phone calls to the State License agency and Social Security Office. Apparently you need a utility bill in your name if you are over the age of 18. What the heck? What about college students? Surely there must be some college students at the local University who live with their parents so the parents can save some money. You also need a birth certificate and your Social Security Card. No surprise there. The list of items needed to identify you for your Social Security card is just one...a Doctors Note.. A birth certificate doesn't do a thing for you. Thank goodness a dentist note will do. ManSon has not been to a doctor in the last three years since he has not been injured or seriously ill (thank God).

After work I rush home, make dinner and a lot of rushing about to get things done around the house, homework and such. I was dead on feet by 10:30 pm but did not get to bed until much later.

Saturday morning we had a basic breakfast then it was off to the Post Office to pick up a certified package addressed to ManSon. We think it was the Cobra paper work from my employer. Unfortunately it was addressed to him so we could not pick it up due to ManSon having no ID.

After the Post Office we decided to go on a shopping spree for ManSon. He was in need of a whole new wardrobe. Really, this boy has specific taste. He becomes really attached to the clothes he buys and wont let them go until they are about to fall apart. Unfortunately, he has very good taste so it takes a very long, long time for them to wear out.

Another problem with purchasing clothing for ManSon is his size. He is 6 feet tall, has a 29 inch waist and likes about 2 inches of his pant cuffs to rest on the top of his shoes. Do you have any idea how difficult it is to find a pair of Man's dress slacks with a 29 inch waist? It is like finding a needle in a hay stack and I really truely mean that.

We went to the big mall which is nearly located in another state. We split up into groups to scour the stores for 29 inch dress pants. After three hours of blinding ourselves looking at every size of ever pair of pants in the two story mall we met up at the food court for a break. When I sat down I swear my muscels let out a huge sigh of relief. I had mannaged to find 3 pairs of imported dress slacks with a 30 inch waist. Hey, that beats out the rest who only found 34 inch waists. ManSon even tried on JEANS! He has never worn jeans in his intire life. I had to laugh at the thought of him wearing jeans. It would be like putting ice cream on pizza and not being pregnant. Well, I said to ManSon "You in jeans is like watching Escaflowne without subtitles." It is like nails scraping on a chalk board to hear Escaflowne in English. Weird.

Ok so we are all worn out. We take a 15 minute break and rush off to the one store which actually has pants ManSon size. He tries them on since they are imports and hip hurray they fit! ManSon looks over the jackets and swears one of them would be the coolest item he owns. Lucky for him the matching jackets are half price if you buy the pants. He was beside himself when I said we would take both of the jackets he liked. The pants were on sale for $75 each then bonus buy (purchase jacket) made them $45 each add on $64 for each jacket.

Oh my gosh Pup is whining at the moment. Snow White has her bedroom door shut so she can change her clothes. Pup is outside her door whimpering, howling and barking. He thinks she is going to bed without him.

Ok back to the shopping spree from this weekend. ManSon's girlfriend "Corkie" was part of our shopping possy. She dyes her hair different colors but seems to be down to earth with a strict mother. Really nice girl trying to figure out where she belongs with a mom who can reel her in. I could not be happier for the moment. She was very helpful with the shopping, quick to get tasks accomplished and a joy to be around.

While ManSon was trying on the pants she helped me look through the many, many long sleeved sweater shirts. ManSon wanted long sleeves with a collar but not dress shirts and goodness knows how he dislikes logos. We found one shirt in the whole store and it was a Men's Medium. In this particular brand the medium was a tad bit long but he really liked it so that was added to our purchase at that store. We still needed 4 more pairs of pants and a dozen shirts. By this time the stores were closing so we gave up for the day...so did our legs.

Sunday afternoon we decided to tackle another mall and check out their stock. The same store that had his size pants but in a different mall. They had clothes ManSon really liked but way too big. "No one carries that size. It's just not done. " ManSon's response "In a world of obesity concerns no one stocks small sizes. Maybe I need to start eating those 'can my butt look any bigger' meals. We all laugh and walk away leaving the sales lady looking perplexed.

Snow Whtie was telling me about two cartoon theme songs she thought were the greatest. She really doesn't watch too much tv. I told her to ask her brother if he still has his Pokemon sound track from when he was in 2nd grade (remember ManSon is 19). He knew exactly where it was and handed it right over to her. He knew how excited she would be! I can hear Pokemon Master blasting in the background.

We finally went to Macy's and they HAVE mens' shirts in size Small!! We bought up a full lot of shirts but may have to go back when they replenish their stock. From now on we will shop at Bonton for pants and Macy's for all of ManSon's clothing.

So, after 9 hours of running (litterally) here and there for ManSon's wardrobe we made a dent in what he really needs to replace. Shoes...well he wants Vans but the shoe stores here do not sell Vans! Well, they sell the slip on multi color/deco Vans at the skater shops but not the Vans he has become acustome to. I see an out of state shopping expedition in a big city in our near future.

Baby Crissy Doll

Tonight a rare treasure resurfaced to remind me of a wonderful childhood memory. My friends had all recently acquired the Tuesday Taylor and Crissy dolls. They were similar to Barbie but larger. With Tuesday you had the option of turning her doll "scalp" (I know, sounds eww) to make her either blonde or brunette. Crissy had the auburn hair and you could change the length of her hair from a short bob style cut to Cher's 70's knee length long hair with the press of a button or a few short twists.





There was a new doll in town or at least none of my friends had this one particular doll. I had seen it on one of the very few toy commercials that aired in the mid 70's. Hard to believe in today's world there was a time toy commercials were a rarity. Maybe the commercials were not such a rarity. I might have thought so due to the very limited amount of time I watched TV when I was little. At that time there were four dolls in the running for the top most wanted/advertised dolls...Baby Alive, Crissy, Tuesday Taylor and Baby Crissy. Barbie was always a given no matter what year. Baby Crissy and Crissy were the same with one big difference, Crissy was a 20 something like Barbie and Baby Crissy was well, a baby doll. Baby Crissy was not just any baby doll. She was the image of a 8 - 10 month old baby. Most little girls had the little bitty baby dolls the size of a new born and had a generic baby doll look. Baby-A-Live looked like a baby almost a year old but smaller. Baby-A-Live could move her lips when you pushed her feeding spoon in her mouth after mixing her baby food. She was the baby of the next Mommy generation.



The beginning of summer was marked by the school carnival. There were cake walks, balloon tosses, bean bag tosses, and all sorts of hands on games. There was also a yard sale. Everyone would clean out their closets and pitch in. The day before the carnival we brought in our donations and volunteered to make signs. Mom made cakes and other baked goods as well as volunteered to work any booths they needed assistance with. She knew with three children in the school plus one to start the next year in kindergarten she would be there all day. We made signs all that afternoon and when we went home Mom baked all night. Mom had never seen a cake mix in her life at this point. She made everything from scratch.

While at the school making the signs I saw something in the yard sale area that I wanted so badly. It was a Baby Crissy Doll ! I was so eager to show my Mom! At that moment I was that anxious child everyone wanted to just be quiet already! Over and over again I said "Look MOM!! It's a real Baby Crissy Doll! Do you think they will sell it tomorrow?! Can we get it?! Can we buy it now?! Can we?!! Can we?!" She quieted me down by reminding me we were here to help and make the signs. If all went well maybe I would get a reward but that did not mean the doll. After her talk I remember thinking how wonderful it would be to have a parachute soldier. The kind with the plastic soldier tied to a plastic parachute. I was thrilled at the idea and made my signs look like rainbows. Mom reminded me people would need to read the signs from the road and words with so many colors might be hard to read. I opted for one color for each letter in the sign rather than four different colors for each and ever letter.

The next day was the school carnival. How my Mother managed to bake so many things in one night and keep us away from her baked goodies all morning is beyond me. We drove to the school and played games all day long. My older brother and I even helped man a few games ourselves. We were having such a great time we almost forgot about the cake walk. My older brother and I took turns doing the cake walk because we wanted one of the cakes our Mother made. There were a few times we were tending a booth and one of our Mother's cakes would be gone when we returned to the cake walk. I remember being the one to finally win a cake but by that time all of our Mother's cakes were gone so I choose a bunt cake.

I returned to the yard sale area where Mom was working and explained our sorrow in not getting one of her's. She laughed! At first all I could think of was how hard we tried all day long to win one of her cakes and she laughed? Then she explained it was all for the better so we could try someone else's cake. After all, we could have one of her cakes any time since we were her children.

After playing games all day for penny and nickel prizes which made our day, real potato sack races, three legged races and the flex arm hang (I won again and again), manning the booths now and then and trying to fit in the cake walk where we could, it was time for the carnival to end. We were all sad to see the end of the day but we were worn out too. Before we could go home we had to clean up the fair. Our Mother saw to it that we helped and it made us feel a little extra special to hang out "after the party was over." The ladies of the PTA and every other organization were thanking us by offering baked goods, toys and such but really, we were having a great time helping pack up everything and telling our Mother all the things we did and had seen all day long while she was stuck in the same place all day.

After packing up everything my Mother told my older brother and I to pick up that last box. We picked up the box and all I could do was sigh. The Baby Crissy Doll was in that box and I had forgotten all about her. At that moment I wanted to cry out "MOM!! Crissy is still here!!!" instead I thought of the wonderful day we had. When my brother asked where we should move the box Mom said "That box goes in our car." I was so excited I dropped my end of the small box and scooped Crissy up in my arms! She was half the size of me but it did not matter. Could I be dreaming? It would be ok if I was dreaming.

Being a Mom now myself I can only imagine my Mom was watching us well before she told us the destination for the box. She must have smiled from ear to ear when she saw me scoop up Baby Crissy.

Baby Crissy and I went everywhere together. I had pretend food for her and she pretended to use the potty since she was such a big girl. My Mother also made us matching goonies or night gowns as I now know most call them. One of my most cherished and memorized photos of myself was taken at Red Wing Park in Virginia on the swing set with Crissy in my lap. There was a sun burst on the corner of the Polaroid photo, the likes I had only seen in the movies. My hair was wind blown and she had a make shift dress I made when my Mother was teaching me to sew. I remember the sun burst, the autumn colors of her dress and the warm loving smile on my face that reflected exactly the perfect temperature of the warmth the sun beamed down on my face at that very moment.

What started this post? Snow White was looking for something and found Crissy in Oldest Daughter's bedroom closet. Poor old Crissy had seen better days. At first all Snow White saw was a very old doll in need of too much care. After I held Crissy in my arms for a few moments and told Snow White how much Crissy was loved by me as a child I was soon relinquished of my beloved doll. Snow White came out of her room with an umbrella stroller. I said "Oh my, Crissy has never seen the likes of this sort of stroller." In deed the last time Crissy saw a stroller it was a pram. Snow White wheeled her around the house then proclaimed her as her own. She even put Crissy in Bitty Baby's cradle. Tomorrow she plans to brush out her hair and re-do her nails.

I have to admit it was refreshing to hold my Crissy again. I had forgotten her and now she has come back as the wonderful treasure she was so many years ago. This time she has a new playmate.