The Ugliest Sweater Award

I was a "mother-helper" in Allie's english class last week. Funny how it came about actually...I volunteered while under the influence of a sleeping pill and the next morning I couldn't recall a thing about it. I was taken by complete surprise when the teacher replied to my unknown email and thanked me for my willingness to help! (Needless to say, I have asked Richard to keep all electronics and phones away from me after I take my pill at night to avoid any more involuntary acts of service). After I realized I had said I would help, I discovered that my assignment involved dressing up like an old person, an "Elder" from the book, The Giver. I was to wear all black and pull my hair up into a bun.

I did the best I could considering I wasn't really in the mood to do it all. I threw on some jeans, a black shirt and my old grayish/brown Finnish sweater (which is about four sizes to big these days). I stretched my short hair into a stub of a ponytail and showed up for duty. When I got there, all the other mothers were wearing black skirts and the mother I was to sit next to had done herself up all model-like so the contrast between the two of us was quite glaring. As I sat there talking to the pretty mom, Allison came in with her class. When she saw me she smiled, but as soon as she looked at my costume, her smile fell off her face.

"Mom, WHY did you wear that UGLY sweater?!"

"I'm supposed to look old"

"Yeah, but that is the ugliest sweater!" At this point her friend scolded her for being mean to her mother. The next five minutes went by as the other classes gathered in and settled down. And as if twice wasn't enough, Allison again embarrassingly asked me why I wore the ugliest sweater I owned. I just laughed because I knew just how pretty I didn't look.

I was completely surprised when we were all done and Allison wanted me to walk back with her to her classroom...HAND IN HAND with the Ugly Sweater Wearer!

(By the way: I really like my Finnish sweater!)

Girls Just Wanna Have Fun

As you walk into Alli's room...

This is all stuff from inside her closet!
Poor Lexi can't get out...

I decided I had better tackle Allison's closet today while she was away at school. No need to have the owner of all this precious stuff be around to decide what goes and what stays. The thing that really gets me is, everytime I clean out her closet, we have a little "talk" where she promises to keep it clean! Someday, when my kids are all grown up and move away, I will think back on these kind of adventures and miss them, right?

Service

As we were getting ready to start Family Night tonight, we received a couple of phone calls, both within thirty minutes of each other. One call was asking us if we could please be of assistance in helping someone move and the other was from good friends inviting us to go to a movie with them. After much thought, Richard and I decided we better go help move. After all, it would be a good experience for the kids to do some service, right? While I was preparing a quick dinner, I thought I would call my kids in and ask them what they would do if they were the parents and could have made the decision on what we would do for Family Night.

Gavin was first and after a long pause, he said, "Mom, I would have chosen to help move. They really need our help and maybe we could get a treat afterward." I smiled with parental pride. Good choice Gavin.

Next Allison was summoned into the room to be asked the same question. Without much hesitation at all, she said, "Well, if I were the Mom, I would say 'Let the kids go to the movie with their friends and have the parents do the moving'". I reminded Alli that it was a night where the family is supposed to do things together. In a non-chalent tone of voice, she said, "Well, that sounds like a real problem."

As it turned out, she went without complaint and very happily danced around and posed for us all while we hauled things up and down two flights of stairs.

Kids...

We were watching tv, the kids and I, when a commercial came on about Lysol Cleaner. Let me paint the picture: There is a young child seated on the sidewalk with her lunch lying directly on the pavement. The narrator says, "you wouldn't let your child eat on the street..." The next scene shows the same child with the same lunch, but now they are seated at a table. The narrator continues, "But would you let your child eat on your kitchen surfaces where over 60,000 germs roam free? Did you know not all cleaners get rid of germs?" To this statement, Allison speaks up and in that "duh" tone of voice says, "Well yeah-uh, that's why you use plates."