My new friend AA ended up calling me, so that was nice to talk to her. We manage to find so much to talk about; we were on the phone for an hour and a half yesterday. While I was on the phone with AA, HC had called, but I didn't hear my cell phone ring. Finally I called HC back, and she told me she'd all of a sudden gotten into an inexplicably grumpy mood. I can totally commiserate with that; sometimes I'm completely irritated or sad for no discernible reason. The funny thing about HC is she was so grumpy, her husband finally looked at her and said, "So, ummmm, what's Karyl up to tonight??" Apparently I am the official HC cheerer-upper.
HC wanted to meet somewhere, so we decided to go to dinner at a Mexican restaurant where I was good and did not get a margarita. I wanted one badly, but since I was driving, I didn't feel comfortable drinking. I have had one margarita before and still driven somewhere, but I have this sense that if I do it, I'll get pulled over and Breathalyzed and end up with a DUI on my record. I don't know; I'm paranoid.
After dinner, it was off to the mall so HC could buy her son some Levi's. Shockingly enough, Penney's didn't have the right ones, but they did have some really cute tot clothing on sale, so I bought Grace three fall outfits. Then we headed to Mervyn's. There was our downfall!! They were having a blow-out sale. I behaved myself and only spent $50, but HC went hog-wild and spent over $150. We got SO much for our money, though!! Grace got a new pair of jeans, a small Hello Kitty backpack, dress socks, and two pairs of jammies, while I got shoes to go with my dress for the pinning ceremony and a tunic-length polo shirt from the juniors department.
I'm so glad the new fashion is looooooooooooong shirts. I was getting tired of seeing bare midriffs. If I want to see someone's bare midriff, I'll lift up my shirt and look at my own, thank you very much.
Just spending time with HC was enough to cheer me up, although the retail therapy didn't hurt either.
I love shopping. I don't even have to BUY anything. I love to go to a store and look at everything. I used to read my stepmom's coupon flyers before she'd cut into them so I could read about the new products coming out.
So today I got a major hair up my butt and decided to do something about my living room. There isn't a terrible lot I can do about it since my furniture is placed the only way it will fit in the room, but I decided to finally get rid of the playpen. I myself am sorry it's gone; it was so nice to be able to set Gracie down in it and know she couldn't get into anything while I got dressed or did a bit of housework. But she really doesn't like being in it anymore, and she is almost two years old, so she's probably outgrown it anyhow. I used it only in the mornings; in the afternoon she would roam free throughout the house, so I'm just losing a couple of hours of my freedom in the morning.
Getting rid of a playpen isn't as easy as it sounds, however. You'd think that all you'd have to do is fold the damn thing up and find a place for it in your overcrowded garage, right?
You'd be wrong.
There were so many toys in her playpen that I'm not quite sure how Grace fit into it. I do know she stood on a lot of her toys; she must also have sat on most of them. There were about eight or nine shredded board books (yes, Grace destroys board books) in the bottom, as well as mass quantities of baby toys.
So before I could take down the playpen, I had to go through the pop-up toybox in the corner of the living room to make room for all the toys that had been in her playpen. I managed to find an old binky; fortunately I palmed it before Miss Gracie Poo could see it, else I would have had a massive tantrum on my hands.
After throwing away old teething rings, cheap Happy Meal toys, and shredded board books, as well as relocating her stuffed animals to her bedroom, I managed to find enough room in the toybox for the toys in her playpen. Then I had to vacuum out the playpen; it's amazing how much dust and dirt filters down to the very bottom of a playpen in two years. Fortunately I didn't let her eat in there, so there were only a few Cheerios to vacuum out.
Finally the playpen was cleaned out and folded up, so I took it to the garage and liberated my endtable that had been collecting dust in the garage for the last year and a half. Now I've got it set back up with photos sitting on it, and my living room looks like an actual place for adults now! It's amazing what a change clearing most of the baby toys away will do for a room.
Of course, I had to do this massive rehaul of my living room on one of the warmest days of the summer, so I broke quite a sweat. But it's good for me!! Just imagine all the calories I burnt today! ;o)