A day of discoveries

Today -- Saturday -- was one of those mixed-bag kinds of days, with a lot of little discoveries and fun finds of a random sort. First off ...

Trying to figure out how to do my hair.

Eeks, it's hard. I discovered a lot of new things about myself (or rather, more specifically, my hair) that I never knew. When it's short, it gets curly. Not consistently curly, though -- that would be cool. Just randomly curly, and not fun little curls but instead rather large "I just took out my huge rollers" kind of curls ... which makes it almost impossible to manage. My bangs are curly but flip in several different directions -- so much for following the picture I clipped out, of straight bangs. That sticking-out-all-over fun look for the back is difficult to do because my hair says, "No, I don't think so ... I want to naturally curl under." And the hair that assumes the loftiest seat, on the crown ... talk about poof! It's a good thing I live in NJ, and if it was the 80's it would be eve more appropriate. My hair wants to be the Queen of Big Hair. Now that it's short, it wants to show off and increase its volume ten-fold, despite my coaxing and prodding. It's bad enough I struggle with two children; now I'm struggling with an inanimate object that believes it has a life of its own. Kind of like a toy in Toy Story. Sheesh.

So after my morning's wrestling match with my hair, we piled in the car with the purpose of zipping around town to check out local garage sales. Our ultimate goal was to find a "new" bike for Aidan, who is clearly struggling to fit his long, lean frame on his 12" toddler bike with training wheels. It's time for a move up -- 16", baby! -- but there's no way we can afford a new one. Well, while we came up empty in the bike department, I did strike gold ... for myself. Now, that never happens. And yet it was as if the vision of the Holy Grail settled upon one particular house in town, and I pushed the stroller toward that irresistible specter. What I found was awesome -- tables of women's clothing (all my size), expensive brand names, practically new, and all for $1 a piece. I asked Don to watch the kids so I could revel in this rarest of moments (but of course, at the exact moment, Don had to go to the bathroom ... of course! So off he went in the car toward the library to use their facilities ...). Figures. And of course, Grace chose that exact moment to decide she was 100% finished with sitting in the stroller, and when she found I wasn't responding she hit the clearest of high notes in her screams of protest ... Thankfully my boy stepped in to help -- dear kid -- taking Grace off my hands and pushing the stroller around the driveway to distract her (except he doesn't steer very well, so he kept bumping into things). One of the women sellers gave me a bag and I stuffed it full of clothing that I couldn't pass up -- beautiful skirts (multi-functional -- dress down with flip-flops for casual or dress up for that non-existent night out on the town), a gorgeous sweater and shirt, cool casual pants. I walked away with an entire bag full of clothes for only $10 ... and after seeing the labels and knowing where they came from and how much they cost, I truly had a couple of hundred dollars' worth of stuff now in my possession. Talk about a gold mine -- the California Gold Rush had nothing on my find today. I was one happy, giddy, well-dressed girl.

Poor Aidan felt so bad about not finding a bike, so as soon as we got home I hopped on Craig's List and voila! There's a red 16" bike for sale nearby for only $10. I immediately emailed the guy, the bike is still there, and now we're trying to find a time to check it out. Bonus!

What great provision. Don hasn't had an income in over a month, but he got a tip from work on Thursday ... and guess what paid for these things, with a little left over? I must admit that my high is wearing a bit thin now ... the kids are bathed and in bed but Grace is crying up a storm. She's wearing those horrible orthotic shoes, after about two weeks of freedom (due to badly blistered toes). The toes are covered in band-aids in a fairly pathetic attempt at blister prevention, yet she shows no signs of giving in. Yet. Poor girl ... I'd throw a fit too if I had to wear those things ...

Awwwwww ... as I'm writing this I hear that she has quieted down and Aidan is singing to her. He has a gift -- he's done that ever since she was a little baby, whenever he heard her cry he'd come running to her side and start singing, and sure enough -- she'd quiet right down and look lovingly at her big brother. Love that kid. Now my day is done.