3 Sisters 7 Days

I felt as if I were living an episode of TLC’s “What Not To Wear”: http://tlc.discovery.com/fansites/whatnottowear/whatnottowear.html. I made my 11-year-old daughter promise NOT TO WEAR anything from her collection of over-sized novelty t-shirts (mostly men’s size large, compliments of a much traveled aunt) and return ALL of my old Levi 501s (size 28/34…about a women’s 6, and she’s a 00!). In exchange, I promised her a “new wardrobe” of fitted yet age-appropriate t-shirts and new jeans in her size.

At just over 11 and 1/2, my daughter, Reiley, is 5′4″ and about 90 lbs. soaking wet. A year ago, XL tops in the girls’ section left over two inches of her belly bare when she raised her arms; between the time school started in August and now, she outgrew a girls’ size 16 pants/skirt in length. We’ve been struggling to find clothes SHE feels comfortable wearing, I approve of, and fit into the kids’ clothing budget. Until VERY RECENTLY, Reiley refused to wear “teenager” clothes in favor of hand-me-downs. Hence the too-big tees and Levis.

After successfully removing her tees to a closet drawer, we started replacing them with “long” tees in XXL/16-18 when we could find them and women’s size XS otherwise. We were doing really well filling Reiley’s closet by Christmas; Santa and Grandma sent us over the top. So we focused on jeans when we set out December 26th.

At that point, Reiley already had ONE pair of jeans we both like: a size 00/24 “boyfriend” cut Lucky Brand Jeans in very faded, distressed denim. So we started there.

Personally, I LOVE Lucky Brand Jeans: http://www.luckybrand.com/. They’re well-made and reasonably priced. The low-rise “Little Maggie” fits perfectly over my nearly non-existent hips. I can wear the regular length with flip flops and sneakers, the long length with heels. Unfortunately, we couldn’t find a pair EXACTLY like Reiley’s favorites. But we did find a “Sundown Straight” ($51.75) that came close – a little lower cut and tighter than she’s used to in a 00, but really cute. She also liked a “retro” cut that was only available in a 0 with a bit more “hip” than she actually has, so we put those on hold and moved on.

Since Reiley LOVES classic Levis, we hit the Levi outlet store next: http://us.levi.com/home/index.jsp. There were no 501s in a 24, and I wasn’t about to let her try the larger, baggier sizes. So we moved to the “women’s” side of the store and she tried every “skinny” and “straight” style in stock in a 00 or 0. She liked the 504s best ($31). Much like the “Skinny 503″ that is among my own favorites, the Levi 504 is a “slouch” jean, meaning that it is low rise in front, but markedly higher in back to prevent pantie peek-a-boo. It fit a little tighter than the Lucky Jeans, so we decided on the 0 in a faded indigo wash.

Next up: Seven for All Mankind. We looked. We touched. We agreed that there was no way an 11-year-old needed jeans at roughly $75.00 each on sale!

Finally, we tried Guess: http://shop.guess.com/?CMP=KNC-reprisegoogle2008&HBX_PK=guess&HBX_OU=50. Reiley was against it. As far as she is concerned, Guess is dangerously close to the Abercrombie and Fitch, American Eagle, and Hollister “everyone at school” wears, and so maybe too “girlie girl” for her. I told her that I used to wear Guess when I was much less the fashionista than I am now, and reminded her that my close friend and stylist refers to Guess as “skinny girl” jeans. It might be perfect for her.

My logic prevailed. We both tried the straight cut “Malibu,” a “skinny jean,” and the low-rise “Doheny” jean with patch pockets. Reiley thought that the skinny jean was too much like the Levis, and the Doheny showed too much skin. But she LOVED the Malibu. No wonder, it looks just like her favorite Lucky’s.

The moms reading this will appreciate that, on me, that same jean didn’t look quite as terrific and prompted Reiley to remark, “Mommy, you have not butt!” in the same disgusted tone that her older brother once told me, “Mom, I wish YOU had a cool car like Uncle Danny!” as we washed the MINIVAN he and his siblings were responsible for bringing into my life…

Anyway, we bought the Guess jeans ($49) she liked to make four. In addition to the black skinny jeans she got for Christmas and a pair of Roxy jeans that – miraculously – still fit, I think she’s in good shape.

I make pajamas the way old women make blankets. My grandmothers crocheted afghans; my mother hand-finishes fleece blankets – enough and more for ALL of us children and grandchildren and family friends to throw amply over chairbacks, couches, and beds. In that respect, I’m lucky. Children, and some adults, outgrow pajamas; if not, they DO wear out. So there’s always a demand.

I buy fabric – mostly flannel, some satin and thermal, and maybe a fancy piece now and then – all year, and sew when I can, or when I HAVE to. Someone has a baby and I get the machines out – a Kenmore serger “workhorse” and an even older basic Kenmore my grandmother bought for me when I received my MA nearly 20 years ago!  It never takes long to finish the gift, but then I make “jammies” for each of my children, and more to “put up” for later. (Earlier this year, I listed some of my women’s designs in our eBay boutique, but THAT doesn’t seem to be the venue for semi-custom pajamas.)

Anyway, this year, I decided to make pajamas for my nieces and nephews and sisters and sisters-in-law for Christmas. At the time I made this decision, I neither calculated exactly HOW MANY jammies I’d need to make nor made any effort to establish a schedule for completing them. And so it was Sunday, December 21, when I pulled out the machines and cutting table and embarked on the project of completing 22 jammie bottoms!

The first four were easy. I’d just made my newest sister-in-law and niece matching pajamas, so I decided to get them something else; and I had two pair made already that, as luck would have it, fit my remaining two sisters-in-law.

I cut on Sunday. I started with the “big kids,” then the adults, and, finally, the “little kids” because I could cut theirs from “scraps.” I sewed on Monday – most of the day, and then again late at night, and finished putting together all but a couple of pairs. I should have pushed myself. Tuesday morning – the day before Christmas Eve – I had to contend with my children who were both stir-crazy from being inside so long (on account of the rain…YES it DOES rain in California) and antsy to go Christmas shopping. While simultaneously sewing and mediating the kids’ squabbles, I managed to “serge” off a section of my sister’s jammies and spent nearly an hour piecing them back together as well as making another pair for her! (If you’re counting, that makes 19.)

Tuesday, I put the elastic in the waists and added embellishments to the girls’ pajamas. When I got to my daughter’s, I thought, “these look really small.” She IS skinny, but…Just in case, I cut out and sewed ANOTHER pair for her (making 20). I was short some rick rack and really wanted some fuzzy trim for one pair, so I stopped early, in time to make a final trip to JoAnn’s. On the way there, I stopped at the post office to ship the first completed jammies to my sister, sister-in-law, and nieces in Colorado.

I finished embellishing the final jammies on Tuesday. With a little time to spare, I made pair for my “Friends 2B Made Doll,” Veda (making 21 p.j.’s in under 60 hours!)

I wrapped everything – except Veda’s jammies and my own – on Wednesday, showered, and was on my way to our family Christmas Eve party by 5 PM.

This may be the latest we’ve ever put our tree up. As usual, we waited until the end of finals. We’d planned to go Monday (December 15th), which was a few days late, but thought we’d take advantage of Ted’s weekday off. But it rained. Hard. And all day. (In fact, it snowed about 200′ up the hill – wow!)

Then I had to entertain job candidates, Olivia had her holiday performance, and Quentin had finals…So it was Thursday before I could count on making it to the “tree farm.” (We’re not sure where Olivia came up with this one, but it stuck.) Ted and I traded “cars” so that I’d have the truck for our trek and within an hour or so of Parker’s final class, we were on our way.

With the exception of our first Christmas in Riverside, we’ve always selected a live or just cut tree from one of the (Christmas) tree lots in “town.” They’re still a bit of a drive, though, and I wanted to make the trip a relatively quick one, and maybe even avoid the mud and muck, not to mention the work of loading the tree into the truck myself. I thought we’d try Target, Costco, and Home Depot on the way to the nearest tree lot.

We approached Target with anticipation. It’s practically right down the street and Terri told us that it was so late in the season that we might be able to score a bargain tree. Alas, not an 8′ tree in the place. We piled back into the truck and headed to Costco.

While I checked Costco because I had to pick up stamps for our cards anyway, the “big kids” headed to the adjacent Home Depot. They found trees before I found stamps! By the time Olivia, Parker, and I caught up with them, they’d selected three options from the 7′-8′ section of Douglas Firs. To be honest, I was pretty impressed. All three trees looked good – straight trunks, no unsightly gaps between branches or dead needles. I just missed the smell of trees, and sap, and sawdust…but I figured it was probably my cold. Anyway, these trees were so nice looking that another family waited for us to choose so that they could select their tree from our cast-offs!

In less than 15 minutes – tops – my kids had helped “Cowboy Kevin” (the guy was wearing boots, chaps, and a cowboy hat with his Home Depot apron) haul our tree to check-out, where he wrapped it while I paid, and load it into our waiting truck. Easily THE quickest tree hunt to date.

It did take us another two days to decorate it – only because I like to enjoy the tree with just the lights for a day or so before adding the rest of the decorations. But the result is amazing, as always.

If it weren’t for the lack of scent – no, it’s not my nose…no one else can smell a thing either – we might try the local tree farm again.

GROSS! This morning, when the kids woke up and – skipping breakfast – ran out into the garage to check the traps, they found “the creature”: a large gray rat with a white belly that had chewed it’s paw off to escape the trap and bled to death a few inches from the trap. Yes, THIS is how we solved this year’s “mouse problem.”

Every year when the weather turns cold – 50 degrees here in sunny So. California – we deal with a few rodent visitors – tiny gray creatures that I really hate to be responsible for killing. We set a few traps, catch a mouse or two, and move on. This year we were visited by Monster Mouse, or so we thought. SOMETHING came into our garage and ate my daughter’s Girl Scout candy and some M&Ms I had packaged as gifts. We cleaned up the debris, set a trap or two, and caught a mouse. But the ordeal wasn’t over.

IT returned to gnaw through the insulated containers where we store dog food. We repaired the damage, purchased more traps, and planned a thorough cleaning for the weekend. Then the garage door broke! My son said, “I just pushed the button to close the door like I always do, and there was a loud ’snap’ and hardware flying everywhere.” The garage door went half way down on the right, but only about a a third of the way down on the left. A mouse got stuck between the cable and the garage door, causing it to snap and pull the garage door off its track. This was serious, not to mention costly. Although we were able to make the garage door functional again, we called out a repairman anyway. Cha-ching!

Saturday, a large bag of mouse traps at hand, we started cleaning out the garage. We pulled just about everything out, plugged in the shop vac, and stopped with dropped jaws. SOMETHING had tried to chew through the shop vac’s barrel?! (Okay, the only food left “out” in the place was the dog food we’d cleaned up weeks ago with the shop vac.) Thank Buddha, it still worked. Garage clean, we set a dozen traps…and waited.

Sunday morning, get this. Nearly all of the traps had been gathered together near the freezer. Two had done their job – a dead mouse in each. But the other one held a mouse that had been partially eaten! Sickening. Now I was really feeling for the mice. And wondering WHAT was living in our garage. 

Ted immediately thought, “rats.” My sister Terri did a little research and reassured me that only cats, snakes, and birds of prey eat mice. But she was wrong. A rat will eat almost anything, including other rodents. Yuck! 

We set bigger traps. This morning, we caught a rat that looks disturbingly like the rather large “mouse” that broke the garaged door and a “creature.” I didn’t see it, but the kids claim it was “kitten” size, gray with a white belly and no paw. We’re freaked out. No one used the garage entrance today, opting instead to walk all the way around to the front door, in the rain!

My advice, if you have mice, consider yourself lucky. Or get a rat.

This year Maz, my brother Craig, and my two nieces, and I decided to pick out AND cut down our Christmas trees.  We were all really excited; this was the first time for any of us to actually to go out into the forest, pick out a tree, cut it down with a saw, and bring it home.

We got our permits and headed up the mountain. There were so many drivers getting permits, the process would have been quicker if they had it as an option at Starbucks.

All of us wanted the “perfect” tree, though we were told by the permit handlers that the trees in the forest are not perfect.  We were then determined to prove them wrong.  Little did we know how difficult and exhausting it was going to be.  First of all, we had to drive a bit of a distance to get away from the crowd.  We probably went a good ten miles up, then we veered off a bit, and that was the first place we looked.  The ground was covered with snow, so the girls had a great time making snowballs and Sammy was in heaven. Walking up and down, we saw plenty of trees, even a few we contemplated cutting down. But we really didn’t want to find the “perfect” tree at the first place we looked; we needed to see all of our options.

About one in a half hours later, we ventured farther up the mountain to a One Way Road, which was great because we figured no one would be around this far up and into the forest.  We pulled over at some point to take a look around.  Craig found his tree right by the truck, but he wanted to continue just in case there was a better one just around the corner. By this time, I was a little over the “perfect” tree.  Maz and I kept looking and looking.  They all seemed to be bare on one side, too thin, too big, combined with another tree…Ugh! We were sooo frustrated.  Every tree we thought was perfect turned out to be a dud.  Once Craig finally decided on the tree by his truck, I was determined to pick a tree at this spot, even if it was a Charlie Brown Christmas tree!

Anyway, about forty five minutes later, we ended up in a meadow and there were about five trees that all looked healthy and would make a great addition to any living room.  Then we spotted it: our “perfect” tree. It’s about 7-8 ft tall with no flat sides and the girth on the bottom is excellent.  I was so relieved, our mission was over.  Luckily we had the saw and were able to cut it down in a matter of seconds, and off we went, just like in the movies. Maz was carrying the tree with one hand, I had the saw; we were both headed through the forest in the snow with our “perfect” tree.  It was only about 4 hours in the making for this tree.  But our adventure wasn’t yet.

More to come on our adventure of cutting down Craig’s huge ass tree and our detour to pick up the saw we left behind

Okay, I have already covered a bit of the Christmas weather. Now it’s time for the Christmas spirit.

Maz has a way of starting a conversation with “You know what I have been thinking?” I just love it when he says this. It is ALWAYS interesting to hear what comes out of his mouth after that statement. I triggered this thought process by asking what he wanted for Christmas.

I guess he watched some millionaire show on TV the other night that compared the millionaire life with the life of people who are just getting by.  He was moved by how homeless kids were so appreciative for a meal.  He told me how happy they were. It turns out that the Millionaire contributed money to keep feeding the homeless and poor. Then he went on to tell me that he feels lucky to be in the position he is in – always having food, shelter, cable, clothes. He has everything he wants, especially me (okay, I had to spend some time convincing him I was part of the “happy package of life” he was talking about). He ended the conversation with, “We should just not get each other anything for Christmas, save our money and just appreciate what we have.” It was such a great Hallmark moment. 

Didn’t last long. I don’t think his his mouth was closed for 20 seconds before he had a NEW brilliant idea: we should buy something together. His idea was a flat screen tv or Wii…

I guess he really doesn’t have everything he wants, except for me of course.

We will get the Wii, donate to Care and Share, and call it a season.

So, today I woke up and it was snowing.  The season just started and yet I am already over it. 

I spent all day yesterday freezing. No matter what I did my hands never warmed up – I think I have the disease my mom and sister have, Reynaud’s Syndrom, which makes your hands turn white and lose feeling…yeah, it’s great .  I did leave the house for just a bit.  I had to run into REI (return a “turtle” that was too big), Vitamin Cottage (Ebony’s dog food), and the dentist (I guess I had a filling fall out).  At each stop, people commented on my wardrobe, namely my lack of jacket. 

I just hate wearing jackets! I feel so confined. No one wants to drive in a jacket. I had on my cloud jeans (CAbi) along with the perfect color green sweater (also CAbi) and my oldest and dearest Uggs.  I really thought I would be fine once I was in a warm car.  Surprise to me, that warm car thing never really happened. Okay, it was about 22 degrees outside with a bit of wind chill.  Anyway, it was a dreadfully cold day…

Today isn’t getting any better.  The snow started about 6 am and is still going strong. I did manage to get Sammy out for a quick walk and run around the park.  Thankfully, there was another “nut” out there with his dog so Sammy was able to play a bit.  It was about 8 degrees with the wind chill. My morning master plan in cold weather is for me to get out of the house as soon as day breaks-before my mind is fully alert-so I don’t actually realize how cold it is and how insane I am. 

Talk about layers. I was okay on the bottom. I was wearing my Nike cold weather running pants and they are amazingly warm.  On top was another story. I was wearing a super thick long sleeve running top (Jeanna knows the one), a thick bright orange vest, and a snowboarding jacket. I added the vest on the basis of yesterday’s morning venture. Much improvement. By the time I returned, my hands still had a bit of feeling in them, though I couldn’t feel my mouth, chin or nose. 

I am already looking forward to the weekend- 40’s and 50’s in the forecast! Yay…

Now, if you excuse me I’m going to go shovel the driveway

“On my first cruise to Mexico, I liked almost everything. It was hot, though. The first two cities [Cabo San Lucas and Mazatlan] were burning hot like my head was in an oven for 20 minutes! The thing I liked least about my cruise was our trip to Mazatlan because it was burning hot. And my head was on fire. And it smelled like fish in Mazatlan.” 

                                                                                                      Parker’s Essay

Yeah, it WAS hot and sticky in Mexico in October! But my sisters and I LOVED getting OFF the ship anyway. Even in Mazatlan, where we spent nearly our entire day there on benches in the back of a pick-up truck along the coast between the port and the “Golden Zone” of resorts, pristine beaches, pools and waterfalls, high-end shopping, and complimentary sodas and margaritas. Unfortunately – especially for Parker, who just wanted to go in the water – we couldn’t get in without a credit card, and all three of us had opted to go ashore with just identification and a little cash.

Cabo San Lucas was much better – nowhere near as hot, in part because we took a BOAT tour that day, and it was BEAUTIFUL, and free of fishy smells. Cabo San Lucas is Baja California’s largest communities and one that is becoming a popular vacation spot for many Americans. We joined our Dad and Nancy for beers and margaritas on a boat tour narrated by French ecologist Jacques Cousteau. Our only disappointment, other than the HORRIBLE trip to a CLOSED ITALIAN restaurant after the tour (we were supposed to enjoy the view while literally MELTING?!), was that we didn’t see much more of Cabo from the boat than we could from our seats in the ship’s spa .