Getting The Boot

Today was a rough day at Preschool. I was supposed to sub in one of the pre-K rooms. There wasn't much of a lesson plan so I spent about 20 minutes madly throwing a few ideas together to fit the dinosaur theme that I hoped would mesh in my mind as I drove to school. By the time I got there, I had the day fairly well mapped out in my head. When I walked into the director's office, I was told yet another teacher was out for the day! The class I had just finished planning for in my head was going to be taught by the Assistant Director because her child was in the class that now needed a teacher. She's never subbed before and the 4 yr old class is QUITE challenging. The Pre-K 5 yr olds are a walk in the park in comparison. So I quickly helped her prep the dino room, we measured 75' out in the gym to represent the length of a brontosaurus, and I downloaded my brainstorms to her as much as we could in 20 minutes. Then I went in blind to my classroom to face my challenging day. It was O.K, but I don't want to talk about it. Nothing great happened and I didn't get to laugh at all today. Tomorrow I go back. Ugh. For now, I want to remember happier times.

Sooooo....... Last week, I went shopping! As you know, we love to shop at Plato's Closet, our local second hand shop where we buy cute, name-brand stuff that is new, or practically new, and drastically cheaper than if we bought it at the mall. The latest trip yielded some great finds! First, a pair of Timberland boots for Mariah. Never been worn either! Mariah's feet grew 2 sizes since last winter. The boots she got last Christmas are in Taryn's closet now. I saw these and put them on hold. We were going to Mercer the next day, so I took Mariah back with me to Platos after school. When we were in the car, I asked her if she wanted to try on a pair of Timberland's I had found. Mariah looked at me like I was nuts and replied, "Uh Yeah! Of course I do! They're Timberlands!!!". She was thrilled that they fit and wore them every where for several days in a row exclaiming about how much money we had saved. I kinda had to nip that in the bud before school started on Monday. I hope that was successful. The boots retail for $170 and we got them for $16! Saving over a $150 on a pair of boots IS heady stuff!!


I found Taryn a really nice gently used hoodie by Juicy Couture for $25. It's lined with real rabbit fur and is soooo soft and warm! Mariah, our animal rights activist, gasped in horror but it doesn't bother Taryn or I a bit. It looks just like this one in the photo which was selling for $239! If that's a realistic price for it brand new, it was an even better bargain than the boots!

I also bought a bunch of layering tanks for me to wear to preschool. I like to have a layer underneath because my shirt gets pulled on a lot, especially when I get dragged off to jail. And I learned, luckily from others' misfortunes and not my own, that there are a variety of things that can "go wrong" so it's always good to have more than one layer to remove should the need arise. Always be prepared applies just as well to the Boy Scouts as it does to Preschool Teachers!


Gib wasn't left out of the Plato's shopping trip; he got a button up shirt by Fossil for $7. I liked it, so he got it. He wasn't quite as thrilled as the girls, but put a bag of Skittles in front of the dude and you'll get the reaction an awesome clothing find brings out in us.

As a matter of fact, I remembered I owed him a bag of Skittles, but I couldn't quite remember why. So I got it and then he was as happy as Taryn and Mariah were with their Platos stuff. As I gave it to him, I asked him if he remembered why I owed it to him. After a minute of "uhhhhh" and some "I don't know but you do!" we decided it was from the day I texted him at 5:30 a.m. asking him to do my morning chores for me so I could stay in bed (I'm sure I had a good, legitimate reason): feed the cats, make sure Taryn was up, wake up Mariah, take out the lunches, lock the door on your way out, etc., and when he replied "O.K." I answered, "thanks, a bag of skittles for you" and he pinged back "YES!". I went back to sleep with the only memory of the conversation being that I needed to buy Skittles!