fun day

So this morning I defied holiday tradition and got out of bed at 7 a.m. so I could go pick up my SIL Anita to take her "junior photos." These are of course similar to senior photos, except taken as a junior. We had a lot of fun, and got some great shots.

We then came back to my house to eat lunch and review the photos. We really wanted to go out somewhere, but both being pathetically poor (her in a typical highschool student sort of way and me in a "I swear DH's company is going to start making money soon" sort of way), decide that we should see what her parents are doing. If they had fun plans, we though we could tag along on my FIL's nickel. They were going to a movie, but we managed to sweettalk my FIL out of $22 -- $20 for the two of us and $1 for each of the kids. We decided to hit Savers, as I'd seen a sign last week that Labor Day was 50% off day! Whoo hoo! We went, and the kids enjoyed exploring the most likely germ-infested toy section (luckily I'm hardly a germaphobe) for a while, then we managed to corral them long enough to look at some dishes and clothes, and finally jewelry. We scored big time!

We bought:
1 skirt for me
2 small glass goblets for the kids
2 little mouse/rat pins
1 pair of very cool clip on earrings for Anita
1 cool funky ring for Noodle
1 random stuffed potato plush to be used at a future date
3 super cute bowls (see photo)


Anita found the bowls, but since unmatched dishes are not my MIL's "thing," she happily gave them to me. I actually do not like matching dishes. I love to find the perfect dish for eating different foods, and to choose a dish dependent on mood and desired serving size. Granted, I was reminded once again that uniform dishes do fit better in cupboards, but that is a sacrifice I am willing to make. Plus, with this strategy it isn't quite the same degree of tragedy when dishes break, which they do here too frequently, and often in 3s. Rather, I try to look at it as an opportunity to go pick out a new bowl/plate/glass next time I go to a thrift/secondhand store.

The checkout girl was a kindred spirit. When she saw the bowls she said how cute they were, and how she loves bowls, and eats almost everything out of bowls. I agreed that bowls are superior to plates, and we listed reasons including fitting better in your hands and less likely to dump food off. When I did a couple of semesters of pottery, far and away my favorite things to make were bowls. Second to that were mugs, which kind of turned into bowls with handles. I love a good bowl.

Then tonight we had a BBQ at the in-laws, and that was fun as well as tasty. Daisy got to chew on a nice big rib bone and got fat & other meat tidbits, which was a nice treat for her, and the kids got in a big water fight with their aunt & uncles & uncle's friends, which they quite enjoyed. Noodle made me a trophy, or as she calls it "a champion" out of a foam cup, a plastic baggy, a Capri Sun straw, a scrap of paper, a soda can tab, and some tape. I was the winner because I said I would dance in her dance party.