Monday, April 8, 2013

Christmas in April

On Friday night I cashed in my Christmas present from my hubby...



It was so awesome for so many reasons.  It was a great show of pure energy.  No fancy acrobats or fireworks.  Just a band who's been around for thirty years singing their hearts out to 15000 fans.  And if Jon Bon Jovi said, "clap your hands", we clapped.  If he said, "sing", we sang.  Oh, the power of a rockstar!  The power to play with your emotions and take you back to the days of pre-teen dances when you had an action for every word of Shot through the heart and you're to blame, you give love a bad name... With thirty years of music, every song can take you to a place and time and conjure up a memory.  

As I watched JBJ entertain this huge arena of people, I wondered what it must be like to to have these thousands of people cheering, smiling and singing the words to your songs.  I wondered, if after thirty years, it's all in a days work or if sometimes it still feels crazy that all these people are here to see you.  Somewhere there must be the satisfaction of witnessing the joy that your craft brings to so many.  I was thinking all this as I was singing my own heart out.  Because who doesn't know every word to Bed of Roses?



This concert date took us to the city for one night without our girls.  And that meant I had six hours in a shopping mall all by myself.  There was a time I would have owned this mall, having every shop scoped out then returning to pick up the things I had to have in record time.  But I have to say that I'm not so good at it anymore. 

 I looked at the neon colors and skinny jeans and wondered how I pull off these styles since I'm trying to go for a thirty-ish look not a close-to-forty trying to look twenty look.  I breezed in and out of Garage, Aeropostale, Hollister, and Forever 21.  I looked everywhere for a Forever 29 store but it didn't exist.  I was moments away from accepting my fate of shopping at Cleo and Tan Jay when I stopped in at the Children's Place to see if my girls needed anything.  I knew they didn't need anything but picking out a new graphic tee for them offered me respite from the chore of shopping for myself in stores full of summer clothes that by the time it's warm enough to wear them, they will all be on the clearance rack.  I did end up with three new pairs of shoes though.  Shoes were the least painful to try on.



One day away from the girls is all it takes for me to miss them. When we got home we had a new addition to our family.  A while ago Callie drew a picture of her dad.  On one of my surfs through Pinterest I came across a site where you could have your child's drawing turned into a toy.  I immediately thought this was the coolest idea ever and recalled the picture Callie had drawn of her dad.  You see, if Callie wakes up in the night it is her dad that she comes looking for to lay with her.  Imagine if she had her very own dad doll that could sleep with her all the time!  And I knew just the person to make this one of a kind doll...



Whenever I have a good idea I always call my mom, because her and my dad always have the know how. (remember the pirate ship?)  Grandma may have been the main contributor to this project but I know Papa was there to offer suggestions for which materials to use.  Callie had a tight lipped little smirk when she saw her new dad doll.  Her way of saying that she was very pleased.  Grandma also did some repairs to Callie's quilt that she had made for her bed.  She sewed a green backing on the quilt just as sister requested and she told Callie that she put a million hugs and kisses in it so that she would get a hug a kiss from Grandma every night.  When I tucked Callie into bed she smelled her quilt and said, "it smells like Grandma".  Then she looked at her dad doll and said, "now we're just missing mom, me and Lexi.  I think I'll draw some pictures tomorrow."  I didn't tell her that Grandma closed her doll making shop.



Funny thing about being away from the girls for one night...they seemed to have grown overnight.  Is that even possible?  It's like the banana shirt got too small and Callie learned how to read in the short time that I was having my shopping crisis and rockin out to a long haired rock-n-roll band!

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