What's in your purse?

I was going through my purse the other day, frantically searching for something. And I got tickled at the crazy random things that I found. When the babies were small, I never even carried a purse. I just kept a few necesssary items in the diaper bag. About the time I did not need one for Jessa, I did for Spencer. So I went a few years with no purse.



Then I got to the point where I would just carry a big purse and that would cover it. Over time, I realized that my purse was entirely to heavy. OK, yes, Jessa and Spencer love to pick up stray rocks, so I would find several pounds of rock in the bottom of my purse. I had a purse problem. I finally decided that if I carried a smaller purse, I would have less room for all the "crap" that the kids and I pile into it.



Well, my purse is smaller now, but you won't believe how much "crap" I can cram into it. Every day it has different things in it. It changes based on our needs! The pictures from this post are from the day I realized that I still have a purse problem.

This is my purse. Ain't it cute?



This is what an aerial view of my purse looks like:


Here are the items in my purse:



Here they are one by one, itemized for your enjoyment:

Travel Band-Aids -

a Mom must since no matter how serious the injury, a band-aid makes it better.

Keys to my "Mom Van"


A card from an author that signed some books for some of my family for Christmas

A change purse.

Does this mean that there is not several dollars worth of random change in the bottom of my purse?

No, it does not.

Chapstick - Carmex for me and Cherry Chapstick for Jessa -

We are addicts.

An extra Chick-fil-A straw.

I always keep extra straws in case a drive-in window shorts us.

Nothing can ruin a car trip faster than one kid without a straw.
Plus, I love Chick-fil-A.

Kiddie Cold Meds - A must during snotty season.

A compact -

Random, since I do not EVER wear make-up.

I think I put it in there for the mirror.

Spencer's partially eaten cookie from Subway.

I threw it away after I photographed it. Gross.

Ooops. Some crayons that we somehow stole

(from church for crying out loud).

Excedrin - my savior on many days.

Actually, just looking at what I am toting around in my purse

makes me need to take some right now.

A feather - Spencer collects every feather he finds.

And he does not have a purse.

Gum - I hate having bad breath.

"Hanitizer" - 'nuff said.

House Keys and the multitude of frequent shopper/ saving cards I have.

I am so frugal.

Or I shop too much.

You be the judge.

Tops to Jessa and Spencer's milk from a dinner out.

They told me to keep them just in case.

So if I see any untopped milk, I am covered.

My awesome T-mobile G-1

An empty bag from Spencer's frosted flakes to-go that morning.

Receipts.

You never know when you will need them.

Of course, I will never be able to find the one I need. . .

A broken Slinky Dog from Toy Story -

Spencer hearts slinky dog right now.

A snack - Moms get hungry, too.

Stray money -

maybe I should put it in my change purse?

Nah.

Sunglasses -

David makes fun of me, but I even need them on cloudy days.

There is a glare.

Squinting makes my head hurt.

For real.

The stray bottom stuff.

An unwrapper sucker that Spencer wanted to "save for May."

And yes, she ate it when he gave it to her several days

AFTER he placed it in my purse with no wrapper.

That is true love.

My wallet.

The only truly essential item besides maybe the phone.

Do you feel closer to me now?

I challenge you to look in your purse and see what you find!

The lesser of two evils

We have a lot of stuffed animals. My kids love them. LOVE them. L.O.V.E. Them.


They want them to go with us when we leave the house. They want to sleep with them. They want to play with them. They want to love on them. They want to baby them. They name them very creative names like a bear named "Beary" and a giraffe named "Giraffey" and a female rabbit that Jessa named "Jeffbucks" (please don't ask).



I have always enjoyed stuffed animals, too. Maybe they come by that honestly? And I tend to think of them as having personalities. Books like Corduroy really sadden me. That poor bear! I mean I know it has a happy ending, but it is so heart wrenching watching that confused little bear. Oh and the Velveteen Rabbit - don't get me started. When I read a condensed version to the kids, I cannot get through it without choking up.



And stuffed animals are easy gifts. David brings them home to them from trips. Although he always brings really cool ones like a Beareglesquoonit from Lake Tahoe. I tried to link an explanation, but I could not find one. Darn it. Legend says: During a fierce winter blizzard, a bear, eagle, squirrel, raccoon and a rabbit all sought shelter in the same cave. This is what happened.

The kiddos always pick out a stuffed animal if they are given the choice. You know, they love a trip to Cracker Barrel and with all the choices, they usually pick a stuffed animal.

You may be asking yourself, why is Dana telling me all of this?

Well, I am telling you all of this because frankly,
THE ANIMALS ARE TAKING OVER.
They are everywhere.
I find them all over the place.
For real.

They are on Jessa and Spencer beds:

There are stray ones in chairs:


We have an entire closet in the playroom dedicated the them:



I tried placing plastic shelves in the closet to organize them. But there are too many. And the kids are not so good at keeping up with my organizational plans:

They are in my chair. I sit on them and they talk to me:


There are stuffed animals in the dog bed.

Oh, wait, one of those is Stewart.


The futon hardly has a place left for someone to sit:

Even with a dedicated closet in the playroom, the kids closet also has a bin:

I am all about baskets. You can still have things accessible, but they look somewhat neater. So we have baskets with animals in many rooms:

There are small bins in shelves all over the place with a few strays:


There is a whole container in the garage full of animals that have made a trip here or there. They are left behind in the car. And when I get to the point that there is no place for me to sit to drive the van,

I purge them into this container:


I know we could give them away. I have tried. But Jessa and Spencer love them. They know them ALL. We will not see one for months and then out of the blue, we will have to search the house until we find it. Once we could not find a zebra. Jessa wanted to make sure I knew which one he was talking about, so she drew a picture. It was like a sketch released from the police with an APB.

We did find the zebra. Whew. And he seemed unharmed and untraumatized from his experience.

So with ALL of these animal friends, a few weekends ago when we were at Cabela's with Bay, I simply could not consent to bringing ANOTHER one into the house. Especially since the ones they wanted were, well, huge. So they found something else. It was something they did not have. So I said, OK. I thought it was the lesser of two evils.

Maybe I was not thinking clearly because I am living in fear of being overrun with stuffed animals. Maybe I was tired from sleeping with one eye open, surrounded by wild and somewhat questionable animals. Whatever the case, we ended up with these:

After about 3 minutes, I thought I was sorry.

And we were not even to the car yet.

Once we were home with them, I KNEW I was sorry.

So now I am back to thinking that stuffed animals may not be so bad.

At least they are quiet, right?

Right?

But then I see this:

Just look at Hello Kitty, winking knowingly.

She is just biding her time.
They WILL take over.

It is only a matter of time.

I guess at least now we are armed.

Happy Birthday, Jessa!

6 years ago today, my life was changed forever. My sweet baby girl was born. I cannot believe it has been 6 years. On one hand, I feel like she was just born yesterday. That tiny little thing with her chin quivering as she was placed in my arms. Yet, I have a hard time remembering a time that I did not love her; a hard time remembering that I actually existed before I was a mother. Her mother. Know what I mean?

David and I were so ready to be parents. And when I tell her the story of her birth, I always tell her that we wanted her more than anything else in the world. Of course, we did not know we wanted her, but now we cannot imagine a more perfect girl for us.

Notice I said "perfect for us" because our girl can drive us nuts. For real, NUTS. And I would never say anyone was "perfect." She is overly dramatic. She is pretty much spoiled rotten. She is rather bossy and can manipulate her brother like nobody's business. And she can be pretty hard to handle if she is not getting her way. She is can be rather moody - especially when you wake her up too early! (The other morning when she was not happy about getting up for the bus, she said, "I never should have signed up for school!" as though it was all her idea.)

But she is ours. And despite the fact that we get so frustrated with her on a daily basis, she can be so sweet. And she has a good heart. She is kind. She loves to draw pictures for us and write us notes. She is passionate about everything (especially about not going to bed). She is so funny and makes us laugh all the time. She is fun and silly. She is confident and she knows her own mind. She is beautiful on the inside and out. She is smart and adores school. She keeps us on our toes and challenges us and makes us smarter. She is our girl, and she is perfect for us - with all the wonderful traits and all of the things that make us crazy.

I have been so emotional when I think of her being 6. Seriously, it takes TWO hands for her to hold up the fingers to tell people how old she is. TWO HANDS, people!

Every time I pretend to cry about "my baby being 6! wah-hah-hah," Jessa crawls into my lap and soothes me. She says, "Mommy, I promise that even though I am going to be 6, I will always be your baby!" See, she is a smart girl; she knows just what to say.

We wanted her so badly. We were so happy on this day 6 years ago. And every day since that one, she has made us happier than we could ever imagine. We are so blessed to have her. We are so grateful for the gift that is our Jessa Lynn.

Happy Birthday, sweet Jessa!

You are so loved.