Changes, Changes

Changes, changes. Do they ever stop?

In December, the family that had been living next door to us for 3 years moved back to South Korea. I really liked having them as neighbors, and Brandon was good friends with their oldest boy, who was the same age. I'm pretty sure that they would have been best buds if he had not gone to another local school (our school is so small it doesn't offer an ESL program). It's probably good that they were at different schools, though, as Brandon doesn't expand his friends horizons when he doesn't have to. We knew that they were moving. Everything had been planned out for months. Still, it was a hard day when the moving truck showed up, and even harder when we said our last goodbyes a couple days later. Brandon cried and cried over the loss of his friend. I know that there is Skype and all that, but the loss of a good friend, one that you will probably never see again, is still hard.

Just two weeks after that, Big J, our neighbor of 3 1/2 years, also moved. Big J and Brandon hit it off right away. Their personalities were very different, so I'm convinced that proximity played a large part. There were no other kids anywhere near the ages of our kids in the neighborhood for the first year and half we lived here (at least not that we knew of), so the introduction of another kid to play with was huge! Brandon had made a friend in kindergarten, but the half-day of school combined with a rigorous schedule made socializing a difficult task. Big J and Brandon became friends right away, and I became friend with Big J's dad, who stayed at home (and then, eventually, his mom, who is the breadwinner). It was nice to have someone to talk to. The kids played and played. Big J was at our house All. The. Time.  There are things we do now, like how I dress in the mornings and when the kids do homework, that were all designed with him in mind, since there was minimal supervision and he was always coming up to play . In later years, as the boys got older, they didn't seem to have as much in common and didn't play as much. Still, I have to give credit to Big J for sticking with Brandon. Brandon would be so rude sometimes, and yet Big J kept coming around. We've advised Brandon that lots of other kids wouldn't/will not put up with that kind of treatment, and we work to turn it around. It was a pretty hard week when Big J left. The parents said they were leaving on Saturday or Sunday, and they couldn't get it together to leave for a whole week! Oh, the drama! Each day Brandon wanted to play, for the last time, with Big J. And each day was not the last day, until on Friday it was. Each night there was sadness and tears because Big J would be leaving the next day. And then he didn't. And then he did. Both boys had tears in their eyes when it was actually time for Big J to drive off (in the late afternoon, 4 days before Christmas, right before a snow storm, with their first hotel 8 hours away in Wichita). It would have been a pretty sad night for our family, had we not been leaving an hour later on holiday travels. Big J had been such a part of our life for the past 3 1/2 years that he was almost family. He knew where everything was, and even put his shoes in the kid's shoe basket when he came over! There was also some relief when they left, knowing that between the distraction of Christmas and the fact that their family actually left, the sadness would not continue to drag on day after day after day.

We've also, I think, switched churches. We weren't church shopping when we tried out the church in Boulder where the kids have a Base Camp, a Wednesday night program (I also did MOPS there for a couple of years), but yet we like it, and there we are. One thing we have not been able to find since moving to our part of Colorado is consistency in community. When the kids started Base Camp, they already knew several kids there from school. Caitlin's come home many afternoons and told me that she's seen one of her leaders was at her school doing volunteer work and said "hi" to her. When we decided to check it out after the new year we not only saw and talked with our neighbor, but several other people from around town, from the kids sports teams, and from the kids school. It was so nice! We looked at a general map of where people live (represented by pins), and discovered our town is not on the fringe, not out in the boonies of the church population. I've been looking for that since we moved here, and I've never been able to find it. I mean, isn't that suppose to be a benefit of small town living? There isn't much in our area, so we always have to drive. Oddly enough, these churches are all 10-12 miles from our house, but worlds apart. Our first church, CBC, drew from an area mostly east of Boulder, which made community hard (I just can't drive 15-25 miles one way to meet up with people on any sort of regular basis). FCC, where we've been for the last 2 years, is very centric to its neighborhood. I think that's wonderful, and I love what they do for their community but, even though we are only 10 miles away, we are so far out of their vicinity it's funny (there are huge differences inside and outside of Boulder county, and across city lines). I loved our FCC small group, but it disbanded at the end of last summer, leaving us with a dearth of community. I'm no longer sure how I think about myself in community after the last 5 1/2 years, but it's still nice to know that at FPC (the new place), I don't live in the fringes. Geography matters here, immensely. I want to live in community with others - not scattered.  That's a huge order to fill in a marginally rural place where there are little enclaves and small towns here and there. I'm going to have to get use a lot of things at FPC but the consistency in community is huge. Plus, the kids are really happy. They wanted to start going there right away.

Even though the last few months have been a flurry of changes, the kids have weathered them and are doing fine. We're all doing fine. They were pretty big at the time, though. In some ways the neighborhood changes have been a relief for me. Between the family dynamics, the family drama, the affair, the alcohol, and the lack of kid supervision, not having Big J around after school makes our afternoons a lot easier. The kids can relax more when they get home. Getting homework done is easier without constant distractions. Getting to after school activities is a lot easier when the kids aren't involved in playing games. Caitlin's friends down the street are rarely home before 6:00, so she doesn't see them much during the week, which is easier all around (if she knows they're home, it's torture for her not to be with her friends. Can you say "extrovert"?). The 9-year-old boy that moved in across the street late last summer goes to a private school, is always busy, and is gone on the weekend a lot, so we don't see him much, either. Sometimes I wish nothing more than to have my kids go outside and play with other kids in the neighborhood (and we have lots!), but sometimes I just want them to do what they need to do without constantly being interrupted by other kids who want to play. There's a balance in there somewhere, and we may have found it through all these changes.

How We Spent our Saturday

A couple of weeks ago Caitlin decided she wanted her ears pierced. I had wanted her to wait until she was 7, but I'd never mentioned that to her. She never mentioned it before, but then, right after turing 7 it was all of sudden on her mind! We waited until this weekend to get them done so daddy could be in town and go with us. She was brave in the face of pain. She forgot her stuffy, and was very grateful for the one at Claire's. I told her that after our 6 weeks we can go back and get her a pair of Hello Kitty earrings. Fun!

Happily getting her hair pulled back. 

Happy with her measured, marked ears.

Getting both ears pierced at once!

Caitlin doesn't like this picture. It makes her sad. I'm putting it up here to show how brave she was. Getting your ears pierced is painful, and this is as close as she got to actually crying.

The pretty pink daisy earrings she chose.

Pain distraction, courtesy of Red Mango frozen yogurt.

Cute, brave Caitlin - now, with earrings!

12

The 12 numbers of Christmas :

12 - the number of people who stayed at my parent's house during our visit

11 - (pm) - the time we started driving home from the airport

10 - days spent visiting family

9 - people at my in-law's house on Christmas day

8 - hours spend with our friends Scott and Chris (and Emily and Josh!)

7 - cats

6 - hours on airplanes

5 - trips to Target (seriously, I'm always forgetting something!)

4 - stockings hung by the chimney with care

3 - packed suitcases

2 - tired kiddos

1 - Lord and Savior

Hope you all had a Merry Christmas!

Fur Real?

Caitlin wants this for Christmas....

This is how much it costs, on sale.....

We keep telling her this is *not* what she's getting for Christmas. We don't even have room for this pony! Her room is small, and jam packed as it is! Maybe if we had endless money, and endless house, and endless space, this silly pony wouldn't be an issue. But half the time, these "Fur Real" critters don't even work. Still, the pleading is endless. Child, we have something for you already! You'll like it, trust me! For now I am avoiding taking her to Target!

Winterfest

Every year the 4th grade class at Brandon's school has Winterfest. It's a celebration of their writing. I don't know if the topics differ from year to year, but this year it was about family traditions. Some kids wrote about vacations, some kids wrote about camps. Brandon wrote about our Easter egg hunts! It was kind of funny, since I don't really think of that as a tradition. But hey, if he does, maybe we should up the ante!

The kids (and the parents) are suppose to dress up for Winterfest. After the writings were read, we toured the hallway to look at different pictures and writing samples from our kiddos, had pictures taken, and then met up in the library for lunch. It was a fun day for Mr. Brandon. He wore a button down shirt and (clip on) tie. Cute!

Brandon's invention - a snowman that sweeps and shovels the sidewalks!

After the writing celebration, there was much merriment in the hallways! Probably a way to blow off steam after having to come up with writing ideas, a story, and all the drafts and edits they did before their masterpieces were finished!

Oops, She Did It Again!

Actually, mommy helped a little bit. She couldn't pull it out, so I suggested tying dental floss around her tooth. I barely got it tightened and pop, out came the tooth! She was a bit shocked that she was bleeding, since she didn't bleed at all when her first tooth came out, but she soon got over that. All she kept saying was, "It's so little!"

Unseen Christmas Specials

I was looking through Directv for Christmas specials last night ('cause no one wants to miss "Frosty the Snowman," or "Rudolph" on his island of misfit toys). Check out these little gems I stumbled across:

Did you catch those two? "A Cadaver Christmas?" Hmmmmm...... "Grow Your Own Drugs for Christmas?" We are in Colorado, so some of that's no longer illegal, I guess. When people say that there's not much on television, they probably aren't talking about these awesome TV specials! 

There's also this little issue I've encountered lately with my picture taking .....

The 4th Grade Photo Bomber!

Hello Kitty

I found a couple more Hello Kitty pictures from Halloween. Here is Hello Kitty at school:

Here is the Hello Kitty side view:

Unfortunately I didn't get any good pictures of Brandon out in his penguin costume, so the last post will just have to do! 

Tardy Reflections on Halloween

Halloween came and went, and I didn't blog about it. Even though the killer of a 10 year old girl, killed not far from our town, had been caught, there was still a heaviness about Halloween that I'm not use to. Many people were anxious about letting their kids go out at night to trick-or-treat. We went out, us parents and kids, and went all over the neighborhood. We weren't out as long as last year, but that was okay. The kids couldn't figure out why they didn't haul in as much candy as before. Silly kids! We had plenty! Once again, the school PTA said we could turn in our candy to a local dentist, and that dentist would give the PTA a dollar per pound. The kids didn't go for that this year, either. If they were going to turn over their precious candy, they wanted the money. Sometimes I think the PTA is out of touch with kids.

Caitlin wanted to be Hello Kitty this year. To save her from looking like this, I did an online search for a homemade Hello Kitty costume, and found this link. It looked like something I could do, so I followed the instructions and we got ourselves a costume. Woo hoo! I was never so happy to put away my glue gun as I was after making this costume. My fingers may still be coated with a layer of glue. Luckily Brandon wanted to be a penguin from the "Madagascar" movie, so I just ordered his costume online. I only have so much creativity in me! 

So, here they are in all their Halloween glory:

They were also pretty proud of their super cute pumpkins. Brandon carved his all by himself. That may be first. 

They donned their costumes a total of 4 times in the course of a week. Once for Base Camp, a Wednesday night program at a church in Boulder, once for our church's Trunk Blast (think trunk-er-treat) on Friday, and then twice on Halloween - once at school and then to trick-or-treat. I don't remember doing this so many times in the past, but at my age, the memory is fading! 

Heavy

On October 5th a 10 year old girl vanished from a nearby town. On October 7th, her backpack and water bottle were found in my neighborhood, just a few streets over from our street. That set off a flurry of activity around our house, including putting our neighborhood on surveillance, checking ID's, and only allowing residents in and out that day. The following Wednesday, her body was found about 6 miles from our house, closer to her own, in an desolate open space area. It's been heartbreaking.

At first, people didn't want to tell their children what was going on. I never got that the choice. The kids were in the car with me, on the way to a birthday party, when I was ID'd and questioned for 10 minutes while trying to leave the neighborhood. They were full of questions that afternoon. We talked honestly about what was going on, and hung up the fliers were were given. For the next several days, all my outings and walks were accompanied by police combing the streets and the fire department combing the parks and open spaces. I can't tell you how upset I was to learn a few days later that her body was found and, as the police detective said, not intact. The days following that were filled with more door-to-door police interviews, DNA sample requests from white males in our neighborhood, and drive-by FBI wireless activity surveillance (which has been simplified now, but the way. It involves two people slowly driving by in a sedan using a smart phone). Luckily the FBI has no problem showing you a badge an explaining what they're doing when you ask why they're parked in front of your house. Otherwise I'd probably be calling the tip line to report suspicious behavior!

Last night there were 6 or 7 police on our street again, going door-to-door taking information and asking questions. They were from the girl's town, not ours. The kids were outside, as was I, so we all talked. The man I spoke with told me how nice, and how unusual it was, to see a bunch of kids playing outside in the streets. Brandon once again wanted to know why we talked about what we talked about, which lead to another honest discussion about what's been going on.

I realized today that the weight of all of this is crushing. And I'm just an outsider! Although I desperately want her killer to be caught, talking to the police is becoming unnerving. I'm starting to recognize the plain-clothes cops, the detectives, the FBI, and the different styles of unmarked cars they drive! Talking with the police last night left me with an overwhelming sense of dread, which in turn lead to yet another sleepless night.  The traffic on the way to Bible study was unusually heavy. I realized too late that my route takes me right by the open space where the body was found! All day today I was an emotional mess. Nothing about my Bible study made me feel that way, so the only conclusion I could come to was this child abduction. Brian's been gone for the better part of almost two weeks, so I've really got no one to talk to about all of this. I feel like I'm walking this journey alone, answering all the kid's questions and shouldering the burden solo. This morning just about every sad thing that someone said set me off internally into a shadowland of darkness.

Our town has been up to it's eyeballs in fear and frustration. People want cameras on houses and at every intersection. The message boards and Facebook are alive with suspicions and ideas, most of which boil down to how comfortable people would be living under surveillance. Every new car is under scrutiny. Every person that's never been seen before is a threat. I've been walking the thin line between a responsible parent and a fearful parent. My children still walk home. They still play outside. I can hear them, but I'm not there at all times watching them. Yesterday, when they didn't arrive home at their allotted time, I was more anxious than I should have been. All they did was walk home on the street with other kids instead of heading up the walking path right behind our house, which takes a few minutes longer. But still, I let my anxiety get the best of me.

My thin line might have cracked this morning, though. A mother at school asked if I was walking home with them. She'd been told at a recent town forum (that I couldn't attend) that police had told the parents not to let their children walk home alone. When my kids walk home, they are with many other kids that live on our street or in our neighborhood. The police that have been coming door-to-door have told me how nice it is to see kids outside, and to be watchful, but not worried. The mother I spoke with hasn't experienced any of this. Even though she's walking distance from our house, she's enough streets over that the police aren't combing her neighborhood daily. My motherly instincts are on high alert now. Why are the police from different town saying different things? I don't want to live my life fearful that bad things will happen to my children any time their alone. How does this prepare them for adulthood? How does my fear accomplish anything?

Studies on abductions have shown that most abducted children are taken by people they know. But sometimes that's not the case. What no one knows right now is who took this little girl, and where that person is. That's the hardest for me - knowing that he's out there right now, seeing all the same news reports that I am. Right now I'm just praying, asking to God to watch over my children, and stepping up the parental vigilance that seems to be required at this time.

**Update - the killer was caught on October 23rd. He is a 17 year old boy from the little girl's neighborhood. His mother made the call for him to turn himself in. While this is heartbreaking on so many levels, the heaviness surrounding watching our kids like eagles, at least in our neighborhood,
 has been lifted.

Bleah

mmmmm.... crab spread.

bleah......

Tooth Fairy Prep

Caitlin put her tooth in her special pillow made by her Nana, and put it under her pillow. Lo and behold, the ever-stocked tooth fairy came with a gold coin. Caitlin is thrilled that she's now officially joined the ranks of the big kids!

Toothless

Someone finally lost her first tooth today! It's only been lose for about a month, now!

She is so proud! This morning Caitlin told me she'd found something hard and rock-like in her breakfast. I was busy making lunches, so told her just to put it on the plate and not eat it, which she did. She ate the rest of her breakfast, got her backpack ready, put her shoes on, and got her hair combed. Right as she was about to put her breakfast dish in the dishwasher, she came up and showed me her "rock." Her tooth! There was no bleeding and no pain, so we didn't even know that was the hard thing hiding in the dried peas. Good thing it didn't stick in the banana she'd had first - we might never have found it! I'm sure everybody she knows at school will see her gap today.

Based on how long it took her to get her baby teeth in, I thought she'd be closer to second grade before she lost even one tooth. Guess not! Tonight we'll put her tooth in her special tooth fairy pillow. Good thing the tooth fairy went to the bank last month. Never know when she'll need a gold coin!

Crazy Hair Day!

The kids had Crazy Hair Day at Base Camp on Wednesday. Caitlin was all on board. We talked about what she wanted. Although I rarely do her hair, we have an abundance of rubber bands and clips left over from her younger years. She dug through her stuff, came up with some clips and things she liked, told me what she wanted, and we went to town. In the end she looked like something out of a Dr. Seuss book!

Brandon was another story. He wanted to do something for Crazy Hair Day, but didn't know what. I have some hair clay that will do chunky styles, and I told him I could just spike it in the front. He said yes. After I finished Caitlin's hair, I called Brandon into the bathroom. When I got no reply, I headed downstairs and found him in a crumpled ball on the couch, sobbing. He had changed his mind. I reassured him that was okay, and we left it. About 10 minutes later I  found him on the couch again in a crumpled, soggy mess because he decided he did want to do it, but he didn't know if anyone else would be doing it. We found the postcard that we'd gotten last Wednesday, and I showed him an e-mail I'd received, all to try and convince him that the 26th was really Crazy Hair Day, and that he didn't have to worry about being the only one with crazy hair. It took longer than I thought it would. We decided just to do the front, and then he could smooth it down if I was wrong. *Sigh* I understand conformity. Deep down inside I'm a conformist, too. There have been so many times in my life that I have struggled to fit in. To not be the new girl. To not be the odd one. To not be the smart one. To try and make friends. But I didn't think the fear of the unknown would manifest itself in someone so young. We talked about how he didn't want to stand out in the crowd. He didn't want to be the odd one out. I assured him he wouldn't. So we dried the tears, blew the nose, and styled the hair. I even got a couple of cute pictures out of it as well:

This is how Brandon smiles when I say "smile"

This is his real smile. I like this one better

Because Brandon never acts out in public, no one gets how sensitive he really is. All they see is this relatively normal child who does well in school and obeys. Those are true, but sometimes all the behind the scenes "scenes," like this one, can take a toll! 

Wednesday was a dress rehearsal for us. The next day at school it was Crazy Hair Day! Since we'd done it all before, it was smooth sailing on Thursday morning. Not every mom in the school had as easy of a time as I did. There was much rushing around. Thursday we spiked all of Brandon's hair. Fun!

Oy!

Caitlin just used 3/4 of a new can of Bon Ami to clean the tub! Oy! Child of mine..... what am I going to do with you? I hope that bathtub shines! (And I hope you cleaned off all the powder you dumped on the floor!)

Fall Colors

Yesterday we went up to the mountains outside of Boulder to look at the fall foliage. There's a mix of evergreens and deciduous trees in the foothills, so the colors are beautiful. Mostly yellows, though. Lots of aspens and cottonwoods. The only reds I see regularly are the maple trees planted around town (along with the hot pink autumn colors of our burning bush in the backyard).  The trees have only started turning down where we live, but it was peaking just a few thousand feet higher.

I met a woman and her father while standing on the side of the road to get these shots. She was sweet enough to take a couple of photos of our family. I took one of her and her dad and e-mailed them out to her. Turns out her dad is one of the few remaining survivors of Iwo Jima. I thought that was pretty cool.!

On the way home we stopped at a dam, and at Boulder Falls. Amazingly, even though we were in close proximity with water, Caitlin did not come home sopping wet. Maybe there's hope for us yet!

Adventures in Making Apple Sauce

We have an apple tree. Up until this year, we thought we had a crab apple tree. It only produced tiny little apples, and they were usually bug infested. This year it's different. We are getting more regular-sized apples, many are in great shape, and there are so many that the tree branches are starting to break. So what did we do? We made apple sauce! The kids wanted to get in on the action. Can't let mom have all the fun.

Taking the apples off of the apple corer/peeler

Inspecting to make sure nothing else got to it first (these are seriously organic apples, folks!)

Caitlin gets her turn

She also must make sure nothing's in there

"Adventures in Being Unable to Get It Together"

If last week had a title, it would be called "Adventures in Being Unable to Get It Together" (or, more appropriately, adventures in me being unable to get it together!) There were so many cups pouring into that bucket! Let me explain.

Wedding! 
My youngest brother got married! Yay! We are so happy for him, and so happy to officially welcome Liz into our lives (even though she's been part of our lives for a couple of years now).

Aren't they cute? 

Their wedding was September 8th. Our family flew out to my parent's house on the evening of the 4th and stayed until the 10th. We were joined a few days later by my sister and her husband, and my other brother and his girlfriend, 3 more cats (to go with the 5 that live there), and for a brief moment, 2 dogs. Keith and Liz both stayed at the house as well, although Liz stayed with her family at a friend's house the night before the wedding. All of us - parents and siblings and significant others in one house! Oh my! With wedding preparations! Oh my! We managed to get the kids to do some homework that week, too. Not easy. Which leads me to the next cup....

School
Our school does literacy testing after school starts. They test the Thursday before Labor Day, and the teachers go over the results Friday. All of this resulted in 5 days off for the Labor Day holiday for the kids. Add that to the 6 days we were in California, and that means the kids were out of school/school habits for 11 days! 5 days off, 1 day back at school (the 5th), and then another 6 days off. Yes, my calculations include weekends. The kids had a bumpy re-entry back into the world of school. With classes now teaching at a normal pace, they were a little behind. There was much snuggling, cuddling and reassurance time after school. Especially for Caitlin. She loves school, but hasn't really adjusted to the full day, or how tired it makes her. Not that I would have changed anything, it was just a hard 4 days back with back-to-back time off for my little ones.

After School
What a busy week! Tuesday - homework, soccer practice and a birthday party for a good friend! Wednesday - homework and Base Camp (the Wednesday evening church activity the kids are doing this year instead of AWANA). Thursday - homework, catch-up homework, and a little breather. Friday - soccer game, rest time. Saturday - homework, catch-up homework, Brandon's birthday party. Sunday-church, homework, Brandon's star-student-of-the-week homework (photos, artifacts, and an autobiography), Brandon's real birthday.

No wonder the kids woke up with sniffles on Friday morning. Keeping them healthy has been hard! I've had a hard time fighting off this cold I came down with. I'm sure all the fruits and veggies helped, along with making sleep a priority, but the coughing friends haven't. Pray for a healthier week!

Brian 
Worked at work. Worked at home. Now gone for a week.

Me
Fighting a head cold. Very achy. Haven't slept all that well since we got home, either. I'm hoping this week is better.

Here's a list of things I couldn't keep up with:

• Catch-up homework
• Multiple forms that the school and school districts requires me and the kids to sign every single year (it gets old)
• The house (it's a mess)
• Groceries (everywhere and not put away properly)
• Exercise (what's that?)
• Bible Study (I have today and tomorrow to catch up)
• Laundry (might be done now)
• Mail
• Caitlin's nervousness about her "place" in school and with friends, and being nervous about not fitting in
• Wishing my mother-in-law a happy birthday. It was on my mind, I talked about it with Brian, but I completely forgot to say anything until this morning

There are sheets on one couch, Legos on the floor, shoes everywhere, messy rooms, and piles of mail and papers. Ugh! Today is going to be one busy day! I might be going to bed at the same time as the kids tonight! Nothing was particularly awful this week, but all the catch-up was a bit much. And I'm a stay-at-home mom!  I'm really hoping that the worst of the catching-up is behind us now, and that we can just focus on this week. That would be nice.

Apple

Caitlin was just looking at the computer, and asked why there was a lit up apple on the front of ours. We had a little conversation about companies, products, and branding. Then I told her that our computer was made by a company called Apple. She laughed and laughed. "A company called "Apple"?" Apparently that was the funniest thing she's heard all day!

Old Stuff

Yesterday I placed a pair of shorts in the donation bag.  I came across them while cleaning my closet. After trying them on, I realized that I bought them about a month before my wedding, which was in February of 1999! My choices were limited in January in northern California, which may well explain why I bought a pair of dark blue shorts. I should never, ever wear dark shorts against the white skin of my thighs, especially on a vacation taking place in the middle of winter! Oddly enough, they're still fairly fashionable, so to the donation bag they went.

This morning I plugged in my electric kettle to heat up some water. I heard a strange noise, and saw the cord sizzling a little. Little wisps of smoke rose up. The water heated up just fine after that, but I think it's time to toss the almost 16-year-old kettle (bought in December of 1996). I looked at a few kettles on Amazon this morning. They've really come down in price over the last 16 years! Then there's the fact that I can boil water in a pan on the stove. I'm not the tea drinker that I use to be, so maybe a pan's the way to go.

Sometimes I wonder what I've spent our money on. I live in a country where shopping is encouraged, excess is rampant, and frugality is viewed as odd. I'm frugal when it comes to grocery shopping, stocking up with sales and coupons and trying to purchase the best quality at the best price. I rarely buy clothing when it's not on sale or clearance. Then there are times that I wonder why I bought something. We don't use it, don't eat it, or it doesn't fit right. What  was I thinking? Am I just being wasteful?  Enter this week, and the day that I gave away shorts that are 13 1/2 years old, or tossed a kettle with a faulty cord. My curling iron of 9 years broke a couple of weeks ago. Maybe I'm holding on to things too long, but it was nice to know that I'm not entirely wasteful with everything I buy!