The happenings of last week and me seeing red...even though I was wearing green

This past week was Owen's spring break and since there were no exotic locales in distant lands to which we could travel, we stayed home and had a fun time together looking for words. Let me explain. He has an English project due in a few weeks that requires him to have 100 words in their sentences cut from magazines and newspapers. Some of these words are doozies like prodigious, forbearance and parsimonious. I don't even know what parsimonious means.....AND I don't care! None of the words can be printed off the Internet, all must come from newspapers and magazines. In case you haven't read a paper in a while, parsimonious is not a very popular word. We have sat and sat and searched and searched. So far, we have 44 or 45 words, one is currently under investigation for possible ineligibility. Oddly enough, many of the words have been discovered in People magazine. Who knew People had such a plethora of fancy schmancy words? He's even enlisted the Gmaw's help by giving copies of the words to her and has turned her into a word searching machine. If anyone in town comes across the word indemnify, please carefully cut it out in it's sentence and save it for us!

And now, my thought for the day, I have only 3 more years til I re-graduate from high school and then after Owen's first year of college, I'll be through FOREVER!! To clarify what I mean about that, I help my kids through their freshman year of college, and then I consider them on their own. If they need a little help now and then, they know I'm willing, but thankfully by the end of their first year, they have it pretty well in hand. No one tells you when you have kids that when they re-enter school, you also re-enter school, and the second time around it takes lots more time and means so much more. Just a few more years and I'm off the clock.

Another milestone was passed last Wednesday when my last child, also Owen, passed his written test to get his learner's permit. And so brings me to one more thing off my bucket list. NO MORE DRIVER"S ED! I'm very excited about that.

On Friday Melanie, me and our friend Judy went to spring market here in town but before we went, we met for lunch. When I walked into the teeny little place where we were eating, it took 2 seconds to notice that Melanie and I were wearing the EXACT same shirt. This happens A LOT and I NEVER like it. I don't do matchy. EVER. I may have already told this story, but a long time ago I caught John trying to match me on Sunday mornings. He'd wait to see what color I'd put on to wear to church and then he'd go pick the same color. Once I was onto his scheme, it ended quickly with a well placed threat. As I said, I don't do matchy. I have a thing about that. Apparently I would have made a really bad twin.

Well, as we were sitting there and Judy and Melanie were laughing about it......and I was not.... the waitress came over and said, "Hey, yal are wearing the same shirt!" Thank you Captain Obvious. Just dig that spur in a little deeper, could you? After I went home and changed, no I'm not kidding I really did, the three of us went to the spring market where I set a land speed record for the fastest looky Lou shopper in the history of the world. Waaaay before Judy and Melanie, and then I discovered there was no prize for being the fastest. Bummer. So, then, I had to re-walk the whole thing with them while "helping" them find their way more quickly. It's not new news that I'm not much of a shopper. My idea of shopping is walking really fast through an area with merchandise in the vicinity. Using this particular method means something must catch my eye very quickly or I leave empty handed. That's just how I roll. This particular time I did buy one super cute purple flower for my front door, but only after I saw it on the second walk through.

Saturday I "cleaned house" and "worked in the yard" for 12 seconds. I've decided I really like pointing and directing rather than getting dirty. I like the fruit of a pretty yard but not so much the labor, and there's LOTS of labor in the future for my yard.

Then yesterday when I walked in church, Billie June picked a fight with me by wearing the same color I was wearing and before I could finish being unhappy with her, Jared walked up behind me, tapped me on the shoulder and guess what? He, Billie and myself were triplets. I'm not a good triplet either. Somehow I need to convey to the public that once I have picked a color for the day, I OWN IT. Stick it. Lick it. No. Licks. Off. I think this whole matchy thing began for me about 20 years ago when I was wearing an awesome 80's flowy flowery dress to church and one day another woman showed up wearing my exact same 80's flowy flowery dress! In case you didn't know, you can't for any reason whatsoever beat down a person at church....or I might have...but I know Jesus would have frowned upon it. So I tried to stay away from her until church was over, and I was quite successful until I'd made it to the parking lot when I distinctly remember my friend Judy's husband (the one we went to lunch with) took the opportunity to inform me, "Oh look, you and Donna have on the same dress." Why? Why did he have to say that to my real face? Too many Captain Obvious' in the world. And now that I've searched my soul about this matchy thing, I've realized I've never liked it. EVER. That's it. Period. I may need to start carrying back up clothes in my car at all times because my protocol has been breached multi times. A few months ago Melanie and I ended up at the beauty parlor wearing the exact same purple sweater. I was not amused then either, especially when once again it was pointed out to me that we were dressed alike. Why? Why did you have to say that to my real face? If people had matching goiters no one would point that out. Now would they? I feel it should be the same courtesy for matching anything else.

Although I don't have a pic of Melanie and I dressed alike, I did agree to photographic evidence of the "green beans" as Jared called us. I like the pic even though we are all looking at the wrong camera. Also, notice that Billie June has sparklies on her shirt. I don't do that either. I have rules about sparkles and bangles and embroidered clothes. I don't do any of that, however if you choose to wear any of those things, I won't judge you. My mother owns all of that stuff and I have yet to shun her. But if I ever need a bangle or a bauble, I know exactly where to go because Billie rivals Rachel Zoe in the jewelry department.


If people would just check with me before choosing outfits, the world would be a better place.

Also before any smart pants send me a definition:
Parsimonious
1: exhibiting or marked by parsimony; especially frugal to the point of stinginess
2: sparing, restrain

Hmmmm parsimonious sounds a lot like me, at least the frugal part. However, some might think I have no idea what the word restrained means either!

I'm off to dream of parsnips.

I don't know what those are either.