Denim DI Miracle

I hate pants shopping. I always have. Nothing ever looks acceptable to me. Or if it does, it's usually not comfortable enough to chase four little munchkins around in. But I've been getting sick of wearing my comfy pants all the time and I decided it was time for a pair of jeans.

Sometimes I feel like everyone but me wears jeans. Even my husband, who almost always wears slacks recently found some jeans he likes and he wears them most weekends. I was starting to feel a little left out of the human race, but I've really had a hard time finding jeans that felt comfortable to me.

Usually pants shopping goes something like this:

1. Try on 10-30 pairs.
2. Hate every single pair.
3. Leave the store a little depressed.
4. Try another store.
5. Repeat process.
6. Eventually find a pair that I don't hate.
7. Go home loathing pants shopping.

A couple nights ago, spurred on by approaching family pictures and my desire to join the jean-wearing sector of the world, I decided to give pants shopping another try. I actually found a really comfortable pair of jeans at the first store I went to, but there were two problems. First, they were a little too form fitting to appease my sense of modesty. Second, they were $43, which I couldn't justify spending on a single item of clothing since this is The Year of Learning Frugality at our house.

So today, I went to DI, our local thrift shop, heartened by actually finding a pair that I liked at the last store, and I found 10 pairs in my size that looked solid and didn't have a granny elastic waist band.

That's when the miracle happened. Almost every single pair of pants I tried not only fit, but fit comfortably, and looked good, too. I only put four back on the rack, and when I bought all six pairs that I loved, I only paid $25 total. Now I can wear jeans ever day but Sunday if I like. I feel so normal. And frugal.

It feels good.

An Intro to the Subjects of Most of my Posts

Princess Precious is my oldest. She's 8 and probably the smartest kid I know. Math is her idea of fun. She was thinking of having a math party for her last birthday, but I was relieved when she chose to go to a local DVD rental place to play Wii with her friends instead. She's in the Gifted and Talented class at school and loves getting to do all sorts of cool (gross?) things like dissecting owl pellets and making Egyptian hieroglyphics. She loves gymnastics. She has this amazing candy radar, and is so obsessed with sweets that her ambition is to someday marry the owner of a candy store, with a pizza restaurant guy coming in at a close second.

Diva Girl is turning 7 in a few weeks. I don't know that I have ever met anyone with so much passion. She loves fiercely and has a little bit of a temper issue, like Rita was a little bit of a hurricane. She is an amazing artist, and has already won an award for her painting. When she sings, which she does pretty well, she can be heard over an entire congregation. Her recent performance with the kids in our church, the annual Primary program, was described as my little Diva Girl with 60 back up singers, even though it wasn't intended to be so. While she enjoys the occassional sweet, she's been known to throw a fit in the produce aisle, begging for a cucumber.

Darling Destructo is very much a 3-almost-4-year-old boy. Yesterday, while I thought I was watching him out of the corner of my eye as I was busy helping his sisters in the adjacent room, he dismantled a salt shaker, spreading salt around most of the kitchen, decorated my table with the Elmer's glue, made toast, started a fire with the toaster and some cardboard, and put out the flames with a squirt bottle, all of this in a matter of minutes without even making a peep. And then he sweetly helped me clean up every mess. He spends most of the day telling everyone how much he loves them, passing out the hugs and kisses, and the remainder of the day tormenting his sisters with pinches, pokes, kicks, and punches. He is currently in a little mommy-run preschool with two other little boys, learning the ways of Spiderman-Star-Wars-Batman-loving half of the kid world after being exposed mostly to princesses, dress up, and Dora. And he is loving it. It's so much fun watching him jump around with a bunch of boys, grinning, and saying, "What's this game again?" "Ninjas." "Oh, yeah! Mommy, we're playing Ninjas!"

Baby Amazing is 8 months old and the most adorable case of writer's block ever. When they handed her to me in the hospital, she could already hold up her head. The day we brought her home from the hospital she learned how to roll over. In the last three days, she learned how to crawl, how to go up and down stairs, how to eat finger foods, she's grown her third and fourth teeth, and now she's trying to stand on her own. She insists on being held almost all the time, and refuses to sleep anywhere but my bed, which is getting complicated now that she's mobile. She's the funniest mix of sweet and strong-willed, stubborn and snuggly. She is obsessed with all things edible. She is Daddy's biggest fan, and screams every time he comes in the room if he doesn't pick her up immediately. As much as I love having this little monkey for an extra appendage (unless Daddy's in the room), I'm getting a little exhausted of this phase, but trying to muscle my way through the exhaustion in an attempt to enjoy every precious minute.

Why I Love The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints

1. I love Jesus Christ. I'm grateful for His Atonement, His example, His teachings. I'm grateful for the strength, support, heavenly aid, and understanding that He gives me every day. I love knowing that He understands and loves me.
2. I love my Heavenly Father. I love that He hears and answers my prayers. I'm so grateful that He gave His Son to us. I'm grateful that I can always turn to Him, and that He is always there.
3. I love the opportunity to have the Spirit with me when I try to be worthy of His presence. I love the peace and guidance that the Lord blesses me with through the Spirit.
4. I love my family, and I love knowing that I can spend eternity with them.
5. I love the prophet. I'm so grateful that there are prophets and apostles on the earth today, and I love listening to their teachings and trying to apply those teachings in my life. I always feel blessed when I follow the prophet.
6. I love Relief Society, the Church's organization for women. I wish everyone could belong to the Relief Society. A few weeks ago, I was sick and so were my kids. Someone in the Relief Society found out, and within a few minutes they had arranged with some other ladies to bring dinner for my family. They're amazing.
7. I love the scriptures and how the teachings in them bless my life.
8. I love the temple and the strength I find in serving there.
   

Why I Love Blogging

1. When my toddler creates a mural that covers a third of the house, I laugh and say, "This'll make a funny blog post," instead of steaming at the ears. I can even smile through the hour-long wall-scrubbing session as I think out the best way to tell the Tale of the Budding Artist.
   
2. Writing about reality is sometimes easier than working on my novel after a long night of my four kids playing tag team, taking turns waking me up every fifteen minutes, especially if I spent the night composing the Anti-Maternal-Sleep Conspiracy post.
3. As much as I love my husband and my four babies, I love connecting with people outside my crayon-and-crumb-strewn world, even if it's a virtual sort of connection. I'll take what I can get.
4. Writing is more fun than cleaning the disaster I call Home and my kids call That Place Where We Throw Our Junk.