7 QTs Clothes and The Day Juli Vomited in Sears

Linking up with Jen 

1

I have mentioned before, how much I love my neighborhood. Well, all summer long, a lovely neighbor had been working twice a week with all the older neighborhood girls on decorating articles of clothing for their younger siblings and themselves. They were gearing up for a neighborhood fashion show! There are over 20 girls 10 and under in my neighborhood. 

The end result of the "decorated" clothes was half way decent skirts, shirts and jackets covered in mismatched patches, rhinestones and about a TON of glitter! 

The girls went around and passed out flyers to all the neighbors, inviting them to attend the fashion show and there was quite a turn out! I'd say close to 50 people were there! And the funniest thing about the whole event was the fact that Juliana walked down the "runway" with Samantha's sister from her Mom's house! Hand in hand! 

Hah! What are the chances? 

Mark said as we were walking back home, "If 8 years ago, someone would have told me that my future daughter and Samantha's sister from her Mom's second marriage would walk hand in hand at a fashion show, I would have laughed in their face!" 

2

I wish finding clothes for me was as easy as it is for the girls. Miss Grace swears by threadup.com and since she always looks so stylish, I headed over there to have a look. Well, ya know what...it's a gold mine for awesome clothes, practically brand new and for super discounted prices! 

I hate jeans shopping. As most women that I have ever met, it takes HOURS to find the right pair, sometimes multiple trips. So when you do find that perfect pair you are tempted to buy every pair in sight! 

I have a favorite pair that I found at Marshall's last spring and I just found the same pair on Threadup for even cheaper! $100 jeans for $23 - the $10 coupon off my first purchase + $3 shipping = 

$16 for a duplicate of my favorite super pricey jeans. 

Good looking out Grace. Good looking out!

3

I love clothes. So much so that I studied Fashion in college. And I also love a good deal. When I started having kids, I discovered a whole underground world of consignment stores and sales. Jackpot! My favorite that I frequent is Once Upon A Child! I have found great outfits for all the girls and many gifts for nieces and nephews. They are all over the country and you should definitely check them out. I have yet to sell anything to them because we're not in the get rid of stuff phase of our life yet, but they seems to give fair prices. 

4

I also love free clothes. 

I grew up as the 6th of 6 and my entire wardrobe consisted of hand me downs and clothes out of bags given to my mom. Getting brand new clothes was rare and those pieces were treasured deeply. 

We are blessed to be surrounded by some very generous friends and family members who bring BAGS of clothes to our doorstep for the girls to have. 

Just HAVE! 

It saves us HUNDREDS of dollars every year! 

5

My girls are also spoiled rotten by some awesome aunts, particularly one of my sisters. She doesn't have kids and is extremely generous with all her nieces and nephews. 

She just recently sent my girls a few new fall pieces, but some of the sizes were wacky and we had to go exchange them. No biggie...

6

...or so I thought.

7

The Day Juliana Vomited in Sears:

 Juls love going to the mall. The play area for kids is her favorite place in the world aside from Bible Study and Aunt Donna's house. 

 Mark wasn't feeling well earlier this week so I thought, perfect, we'll get out of the house for a few hours, give him some time to rest! 

Then, Juls woke up complaining her tummy was upset.

This is not unusual.

As with most people, if you are under hydrated your bowels will have a hard time passing stuff through you.

We have this problem more times than I can count. 

I give her a cup of water and she sips it. Complaining of the "cramp" in her tummy.

I told her if she didn't poop, we wouldn't go.

Famous last words.

She didn't poop. We still went.

We should have stayed home.

We get to the mall and THANKFULLY I insisted that we do the exchange first and then we'd go to the play place.

So we go, pick out new sizes and head to the register. 

Well, there was only one register open on the whole floor and it was in the tool department.

Really, get it together Sears! 

We are standing in line, Juls is asking to get out of the stand part of the stroller but I insist that she stays in. 

The young, probably unwed, tool-department-working man calls me over to the register. 

I explain what I need. 

Juls gets out of the stroller, knocks over the sweater we were going to buy.

Get back in, I tell her.

No more than 5 seconds later

"Um, she's throwing up" 

I turn around, just in time to see round two happen in real time!

All. Over. The. Place.

Her. The stroller. The floor. 

E v e r y w h e r e

I seriously considered laughing at that point. 

I mumbled something like, 

"uh, she has never, ever, ever done something like this before...um, let me just grab my stuff..."

Worker dude was like "I can't look or I'll throw up!" 

Man up DUDE!

I grabbed by old clothes, receipts and my phone and literally just walk out.

Juls was dazed and covered in vomit.

She kept muttering, "I'm so sorry momma. I'm so sorry I frew up."

She got stripped down to her unders in the parking lot.

God bless the inventor of Wet Wipes and thanks Holy Spirit for speaking to me on the way out:

"grab the bag of papers to be recycled! And save them for Bible Study tomorrow. Just drop them there!"

It was a terrible experience and I pray you never have to endure anything like it but, it's not the end of the world. 

By the way, Juls is feeling much better!

Happy Friday everyone!