… jumped out at me at the drugstore yesterday,

Yes, I know it’s your job to help customers make a biased choice. But please, please don’t jump on me from out of nowhere just as I’m reaching to have a closer look at that eyeliner. I don’t know if you recognize me or not but this is the second time you’ve scared the living daylights out of me.

See, I’m someone who prefers to dally and consider all my choices before making a selection. And I prefer to make that selection without a sales promoter breathing down my neck, thanks.

You people talk too fast. You confuse me. And it really gets to me when your answer to all my questions is Yes! Is this on sale? Yes! Will the eyeliner stay on a whole day? Yes! Can I use it to write on the whiteboard when my whiteboard marker runs out of ink? Yes! See what I mean?

Okay, so great, you tell me this crayon eyeliner won’t smudge and it has this cute little sharpener in the back. Nice! But you know what? I really don’t appreciate your drawing lines on the back of my hand with each color . It took me several hand washes to get it off!

You know, if you hadn’t done that, I might actually have bought that new-fangled crayon but since you chose to annoy me instead, don’t blame me for making a hasty exit without buying anything. Probably another day when YOU aren’t around to breathe down my neck.

Signed,

Shop-Stopped

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At our cousin’s wedding recently, one of Hip2bDad’s aunts took one look at me and lamented loudly, “You’ve lost so much weight, my dear!”

Have I? Really? That was Friday night at the bride’s open house and it got me wondering about that scale at the gym, hmmph!

Then on Saturday morning, another aunt came up while I was talking to a cousin about what garden pond filter he uses, held me at arm’s length and exclaimed, “Oh, you look so much better now that you’ve gained weight!”

Have I? Really? I hadn’t noticed, hmmph. As far as I know, my weight has stayed the same in the past 7 years. Well, okay, maybe a pound here, a pound there. No biggie. Still. When I hear such drastically different views, it makes me wonder.

Have you ever had different people tell you different things about your weight? Who do you believe? What do you believe ?

You know, one of the things I enjoyed most about being a mother to two daughters is shopping for their clothes when they were little. In fact, I have to admit I loved it so much I would apply for a day off work to rush to the sales first thing in the morning. I would sometimes spend half a day just dallying over all the little girls’ clothes.

I would pick different designs and colors, mostly the ones I would wear myself, hehe! These designs below remind me of similar ones I have bought for my girls back then.

BG Beautiful Girls – Girls Sleeveless Jean Set – Love the one-sided ribbon on the sleeve, sash belt and tattered legs. Very funky lemon top!

Soup – Toddler Girls’ Sleeveless Skirt Set – Love the lacey skirt trimmings and graduated bright pink from top to bottom!

Flowers by Zoe – Girls’ Tiered Skirt – Love the shimmery tiers on this one!

Of course, I loved tying up their hair with matching accessories too. Not to mention that shopping has gotten a lot less brokeback, or is it, back-breaking since then and you can always go dig around Bargainchildrensclothing.com for great prices and nice designs like these.

I’ve always found it easier to shop for boys’ clothing simply because there weren’t that many styles or colors to choose from. But not any more. It seems boys’ clothes have caught up somewhat and are now much more fancy than they used to be.

Extreme Boys’ Winter Jacket – $ 29.90
Retail Price: 60.00 You Save: 30.10

American Widgeon Boys’ Hooded Polar Fleece Lined Anorak Jacket – $ 29.90
Retail Price: 76.00 You Save: 46.10

Private Label Boys’ Hooded Winter Jacket – $ 29.90
Retail Price: 60.00 You Save: 30.10

Bargainchildrensclothing.com has lots of really nice children’s clothing at bargain prices. Just take a look at how much you save off regular prices. These will never go out of fashion so you can always hand them down to the younger ones.

Okay, so we have a wedding to go to this weekend. The girls and I have been through our closets and it’s official! We have “nothing to wear”!! Well, okay, we do have closets jammed with clothes but we can’t wear the same thing twice, can we now? I mean everyone’s seen it before !!

So we totally need some new dresses for the dinner reception.We’ve spent hours at the mall this past weekend, trying on stuff and trying on stuff. And finally when Raine found her criss-cross spaghetti top little black dress, we collectively let out a huge sigh of relief!

And then we were off again to help Skye pick out her little black dress! We were browsing at this store when I turned to Skye and asked, “See anything nice?” just as we happened to be passing by this door. Her response was “Yeah, nice font!”

Raine needs a new pair of glasses. She says one of her eyes is blurry and she can’t see the blackboard from where she’s seated in class. Although she’s secretly hoping to get contact lenses instead of eyeglasses, I’ve convinced her that eyeglasses are much more practical until she finishes high school this year.

Actually I’m also trying to save some money because I know that I can get quality eyeglasses at a really low cost at Zenni Optical. At first, I couldn’t believe the prices of their eyeglasses start at only $8. I had to read and reread the line I read on this review about them, “Cheap eyeglasses are a reality. Check out Eric’s review of Zenni Optical”, published on Examiner.com.

Raine’s fear is that the frames might be ‘lame’ and ‘old fashioned’ but after I showed her the designs on their website, she’s managed to pick out not one, or two but three frames that she’s sure her teen friends would go ga-ga over.

Okay, I guess that solves the problem for me. Teens these days are so fashion-conscious and everything they want seems to cost a small fortune. I’m just glad Raine’s glasses will be a fashion item that will cost me so little. Mom’s dream come true .

If you read the December 2009 issue of the OPRAH Magazine, you’ll notice this Sondra Roberts Satin Flower Holiday Bag was featured in there. If you know me, you’ll know I love unusual handbags… what I wouldn’t do to get my hands on this one . Do you like it? What kind of bags do you like?

Click on picture for details about this bag.

I took the girls to get their school shoes just a few days before school started. The cashier was nowhere to be seen so we waited like a minute for her to make her appearance. She gave me a glum look as if I’d intruded upon whatever she’d been doing away from her job.

It’s funny how sometimes these facial expressions escape me. Maybe I’ve gotten immune to them . As usual, I didn’t think much about it.

Me (in my perkiest mood): Love that nose ring!

It was the whole truth and nothing but the truth. Her nose ring was the prettiest little flower with a red stone in the middle and a ring of white ones. Really cute!! The nose ring, not her. She shot me a pained look like someone whose colon cleansing had gone desperately wrong.

Me: Did it hurt when you got it done?

I must either be the most tactless person or totally blind to her dagger looks .

She: No, did it two years ago!

Wow, then how come she still looks like she’s in pain !?