From The Past: January 17, 2005

School was out today, so we just hung out as you will see in the picture below. I got a lot accomplished though. The ironing is complete, Ashley’s room is clean, and I straightened out a cabinet. Can you imagine how annoying it is to go in your child’s room and see chalk, chalk pieces, and chalk dust all over the carpet in an array of colors? She had left it there for about a week and although it wasn’t bothering her, it was bothering her mother! I can only stand so much for so long.

Currently (2021): Ashley asked me if I wanted to ride to Trader Joe’s with her today and I said yes, of course. I didn’t buy anything, but she bought a bouquet of flowers. If you didn’t know, there fresh flower prices are very reasonable and they have beautiful assortments. She also bought bread, apples, peanut butter, a few Perfect bars – peanut butter and peanut butter chocolate chip, sea salt brownies, chocolate covered s’mores and a few other things that I can’t recall.

When we left there, she wanted to visit Lululemon to buy a new pair of leggings. Neither of us had ever been in one of their stores. It was very nice store. The workers were friendly and helpful. I noticed that they were all wearing leggings, which is smart.

As we were leaving that store, she spotted another one called Free People. She loves this brand and has only been able to buy their items from Dillard’s and Macy’s. She had no idea they had an actual store. Once again, it was a very nice store. I don’t think there was one article of clothing that I could pull off though. This store is geared, in my opinion, to a young, slim crowd. Everything has a very Bohemian feel to it. Ashley fell in love with a pair of jeans which she bought. They are the kind with about 5 buttons up the front. I had a pair like that when I was in 7^th or 8^th grade and I thought they were a pain. But, she looked cute in them and I didn’t want to be negative, so I didn’t tell her they were a pain to me. When I wore them, I was in school and they just took too long to unbutton and then button back. In school, bathroom trips need to be fast. Hopefully, she won’t have that issue.

Lastly, we went to Target. I bought just a few things. Ashley bought 5 or 6 graphic t-shirts to go with her new jeans. I’m thinking she bought The Rolling Stones, Def Leppard, Johnny Cash, The Wu-Tang Clan, Jurassic Park and maybe something else.

We had a good time though. It was spitting snow the entire time, but the roads were just wet as if it had been raining.