The high school had a trick or treating event so I took Katie. It was mostly for younger kids but she played some games and came home with some candy so she was happy. And she was thrilled that lots of the high school girls knew she was Barbie and loved her shoes!
She also learned a great lesson—heels suck.
We ran into Kohl’s to see if they had any great clearance stuff. Then Katie saw these and was PISSED I would not let her get them.
I had to threaten to leave the cart and walk out of the store with nothing if she didn’t change her attitude.
Good times.
So I took Katie school shopping and let’s just say it was…challenging.
Surprise! She didn’t like a single thing I picked out.
You’d think tennis shoes would be easy, right? She doesn’t like black. She doesn’t like bright colors. She didn’t like gray, aqua, or mauve. Oh she likes those—but nope, I’m not spending $60. She actually told me everything was mom shoes. What?
These are cute.
No, they’re mom shoes.
How are these mom shoes?
Ugh. You’re a mom—if you like them they’re mom shoes.
She finally accepted a beige pair.
And then HAD TO HAVE a pair of combat-looking boots pretty much exactly like the $60 Doc Martens she had to have last year (that still fit, mind you, but she doesn’t like them). I made her spend her own money on those. And then I had to say ABSOLUTELY NOT to a pair of black platform heels that she claimed were her most favorite shoes ever—when that’s what she said about the pink platform heels she got earlier this year. I had to keep saying “We’re filling holes in your wardrobe with things you can wear to school.”
And clothes? I think she liked one of 32 things I suggested. She just wanted 12 more Stitch t-shirts. No.
I texted Anna and told her this was her job next year.
Owen’s 8th grade graduation boat trip at Navy Pier is today. His entire outfit is courtesy of Tom – since Owen couldn’t wear jeans and didn’t realize until last night that he didn’t have khakis (even though I asked him a week ago) and then also realized he didn’t have any clean shirts or matching shoes. Because kids.
I was looking for something in the upstairs hallway cabinets when I found this.
You have got to be kidding me.
So instead of putting her clean clothes away… Katie decided to stuff the entire bag into the cupboards. By process of elimination I figured they’d been there about a week.
I know someone else who loved shoes…
Our friend Kim gave Katie this dress she wore to Homecoming in eighth grade. Of course she had to put it on right away and add the boots!
So I forgot to mention…Katie’s room got fully cleaned out about a week ago.
We had given her chance after chance (after chance) to get it picked up even a little. No it didn’t have to be perfect…but I couldn’t even make it to her bed without stepping on who knows what so I was just D.O.N.E. done. We finally gave her the final ultimatum on a Friday night. We reminded her multiple times throughout the weekend. Reminded her she was going to lose everything if she didn’t make a dent.
She kept putting it off and putting it off. So Sunday afternoon I gave her one last chance. And when she decided that continuing to lay on the basement couch and do nothing was her best choice…it was time. I grabbed the roll of garbage bags and off I went.
There wasn’t much sorting—everything from the tops of her dressers got swept into a bag. Clothes from the floor? In a bag. Toys? Bag. She made it upstairs about three minutes behind me and I already had about two bags full.
She proceeded to sit on her bed and bawl. Not even making any move to, you know, pick anything up or put anything away.
“WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS TO ME?!” You know why. We’ve asked you to pick up your room for a month now. I reminded you all weekend and you didn’t do anything. We warned you what would happen—and you saw us do this to Owen’s room so you knew we were serious. This is happening because you made bad decisions.
Tom had been napping but all the drama woke him up, so then he started helping. I think it took us about 45 minutes to get it cleaned out. We did sort some stuff like Legos and took out a full bag of garbage. We found a pile of dishes. Innumerable candy wrappers. Clean clothes mixed with dirty clothes. And under everything? Horrible stains on the carpet that she had NO CLUE what it was from.
So this is about what it looked like when we were done. Bed, dressers, desk, chair, mirror, bookshelf with books, and some toys.
I wanted to take out more but I was mentally and physically exhausted. She was not happy that she lost her nightlight and Alexa. I told her if she had been that worried about it, she should have picked it up.
And then, for as upset as she was, after we were done, she was downstairs laughing and having fun with Owen. Like nothing ever happened.
Fast forward to the next day and I don’t remember exactly what triggered it, but I’m sure it was a combination of her sassy I-can’t-believe-she’s-not-a-teenager mouth and more bad behavior… after I spent the entire day trying to get those unknown stains up and failing…but I went up again and removed even more stuff. She lost the makeup mirror, most of her books, more toys, and anything that was on the floor (you thought she’d have learned that lesson, but no).
In the end, I had taken out about the equivalent of 10 garbage bags. Here it all is stacked in the guest room.
And you know what? She really doesn’t give two craps about any of it. She hasn’t asked for any of it back…except for her Alexa.
She knows why she lost it. She knows she has to earn it back.
I have made her do all the laundry we pulled out—but it all goes back in the guest room (she was allowed to pick two pieces per load to keep).
We’ve told her she can earn some other things back but she hasn’t even cared enough to attempt that. This includes Christmas presents she just got!
Of course her job is to keep her room picked up now—which shouldn’t be hard because it’s literally empty, right? Ha. She still manages to have her floor almost covered every day.
So we have no idea what’s going to happen. Do we just really get rid of everything? Make her sort through it? Make her earn stuff back?
Sigh.
Mom, take a picture of me in this hat from Grannie.
Ummmm WHAAAAAT?! It’s a pair of culottes that she figured out how to wear as a dress. I can’t even. We are in for a world of hurt as she gets older… Oh, and that’s the pose she struck when I asked for one. Sigh,
Why? Because I’ve asked her about six times to clear all the clothes off the floor and the dresser.
I picked out everything that was too small and put it in the donate pile. The rest went in a garbage bag which I told her she could have back if she finished cleaning up her room. She liked that idea…but it never happened. (And still hasn’t happened as of 10/21.)
Even though the kids weren’t going to school buildings, we still dressed for first day of school pictures!! (I made them shower and make their lunches, too!)
This was under EVERY section of couch.
This was the total haul.
There was even a school library book in there (that he lost and had to pay for way back when).
Tom jokingly put Katie‘s robe on Maggie about an hour ago and she has wandered all around the house and up and down the stairs and it still remains.
Happily working on her workbook before she lost her bananas…
Plus I have a 30% off coupon plus they’re giving $15 Kohl’s Cash…
But of course he could!
I wanted Katie to try on these jeans at the thrift store but she didn’t want to so tried to do it over her leggings. FAIL. But isn’t this all of us at some point trying to get jeans on?
When you check in on Katie when you go to bed. Tonight? Leggings on her head because, I’m assuming, she couldn’t find any of her FOUR actual buffs. And I’m pretty sure she had a top on then she went to bed.
As soon as I knew we were going on a cruise, I knew I wanted to make personalized T-shirts for all of us…thus begin the search on Amazon and Etsy and eBay… betsy was the winner with the best choices but I knew that I wanted to create my own with our names or initials (or something) and not just buy a generic one. So then I managed to find a friend with a cutting machine who volunteered her machine and her services…
It was actually quite a long drawn out process because she had really not done many T-shirts before and I had never done T-shirts before and it was literally just a comedy of errors but we had a great time working on them together.
So without further ado…
They are all the same on the front but the kids have a warning on the back of theirs and Tom and I have a similar warning on the back of ours. (My dad and stepmom escaped warnings on their shirts.) I figured we are literally only going to be wearing the shirts for a few hours on debarkation day so it really didn’t matter what we put on them…and we thought it was hilarious.
The sidenote to this whole story is that Tom and I are now the proud owners of a Cricut Maker and a crap ton of accessories. I had thought about getting one of these machines in the past but knew I would literally go down a huge rabbit hole of projects and expenses so I always passed. So when this came up Tom asked me again if I wanted to get one because he wouldn’t mind having one in the future for some of his projects…so many hours of research later (and YouTube videos and reviews watched and debating the merits of the different machines and getting input from friends)… we decided on one. So stay tuned for many projects!!
He’d rarely pick jeans or a long-sleeved shirt on his own. But the look and the thumbs in the pockets was all him. 💕
We had issues with clean and dirty laundry and how clothes were being put away so this turned into her job…
Once the kids finished cleaning the basement I was going to put on a movie for them and make lunch. Then a friend texted to invite us to Jump America—they had an all-day special and NO ONE WAS THERE. So I made quick sandwiches and we were off! Owen made me happy by wearing the shirt I made. Katie refused.
Katie and her friend apparently got tired of jumping and did this.
He also agreed to go on a walk with me before school this morning. 🥰
Another school picture day, another blue shirt. It started accidentally so now it’s tradition.
Mom it’s too bright out here!
One? Two pairs of my sandals were so old they disintegrated when Owen tried them on and walked in them. (To their credit they were 15-20 years old.)
Two? Yes, I am handing shoes down to my 10yo son. 🤯
Well I’m gonna. It’s just a gym shirt.
