Achievement Unlocked

I've been a mom for almost 7 years, and only recently did I unlock a new achievement. I'm not sure every mom unlocks this achievement, but I'm sure a good number do at one point or another.

We washed a good number of stuffies in the washing machine recently. I don't tend to wash them in the machine because it rips up the fur, the stuffing gets displaced, and they don't look or feel the same after they come out of the machine. Yes, they're cleaner, and yes, they smell (so much!) better, but it comes with different costs. 

When my daughter's penguin came out of the wash, I noticed her beak had a piece of the fabric going threadbare, slowly forming a hole. A few weeks passed and then she showed me her poor penguin with a tuft of fluff coming out of the beak. She asked me to sew it up, and I said I would. I forgot for the entire day until we were getting ready for bedtime. I pulled out my sewing box, found the closest yellow thread I owned, asked if it was okay (it was), and sewed up the hole after stuffing the fluff back in.

My sewing skills aren't great. I sew for functionality, not aesthetics. So now, her penguin has a double beak. It's not horrible, and my daughter doesn't mind. So I won't complain. This wasn't the first stuffed animal I sewed for her, but it's the first time I've sewed a precious stuffed animal. 

I was reminded of a stuffed animal my mother sewed for me. I've posted about this teddy bear before. She is now 24 years old! I can hardly believe it sometimes. She's been stitched behind the ear, but the one I remember most is the stitching on her leg. It was the last stuffie my mother stitched for me. 

My mother did a nicer job than I did. In my defense, I didn't have a seam to stitch from. I just had to pull two sides of the torn fabric together and mend it the best I knew how. Teddy's leg looks a lot neater and cleaner. And the stitches have lasted over two decades. 

I don't think about my mother often anymore. I don't think it's anything negative. There's still thoughts to that regard which I need to process and may one day end up on the blog. For now, I was just thinking about a mini rite-of-passage I've experienced. And in some ways, it's like I got to walk in my mother's footsteps for a bit. 

 Here's to the last stuffie she mended and the (almost) first stuffie I've mended. They're friends. 😊

Vintage Valentine's

I recently rediscovered my collection of Valentine's Day cards over the years. Believe it or not, the oldest cards in my collection are from my pre-kindergarten class! That's.... about 28-29 years ago 😱 As an adult (with my own pre-k age child!) it's easy to wonder why in the world I kept these. I actually know why in the world I kept these. Each of these cards stood out to me for a reason and that's precisely why I saved them.

1. Barbie

This first collection is comprised of Barbie valentine's. I was a huge Barbie fan once upon a time. Loved the clothes, accessories, and play sets, but was never a fan of the actual doll herself. I preferred stuffed animals. These three cards I kept precisely because I liked Barbie. 

Barbie cards surprisingly have not gone out of style. They are still handed out in classrooms today in the year 2023. But these three? Vintage. Definitely vintage. The one on the left was my favorite. 

2. Cute

The second category I saved was the cute category. Bears were my thing back in the day 🧸. They still kind of are, but I've been mostly converted to penguins 🐧. 

The two cards on the bottom are from preschool! They both have names on the back and I even know exactly who those people are. One was from a boy. After preschool, we didn't go to school together but our schools were in the same district. We ended up at the same college and hanging out with the same friend circle. One was from a girl. We actually ended up going to high school together and graduated in the same class. Both of these people are still friends with me on Facebook so they have potential to read this blog 😝 although I have a feeling they won't remember. 

3. Sparkly

I couldn't resist a sparkly card. And clearly, that is the only reason I kept these cards. 

The top center was a power ranger card. If I turned it over, the card itself is very blasé. Literally the only reason I kept that card was for the pink power ranger sparkly heart sticker on the back. I don't remember who Todd is at all. Sorry. 

On the bottom, we have N'Sync, Britney Spears, and someone doing an extreme sport. The actual sport is called skysurfing. I didn't even know that until I just looked it up...now...decades after receiving that card. Britney Spears was never my thing. I knew her by name but that was about it. Of all my mix CDs and music tracks, I had one song she wrote. I didn't even recognize her face in 5th grade when my bus driver showed me a picture. 🤷🏻‍♀️ N'Sync was also not my thing. Knew a couple of their songs...but never had one on any of my CDs. 

4. Repeats

The only reason I kept these is because I had so many of the same/similar designs from multiple years. I guess the dogs are kind of cute, but I think I kept the duplicates from sheer chance of receiving so many of the same design.

These are in fact from five different people. 

5. Magic Eye

Magic Eye was a big fad when I was in school. I used to love checking out the books from the library and holding them really close to my face (and smelling all that library-book-weird-smell that some books from the library have) and then moving them further away until my eyes saw the 3-D image bulging from the page. It took me a long time to finally see my first one. You had to really master the eye focus as well as the speed to back the page from your face. But when you saw it, they were the coolest thing ever.

Turning these into Valentine's Day cards was pretty genius. I will say that the little ones on the cards never worked as well as the ones in the books. 

6. Glow-in-the-Dark

Who doesn't love a cool glow-in-the-dark card? These just happen to be planets, which I don't particularly care for, but the glow-in-the-dark texture and feature was what captivated me. Luckily, these planets are still planets according to today's science. 

Sadly, nobody's memorizing "My Very Excellent Mother Just Served Us Nine Pizzas" anymore.  Nine pizzas has just turned into nachos. Or if you're into Dr. Seuss, Mallory Valerie Emily Mickels Just Saved Up Nine Hundred Ninety Nine Nickels. 

7. Teachers

Very rarely did we ever get cards from our teachers. I only saved three anyway from the 20+ teachers I had from pre-k until 5th grade. 

The top card was from my 4th grade homeroom teacher. I wonder if she picked that card on purpose for me because she knew I excelled at math. I'll never know, but her handwriting was beautiful. 

8. Friends

These three cards I actually kept because of the people who gave them to me. Nothing particular about the cards really appealed to me. I guess they do all have dogs in common, but that technically wasn't the reason why I kept them. 

These three cards were given to me by three friends who meant a lot to me in my elementary school days. One of these girls was my "first friend." I don't remember how we met or became friends, but I remember being friends with her by 2nd grade. The second girl and I became friends in 2nd grade because we were in the same grade. She had skipped 1st grade so we ended up classmates. She moved the same year I did, except she moved out of state completely and I just transferred schools within the district. We reconnected in middle school/high school periodically but our lives had moved on to different places. I remember being friends with the third girl but I don't remember specific details of our friendship. I know we were on the same Destination Imagination team for at least one year. There may have been two but those memories are foggy. 

9.

I honestly can't remember why I saved this card. The only reason I can think of is that it was one of the extras I had from one year. My mother wrote my name on this card so I'm assuming she must've written it on my other cards that year. As a parent now, my initial reaction would be, "Why in the world is the parent writing the child's name on her Valentine's Day cards?" And that reaction would be completely reasonable and expected. My four-year-old can write her name. I'm pretty sure I should have been able to write my own name 24+ times on little slips of paper.

But the reason why I will choose to keep this card now and forever is because it has my mother's handwriting on it. I'm glad she wrote my name on it instead of writing my name myself. As weird as it is, you don't think about these things until you think about these things. Had I been the child who had signed my own Valentine's Day cards, I wouldn't have this memento today. 

Forever Valentine

This is our 7th Valentine's Day together as a couple. Technically, I sent him a quick-sketch Valentine the year I was halfway around the world, ironically living in a very cold city with snow and ice for six months of the year. I spent part of it at an airport during an overnight layover and gave up a few hours of sleep to send him some messages. 

Without realizing it, I misnamed my own bear.  Kudos if you know what his name is supposed to be.
We joke that this was the beginning of the end of my love for bears.

He sent me a cute drawing back.

I got a heart! And...this was the beginning of my love for penguins.

I turned our goofy drawings into keychains 🙂

How did you guys meet?: We first met at a friend's birthday party. We briefly met each other and then that was the end of it. So we thought. I ran into him by chance a few months later at a friend's apartment complex, and then we figured we may as well be real friends so we friended each other on Facebook. :) 

First date: Unofficially, we had dinner together with just the two of us 9 years ago. A friend was supposed to join us, but he couldn't make it last minute. I asked him if he was okay just having dinner with me, and he said he was okay with it if I was. 

Officially, I flew to Houston the summer I came back from China and we had our first date as a couple. 

How long have you been together? 7.5 years!

Married? 6.5 years!

Age difference?: 1 month and 20 days

Who was interested first?: Me

Who is taller? He is.

Most patient?: He is.

Most sensitive?: Me, although he can be about certain things.

Loudest?: Probably me. But I think our daughter actually wins this one.

Most stubborn?: We're both pretty stubborn....but probably me.

Falls asleep first?: It depends on the night. Most of the time me.

Cooks better?: Me.

Better morning person?: I've exponentially gotten worse as a morning person and he's gotten quite a bit better. But I still function better in the morning.

Better driver?: We're both pretty good.

Most competitive?: Me?

Funniest?: We're both pretty funny in our own ways. Who do you think?

Where do you eat out most as a couple?: I can't remember the last time we ate out as a couple...😢

Who is more social?: Me.

How long did it take to get serious?: a few months? 

Who picks where you go to dinner?: We both do. 

Who is the first one to admit when they're wrong?: He does. 

Who wears the pants in the relationship?: We both do about different things.

Who has more tattoos?: Neither.

Who sings better?: Probably me.

Hogs the remote?: We're good at sharing.

Spends the most?: It evens out in the long run. Neither of us really spend much. 

Did you go to the same school?: Nope.

Where is the furthest you two have traveled as a couple? Romania!

Who drives when you are going somewhere together?: He does.

My forever Valentine 💖