The Missing Shoe

James has outgrown his tennis shoes, so I decided it was time to purchase a new pair.  Especially since we are finally experiencing "outside" weather.  I can barely pry his chubby fingers off of the bubble mower and get him inside for bath time at the end of the day!

So off we ventured to the Apache Mall, oh how I miss Mayfair Mall.  While there is an abundant selection of children's stores (Gymboree, Baby Gap, The Children's Place), it is completely lacking in stores of my taste (Banana, LOFT, The Limited).  Thank goodness for The Gap, it is my only salvation (along with Super Target- which is superb)!!!  James and I stopped in The Children's Place, to look for a tie for the upcoming graduation weekend festivities.  Then onwards to look for tennis shoes, we went into Champ's and it was there that I realized he was missing a shoe!  I immediately went into panic mode, only because Jake purchased these shoes for James (they were Keene's nonetheless) and the first thing he said to me was "don't loose these."  We circled our route in the mall about 10 times, stopped into the mall management office, talked to several janitorial staff.........and no shoe.  This very SMALL incident ignited a lot of emotions, I started crying because I missed the familiarity of Milwaukee.  I had no idea where I was going to find a pair of baby Keene's.  If this had happened in Milwaukee, it would have been a quick drive over to REI and the shoes would be replaced without even having to utter a word about the debacle to Jake. Not to mention that James was now the proud owner of 1 pair of tennis shoes that didn't fit and 1 Keene sandal.  Well I wanted to get this whole mess sorted out, but I decided to drive home and make sure it wasn't in the garage or mud room.......no and no.......just as I had feared.  I told Jake what had happened, and he was much more level-headed then I (I absolutely HATE it when that happens).

Jake suggested we head out in search of a children's shoe store, I had mentioned seeing a Stride Rite store in a local strip mall.  Off we went, with the one-shoed' toddler in tow.  I had this nagging feeling that I should stop out to the mall one more time, we did and I re-traced our steps with Jake.  We stopped into The Children's Place and asked again, and they had found it!!!!  I was in a much better mood, and did not feel guilty about purchasing a new pair of Nike tennis shoes for James.

Jake went golfing tonight, so James and I had a spaghetti dinner and then played outside on our new patio.  It is easily his favorite place in the house.  We saw our next door neighbors outside, and they invited us over to play for a bit.  It was lovely, Joe showed James all of his trucks and dinosaurs.  James was in his glory,and was not ready to leave at 7:45 but it was already 15 minutes past bed time and he still needed his bath!  He was out like a light at 8:10.

Starting tomorrow, Jake will be the stay-at-home daddy for the next few weeks.  He doesn't start work until July, so this gave us some time to figure out how we wanted to handle child care!  This should result in some good blogging material in the coming days!

Greetings From Minnesota!

Never thought I would be a "Minnesotan," but the day has come.  It has been quite some time since I have had the chance to sit down and relax, especially since I am a tad OCD when it comes to being in an organized and clutter free house.

I am so happy the move is complete, and I am in the "home stretch" with all of my finishing touches (hanging frames, arranging lamps and furniture, etc.).  We do have to get some new furniture for our living room, and purchase some new curtains and a bed spread for our room.  I can't wait to go shopping, but the hubbs has ordered me to wait until July when he starts working.  It is a good thing he is so rational when it comes to those things; he reminded me that we have graduation weekend in Milwaukee quickly approaching, 3 weddings, AND an anniversary trip to Park City, Utah (and this is all before the end of June).

James and I have already made several new friends in the neighborhood, there is a little girl named Ava that lives right across the street (and she is only 9 days older then James)!  Ava's Mom is very sweet and VERY outgoing (maybe even more so then myself).

The forecast for the coming days is sunny and lovely......so I think we will see if Ava and Andrea want to come over to play outside with James' new sand and water table!

Onward with life's newest chapter......it is looking to be a good one!