The Halloween costume fiasco

Trinity decided she wanted to be Jessie from Toy Story for Halloween. She also decided her little brother was going to be Woody. She wanted her father & I to dress up as Mr. & Mrs. Potato Head, but we both shot that idea down real quick.



Last year I sewed her princess costume. She was so proud of that costume, it was ridiculous. It was three shades of pink, silver, puffy and everything a princess costume should be. So, this year she asked if I would make her Jessie costume. Let's see a pair of cow print pants and a white shirt you already own in your closet - yep, I can do that. Enter out of town friends who were coming to stay. First, they were staying the week of October 18th - perfect I can power scrub the entire house prior to their arrival and spend the week of Halloween making the pants. NO PROBLEM! Enter karma - they change their plans at the last minute and they aren't coming until the week of Halloween. WHAT?!?! Now I have to re-power scrub the house, because I have two children and a husband, so the previous weeks super cleaning has disappeared. Also enter an extra work shift, a school board meeting, two PSA meetings, a training seminar, a trip to the Mall of America and a Halloween party I volunteered to bake cupcakes for & there is no sewing time the week of Halloween. Crap, crap, crap! Did I mention my husband has not-so-mysteriously disappeared during this stress filled week, so he is no help whatsoever?



I finally decide after getting the approval of one sad 6 year old, that we will purchase a Jessie costume and since we were going to be at the great and powerful Mall of America, which claims to have everything you could possibly need and more, we'll have no problem right?!?! Yeah, I have been known to be naive at times. We start at a couple Halloween stores, but they don't have her size. We try the Disney store, but they outright laugh at us, because didn't we know Jessie has been sold out company wide for over a month. On our way home we try 3 Target stores, 8 Wal-Mart stores and at 7 p.m. Thursday evening (we need the costume for Friday's Halloween party at school, by the way) we end up an hour from home in a Halloween Express store with NO Jessie costume and a tired, hungry 6 year old in tears. We also have one cranky father, an impatient, hungry toddler and a Mom who feels like an ass for waiting so long to find a freaking Jessie costume. BECAUSE A GOOD MOTHER WOULD HAVE KNOWN IT WAS THE COSTUME OF THE YEAR AND BOUGHT IT EARLY. I suck at motherhood at this point.



We find a cute pink cheerleader outfit that will suffice in the midst of this crisis. Of course the cost of said costume, which consists of a shirt that doesn't cover the belly, a skirt cut to the navel and two pom-poms is $34.99. Enter cranky husband who throws a fit over the price of a costume he doesn't want his precious, innocent daughter in to begin with, it shows too much skin for heavens sake. At this point I am at the end of my rope. I have spent way too long shopping for a costume that is going to get stained either during lunch or during the Halloween party less than 24 hours in the future. I am tired. I am hungry. My back hurts from being pregnant and walking the equivalent of a marathon. I inform my dearest husband that unless he wants to continue shopping on his own for a more suitable costume that will make the devastated 6 year old happy he better shut his mouth and hand over the credit card. I'm guessing the steam coming from my ears or the fact that my head spun around 360 degrees may have frightened him, because I've never seen his wallet open that quickly, not even in the Apple store.

After said cheerleading costume was purchased and food was consumed, everyone was in a better mood. The costume was modified with the addition of thick tights and a tank top to please the Catholic school administration and an overprotective father. The costume was not so shockingly stained during the Friday afternoon Halloween party. And on Halloween as Trinity & I were trick-or-treating in the mall behind 4 other Jessie's I hear "I'm glad I'm not Jessie, because I like being unique." And then my head exploded...

And the fun begins!

So, if you don't know by now, we are expecting child #3 in early March. Due to this unexpected turn of events, we not only have to purchase a bigger vehicle, but a bigger house. Let's just get it out right away - I HATE HOUSE SHOPPING! No, I don't think you understand just how deep my hatred of house shopping runs. I do not like going into other people's homes and snooping around. I hate having to try to imagine if my sofa or chair or bookshelf will fit into a certain space. I do not like thinking of who would get what bedroom and what improvements would need to be made. It annoys me, it frustrates me, it stresses me out.

When we purchased our home in 1998 I had never house hunted before. I had lived in my parents house, the dorm, a couple apartments that were chosen based on rent & that is all. When I walked into our current home (the second house we looked at) I said "This is it, we're done. This is my house." It was a contract for deed, so we purchased it on the spot. House shopping done. Then several years later we got pregnant with our daughter and we thought it would be a good time to look for a larger, more family friendly house. We looked at house after house after house after house and I hated them all. My favorite experience of them all was the widower's house who hung his tidy whiteys on a line in the basement right around the corner from the stairs so I ran straight into a pair when exploring the basement. Yep, I'm still scarred. I shiver just a little when passing the Hanes aisle in Target. In the end, we found a lovely house on a great lot in the next town over that had everything we wanted and a little more. We went to put an offer in to find that it was zoned incorrectly so we wouldn't be able to get a loan. A month plus later, tons of phone calls to my agent, the bank, the city zoning people and anyone else that would listen to me cry and our loan is ready and an offer is made only to find out...the listing agent gave us incorrect zoning information and the owners had *just* accepted an offer from another client of the listing agent. Coincidence? Bad timing? Seedy listing agent? I don't know, but I was devastated and that was the very last house I looked at until yesterday, when the fun begins again.