Hello FALL

Smells like pumpkins and candy apples,

feels like hayrides and scarves,

sounds like crunching leaves and laughter...

Hello FALL

Reunited

I've really gotten into yardsale-ing since we moved here. Earl, the girls and I go nearly every weekend. A couple of Saturdays ago we were out and the very first place we stopped at looked a little small and scary, but we ALL got out of the car anyway. I was walking around looking at things very casually, wondering just how long we needed to stay to not seem rude. It was just as I was having this thought that our eyes met. She was laying naked on the backside of a table, she was dirty and her hair was a mess. She had gold nail polish on her fingers and toes and goop in her eyes. But as soon as I saw those chubby cheeks and big blue eyes I was five years old again. I walked to touch her and the lady said, "that's a Cricket doll." "I know!" I said quickly--she didn't have to tell me. She had a $5 sticker on her and I considered it for a moment. I asked the lady if she had some batteries in something, somewhere that I could use to test her, but she said that she didn't. I laid her back down and walked away. We wandered around for about 30 more seconds then we decided to go. So, I whipped a five dollar bill from my wallet and said, "I'll take her." Annabelle scooped the doll up excitedly and told Emily, "We're getting a doll." Ha! They weren't getting anything.

I put her in the back of the car. She was dirty and stinky and she would need to be cleaned up before anyone would be touching her.

I thought about her for the rest of the morning. I had visions of restoring her in a style like the scene from Two Story Two when the old man fixes Woody. Some amazing song would play in the background as girl and childhood friend were reunited. I was giddy with anticipation.

When we got home I took her straight to my bathroom. I got a rag, the kitchen cleaner, nail polish remover, Lysol and shampoo. I carefully took off the gold nail polish. I took a Q-tip to her eye balls. I scrubbed her face and legs with the kitchen cleaner. I took out her hair ribbons (the original ones and the same kind I wore as a little girl) and then I proceeded to wash her hair. She had the full salon treatment. I filled the sink with water and lathered her hair up with kid shampoo. The water turned black! I tried brushing through her hair after this and it wasn't easy so I decided to but some conditioner in it as well. I wrapped her hair up so it would dry and then I sprayed her all over with the Lysol and let her dry. While she was drying I went on a battery hunt. We had stopped for C batteries on the way home, but it turned out that she also needed a 9 volt. I couldn't seem to find one, though I was certain that I'd just seen one around a few days ago. I was much too anxious so I decided to see what would happen with just the four C batteries. I put them in her, turned her on and the cassette tape started spinning, but nothing else. Hmm, hopefully it was the 9 volt that would make her come to life and she wasn't broken, I thought. I let her be for a while so she could finish drying. About 30 minutes later I went to check on her and my AMAZING husband had found a 9 volt. I had so much hope for this little girl. I put in ALL the batteries she needed and turned her on. I can hardly describe the feeling I had when she instantly started talking.

Well, I was so proud of my find that I decided to search ebay to see how much they were going for. There were so many of her happy little faces smiling at me while she sat there in her little sweater and tennis skirt and pink sneakers. I came across one person who was selling the doll in her sleepy time attire and when I saw it I gasped. "I just saw this gown, I have it!!"

So, let me tell you how it came to be that I--who throws aways just about everything--came to have the original pink nightgown from my very own Cricket doll from 20 years ago: When we got to Nashville just 2 1/2 months ago my mom was already here waiting on us. Once we got inside and looked around my mom--who NEVER throws anything away and whom regularly mails or brings me random and odd things--started unloading her car with random and odd things. Amongst this occasions things was a little pink suitcase that had old baby doll and cabbage patch kids clothes in it. "Thanks, Mom," I would tell her, begrudgingly--for all the random and odd things. We used the little pink suitcase for Molly's booster seat at the dinner table for over a month and its contents would occasionally be spilled. Once I found her an actual booster seat from a yard sale, the little pink suitcase went into the attic.

On this very day that I was searching ebay and came across Cricket in her "sleepy time" nightgown I remembered seeing it in the little pink suitcase on an occurrence that it fell open under the dinner table. We got it from the attic and put it on her. What to do next? Order her matching bunny sleepers, of course.

Her voice and the stories she tells and songs she sings bring back so many feelings for me. I smile every time I hear her and and it's amazing to watch the girls have so much fun with her. (yes, though she stays in my room, I do allow the girls to play with her...occasionally).

She has been a great addition to our family.

That time already?

So, I think I mentioned this, but some of the children in the neighborhood ave taken a liking to my girls. Even though they are eight and my girls aren't. They come over nearly every day and it's taken some getting use to on my part. This is all very new to me. It wasn't long before they started asking about sleepovers. SLEEP OVER?! My girls are just six and four. I thought I had a few more years before all this started.

Well, somehow today we agreed to let not just one, but two children spend the night at our house! Crazy, right? Want to know what else is crazy? I don't even know these girls' parents and they don't even care. I insisted that the girls get me their mom's phone numbers and after a few hours and a dozen failed attempts I was able to met one of the mom's out on the street and the other I finally reached via phone.

Let's discuss: I began the walk over to the one girl's house and was met by her stepmom and me maw (I live in the South now, people, that means grandmother). They said it was ok that the girl sleep over and informed me that she suffers from ADHD and that it can get pretty bad at nighttime. I asked her to please explain what this meant for me and she said the girl is prone to uncontrollable tantrums. hmmm...I was told to send her home if it got bad. When I got a hold of the other girl's mom on the phone she too seemed to have no problem with the fact that she doesn't know me and hasn't seen the inside of my house. I also asked the mom if the girl could go to church with us in the morning--which is three hours long--and she said, "um, sure."

In all the evening went better than I thought it would. I grew to really like the one girl--I actually wouldn't mind her spending the night and going to church with us again. BUT the girl with the ADHD--She was very polite but oh my! When we made individual pizzas she constantly asked if they were done. Five minutes into palydough she asked what else there was to do. She took over my laptop to watch webisodes of iCarly (I'm totally out of the loop, apparently this is a show on Nickelodeon), when Earl put the show on the TV so everyone could watch it, she went into the bedroom. She asked Earl to hook up the playstation so she could play a racing game and after it took him 15 minutes to get it all together she played for three minutes and then moved on to something else. To think if she had been able to go to church with us--I surely couldn't have kept her entertained for three hours. The whole night went this way and I was worn out by the end of it. I'm a little worried at what we've gotten ourselves into BUT the girls had a blast. And sometimes that's what it's all about, right?