we stayed up waay too late, again...

We watched a movie last night, Mirielle, Aaron, Mali, Samuel, Margaret, and I. "The Curious Life of Benjamin Button"....he was born an old man, so when he was a child, he had all the infirmities of the aged....then as he got older, his body got younger. We thought it was thought-provoking, but a real downer...the story was told by his dying friend/lover, to her daughter....and watching this woman slowly die throughout the movie was just painful to watch. After going through it in real life with my mother and father, I can think of better ways to be entertained....

After the movie, which ended around 2am, we started talking about my mother. She was a bargain shopper. Now, she died three years ago this summer, at the end of July. In June, I took her shopping. She found a very pretty skirt, and actually paid full price for it because there was a graduation party and a wedding coming up. She passed up the shirt/top that went with it, buying two things full-price was too much for her. This was at Wal-Mart, mind you. And she COULD afford it. It was just the principle. Anyway, I specifically remember how pretty the skirt was, and how nice she looked in it. Fast forward one month, and she had died. My father asked my sister and I to pick out the clothes for her to be buried in. We went to Walmart and got the shirt that matched the skirt, it was on clearance for THREE DOLLARS! Oh, our brains were mush after staying with her for all hours that week in the hospital as she passed, and we dropped the bag of clothes off at the funeral home without taking off the price tag on the shirt...oh, how we laughed about that last night. The thing is, my mother would have thought it was the funniest thing in the world. The problem with all this is the memories it brought back....we were laughing and crying at the same time....the movie ended, Mirielle, Mali, and I stayed up talking about Gramma for a long time.....she looked so beautiful lying there, but now I am thinking about it again, and I still hate it that she is gone. She was so much fun....did not act her age, she could laugh at herself.....my kids have been remembering her, and the funny things she said and did and the cool presents she got them through the years (cheap, of course)....

Anyway, we are going shopping today. A local grocery store has 4 double-up-to-$3-coupons, and we have 4 extra ones from the newspaper. Mirielle has been planning which ones to double....plus this store has some other things that are a good deal, like milk for $1.45 a gallon....it is still pretty hot out, but not as bad as yesterday...we have to figure out who to bring and who to leave. Camille-the-spoiled-but-adorable sweetie pie wants to go. 'Cause she can't pass up an opportunity to cry in the car seat and stand up in the cart, can she? No, she isn't all trouble, she is learning so much all the time, it is enjoyable to be along with her in it all. And Charlotte Claire, with her independent spirit and relative maturity, inflexible and very vocal about it. She will want to go....and of course Jonathan will want to go....he likes to ride in the van. Or any vehicle. He brings one of his steering wheels, or he uses something else to steer with, like a broken camera. Sonja K. will want to go, she cannot pass up the opportunity to possibly "get" something. And the other little girls will most likely want to go too, as they haven't been out and about much lately. This all means that it will be crazy. Because one or two kids dancing and pirouetting through the aisles seems sort of normal. It is when you begin to multiply that the staring starts. And when one of them inevitably argues with another one, or UH-OH, hits or pinches, and the loud crying, oh dear, maybe we don't want to go.....but then, where ever we go, at some point they all start thanking me....it is so funny. I take them to the grocery store, and one of them says, "Thank you for taking us, Mom...", and they all chime in....admittedly, I usually DO get them SOMETHING special.....like a drink or snack. And I try to remember that even if this is just a trip to the store for me, for them it is an outing in their childhood, and I try to make it fun for them.

I need to go start getting out clothes....it is funny, because Mirielle, with whom I stayed up 'til almost 3am, suggested we get an early start. ha. Snoozing, she is....and I have been awake for hours.....oh well.