Monday, April 12, 2010

You Might Be a Redneck...

Below are four completely random details that eventually collide to make for one good adaptation on my part. Work with me.

Detail #1
I've been referred to many times as a Southern Belle. I think it's my accent, err, I mean drawwwwl. In fact, I have very few one syllable words in my vocabulary. Truth is though, I'm not really a Southern Belle. I'm actually just a redneck who never left "the city" after college.

Detail #2
When I had my boys 18 months apart, my mom bought me a Peg Pergo double stroller. My husband said it would be great for me to take the boys shopping. What he meant to say, was "This will be a great opportunity for me to go play golf and for you and your mom to *enjoy* yourselves shopping with the boys." Get real. With two young boys, shopping and fun do not go together. Period.

However, I really liked the stroller. It was compact and light, and remarkedly roomy for the growing boys. The bottom storage was also adequate for lots of shopping bags and once I added S-hooks to the push bar, I could tote even more bags.

The only thing I didn't like was the fact there were no cup holders. Who makes a stroller with NO cup holders? Apparently the stroller was made for structured families who have unbreakable rules as to "no food or drink away from the table." I tried several different attachable cup holders, but none worked to my liking.

Detail #3
My husband (bless his heart) needed to travel out of town for a last minute presentation. He asked me to go buy him a Sports Jacket at the mall (since I didn't have anything else to do). Like I'm just gonna walk into the mall toting two kids under 3 and *presto* find a nice jacket, in his size, at an affordable price and all in time to pick up big brother at preschool by 1:00.

Detail #4
Little Sticky apparently sprained his hamstring at a friend's birthday bounce house party on Sunday. Rendering him unable to walk.

Collision
This morning I pack up the double stroller (after dusting 80 pounds of pollen from it) so that after dropping Big Sticky off at preschool and stopping to get a much needed cup of coffee, I could take the youngest babies (one who cannot walk) to the mall to find a last minute Sports Jacket.

I had not used the stroller in quite some time and the last cup holder I used apparently had fallen off (like the previous five or six or seven or so.)  I had to do something with my coffee cup since I needed both hands to steer 60 pounds of little people.  Here is where the redneck comes out in me.  I grabbed a Toy Story sand bucket that I found in the back of the van and placed it in the S-hooks I had previously bought to hold shopping bags and VOILA...  a cup holder. 


I put two baby wipes in the bottom of the bucket to keep the cup from moving around and to absorb any potential coffee spills.  And when I was finished with my coffee, it became a great holder for my cell phone and the Buzz Lightyear and Woody action figures that the kids kept throwing to the floor.

And as we were leaving the mall (in a big hurry mind you) I remembered one other thing that I loved and hated about this stroller.  On good days, I could literally collapse the thing with one hand.  On bad days or times when I was just in a big hurry, no amount of flicking or pushing or squeezing or cursing or kicking or shoving or forcing or crying or screaming would get that thing to fold for me.  This of course, was one of those days.  So what does a girl do?



She picks it up and shoves it in the mini-van that she swore one day she would never, never, never, never, never, never, never, NEH-VERRRRR drive!

3 comments:

  1. I am laughing with tears running down my face!!! Great story....
    Hugs,
    Penny

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  2. Wondered where that was going ... Awesome! I was imagining duck tape may be involved at some point but this is great! Love it! You are a girl after my own heart;-)

    Anne
    southernMOMentum.com

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  3. Love a practical girl! Great story...found you on southernMOMentum.com...I'm hooked.
    Love your blog

    ReplyDelete