Forever 21... or not

Reagan has been asking if we can go to Flatirons Mall to find some shoes. It took me a while, but we went last weekend. It was my turn to take her on a date, so off to the mall we went. When we got in the car I mentioned we'd be eating at the food court... jumping with joy she squealed. I think that is so funny... we never eat at the food court, so this was a highlight. And I might mention this pizza place was slammin'! We got these crazy amazing bread sticks that were so garlicky and Parmesany... I was happy too.

Well, we never did find the shoes. However, on the way in we noticed that a store called Forever XXI was in a new place. Hmmm, if I have my Roman numerals right, that is Forever 21. One of our favorite stores and has the best deals on cute rings, my thing.

I made some observations while waiting forever in the dressing room... in the area us moms are banished to while our daughters only want us to see them clothed. Standing under what felt just like heat lamps at a buffet, I observed:

• What, you don't like them? - No! - Why? - Because they're UGLY! If you've heard this once, you've heard it a million times.
• A mom older than me in an over sized 80's shirt with a horse on the front, the length of the shirt. The shirt went almost to her knees and all I wanted to yell to her from the other end was, "Please, spare your kid some embarrassment and ditch that shirt."
• A girl saying, "It makes my hips look all the way out to here." I've so been there.
• Out in the "fresh" cool air beyond the dressing room, we saw two teenage boys in bathrobes with 3 sets of earmuffs each on their heads... like spiders. We finally realized they were playing dress up to impress their not-even-21-year-old girlfriends. We chuckled!

The kicker to my dressing room experience was this: I had been squatting down for a break against the wall by Reagan's dressing room. I offered to take a few of her non-wanted items. I grab my purse, the items, and head down the hall to hang them up. As I'm walking back I notice another banished mom took my spot. Can I tell you that not only were my feet on fire by that point. It took everything in me not to say, "Um, hell-o. That is my spot." That seemed way too immature and possibly damaging to Reagan. So instead I stood with my bootie turned to her and made it real clear she was tickin' me off. I had been in that place FAR longer than her and had earned that turf.

A couple minutes later Reagan opens the door to show me item #152. She gets big eyes, looks down, and cocks her head like, "Who is that?" In my head I yell, "A MOM WHO TOOK MY SPOT!" She let me into the dressing room, she must have felt bad for poor ol' mom who was acting like a tired toddler. She tried on a few more items and we left. That was when we saw the boys flirting with their girls, we needed that after the other mom incident.

We got a lot of laughs out of that day. Especially when Reagan tried on a dress for fun, looked cute, shut the dressing room door, re-opened it and said, "I'm stuck." I love my time with my kids. Dates are big around here, I highly recommend the one-on-one time. We plotted out the dates where we can spend money, and dates that have to be free. It has caused us to get creative for sure!!

P.S. I knew for a long time that I am not Forever 21... but I had some fun.