My Wardrobe is a Hot Mess

Recently, as I went through all my clothes to pack the maternity and unpack the summer and normal clothes I had a sad realization...my clothes stink. Or rather, I stink at buying clothes. I was trying to organize my closet as I unpacked it, hanging up all the sweaters together, all the button front blouses together, all my favorites front and center together, and all the old navy crew neck tees together.

OK, I realized I have too many shapeless, blah old navy tees. I'm ashamed to admit they occupied 50% of my wardrobe. I have a the whole rainbow of colors of the boring, boxy shirts. I thought to myself how did all these get in my closet? Then I contemplated the fact in the year 2007 I purchased three shirts (excluding the maternity stuff I got when I started showing...those were probably mainly in 2008 anyway). The year before that, 2006, I added 4 shirts to my wardrobe. So all these crew necks were accumulated years prior, and why?

1. Tight budget through out our marriage and especially these last two years made clothing the last budget priority for me

2. The Old Navy Crew Necks were cheap, sometimes 2 for $10.

3. I'm low maintenance, and by low maintenance, I haven't updated my clothing image since Jr. High because I have the mentality that new unique trends will go "out of style" and I'll be stuck with dated clothing...because all my old navy tees will never go out of style??? what logic. I guess low maintenance to me means NO MAINTENANCE. No effort at all to keep current...which leads to the biggest reason:
4. I have no fashion sense and all the episodes of TLC's WHAT NOT TO WEAR apparently haven't rubbed off, leaving me with the wardrobe rut I've dug myself into.

I had been thinking of this when my little sister visited this week. Here was our conversation:

Me: Lately I realized how awful my wardrobe is. So boring. I'm drowning in those old navy t-shirts

Her: It's funny you bring that up because recently someone was asking about my older sister and to describe you I said: 'She's about my height but exactly the opposite. Basically light hair, parted on the side in a ponytail, an old navy crew neck tee, and jeans.'

So true Lynette. So true. So why did you buy me TWO MORE OLD NAVY CREW NECK TEES FOR MY BIRTHDAY LAST YEAR? It must be because you knew I'd wear them...and I have many times so all in all probably a great gift for me.

So what to do? Watch more What Not To Wear? Throw away all the crew necks to prevent my wearing them and survive on the remaining 10 tops? Get e-bay savvy and try to make the most of my old clothes and cycle them to get newer, more fashionable clothes?

What I'll most likely do after this clothing revelation is nothing. At this point the wardrobe has to stay financially and I've been frumpy this long, what's like--the next decade until Rhett's got a job?

I know your clothes can say a lot about you. So I guess with my wardrobe I'm saying...not much.

This may be for the best because I can never shut up and say too much with my face, so I need some balance and say nothing with my image right?

APOLOGY: for the multiple uses of "old navy crew neck tee" I should have made an acronym: O.N.C.N.T. early on in the post

Rhett Acts

These are clips from our trip home last November for Thanksgiving. The last two years when we've gone home for the holidays, we've made movies with our 15 nieces and nephews at Rhett's parents house. Crapo Collaboration 2006 was our remake of Narnia, pretty funny but on a video camera, so no digital format capabilities. All I can tell you is Rhett made an amazing Mr. Tumnus. The scene playing his recorder to Lucy to make her fall asleep could win awards.

Some photos of the kids. I didn't have any during the movie, the middle one is everyone playing monster Twister. I made the huge Twister board from a king sized sheet. Some of those kids were really limber... the final match was between Rhett and our sister in law, Nancy. If I remember right, Nancy kicked his trash.

Our video for 2007 was our own spin on Clue. Basically a mystery dinner and we killed off all the characters leaving the audience wondering who the murderer could be since everyone died. The surprise ending was the fact the murderer wasn't in the film at all, but was the "House Fairy", some random footage of our 3-year-old nephew who insisted to wear a purple fairy costume to compliment his fake machine gun. We were in a rush because we made the mistake of filming on the last night for some of the kids. They had to leave to drive home, so we had to kill a bunch of the kids off in a hurry. After they all left, Rhett and I reviewed our footage and realized there were major holes in the plot. So to fill in the gaps, we made Rhett the narrator and filmed a bunch to explain the story. It ended up taking us late into the night, and luckily the Crapo family are all night owls so Rhett's parents were up and we didn't wake them with Rhett playing the piano, us busting up laughing, and the meowing of a feral cat.

So to explain these clips.

Rhett's costume is supposed to be a wise professor complete with mascara mustache, boy scout green handkerchief meant to be a silk scarf, and a sweater vest his mom knitted. We kept trying to provide unique poses and situations for the many shots of Rhett explaining our movie; sipping on the mantle, playing the piano, lounging on the couch, reading and surprised by the camera, even coming out of the restroom. But my favorite was Rhett's idea of catching the feral (born in the wild, not tame) cat that roamed around his parents house to lay on his lap. I thought it was so great, so we ran out at 2am with cat food in our hands searching for the wild cat.

Luckily since it was freezing (November) the cat was curled up next to the house for warmth. Rhett enticed it out of it's corner with the cat food, only to snatch it up. I have this image of him running into the house in his costume his arms straight out with the cat twisting and squirming in attempt to escape.

The scene is Rhett introducing one of the characters, and he did a great job until I messed up this first shot busting up laughing...but it was so funny. See what you think. Maybe it was hilarious just because it was so late. This first clip was going well until the cat started acting up, and I lost control.

This is the final clip, or the one where my laughing in the back ground is the least.

After we got the above footage, we ran back outside to let the traumatized cat outside. We ran around the corner as Rhett's mom had to step out of the way to let us by. I can't remember if she had seen our previous antics, or if all the sudden her 26-year-old son and his crazy wife came busting through her kitchen in costumes, carrying a snarling feral cat, and laughing hysterically. When we came back she said: "I heard all that meowing and thought it was on the TV." It was a pretty awesome Thanksgiving vacation and I'm pretty sure all the kids loved it. Our movie even had a soundtrack...the theme song from the 80s sitcom Mr. Belvedere.

Lynette

This is me holding my little sister, Lynette because she couldn't reach the bottom of the pool. We've always been good friends and she is one of my favorite people in the world. I was so happy our paths crossed these past two days... INTRODUCTIONS



Lynette Kelly and Drew Barlow were traveling through the state and we drove down to Columbia to meet up with them for the afternoon. This was the first time Rhett and I were to meet Drew, Lynette's boyfriend. This was the first time Lynette was to meet RJ, our baby. We were pretty excited and had a picnic for lunch. Drew had to leave early for a radio show and so we went to Target where we chatted over a bottle of Blood Orange Italian Soda and laughed really hard.

NEW IDENTITY

During our Target conversation, it was brought to my attention that Drew's name is in fact Drew Barlow...all these months I assumed his name was Drew Danburry, but Danburry is just his stage name. I felt like this new piece of info gave him a totally new identity. So now I have to get used to Drew Barlow. Tons of fun laughing it up with Lynette and Rhett.

NEW HAIRCUT

Lynette told me the story of her current hair style. She borrowed a friend's clippers to cut her hair last week, and started cutting, but she gummed them up because her hair was too thick. They wouldn't cut, and her hair was stuck in the teeth of the clippers. She just yanked the clippers from her head, resulting in short hair at the nape, left side of her neck. Her creative mind then created this ---->

from the clipper muck. Upon my analysis of the new cut, I labeled it as a "long mohawk". Lynette responded: "ya...kind of a ratty mullet". I think her description is more accurate upon further investigation.

FAREWELLS

We had to drop Lynette off and say goodbye. It was pretty sad considering we are so close and see each other infrequently due to living so far away. But we were glad we had the afternoon so she could meet her new nephew and we could meet her new love.

SURPRISE

Yesterday morning Lynette called to say the show in Springfield was cancelled so the tour would stop in Kirksville that night. Sad for the tour, great for us. So Lynette and Drew came to stay with us the night! We were excited to see them again and have another day to hang out.

AGENDA

We didn't do too much other than chat and eat. Early in the afternoon, Drew introduced us to the comedy of Andy Samberg, which Rhett and I thought was hilarious. Next, Lynette and I made dinner...Gnocchi. We both love to cook and it had been a while since Nette had been able to since they'd been on tour, so she had the privilege of wearing Rhett's apron. She was stoked to be able to use her favorite knife in our drawer, the ROCK' N' CHOP. We made a ton of gnocchi, too much for our recipe. It turned out delicious and between the four of us, the 9x13 pan of pasta goodness was gone.









After dinner we watched Nette's and my favorite romance, Roman Holiday. Then at midnight we started frying up loads crepes. Once again, we all ate a ton. We enjoyed our late dessert with sugar, fresh squeezed lemon juice, and real whipped cream. So delicious.

SO LONG

This morning after we ate a pan of lemon blueberry biscuits, Nette and Drew had to leave for Kansas City for their next show. We had such a great visit and we're so glad we were able to meet Drew and hang out. Each time I have to part from Lynette it is always sad. We are really close despite our being the exact opposite of each other. We miss Lynette already.

Music Video

"Lynette I Love You" by Drew Danburry
My little sister is Lynette.

Family Picture

Tobey did such an awesome job taking pictures when RJ was two weeks old!

My Feelings on Nursing

So Long K-town

This is finals week for Rhett, finishing up the last term of the academic portion of medical school. He is on the brink of being half done!!! After these last finals, he has boards (which are huge) a measly summer term, then the big move home to begin the second half of med school 2 years of rotations, clinical hours in hospitals.


So looking back at these last two years, I'm sure Rhett has learned a ton about physiology, anatomy, bio chemistry, etc. but here is a list of what we've learned as a family.

Things You Learn From Living In Rural Missouri For Two Years:

• You can survive with a single retail option...Wal-Mart
• Proper motions to chip away an inch of ice from your windshield most effectively
• There are bugs far more gross than mosquitoes
• What the term "down pour" really means
• It isn't unusual for the area to smell like wet dog for a while after it rains
• People's trash piles in their front yards really mean "come and get it" to everyone else
• The value of living within two hours of an airport
• It is a huge blessing to have clean air acts in place to prevent smoking in restaurants, stores, day cares, etc.
• Camouflage hunting wear is both useful in deer season, and fashionable all year round
• How to extract dead, rotting ground hog pups from your ventilation system
• Beards don't need to be limited to the face, neck beards can not only be attractive... bonus: less chance of food getting stuck and dried in the whiskers since the entirety of neatly trimmed beard is on the NECK!
• People hunt for mushrooms which are a delicious delicacy and look like something a goat barfed up
• What true customer service can be at a grocery store...HyVee employees escort you to items you can't find, they never point
• In some circumstances, "No shirt, No Service" is more of a guideline than a rule
• Fireflies are simply amazing and everyone should have the privilege of seeing them at some point in their lives
• Hot date night will inevitably end up in Wal-Mart at some point, where you'll see other couples you know on dates also
• Difference between Amish and Mennonite (the Mennonites are the ones talking on cell phones in the Wal-Mart check out line)
• Correct method to remove a dead deer carcass from your backyard... and diagnose the cause of death
• You will eventually covet the postal kiosks in larger post offices after spending all day in line at the post office just to mail an over sized envelope and grinding your teeth while each person has a full conversation with the mustache postal worker while the line grows longer and longer and they keep chatting, recounting each person they commonly know from the surrounding communities. Oh, and then they'll close early just because they felt like it.
• Free wading pools in the local parks can save some Mom's lives in the summer...or so we've heard
• To be a local celebrity, all you have to do is plaster your picture and name all over the town
• The length of time it takes a lawn to become a field because it hasn't been mowed
• Some of the best BBQ you'll eat may just come from a yellow trailer on the side of the road
• If there's a chance you'll have to share a room after you have a baby, consider having the child at home
• A small town can never have enough dollar stores
• Every community should have farmer's markets

It's going to be hard to leave all the friends we've made here and these two years have definitely created some lasting memories for our little family.

A Look Back

Just good to look back and realize how far we've come in the last fifty years in medical knowledge.

Would You Like A Cup of Baby Rhett?

My mom found this huge tea cup planter and had the genius idea for photo opportunity for Baby Rhett. He was one week old when we took this picture. He was a really great sport. We've been blessed with such a good baby.