What my parents taught me...

Yesterday was cold. It was in the mid 50's. It had been our plan to do yard work. We'd put Arianna in her play 'room' (playyard XT) on the deck, outside, while we cleaned up the yard. It was too cold to bring her outside, especially while sick, so Shawn did the yard clean up himself and I stayed inside with Arianna.

About 1 PM I got very stir crazy and had to do 'something' once the inside of the house was cleaned. So I decided to trek to my parents. They're always happy to see 'peanut'.

When I got there Arianna was still sleeping so I left her in the car for a few minutes while I chatted with my mom. When my dad arrived he asked if we wanted to go to the Mansfield Country Store and look around. I hadn't been there in many years and was excited to see what was new and introduce Arianna to what was a fun part of my history.

They had a great penny candy case when I was younger - where the candy was actually a penny! Now its 5 cents for the candy, but at least its still there!

It was fun to see how almost nothing in the store had changed in the 10+ years since I'd been there. We went upstairs to the rocker attic and I attempt to get Arianna to sit in a baby rocker but she screamed and threw a fit. She was quiet when grandpa held her though. He did say she felt lighter - "I know", I said "she's lost weight".

They bought a lot of things, even a light up ball for Arianna. I enjoyed some of the fudge and one of the big pickles. That was always fun - we'd always get a classic dill pickle from one of the pickle barrels at the registers. They don't have classic dill anymore - only half sour pickles, which aren't as good.

We had to take my car because of Arianna's car seat, but I had my dad drive as the passenger side seat would be much too small for him - Arianna's car seat causes the passenger seat to be pushed almost all the way forward. I'm 5'7" and my knees touch the dash when seated there, I can't imagine what my 6'1" father would have done! This is one reason I can't wait for her to hit 20 lbs., we can turn her car seat around - in a car accident I'm going to get very hurt!

My dad was so funny. While still in their driveway he tried to turn it on only to find turning the key doesn't do it! He just looked at me and said "this isn't one of those cars where you have to be buckled in is it?" (he has this thing about wearing seatbelts, dumbo). I smiled and said, no, you have push the clutch in (my car is 2006 toyota corolla, standard transmission). He got a goofy smile on his face and said "oohh, its standard, all right!". haha He was happy to drive my car (vs. his big truck) then!

On the way home we had to put gas in my car. We pulled up to the station and I got out to go pay the attendent. Shawn and I only work with cash as part of our budget - we never overdraft our account that way. My dad said he'd pay and he walked to the attendent. It struck me as odd as almost everyone I know just uses plastic at the pump. I then realized that I don't think I've ever seen my Dad use plastic for every day purchases... wow, maybe I did partially learn something good about money from my parents.