School Shopping...

I hate it. What else is there to say?

I hate it even more with an almost teenager. Melissa starts Jr. High this year, and we have gone all over kingdom come looking for anything and everything and finding nothing. And who knows how many of the shopping trips have ended in tears.

First on our list is jean shopping... Enough said right? She is at that stage where she fits in the girls clothes still, but then thinks they all look too little kiddish. We did figure out that she could do a size zero short. But finding zeros first of all is a HUGE task and when you add on top of that that you want "short" zeros, the task becomes almost impossible. Then add on top of that the fact that you don't want holes in them, you like the "cute" pockets, the color has to be "not weird", and they can't cost an arm and a leg and you have a "never gonna happen" situation. I finally got wise and told her that we would go online to the JCPenney catalog and order some of what we want and have it shipped to the store, that way she could try them on before we buy them. I know, sometimes I amaze even myself with my strokes of genius.

* On a side note, I am a fan of skinny jeans for Melissa because even if they are on the long side, they look OK bunched by her ankle a little bit. It also allows for some "growing" room. {We can be optomistic too :)}

Shirts weren't any better. We found (I mean I found) that sizes meant nothing. I did more trips back and forth between the clothes and the dressing rooms than I think I EVER have. Trying to get shirts that were not too tight looking or high enough on her was no easy task. I did notice that she likes two different styles of shirts and I talked her into a third style (just to be different). I am guessing that she won't wear the one I picked out much, but it was in the clearance rack and so was super cheap and so if she only wears it a couple of times, it is no big loss.

The funny part about the trip was watching her worry about how much things cost. I gave her a budget before we left and I was amazed that she kept looking at the price tags, and then calculating in her mind how much she would have left if she bought it and then debate about which things she liked the most. The funny part was we bought quite a bit from Kohl's and they were offering Kohl's cash. As we were walking out to the parking lot, she said, "You know those shoes that I put back? I now have enough Kohl's cash to get them!" {As if the Kohl's cash is hers!}

She still has to find a "bag" to take her school books in. I finally convinced her after looking at five different store (no joke) that she should just use one of her little dance backpacks that she has and then after the first day, wait and see what others are carrying and what will fit in her locker and then we'll go out on Monday and find something.

One last note, after all of our school shopping. All of the clothes we bought are still in the bags with the tags on them because after suggesting waiting on the "bag" she decided that she would wait and see what everyone else wore the first day of school and then decide if she likes what she got or not. And then "we could look for other clothes on Monday..." whatever.... I hate Jr. High... Just sayin'.