Sometimes I wonder if I'm a girl because I do not have the shopping gene. My daughter has inherited this deficiency from me. I think I used to have it, but now shopping is just a CHORE I do NOT enjoy! The one exception is stumbling across an amazing bargain....in that case, stockpiling items I am certain we will have use for at some date in the future, although Tad and everyone else in the family questions the logic (I need only site my purchase of tennis racquets to justify myself, we used ALL 8 of them).

It's almost summer. Rachel NEEDS a new bathing suit. This was our challenge over the weekend. I'm trying to come up with a stronger word for challenge....daunting challenge? insurmountable?? The ONLY thing worse than shopping in general is BATHING SUIT SHOPPING. Tad is convinced there isn't a female alive who doesn't hate it, although their reasons will vary (I agree). It is the one thing I will NOT look at size and automatically disqualify if it's larger than I'd like.

Rachel is 13, still in between a girl and a woman. We actually started looking in women's suits, just because that's usually what we found first. Most look like "old ladies" suits (even too "old" for me, lol). But then we tried juniors, and ay yi yi........GIVE ME A FREAKIN' BREAK! They were all a geometry lesson--two triangles (three, if you count the bottoms) and a not-so-straight line! No tankini's, and really, no boy shorts either.... Sooooo, it was back to women's.

Maybe it's where we live, I guess at least six or seven hours from a beach. Yeah, we did find ONE that was a keeper, out of maybe 30? This makes me want to be a clothing designer, which is pretty funny in and of itself, I have absolutely NO flair for fashion. But I DO know how to cover basic body parts! Reminds me of a GREAT Barlow Girls song (click the link AND be sure both to read ALL the lyrics and listen to the clip).

Anyway, the saving grace at the end of the day was the fun we had as we were leaving. We walked past the millinery department and HAD to try on a few......I saw more than a few smiling faces walking by as they witnessed a mom and her daughter enjoying each other's company. The FUNNIEST thing was a lady asked US to help her decide on a hat for real!! As if we knew what we were talking about.....................:)