Last week Annalyn asked me for a piece of printer paper to scribble draw a picture on. I said no and as she started to complain, I said [sarcastically, because that often works with four-year-olds. Oh, wait.], “Ohhhh, poor baby! It’s too bad you don’t have anything to color on. It’s too bad you only have 12 coloring books in your basket over there.”

Without missing a beat, she said, “But I want 13 coloring books!”

I just about lost it right then and there. Are you kidding me? Some kids don’t have any coloring books! Some kids don’t even have crayons! There are starving children in Africa!!!

Last weekend, Mark and I were discussing work schedules and budgets and other fun topics, and he said, “Yeah, because we’re broke.”

Again, I came a little unglued. Broke? Really? Because we’ve been broke, and this is NOT it. And really? When we were so-called “broke”? It’s not like we were really, really POOR. We don’t even KNOW poor. Come ON!”

Clearly we are suffering from the first-world problems in my house. And I’m afraid I have to say “we” in that statement, because I’m just as bad as my family. Which just might explain why I was so sensitive to their overblown statements and ridiculous complaints. Because I’m just as overblown and ridiculous as they are.

Thanks to one little click on Twitter this morning, I fell down the hilarious rabbit hole (and sad commentary) of first-world problems posts. I’m sure you’ve read some yourself, but in case you missed these, here are the ones I found today:

• Newlywed Trek: First World Problems We Encountered While Moving
• Top 10 First-World Problems :: The Adventures of MommyHaha
• The Big Fat Gini Blog: First World Problems…
• RANTS FROM MOMMYLAND: First World Problems – Mommy Edition

I’m halfway through a serious, deep thoughts sort of post, but after reading those (and more), I had to chime in with my own list of first-world problems.

1. My house is really cold. I have to wear slippers while I sit on the couch and watch TV.
2. It is such a pain to copy and paste links from my Delicious bookmarks. It takes three steps!
3. I have to go to the bank in person to close my health savings account [from four years ago], because they won’t let me do it over the phone.
4. Pinterest and Hootsuite keep logging me out, even though I click the “remember me” button.
5. I forgot to get some things at the store yesterday, so I’m going to have to go back again today.
6. I only need two things, though, so I can’t decide if I should take in a reusable bag or not.
7. The next book in the series I’m officially addicted to is on hold at the library. I’m number 237 in line, and I don’t want to wait.
8. Every time I buy a Groupon for house cleaning, the company goes out of business. I hate cleaning my own house. [Seriously. On both counts.]
9. I keep forgetting my password for paying my student loan bill online.
10. My VCR remote is broken, so I can’t fast forward through commercials. What am I, an animal?

What about you – do you have any first-world problems? Go ahead and get them off your chest in the comments. You know you’ll feel better!

This post will be linked up to Top Ten Tuesday on OhAmanda.

Are you superstitious?

If you asked me that question, I’d say NO. Of course not! But when I think about it, maybe I am. I mean, I’m not afraid to leave my house today, Friday the 13th. (Although, for full disclosure, I am still sitting on the couch in my pajamas. But at SOME point, I will get up and go run some errands. Really. I will.)

As I was thinking about superstitions, I realized that I hadn’t made a list for this here blog in quite a while. And considering my abiding love for lists, well, that just didn’t seem right. So, coming at you live from my couch, here’s a list of 13 on the 13th.

1. My parents have owned three black cats, two of them while I was growing up. Watching them cross my path didn’t bother me nearly as much as having to clean up the random hairball.
2. The first – and last – horror movie I watched was Leprechaun. It was at a slumber party at my friend Jammie’s house, and I was overruled and outvoted when it came time to pick the movie. I was such a scaredy cat that I sat with my back to the TV the whole time. I was still scared.
3. Scratch that. I also watched Carrie at a slumber party at my own house. And by “watch,” of course I mean I sat with my back to the TV. Pouting. (It was MY slumber party! How did that even happen?)
4. I had a slumber party at my house one Halloween during middle school. I don’t remember why my friend Elizabeth needed to wash out her heavily dyed hair that night, but I do remember how long it took us to scrub that black dye out of my mom’s [normally pristine] bathtub!
5. My parents never let me dress up as anything evil on Halloween. No witches, vampires, mummies, ghosts or other undead characters allowed in our family. I was, however, a homemade clown several years in a row. And can anyone actually deny that clowns are kind of scary themselves?
6. Another year, my friend Mindy and I went to a Halloween party together, dressed in our costumes, of course. Only to discover that NOBODY ELSE WAS WEARING COSTUMES. We ran inside and called her mom to bring us regular clothes, but because Mindy’s family lived on the busiest trick-or-treating street in town, it took her mom forever to get out of her driveway. Moral of that story? Never assume everyone else will be wearing costumes and bring a back-up outfit with you.
7. After reading all the Harry Potter books last year, I finally decided to watch the movies this past summer. All at once. As in, I watched them in the span of a few days, one after another. When the credits rolled on the last one (well, the second to last one), it was late at night and – obviously – dark outside. I honestly wasn’t sure I’d EVER SEE THE SUN AGAIN. The world of Harry Potter is a dark one, and I don’t recommend mainlining the movies to anyone.
8. However, I did love those books and they’ve turned out to be a gateway drug read. Reading YA has become my new favorite thing. I’ve admitted that before, but what I haven’t said outright is that I really dig (yes. dig.) sci-fi or paranormal YA novels. I know. I know. All I can say is that I promise I will never, ever don a shirt saying, “TEAM JACOB” or “TEAM EDWARD.”
9. Because I don’t do Twilight. Just so you know. Every other cheesy series about teenagers in various monster or freak forms, yes. But I draw the line at those books.
10. When I was in high school, I played basketball. For some reason Smitty started knocking on my head (I suppose in lieu of actual available wood) every time someone was at the free throw line. We were weird.
11. A couple years ago, I watched the first season of Buffy, the Vampire Slayer. Critics loved it, I’d recently discovered Joss Whedon, and I was bored, so I gave it a try. I actually liked it a lot, but couldn’t watch the other seasons because it was too scary.
12. The only movie I’ve ever walked out of (in the theater) was Interview with a Vampire. I was there with my boyfriend (now husband), his brother and his brother’s girlfriend. Obviously they picked the movie (although Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise weighed pretty heavily against Iwillbescareddon’tmakemewatchit). I spent the first part of the movie staring at the floor and wishing I could cover my ears without looking like a baby, and I was SO relieved when the others decided the movie was stupid and we should leave.
13. Apparently the moral of this weird list is that I can read about scary things all day long, but please do not make me watch it on a screen!

Edited to add: I did watch the remake of Psycho in college. And I didn’t sit with my back to the screen. And I told my friends I liked it. But I actually thought it was really scary, too.

So, how about you? Are you superstitious? Do you like horror movies? Are you scared of clowns?

This post includes affiliate links.

I’m sitting here in my oldest, comfiest pair of yoga pants. Normally, I’d have showered by now and put on a pair of jeans. But I’m holding on to the last precious minutes with my comfy pants, because today is the last day I will wear them.

Four and a half years ago, my mom took me to Macy’s to find some clothes I could wear in the middle of my pregnancy. I wasn’t quite ready for maternity clothes, but my regular clothes weren’t comfortable anymore. As I looked for a roomy pair of khaki slacks to wear to work, she hit the clearance rack. And that is where she struck gold.

She found a pair of soft, stretchy black pants on sale for $11! As she handed them to me, she said, “Don’t look at the size. Just see if they fit.”

Thanks, Mom. Nothing like a flashback to shopping for prom dresses and gym shorts.

I’m not proud of the size that is barely visible on my pants’ worn label. (Nor am I proud of the fact that they basically fit the same as they did when I was very pregnant. *sigh*) But I do love these pants.

My black stretchy pants have seen me through pregnancy, a post-early-delivery baby shower, many days as the sleepless mom of a newborn, sporadic workouts, lazy afternoons, quick trips to the grocery store and many days as a stay-at-home mom. And they introduced me to the whole world of black stretchy pants, so I actually own three other pairs.

But no pants will ever take the place of my first pair.

[If you can't see the video above, click here. It will explain the title of this post if nothing else.]

Sadly, though, my favorite stretchy pants have seen better days. A couple months ago, I noticed a small tear at the waistband. It didn’t take long for that small tear to turn into a large rip, and now, the waistband is barely attached to the rest of my pants.

It’s ridiculous. I know that. And when I wear them with my used-to-be bright purple college t-shirt that has more holes than fabric? Well, it’s a pitiful sight.

[In my defense, I only wear these things to bed. And since my husband works nights, it's just me and the cats appreciating my fine fashion sense.]

I’ve been wondering if I could make something out of my pants. Since I love them so much, it’s hard to think about tossing them in the trash. And really, what can’t be re-purposed in the world of Pinterest?

So two days ago, I lovingly dropped my black stretchy pants into the laundry. I washed and dried them, and they made their way back to my bedroom where I thought they would stay until I found the courage to throw them away or actually found something I could make with their remains.

Last night, I put on another, not-quite-as-awesome pair of yoga pants before bed and then went to the bathroom. Earlier in the evening, I’d had to rifle through the bathroom cabinet to find something and I’d left various tubes and bottles lying on the sink and shelf. Fed up with the mess, I grabbed a couple things that could be stored elsewhere and reorganized a few other items. Then my hand bumped into a tiny bottle of Strawberry Shortcake body spray and knocked it straight into the toilet.

The toilet that had not yet been flushed from a four-year-old’s late-night potty break.

SPLASH!

For such a tiny bottle, it really did make an impact. Pee splashed all over my not-perfect but not-holey yoga pants. I took them off (and tossed them out to the washing machine), and grabbed my favorite pair one last time.

And so, this morning, I’m reluctant to get ready for the day. Because today that means saying goodbye to an old friend. I’ve even considered working out to prolong matters.

I suppose I don’t have to throw them away or cut them up to make potholders (or whatever I find on Pinterest) right away. Maybe my favorite stretchy pants can just sit in my drawer for a little bit longer.

Have you ever been ridiculously emotionally attached to an item of clothing? Have you ever kept clothes for sentimental reasons? Do you like to wear yoga pants?