Need advice on Land’s End clothing

Does anyone watch Project Runway? Well, don’t read on if you don’t want to know who won … but I can’t believe Leann won. I really loved Corto’s collection. I would wear every single one of her outfits, if I had somewhere to wear them. But of course the judges chose a more “high fashion” look, inspired by waves, that noone would ever wear in real life. Sometimes I just don’t get fashion. I know it’s art, but we still have to wear it right?

Speaking of wearing things, I missed the season-end sales on swimsuits. And I really need a new one. Mine all have gotten really thin and are just worn out. And there are a couple of occassions where I’ll need one this winter. And I remember Antique Mommy onced did a review of a Land’s End bathing suit and she loved it. She said it’s totally worth spending more and getting a better suit.

So, I have two tops and one bottom picked out. I’m a little scared. I tried on dozens of suits at the beginning of the summer and never found one I liked, so what’s the chances of the ones I order fitting me perfectly? Oh well, I can always send them back, and besides, what’s my other option? I don’t think any stores are carrying them right now.

So, anyway, have any of you ever ordered from Land’s End? What about their swimsuits? Do you know if their sizes tend to be big, small or just about on point?

Here are the suits I like:

I normally go with a navy or brown, something subdued, but I’m thinking color this year. If nothing else, it may distract people from looking at my cellulite. I like this top a lot. I wish they had the skirt in my size too, but they don’t.

I love the red and orange together. So, I thought I would get these two peices also, so I would have two tops and one bottom. This one’s a little more sporty, which is good, since I’m mostly going to be in it at the YMCA with Ella or at a waterpark, not sipping margaritas on a beach somewhere. Sigh.

And here’s the back. Kinda different. I like it.

Big girl

Ella’s been doing so much lately. She just recently started saying “TayTu” when you give her something. I can tell by her tone she’s trying to say thank you. And she’s gotten really good and saying “Peeeaaaasee” especially when she wants more snacks.

Her hair seems to be growing a lot too. I wish it would grow more in the front though. I almost want to cut it now before it becomes too mullet-like.

The biggest surprise was a few days ago though. I was upstairs in our loft/computer room and I looked over the banister at Steve and Ella and waved. I could tell Ella was excited to see me and she was even kinda motioning toward the staircase. But I said “No, I’ll be down in a minute.” I was trying to upload some photos that have been accruing on my camera.

So, I got back to work, but turned around when I heard something behind me. And there she was! I quickly yelled down at Steve “Did you help her up here?” He was surprised as I was and said he did not.

There are two gates on the stairs. The one at the top probably was open – we’ll leave that open if she’s downstairs. But we’re really good about the bottom one being closed. And even if we did leave it open, I’ve never let her go up the stairs by herself. I let her practice going up with me behind her but she usually gets distracted by a piece of lint or various other things along the way and it takes fooorevvver. So, I couldn’t believe she came up by herself and that fast.

Here I was all worried about her getting out of her crib and she pulls this stunt. I am glad to know she’s adept at handling stairs on her own though – funny how she acts like she needs my help when I’m there though.

Anyway, in other news we went to Chuck E. Cheese last night for Grant’s birthday. You may remember he already had his birthday extravaganza a few weekends ago, but this was his actual birthday. So the kids had fun. Except Ella did not like Chuck E. She either bawled or just stared as he walked by holding on to me for dear life.

And last night when she still wasn’t asleep at 10 p.m. and I had to calm her down by holding her in our bed I wandered if she was having Chuck E. nightmares. Poor girl. I guess even as big as she’s getting, a giant mouse is pretty scary.

Here’s to you, grandpa

I might not have much time today to blog – judging from the crib boxing I hear going on upstairs.

It’s been a sad week. On Tuesday my coworker and friend Carol lost her husband Greg unexpectedly. He was 59 years old and she went home for lunch and found him unresponsive. His heart just stopped beating. It’s like your worst nightmare coming true. I can’t imagine her shock and thought process trying to comprehend it all this past week. I even had a dream about it all one night. I dreamt someone told me that it was a mistake, it wasn’t her husband afterall, it was the gardner. OK, she doesn’t have a gardner I know of – dreams don’t always make sense. But I was so relieved for her. So, anyway, if the whole thing is a little unreal to me I can’t imagine if that was my husband or my dad. They also leave behind 18 grandchildren. The youngest was just born in July.

So that leads me to our weekend. We were going to go to Ludington. We really miss Steve’s family and haven’t even met our newest nephew yet, but I felt I was needed to help with the funeral dinner and I wanted to show my support by going to the calling and funeral. Don’t get me wrong, I have some perspective here. I’m not sorry about our weekend – we’ll get up there soon. I keep thinking of something comedian Kevin Nealon wrote about in his book. He said that he was scheduled to go to New Orleans the week after Hurrican Katrina hit, but of course he couldn’t go when the hurricane struck. So, he kept jokingly saying “Why am I so unlucky?”

The funeral was really nice. The grandkids all stood up and spoke. It was so sweet. He was very loved. It made me think a lot about my own grandpa’s funeral though and how disappointed I am that I missed it. It was just the day after I gave birth to Ella and I was in the hospital when I got the call from my mom saying that my grandpa had died. I was sad he would never meet Ella, but I also kinda thought it was neat that as my grandpa passed away a new life came into the world. Strangely two months earlier a friend of ours lost his dad, but shortly after my nephew Finn was born. Guess there really is a circle of life.

I did go to the calling. It was five days after Ella was born. The first time I left the house. We had Steve’s parents come down from Michigan to watch her. Obviously my parents would be at the funeral home all day. I was so emotional. I don’t think I had postpartum. I was far from being depressed, but I had no idea what an emotional wreck I would be after having a baby. Add a funeral to that and it’s hard to hold yourself together. And physically I wasn’t really healed yet either.

I’ll always remember when I ran into a friend of the family and she asked me what I had been up to and I said “Well, I had a baby on Monday.” I’ll never forget how her mouth dropped open. Guess she wasn’t expecting that response.

The next day though I stressed and stressed how I would make it to the funeral. It was 30-35 minutes away. Ella breastfed like every two hours (at least) for a up to an hour at a time. I don’t think she had formula at that point. I don’t think I had ever used a breastpump. And I was far from comfortable breastfeeding in public. By myself for that matter. Also they say don’t take newborns out into the public until they’re one month old because their immune systems aren’t strong. And I was going to go somewhere with about 200 people – there was bound to be some sicknesses floating around.

Long story not so short, I didn’t go. I really wish I could have supported my family and heard the stories people told. People have a lot of material to cover when it comes to my grandpa. And the procession went right past their farm. Sounds like it was a good sendoff for my grandpa.

Anyway, I was glad to be at Greg’s funeral this weekend and support my friend. I think my grandpa would have been proud.

Daddy and Ella’s photo session