Retail Therapy Just Got A New Meaning

Yesterday I realized that my once white bra had turned an awful gray color. Since I've been staying at my sister's house, I have a minimal amount of clothes and an even more minimal amount of lingerie. I turned to my backup bra and discovered it was as mangy as the first! I told my mom that I was in desperate need of new undergarments, so she agreed to head up to the nearby outlet mall with me today.

Well, today was excellent! I loaded my mom, wheelchair, walker, and all into my car and sped off in search of replacement bras. I wasn't sure of my mom's energy level at that point, so I didn't know if we would need to make it a short outing or not.

Upon arrival I picked up two soft pretzels, one for each of us and steered the wheelchair to the Maidenform outlet. We browsed the store and surprisingly found three bras that fit, a task not made easy by my large chest. (It seems all the large cup sizes are cut for old ladies! No offense.) So we picked up a few undies, too. Everything was on sale and I had a coupon so we were quite proud of our frugal spending!

Next, my mom wheeled herself while I gobbled up my pretzel for energy (trying on bras is hard work) over to the Michael Kors outlet. We skipped over the purses because although I love them, even at the outlet they are quite pricey. Besides, I still have two from my Italian honeymoon that haven't even see the light of day yet. We rolled into the sweaters and we spotted the cutest orange, faux wrap sweater with two buckles around the upper left hip. I, of course, had to get one. It's the perfect color for Autumn after all. From the sale rack I plucked a fuzzy snakeskin print cardigan, and a ruched pink, white, and gray long sleeved top, perfect alone or under a blazer. My mom found an adorable diagonally striped purple and black, drapey sweater. I would have got one for myself would they have had it in my size!

I figured my mom would be tired-out from trying on a couple of sweaters considering she had to stand up a few times. That's not always an easy task for her these days. We headed off in the direction of the car, but when she saw Dress Barn, she said she wanted to go in. On a side note, if you're like me, you're probably thinking Dress Barn is old lady-ish and unstylish. I used to think that anyway, but recently have found that it's actually kind of cool. You just have to take the bad with the good, but that can be said for a lot of stores. So anyway, we popped into Dress Barn and before I knew it, my mom had decided to try on some entire outfits! I was shocked that she wanted to try pants on, I didn't even want to, because it's a lot of work, you know.

The store had a good size dressing room, so we pulled in and got to work. We took my mom's leg braces off and she shimmied into her pants while I made sure she kept her balance and didn't fall. The first outfit was a pair of brown herringbone pants with a burgundy long sleeve shirt. She topped it with a brown sleeveless sweater that buttoned once at the top. It was a complete success! She tried on a few other sweaters, but ultimately passed on those. I didn't want to be left out of the fun so I found a green faux leather motorcycle jacket. The color is a little reminiscent of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, but it's fun all the same. Color is a vital part of one's wardrobe.

Excited about our finds, we got my mom all re-dressed including her braces. When she learned that sweaters were buy one get one half off, she decided it would only be right to get another one. After moving section to section we found a cute black and white hooded sweater with three little black buttons from the neck down. (My mom has lost about 100 pounds over the past year, so she doesn't have many clothes that fit her current size. I just have a problem.) During the hunt for the other sweater, she decided the stylish gray bootcut jeans were calling her name. We headed back to the dressing room so she could try them. It meant unstrapping the braces and more balancing practice, but I was thrilled that she had the energy to keep on going! The jeans looked awesome so we decided to take those, too. My mom accused me of being a bad influence on her, but I told her, she's my mom, she made me that way. She credited my shopaholism to my grandma who had us shopping at Nordstrom before we could talk or walk. She's probably right, but she doesn't help either!

Anyway, after making a substantial dent in our wallets and with energy levels beginning to dip for both parties, we called it quits and made our way home. But today, it wasn't so much the shopping that made me happy, (but it helped) it was seeing my mom have so much energy. To see my mom up and moving around so much, enjoying the things she enjoyed before everything happened. Life felt a little more normal. And above all, she got a really good workout standing and wheeling, getting fresh air and moving. That means we covered her physical therapy then, too. See? Retail therapy is even better than we thought!