Totally Awesome Tie Dye

Nothing in my life is ever easy or according to plan! The only thing I can predict is total chaos - Always! Last night was no exception!

Here's a brief recap of what's been going on this week ---All week long Briley has been singing and rehearsing a song that she and her class were going to perform this morning at school for their assembly. The song was for a pep-rally of sorts before the TAKS tests next week at school. All week long we've been serenaded by the tunes of "I Will Survive" and different words! It really was a cute rendition, but I was ready to see this morning get here and the practice singing to stop!


Now lets jump back to about noon yesterday.... I suddenly remember that we have to be at the High School for Bailey's FFA Banquet at 7:00pm. Okay, not a problem...it's nothing that she has to dress up for and we'll get dinner out of it, so I consider that a win-win situation.

Oh but wait ---this is where the chaos starts building--- around 2pm yesterday I received an email from Briley's teacher reminding the parents about the Friday morning assembly and NOW they are asking the kids to DRESS UP in 70's attire! (UGH!!!)

You know what this means don't you? It means I have to scramble around to find something that will pass off as a fashion statement from the 1970's! That really wasn't my generation and the only fond memories I have of dressing in the 70's were wearing my matching Geranimals!!! Needless to say this required a bit of conversation with Briley, the minute she stepped off of the bus and called me at work.

The good news is that she already had her own ideas of what she wanted to wear; as far as she was concerned anything tie dyed would work and something with a peace sign would be good too. Hmmmmm? I might just be able to pull this off???

Soooooo.....on my way home last night I stopped by the Big W and grabbed a white t-shirt and a box of Tie Dye stuff. (Oh yes... another $20 excursion for a whopping 10 minutes of wear!) I'm not a fan of Tie Dye... I've never been a fan of it and I've never even attempted it, but what the heck? I like to live dangerously!!


It is now 6:15pm...Bailey has just gotten home from softball practice and is jumping in and out of the shower to get ready for her FFA thing, Briley is running around the house whining about not wanting to go to the FFA thing, my husband is standing in his underwear ironing his clothes (what the heck?), and I'm in the kitchen wrestling with a shirt, rubberbands, and this tie dye mess.... that is all over my hands, dripping down my arms and staining my newly manicured nails - because NO I don't have any plastic gloves? (ROLLING EYES)

I finally convince Briley that she wants to go to the Banquet because they are having her favorite, Bar-B-Q and if she stayed home all she was going to get would be a corn dog on a stick!! :) Now the battle is to get BRILEY dressed in something that we all agree upon - which just so happened to be something that needed ironing! (HANGING MY HEAD IN DEFEAT!) .....remember I'm still standing at the kitchen sink with dye dripping all over me.....

Now it's about 6:30 and I've decided to just call the tie dye shirt DONE! I seal it up in a Ziploc bag and begin my efforts to clean myself up and wash the dye off of my hands. UH... it won't come off??? So I pull out the Clorox Cleanup and start spraying my hands....all the while I'm planning on wearing what I have on from work, to the Banquet! YES and I'm squirting bleach all over myself - and my shirt was black? Well what do you think happened???? LOL

Ahhhhh, I tricked you!! NOTHING happened - no black shirts were harmed in my hand bleaching episode. I really don't know how I pulled that off, but I'm just going to go with it!

Ever so quickly, we all appear dressed and ready for the Banquet. OK really...it's not much of a Banquet, but I guess that sounds better than saying a Bar-B-Q dinner with FFA Awards? Off we go to the High School, my hands are still a little purple in places.

After 2 1/2 hours of FFA fun, we headed home - it's now 9:30pm and I still have another 2 hours of waiting up before I can wash the dye out of the shirt and throw it in the dryer. Finally...the time has come and I can wash this dye mess out and figure out if the shirt will work or if I was going to need to make another run to the BIG W for another white shirt; I had already started digging around in my closets looking for another white shirt that might work in a pinch!

Surprise! Surprise! The shirt turned out better than expected and I was once again a totally rad mom! (ok, so that's my opinion?)

Brit was able to contribute a peace sign necklace to the ensemble and Briley was happy with her 70's outfit. WHEW...another meltdown averted!!!


After I fight the crazy wet-road traffic to get to school this morning and race to get there with my camera in hand, I noticed that not everyone was dressed up in the 70's attire. Actually, there were only a few kids that even bothered? UGH???? Why do my kids have to be 'the ones' to do everything their teachers tell them?? HA HA HA!

The good news is that I SURVIVED it all and only have a slight nervous twitch this morning!