5 Shirts

We returned the keys to our rental house this morning. Yay! We're really excited to get that behind us, but that little house will forever hold a special place in my heart. We made lots of memories under that roof in the six months we lived there. Christmas, New Year's, Birthdays, Mother's Day, Lost Teeth, Game night, Snow Days and sidewalk chalk were all had at that house. We made the best of the situation and I'm really proud we pushed through and did the special things that we did.

The other day D came home from work. He was standing at the kitchen sink washing his hands and I watched him. He looked different but I couldn't figure out why. Was it a new pair of jeans? A different hat?? "Honey, you look different. I can't figure out what it is.." He wasn't sure. After a minute it occurred to me. His shirt was different!! I hadn't seen that shirt in over seven months. When the tornado hit I packed an overnight bag for the boys and I and D  packed one for himself. I remember thinking (I was clearly in a major state of shock) I better pack two to three shirt for each of us because "we'd probably be out of the house for two to three days" before we could return. The day after the tornado I came to the realization that we'd be out of the house a little bit more than originally planned, so I grabby three or four more outfits. Mom grabbed five pairs of work pants and five work shirts for D. I remember us joking and saying, "We're gonna have to send him back to work at some point." Five shirt would get him through a week of work, right? Well, those five shirts got him through seven months. He wore those five shirts all winter because that's all we had. Why go out and buy more long sleeve shirts when you know you have ten more of them in storage? In the last few days we have unearthed D's summer shirts and some of mine...and we are wearing them. It's so nice to have more than a handful of outfits to wear. Such a luxury.