Summer weather, winter cold.

Gorgeous days..... warm and sunny, wide blue sky..... picture-postcard perfect. And here I sit, with a bad head cold, the same one my husband had last week. I told him that I feel like an instant-replay of all his symptoms. Oh well... this too shall pass. At least it's not the flu/walking pneumonia/bronchitis that I had last year. Let's hope I don't ever have an instant-replay of that little adventure.

I went to the League City shelter this afternoon, with my third delivery of pajamas and books. In this batch, there was a Superman pajama-set (complete with cape) for a little boy, and a blue Disney princess nightgown (complete with slippers and a magic wand).... I would love to be there when a little girl picks that one out of the box. Or when a little boy selects the Superman pajamas and sees the red cape that's attached to the back of the shirt. The shelter director has told me that the children are so thrilled to "have their pick" of the pajamas... it's a luxury for them to be able to have a choice. Imagine that... something as simple as being able to pick out a pajama set can bring such happiness to a child. I am so glad I started this... I've said it a hundred times this past month, but it's worth repeating.

While I was in League City, I stopped in at the Palais Royal store there on Main St.-- to look at their clearance racks of children's pajamas. They seem to have a lot of marked-down merchandise at the start of the week. I found pajama sets for as little as $2.50...... some were $4.00, others were $5.00...... I bought a bunch of them. Each one cuter than the next. They even had $6.00 nightgowns for teenaged girls. No more Supermans for the boys, but there were some SpongeBoy pajama shorts. I found a few pink Disney princess nightgowns, and Dora The Explorer for the girls. I couldn't very well leave them there for those prices, especially since the original prices were $14.99 and up. Honestly, it doesn't make sense to pay full price for anything.

In the long run, I'm saving a bunch of money.... since my Pajama Program-shopping began, I haven't bought myself any clothes, shoes, handbags... not a blessed thing, except for one pajama set for myself, which was on sale for ten dollars. Everything else I've spent has been for the kids in the local shelters, and that's been so much fun, I can't even describe it. Sort of like I have all of these unknown, faceless children waiting at shelters around the area, anxious to see what kinds of pajamas I can find for them. Maybe I'm releasing all of the mommy-shopping genes that haven't been unleashed before this. And I'm not the only one feeling this way. One of my downtown Houston volunteers, who collected 83 pajama sets, told me that she felt as if she were having her own baby shower a couple of weeks ago, as friends came to her Pajama Party with all these cute little children's pajamas. As far as I can tell, that particular volunteer doesn't have children of her own either.


"Dancing With the Stars" is winding down to the last couple of shows. If I can keep my eyes open tonight to see which couple gets eliminated, it will be a miracle. I barely got three hours of sleep last night. I was so congested that I had to sit up in bed, up against three pillows. Couldn't sleep, couldn't get comfortable, and I didn't even have the energy to get up from the bed and walk across the house to the sitting room so I could type. I just sat there in the dark and watched the shadows on the wall. Did you know that more light comes from the digital clock at 3:30 in the morning than at 1:11 in the morning? I think it's because the number 1 doesn't give off very much light, even when there's three of them. Hopefully, I won't fall asleep before "Dancing." I'm afraid that if I do, then I won't be tired enough to sleep later on tonight.