So what does a college gal look like when she first gets out of bed in the morning?
This.
Must be nice to be this cute so soon after getting out of bed.
After a shower and a little bit of hair product and Maybelline, she got even cuter.
And here she is showing off a new shirt from TJMaxx and an old necklace from a thrift store.
Although one would tend to think Sarah was the cutest female in the house, the prize actually goes to this little lady.
Summer likes hanging out with Sarah and admiring her clothing choices. (Sorry for the blurry picture.)
Sarah loves this shirt because it contains three of her favorite things–tea, a pun, and a British reference.
It’s a tea-shirt. (Get it?)
On Wednesday, Sarah left the house for Food Lion at 4:45 a.m. and got home around 4 p.m. She is working again this morning but we are hoping to do some sort of family activity this afternoon, in addition to voting together in her first presidential election.
And speaking of Sarah’s work, she has a little side job making lyric videos for songs; she’s been doing that for a couple of years with an online company named Fiverr. I was looking at her profile this morning and was proud to read all of her reviews she has garnered. You can find them here. (Scroll down a little once you get to the page.)
She has taken a little time off from the job as she has settled into school but wants to start doing that some more, in addition to her new job at Pizza Hut which she will start as soon as she gets back.
Busy gal!
Before I close, I have a quick Sarah story to share from a couple of weeks ago.
Sarah had saved enough of a little nest egg over the summer so that she could go the first two months of school without having to work. However, when the time arrived for the job hunt to commence, she realized she had left her Social Security card at home.
She called me about it and we agreed to meet halfway (an hour for each of us) so that I could get the card to her. Since our meeting happened to be around lunch time, we grabbed a quick mother/daughter lunch together at a little place in Currituck called Pass the Salt. It was a delightful place, loaded with personality.
I ordered a sandwich with turkey, bacon, cheddar and apple slices on sour dough bread and it was fabulous! Sadly, I fell down on the job and didn’t take the prerequisite sandwich selfie that all bloggers are supposed to take.
But here’s the table I ate it on, if that helps at all.
And here’s my dining partner, caught at a pensive moment. (She is lovely even when she is pensive.)
As it turns out, the club sandwich Sarah had ordered was enormous and she wasn’t able to even eat half of it. Since I am one of those people who hates to let things go to waste, I launched into a plan to save the sandwich. (I had to run errands on the way home so I knew I would be out another 2-3 hours.)
I had a small cooler with me that I usually take on any trip longer than an hour. I keep an extra bottle of water (so I don’t have to buy any) and sometimes a peeled boiled egg (for a snack) or a protein bar. I had an ice pack in there that was still pretty cold but, unfortunately, the container from the restaurant wouldn’t fit.
And so? I hatched a plan.
I popped into the convenience store that was attached to a nearby McDonalds and bought some aluminum foil and then paid .50 for a large cup of ice.
Sarah had been about to leave but when she saw what I was doing, she got into the car with me so that she could witness the great undertaking that I was undertaking. You can tell she was getting a kick out of it.
After some diligent item arranging, I ended up with the sandwich nicely nestled into its aluminum foil-ness with a sprinkle of ice festooning the top. Success!
My only outlay was .50 which I thought was reasonable. I didn’t consider the foil an extra expense since Iknew I would use it eventually.
(Trivia question: did anyone else grow up calling this product tin foil instead of aluminum foil? I did.)
I took the sandwich home and served it to Steve for dinner along with a baked sweet potato. I just had some eggs on toast (which I love) and we had a cheap meal with very little labor involved.
(Well, except for the labor involved in the buying the foil and the ice and the entertaining of the college daughter.)
This post got me to thinking about how sandwich wrappings have changed over the years.
When I was going to school, my mom always packed a lunch for me with homemade bread which she wrapped in wax paper. When I got to school, I was always a little jealous of the kids who had store-bought bread wrapped in Saran Wrap. I thought they were so cool. Although, if the truth were known, they were probably jealous of my delectable slices of homemade goodness!
And now of course, the go-to lunch bag wrapping for many of us is the Ziploc sandwich bag.
Wax paper, Saran Wrap, tin foil, Ziploc–do you have lunch bag memories of wrappings or better yet, do you remember what sorts of things your lunches contained, back in the day? Or maybe you had a favorite lunch box. Do tell!
Red plaid metal lunch box with thermos for years. Sandwich in wax paper, apple or other fruit and a cookie or other treat. I did the same with all of my kids, and in early years wrote them a lunch menu and a short love note, until asked to refrain.
Cath,
A menu and a little note in your kids’ lunches? How sweet is that? Even though they eventually asked you to stop, I can guarantee they will remember for those little acts of Mom Love their whole lives.
Yes, I call it tin foil and also had waxed paper on my sandwiches! My mom made homemade bread too and I ate lots of PB&J sammies. I remember my BARN lunchbox with matching thermos I had in maybe first grade? The blond boy I liked had the same one and we always sat together at lunch. I did buy my lunch at school a few times a week when they had spaghetti (never got any at home since daddy hated it) and pizza on Fridays. My mom would let me bring change so I could get a Dixie cup for dessert quite often. Such a BIG treat for me and I looked forward to it! I would always share what I had if another child had no lunch and once or twice gave up my “dessert” to someone else that never got any (too many kids in their family to afford that). We were pretty tight on money too, but I always enjoyed sharing. Nothing breaks my heart so much than to see a child with no lunch. It was so exciting to get new lunchboxes with TV characters. Sadly, I don’t remember which ones I had over the years and there are NO pictures. 🙁
I enjoyed reading all these posts about everyone’s childhoods.
Bea,
A BARN lunchbox? What a cool thing to have! And to think that the boy you liked had a matching one is just too perfect. 🙂 You obviously both had very good taste in lunch boxes.
I also loved reading how you shared your food (especially dessert) with kids who had less than you. I have no doubt that as the years pass by, they will always look back and remember your kind and generous heart. Thanks for sharing your memories!
I always love a parade of photos of a pensively posing young lady. Her short hairdo is always perfect!!!
Back in the Stone Age, when I was in school, there was no way to keep lunches cold from the time I left the house until I could eat, so it was PB&J every day. No choice in wrapping material, either….wax paper. To this day I can’t stand to drink anything out of a thermos, because my lunchtime milk was so disgusting!
I keep thinking what fun it was for you to get an unexpected hour or so to visit while you accomplished the SS card swap.
Jan,
So your thermos couldn’t even keep your milk cold till lunch? I would be pretty disgusted by drinking warm lunchtime milk,too. They have have really improved thermoses since your day–thankfully!
And I loved your “P alliterations.” Nicely done! 🙂
Wax paper and tin foil for me, and packed my lunch in a brown paper bag.
Nancy,
Yep, brown paper bags were the order of the day for me, too! They weren’t fancy, but they did the job.
Sarah looks so chic! We call it tin foil here.
I do love me a delicious sandwich.
Jenna,
I’m glad to know I’m not the only one who calls it in tinfoil I thought I would be way in the minority!
Ahhh the dreaded ‘lunch box’. Fifth grade. 1969. I remember when mine were made of tin with a tv show or something on the front. I also remember the clasp occasionally opening when i was carrying it by the handle to the lunchroom. Of course, all of my lunch would tumble out onto the floor the hallway. I always had extra items because my mom found out I was sharing my lunch with a little boy, named Thomas, who didn’t ever have any food at lunch. He was a very quiet boy. Anyway, I hated the dreaded ‘clasp fail’. Ugh.
Oh, tinfoil is what we’ve always called tinfoil. VA and MA locations.
Love Sarah’s pensive picture, so lovely she is.
Lesley,
I hate that your lunch tumbled to the floor but I loved reading about you sharing your lunch with Thomas and your mom finding out and, instead of getting upset, just packed you more food. Makes my heart happy.
I usually bought my lunch in the cafeteria but in elementary every once in a while I would take a sack lunch. I would wrap a can of Dr. Pepper in aluminum foil (my hubby has always called it “tin foil”. SO WEIRD! 😛 ) then wrap a sandwich in either saran wrap ( hate that stuff still to this day!) or a sandwich bag that wasn’t a ziplock but basically the same. Actually it was a Ziploc brand but it had a flap that folded in and then over instead of the zipper thingy. Then whatever other goodies we had. Especially chips! I HAD to have chips to put ON my sandwich because a non crunchy sandwich is not something I would recommend to anyone. Haha!
Lizz,
Two things stand out:
I MUST know why you packed your Dr. Pepper in foil AND I must say that I have never put chips on a sandwich. But since I also love a good crunch, it’s not a bad idea!
The foil kept the Dr. Pepper cold just long enough until lunch time. And definitely try chips on your sandwich!!! So many people think it’s weird but I have converted almost every person I have convinced to try it! Jalapeño Kettle Chips, Dorito’s, and Sour Cream & Onion are my favorite sandwich chips but even tortilla chips work. Please let me know what you think! ??
Lizz,
Aha. The foil wrapped can mystery has been explained!
And yes, now that you mention it, I can actually picture chips on a sandwich. Steve and I are both big fans of crunchiness so that would be the perfect thing! We’ll give it a try.
(Speaking of crunch, I crumble up saltine crackers and stir them into slightly softened ice cream. Yum!)
Oooooo! Yummy! My great aunt puts crumbled up saltines in scrambled eggs! That’s yummy too!!
Lizz,
Saltines in eggs? I’m afraid you’ve lost me on that one.
Ha! I said the same thing. Try it. It’s good! Just crush them into the scrambled eggs before you cook them. Then cook them like normal. ?
I mainly remember my favorite lunch-box in elementary school. It wasn’t the standard rectangular box-shape that was prevalent in the late 60’s. It was a Snoopy lunch-box made to look a bit like his doghouse, AND it had a cool thermos to match. Oh my, I was STYLIN’ in third grade! By the way, Sarah gets prettier all the time, and her hairstyle is perfect for her. 🙂
Jenny,
I have absolutely no doubt that you made all the other third graders crazy with jealousy at your coolness! 🙂
And yes, I love Sarah’s hair, too! It’s a good fit fo her.