Load of Whites, Load of Darks, Load of Blues...wait....

I went shopping. :)





I always feel guilty about shopping for maternity clothes, because I hear the little voices of other women in my head, saying things like, "I'll only need these for a few months, so I don't buy anything new for myself" or "My friends and I all share maternity clothes so we never need to buy anything new" or my personal favorite, "I just wear my husband's clothes because I'm not going out anywhere."





Puhlease. I'll never fit into the hub's clothes unless I'm emaciated. But I digress.





So, needing (okay, okay, WANTING) a new dress for an upcoming wedding that the hubs and I are attending, I headed out to Motherhood/Pea in a Pod/Clothes for those "With Child" store, I purchased a few things, brought some back, and in the end, was rather pleased with my cache.



I was going to post a picture of the skirt here, but the downloading and all just didn't happen. So, envision, if you will, an ankle length, blue tie-dyed skirt.



Isn't she a bute? :) Long, comfy as all getout, and a little trendy with that whole tie-dye thing going on.



It says, "Look at me, world, I'm big, I'm hip, and I'm preggers."




Apparently, I should have paid a bit more attention to what else it said.





When I put it on for the first time, I hastlily ripped off the tags, taking notice of the "care" tag. We all know these pesky little tags to be the things that make our backs itch with little print on them saying things like, "dry clean only" (as if!), "iron, but don't bleach", "bleach, but don't iron", and "Heaven help us if you come with in three feet of this garment with bleach or an iron!!!"





But this little number needed "extra special care," apparently. That's why it came with a second label.





My PSA for today-- always heed the second label.





The second label was on the outside. It warrented speical attention. It screamed "read me! read me! read me!!!!"





And I did. And, um, forgot about it.





If I remember correctly, it went someting like this:





"Dear Purchaser of this garment (that would be me). Please don't be stupid. This skirt is made with a ridiculous amount of dye that we didn't bother to wash out of the fabric before selling it to you. It wouldn't look as good and you wouldn't buy it. But, we digress. Please note: THIS SKIRT WILL BLEED ALL OVER YOUR LOAD OF LAUNDRY IF YOU DO SOMETHING AS STUPID AS WASH IT WITH OTHER CLOTHES FOR ITS MAIDEN VOYAGE INTO THE WASHING MACHINE. We highly suggest that you a) wash this skirt on its own the first time so that you can marvel at all the blue in your sink b) never wash this skirt because it contains a lovely tie-dye feature that hides all the sticky finger prints that your children will deposit on it c) take it down to the river and beat it over the rock for its first washing because really, you are a mom of five kids wearing a tie-dye skirt, so we expect you to be purchasing organic veggies at the farmer's market and making homemade granola from the organic oats you are raising in your backyard, so you are probably doing everything you can to decrease your carbon footprint and wouldn't dare find yourself using a washer and dryer, so we fully expect to see your heiny at the river beating your family's clothing over a rock to keep it clean. But, remember, whatever you do, wash this seperatley. Or else."





Or else, what?





What kind of a threat is that?





Apparently, not an empty one.






I call that load of laundry, "The Blue Load." A couple of T-shirts, one of the hubs, assorted socks, a few unmentionables (we won't mention those), the shorts to a pair of my PJ's that I got for Mother's Day.

Blue.

Its a lovely shade, don't get me wrong. But, they're not supposed to be blue. And after I rewashed three times, once with detergent and twice with way too much Oxyclean, nothing changed.

Maybe I should try bringing them down to the river and beating them over a rock? 'Cause let me tell you, I REALLY felt like doing something like that after I first opened the washer.

So.

My PSA for the night.

Read the label. Or Else.