What's in Your Purse?

I saw this on Andrea's blog and just had to participate! I have actually been thinking about this a lot lately.

It all began with a diaper bag...the slow dissent into the not-matching "un-stylish-ness" of the what-not-to-wear mom. I can't complain. I made the transition easily. I LOVED having a giant diaper bag to toss everything in to. Extra clothes for Landon (and me)? CHECK! Camera? CHECK! Enough food to feed small country? CHECK! Tissues, first aid kit, hand sanitizer, movie theater candy (hey, no one dares check a diaper bag!)? CHECK, CHECK, CHECK, CHECK! Ahhh, the abyss of the giant diaper bag! A world of endless possibilities! I could pack my life in and pull it back out as needed, more prepared than the best little girl scout. Need tweezers? Tape? stamps? I had it all! I would just start digging, pulling things out like it was Mary Poppins bottomless bag and we'd be in business! I could never get lost, thanks to the trail of things I would drop behind me everywhere I went...And if I ever did, I could live out of my diaper bag for at least a week until someone found me. But, my baby got so old that it became ridiculous to lug my bag-o-junk everywhere we went. I got brave and downsized. I began leaving the house (feeling quite naked) with one of Landon's tiny backpacks. Diaper? Check. Travel box of wipes? Check. Hand sanitizer? Check. Snack? Check. Giant yawn? Check!

THEN, it got even worse. I went down to having one of those storage-box-by-the-car seat numbers in the back seat of my car (that STAYED IN MY CAR--Eek!) filled with a few "just in case" items that a potty-training toddler might need in a toilet emergency. What about the other day-to-day emergencies? What if Landon were to pick chewed gum up off of the sidewalk again and I didn't have sanitizer? What if we were out somewhere and Landon spilled an entire bottle of water on himself? *sigh* I needed my lifeline to look like a put-together prepared mom, but there was no going back.

I now have nothing in tow but a tiny Matt and Nat wallet hanging from my key chain--Yes, its there wherever I go, hanging on for dear life...My little "In Denial Diaper Bag" jam-packed with all the receipts, bonus cards & loose change it can handle...And zoo and library member cards, pretty USELESS health insurance cards (that's a whole other blog post!) my license & usually even my cell phone to boot!--LOL!

What ever happened to the woman of a thousand trendy handbags from the days of yore?? She comes out occasionally for a girls' night on the town, but never without tattling on herself by pulling out an old cookie or Dora the Explorer Band-Aids or Speed Racer car at some point.

....And where are the telltale raisins and cracker crumbs the ever-present marks of pre-school motherhood, you ask? Have no fear--They have not disappeared. They have merely migrated...all over my car! (And sometimes right in my pockets--take your pick!).