Fun Monday

Hello! Welcome to Fun Monday. Our host this week is Candid Karina. Our assignment is to share our security blankets, the items that we can't leave home without.
I actually have a real security blanket, well a security pillow anyway, so I am going to share that first.

This is Stushy Pillow, affectionately called Stoosh. Stushy Pillow evolved over the years. When I first found this pillow, back in 1988, I called it Squishy Pillow. After 19 years, high school broken hearts, college drama, marriage, and two children, it has become Stoosh.

When I was 12 my parents got divorced and my Daddy basically did a disappearing act into the haze of alcoholism. Although he later recovered, at the time I felt like everything was lost. My Mom, my sister and I ended up living in a rundown trailer in the middle of her brother's junk yard. It was as wonderful as it sounds.

After 12 years of stability we were lost, we were broken. I remember all three of us huddling in the same bed at night, almost too scared to even venture into a room without each other. It was the scariest time of my life.

After a year of this my Mom met Edwin. The man she would eventually marry. The man who would be my Father during the most tumultuous years of my life, the teenage years. Edwin didn't always make me happy, he was as blunt and honest as I guess I am now. What he did do was make me feel safe.

I found Stoosh the first night we spent the night at Edwin's house. That night was the best night of sleep that I had had in a year. At the time, I was too young to think that Edwin had anything to do with that feeling. It had to be the magic pillow that he'd pulled out of the top of the closet. A pillow that at that time must have already been 15 years old. I asked him if I could keep that pillow. He said yes, and I have had Stoosh ever since.

I have only slept without Stoosh a total of 8 nights in the 19 years since. I left it at home once when I returned to college, and my Mom airmailed it to me. Another time I left it at my sister's house where it waited very patiently for 5 nights. I didn't sleep well on those nights. I tossed and I turned. I know it is crazy, but that is the truth.

Stoosh goes everywhere that I spend the night. Stoosh was in the hospital with me for the births of both of my children ( much to my Mother's horror. She considers Stoosh a germ infested embarrassment.) Stoosh goes with me on every vacation on every car ride that lasts more than three hours ( Hey, you never know when you'll have to sleep in the car.)

Stoosh is the most comfortable pillow in the world. It has gone through three reconstructive surgeries and been the cause of many fights. Everyone wants to sleep on the Stoosh. Every single member of my family yearns to make the Stoosh their own. It isn't happening. Nobody gets the Stoosh.

Randy says that when I die, he will cut the Stoosh into four pieces. One will be buried with me. The other three pieces will be passed out to him and the kids. I think that will be a fitting end for such a wonderful pillow.

As far as things I can't leave home without, there aren't that many. There is My Book. My Book is my checkbook/address book/ random note book/ list book. It serves many purposes, but it goes everywhere that I go.

Other than that, I would say that the only other thing that I can't leave home without is my bag. Where I am going determines which bag it is.

This is my non-work bag. Randy got me this for my birthday last year. I hate diaper bags, so diaper bag alternatives, such as this make my day. This bag is a purse/diaper bag combo that I could not live without. Randy has his own diaper bag for when I am not around ( a basic backpack), he declares my bag too girlified.

The other bag is the work bag. I got it at a conference last year. I have used this bag so much that the strap is starting to come loose. It is the perfect soft leather briefcase. Basically on Friday evening I move My Book and the check book from the work bag to the diaper bag/purse. On Sunday evening I move them back. That is the story of my life