Confession time...

This post was inspired by The Mommy Diaries post from this morning. It was an awesome post and honestly, I was just talking about these books the other day because my Aunt Cathy had the year subscription and when she was done with the magazines, she would give them to me. I wish I still had them, because they were so special to me. So... on to my topic for the day.

My confession:

So, I have to admit something, here and now. I can not go one minute longer without admitting this to you. I just wouldn't feel right if you didn't know this deep dark secret that is hovering inside of me. Ok... here it is.

I love Barbie's! It isn't even love... it is almost... an obsession. Ok, not really an obsession, because I can live without them, however it is bad enough that when I go to Walmart, Target, Meijer or any place with a toy isle (Toy's R Us is almost to much), I still have to go and peruse the Barbie isle.

So, I am sure that you might even be saying... Candace, it is ok... we have and were little girl's and love them too. But... there is more. I collect them as well. And... when I say that I collect them, I don't mean just a few... here is my collection:

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See... scary huh? Actually... it makes me realize where all my money I made when I was younger and not married went! :)

This collection started with a gift that my brother gave me in high school... yep, that's right, I didn't really start this until I was a Junior in high school. I actually cried. From there, it became something that my mom and I did together. When we would go to the Smokies, we would always hit the antique mall and come back with at 3 or 4 more new dolls. Of course, as I got older, the dolls got more expensive. My most prized pieces are my Wizard of Oz dolls. Not only because I have always loved that movie, but also because they were the prettiest dolls I had ever seen, and the hardest to find. By the time that I was serious about collecting, you couldn't find these dolls.

So, one Christmas. my entire family(mom, dad, brother Brad, and Aunt and Uncle) all joined in and bought each doll for me, and the last one that I opened was the Dorothy doll. I will never forget the excitement when I opened that box, and there she was. I started crying... honest to goodness tears! That was probably the last time that I was really surprised about something that I got for Christmas. It was such a special moment.

Fast forward several years... met Doug, got married, bought a house and then I got pregnant with Grace. At that point... I knew that I would be losing my "junk" room where we had put all my dolls. I had so many dolls there was no way that even if I did have a girl, we couldn't possibly keep them all in there. So... I kept my favorites(The Wizard of Oz) and sent the rest of my collection to stay at Grandpa and Grandma McClain's house. I will post later to show you how they are "stored" (it is genius, really... did I mention my father in law was an Engineer and is always coming up with cool stuff... aka, the Cat house). I was very upset until I saw how awesome they are being displayed.

And there they are, waiting, until Grace get's older and we someday have a house with more room to actually display them. I wonder if when Grace get's older, will she be amazed that her mommy liked Barbie's too? Will she think I was cool? Probably not, but it is something for her to show her children... and pass down for years to come.