Before Homecoming: I cautiously walked up to the door of Mums R Us and slowly walked in with my son. We were both new to this, and were not sure what to expect. As soon as we walked in, I knew we were way out of my league, but fortunately, the nice people working there knew that as well. They quickly stepped in and began to walk us through (baby steps) what needed to be done!
I grew up in Texas and knew all about mums and what a big deal they are. When I was in high school though (back in the olden days), mums were still a thing you pinned to your homecoming dress. Sort of like a corsage, but way bigger! Flash forward to this year, homecoming at Allen Highschool, and I’m in charge of purchasing a mum for my son’s girlfriend.
I had seen pictures on social media over the years and always thought to myself “I’m glad I’m not making/buying one of those this year.” I had no idea how quickly my time would come…
Saying I was overwhelmed with all the choices is an understatement. If you’ve done this before or been to the mum store, you know what I mean when I say there were so many ribbons, trinkets, stickers, flowers, and more hanging all over the walls.
As I looked around, I was wondering “Where is the aisle with the ‘ready made mums’ that you just pick off of a rack?” You know…the mums that looked like the pictures they had been advertising in the school newsletter for weeks now?
I assumed you could create your own mum, or just purchase one that was pre-made. Well…I was so wrong.
The very patient man helping us let me know quickly that there was no such thing as ‘ready made mums,’ at least not at this store. The mum was a very personalized creation that my son and I would build from the ground up depending on what teams, organizations, or clubs they were each a part of.
That’s when the worker handed me the clipboard and pencil with several pages of what looked like a spreadsheet attached. “Just go down the list and check the things you want on your mum. Then you can make it yourself, or we can put it all together and you can pick it up.” I’ll take option 2, please!
As I looked at the list, I realized that I had no idea what most of this meant, and even less knowledge about the specifics for a sophomore. Because I had already mentioned how pretty the white and silver mum was and was quickly steered away from that, as those are reserved for seniors! Who knew???
Both employees saw the look of panic and desperation in both mine and my son’s eyes, so they walked us through the entire store explaining what each ribbon meant, which one was the best choice for our situation, and which ribbons were the most popular.
But the very best part of the entire experience was after we picked out the stuffed animal (a small bear) to go in the center, the guy asked us “Do you want us to ‘bling’ the bear?” What in the world? Bling the bear? Well…apparently, it’s fun to add a tutu, earrings, and eye-lashes to the stuffed animal. I looked at my son, and he looked at me, and pretty much in unison we replied with “Yes…definitely bling the bear!”
So after a few text messages to my son’s girlfriend and one FaceTime call, we had our list complete and our shopping basket full! We had succeeded! We had our first mum ordered. We felt so proud and so accomplished.
Did we do a great job? Well that was yet to be seen at the time I started writing this blog post. We had to wait several weeks before we could pick it up. Fingers crossed that we did as good a job as we thought we did, but we would find out soon.
And now all we had to do is hope that his girlfriend will be pleased with our creation. Will she like the colors? Did we get the right ribbons? And most importantly, will she like the blinged out teddy bear? If not, I’ll keep the bear. Pretty sure that’s my favorite part of the entire mum!
After Homecoming: I think we must’ve done it right! I know this, because at the mum exchange, she was all smiles and seemed happy with our creation. And now, a month after homecoming, they are still dating.
So we did it right! And the blinged out bear was a hit. And guess what else…all those cute little trinkets – – you can keep them and use them as keychains. Who knew. So that is my first time to create a mum for homecoming. I hope it’s not my last, because now I feel like a seasoned pro.
I hope everyone had a happy homecoming! Anyone know what we have to do for Prom? I guess that’s next…
Until next time…
