Pillow Perfection

You know how I could rival the Princess and the Pea for persnickety-ness when it comes to sleeping conditions?  Adam and I bought a new mattress last week.  Exciting!  More comfort!

Except it wasn't.  Rocks are softer than that thing.

It is a memory foam mattress and it did plump up a little bit after the first few days, but it still made my back hurt.  To complicate matters...we'd given our old mattress away.  Poor old mattress.  We should not have been so cavalier with it.

I decided that with this (much) firmer mattress, maybe I needed a (much) firmer pillow.  The hunt was on.

Friday, Adam and Emma had a date (a father/daughter BBQ with Eric and Freja), Braeden went to the high school football game so Mark and I decided to have a date ourselves.

I thought we'd eat dinner at The Blazing Onion (sweet potato fries) but Mark wanted pizza. I relented to Alfy's with the condition that I'd get to decide what we did after dinner.  (I had planned all along to decide what we'd do after dinner but it's fun to pretend sometimes like Mark has a say...who says I'm not a fun mom?)

I ordered a large pizza because there was a special so it was the same price as the small.  Also, I figured Braeden would be hungry after the game.  Because, you know, he's 14 and always hungry.  I would give him the leftover pizza.  I ate a hearty three pieces of pizza.  Wow.  That was a lot of pizza.  I was full.  Mark ate 5.  I had to absolutely insist he stop at 5, even though he tried to convince me he should have 6 pieces.  For heaven's sake.  He's not 14.  He is not allowed to be that hungry.

Our next stop was Kohl's.  (Yes, my choice.)  I wanted to look at pillows.  I perused the pillow offerings, soft, medium, firm, extra firm.  Extra firm was touted as "perfect for side sleepers."  As a side sleeper seeking a perfect pillow, I was interested.

Here was the problem:  all of the extra firm pillows in the brand I was looking at were high up on a very top shelf and pushed back far.  They were completely out of reach.  Mark was lurking around, pretending to spy on me and peaking out behind displays.  I called him over.  (He said, "How did you know where I was?")

I cupped my hands together in the same fashion my cousins and I used to do when we asked "for a boost" up a tree or onto the back of Crossbars, my grandpa's horse.  I told Mark to step on my hands and I lifted him up above my head...with a lot of his weight on the shelves he was leaning against/climbing.  He reached and grasped a pillow and pulled it along as I lowered him to the ground.  It was a marvelous pillow.  Perfect for side sleepers.  I decided I needed to get Adam one.  This time I put one of Mark's feet in each hand and I pushed him higher because the next pillow was even further back.  It was really very heroic.

As we were walking out of the pillow area, we saw one of those big aisle displays.  One half of it was the exact same pillow, perfect for side sleepers, perfectly within reach.

Mark did the open hand to the forehead thing.

I don't think it was a wasted experience though.  If I ever decide I want to, I think I can have a future as either a cheerleader who lifts people up above their head or even a circus performer.

(Of course, they have to be approximately Mark sized and there has to be a shelf to climb/support some of the weight.)

Also, I should say, the pillow is indeed perfect for side sleepers.  Happy sleep has been restored.