One of the most inspirational women I know is my sister-in-law.  She is a mother of five, a nurse, wife, friend, sister and breast cancer survivor.

My sister-in-law does not inspire me because she’s a survivor, but because of the journey she took so I would be able to call her one.  I knew a lot of other inspirational women who didn’t survive the disease.

All of them fought hard, through pain, nausea, weakness, hair loss, hospitalizations, infections and surgeries.  The least I can do to honor them is give a little back to their cause.

Each year, I participate in the Komen Race for the Cure, but Hanes has made it possible for me to show my support more than just one day a year.  They have a new program which allows people to design and buy their own shirts to support the fight against breast cancer.

In case you don’t know much about good music, I will tell you that the title of this post comes from the song, “Shattered” by The Rolling Stones. Also if you didn’t know that, then we can’t be friends.

Shattered is the way I feel when I go shopping for dresses. I hate shopping for dresses. Especially when I have to find something. When I don’t have money, or when I don’t need anything, there are gowns virtually diving into my shopping bag. I have no idea how it happens.

But, when there is an upcoming occasion where it’s imperative to look cute…oh, say like a conference in New York….ultimately, I end up dissappointed. I have said before that I am not a petite flower. It is hard to find stylish, dressy clothing when you’re the size of Gigantor.

Therefore, I was skeptical when Shabby Apple wanted me to try out one of their dresses. I first began drooling over Shabby Apple when my bloggy friend, Bossy, spoke of them, but let’s understand something, shall we? My body doesn’t look like Bossy’s. At all. I was really worried that I would get a dress and not even fit in it, let alone look nice.

Then I saw the dress on a model and was surprised to see that she looked just like me! Only with brown hair, gorgeous cheekbones, well-toned arms and slender hips. As you can imagine, this completely reassured me not at all.

But, I went for it and look at me! I have a waist and my arms fit in the armholes and I look like I have a neck instead of a stump of chin! I love this dress. It’s stylish and breezy and I can’t wait to wear it in New York.

Finding a dress I like isn’t even the best part of this, because Shabby Apple donates 5% of their net dress sales to a charity that helps women in poverty worldwide. Each Shabby Apple dress comes with a hang tag with a personal story from one of these women. I cried when I read mine, and I wasn’t even hormonal.

I can’t really begin to tell you how much I love Old Navy. For real. Like I would marry it. You can’t beat the cuteness, you can’t beat the price and you can’t beat the quality. Enough said.

Well, no. It’s not enough said. Because recently, I decided it was time for me to get some new clothes. I didn’t get myself much of anything for fall or winter and had cleaned out my closet which ended up looking like Old Mother Hubbard’s cupboard.

So, I walked into Old Navy with $100.00 and here’s what I walked out with.

This cute, green shirt.

This soft, breezy and super-comfortable skirt.

Three pairs of flip-flops. One gray, one blue and one orange.

Some stylish, cargo-capris.

A cozy, long-sleeved tee shirt.

Two stainless-steel, water bottles…because the two I already have weren’t enough.

And a crisp, white polo shirt.

And, after buying TEN items, I still have some money in my pocket! Which is why I think I want these shoes.What am I talking about? I need these shoes! Right? Right? Good. I’m glad we could all agree.

Roughly one month ago I pulled my favorite pair of Old Navy jeans from my closet. Faded, with frayed hems and long enough for my 5’10″ frame, they were just the right color of blue and super comfortable. They were perfect jeans. Notice I said, “were”.

When I put them on that day, I noticed a big hole in the left, inner thigh. Years of friction will do that. And, I’m not little. There was a lot of friction.

I wanted to cry. Okay, I did cry. Don’t judge me.

A few days later, karma stepped in. As if my trip to Chicago hadn’t turned out to be great enough on its own, it turns out that while I was there, I met a representative from Brand About Town. They looked at me, my kids and my blog and thought I would make a good Old Navy enthusiast. (Little did they know, I already was one!)

They offered me an “Old Navy Experience”. I didn’t really know what that meant, but part of me was secretly hoping to replace those jeans. So, heck yes! Sign me up!

Yesterday morning, they sent us a car. Here are the kids in the back seat just before sucking down juice boxes which the driver had chilled for them.

When we got to Old Navy, the kids ran off to pet Barker while I was introduced to our stylist.

They quickly left the dog so they could start shopping.

…which were loaded, not just with clothes, but with organic cookies and lemonade for the kiddies!

They tried on TONS of Fall clothes.

And, because he needs to learn that he will someday spend a lot of time waiting on women, my son entertained himself in the clothing racks while his sister kept trying on outfits.

Finally, out the door we went with FOUR bags full of stuff.

Including tax, we spent $359.00 and we got 35 items. I’m no math major, but I AM a good shopper and I can tell you that is one incredible deal. We got quality clothing that averaged less than $10.27 a piece.

I bought the kids some school uniforms, jeans, sweat pants, shirts, jackets, pajamas…and I even got myself two long-sleeved t-shirts and a stainless steel water bottle.

Here is the longest receipt I have ever had.

The only problem? I forgot to get new jeans.