Open mouth, insert foot

I am an opinionated person and am generally unafraid to speak my mind. This has gotten me into trouble more times than I care to admit. I am trying to do better at thinking before I speak, but it is tough for me. There is one instance that sticks out in my mind as one of my worst truly accidental "open mouth, insert foot" moments. I had no mean intentions AT ALL. So, continuing the theme of stories from my childhood, here goes . . .

My sister and I both took piano lessons for about 7 years. Our first piano teacher would have theme recitals, where you dressed up according to what music you were playing. When Hannah and I were about 10 and 12, the theme was "Movies." I was playing songs from "The Entertainer," and Hannah was playing songs from "Winnie the Pooh." (This post will discuss Hannah's costume; the story of my costume might be discussed in a future post—Title: "My Brattiest Moments.") So, Mom had sewn Hannah a Winnie the Pooh costume. Back then, Hannah was a little pudgy—very cute, but definitely still had some baby fat. Anyway, she came out in her costume and asked how she looked. I, trying to be helpful, said, "Maybe you should take the pillow out of your stomach. It looks too big." Her face fell as she sobbed, "I haven't put the pillow in yet!." Oops. I tried to rectify the situation by explaining that it was just the fabric that was sticking out. Yeah, that didn't help too much. The damage was done.

I was telling this story at our women's Bible study a couple of months ago, and I started laughing so hard that I couldn't even talk. I was just picturing little Hannah in that costume and how her face just fell. She was so pitiful. And she really was such a cute girl. I went looking through my old photos just to find a picture of her in that Pooh costume. I haven't been able to scan photos for about a year, but I repaired my scanner (an hour-long process) just so I could share this. I bet Hannah's going to love me. She's partially blocked by a microphone, so you can't see the full costume, but you get the idea.

Now, since I've done this to Hannah, I will share the story of my costume (which is embarrassing in an entirely different way). That story to come soon.