Morning ritual, as usual... and Miss Maddy, my 8 year old can't find her shoes - BIG drama in this house!
We finally get in the car, I drop them at school and run over to the post office... but it doesn't open for another 45 minutes, so I tweeze my eyebrows then make a list for the day...
DMV
Oil Change
Sell Antiques
Habitat Restore - Buy: Blinds, curtain rods, shutters
Hobby Lobby - Buy: Pulls for kitchen
Ace Hardware - Returns
Grocery Store - finish buying food for this week's menu
Stein's - use $5 gift card and that's all... only the $5 gift card
1/2 hour wait to go when a boutique on the corner opens. I'm in ripped jeans and a ratty old sweatshirt but would rather walk around an upscale clothing store than sit in the car - so naturally, I walk down the block and go in. At 11:00 a.m. (yes, almost 2 hours later) I walk back out of the boutique, arms loaded with goodies and am the best dressed person in line at the post office ;)
Next up - The home consignment shop to sell some antiques - gone are another 2 hours, browsing and chatting with the owner. Instead of walking out with cash, I walk out with more loot - see a pattern here?! I rationalize these purchases... an antique decorative sailboat for my son's room, an antique cupboard for the kitchen, and a cool black shelf --> though I don't know where exactly this will go, It'll find a home on one of my walls soon enough ;)
Okay... Habitat Restore... but on the way, I have to stop at the cool little shops on the same block... fun, oh fun! Very proud of myself... I didn't buy anything!
So, Habitat Restore... they have everything except the blinds. BUT... I need my husband to make the final decision on the shutters... we'll come back over the weekend. He'll be so pleased.
Ace Hardware won't return my purchases, even though I have a receipt, because apparently each Ace is privately owned...
"But... I bought this stuff five hours North of here," I say.
Too bad.
It's 3:15 p.m. Time to go get the kids. They get in the car and I give them a choice:
"Hobby Lobby and the DMV, or Stein's and the grocery store?" I ask.
"Home!" shouts Nick.
"Hobby Lobby" shouts Maddy.
Great, I think. "Home isn't an option, we have to do a few things first. Since we're on this side of town, we'll go to Stein's and then the grocery store, where you can each pick out a snack."
Unanimous "Yay's" and we're off.
Stein's is great... We all love Stein's. Miss Maddy drags us to the pond section where she drools over the large plastic ponds and dreams about how many frogs she can catch and keep in the backyard. I notice that they're 50% off and make a mental note to tell Jason so he can come buy one before they're all gone.
I pick up a rosemary plant and a basil plant, pay with my $5.00 gift card and 27 cents I dig from the bottom of my purse. Not bad... Not bad at all!
The grocery store is next. List in hand, reusable bags on my arm and ready to tackle the job. Jason always thinks I'm nuts, taking the kids with me to shop.
I run into 2 different friends and chat a while. (Thank God I went into that boutique this morning!)
Instead of making dinner, I buy premade panini's, seven layer salad and a bag of chips.
Miss Maddy finds a toy in one of the aisles that makes an obnoxious farting noise and insists on playing with the stupid thing throughout the store. Nick finally takes it from her and throws it on top of the dairy freezers. (Thank you, Nick!)
As we check out, I'm informed that I need a "new" savings card and it will "only take a minute." A lady swipes my "old" savings card, asks for my phone number and swipes the "new" card. Only, the new card doesn't work. She does it again. And again. And again. Seriously, she does this about 25 times - enough times that she now knows my phone number by heart and the guy in line behind me says "I thought you said this would only take a minute." Yeesh! Note to self: Never sign up for the "new" card.
Cart packed, kids in tow and in the parking lot when I notice Maddy with a bag of suckers.
"Where'd you get that?!" I demand
"From the bank." she replies innocently - Just as the box of panini's falls from the cart and "SPLAT!" all over the concrete. Damn.
Suckers for dinner.
I start to unpack the car, hiding my new clothes from the hubby when he literally drools over the antique sailboat. Jason and Nick disappear, with the faint sound of Jason's voice describing the miniature pieces of the boat to Nick. Guess it was a cooler find than I thought!
Leftovers and seven layer salad for supper. I'm beat. So tired that I don't even want to eat. So I start to clean up and Jason takes the lead on homework. Whew - Thank you Jason! I really don't want to deal with homework tonight!
After cleaning up dinner dishes, I come downstairs to find Nick doing his math homework with a calculator. He knows better. Until he can tell me what 9*8 equals from memory, no calculators. Period. I don't care what the teacher says.
"But mom, I have to find the square root of 2,500," he whines.
What?! I think to myself. Seriously? Assuming he's joking, I snatch the worksheet from him and sure-shit... He has to find the frickin square root of 2,500... and the directions say to use a calculator.
So I give him a lecture about how it would be easier to find the factors of 50 (on the other side of the worksheet) if he memorized his multiplication chart, and leave it at that, reminding myself to lock up the calculator.
And that's my day.
Sucker's... and the square root of 2,500. (Which is 50, btw)
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