Shopping at 4am? I am insane.....

We went to St. Louis for Thanksgiving. We caravan ed with Hubster's brother and sister and cousins and Aunt to get there. We started off early and 12 hours later, we end up at his sister's house. It was fun. That's all I'm going to say about that.

We wake up the next morning and AB is excited to go spend the morning with my brother-in-law. The same one that broke his arm last year. AB woke up early. At 5am. To tell me that he was going to go wake up his Aunt and Uncle so that he and his Uncle could go 'shopping'.

Since I had just gone to bed at 1am, waking me up at 5 was not really a good idea. I tell him to go back to sleep since there is no movement in the house. He insists that he is getting up. I insist he go back to sleep.

I win. After he falls asleep crying.

He then wakes up at 7 when he hears voices in the kitchen. He gets dressed, tells UB that he needs to get dressed as well and off he went to wake up the other little cousin. When they are all dressed, they tell us that their Uncle D was taking them to IHOP and then shopping.

Uncle D had a 5, 6 and 7 year old boy with him. He took them to eat a big breakfast at IHOP then off they went shopping at Wal-Mart. They each came back loaded with toys.

They then went outside to play in the leaves with Uncle D.
While the boys were outside playing, my organized sister-in-law was looking at her list that was posted on her fridge, to see what needed to be put in the oven first. She had gotten all the casseroles ready the day we were traveling and so all she had to do was put them in the oven. She even had all the dishes out with a sign in each one telling what food item went in it. She is so like me. NOT! I wish I were like that, but I'm a procrastinator.

We did have a wonderful Thanksgiving. Even if we did eat 3 hours after we originally said. But I was Thankful for all the family there and no one hurting each other.

We went to bed at 1:30am. I was exhausted and wanted to sleep in, but my sister-in-laws wanted to go shopping with the other 4,000 people in the neighborhood. I get up at 3:30 and we load up (I'm the driver) and drive to Kohl's. All I can think about when I see that the line to get in the store is 2 miles long (no lie) is that I am insane. Insane to be out in the cold and with all those people.

Since I used to work in retail for 12 years, I vowed that I would never be like those crazy people fighting over cheap toys. That is why I went as the driver. Besides, I got to hang out with my 3 sister-in-laws.

My sil M that lives there and I decided we didn't need to go to Kohl's, so I drop off my other two sil's and we drive to Target because there was some stuff there that we were wanting. We park, see the short line and talk to stay awake. The 2 sil's show up and get in the car with us. It is 5 minutes to 5 and we think we have a good chance of getting stuff at Target. Until we realize that they don't open until 6.

Off to Wal-Mart we go. We have 5 minutes before they open the doors. They have no Supercenters there so it is a small regular Wal-Mart. I again drop off the shopping queens and I go find a parking spot in a neighboring town.

Can I just say that it is insanity? INSANITY!!!!!!!!!

It seemed like there were thousands of people there in a small store. Lines everywhere just to get down the aisles. People fighting over who was there first. Even fighting over the computers. People throwing stuff on the floor because it wasn't what they wanted and not to mention, people invading my space. MY SPACE. I don't like it when complete strangers want a piggy back ride down the aisles. I need my space.

My sil's are like competing for the supermarket sweep contest. They do good. They got all they wanted, with the exception of one thing. We get out of there and drive back to Target. Almost 6 by this time, had to make it there in time.

In time we did. We got there just as they were opening the doors. We park, run in and look for what we wanted.

We get home by 7 and go back to bed. We were tired. All that fighting the crowds gets a girl tired.

It was a fun time, but not something that I enjoy doing. I only went to hang out with my sil's. That was the main reason I went. But I am insane for going out that early instead of staying home under the warm blankets and sleeping.

INSANE I tell you!

Wordless Wednesday

The questions that arise at the grocery store while checking out

Because the boys are always with me, they end up going grocery shopping with me. Most of the times they like it, every once in a while they complain.

But, since I don't give them an option, they have to go where I go.

We went to the Toy Shop to pack up boxes for families. The Toy Shop is a place where people donate toys and this place then gives the toys away to families that need them. The boys like to go pack boxes for kids.

The only problem with that is that they want to 'try out' every toy there to see what it sounds like. So at one point, there were all these toys making noise. I think the old ladies were ready for us to leave.

After we left the Toy Shop, we had some time to go to the grocery store before UB had karate. We did our shopping and were waiting in line. In a long line. But in the grocery stores defense, they only have 5 or 6 registers and they did have 3 of them open.

Apparently, that wasn't enough for the impatient older man behind me. He was not happy that there were more than 4 people in line.

Some poor employee was walking past him and he asked her if they had any more cashiers. She looked at him calmly and said that she thought they were getting some more.

He was still complaining and moved from behind me to another register.

They finally open up 2 more registers and people start moving to those newly opened registers.

He of course doesn't move fast enough and still doesn't get to the front of the line. The 2 people in front of me decide to move and so I am next in line.

I can hear him complaining and I look at the line where he is and ask him if he would like to go before me. No, he says, I'll just wait. So wait he did.

While we were in line, AB was reading all those headlines on the magazines.

You know, the drama headlines of Hollywood.

The "Brad and Angie fight because of Jen" or "How to lose 30 lbs in 4 days" or "Eat all you want and still lose weight" or "Brad finally apologizes to Jen and Angie get jealous" or "Vanessa (from High School musical) shows you how to get in shape for the Holidays"

AB was reading all the magazines and was telling me about them.

He then says, "Mom, I don't understand what this means. Come look."

I tell him to just read it to me as I was pushing the shopping cart to the register.

Out loud he says "How to get big cleavage, What does that mean mom?"

I look around to make sure no one was listening.

"Umm," I said "help me unload these groceries."

"But mom, what does that mean?"

"What does that other magazine say?" I ask

"Patrick Swayze is still sexy. Who is Patrick Swayze and what is sexy."

I hurry up and pay and get out of there. I'll have to distract him next time with a candy bar.

Will the magic eraser clean a marked up car?

Well, I'm back!

I do have lots to tell, but it's going to have to wait.

We arrived home late on Saturday night. We then did nothing but rest yesterday. So while I was resting and reading the paper, the boys decided to 'paint' a little car toy. With sharpies.

They then decided to 'take off the paint' with water. So this morning I look in their bathroom and there is a sink full of water and bubbles. The car toy is somewhere in there. Along with a magic eraser.

The boys thought that if they put a magic eraser in the water with the car, the magic eraser will magically clean the car.

This is the reason I can't blog right now. I've got to go clean up lots of little magic eraser pieces that disintegrated in the sink. Along with making sure the boys clean up the 5 gallons of water that are all over the floor and the counter top.