The Shoe Search

I had this big ol' post I was going to do about my SHE cards, but geez! What a day! I really think that one day I could put together all my experiences running errands and have a bestselling book. I'm sure it would sell because every mother can relate! The stuff we go through while running errands is just plain ol' insane.

I will admit that I did make a few mistakes on this trip. Well, let me start off with our goals.
Goal #1: Buy Rhett some new tennis shoes just like the ones he already has but have become too stinky to be kept inside the house.
Goal #2: Buy powdered milk, eggs, & cream cheese.
Goal #3: Buy Rhett some personal clothing. Apparently all his stuff is wearing out at the same time.

Mistake #1: I started off my day with a slight migraine (Thanks, Clomid!) and forgot to take anything before we left and had nothing with me to take. Dumb-da-dumb-dumb!
Mistake #2: Tried the local shoe outlet to see if by chance if they might have Rhett's shoes. Not sure what I was thinking. Big waste of time esp. the 20 minutes I spent looking for shoes for me that I did not buy.
Mistake #3: Getting sidetracked by two of the stores in the strip mall where Shoe Carnival is and getting suckered into buying BFG a water bottle jug thing that says Jesus Loves Jasmine (For those of you who don't know, Jasmine is NOT BFG's name). In my defense though, they were 75% off, she's wanted one for a long time, and she can pretend she's Princess Jasmine from Aladdin when drinking from it.
Mistake #4: Thinking that Shoe Carnival would have the shoes.
Mistake #5: Banking on the free samples from Sam's being mine and BFG's lunch. Ooops! All we got was 1 corndog nugget (just one, I didn't get to eat one, the lady only put out one at a time and wouldn't give me a second one for me), a little bite of a chicken strip each, and a bite of beef jerky each. I just wonder do they put the sourest old people in charge of the samples or what? If you are going to give FREE food, be a cheerful giver, darn it! Don't begrudge every bite you pass out.
Mistake #6: Going to Sam's to buy the powdered milk. OMG! I could not find it anywhere! I am just sure they sell it. They have to. They're Sam's for Pete's sake. But none, nada, nothing after scouring every aisle. Of course, there was no one to ask. I guess all the workers were in the back chowing down on all the free samples they didn't pass out to the customers.
Mistake #7: Not buying the shoes at the 3rd shoe store that are just like Rhett's except for blue Adidas stripes for $40. They didn't carry them in all white. So, of course, I held out and drug BFG to the mall and finally found the shoes! Yeah, I found them. For 70 bucks. Forget that. For $30, ol' Rhett can live with some blue stripes.

All in all, it was just miserable. Out of 4 shoe stores, Sam's, Old Navy, and Lifeway, I ended up with the Jesus Loves Jasmine bottle, 2 $5 movies from Lifeway, Rhett's personal garments, and 10 lbs. of sugar. Oh, and a bottle of Gatorade from the mall vending machine for BFG. My head hurt so bad by the time we were done, my eyes were tearing up.

Poor BFG! We walked past the play area at the mall which has a half-wall around it. I kind of stopped and looked for a minute thinking "BFG has been sooooo good. I really should let her play for a few minutes." But I was just too tired and I kept going.
BFG: Mama, what are they doing?
Me: Oh, I don't know. (Liar!)
BFG: Playing or something? (Busted!)
Me: Yeah, they might be. Sounds like they are having fun.
BFG: But we're not, Mama? We're not having fun?
Me: No, sweetie. We're not anymore.

Later when Rhett got home, he told me I could buy him absolutely any shoe I wanted to. He didn't care. It didn't have to be the same. Now, this is NOT what he said when he asked me to go buy him some. After the torturous shoe search in 90 degree weather with a 3 yr. old and a migraine, I cried when he told me that. Cried. Can you believe it? I guess I can. It's day 4 of the Clomid and by day 4, I am a crazy person. Last month on day 4, I argued with anyone and everyone I came across. I pray I get pregnant and all, but I have to say that I am so glad this is the last cycle. I hate being on this stuff.

Self Checkouts

This was one of those days in which I found myself wondering Why, oh why do I do coupons? Some shopping trips are just harder than others I guess. But I learned to never, never, ever go through the self-checkout at Kroger if you have coupons. I don't really care how long the lines are. You are not going to beat them. The people I didn't want to get in line behind were probably already home and had their groceries unpacked by the time I was through the self-checkout. Not to mention the argument I had to have with the guy that I did in fact have the correct Barilla pasta. I was not trying to sneak by with one of the other Barilla pastas. He was so convinced that I was trying to get away with something that he wasn't reading the label on the box. Give me a break! Do they really have a problem with this? It's all computerized. I just can't see tons of people trying to walk out of the store with items that don't match the coupons. It gets on my nerves being treated like a criminal because I'm using coupons. And that's at other places, too. The cashiers must get in some kind of trouble if they make a mistake with them or something. And the guy jilted me out of one of my coupons, too. I had 2 of the pasta ones and I had only scanned one, but he had grabbed them both. After our argument, he went ahead and sucked them up in the machine despite my protest. But at that point, a $1 wasn't worth dealing with him anymore. Plus, I really didn't have time to wait around and see how they got the coupons out of the machine and he had sucked my coupons up someone else's machine. They have so few lines open at Kroger anyway that I really hated to block up two of the self-checkouts.

Then, of all things and this is really unusual, Publix only had one line open and there was a line. So, the lady at the self-checkouts accosted me to come over there and she'd check me out. Bless her little heart. Unbeknownst to her, I had coupons where I was getting some cat food for free. So, she had to scan it and run over to her computer and back and forth and back and forth. It was a mess. She was super nice though and I felt really sorry for her. But once again, I was reminded how superior Publix is at customer service. Although one time, I did have the slowest lady ever who with each item she went through my coupons and matched the item before she'd scan it. But she was older and maybe she didn't understand that the computers do all that for you.
Anyway, maybe when I'm eating my cheap food it'll be worth it.
Mama Said