Grand Adventure

Yesterday my generous mother offered to take me shopping to pick out my birthday present and to help her choose the Scoutmaster's birthday present, since both of our birthdays are in March. What fun! Since the Scoutmaster was unavailable, we loaded up all of the Ducklings and headed out into the wide world of Shopping.

Shopping is a foreign concept to my children. We saw some basketball goals and some benches at the first store we went to, but they weren't exactly what we were looking for. The Ducklings were baffled when we left the store with Nothing.

***It's funny how when you have six children, five of whom can speak, they all seem to become deaf to each other's questions. Surely, this isn't just an isolated phenomenon... Mom and I answered the same questions from all five speaking children about a zillion times yesterday. By the time we were done, we were both laughing hysterically any time they asked us anything. For some reason, the Ducklings were unable to see the humor in all of it.

But, I digress, as usual, perhaps because Girlfriend(6) is talking continually in my left ear and the Sprout(11mo's) is fussing and the BoyScout(11) is watching TV. Ah, to string together a coherent thought is an elusive thing. See that, I digressed again. ***

At the second store, which happened to be WalMart, we found fantastic benches and a super basketball goal. We also found mysteriously helpful employees. It was all very surreal, being in WalMart and finding what we wanted, and good help, too. The giant basketball goal box was carted up to the register for us, with a promise to load it into our van when we were ready. The benches were carried out to the van and the first one was loaded easily.

At this point, it seemed clear that both benches would fit in the back of the van. And the helpful WalMart guy was quite determined to make it happen. The second bench was oriented endless ways, as he attempted to make it fit. Fully ten minutes later, it occurred to me that I could have driven home, unloaded the first bench and come back for the second bench in less time. So, I suggested maybe that would be the best plan. The sweet WalMart guy was clearly disappointed and I was amazed that we would be making three trips to bring home our WalMart bounty, as the giant basketball goal would not fit in with the bench either. So, in the end, WalMart was WalMart and the universe was still in balance.

We also took time to eat lunch out and run another quick errand. All in all, it was a fun day, if a bit crazy and I am grateful for the bounty in my life and determined not to take it for granted.

God bless the WalMart man. God bless the patient Ducklings. God bless my generous mom. It was a grand adventure!