Walmart Woes

Yesterday was kind of stressful. At least, the part when I was at Walmart with the kids. I really need to start going grocery shopping early in the morning without Josie and Deuce, while Justin is still awake. It's not that they are naughty, but they take up so much room in the cart!

I had two weeks worth of groceries to buy yesterday, including a 25 lb bag of flour, toilet paper and diapers. That's a lot of stuff, with not a lot of room to put it. I normally bring an insulated bag to put my frozen foods in, but I couldn't find it. So, I brought a soft cooler instead. I also brought two reusable grocery bags to limit the number of plastic bags I bring home. At first, I had both bags and my diaper bag/purse in the cooler. As the cart started filling up, I realized I should reorganize a bit. I pulled the cooler out, and set it on the floor. I moved some things around (including my children) in the cart, and went about my merry way. It wasn't until a few aisles later that I realized I didn't have the cooler (or my purse, more importantly). For those of you know me well, this is no surprise. I tend to be a forgetful loser. Maybe I should say "forgetful misplacer," because loser sounds so negative haha. Anyway, I frantically started backtracking through the aisles to find it. When I didn't see it, I went to customer service. They didn't have it, so of course I'm a little stressed. The cooler was a Christmas gift, but more importantly, my wallet is in my bag. I started looking in other people's carts, because let's face it, I'm in Walmart. Thankfully, I got called back to customer service just a few minutes later. They had either just found it or someone had turned it in. Either way, I was very relieved!

Now, it was back to shopping. I wanted to get toilet paper, but realized I had no room for it. Also, after attempting to rearrange my cart to fit the box of diapers, I had to put those back too. I can't tell you how many times I stopped to move things around. For example, where do you put bread so it's not squished by little hands, yet not squished by other heavy objects? Finding a spot for the carton of eggs is also tricky. Josie loves pointing out eggs, but she doesn't yet realize how fragile they are.

At one point, I decided to put some of my groceries in the two reusable bags and fill the cooler. As I pulled the bags out, I realized that the diaper bag was drenched. One of the sippy cups had spilled. I mean, it was sopping wet; I could squeeze water out of it. I had nothing to use to clean up the mess (which was thankfully, just water), so I went and grabbed a roll of paper towels off the shelf. I squeezed out and dried and wiped up as much of the water as I could, meanwhile singing, "This is the Day that the Lord has Made." Impressively, both kids sat quietly while I took care of the mess. I think if they had not cooperated, I would have been a lot more frustrated. So, thank God for that small mercy!

I ended up spending more than an hour and a half in Walmart. I was exhausted by the time we got home, and I still had to put all the groceries away. At least I didn't go over budget (helps to skip the big ticket items like diapers haha) and didn't buy anything that wasn't on the list (that doesn't include my Starbucks stop on the way, of course). Considering how hectic the trip was, I'm glad it turned out as well as it did.

Plus, I had a huge bowl of Moose Tracks ice cream for lunch. I figured I deserved it. ;0)