Whew!

Yesterday had gone so well, I should have known that today would be the exact opposite. Today was therapy day, which means an hour drive to Boise, an hour at the therapist, and assorted errands "since I am already in town". The boys did fine (although Oren complained he was "starving to death" the whole way there.) until after we went and got something to eat. Their meals came with little fluffy bunny toy things. Oh joy.... They brought these everywhere today. It made the pet store interesting, they hopped their bunnies all over the huge kitty condos on display, meowing the whole time. And Willam added to the fun by climbing out of the cart while my back was turned and landing facedown on the hard floor. Luckily he just has a small bruise. You can buckle that boy in as tight as you want, but he is so skinny he can wiggle right out of it.

We finally got out of there a scant 1 1/2 hours later with our rat treats and fish tank paraphanelia, and a bruised head, and drove straight home, an hour of "meow"'s and one very tired little boy taking a nap. Back home we set up the tank, which went very well, even with my little happy helpers. But I still had to go to Walmart for food to restock our fridge if I wanted to feed children in the morning. So around 6:30 I loaded up children again, kissed Mark goodbye and reassured him that I wouldn't be gone too long, so he could see the kids. He is working 12 hour shifts this week and next, and he had just gotten home. If he hadn't have been on standby I would have left kids with him, thus avoiding the whole mess at the store.

Walmart..... did you know that Walmart is the only place my kids every get sick in public? Oh yes. I have bought numerous things off clearance racks so my child and I could wear something clean out of the store. We headed over to look at fish and grab our catfood. I told the fish lady we would finish the rest of the shopping and get our fish last, so I wouldn't stress them out too much. It took longer than I thought to get the things that I needed. It is harder to concentrate when you are tired, but at least the boys stayed with me better this time. I made my way back to the fish, but had to wait while the new guy helped someone pick enough fish to stock his 55 gallon tank. I happened to glance over at the cart, and beheld a mother's nightmare. Poo. Copious amounts of lovely runny poo. On the floor, on William's clothes, on the coat tucked in below the cart seat, on some of the items in the cart, on the cart seat... Breathe in, breathe out, breath in... At least we were by the fish where there is a sink, and paper towels, and it is somewhat isolated. The others waiting for their fish were quite amused as I started helping myself to paper towel and the sink. Luckily all of what it landed on was cleanable, because I couldn't just put that stuff back on the shelves. The guy said he would bag up the fish I wanted while I went down to the baby stuff, and grabbed some clearance clothes, wet wipes (wouldn't you know someone had taken them out of the diaper bag) and a thing of diapers (because somewhere in the store William had taken them out and thrown them overboard.)

I grabbed my fish and got my kids out of there before something else could happen. They are now in bed, and should sleep in tomorrow seeing as how I didn't manage to get home until 10:00. Whew!

Okay, I am not really complaining. I could have been inventive at breakfast and went shopping tomorrow, but that wouldn't have made such a fun story now would it. With my kids, I have really learned to laugh at myself, and clean up messes with dignity. And at least now we have fish, and an extra ghost shrimp that hitched a ride in the net, so we got a free bonus!