A Little Of This...

A little of that.

Georgia loves to lick the bowl! In this case the from scratch corn bread batter.

I am minues two kids these days from 7 in the morning until 2:30 in the afternoon. But when one of the two kids that are still with me on my day to day errands is Walker, there is bound to be a story.

This time we spred the crazy around during a shopping trip to Trader Joe's. I had big plans. I needed to double up on several iteams that we go through quickly during the week. So we got in line to have it all rung up, and hit the road before Walker reached his shopping limit.
Wouldn't you know that this would be the day I would forget my wallett!

I was embarrassed, and frazzled, and digging through my purse for any cash I may have had floating around in there. I of course I nowhere near the total amount due, but enough to make dent. So the cashier, and a manager started taking items off the bill. And while all of this was going on, Walker broke!

If you have never heard the mighty (and to be honest, mighty annoying) scream that this little boy can produce, then just imagine the loudest, most ear ringing scratch on a giant chalkboard you can, and you are getting close.

So there are Walker and Georgia having a brawl on the floor over one of the kid size shopping carts they have, with Walker doing his best version on his famous screaming, jumping up and down, tatrum.

And the manager of the store could not get the total figured out. He was frustrated, and could not think straight. And who could blame him? I tell Del all the time that Walker has a scream that could make a genious lose their smarts. It is true. The minute he starts, I completely lose my capacity to concentrate. And I am no genius, so it is pretty bad.

This moment of desperation called for setting aside my reservations about popping candy in my kid's mouths when they are naughty. I happily accepted the sucker the store offered me, and enjoyed the moment of silence while the manager still punched away at the register keys. Then Georgia started whining. Why didn't she get a sucker? Oh my!

And that is when we apparently reached the manager's limit to cope. Next thing I knew he was throwing all of the food into shopping bags, and saying,
"I can't figure it out. I made a mess of it. Just go!"

Me, " No! Wait! What? How much do I still owe you? No. Can I pay you back next time? Are you sure?"

He kept saying, yes, yes, he was sure, just GO!!

I mummled over and over about how embarrassed I was, and thank you so much, and I am so sorry, and quickly pushed my crying crew out the door. Much to the relief of the Trader Joe's employees.

And as I loaded my bags of free food in the car, a cloud of shame hung over me. I realized this was a payoff just to get me the heck out of there, to save someone's sanity. And that is a very humbling place to be.

But I am determined to come out of this raising kids thing with my dignity in tact. I will be heading back to Trader Joe's this week with plenty of cash, and a credit card, ready to pay them back. Weather they like it, (or me,) or not!