To be thankful

Oh the joy of going grocery shopping at Wal-Mart the week of Thanksgiving! I thought that with it being Monday I would be safe from the crowds, but that sure was not the case today. When I pulled into the parking lot it was fuller than a usual Monday, just not crazy full. But upon entering the store is when I really should have just turned around and gone back home. That is, if I was a smart lady. But, I needed to get groceries so my family can actually have a real dinner instead of grilled cheese and PB&J sandwiches. My list was very organized in the order of the aisles (yeah, I know I am really prepared), the kids had just eaten lunch and it was a few hours before their naps, plus I made sure Carson had gone potty before we left home. Everything should have gone smoothly, but I should have known better than to expect that. As we are about half way done, I end up running into my hair dresser who is currently on maternity leave. It was nice to see her and we got to chat for a moment, but that is when Carson started trying to poke holes with his finger in the fresh meat section. We quickly moved on to the dairy section and I noticed that Luke had lost a shoe. Luckily a man came up to me and handed me Luke’s shoe – how he managed to find us in the crowd of shoppers I have no idea, but I am thankful for that. So we get down to the last few items I need and Carson insists very loudly that he has to go poop. Just great, “Can’t you wait until we get home?,” I ask. He yells even louder, “No Mom – I have diarrhea!” I could feel my face turning a bright shade of red as we hustled to the bathrooms which, thankfully again were close by. I park the full cart and remove Luke from the seat as we hurry into a stall; all three of us into a very small bathroom stall in which the door opened to the inside. It was a bit of a tight squeeze. A woman was just leaving the handicapped stall so I thought we had the bathroom to ourselves. Carson is doing his thing as I am trying to hold a squirming Luke. Thankfully it wasn't diarrhea, but normal number 2. When he’s done I had him stand up and lean over so I could wipe him. While his head is down by the floor he says, “Mom, I see a butt. Whose butt is that?” Now my face has turned an even brighter shade of red. To my horror the bathroom was not empty and there was a lady with black shoes on next to us quietly sitting on the toilet. I was not only embarrassed for myself, but also for this poor lady whose butt was being looked at and commented on by my 3 year old. I had to get us out of there before she came out as I would have dreaded making eye contact with her. There were a few more items on my list, but I sure as heck wasn’t going to hang around to get them. I had to get to the checkout lanes a.s.a.p! While standing in line I am constantly looking at every woman’s shoes to see if they are the same ones as the lady in the bathroom. But thankfully I did not find the match. After I get all of our items loaded onto the conveyor belt, I notice Carson is messing with the credit card unit that you swipe your card through. So when I go to swipe my card, somehow Carson managed to change it to Spanish instead of English, which I don’t know much of, if any. Somehow I got through it and I got everyone loaded back into the van to head home. Thankfully that adventure was over.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!