Mama Said There'd be Days Like This

As noted in the title of my blog I am keeping a collection of happy memories. I decided however that someday I will look back at this and may want to remember what a normal day was like - or even a bad day. So here goes with last weeks shopping trip.

I shop at Aldi's which is a discount supermarket. I only go there every few weeks, so I always get a lot. Before I left, I had the thought, "I wonder if my debit card is in my purse?" (Aldi's only accepts debit cards or cash.) I immediately dismissed the thought because.... where else would my debit card be? While driving there, I had the thought again and believe it or not as I entered the store I thought about it one more time, but quickly forgot about it and began shopping. I filled the cart to the brim and got in the checkout line. I was glad that I was done, because Andrew had been a real pill today - he kept trying to crawl out of the basket and cried loudly when I buckled him in. As I stood in line I thought one more time about the debit card and decided to check. I admit I was not terribly surprised that I could not find my debit card anywhere. My search became more frantic and the kids became more impatient. I backed out of line and continued to search. When I finally decided I was out of options - with a red face I went to the manager and told her what had happened and asked if I could leave my cart. I planned to get some cash and come back. Safeway was nearby. I buckled the kids in and took off for Safeway. I unbuckled kids, went inside, picked up a few groceries and got some cash back. $50 max - not enough. I needed gas anyway... I'll get cash back at the gas station. Uhhh.... this station only lets you pay outside. The kids are hungry anyway..... let's run to McDonalds. (In case you are wondering... McDonalds doesn't do cash back.) I spotted a CVS. I know they do cash back. This time I only picked up one item and told the woman I needed cash back. "Of course" she replied, "but only with a debit card." If I had a debit card I wouldn't be in this mess. I stopped at one more store... this time brave enough to ask before I bought anything if they do cash back. They didn't. For any of you that do shopping with small kids you can imagine that this day was getting a little too long. I finally went back to Aldi's and found my cart which thankfully was still there. I walked through the store quickly putting back about half of my groceries. As I checked out I told the cashier exactly how much cash I had and asked her to stop ringing up items when I reached that amount. To the credit of the cashier - she was so polite and didn't even flinch. She acted like it happened everyday. (Maybe it does.) She only had to put back about 5 items. To put it mildly - I was so relieved when I got home. After I put away all of my groceries - I started to think about where my card was. It took me about 2 minutes to remember where it was. I walked straight to the closet and removed it from my collection of laundry stuff where I'd left it last time I did the laundry. When Aaron got home that night he asked if I'd remembered to get ice cream while I was shopping today. Poor Aaron.