Our Saturday Family Day at Walmart

Saturday was one of those days. It wasn't nearly as bad as my friend, Shannon's week, but it just didn't go smoothly. I tried to write about it earlier, and the blog had a fatal error, and most of it disappeared. Here we go again. I wouldn't even bother, but my kids wanted me to put it on the blog. Oh, to have to relive that day for a third time. Here goes:

Mr Wonderful had a meeting and left early for work. I attempted to sleep in a bit, as I had stayed up late Friday, actually until way early Saturday, cleaning the hutch I keep our china and some antiques in. I ended up washing the 12 piece place settings of one set, then 8 piece place settings of the other set. I did find Mr Wonderful's small volt meter, and an expensive calculator we thought was gone for good. Next time I lose something valuable, I guess I'll check the china hutch. When I finally dragged myself out of bed, Breezy was cleaning and doing some vacuuming. I knew something was up. Yep, she wanted to go to a movie later on in the afternoon with some friends. I told her she could. She immediately stopped cleaning and went to get ready. Around 11 am, Mr Wonderful called to say he was coming home and wanted to go over to Walmart to have the oil changed, and his tire checked on his PT Cruiser. The headlights on his car were foggy, so he decided to have those cleaned, too.

The girls and I invited ourselves along. We wanted to have lunch at the Subway near the Walmart. Mr Wonderful checked in his car and we went over and ordered our sandwiches. He joined us and read a newspaper and listened to the girls banter back and forth. He told us they should be finished with the car soon, so we headed over to the Walmart garden section, as the other thing Mr Wonderful wanted to get accomplished was to apply weed and feed to our lawn. I vaguely remember saying that I would spray weeds, but my weed sprayer nozzle was plugged. We had two huge bags of weed and feed in the cart. We discovered that Crayola now makes all colors of sand. We picked up three big bags of blue and grabbed a splash pool to put our wonderful sand in. We are watching "Little T" two days a week. We thought he would love it. If not, we know Rosco Biggs loves sand. "Wephie" needed a case of water and cup of noodles to take over to her dorm. Soon, we had the shopping cart fully loaded with non perishable items. (It turned out to be a very good thing that nothing was perishable.) We took turns carrying the splash pool. We headed to the cashiers and paid for everything. Mr Wonderful went to back to automotive to pay for his car. He was going to meet us in the parking lot. We told him we'd be WAY out there, as there was a lot of traffic and people.

Of course, the shopping cart we had only wanted to go in a circle. Pushing it in a straight line was no easy task. It was quite the adventure. We just got out there when Mr Wonderful called us to tell us his car wasn't finished. They needed 40 more minutes. Ok, we pushed the very unwilling cart across the parking lot and back behind the store to the automotive department. Mr Wonderful decided he wanted to go out in front of the store and wait on a bench and read his book. We let him push the cart. Tee, hee, hee. We still had hope that Breezy could make her movie. I waited with them the 40 minutes, then "Wephie" and I went to see if the car was finished. Nope, it wasn't. They said it would be another 40 minutes or so. I called Mr Wonderful and gave him the news.

"Wephie" and I watched almost the entire show, Ice Age, on the television set they had in the automotive waiting area. (The TV is larger than any Mr Wonderful and I even own, by the way.) A guy comes and tells me that they have finished my fuel injection and still need to do my tire. I let that slide, as thought maybe Mr Wonderful had asked for a fuel injection, too, and figured no wonder it all wasn't finished in an hour and a half. Time passed, and again, they said the car was nearly finished. I called Mr Wonderful and told him I'd soon be picking him up. A guy working on my car came in and said they still needed to fix a foggy headlight AND they hadn't repaired the tire yet. They got mixed up and had cleaned our fuel injectors, instead of those for another customer. They weren't going to charge us for that. Good, as we didn't want to pay for something we didn't authorize, and it didn't even need to be done. (The lady that was supposed to have her injectors cleaned was even less happy than we were.) I called Mr Wonderful back, and told him to stay on the bench. We easily waited another hour. Arlen had been on the bench with his shopping cart and splash pool for so long that quite a few people we knew drove by and wondered why he was sitting there, and said had they known Breezy needed a ride, they would have been more than happy to give her a ride to her movie. OH well. She missed it.

Finally, the guy supervising the guys working on the PT came inside. He said the car was finally ready. I paid the bill and headed outside to get my car. Again, I called Mr Wonderful. He showed up on the sidewalk outside with the cart full of stuff, the splash pool, and our two girls. We waited.....waited some more. A guy had pulled the PT out of the bay, but three guys had the hood up on the car and were obviously consulting and working on the car. I told Mr Wonderful he better go over there and see what was up. After waiting awhile, I went over there. He said when they backed it out of the bay, the brakes didn't seem to be working. I looked over at the girls and they were now laying in the splash pool. They had decided to make themselves comfortable. Apparently, the mechanics, and I use that term very loosely, had disconnected a brake line when they were cleaning fuel injectors they were not supposed to be cleaning. There was a small cap on the line they replugged the brake line in (was the wrong plug in) . When they put it back together, they got the cap stuck in the brake line and it was plugged off; hence, no brakes. They tried using air pressure to blow it out of the line, and that didn't work. They had to take the entire line off and run a wire down it to get the little cap out of it. By the way, my mother thinks we are totally nuts for going to Walmart for oil changes. I am starting to think she is right.

After four hours, I decided I needed to use a restroom. At that time, "the mechanics" were still trying to get the brake line unplugged, so I went over to the Burger King, as their restroom was closer than the one in Walmart. I was pretty tired of that store anyway. The toilet paper roll was one of those ones that is about the size of a small tire, AND they had just stuck it on top of the dispenser instead of installing it properly in the dispenser like they should have done. As I reached for it, it fell off of the dispenser, and rolled under the door. Luckily, I had the end in my hand, and "reeled" the roll in like a fish. Other than that, it was uneventful. (Baby Oven will be thankful, I am certain.) When I left Burger King, I was pretty amazed to see our little PT Cruiser and a smiling Mr Wonderful coming to get me. We dropped Breezy off to spend time with her friends. (After all that morning cleaning, she was getting some kind of social life out of the deal!) The girls did say that next time we need to get the oil changed on the car, not to even bother asking them to go!

I just wanted to go home and put my blue sand in the splash pool and round up some toys for the sand; read my new magazine, and plan what to clean next. Mr Wonderful had another idea for my time. He unplugged the nozzle on my weed sprayer, so I was a bit obligated to spray weeds while he put the weed and feed on the lawn. I was soon spraying weeds right and left. About the fourth time I filled up the weed sprayer, I put the weed killer in there first instead of the water, and somehow managed to blow weed killer all over my face and upper body. Since it is poison and you do absorb it through your skin and I didn't want to get sick or die sometime in the next 48 hours, or sometime later with the promised extended kill formula, I turned the cold water on myself and completely drenched myself. I put all of my clothing in the washing machine and took a shower that would have even washed rad waste off of my body. Of course, the minute I got out of the shower, Breezy called and was ready to be picked up from her friend's house. I'd had way more entertainment than I needed for one day, but more was to come.

After I got home with Breezy, "Risti" called. She was at Dairy Queen and wondered if we wanted anything. Of course we did. We were enjoying our ice cream when Dano came home from work and ran upstairs to her room. Not two seconds later, she ran back downstairs and wanted to know WHO had left her hamster's door open. I personally didn't care WHO had left the door open, I just wanted to know if Rambo was still safe in his home or if he was roaming around. She determined he was free, and demanded I "get all of my rat traps picked up." (They are mouse traps by the way. Check an earlier post for that story.) I told her to let Rosco Biggs sniff some of the hamster bedding, then watch where the little dog went as I am telling you, he can smell rodents. Sure enough, he went right over to the edge of the bed. Dano found Rambo sleeping in a plastic cup under her bed. I told her to put it back there in case Rambo ever needs a "cabin" to sleep in while roaming away from home.

It was a crazy day. I hope our Marine gets to read about it. I think any time you get to spend with your husband and kids is the best, even if you are stuck at a Walmart store. Well, I think I will go put my beautiful blue sand in the splash pool.....and find a grandkid to enjoy it with. Even crazy days with your family are most delightful. THE END.....for now.