Paul and I went shopping a couple of Saturdays ago. We had not yet bought anything and decided that we were going to do everything all in one day...First CRAZY thought that started the crazy-ness in the first place. So we drop the kids off at a friends house and begin, what I am calling, "the crazy shopping day". We started off at Target, there was (surprisingly) no one there! I had a very pre-mature thought of....Well this is going to be easy! Ok so now I was the one talking "crazy-talk". We didn't really find very much and decide to head to another store...where we know exactly what we're going to get. We leave Target and...you guessed it...EVERYONE in the San Antonio area, all 1.3 million of them were on the road...Let the crazy-ness commence! We finally make it to Academy to get a special gift for Caleb, that he won't let us forget about, and...yep...they don't have EXACTLY what we need. We settle for something close, thinking if we don't buy this then we may not get anything at all...Lunch...Lunch was uneventful. Just a quiet lunch at Pei Wei...just the two of us! (Doesn't happen to often!) Back on the road with all the crazy circus people. We decide we need Toys R Us. Well even though SA is huge there are only 2...count them...TWO Toys R Us stores. So we call information and get the number so we can ask if they even have what we're looking for before we go clear across town...(remember all of SA is on the road 1.3 million) We call the number and they have "plenty" of what we need...that's the word they used...plenty. So we ask the lady for directions....and she eventually gives us directions to where she is...Come to find out...SHE'S AT THE CALL CENTER, NOT THE STORE! Uggghhhhghghghghghghhghg! So we finally get directions to the actual store and make it there...Crazy...There are NO parking spots. This should have been our first clue to not go in the store, but no, we didn't listen to ourselves. Paul has to drop me off at the door and drive around until someone leaves to get a parking spot. The next clue that this store might be a bad idea is that there are no shopping carts available. So since I know what I am getting I just go straight in and walk up to a lady that works there and asked where the item was that I was looking for...she said...and I quote..."If we have any they are back there." What?!? "The lady on the phone said plenty!" She promptly replied with, "The call center is stupid and they have no idea what they are talking about!" (Obviously since the lady gave me directions to the call center!) So I go back to where she told me...and you are right again!...Nothing. So Paul finally joins me, I vent a little about what good is a call center if they don't even know what is in the store, and then he brings me back to earth and encourages me to just look around and see if we can find anything...skip to two hours later....We have all the toys for our kids! We found some great stuff...including the exact thing we needed for Caleb and we ended up returning the stuff to Academy. Finally mission accomplished and we topped the day off with a vow to start Christmas shopping in August next year...yeah, like that will happen.
Fast forward to today...
We had Christmas at our house today, because of the traveling we are going to be traveling over the next several days. Let me just preface this part by saying, this is, literally, the first Christmas we have ever been able to buy anything for our kids...Early this morning we all got up, at the prompting of Caleb, and opened up our presents. It was the most wonderful morning. We had so much fun watching the joy fill our children as they opened the few gifts they had. God truly blessed our hearts today. Here are a few pics to share the joy!
