Is it over yet???!!!!

What a day..........and not the sentimental sappy kind!!!!! Beware to all that are still battling how many children they should have....this is probably not the greatest entry to read. And to top it all off it really wasn't even the children that drove me to the breaking point....it was Wal Mart itself. I am somewhat sure that every large family has it's good days and bad days while out in public and this was just one of those not so proud moments.

As all of life goes, we had to go in today to do our Wal Mart and Sam's trip today since the finances were finally available....and yes, Brad was inevitably called in for overtime before even leaving the station this morning from his own shift. And today is only a 24 off so he was on yesterday, on today and is back on his own shift again tomorrow. No hope of him going......yet we had to go due to our needs being pretty great, as there isn't much to eat in the house at this point excpet for PB&J....which Garrison andGrant cry when they look at. Usually full of fun and excitment over taking the children and going in even without him I started out dreading it today simply due to the anemic thing kicking in. All I really wanted to do was go to bed. I was proud though since we planned on leaving at 4 and just then one of the Sun school ladies stopped by. The house wasn't too much to brag about but the children were all dressed impecably with hair done and I had make-up and something besides Brad's jogging suit pants and a t-shirt on. LOL! The children were full of stories about catching the snake and were full of manners and I love it when I can see all of the hard work and effort on this end paying off. So, this greatly lightened my spirit and gave some much needed energy for the trip in.

Sam's was great and fun. I love it there since it's so huge and I LOVE the shopping carts!!! Whoever came up with the 2 child seats in the front was a genious and they really need to adapt that concept everywhere! Garrison and Grant fit perfectly. I finally saw the need for an umbrella stroller since when I just have Garrett the double is a bit monstrous and a little like killing a wasp with a shotgun. So, the boys were in the front of the cart together and Evye pushed Garrett in his new little stroller. Oh.....and the ease, size and weight of putting that little thing in the back of the Suburban is just near heaven!! So, it was a fun trip. We took our time looking around, checking out the new tents, the picnic table we want to eventually put on the porch, the swingset that we eventually would love to have and all of that. As usual, we got asked every question and had every comment in the book come in. Most of the time it's just the "better you than me" or "You've got your hands full" thing 1 million times over but every once in awhile we'll get every comment in the book in 1 day. That was pretty much today. A few couples stopped and did the whole 2 sets of twins thing and then, of course, the never ending "hands full" comment and every other one everyone else has ever heard. But, I also love the days when the incredibly gracious comments come in exclaiming how well behaved they are. One older couple stopped to comment how absolutely beautiful the girls are and then went on to say, once they actually looked around and took them all in, how incredible the whole lot of them are. LOL! Grayson pushed another shopping cart behind me with Aubrey and the dog food in it and as he stopped and waited for an older lady to go ahead and pass in front of him she realized what he was doing and kindly said for him to catch us. He said a pleasant "thank you" and caught up. As we stood in line the lady approached us and touched me on the arm and said "I just want to tell you what a well behaved son you have. I havent' seen a boy with manners that great in a very long time. And he's so good looking on top of it all." She patted Grayson and I told her how nice it is to hear comments of praise since we tend to get all sorts of comments due to the size of our family. I love it when the older ones are singled out and praised by strangers since they always tend to hear the worst comments and the appalled "Are they all your's???!!! Why???!!!!"

But, as wonderful as this was, it seemed to be the breaking point for Evye and the turning point of the wonderful evening. Evye broke down in a torrent of tears and melodrama saying nobody told her how well behaved she is. I commented that she had specifically been sought out and told how absolutely beautiful she is and when people see beauty like that they know it comes from the inside and not the outside. Of course, this in no way consoled her. I got them loaded up with her crying and whining the entire time. It didn't help that she'd made herself stay awake last night until midnight. She fought off sleep unlike any kid I've ever seen. And then was up bright and early at 8 with everybody else. So, there was really no reasoning with her.

So, off we headed to the station to give Brad a uniform for tomorrow. We hung out at the station for a little while and then went on due to all of them being hungry. So, with the original plan being Sonic I just couldn't bring myself to spend that much money on food when we needed so badly to go to Wal Mart and get stuff. Nothing sounded good to me anyway so it was even harder making a decision of where to go and what to do. The children all voted for Lunchables as a special treat, and knowing how badly we needed water and Garrett needed formula I thought this was the best course of action. A quick trip in and out of Wal Mart and we'd have food for tomorrow too. By this time the children were really hungry.......but we were only running in and out. We arrived and did the whole get everybody settled in for the quick trip vs. the long trip. Garrison and Grant in the large part of the shopping cart, Garrett in the child seat...since he's too big and heavy for me to carry in the backpack anymore...and Aubrey holding on to the side of the cart. It's simple, easy and fast and is not quite the train that the double stroller and a shopping cart make together. We got over to the fishing nets to get the promised net for Grayson only to have Evye and Aubrey both end up in a fit of hysterics over the fact they could not have one too. Evye, of course, was just plain wailing and Aubrey was, of couse, screaming and stomping her foot and doing all sorts of forbidden Aubrey things that only she does. I explained to Evye how she in no way was capable of lifting a net full of huge heavy fish out of the river water but she in turn just tried to convince me otherwise. After figuring out it was all going no where I left the fishing section with them all....Evye and Aubrey wailing behind me.

Now into the baby section I got the needed formula and food for Garrett only to look and realize Grayson, Evye and Aubrey had taken off to get their lunchables and water so I didn't have to do it. I couldn't chase after them and look as utterly ridiculous as I felt watching them run down the isle away from me........so I just stood and watched waiting for them to come back so I could then launch into that whole thing. About then Garrett got his fat little foot stuck in the bars of the cart and started screaming.........and his scream is no quiet cry. (Oh Susanna, where art thou??!!!! Please come teach me your ways!!!!!.....you know that she taught everyone of the Wesley children to cry quiet??!!!!) So, I dealt with that and began to feel the blood rising and heat coming in. I decided it was very much time to leave. I met the children who had the dinners and the needed water and got onto them for taking off and we picked up the pace. I started chunking stuff in like yogurt and the corn dogs for the boys for dinner. Evye was being obnoxious but everytime I reprimanded her or even looked at her wrong she'd start wailing again. That was irritating on top of already being irritated. So, we finally found the corn dogs and head to the cash register. By this time Garrett is undoubtedly dirty and his rash is bringing him huge discomfort as he sat in it. I reached the checkout to discover 2 out of 40 registers were open!!!! And the line for them stretched across the main thoroughfare and into the isles. I counted 7 people in front of me. I waited through 2 of them and each checkout was taking about 5 min. All I could think of was that we had another 25 minutes due to 5 min each and 5 people yet ahead of us. Knowing how badly we needed the stuff in the cart I figured I'd just regain some of my composure and wait it out. Oh...and somewhere along the way in looking for the corn dogs I discovered Garrison and Grant had opened 3 out of one of the 6 pack of yogurts and were licking the lids and the top of the yogurts. Not only was it going to be a mess trying to get home......they had on white shirts and the yogurt was pink and blue. And both faces were a sticky mess. As we waited in line I decided to make the best of it and sent Grayson to the deli for a plastic spoon since Garrett was wailing now in hunger and I could feed the 3 open yogurts to the boys and it would eliminate that problem. About then Garrett got his thumb wedged in the bars of the cart and started screaming all over again. Frustrated I lifted him up to comfort him after pulling his finger out but it only smashed everything in his diaper up against his skin and compounded the butt problem. Evye was standing in the middle of the busy isle swinging the net around oblivious to anyone around her or attemping to get by. And Aubrey was in the cards pulling out every Strawberry Shortcake one she could find. It was right about then that the last straw broke. By this time we were swamped with people in front and now behind us and it was chaos and another 25 minutes of it to go. I pulled Garrison and Grant out of the cart in a not so gentle way as I felt my blood really begin to boil and everything skyrocketing out of control. And of course, everybody's watching our little circus. I told Evye to put the net down and go get Grayson, who still had not returned. With Garrett on my hip and Garrison and Grant's hands in one of my own I drug everybody out of the way to wait for Grayson and Evye........only to discover Aubrey pulling off every ounce of candy off the awful shelves they have by the checkouts. With my 1 free hand cupped under Garrett's sore butt I drug her away from it and started walking outside. By this time I had no clue where Grayson or Evye were and Grant was screaming in no quiet way in opposition to having his hand squished up with Garrison's in mine. Grayson appeared without Evye, having had no clue she was out looking for him, so that made me even madder. With Grant, Garrett and Aubrey all screaming I led them away to the outer part with every eye in the front of the store watching all of this. Grayson returned with Evye and I barked out the "let's go!" order. Grayson got Grant as I shoved him into him and then Grant falls out on the floor still screaming and Grayson just starts dragging him. Everyone was still watching. Kind of irate at this point I got Grant up and let Garrison go as he took off 90 mph out onto the sidewalk....stopped by a man in a cowboy hat just before running full speed into the street running in front of the doors. (Grant's still screaming). Grayson caught up to him and drug him to the Suburban while I drug Grant and held Garrett as my arm was dying and he was crying.With Garrison and Grant wailing in unison that they were "hun-gwy" and Evye wailing due to the fact we had just left her dinner and everything she had wanted I shoved them all in and shut the doors. I stood outside the Suburban for a minute and just breathed..........only to look up and see a group of people having followed me out OF THE WAL MART DOORS just to watch it all. Ok, i know it was a scene unike any one person has probably ever seen but why in the world would somebody watch that and even go as far as to walk out to watch it all unfold but never even offer to lift a finger to help????!!!!!!I guess that goes along with the whole mindset of people that "you did this to yourself!". Talk about utterly humiliating. I was so mad though that the thought of crawling out of there didn't even occur to me. All I could think about was suing Wal Mart for their shopping carts that do nothing but entrap kids feet, legs, toes, fingers and everything else even while sitting exactly as they should and belted in on top of it all and then for the absolute nightmare of having only 2 out of 40 registers open at 8 at night with a mountain full of shoppers present. By the time we left our place in line there were 5 in front of me and 5 behind me waiting.

I wheeled in Sonic and told everybody to be silent. I threatened that if anyone dared even breathe, or attempt to have an opinion at all, that we'd go home. Grayson looked back at Garrett only to discover him sitting on his knees turning off and on the TV in front of his seat. Obviously he'd never been buckled in.....I could only be grateful that we'd never had to leave the parking lot to get to Sonic. I got out and changed his diaper in the front seat as the food arrived. After buckling him in we took off for home....only to round the corner and hit a dip and have both Sprite and Root Beer go everywhere.........from the dashboard and splashing on the windshield down to the floor. Grayson now cried about his drink and Evye wailed about her's melodramtically. Finally on the road home, I ate in total silence with a car full of 6 kids. 1/2 way home I was feeling horrid and apologized to all of them saying it wasn't even really them. It was Wal Mart in general and to please forgive my outburst of anger.

Needless to say, a very tired Evye, Aubrey and the boys were immediately put to bed once we arrived home and I laid a sleeping Garrett in his bed. Grayson and I sat out on the front porch with the cool soft breeze blowing watching the amazing lightening show and the full moon rise above the dark foreboding east clouds. It was amazing to see both lightening and moonlight all come together to light the sky like daylight. We sat out and talked and laughed and finally just chilled out together and made the best of what was left of the night. I sat on the bench loving the cat and he caught a baby frog. We played with it for awhile and listened to it croak and chirp before finally letting it go in the flowerbed and relunctantly heading in.

He's asleep now and I sit here in guilt and utter embarrassment over what all just took place only a few short hours ago. Knowing what I felt I can only imagine what we must've looked like........and to have people follow us out to watch it all is really the most humilating thing about it all. I suppose it will be funny oneday. That's one of those things though that I'm not sure will ever become funny......but that's also said only a few hours after the whole fiasco just ended. Although, in hindsight, I suppose if it could be funny now it would be the fact that we left a whole shopping cart of mostly frozen food and a bunch of opened 1/2 eaten yogurts in a lone cart sitting at the front of the store. I just figure if they can't plan well enough to employ enough people to keep the store running than they can live with the aftermath of that and put all of that crap back up and dispose on their own of the opened eaten yogurts. It's really not funny but after having lived through that it really kind of is. At least there is some feeling of awful gratification that came out of it.

What a day. What a day the last 2 days have been.

On a funnier note.....

Evye had to write 4 names of common household foods down in her book as part of her spelling work. There were pictures of some ideas and she chose beans. I asked her if she knew how to spell beans and was prepared to help since it's a "lookout" word with 2 middle vowels. She expertly spouted off the correct spelling. In awe I looked at her and said "Evye, you are just so smart!!! How in the world did you know how to spell that right?! You are just so good!!!" as I gave her a little shoulder hug standing behind her as she wrote. She rolled her eyes and said in a funny, exasperated voice, "Mom! It's right there!" as she tapped the paper and the picture of the beans with the spelling of the word directly under the pic. Having obviously completely missed that part of it I smiled and just said "Oh, well, you're still good." In an effort to keep the praise legit she responded "but I only looked once when I was spelling it to you!"