It's a general rule in our household that every other Thursday is Shopping Day.
It's a family thing.  We all go together, and now that some of the girls are older, they bring along their walkie-talkies and a couple of them run off to look at whatever frou-frou their hearts desire while I take one or two of the others to do the "serious" shopping.

This trip was a little expanded and enhanced, since we began by meeting Dad Paul (I get so used to calling him 'Dad' around the kids...) and Susan at Wendy's for a bite of supper, after which we all crossed the parking lot to amble through the labyrinth that is Wal-mart.
As you can imagine, shopping is a little more "interesting" for a disabled person.
We were able to find an electric cart at the entrance when we arrived, and soon Susan was safely ensconced and we were on our way.
We had a few extra things to search for in the ladies clothing department, so Paul took Jacob somewhere "other" to save him from mental distress.
When they found us later in the hair accessories aisle, Jacob was well-nigh covered in melted chocolate ice cream from the half-finished drumstick he was eating.

Paul, of course, was amused.
I, of course, was appalled.

Then, much to my chagrin, Paul had to go take care of something or other in the optical shop, and pawned the messy little fellow off on me.
I, not wanting to be seen anywhere near him,
pawned the messy little fellow off on Laurent to take to the restroom and hope that he could manage to clean himself up.

It was at that point, when everyone else had disappeared to the four winds, and Susan and I had decided to head back to the ladies department, that her cart just up and died right in the middle of the main thoroughfare.  We could not figure out how to make it go again, so I headed to the nearest entrance to find out if I could finagle a new cart for her.
I was told that we had to return the other cart first.
???
I queried politely, how was I to do that when it wouldn't go?
She told me, just tell her to press the "go" button, and you get behind and push.

Ok then!!

Back I went, laughing to myself at the whole situation.
Meanwhile, someone had noticed Susan's plight and had kindly stopped to inquire if she could be of asssistance,  and when I got there, she walked back toward the entrance with us as I pushed the cart, explaining she had run into such problems before when shopping with her father...
I appreciated her staying with Susan till I got back.

Anyway, we managed to return the broken one and pull the switcheroo, and then we were fine.

That is, until we met up with Paul again, and Jacob and Laurent returned.
I determined that I could save time by sending Laurent with the grocery cart to pick up some of the food items on my list, while I took Jacob over to the men's department to pick out a swimsuit.
Paul was with Susan, so I gave my directives and then took off with Jacob in tow.

What I had not counted on was that unbeknownst to me, Susan had followed in my wake.
I had no idea, and was trucking along at top speed, leaving her in my dust,
while Paul, who had stayed behind, thought I had intended that she follow, and therefore gave it not another thought.
Several minutes later, he phoned me to say he was going to check out, and where was I, so he could come get Susan.
I said, "Susan?  Susan isn't with me, she's with you!"

Just then Laurent arrived back where I was, and I told her to stay with Jacob as I needed to help find Susan.
We were wandering around back by the shoes when Megan beeped Laurent on the walkie to ask where we were, and was Geneva with us.

Aaaaahhhhrg!!

I phoned Paul immediately and told him I was now dropping out of the Susan search and joining the Jenny search.
It was but a few minutes later that Megan beeped back to say that she had found Geneva, and they were soon within sight.
I went to great lengths to communicate my desire that in the future, they should stay
To.Geth.Er.
!!!
Or they would be shopping by my side for the rest of their natural lives.
I was about to call Paul back to find out how HIS search was going, when Megan said she had seen him on her way and he was leaving with Susan.
Whew.
With those crises resolved, we were finally able to finish the grocery shopping and get out of that place.

~*~*~*~*~

Friday morning came, and I had a couple of things in mind for the day.
One was that I had promised to take Megan to the salon to have them trim and even up the haircut I had done on her.
My nearly 13-year old had never been to a salon in her life, and she was in a state of high anticipation about the event.
The other was that Lisa was planning to join us for the weekend, and I had to figure out how to combine trips to save gas when picking her up.
As the day progressed, we decided to just focus on school until time for karate.
Then I had all the kids come along with me, and we left a little early, swung by Lisa's place on the way to the dojo, dropped Jacob off for class, and then went back to the Wal-mart salon with the girls.

You never know how long the wait will be at a walk-in place,
but this time it was fairly brief, just long enough for us to look at some photos and get a couple to give the stylist.
Even though the idea was just to trim it up, I thought it would help to have pics, because sometimes there is a language barrier, and sometimes there is a vocabulary barrier even when there is no language barrier -- one person's bob is straight cut all the way around,



while another might define it as an extreme stack on the back of the head



with long straight sides.



You really don't want to assume!

We were thankful to be able to find something much closer to the Jenny McCarthy version to show the stylist, although she seemed rather insistent on doing a lot of straightening with a flat iron and smoothing sprays...









Isn't that a happy girl?
It is a little shorter than the cut I gave her now,
but she is in her 7th heaven to have it all off her neck for the hot summer.
And she insisted she wanted bangs again.
Do you know how long it took to grow those bangs out???
Sigh... well, she's happy and she looks cute, and it's nice and even all the way around, so I'm glad it turned out well and she had a good time at a REAL salon.

~*~*~*~*~

Finally, for your enjoyment,
here is my progress up to the minute on the
Scrap-ghan:



~*~*~*~*~

Today I am planning to keep all the kiddos off the computers and busy with chores,
and maybe make some bread.
Only time will tell what other adventures may befall our day!

Happy Birthday Linda!

Go read her post
"Fifty Things I've Learned in Fifty Years"
and then subscribe.

Here's her photography and poetry blog

Linda is a treasure, and I learn something from her every day.

The Whimzy Wrap

 
Love you, Dad!
(Nettie and Jay, circa 1986)