Grin and Bear It

Today, Rob left for Florida for an Ortho conference. So he's out of town again. The kids aren't too happy about that, but we're all coping. To compensate for our lack of seeing him, we met him for lunch. I was supposed to bring his black belt that he forgot, but I forgot it, too. So, after saying our good-byes and arriving home, I received a phone call from him. He was at the store where he purchased another belt, with only 45 minutes to spare before his plane would take-off, with his keys locked in the trunk of his car. When he asked me to look up other flights for the day, I had just begun to feed my starving baby, Dylan was in his room "taking a nap," and Colden was having a melt down in the van because I closed the driver's side sliding door (which has a child-safety-won't-open-from-the-inside thing) and that was the door he wanted to go out of (never mind that the other door was open...). Then my Mom called. She asked if it was a good time. I laughed and said, not really. But I'm glad I was laughing! (Obviously, a few days ago, I would have been extremely frustrated and I probably would have been yelling.)

Meanwhile, Rob was running from several different stores and hotels looking for a wire hanger. He finally found one at a chiropracter's office. But he couldn't get it in. By this time, it's hopeless for him to catch his plane. Luckily, he had booked a flight on SouthWest. So he called them and they told him that he could fly stand-by on the 8:30 flight without an extra fee. Phew.

1 hour later, I pick him up and we decide to go to the St. Louis Mills Mall, the outlet stores in North St Louis...and a place we've never been to before. Jackpot! The Children's Place was having awesome sales on their winter items! This was really the first time I actually looked at little girl clothes (people have been so generous in giving/lending us clothes for her), and I had so much fun! I really did! It only helped (or not) that so many things were a steal.

I bought a Christmas dress for her for $7.99, a winter coat for $7.99, a fleece jacket for $3.99, and tops and bottoms for less than $5 a piece...and a pair of ballet slipper shoes for less than $5! I couldn't forget the boys. They both have Church sweaters for next year, $7.99 or less a piece, 3 pairs of cordoroy pants for $4.99, a dress shirt, and jammies. When I went to the register, it first rang up for $90 something, then the girl hit a button and the total was $70 plus tax! An additional 15% came off of everything!

It was loot!

And in the end, we got to spend more time together as a family. We went to a place we had never been to before. So I'm glad that I didn't let my attitude get in the way. We had a good day today.

I think life would be so much easier if I could just grin and bear it all the time.