A crazy vacation

Well I won't do that again. What was I thinking? I thought I would take Sommer out this morning for a nice mother/daughter shopping time.... I forgot she was 2. I had dreams of us walking hand in hand through isles of clothes, me asking her if Daddy would like this sweater, picking out Christmas presents together. And well, I was wrong. I instead took with me my screaming 2 year old who would not sit in the cart and insisted on blindly pushing the cart through crowded isles, yelling “no, myself do!” every time I tried to regain control of the cart. Yes, I was THAT person! I could just feel the stares of (disgust) sympathy coming from the women around me. I tried the candy bribe, which worked until the fruit snack package ran out. I tried the “want to go to McDonalds for lunch?” which worked for about 30 seconds. I then tried the “who’s child is that???” which worked until Sommer would come up to me and say “Mommy!” Ugh. One word – BRUTAL.

I went to Marshalls (like Winners in Canada) and found 2 nice sweaters for James. But I hate buying him clothes because he is picky. So I took a picture on my blackberry and sent it to him on Blackberry Messenger. Within minutes he replied back “Yup, I like it. Buy it!” What did people do before the invention of the media messaging system (MMS)? HOW DID WE SURVIVE? I would have hummed and hawed over this sweater for 20 minutes, putting it in my cart, taking it out, going back to get it for one more look, and then crossing my fingers that he would like it while the cashier says “all sales final”. Not anymore. Now I just snap a pic, push send, and have an answer from my husband who was in another country… thank you Blackberry!

I participated in Black Friday here in the USA. It’s like our Canadian Boxing Day. But, like I say every year, Black Friday makes more sense! I love the fact that you can buy your Christmas presents on a bargain shopping day! Who wants to go shopping the day AFTER Christmas? I want to go 3 weeks before so I can SAVE money!! Kristi and I were out of the house by 7:45 am on Black Friday. I know those of you who are “door buster special’ers” that is not early but to me it is. I didn’t even shower!!! We went to the mall and took advantage of all the great specials at Macy’s, Nordstrom, Charlotte Russe, and Old Navy. I got these great real black leather suede boots that were regular $69.99 for $28!! Best purchase of the year!

Speaking of adventures with Kristi can I just say that we cannot go on a road trip without something unfortunate happening? In the summertime we had the incident where she forgot her passport at my parents’ house and crossed into Canada to pick me up from the airport using a colour photocopy her passport. That was the same time she locked her keys in the car at the airport terminal. Well, this time she remembered her passport when she came to get us but then everything else went wrong. When we were pulling away from the airport to head back over the border I trusted her to know where she was going – she did after all just drive to the airport. After about 45 minutes of driving she turns to me and says, “I don’t know where I am going.” Why didn’t you tell me that like 45 minutes ago?? So we drove towards where we could see lights and asked for directions. Lucky for her we were only about 20 minutes from the border crossing but still we were now an hour and a half behind schedule. So we pull up to the border and tell the guy were we live, where we are going, when we are coming back. I guess we looked suspicious because he told us they were going to have to search our vehicle. Are you kidding me??? So we pull over to the inspection station, get Sommer out of the car (who thinks we have already arrived at Nana & Papa’s house… little did she know we hadn’t even started our 5 hour journey), go inside and answer all the border guards questions. They go and search our vehicle, they think they will find some suspicious terrorist stuff but unfortunately all the find is a car full of dirty laundry (Kristi was bring 2 months of laundry home from college.. . yuck), suitcases of clothes, and Kristi’s scrapbook she made (which they looked at every page). FINALLY WE WERE ON OUR WAY!

We drove in the pouring rain for 3 hours! At one point Kristi said, “Wouldn’t it be funny if my windshield wiper flew off right now?” I know, random, and NOT funny! I didn’t think anything of it until it actually happened!! We were driving on a busy freeway, right smack in the middle of downtown Seattle in the pouring rain and it just flew off! PANIC! I could see fine since my side was still working but Kristi was driving blind. And to make matters worse there was no exit for about 10 minutes since we were downtown. So I called my dad and told him he had to pray that the rain would stop NOW because we can’t see and we have nowhere to get off. Then Kristi tells me she has spare windshield wipers in her trunk! WHAT!?!? Who has spare windshield wipers!?!? So we eventually find an exit with a Chevron and pull into the parking lot. We pop the trunk and low and behold – EXTRA WIPERS! We both stare at these wipers and have no clue how to put them on. Enter our guardian angel…. This man pulls up beside us and I ask him if he knows how they go on. Within minutes we are on our way home, with brand new wipers on only to never use them because stopped.

Then yesterday Kristi is driving back up to Bellingham to work for the week and bring James back with her on Friday for my cousin’s wedding. She drove 2 hours and needed gas. She pulls into the gas station and turns to grab her wallet… it’s not there. Her purse, with her passport in it, isn’t there. Her computer, with her final papers on it, isn’t there. She is 2 hours from home, out of gas, and has no wallet or any money! She calls my dad and asks what to do... we honestly had no clue. All she has is an old cheque book, but no ID. My dad told her that he was probably going to have to drive 2 hours to deliver her purse to her. Kristi then decided to go to the bank and cry…. Crying always works, especially when you are 2 hours from your parents, 3 hours from your house and you have no gas and no money. The bank lady took pity on her and cashed a cheque for $50 so she could fill her tank and drive the rest of the way home. We had to overnight her wallet and her passport so she could survive the rest of the week and cross the border to bring James home. She really is a menace to society!

Well that has been my fun-filled time visiting my parents. And to think I still have another week here! What else could happen to make my vacation interesting???