There We Were

So there we were, flying through the parking lot of Wal-Mart, when the thought struck me: is THIS something that could get me on peopleofwalmart.com???

I guess I have to back up a little ways.

I've always hopped on the back of the cart when we leave a store with a cart full of stuff and ridden it down the parking lot to the car. Even better if there's a bit of a slope and I can reach down with one foot and "paddle" our way to an even faster ride! The kids love it. Somewhere in the back of my mind I realize that I don't actually see other mothers doing this in parking lots, but usually I don't give it another thought. It's totally their own fault if they can't see the little ways to make life as a mom a little more fun!

But on Tuesday, I noticed out of the corner of my eye something flying behind us as we rode down Aisle "B" of the Wal-Mart parking lot. What in the world? I thought.

Oh.

Feathers.

As I hopped down to come to a stop behind our car, I furtively glanced around for any tell-tale signs of a cell-phone camera being pointed in my direction.

Thankfully I didn't see any. But you never know. People can be pretty sneaky with their cell phones.

So.. about the feathers...

Earlier that morning we were hurriedly getting ready to take Josh to school. His school day starts at 7:30, and it takes better than 20 minutes to get there, so we always leave well before dawn.

And in that pre-dawn darkness I hadn't noticed that my littlest had gone to "get warm" by the stove after I'd put her coat on her and had stood just a teensy bit too close.

And melted the back of her coat.

Freeing hundreds of thousands of little bits of goose down.

The goose down took their opportunity at freedom and ran with it. Throughout the house, in and around everything, and danced around the broom every time I'd try to sweep them up.

But that was much later.

Because at first I didn't notice the hole. Or the feathers.

Out the door we went, hustling the kids into the car and into their seatbelts. I grabbed up little Elayna and plunked her into the car seat, and it was the cloud of feathers puffing up from behind her that made me pull her back out for a closer examination.

Hmm.... well, there was nothing I could do at that moment to remedy the situation before we needed to leave. I thought about duck tape, but didn't have any close by, so, I buckled her in her seat, feathers flying and all, and off we went.

Later that morning we switched around various hand-me-down coats and headed off to do our errands and hit up Wal-Mart.

We now have a SUPER Wal-Mart, which means I can go to ONE place and get my groceries AND cheap Pull-Ups! I kinda miss Target, though.

Anyway, after chasing the goose down around the house for an hour and finally wetting the broom and attacking each piece trying desperately to escape me, I realized as I buckled the girls back in their seats that I had neglected to clean the feathers out of the car.

Hmm... great.

Oh well, I'm not going to do it now, I thought to myself, it's not THAT bad.

I regretted that a bit as we left bits of goose down throughout Wal-Mart. I tried to brush it off the back of her, but there was always MORE! And MORE! Where are these things COMING from?!

I really thought I'd gotten it all by the time we left, surreptitiously depositing them in various aisles and not all in one place, but the stream of feathers as we flew through the parking lot said otherwise.

Ah... Freedom! Cold snowy air blowing on my face as I ride the cart down the parking lot, girls giggling in front of me, feathers flying behind me...

I may not be able to go back there for a while.

Eh, oh well! I guess that day my redneck side was showing. At least there wasn't duck tape on the coat, people!

P.S. Please let me know if I show up on peopleofwalmart, okay?