Walmart clothes again

Another bad Walmart clothes association... I got Adam these cool bright orange sparkle shorts (which he absolutely loves) from Walmart. We were at the dentist and we saw this boy come in with a lollipop in his mouth. Lollipop at the dentist - how clueless!! The thing was he was wearing the exact same shorts as Adam's favorite except in blue. Luckily Adam was not wearing his. To think that I would associate Adam with this clueless mom and boy by buying the same clothes!!

OK, so I got the comment that I was too snooty about those other girls. They were cute and I said hi, but they were just dirty!! I would never let Dova wear dirty clothes. If she got dirty during a meal, she would get changed immediately. Plus the clothes I got weren't exactly the same. One was wearing pink camouflage. Adam loves camouflage, but that is OK for boys. Plus pink camouflage? It just looks tacky. I guess I was just afraid of buying tacky clothes for Dova. When I got home, they passed the Doug test, so I guess they were OK!

Trailer park mom

So here is today's Walmart experience. Every time I shop there, I feel like a trailer park mom. I had to buy some clothes for Dova and went to the super cheap $2.88 knit shirts and pants section. There was another mom there with 3 girls, most of whom were wearing the same type of clothes that were on the rack already. In fact some of them looked like the clothes that I got for Dova last spring when the previous year's lot went on sale for $2 each. But these poor girls clothes were all dirty and raggedy. I'm thinking what am I doing? I shouldn't be associating Dova with these (literally) poor girls!! I should move away from this rack immediately!! But of course I couldn't resist the cheap price and got her 2 sets.

Speaking of those $2 clothes.. That was yet another classic Walmart experience. This was during lunchtime at my last job, where I had to meet Dova at 12:30pm. The lines are always long at Walmart, and I usually get into line by 12:15. This time, because I so carefully picked out a bunch of these $2 clothes in all different sizes, I ran about 5 minutes late. So I get into line, and immediately some lady comes from the side and cuts in front of me. OK, I let her go. But then the annoyances start. She keeps fidgeting around and keeps bumping into the front of my cart. She keeps shooting me these dirty looks, even though I am not moving my cart around and she is the one bumping into it. She picks out a gift card from the rack too, just to add time to her checkout. The cashier is totally clueless and slow and has to ask help on the gift card. Then he is done finally with her and moves on to me. Then the lady says, where's my receipt? The cashier insists that he gave it to her and it was probably in one of the bags. She checks ALL her bags and her purse but can't find it. He insists that he gave it to her. Meanwhile I'm checking my watch and it is already 12:30. Finally she leaves. At the end of my checkout, I go to swipe my card, but suddenly the receipt prints out before I even do it. I know immediately what happened. My order was tacked onto to the previous lady's card!! Now, here I was thinking, that would be just rewards for that lady being so annoying, but really I couldn't be that dishonest, so I say, that's not my receipt. The guy looks at it and sees that both orders are on it. The manager has to come over to figure out how to void my purchases off the other receipt and finally I say "I have an appointment, I have to go. Can I leave this here and buy it later?" As I walk away, totally late, I kick myself for not just taking the receipt and my merchandise, sticking it to that lady, and being done with the whole thing. What would you do? It was $28 worth of stuff. Anyway, the story has more!! I go back to the store after I see Dova (luckily, I was already in slacker mode at work) and go to the same clueless cashier and wait in line. He rings up all the items again and I go to take out my wallet and I realize that I left it in the car!! So I have to leave the stuff again and go get my wallet. It's like these clothes were just not meant to be bought by me!! Finally, I go back, luckily there was no line this time and I finally get to buy the stuff fair and square. Needless to say, I avoided this cashier like the plague after that.

I'm officially a soccer mom!!

Glowbones!!

We finally took out all the little round pieces for the Glowbones building set so Adam could make a real dinosaur. They had immediately been stashed away because of their perfect choking shape and size when we first received the gift last Christmas. We figured Dova was old enough to play with them with supervision. She listened well and did not put a single piece in her mouth. Just when we thought we were safe, today Adam put a piece of a plastic wrapper from a McDonald's toy in his mouth and started coughing on it!! It just goes to show that choking is still quite a hazard at any age.

Here's Adam jumping

This time we let Adam jump for about 3 hours straight.

Dova loves the trampoline!!

Mom has to hold on tightly to her crazy jumping baby.

The perfect walk

This draft is almost exactly a year old (started 9/14/2004), so it's about time I wrote it. I miss my "work at home" days from my old job, especially walks with Dova. Back then, I was still listening to music and free Audible stuff on my Palm. I had tried using a MP3 CD player, but it skipped if I put it on the stroller tray or strapped it to my waist. The only way it worked was hanging from my forearms, not very comfortable. Good thing I finally got with the times and got the iPod!! Anyway, back to my perfect walk.

September days have the most beautiful weather, cool, sunny, and dry. After a sneezy spring and a hot and humid summer, September always feels good, even though the temperature change always makes me think about the winter to come. And sometimes when I'm walking, I happen upon the perfect song, this time it was India.Arie's Wonderful (Stevie Wonder Dedication). For whatever reason, when the perfect song comes on, I always lift my head up to the sky and see the towering pines 70 feet in the air. I don't know what it is about looking up to the sky when feeling exalted, but every time, I catch myself doing it. I try to take in the moment fully, breathe in the life-bearing air, and be one with the universe.

2/20/06 - OK, here is a picture of this neighborhood in February.