A very scary halloween story!

Sometimes I wonder if I really bring on a lot of my frustrations myself. I don't know HOW, but it seems like, with me, the tiniest little errand turns into a figurative 10 car pile up.

We will start with Halloween. My mom was keeping Colby on Halloween, and she brought him to my office at 4:00 so that we could start getting him and Elizabeth ready. (I picked her up at school.) She brought them both a Happy Meal (yes, I know - they are evil. But we ordered milk instead of cokes so it's all good.) Colby was in one of his moods where he wanted to climb on the table and lay in the burger chunks instead of sitting like a human and eating them. My mom was getting frustrated, and I couldn't help much because I was technically still on the clock. (Our wonder-secretary called in, or this would not have been an issue.) I finally had the bright idea of getting the stroller out of the car and buckling him in it, therefore halting the burger bath.

I get out to the car... no stroller. WTH!! The stroller STAYS in the durango, because I use it so much. I call Marty and ask him where the stroller is. "It's on the porch."

"And it would be there... why??"

"Honey, I asked you last night if you needed the stroller and you said no, so I took it out."

Dammit!! Yes, he did say, "Honey, do you need this stroller?" and I, sitting there in my pajamas watching Desperate Housewives with my hair wet and both kids asleep, was thinking, "Why in the hell would i need the damn stroller??" Of course, all I said was, "No."

He took that apparently to mean, "I am never going to need the stroller again, please place it far back on the front porch where I can't see it."

Well, we trick or treat at a college here in Arkadelphia, and it is always a madhouse, with hundreds of kids in line for hours. There was no way that we could carry Colby for that long. Especially considering he does not LIKE to be carried. He LIKES to be put down to crawl off and search for adventure. And eat bugs.

Plus, my house is 20 minutes away. No time to go home to get the stroller. I told my mom, "No big deal! I will run to Walmart and get one of those pop up umbrella strollers that are like $8. I could probably use a spare, anyway."

So I run to walmart to get a stroller. They only had two, a reddish one and a winnie the pooh one. I grabbed the red one, and headed for the front.

I found one line that had only one little old lady in it, and she didn't have a ton of groceries. The checker was pretty busy chatting with another checker and after the little old lady paid and thanked her and headed for the doors, the checker finally clued in that she had not put any of the groceries in the womans basket.

Instead of chasing after her, she just got all the bags off the carousel and put them behind her. I am thinking, "WHAT THE CRAP!! So THIS is why walmart put the new carousel bag thingies in!! To make more money!!" And I told the girl to just wait a minute, and I ran after the lady, and told her she had left some groceries. Easy solution. She came back and got her groceried and i paid for my stroller and left the store.

So, did I mention that it was pouring down rain? Well it was. So we haul the kids down to the college and we get the new stroller out of the car, and Colby the Ticked Off Lion out of the car, and put Colby in the brand new stroller and start to push it... and it doesn't move. Why?

NO FRONT WHEELS!!

So, we have to push him all night in a stroller with 2 wheels. Not only that, because of the rain, Henderson had a record number of trick-or-treaters. It was a literal crush of people, and the line was about an hour long. Were it not for Elizabeth, we would have went straight home, but she looks so forward to this every year.

And off topic a bit! There was one door that was not secure in the Garrison Center, and there were PARENTS that were sneaking their kids in there, bypassing the 1 hour wait. That just made me insane. There was a group that tried to cut in between me and the lady in front of me, and she turned around and said "Don't you EVEN think about cutting in line here! We have been in line with our whiney ass children for an hour and I will be DANGED if you are getting in near me!!" My sentiments exactly.

So we get home with our candy horde and all go to bed and all is well.

The next day, I take the stroller back to walmart. The lady gives me lip because the wheels are dirty. I told her that yes, the wheels are dirty, I bought a stroller that I needed, and had to use it even though it was faulty. And now I am returning it, with my receipt dated yesterday, for my "unconditional money back guarantee" that walmart is so proud of advertising.

Then, yesterday Marty took Colby to walmart for groceries while I was at work, and right before I left the office, he called.

"You are going to have to run back to walmart."

Please not that. I can't take it anymore!!

"Why??? WHY???"

Marty is boiling mad. "Because I was checking out, and your son was pitching a fit and I didn't notice until just now that none of our meat got put in the basket." That would be 5 pounds ground chuck, a pound of bacon, a package of turkey, and a package of crab.

Damn the carousel. And damn Walmart.