Shopping, Driving, and Salsa

My mom and I took the girls shopping on Saturday to get them a few new things for school, which starts a week from tomorrow. We drove to the ‘big’ city of Fort Wayne (because that’s where the closest mall is. Yes. We’re a forty-five minute drive from the nearest mall. Let that sink in.)

When we walked through the doors of Sears, Olivia gasped. “We’re at the mall?” She was so excited she couldn’t stand it. But she had to pee before she could really let herself take it all in.

Once she’d taken that restroom break, though, she was headed for the escalators. Because that’s what the mall is all about when you’re six. And to O’s delight, we rode the hell out of those escalators.

Between escalator rides, we also rode the double decker carousel. During one of these rides, I asked Olivia how great it was that she’s so big these days that she doesn’t need a stroller while at the mall. She grinned and said she loves being big. I love that she’s big too.

We also managed to buy clothes, shoes, socks and a gift for the ever lovely Julie.

Why did I buy a gift for Julie? Because the very next day (yesterday) A and O and I got in the car at 10:00am to drive down to Julie’s parent’s house where we surprised Julie with a party for celebrate a milestone birthday. The part started at 2:00pm. The girls and I arrived at 1:58pm. We did stop three times to use the restroom and buy some McD’s for the girls to have for lunch. But yes, in the end we were in the car for four hours each way to celebrate Julie’s birthday. And it was so worth it. The look on Julie’s face when she and her husband drove up the hill of her parents’ drive and saw so many of us there to celebrate with her was awesome.

Sometimes the laundry has to wait, the carpets have to go unvacuumed and Tom has to chop vegetables for salsa all by himself because birthdays are important and friends are even more important and when you’re invited to a surprise birthday party and you can make it happen, you should make it happen.

In all honesty, I think Tom was glad to get rid of us because he planned to can salsa, his second batch, yesterday and sometimes, the girls and I are more of hindrance than a help. When we rolled in at 9:00pm last night he was still blanching and peeling tomatoes. Poor fella was miserably elbows deep in tomato peels. Sadly, I still couldn’t help because there were girls to get into pajamas, books to be read and beds waiting for sleeping heads.

He looked pretty tired this morning when he announced that he finally finished the tomatoes at 2:15am. At the point, he’d decided that the actual canning of the salsa would take place today. Yes, today…while I’m at work. I’ll do almost anything to get out of canning green beans and/or salsa. I’m lucky to have that man. This I do know.

To give Tom a break, I offered to attend the kindergarten information meeting tonight at the school. I told Tom I’d fill in him on anything important. I think he’s glad to skip this one.

Hey, I guess that means we’re lucky to have each other, huh?