Lucky pennies are debatable

Yesterday was the first official day of summer vacation for my kids. For me, as ALL you stay at home parents know, every day is a vacation. ::snort::

Sara was pretty much done with kindergarten after the graduation hoopla around 9:30 on Tuesday and while Tucker was stuck in school for a full day on Tuesday, he was out two hours early on Wednesday.

To my great and thankful surprise, neither child woke at the zero dark thirty. I woke up around 7:30, and the kids were up within 15 minutes after that. That totally works for me. Anything after 7 is heaven - being that I'm as much of a morning person as say...oh, a vampire.

I left this week pretty much open as far as planning anything was concerned. Next week we are going to be crazy busy, so I'd hate for my kids to forget what bored feels like. HA!

We did have a doctor's appointment for Tucker at 10:30. Somehow, he developed a nasty infection around his right middle fingernail and I really didn't want it to spread any further or end up with the fingernail having to be removed. That happened to Robert around Christmas last year and it looked painful and gross.

The morning passed quickly but pretty well. The kids were excited to not be in school so they played really well together and we all hung around in PJ's until it was time to get ready to go. Which, may I just add, I'm impressed to share that they had that rare morning of not having to be asked twice to do anything nor did they complain about what we had to do.

I knew we were going to have to fill out a ton of paperwork for the new doctor's office, so we showed up about 25 minutes early.  Between my having to flip through eight years of Tucker's medical records and what seemed like a really busy day, by the time we got back into the PA's exam room, it was close to 11. No big deal, I was as much to blame for that as anyone. ::Note to self..when not on a military base, have the kids socials with you at doctor and dental appointments::

Things went great with the exam, we all liked the PA and the office staff and we were out of there in no time with a prescription for an antibiotic.

In the exam room, I noticed two pennies just sitting on the couch with heads up but I didn't pick them up. I figured I'd leave them for someone who was having a much rougher day than we were.

Our next stop was the drug store to fill the prescription. I got out of the car and saw yet another penny on the ground, heads up, all shiny and pretty. I picked it up on a whim, thinking if this was the third penny I'd seen within an hour, maybe I should pay attention.

We drop off our prescription, run into my neighbor and chat for a while. The kids were behaving wonderfully in the store, not being wild or asking for a bunch of stuff. Once we got the amoxicillin, off we went. Our next planned stop was the grocery store because they have this amazing salad bar plus I needed a few things.

To my complete and utter amazement, Sara decided she wanted salad for lunch and Tucker decided he wanted fruit. ::happy dance for voluntary healthy eating::

I fixed my salad, Sara fixed hers, Tucker filled his fruit container and then I went to get some soup. Sara decided she would like some fruit too, so I stopped what I was doing and helped her get fruit. The kids were waiting on me to finish up and Sara accidentally dropped her fruit container, which burst open and fruit went everywhere. So we all quickly picked up the spilled fruit and threw it away. We got her more fruit and headed to the checkout line. I was trying to carry two salad containers, my keys and wallet, a very, very hot container of soup, and a large cup of iced tea. How I didn't drop something, I will never know.

The store was super busy so I decided against grocery buying and we headed to the self checkout area since that was the only place without a line. I had to enter a code for every item (frustrating) and the self checkout would give me an error message if I tried to put both fruit containers or both salad containers on the scale at the same time, so it was taking me longer than I felt it should go pay and go.

Sigh.

I look up and see a lady standing about 10 feet behind me with a couple of packages in her hand. An older gentleman was approaching her in one of the store versions of a hover round. Instead of steering slightly to the left or right, and I do mean slightly, he gets within six inches of her and barks, "ARE YOU WAITING IN LINE OR JUST STANDING THERE?!?!?" The poor lady, the kids, and I were all startled at the volume and tone of his voice. She replies nicely that she's in line, but trying to give us some space. Awww, thanks kind stranger!

Instead of just going about his business, Sir Grumperton McHatefulpants starts grouching at her about blocking the aisle and how inconsiderate she is and a bunch of other stuff that made me say, "Wow." Then he  sits there and glares at her until she takes a giant step back so he can continue on this way without having to change direction in the slightest.

image from http://www.zazzle.co.uk/grumpy+old+man+art

I feel badly for this lady and I catch her eye and say, "Sorry!" to which she snaps, "What are YOU sorry about?"

Um, well, now I'm not sorry about anything. Sheesh.

I finish as quickly as I can and we get out of there. I try not to let our less than optimal grocery experience make ME grouchy even though the kids are swinging the bag with the fruit in it around like it's a carnival ride. I'm trying not to spill the soup, which is still scalding hot and appears to be actually melting the lid I put on it, while holding my cup, trying to hang onto my wallet and untangle my keys from around my fingers as Sara yanks on the door handle and starts shouting for me to 'LET ME INNNNNNNNNNN RIGHT NOOOOOOWWWWWWWWW!'

I finally get the doors unlocked and everything in the car and home we go. The kids immediately jump out and head inside and I'm all - 'HEY! You guys need to grab all your stuff from the back seat, please!'

Grumbling they come back and get the items they brought into the car, plus their fruit. That leaves me with hot soup, cold sweating drink, two salad containers, keys, phone, wallet, medical records, medication, purse, and plastic eating utensils.

But I make it upstairs without dropping or breaking anything, so that's good. I want Tucker to take his medication before he eats and open up the prescription bag to discover the pharmacist forgot to mix up the amoxicillin powder.

Ugh. Really not wanting to go back out after the last 15 minutes.

So we sit down to eat our $20 worth of healthy food. Tucker takes a few bites of fruit and says, "I'm full."  Uh huh. I bet. I ask him what he's going to do with the rest of the fruit. "Throw it away...." Um, no. It's $5 a pound and that container was packed full - which is what I tell him. He gets teary eyed and admits that he doesn't like it because all the flavors are all mixed together. I resist the urge to talk about kids who scrounge food from dumpsters to survive or who are happy to get a cup of non rotten rice a day. Instead I ask him to come up with a solution  - which he does - and he rinses the fruit off in the sink and sorts the fruit into separate small bowls.

Sara, to my great and utter surprise, eats her salad and her fruit and then hugs me and says thank you.

Huh.

Didn't see that coming.

My salad ended up having slimy peas and my soup was burned. Bummer.

So, after we ate and cleaned up, we went back to the pharmacy and got Tucker's medication fixed and stayed in for the rest of the day. I'm thinking that I'll share that lucky penny with someone else the next time we go out. Too bad I can't pass it off to Sir Grumperton McHatefulpants.