An Unforgetable Shopping Trip

Today I believe surpassed any shopping trip we've ever had! Because of the bad weather we weren't able to get together with our friend Stef as planned and the kids were pretty bummed so I thought I would make a trip to get groceries and then stop at McD's for ice cream and play their computer games. Our actual shopping wasn't too bad. Once you get passed the fact of driving a gianormous cart (has a spot for the boys to sit and Addie fits in the baby part) around the store, Addie yelling (I should say screaming at her brothers) and old people staring at us. We checked out, gave the lady my keys to scan my bonus card, loaded up the groceries and went to leave. One problem- I couldn't find my keys. No worries, I thought, I just forgot to pick them up off the belt. Nope they weren't there. Ok, I'll double check my pockets. Nope, not there either. Hmmm, double check the purse- no luck.

So I did this process several times while I got some very odd stares from the clerk and the lady checking out who was behind me. Several times I heard the clerk say "I know I handed her the keys." Thanks, that's really not helping right now!!! Double checked with the boys (who were checking out the movies at the Red Box) if they saw my keys- no clue what I was talking about. So I think they've got to be in my purse. So I decide I've got to look close. On a closer look of my purse I realize there's no way I can dump it out because of all of the junk that's in my purse. I started checking the grocery bags, since I helped pack stuff up thinking maybe I dropped them in the bag. We're now going on at least 5 minutes of me looking for my keys, when a very sweet older woman starts trying to comfort me (I really wasn't too paniced just felt like I was losing my mind). She kept telling me to not feel bad she loses her keys all the time and I don't even have 3 little kids I'm watching. Once she got checked out, she starts checking my bags for me as I continue to try and secretly pull out all of the garbage from my purse. :) The whole time kept saying, "I don't me to be snooping in your bags, I just wish I could help you!" Very sweet and was helping me to laugh. Well she didn't have any luck and she finally gave up. I also hear another one of the clerks say around this point, I hope those boys aren't trying to play a game on her and hide the keys. So I call the boys over and pat them down to make sure they're not hiding the keys from me. No luck. So now I'm back to searching again. At this point Addie is starting to lose it, the boys were still pretty good. So now I'm down to one hand searching for the keys while one hand is holding Addie in the stroller because she's trying to climb out.

At around the 10 minute marker of looking for the keys, the store manager calls the guy at the security camera to look for the lady with the 3 kids and try and see if he could tell what I did with the keys. My first thought was boy, wouldn't it be nice to have someone at home watching and telling me where I set stuff! Then I started panicing thinkin that I did something stupid with the keys (which wouldn't surprise me) and this guy would point it out to everyone at the front of the store. So we wait several minutes for him to call, and we keep looking. The boys are starting to fuss because they can't go to McD's without the car keys. Addie is totally being a monkey in the cart. The phone rings- He says all that he can see is that the clerk handed me the keys! Ughhh!! Now I'm frustrated. It was 1:50ish and I knew Adam was still in class until 2:30. All I could envision was the 4 of us sitting on the bench in the front of the store waiting for Adam to come and it us because I had checked every pocket on me, all 3 kids, my purse, all the bags and the aisle that we checked out in!!!!!! The store manager was completely miffed at this point.

Her next suggestion- lets take everything out of your bags. So she starts taking all the groceries out and I realize I've got to dump everything in my purse just to make sure the keys aren't there. Let me tell ya- I had one of Addie's socks, at least 10 match box cars, an empty crayon box, reciepts, the boys wallets. You name it- I could have found it in my purse! Very embarassing!!!! Finally the guy from the security camera area came to where we were at and starts searching for the keys. And he was the one that saved our day! Here my keys had fallen down in between the belt thingy and the bumper railing that they have on the belt thing.

I was very relieved to have the keys, but even more relieved that I didn't do something to embarass myself more than I already did. It was 2:15 until I had the groceries and everyone loaded into the car!! What a trip to the store. :)