Blast from the past

Yesterday I was talking to a friend of mine. She is recently starting to blog, and asked me if I wanted to see her blog. As we were looking at it, I admired the very cool play on words but still spiritual, title to her blog. I laughed and said, that my blog title really did have a meaning and I gave her the short version of my "How Did I Get Here" classic Costco story. She suggested that I repost it. So in honor of L, here it is...

Friday, February 1, 2008
How did I get here...It is a question I sometimes ask myself. Yesterday was a classic "How did I get here?" moment.

Costco, the epitome of shopping. Unfortunately for me, Costco is a mere 2 miles away. I go way too often. Anyway, yesterday was the first time I took all 4 kids to Costco. Blake was my "list guy", he kept reading me the shopping list, while Bryce and Marlie grabbed the stuff and tossed it all in the cart. Mason was totally zonked in the sling. My cart was super full, and I mean crazy super full. So get to the checkout lane and, ummm wow, I spent over $200? Ack, ok, now not all of what I bought will fit back into my one cart, so they go get me another one. By this time my back is hurting from carrying Mason in the sling for so long. He's all slumped up in a ball, still sleeping, and the weight is killing me. There's no way I can push one cart and pull the other, so Bryce offers to push one.

So off we go toward the parking lot. The Sprite Blake and Marlie drank while we were at the food court is starting to kick in and they are literally pinging off the two carts. I'm trying to get everyone thru the Costco parking lot without getting run over (people drive so fast thru there!). Of course I had to park crazy far away, up a bit of an incline. Blake is still zipping around high on Sprite, and Bryce snaps at him, something about calming down. Now we've had issues with Bryce trying to "be in charge" of Blake, so instead of a gentle reminder (I'm the mom, you're the brother blah blah blah), I spout off, "Bryce stop acting like an adult". Nice huh?

Just then I can't possibly push my cart anymore and have to stop for a second. I turned around to see 2 little old ladies following right after my parade, with their carts. They both frown at me, then try to get around all of us. I apologize for blocking the way, but I simply can't push the cart any further. The baby starts waking up and Blake and Marlie are still acting like a bunch of fruitcakes high on Sprite. And here I am, stuck in the middle of the Costco parking lot with my crying baby, bossy 11 year old, the fruitcake twins and 2 carts thinking, "How did I get here?? How exactly did I get to this point in my life?"

I have no answers, just a picture of the bossy 11 year old and the crying baby, when they aren't being bossy and crying :-)

Awww aren't they cute? Bryce is 14 now, and Mason is 2 years 10 months. I'd like to say that things have calmed down and I don't have any "How Did I Get Here" moments, but ha, no such luck. I probably have more now than ever before...