Pulling my hair out and blushing as I do.

Having children offers one a plethora of opportunites to build strength of character. We started the day by driving over to Carolyn's house so that we could run errands together, thinking that it would be easier and more fun if we could share the responsibilities of herding children while in public. We went to Deseret Book to pick up a few things and the kids LOVED it! It was like watching a couple of monkeys who have never seen anything except the jungle for their whole lives. They ran through the store and touched EVERYTHING!!! I finally paid for my item and took all of the kids to the car while Carolyn finished her shopping. Next we went to Wal-Mart to get some groceries - just a couple of items. The kids were excited because I actually let them hang onto the side of the cart and ride around that way. I told them that if they could act like big kids who are polite they wouldn't have to have the humilliation of riding IN the cart. It worked great until we got to the checkout. I've decided that the executives of ALL grocery stores are just plain evil. What child can resist the rack that sits next to the cash register full of candy. Chocolate, taffy, gum and other sweets are just sitting there drawing kids to then like a moth to the flame. They know that some mother is going to cave and give their kid the stupid pack of M&M's just to make the tantrum stop. Not today! I stuck to my guns and told Abbey that it wasn't going to happen. She then started whining, which escalated into screaming and, finally, into me pulling her up into the cart and sitting her little rear end inside. She covered her eyes with her hands and cried the whole way out of the store. *sigh*
As if we hadn't punished ourselves or the children enough, we then decided that we wanted to go to a little home decore store named Graples. Please know that I LOVE this store. I get into trouble when I go to this store because I always find something that I can't live without. It's hard to explain to Jeff my feelings of complete love for the items that I find while there. He just doesn't get it. Anyway, we went into Graples and before we went in I explained the rules for shopping, again, and told them that there was no touching of ANYTHING in the store and they were to hang onto my hands the entire time we were there. They complied with my request for about 10 minutes. It's a record for them, really. I ended up putting Abbey up onto my shoulders and we walked out to wait in the car for Carolyn again. The end of this round was finally over! We took Carolyn and Savannah home and then headed to our own place to make lunch and have some quiet time.
Tonight I set myself up again. I hosted a party for some food items almost 2 weeks ago and the items came today. I loaded the kids into the car and we headed out after we ate dinner. The kids stayed in the car as we drove from house to house delivering our goodies. They did great! They sang songs and played games and didn't even fight very much. Until we got to the last house. We had to drive to Middleton to deliver something to a friend there and, as we were pulling up to the house, Ian says, "Mom!!! I have to go potty NOW!" He then grabs himself and starts the most interesting dance I've seen in quite awhile. We frantically called Jeff's cousin, Carmen, who lived near by and asked if we could make an emergency stop. She was happy to let us come by and so we ended up there for a few minutes. Oh what a few minutes can do to your nerves! They got into her movies, played with her exercise equipment, played with her antique piano and even asked her if they could share her dinner. *double sigh* She's pretty laid back and I don't think she was nearly as bothered by their insanity as I was but I was glad when it was time to load them up. We ended up talking for a few minutes outside and when I looked over at the kids to see what they were doing I saw Abbey on the ground rolling down the driveway. We quickly loaded the kids into the van and came home. Thank goodness that it was then bedtime...we all needed the rest.