First...before I get to the Target story, I wanted to post an update on my dad. He is currently being treated for cancer with Provenge, which is a vaccine made from his own blood cells to try to get his body to fight his cancer cells. He did very well with the first treatment but had a second one on Friday and had a bad reaction. He has been unable to eat for three days and is very sick. He ended up back in ER the next day for pain. Then today, he was back in ER for some other complications with his catheter--and they found an infection. He had a meeting with his oncologist today and was told that his cancer is in his bladder and is 'advancing.' Also...last Wednesday, my mom fell and hurt her arm--the same one she broke last year. The ER doctor said it was broken, but today her surgeon said that it wasn't--just a very bad bruise. So we are thankful for that.
I'm posting the Target story because my parents love to hear stories about their grandchildren and I thought this might put a smile on their faces. They've had a tough week.
The kids didn't have school today because of Veteran's Day. It was my intention to sneak out to Target this afternoon to pick up a few necessities.
Why do I over-estimate my own abilities to fake the kids out? WHY?
Of course, I didn't get out of the driveway with less than two kids. The little ones normally do not get to go to the store, for obvious reasons.
But there they were, chirping happily in the backseat, unable to contain their excitement at their good fortune.
When we arrived, I decided to treat myself to Starbucks. Coffee isn't for kids, so why would they want any? Right?
I forgot that Starbucks puts juice boxes at the eye level of small children. How devious.
Soon, two sets of pleading eyes were looking up at me.
Sigh.
Foolishly, I asked if they would rather have hot chocolate.
Kate is fashionable enough to carefully weigh the pros and cons--and swiftly decided that she wanted the apple juice to save her shirt from a possible spill.
Jake, on the other hand, has no such worries. He wanted the hot chocolate.
The person who took our order promised the drink would be made cooler than normal.
The person who made it had no idea of what had been promised and produced a boiling hot drink.
So we put it in our cart...in the spot where a child can sit, waiting for it to cool off.
We scooted merrily around the store, picking up our purchases. The kids talked non-stop and kept deviating off course and toward any bright, shiny item that caught their eye.
Kate, who loves to talk, informed me that she was very chit-chatty.
I agreed.
We admired the pillows, the candles, the knick-knacks. And then, I looked down.
To my horror, I saw that the hot chocolate had tipped over and was literally POURING in a stream down the side of the cart and onto the floor.
Could I skulk away without notice?
I rolled the cart forward and realized that with every inch we traveled, there were tell-tale drips on the floor. The wheel was also coated and leaving behind a nice tire track.
I rolled the cart forward again...uncertain. What should I do?
I had one crummy kleenex in my purse. It didn't sop up much.
Certainly not enough soppage to hide our trail of guilt.
By then, we were getting some stares from other patrons. Ack.
"Hide me!" Or let me disappear into the floor.
It's pretty much impossible to hide a huge hot chocolate spill on white tile.
And there we were, standing near it with brown liquid still dripping from our cart.
It's also nearly impossible not to draw attention to yourself when two six year olds are asking loud questions like, "What it my fault?" "What are we going to do?" "Mommy, der's still a big mess on da floor."
Finally, a Target employee happened nearby and I went over and told her that we were the obnoxious people who had left a bit of spillage.
She graciously went to get the necessary items to clean it. I eventually was given some paper towel to clean our cart, and the incident came to an end.
As we were exiting the area, the employee kindly said, "You can go back to Starbucks and tell them you spilled your drink. They will give you a new one."
Well...that is really nice of Starbucks, but I had a sneaking feeling that if Jake entered the minivan with a full cup of hot chocolate, I would be cleaning another spill when I got home.
He drank what was left in his cup without complaint...and all was right with his world.
