is anyone out there???

Make it go away

I've had enough, can it be over yet? I took the kids to the mall again, to try one more time for them to buy gifts for each other and their friends. We went yesterday and we made it through one store and left.

Today we went with a plan. We divided up, everyone had cell phones which they promised they had turned on and we got started. (I failed to specify to have their phones on ring instead of silent, my fault of course, when they didn't answer.) The lines were horrendous, I waited for twenty minutes to purchase one item, only to find myself in the exact same store, with another child waiting in the same line, only miraculously longer this time.

And if I felt like it had been a happy, bonding, memory making time with the kids, maybe it would've been worth it. Two of them had headaches and complained the whole time and the youngest wanted to stay and shop all day. So, not finishing our shopping again, we decided to leave. As if to add insult to injury, the line to exit the mall was backed up and we had to wait in line for twenty minutes just to leave.

I'm thinking homemade items for any remaining gifts the kids didn't buy---at least they aren't going to get ME to take them to the mall again. Macaroni necklaces, pretty pictures, painted rocks...doesn't that sound special?