Day 11: Mall shopping on Saturday...

I am so glad that I live someplace where there are plenty of places to buy what we need. Growing up we had to travel to Butte just to go to Walmart, and it seemed like it was so great to shop there. Of course now I'm older and wiser, and I hate Walmart. The Walmart in Billings seems to be the mecca for all to gather from eastern Montana and Wyoming. Why go anywhere else, you can get groceries, electronics, books, pretty much whatever you need at low low prices. That is if you can find what you need. See being the center of the universe around here has it's pitfalls. You have to get up pretty early in the morning (literally) if you want to get high demand items, and if you don't want to fight the crowds... It's not fun, I go there and I swear alot, I feel like I'm always in someone's way, and saying excuse me often gets met with dirty looks. Not to mention the fact that it's Billings, and healthy is a four letter word. I have no place to buy a lot of the specialty items that I used to get without any problem in Missoula. But I suppose the only way to make any of this better is to change how I do things, because I certainly can't expect an entire city to change for me. I went to 3 stores today and couldn't find green curry paste... sigh, I need to rethink the soup I'm making I guess...
Anyway back to shopping on Saturdays. Santa brought the big boys gift cards to Build a Bear Workshop, and I have been waiting to go until the christmas crowd died down, I figured today would be safe. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha.... phew... oh geez. I picked up one of Wyatt's buddies and we went down to the mall. The mall was a mad house, honestly I don't know what I was thinking. It's the beginning of the month, and there were wall-to-wall travelers, and the place to be today was Build a Bear! Do you know they host birthday parties? I do now!!! And those poor employees have to sing just like they do at chain restaurants. I didn't see a single parent at the party either, it's like they dumped the kids off and let the employees babysit while they went to Victoria's Secret then stopped off for a nice Cinnabon. So all the boys picked their animals, and got them filled. Wyatt and his friend were first, and the girl filling them didn't even say hi. I understand it was busy, I've been there, it's frustrating, but she really wasn't very nice, but I was the only one that noticed, the boys didn't care all that much. She finished Wyatt's, and another employee came to "relieve" her, for what I can only assume was a much needed attitude adjustment. The new employee was wonderful, she talked to the boys, and played with them, and made it the experience that one would hope it could be. We then went and picked out clothes, Wyatt and his friend got army fatigues (puzzled about that one, but it's cool!) and Ebin and Logan got football uniforms. They are really cute, and all in all it was pretty good. The most amazing thing about the whole experience is that the boys were all so well behaved! I realize my kids are cool, but sometimes these public situations are not so sunny. They really made me feel good about taking them to do things like this. They got along so well, and I'm really proud!!!

Tomorrow!!! Big Day!!! Oh I'm ready! I hope you are too, it's going to be so fun just to watch the game with the kids! Go Green Bay!!! That means I'm going to have to spend my morning getting all my chores out of the way, and deciding what the heck to make for food! I want it to be one that that boys will always remember, I wish John could be here for it, but I guess we will just have to make due! And I have to exercise, really all I did today was walk the mall, so I feel like I totally wasted my day, but in reality I suppose it was pretty good! I didn't even eat a pretzel today when I got them for the boys, and that's really an achievment!!! So off to get ready for bed and get a good night's sleep so that tomorrow can be the best superbowl ever!!!!