Where Was I?

Ahh...right, being taken over to the dark side. So it seems I have been converted by the men in my house. I actually asked, begged, Zach to go to the hardware store with me on Sunday.

This is how it happened: On Saturday afternoon Zach took Jacob to a college basketball game and I had two hours to myself. The first thing I did was go to the hardware store just down the road because I had a coupon for $10 off at True Value. This year we are going to get each other gifts; we figured Jacob would like to have something for each of us. We don't normally get each other gifts because we're so low-key about birthdays and Christmas. My plan was to get something Carthartt ('work' clothes) for Zach because he's obsessed with Carthartt clothes. He's always going there and getting something new that he doesn't need and I'm always yelling at him about it. Well we already have one little cute pair of Carhartt work pants for Jacob, and I know there's other kids' stuff too, but I wasn't prepared for the cuteness of it all. There were these little blue overalls that I decided Jacob just had to have but there weren't any in his size. I ended up leaving there with a few things, including matching hats for the boys because there was a sale on Carthartt just Saturday-Sunday.

I spent way too long in the hardware store just mental shopping and admiring all the tools. While I was perusing the aisles I heard a woman say to the guy she was with, "C'mon, I don't want to spend 4 hours in the hardware store!" I was suddenly struck with the reality of what I was doing. That lady had been me 3 1/2 years ago when I was pregnant with Jacob and we were moving into our house. And now I was there, by choice, using up most of my 2 hours of freedom in True Value! I guess that's what 3 years of being exposed to man stuff can do to a girl.

Later on I told Zach where I had been and that there was a sale on Carthartt and that we just had to go to the other True Value the next day to see if they had the overalls in Jacob's size, and since we had to spend a certain amount to benefit from the sale he should probably get something too. Zach probably thought he was either dreaming, or that I was testing him. When I got out of work on Sunday we met up at the other True Value and shopped away. I actually had a lot of fun hanging out there with Zach and Jacob. Welcome to the 'dark side'.

After True Value we went on to the mall for a little Christmas shopping. We have a couple big malls in the area, and the one that is the smaller of the two has recently been undergoing some renovations. It looks really nice inside now. They even have a new play area in the middle of the mall for the kids. I don't know if I wrote about it here when I first discovered the play area, but I do know I e-mailed my entire moms' group to rave about it. I'd heard of malls that had play areas like that, but had never actually been to one. And now we have one here! Woohoo! Well this trip to the mall I discovered something else new. There is now a family room right next to the rest rooms. I've seen family restrooms before, but this place gives a whole new meaning to the word restroom. It is an actual room with carpeting and everything. There are three wicked comfy gliders, with matching ottomans, a kid-sized wooden table with chairs that actually has three different puzzles on it, and a nice changing table (an actual table, not the plastic thing that folds out of the wall). And off of that room is the private bathroom so there's no need to hurry out of the family room incase other people are waiting. This is just the coolest thing to me. I was going on and on about it to Zach for at least 10 minutes. I even made him come back with me just to look at it. And I have to give him his due credit in saying that, without complaint or visible eye-rolling, he followed me back to indulge my family room high.

Oh, on the way to the mall Jacob told us this story: "Bob's Home Depot ran out of presents. I have to knock it down because it's crappy now. The planks are messed up." Where does he get this stuff?!

Later on I was waiting in line for something so Zach took Jacob out to the cozy new chairs in the center of the mall. I found them a few minutes later in the middle of a hilarious scene. If you could pick one moment to perfectly illustrate the American holiday season, this would be it: As I said, they've got these nice chairs to relax in, and they're placed in a semi-circle around a big TV. As I took my time approaching, the scene became apparent to me. There were half a dozen middle-aged men slumped in the chairs with tired, sour looks on their faces, which were mostly set atop the open palm of a hand, with their cheeks all smooshed up, eyes set on the TV. From the heaps at their feet, one could tell these men were clearly the 'bag carriers'; aka: Husbands. My guys looked so cute sitting there on the couch, so I settled in to watch some figure skating with them and enjoy the perfect moment. It was just such a great representation of what our lives are like; we find moments of peace in totally random places and circumstances, and we couldn't be happier about it because that is just our thing. So every couple minutes I'd see they guys all perk up and get excited, like when the nurse comes into the waiting room in the doctor's office and you think, "This could be it, it might be me this time!" I think they could sense that a Wife was coming, but as soon as she came into view, all but one of the guys would be left in their misery, eyes following the lucky one who had been called back to duty.

We eventually got on with our shopping and were getting ready to leave when we ran into - guess who - my sister! That's the third time in a month or so that I have run into my sister at that mall. The third time in four trips to the mall. She was with Marisa and her fiance, so Jacob and Marisa took off on a spree around the rack of kids' movies then settled at the keyboard with microphone, jammin' out the ABC's. When those two get together things just get crazy. Zach and Ward talked sports while Nicki and I took off into the kids' clothes section and everyone got a second wind. After that and with our tolerance threshold completely expired, we finally left the mall to head home.