The Joys of Shopping

Today we set out right after breakfast with one goal in mind....a pair of shoes and a few new clothes for each of my big school age boys. My neighbor and dear friend Teresa has always been wonderful and handed down clothes from her son, so we don't need a lot, it's just so they can each have something new that they get to pick out for school. Sounds easy right?
When does it happen that what Mom picks out is not what they would like? And what evil marketing genius at Kohls came up with the idea to attach games and toys to clothes? Each of those shirts cost three times as much and involves me saying no to approximately 100 of them.
I saw another Mom with three small boys. She was doing the countdown for one named Zachary...."Come back to the cart, ONE, TWO, THREE." I made sure I wasn't looking into a mirror. I had to approach her and tell her I too had three boys and one was Zach. She looked at me in sympathy and said, "Some days, I don't know why I leave the house".
So see, it could be worse. I was still glad I had left the house.
The shoes were awful. I had picked up two pairs after book club the other night. Zach loved his light up blue and white flashy Spider Man shoes with a deep passion. Of course, they were too small. Jake's camouflage tennies fit, but even though he was unfailingly polite, I could tell he didn't like them. So the quest to exchange both pairs was on. I called every Target in the area - no one had the right size of Zach's, till the Rogers store. I read the exact numbers off the box and described them in detail - YES! She even put them on hold for me at the service counter. How easy can this be? Well, turns out they were the wrong shoes in the wrong color - hmmm. So Zach is devastated and insisting he will wear the too small shoes all year. Sorry, honey, but no. Jake chooses different shoes, but Max is done shopping at this point and about to melt down so we buy them without trying them on. Of course when we get home these are too small. So the quest shall continue another day....