Hello Everyone!
It’s been another blog-filled day! Michaela and I pulled into the garage with the rolling grape oozing with junk food. Ken met us at the car to help us out, and with his super sweet and cheery voice he said, “Well, how was your afternoon?” I looked at him with my eyes glazed over and said ”Ken, I just spent four hours grocery shopping with two cripple people and a Mom with an injured foot, need I say more?” Let’s just say it was a shopping trip I won’t soon forget.
My Mom injured her foot a few weeks ago, and she needed someone to take her grocery shopping. Have you ever gone grocery shopping with a wandering Mom and a daughter with a power wheelchair? Let me tell you, it’s like spending four hours trying to herd cats. Every time I managed to gather them both up, something would catch their eye and off they would go. Thank goodness for cell phones, or I’m sure I would have lost them forever.
Mom had a very long list of things to buy, and we needed nothing. However, NOTHING is NOT what we bought. Michaela and I broke the most important rule of grocery shopping…NEVER GO GROCERY SHOPPING WHEN YOU ARE HUNGRY. We were both a bit hungry, and everything on the shelves looked so good to us. As my Mom hobbled along gathering meat and vegetables, Michaela and I zoomed along in our stylish power chairs grabbing only the things that looked particularly tasty…you know, things like ice cream, cookies, candy, pizza, and the list goes on and on. We even bought the dog some goodies.
As we were zooming along in junk food land, Michaela decided she wanted me to stop by Taco Bell on the way home to buy her some nachos and cheese. I gathered the small amount of patience I had left for the day and replied to her with a soft and happy voice, “Michaela, we have a grocery cart full of junk food and frozen ice cream, we are not going to stop by Taco Bell.”
Well, do you think that was the reply she wanted to hear? I think not. “Mommy….Taco Bell,” she repeated again. “No, Michaela, no Taco Bell,” I replied. Well, for the next several aisles, all I heard was this sweet little voice behind me…”Mommy, I want nachos, Mommy I want nachos, Mommy I want nachos….” “No, No, No,” I replied. “Mommy, I want nachos…Mommy…....oh....look at this adorable Teddy Bear!…Can I have it? I’ll pay for it,” she said with delight. “Ah, why, yes…yes, you can… IF you promise not to ask me to stop by Taco Bell again,” I said with a commanding dwarf-like mom voice. “Oh, I promise Mom!” she squealed. She grabbed the big squishy cuddly blue thing and gave it a big ol’ hug. Finally peace and quiet. Well, that lasted about two aisles when I heard, “Mommy, can I have Taco Bell?” again. Well, my patience had grown weary by this time, and I took the little sweet cuddly Teddy by the neck and said, “Michaela, I’m gonna put Teddy up here on the shelf with the canned vegetables if you ask me one more time!” Ah, quiet once again.
All of a sudden my Mom comes limping around the corner with her basket and in a frantic voice she exclaims ”Help me find the tooth soakers!” “Tooth soakers? What in the heck is that?” I said. “You know, tooth soakers!” she replied in dismay. After several minutes of looking down the toothpaste aisle, I finally figured out she was looking for Polident! You know, I think older people just like to confuse us, just so we don’t realize they are the ones who are confused!
Just a few minutes later what to my wondering eyes did appear?…The checkout counter! Oh, what a beautiful sight! Finally, our shopping adventure is complete….or so I thought.
My poor Mom started unloading the groceries…one at a time, upon the conveyor belt. It was a tedious and long process because she was having difficulty managing with one foot. I was not any help at all, because I knew if I tried to help, I would end up head first in the grocery basket with my feet sticking up in the air. The line behind us grew longer and longer. Not because it was taking us so long, but also because the other customers were laughing and finding us amusing.
As soon as Mom finished loading her groceries on the checkout counter, she started loading ours. When Michaela saw her cute little cuddly Teddy bear headed down the conveyor belt… she knew he was “officially” hers…And guess what she blurted out? You guessed it…”Mommy, can I have Taco Bell?” Augh!!!!!!!!!!!!!
After Mom was all checked out, she looked at the cashier and said “How much is hers?” The teller looked at Mom with confusion and said, “I don’t know Ma’am, I haven’t checked out her groceries yet.” I looked at the lady waved my hands over the groceries and said, “Well, why don’t you just take an estimate and that will be good enough.” I guess that is not their policy.
Well, there was one more problem I hadn’t yet thought about….How were we going to get two carts of groceries in my little rolling grape with three people and two power chairs? My first thought was…why don’t I just leave Michaela there, that would solve the Taco Bell problem...but she didn’t like that idea too much. So, I looked at the bag boy and said, ”Do you have any bungie cords? Maybe we can tie some of these bags to the luggage racks.” But he didn’t like that idea. I’m sure he looked at my rusty old car and realized he wasn’t going to get a tip big enough to warrant that much effort.
So after we loaded Michaela and Mom into the car, the bag boy stacked and stacked and stacked the groceries until he could stack no more.
The final step was to fold the wheelchair ramp up. As it closed we heard squish, crinkle, snap, smunch as it pushed the groceries in as far as they would go. We looked at each other, smiled, and had a good laugh!
Just another ordinary day!
Love,
Missy
