Back To School? Really? Already??

So it's back to school time. As of today (Saturday) Emily has 11 days until the first day of 2nd grade! I can't believe the summer has gone so fast. Man, I'm really gonna miss her everyday while she's off getting an ejamacation! So, with back to school comes new clothes, new lunch boxes, backpacks and supplies. I bought all of that (and more) this weekend. I did it this weekend because my lovely state of Iowa does a "tax-free" weekend each year before school starts and this was the weekend (yesterday and today only, not sure why they don't do it on Sunday too). Not really sure how much I saved, probably not a whopper of an amount but if you're going to be buying the stuff anyway, why not save a few pennies, right?

So on Friday I went with my sister to the Wals-Mart. Wait, first we ate lunch at the fly-infested Wendy's, THEN we went to Wals-Mart. Let's just say it will be a very, very..........VERY long time before I go back to that Wendy's. How gross. We could hardly eat because the flies were about to carry us out the door. Then, as if my dining experience weren't pleasant enough, Blake had to go potty so when I took him in there he went in the stall, shut the door and as I admired myself in the mirror I heard something wet hitting the floor. I looked down and saw pee splashing. When I opened the door there sat Blake. While he WAS on the toilet, his junk was very much OUTSIDE of the toilet. Nothing was hanging down if you get my drift. He sat there watching himself pee over to the side and had this look on his face of horror and not knowing what to do to correct the situation. By this time it was pretty much all over with.

"I peed." he said.
"Yeah, buddy. I see that. Let's just get out of here."

I pulled up his pants and darted out of there. Sorry to the Wendy's employee that had to clean up the floor but I imagine if you don't seem to mind working in a fly infested restaurant, you wont so much mind cleaning up pee, making it's way to the drain.

So Wal-Mart. The working mom's friend. I decided we should hit up the school supplies first since I figured it would be the most packed. I'd rather battle the other 127 moms crammed into two aisles while I'm still fresh, not tired and cranky. Emily's school supply list wasn't bad this year. All of the typical things. Spiral notebooks, crayons, folders, etc. I learned when Emily was in Kindergarten to buy more than what is needed on the list. Why? Because when they run out and the teacher sends a note home, "Emily needs a new blue folder. Emily needs a red crayon." Then you have it and you've spent $0.13 for it. Instead of going to the store to buy one in MARCH when they are $1.47 a box and all you need is that ONE STUPID RED CRAYON. While I was in the aisle with the notebooks and folders I heard one mom asking where the single subject spiral notebooks were. Another mom said, "They're out there in the center aisle for five cents." My ears perked up. I grabbed the folders I needed and headed out. Someone said they saw a sign that said "Limit 24". Emily needed 2. I bought 23. I thought I grabbed 24 but oh well. I think we'll have plenty. Emily also found a bunch of cute backpacks for $5. I had her pick out two. Why two? Because they're cheap, and by that I more mean cheaply made. You know how kids are. They drag their bags everywhere. By Christmas time there's a big hole in the bottom and pencils are falling out. Again, this way I'm prepared. You wont see me at Wal-Mart in five months: A) Trying to FIND backpacks in the store in January and B) Paying $13.47 for the same stupid bag I could have gotten for $5. After we had all of our supplies (including a $5 Batman backpack for Blakey because he might be heading off to preschool this fall--more on that later) we headed to the clothes.

Let me just pause for a moment and say something to the purchasers for Wal-Mart. STOP BUYING HANNAH MONTANA SHIT!!!! I'm so fucking serious! Give me a damn break already! Emily is not (thank god) into Hannah Montana. She could care less about the bitch. She does not need a Hanna Montana shirt, Hanna Montana jeans, a matching Hanna Montana hat with co-ordinating socks! I saw an ENTIRE ROUNDER RACK full of t-shirts marked $3. I went over there and EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM was Hanna Montana. Wow--selling pretty good I see! Anyway, we did find a few things, a couple pairs of shorts (one for gym class--can you believe they change clothes in 2nd grade??) some shirts, socks, a whole lotta shoes, a pair of pants and we were done!

Today I hit up Target. I still needed a 4-pack of dry erase markers off the supply list and I wanted to pick up a couple more pairs of pants for Em and maybe a cardigan or jacket. I found this dress:



How cute is that? I bought a pair of black leggings for her to wear under it. I wanted to find a pair of black flats to go with it but couldn't. I also picked up a striped polo dress, some pants and an awesome robot hoodie for Blake.

Strolling through the clearance stuff I got these for myself. They were $29.99 and I got them for $7.49:



These for Adam which were $34.99 marked down to $8.74:



And I got myself a very cute black leather purse which was $39.99 marked down to $9. Sorry, couldn't find a pic.

So I still left without the stupid dry erase markers. Target was out too but Emily's going to be one stylin' chick this year in 2nd grade!

Lisa Simpson: Jimbo made a couple of drawings of his house in the second grade, but I can't vouch for their accuracy. The teacher gave them a frowny face.