Yo Quiero Taco Bell!

Seriously, Rick and I should have bought stock in Taco Bell back in the day.  We went there on Sunday… because it was FAST… it was on the way to the Olympic gold hockey game…. and it was the cheap price, of course.  I’m married to Mr. Wallet after all.  As we approached the little talking box, I already tallied the tacos, burritos with no onions and the cheesy fiesta potatoes for Rick to order, so I handed the list to him.  The ordering was painless.  The delivery was painful. 

Being wise to the ways of Taco Bell under-paid-I’m-sure employees, I ALWAYS know the number count of how many items we ordered.  This time was no different…. 17.  (We had an extra kid with us, ok!) The bags were handed over and whaddya know… I only counted 16 carefully wrapped bundles of pseudo Mexican goodness.  I recounted.  Nada.  So Rick asked, “What’s missing?”  At that point I acted all-knowing because frankly, I wasn’t going to get out my tally list and mark off each taco, onionless burrito and cheesy fiesta potato.  I replied, “A bean burrito is missing,” because as heartless as it may seem, I didn’t really care what was missing and I knew whoever was missing something would eat a bean burrito with no onions if he or she was truly hungry enough. Brutal, I know.

As the window technician was delivering the counting error to the cooks, I handed the “cheesy fiesta potatoes” to Larisa, who opened the lid to find beans and cheese.  WRONG AGAIN, AMIGO!  Rick handed it back to the drive-through wizard and asked for the potatoes. 

We eventually got 17 items.  I still don’t know if they were the 17 that we ordered…. and it was NOT fast food.  I’m sure the people in the car behind us started chewing their nails due to hunger pangs.

This whole Mexican food extravaganza reminded me a time in Portland, Oregon when Rick and I were in a large van with about 12 people.  Call us stupid, but we went to the drive through at Taco Bell.  We ordered one by one and when all was paid for and received, I think only about eight people actually received what they ordered.  But we all ate something with meat and cheese and tortillas, so it was all good.  I wondered why we even ordered individually.  We could have just said “Send out 24 items.  We’ll pay $25,”  and we would have saved the ordering time.

You think we would have caught on by now, but no!

All By Myself… don’t wanna be…

All by myself
Anymore

OK, it’s not true, but my kids think that I know a song for every occasion and I didn’t want to disappoint them.  Yes, I’m all by myself.  It wasn’t supposed to be like this, but ahhhhhhhh the feeling of no responsibility…. no children to feed…. no agenda… no guitar hero to listen to.  Mother’s truly enjoy the simple things in life. 

My husband went with our son Austin to the grade 5-6 trip to Disneyland.  They left today after church and get home on Tuesday night.  So it was supposed to be me, Larisa and Keeve.  Two hours before church we got the distress call that the nanny couldn’t go to Disneyland for the teacher’s two little girls, so Larisa was called in for Disneyland nanny duty.  (tough life)  So it was supposed to be me and Keeve.  But yesterday Keeve got invited to a Diamondback’s baseball game.. and for a sleepover… which turned into two sleepovers.  Whoooo Hooooo!

I’m sure you’re wondering WHAT does a mother do for 24 hours of alone time?  From church I went straight to Baja Fresh.  Nothing sings freedom like grilled mahi mahi tacos.  From there I drove to the Teacher’s Store because I had a coupon that expires today and there’s always things there that I need… like a planner for the Fall.  But, much to my sheer shock… the store is closed down!  The sign on the door said “Come visit our other stores in NM and UT.”  Whatever.

On to the 99 cent store.  (Where is the blasted cent sign on the keyboard?)  They have sunscreen so I was all about that stop.  Austin spent Friday on the lake and even though he looks like a lobster, I know he used up the entire tube of sunscreen that I sent.  You can’t beat $.99 for sunscreen.  And again, adding to my disappointment for the day… they no longer carry Sesame Oil!  Heaven forbid!  I’m going to have to pay Walmart prices now for sesame oil for Chinese Chicken Salad.  Bummer dude.

On to TJ Maxx.  This store was sadly unerstocked in every area I searched, with the exception of purses.  Their purses ROCK, but I couldn’t justify two purse purchases in the same month.  (But it’s June tomorrow!)

On to Marshall’s.  Rock on at Marshall’s.  I FOUND ZAZA’S PURPLE BUTTERFLY BEDDING….. ON CLEARANCE!  If that isn’t a miracle I don’t know what is!  Marked down from $75 to $36.  It was truly a sign from on high that she is coming home soon and it was the heaven-ordained time to purchase her butterfly bedding.  In the cart the quilt and pillow sham went.  On to clothing.  Oh my word.  They actually had 8 bras in my size that I could try on…. truly the second sign from heaven in the same store.  It almost washed away the anxiety from the teacher store closing.  THEN there were multiple pants that I also loved…  So, after trying on 19 items in the now over-heated dressing room, I had some decisions to make.

Rick’s manly voice of warning from this morning at the breakfast table came blasting through my mind, “Now don’t go all crazy buying clothes while I’m gone.”  Brother.  Like he’s tele-pathetic or something.  We all know that “All crazy” means hundreds of dollars.  And I knew with the current list of money-sucking activities in the next few weeks, Rick would not see the beautiful butterfly bedding as the sweet sign from God that I did.  I’m sure Rick could find a blanket in the linen closet that he would think was perfect for Zaza’s bed.  NOT Happening!  So, I narrowed the purchases to a pair of pants that can be converted to capris (2 fer 1) and a bra.  All necessities.  How could he argue?  (quite easily actually).

Sensing that my sugar levels were at an all time low from over-exertion in the dressing room, I refueled at Starbucks with a Double Chocolate Chip Mint frappuccino.  I counted it as dinner.  That’s a cheap dinner, even for Rick.  Then again, no it’s not.  Costco has a dog and a pop for $1.50. Anyway,  I’m home and it’s eerily quiet around here.  Maybe I’ll see if I can beat my guitar hero Hit Me With Your Best Shot score.  NAH!