Yesterday, we went to the church to take a family picture for the new church directory.

I secretly enjoy these ventures because I LOVE family pictures, always making sure to get at least one a year even if it involves tricking Wes into it. With the church directory years, though? There’s no tricking involved because he HAS to do it. Love it!

He told me before we went in that, I quote, “We’re not buying anything.” If you’ve had a church directory picture taken lately, you know that they tell you they’ll give you a print for free… but they’ll take about ten thousand poses of every combination of family members, just in case you might want another. And then, they jack up the price to such insane levels that you think to yourself, “What idiot would buy one of these pictures?!”

Hi, perhaps we haven’t met. My name is Jennifer.

See, the free print is always an 8X10, and my family pictures, all proudly displayed on the fireplace mantel, are 5X7s. So, I’m left with no choice but to buy a print, really. No choice at all!

Wes begrudgingly handed over his credit card at the church, and afterwards, he needed to walk around some to get over the sticker shock. I suggested that we go to the shopping center off of Fairmont to walk around and window shop. Once we got to Famous Footwear, we went in to see what they had at their Buy One, Get One Half Off sale. (Which is a great sale!) Again, Wes said, “We’re not buying anything.”

Yeah, well, who can say no to kids’ Saucony sneakers which were already on clearance? Buy One, Get One Half Off on a clearance sale? We would have been crazy NOT to! Pasadena ISD schools require uniforms, so these sneakers are literally the only shoes the girls will be wearing to school. So worth the tiny little amount we paid for them!

Right beside the checkout counter was a display of mesh backpacks. Not only does Pasadena ISD require uniforms, but they also require clear or mesh backpacks for all grade levels. (We sound really ghetto, don’t we? But we’re not!) I had a horrific time trying to find a clear backpack for Ana last year when we moved here, and the saleslady confirmed that it’s always hard to find PISD approved backpacks the closer we get to the start of the school year. (And, no, she wasn’t just trying to sell us something. It’s true!) So, Wes, who was still saying that he was not buying anything threw his hands up in the air and bought the shoes and the backpacks… and the socks that we had to buy so that the girls had something to try on with the sneakers. (They came in sandals. How was I to know we would need socks? We were “not buying anything,” after all!)

We headed out the door towards the car when I remembered that Charlie was literally down to one cup of dog food. One cup of dog food to Charlie is like a 100 calorie pack of crackers to me. Just not going to cut it, people. Again, Wes threw his hands up in the air and started walking to Petsmart. A bag of food later (cheaper than at Wal Mart, thanks to my Pet Perks card!), he didn’t even ask if I wanted to go anywhere else. We all went straight home. Who can blame him?

We weren’t planning on doing much today. I did need to pick up a baby shower gift at Target, though, and while we were there, we saw that they had the school supply lists out. I grabbed one, while Wes said, again, that we were “not buying anything” this far out from school. While reading the lists, though, I discovered that PISD has CHANGED its backpack policy — no mesh backpacks, only clear backpacks. (Okay, so maybe we are ghetto.) No problem, because I could take the mesh backpacks back… but where were we going to find a clear backpack? Target was already out of them. I suggested that we go on to Wal Mart just to see what they had. Wes was game, so we headed that direction…

… only to walk into mass mayhem and hysteria. It’s JULY, y’all, and already, the school supplies aisles are packed with cranky, vicious people. And I should know because I was leading the charge, screeching about how hard it is to find a clear backpack. None of the employees had any idea where to find one, but they were quick to tell me that if they had any, they’d be sold out soon. No thanks to them, since they didn’t even know where they were in the store! Because he’s awesome, Wes was able to sniff out a couple of them way back in the back of the store, and even though we were not buying anything, he told me we’d better get the rest of the supplies taken care of before it got any crazier because I was already THISCLOSE to knocking over shelves and melting down right there in the notebook aisle, looking for a “spiral composition book” which doesn’t even exist! Seriously!

Two hours later (!!!), we had all the supplies, aside from a couple of boxes of 160-count Kleenex. (Which they also don’t make. We got 174 count. Fourteen extra Kleenex surely won’t make that big of a difference, right? Right?!) On our way over to the paper goods, I saw that they had school uniform shirts, which are also impossible to find any other time of the year. And Wes, who had said that we were not buying anything, said, “JUST GET THE SHIRTS!” So, I got ten of them, making sure that both girls are set for the year. Look at me, buying a whole school wardrobe with two stops! Woo!

All that said, we’re back home now. And after all this? When Wes says that he’s not buying anything… well, I’m not buying anything he says! Ha!