Candy Disaster

Not sure what I was thinking but I decided to have a wonderful day with my two beautiful daughters shopping for the groceries and stuff that we are going to need for this weekends birthday party. Michaels was our first stop and it went rather well. Then to Gymboree to exchange something and you could tell they were getting a little more difficult. My mom was with me and thought of the awesome idea to bribe them with the fact that we would be going to Costco and they could snack on all the samples for lunch. They were excited about this and that managed to get us out of the store and back to the car without any huge arm flailing instances.

Once at Costco we discovered that there were no samples to be had anywhere. Great! So, to get through Costco we tell them we are going to Central Market next and they can have a tortilla when we get there. We manage to get out of Costco with minor disagreements and we are headed back to Poulsbo.

At Central, glad I had a list, we make our way through the store rather quickly except for the candy isle. We are on the bulk candy isle for over 20 minutes going through the different lists I have of the specific candies I need for the cakes, counting out the candies, labeling them and closing each of the bags. All the while fighting the girls from climbing on the bulk bins, pulling candy out of the bulk bins with their hands, pushing the cart into me, into grandma, and into strangers. By the time we were done and at the checkout I was ready to be home. We get the groceries paid for and head to the car. As I am unloading the groceries into the car I notice that there is no candy anywhere. I check all the bags two or three times and once assured that there are no candies anywhere leave my mom at the car with the girls while I run back into the store to recover my bag of candies. I get to the checkout to discover that there is a different bagger there. I ask about my candies and it is as if I am talking to a wall. The checker helps me by translating what I thought was a perfectly understandable question. "I just bought a bunch of bulk candy but it didn't get put into my grocery bags. Is it here?" After some assistance by others around him it is learned that he put it into the cart of the guy that was behind me thinking it was his candy. He is told to see if he can catch the guy in the parking lot so he heads outside. He then stands outside the door looking completely lost. I head back to the car to get my receipt. By this time I am livid, but trying to keep calm reminding myself that this is a learning experience for my girls. So I calmly explain that I am very frustrated because it turns out that the candy we spent almost a half hour picking out is gone. I take my receipt and head back into the store. I ask the checker what I am supposed to do since i paid for all this candy by weight and it is now gone, all while I am fighting back the tears that are welling up in my eyes. She says to just go and try to get what I thought I had and "we'll call it good."

And so I blaze back to the bulk bins, like going faster is going to make the process easier. So there I was crying in the bulk food candy section recounting all the candy. It was a pitiful site. I now have what I think is what I started with as best as I can determine from my receipt. I just hope I didn't forget anything. It sure would be interesting if the bunny cake had no eyes or the horse cake had no ears. I guess we will see on Saturday.