To A New Mall We Went

So on Saturday Tom said he'd drive us to the mall in Fort Collins.

We've never been there but I looked it up and saw they had my beloved Rocky Mountain Chocolates. And they make the BEST chocolate covered apples.

I warned Tom to please come to bed around three in the morning so he'd at least get a few hours of sleep. He works the night shift so he's usually awake during the night. Then he'll crawl up to bed at around six or seven and sleep until three or four. But Tom likes leaving the house at 930 in the morning to beat the crowds. Remember, crowds freak Tom out. I would have no qualms about leaving later but it's TOM who insists that we leave early.

I woke up at 7, like usual, and guess who hadn't come to bed?

That's right.

TOM.

I go downstairs and he's playing his computer game.

"Uh Tom?" I asked him. "Did you forget we're going to the mall? Don't you need some sleep?"

Tom logged off his game. "I'll sleep now until we're ready to go," he told me.

Ugh.

Waking Tom up is NOT fun.

For one, he's a total crank. For two, it can take forever to get him back out of bed.

"Now you're going to be all cranky," I complained.

"I won't," Tom insisted.

So at 915 I went to wake him up. I shook his arm and he lifted his head up.

"Wassat?" he mumbled.

"We're going to the mall?" I reminded him gently.

"kdajfklajsfkl," he muttered into his pillow.

I sent Tommy out of the room right in time. Because then he rolled over and, well, he sleeps in the nude and I didn't want to scar my six-year-old for life.

Finally he lifted himself out of bed, stumbled into the shower and was downstairs in ten minutes.

"You ready?" he barked at me.

I was changing Natalie's diaper. "In a sec," I said.

He gave this long sigh.

We were out the door in the five minutes. We stopped off to fill up the truck..the gas prices seriously make me want to cry. We dropped $68 in less than two minutes. On GAS.

Freakin' gas.

I ran inside to grab Tom an energy drink.

Then I noticed that A&W had this new float drink. It was a root beer float in a soda can.

A creamy blend of rich A&W and ice cream flavor! the bottle boosted.

My mouth watered. I love floats.

So I picked that up too. I haven't had it yet. Probably tonight since it's such a nice day.

I went back outside and handed Tom his energy drink. He cracked it open and took a long gulp. Then the entire truck smelled like a sweet tart.

It took about forty minutes to get to the mall. It was MUCH easier to get to then we thought it would be.

Tom had plugged in the address on his GPS and I swear, the woman's voice is loud. There is no turning it down either.

"RIGHT TURN AHEAD!" she'd bark out and I'd jump every time.

We parked and put Natalie in her stroller.

"I'll push him," Tommy said, grabbing the handle and taking off towards the mall.

"STOP!" Tom and I shouted after him.

He paused and turned around. "I'm trying to HELP. Just trying to HELP! Ladedahhhhh!" Then he ran around in a circle.

"Amber," Tom said under his breath. "Did you give him his pill?"

Um.

Oops.

I had totally forgot to give him his Vyvanse.

Which meant he was totally hyper.

"And Tommy," I reminded him, taking his hand. "It's HER. You need to stop referring to your sister as a HE."

Tommy does that a lot. He'll be all, "I'll go get him!" when referring to Natalie.

We walked in and Tommy started bouncing some more. "I'm a FROG. A silly FROG!! RIBBITTTT!"

And seriously, he shouted the ribbit.

"I can't believe you forgot to give him his pill," Tom bickered beside me.

Tommy walked beside us, waving his arms all over the place.

The first place we walked into was Spencer's Gifts. Which probably isn't appropriate for a six-year-old because he noticed the vibrators and asked if it was a colored cucumber.

"Something like that," I lied while the cashier snickered.

Tom and I each got new magnets for our cars and got the heck out of there.



Tom's is the first one.

Mine is the second. Remember how I always complain about people tailing me?

Well, I just had to get that bumper.

After that we stopped in the candy store.

The lady in there must've totally be hyped up on sugar because when we walked in she exclaimed,

"HELLLLLOOOO. A little BOY and a little GIRL. What FUNNNN!"

I started to get a few sour gummies.

"I'm putting fresh gummy worms in here. FRESH GUMMY WORMS. SMELL THIS!" she waved the bag full of gummy worms under my nose. "You must take a few. Take take take!" She was practically shoving it in my face.

"Oh," I said, startled. "Okay.."

I grabbed two.

"Oh you MUST take more. They smell DELICIOUS!" She waved the bag around again.

I took two more. "I'm done," I said firmly.

She bent down to Tommy's level. "Do you like lollipops?" she asked.

"I like cheese," Tommy responded without missing a beat.

She stood upright and blinked a few times. She wasn't sure what to make of that. "Oh.." she stuttered. "Well we have delicious lollipops.." she gestured over to the corner where there were some lollipops bigger than Tommy's head.

"Lollipops are too sticky," Tommy said matter-of-factly. My little sensory boy.

I paid for the gummies and we quickly got out of there.

Next we stopped at Auntie Anne's to get a cinnamon sugar pretzel. We don't have an Auntie Anne's at our mall and they make the best pretzels.

"You know," the cashier told me, "it's buy three pretzels get one free. So you get a free one."

So we got ANOTHER cinnamon sugar pretzel.

It was so good.

Natalie even took a few bites of hers before tossing it on the ground and shrieking, "OOOOOOOO!"

"Pretzel pretzel PRETZEL!" Tommy chanted. "PRETZEL!" he felt the need to add right into Tom's ear.

"Tommy," Tom barked, rubbing his ear. "Hush."

Tommy was fidgeting all in his seat.

After that we found my Rocky Mountain Chocolates. I picked out this chocolate peanut butter caramel apple. Tommy said he wanted the same one so I got two.

When I showed my ID card while handing over my debit card the cashier squinted at it and asked where we were from.

"Wyoming," I explained. "We live at the base by there.."

She nodded. "A lot of people from Wyoming come here," she said.

"That's because our mall sucks," I explained.

She laughed. "THIS mall sucks.."

And it was a sorry mall. But our mall is even smaller so...

"Well plus I love the apples here," I said.

The cashier found that hilarious and tossed back her head and gave a loud guffaw.

Okay then.

They also had a Gymboree.

Tom groaned when I walked in.

"Why? Why why why? We have one at OUR mall. Stop going through that bin, Natalie has enough!" he whined.

But this Gymboree was much bigger than my Gymboree. I had room to move the stroller around. And they had more sale racks out.

"Cupcake cutie stuff!" I said and rushed over.

"She has enough," Tom hissed into my ear.

"Cupcake cutie!" I said again and Tom just gave up.

I wish Tom hadn't been there. Because they had more sale racks out but I knew I had to hurry. As I was looking the worker was all, "We have a sale starting Thursday. You save 30% off everything. I can't remember what it's called..."

"Circle of Friends," I offered.

Her eyes lit up. "YES. That. I'll give you a coupon for it."

"Thanks," I replied.

I ended up just getting two shirts that totalled eight bucks:



Of course I'm going to the sale.

The new line is up online and there are pieces I must have.

That's my Mother's Day present actually. Going shopping at Gymboree.

After that we decided to eat lunch.

Tom got Subway and Tommy and I got burgers at this burger place.

I think it might have actually been called Burger Place.

Hah.

Then on the way out of the mall we got Orange Julius'.

Tommy was bouncing around like crazy.

"Daddy! How old are you?" he kept asking.

"Twenty five," Tom would answer.

"TWENTY FIVE! WOW!"

And he's all excited that Tom's birthday is tomorrow and that he'll be twenty-six.

"And then..and then next year you'll be TWENTY SEVEN!" Tommy shouted.

Then in the truck Tommy was all, "Ten, twenty, thirty, forty, fifty, sixty, seventy, eighty, ninety, one hundred..one hundred ten.."

And he can go up to one hundred sixty and then he'd start over.

"Please," Tom begged after he had done this like ten times. "It's quiet time. Please let's all be quiet."

And then Tommy would whisper, "Ten..twenty...thirty.."

We also stopped off at Toys R Us and Natalie got excited when she saw all the baby dolls.

"Bebe!" she said pointing. "Bebe bebe!"

Then we drove back home.

"Ten..twenty..thirty.." Tommy kept chanting.

"Tommy..please.." Tom said sternly.

"Oh I'm not Tommy anymore. It's Thomas," Tommy said seriously.

"TOMMY!"

"It's THOMAS!"

I had a headache by the time we got home.

Oh and you'll be pleased to know that my OnDemand finally got the latest Tudors and I got to see Henry's butt.

I wonder how that goes. I mean when they give Jonathan Rhys Meyers, who plays Henry, the script.

"Okay Jonathan, in this scene you'll be buck naked and think you see the ghost of your friend, whom you've beheaded."

What if his mother called that day and asked what he did?

"Oh Mum, in this one scene I'm naked and think I see a ghost. Don't worry, Mum, you don't see my front. Just my back. And I also get to put my hand near a woman's breasts."

I see his Mom go, "Good HEAVENS!"

Also my OnDemand must've been apologizing to me for showing that episode so late that they already have this week's episode up.

I'll watch that later.

It's sad to know that so many people are going to die though.

And Cromwell eventually gets the axe.

Literally.