Shop til ya drop!

Tomorrow, kid cousin Sadie Rose has surgery on her knee. She has had an infection behind the knee cap for some time and they decided the time has come to go in and remove whatever is causing it. It's out-patient surgery and she will be home by 2 pm tomorrow, so it isn't anything dangerous or horrible, but kind of scary to a 9 year old (and to a certain 51 year old).

Being typical women we decided some retail therapy was in order and we hit the mall with a vengeance. We left the house at 3:30 pm and only returned when they shut the doors behind us at 9 pm (yes it's Montana...the sidewalks roll up early here, even at Christmas time). The only time we stopped our shopping extravaganza was to use the rest room and haul bags to the car when our arms got too tired to haul them around any more.

We finally arrived home around 9:30 and unloaded some of our bounty. We were giggling and laughing on the way up the walk. I turned around to use the remote to lock the car and somehow managed to hit the alarm button. I had so many bags in my hands that I couldn't free a finger to push the cancel alarm button and when I finally did I accidentally opened the trunk instead. By now Sadie Rose was practically ill with laughter and I had to admit, it was probably quite the scene. The car lights were flashing, the alarm was...alarming and the trunk was wide open.

I looked around to see if anyone was watching and noticed the new neighbors to the west were staring out their living room window. The lights of the house to the east suddenly turned on and I hoped they weren't calling the police to report a theft next door.

I finally managed to extricate myself from the bags, push the proper button(s) and the ruckus stopped. Sadie was giggling hysterically but we finally got the car locked, the trunk shut and staggered into the house.

Six hours of walking, shopping and hysterical laughter later, we are both in our jammies, tired but content. Everything is going to turn out just fine for Sadie...that much we know. It does, however, remain to be seen if I survive the opening of my next credit card bill.

UPDATE: Sadie sailed through the surgery and is doing just fine. She's already home and set up like a princess in the family room, remote in one hand, bon-bon's in the other. We will be waiting on her until she heals. Life IS good!