Letting it all Hang Out

School is almost here again. This morning I realized that since we will be busy nearly every other day of this week, today was our best chance at getting back to school clothes shopping done. The fact that it was predicted to rain all day didn't matter. Why shouldn't we shop in the rain? It's not like any of us were going to actually enjoy the experience anyway. Well, except for Anna. She LOVES to shop. Rain, sun, sleet or hail, give her money, she'll find a sale! I'm beginning to question if she is really my child.

Each of my three girls needed certain items. Anna, the barefoot queen of the crew, outgrew her shoes over the summer. Danielle, the artist, pretty much destroyed, with paint, most of her uniform pants last school year. Emily, the very moody 15 year old, needed uniform shirts...and something else.

My son Derek, doesn't really need any back to school clothes this year. His shoes still fit fine and since he is enrolled in a virtual public school, he won't have to wear uniforms. So lucky Derek, did not HAVE to go shopping. Unfortunately his dad had a doctor's appointment and his grandparents were unavailable. Leaving a 10 year old adhd boy home all alone for several hours wasn't an option to me. That meant that he had to come along with the girls. No problem. He brought along his DSi.

At Academy, Little Miss Picky finally settled on a new pair of Sketchers and Emily found uniform shirts. We were on a roll! No pants for Danielle though. Oh well, we on to the next stop. Old Navy was a bust. We headed to Stage. Again nothing - but the saleslady did offer to have the brand and size that my daughter wanted shipped from another store. Great! So now all we had left was Emily's...something else. For THAT we headed to the mall. I almost decided to tell Emily that we would come back for that particular item another day, but she was in such a (rare) good mood that I just couldn't. You have to understand, getting Emily to agree to a shopping trip is just slightly more difficult than it would be to train a rock to sit up and beg for a treat.

The mall parking lot was surprising full for a mid afternoon Monday. We had to park a good distance away from an entrance and then dash through the rain to the doors. It was only after we got inside that I realized that Derek left his DSi behind in the car. I did not want to run back to the car in the mess that the sky was dropping, but I also knew that he was going to need a serious distraction for our next shopping stop. Thinking quickly, I handed him my iPhone and told him that he could play one of the games on it.

There are a decent number of games apps on my phone, including a couple of educational games that I put on there just for him. Naturally he wasn't interested in those. Nope, he had discovered Hanging With Friends earlier this week and was hooked. The first time I let him play the game, I worried about the words he might send, but he surprised me with some well thought out choices. Assured that his eyes would stay mostly on the screen, we walked into a store that I ordinarily would not bring my 10 year old son into. While my fifteen year old tried on...something...my son busied himself with figuring out words that friends left for me and then creating words to send back to them. All was fine.

Until...

Derek started giggling. He was rather pleased with himself for using a five point letter in a triple letter spot. He turned the phone toward me so that I (and the saleslady next to me) could see his brilliant word choice. That's when I discovered that it is not actually possible to drop dead from mortification.

Right there, in the middle of Victoria Secret, my son sent the word NAKED to...not one of my sisters or cousins (who probably would have laughed), not to one of mommy friends (who would have instantly understood)...not even to my MOM (ok, I have no idea of how she would have reacted.) Nope. My son, playing MY game, sent the word NAKED to my high school boyfriend.



:::sigh::: I guess I should be proud that he earned enough points to fill my bonus meter, right?