Seven stops and a stiff squirrel Sunday

Last Sunday, Roy went out of town for a week for a conference.  I had filled the calendar with lots of activities to keep myself and the kids busy so the time would pass quickly.  And we got started straight away!  A couple hours after he left, the kids and I headed out for a big morning of errands and shopping and treats.

As we were driving out of the driveway, I spotted a very dead squirrel in the middle of the driveway.  It was not there when Roy left, of course, but waited until I was on my own to end up there.  Nice.  Lucky me.  I was able to avoid it when driving out, thankfully, and figured I would have to find a way to deal with it later on.  I have always been good at procrastination!

On to much more exciting things!  Our first of our seven stops (Leighton counted them up on our way home and we were both impressed with how much we did!) was at Half Price Books in Rice Village.  The kids turned in their July Reading Logs and each received another $5 gift certificate to use in the store.  We had the ones from June as well, so the kids eagerly started searching through books to decide what to spend their $10 on.  It was really interesting to see what books they wouldn't let go of, even if they were $5.  I was impressed how well they did understanding the limits of their $10 and letting me help them see what combinations of books would work within their budgets.  I think both of their totals would have been $10.50 plus tax, but I was willing to absorb that extra cost (especially since I had chosen a few books for each of the kids that I wanted to buy them anyway!).  Turns out I didn't have to though because the way the gift certificates are redeemed, it was easier for the cashier to just alter the prices of the books to make four separate $5 transactions.  It was really nice of him.

We then walked across the street to the GAP.  We had been promising Riley new underwear as a reward for her stellar job with toilet usage and she found some that made her incredibly happy.  I found a few items for each of the kids on the clearance racks - and it was all an additional 35% off.  I love that!

At this time it started POURING rain.  Our beautiful, hot, sunny day was quickly turned into a dark, soggy mess!  Our next stop was for ice cream - and the kids didn't care whether it was rainy or not, of course.  We went to Jerry Built for the kids to use up their free milkshake coupons from the Bellaire Library summer reading program.  Riley got 'nabilla' and Leighton got cookies n' cream.

Stop number four was Barnes & Noble.  I made it VERY clear to the kids that we weren't going shopping there since we had just purchased several books.  We just needed to go find a few books to read that I couldn't get through either of our libraries and Riley needed for the Pottery Barn Kids summer reading program.  We only found one of the board books and read it quickly.  And then the kids had a great time looking at all sorts of books.  And I took a bunch of pictures of books I wanted to remember to try to find through the libraries or for gifts for the kids.  I think we were there for over an hour!

Our next three stops were very brief and were all of the errand variety.  We returned books to both libraries and took a Netflix movie to the mailbox.  The libraries were closed, so we didn't get to go in for new books, but the kids had lots of fun putting the books in the return slot outside!

We spent the rest of the day at home, and I tried to come up with the courage to go out and deal with the dead squirrel.  I couldn't find the courage though!  I ended up emailing Lindsey to ask her what Charlie's feelings would be on helping me out with my very dead squirrel.  After I got finished with dinner, bath, and bedtime with the kids, I checked my email and there were a few from Lindsey - turns out that they stopped by on the way home from the airport so Charlie could rid my driveway of the squirrel.  I was very, very appreciative!