What a day!

Today was a interesting day! It all started at 6am when Tal woke up for his first (yay!he's starting to sleep) feeding of the morning. I went straight back to bed hoping to get another 2 hours before his chubby little body needed more milk! The kids woke up about the time that Matt returned from his test, so he fed them and let me sleep a few more minutes. He knew that I had a busy day ahead of me! So after getting up, showering, and changing a few diapers, Daddy took the kids to the mall so that I could have a few hours of quiet to get my classwork finished. By-the-way, this semester is about to KILL me! I have written over 70 essays for my Sociology classes and I have only been in them for a little over 2 weeks! Slave-drivers, I tell ya! So, Matt brought the kids home nice and tired which gave me a little more time to write more- yep you guessed it- ESSAYS! All in all, I finished 16 of them today- and didn't learn a thing!! After naps and a couple more pages of useless paragraphs on Juvenile Delinquency in our society, I decided to head to Target to pick up a gift for a shower I needed for tonight. That's when the fun began...

Upon getting to Target (why does everything happen to me at Target- see last Target post if you are confused;))I had to establish a game plan for how I would successfully get Tal and Ava in the store. I look like a person with a seriously bad limp trying to coax a 2 year old into the store while lugging what has to be the heaviest carseat EVER MADE. I looked pitiful- I knew it by the looks on other's faces. Finally, we arrived at the cart. Ava goes in first, then Tal- he didn't quite fit in the buggy part, but it worked and my arms were too tired to adjust. Upon reaching the registry machines, I find that I can view the registry but can't print it. So I go to the Customer Service Desk and ask for a pen and paper and write down every item that interests me- skew number and all. Then it happened... the loudest sirens I have ever heard.

The place started buzzing and there was a mad dash for the doors. I felt like I was in the twilight zone with everything going in fast forward around me. I saw a manager on his walkie-talkie ordering someone else to contact the weather service, while making comments that the building needed to be evacuated. You don't have to ask me twice- I joined in the race. I didn't know where I was going, but I was leaving. Getting stuck in Target was not my idea of fun, plus my credit card couldn't handle it if I was there too long. So here we go again...the same drill...get Ava out, lock her in, finagle Tal from his awkward position in the cart and get him settled safely in the car and WE'RE OFF.

Ava is in the back seat screaming, "Wanna go shopping (repeat, repeat, you get it...) while I am trying to hear what the radio is telling me to do- all I can hear is "Take Cover Immediately, Tornadoes have been spotted." Okay, no big deal, I'll just call Matt and he'll tell me where to go...NO SERVICE! ALL NETWORKS BUSY! I was alone, in the car with a screaming child, I hadn't gotten my gift, and now I was running from a tornado. I decided after numerous dropped calls to Matt and other classmates, that I would go to Tech and hide out in the basement for awhile- turns out about 500 other people had the same idea- I'll get to that soon!

Here we go again, get Ava out (after fighting with the wind to open the door), lug Tal's big 'ol seat, and try and keep from crying. There were about 50 people outside just watching me struggle, hair in my eyes, Ava screaming. Lovely! Finally a man came to my rescue and showed me the way to the storm shelter. It looked like cattle being herded... there were a blue million people, most of which spoke no English, lining the walls. All I could think is I need to get a hold of Matt to let him know we are safe, but no luck. He was on his way to Target to rescue me!! Finally, after about an hour of worrying, Matt showed up in the basement. We witnessed a guy having a seizure, got yelled at by the maintenance man, and waited out the storm. Once everyone was released we headed for our car and the sky opened up- it was raining too hard to leave. Here we go again, we pack up and head for probably the most sanitary place on the face of the Earth- the pediatrics waiting room. Yuck! Oh well, they had toys and Ava was in serious need of some entertainment- she was less than amused with being packed into a hallway like a Sardine.
My heart finally slowed, I haven't been that scared in a long time! When the rains let up I headed back...yep, to Target. I found that my list had blown out of my hand, so back to the registry I headed. Luckily, no one was shopping! It was wonderful! I was in and out in no time flat.
What did I learn from this experience? I learned that I am so glad that our new house will have a basement!!