It couldn't have been worse!

I had an errand to run this afternoon. I had 12 pictures I needed to laminate, so I thought I should get them done today. After Henry's nap I got the kids into the car and drove over to the teacher supply/ Learning store where there is a laminating machine which I can use for cheep. We arrived there and found that there was a teacher there laminating about a thousand pages of work for her class. So we waited. I figured it couldn't be that long and this is a really cool store to look through. So we wandered around a little.

My kids got more and more excited by all the fun toys, paints, tools and everything in this store. Ian is yelling to Sophie over the aisles to come and see what he found. Henry has found a bunch of balls and starts throwing them around. I get them picked up and I tell Ian that he can't yell like that in the store. They then find a pretend microphone and start yelling into it something that sounds like an attempt at singing. I should have just left then, knowing that my kids were getting more and more amped up. But no... I really need some things laminated and I don't want to have to come back.

After looking through all the craft supplies and paints, the teacher is finally done with the laminator. I go to laminate my things and another teacher steps in first. She has a little placemat project her class did and so 30 placemats have to go through the laminator. Again I wait. Really should have left here. But no... I stay.... Finally it is my turn.

I do 4 of my 12 pages that need laminating and the laminating plastic has run out and the rolls have to be replaced. I wait while they change this. I show my kids the musical instruments which were near the laminator. Mistake! Bad idea to show my kids drums of any kind. And they had a gong there with of course had to be gonged over and over again. Evidently the guy changing the rolls was a new guy and didn't know what he was doing because it was taking a really long time. Finally he says he is done.

I put the rest of my pages through and he then tells me that something is wrong. The new guy evidently put the roll on upside down so the sticky side wasn't down. So..... I then had to cut out all 6 pages from the laminate and then peal the upside down plastic off and then run them through again. The whole time trying to keep my 3 very active children from gonging that gong too many times, hitting each other with rain sticks, or Henry throwing more balls. (They must have had balls everywhere in that store.) I didn't succeed in keeping my kids under control. While I cut out the pages, Ian, when running around the corner of one of the aisles, banged his forehead on the edge of one of the shelves and gashed his head. He is one of those kids that holds his breath so he started turning purple and collapsed on the floor. I of course am used to this so don't freak out but the lady behind the service desk sure did. She had me sit him down while she got an ice pack. Then she had me fill out an incident report and a waiver for medical attention.

So finally my pages are laminated and I have signed the papers. I stand in the line to check out behind 6 people who no doubt are totally annoyed by me and my lovely children. When I get up to the desk finally they tell me that they aren't going to charge me for the laminating because of the mistake that the guy made. Thank You! But couldn't you have told me that before I waited in line with my sobbing boy with the goose egg on his forehead, the little wild man who wriggles and squirms until you have to put him down only to pick him up a few seconds later to keep him from throwing yet another object, and Sophie who can't stop giggling at it all or provoking Henry even more.

I can't think of any shopping/errand experience that has gone worse. I was in that store for almost 2 hours to laminate 12 pages.



I think I need a laminator for Christmas!