Adventure in Wally World

You won't be seeing this title very often because I am not the hugest fan of Walmart, I do most of my shopping at Target. Anyway, yesterday I needed to get 3 things: toilet cleaner, diet dr. pepper, and a pizza, and Walmart was the best place to go, or so I thought. I my mind this would take like 5 minutes, get in, get out, and be on my way.

First on the list, toilet cleaner. I go to the household cleaning supplies aisle. All it has on it is laundry detergent and dish washing detergent. The aisle before said dog food and the aisle after it was irons and that type of thing. So, I continued to wander around thinking the other cleaning supplies might be somewhere close by. After not finding them I decide to ask someone who worked there. She misunderstood what I said and took me to the toilet brushes, which I guess is toilet cleaner, but not the type I needed. So, I continued to wander. Then I decided I should just ask someone who looked normal (at Walmart that is not always the easiest thing). A nice lady told me I needed to go to the dog food aisle and it would be around there. Sure enough, toilet cleaner was on the dog food aisle and I had just missed it (who looks for cleaning supplies on a pet aisle!).

Next on the list, Diet Dr. Pepper. I knew exactly where that was at the back of the store and had no problems getting it. On to the pizza. I figured that would be in the deli and at the Walmart in Huntsville and I think Fairhope, the deli is up front. So, back up front I go - and only find the Bakery and Seafood. To the back of the store again. Luckily I found the pizza and go to the check out only to realize I got Caffeine Free Diet Dr. Pepper. There was no way I was going back to the back of store so I just went ahead and checked out.

There you have it, a trip that should have taken 5 minutes turned into a 20 minutes, all for 3 items - at least I got my exercise for the day. And by golly, we were going to enjoy that pizza and caffeine free diet dr. pepper (you can't really enjoy toilet cleaner I guess - ha!).

Lundi Gras

Lundi Gras, Fat Monday, is the day before Fat Tuesday, Mardi Gras. Nothing really happened on Lundi Gras but since it only comes once a year, I thought it would be fun to write about. I was reading a little bit online about it and apparently it is a really big deal in New Orleans. In Mobile, they just have a few more parades and that is about it.

So, about my Lundi Gras...I went to work; about half of my office was there so it was a very quite day. Some of my coworkers made a real vacation out of Tuesday's holiday by going to Disney World or going to visit family out of town. I think the kids were out of school yesterday and today so you can't really blame them for hitting the road and doing something fun. There were parades going on through out the day yesterday so I was a little afraid that I would get stuck in traffic on my way home. I didn't have any problems and I didn't get lost - wahoo! My boss actually let us off a little early - you gotta love being a government employee.

Last night we went to our last parade of the Carnival season, the Order of Mystic Magnolias, in Fairhope. We were on the front row and had a great time catching whatever was thrown our way. There were tons of kids around us so when got a few of the junky items like the light up rose or the whistle cigar we gave them to the kids around us (we also gave them other stuff that was thrown our way because there is no way we needed all of those beads and cups).

Look at all we got! 4 bags of peanuts, 12 or so cups, 3 frisbees, moonpies, and tons of beads. And as I said before, we gave away about a quarter of our stuff to the kids around us. The Fairhope mystic groups know how to do it! I have no clue what we are going to do with all of this though (other than the pearls - they are going to Christina). Today is Fat Tuesday and there are lots of parades in downtown Mobile. Brad is working from home and I am off from work - we will not be going downtown to participate in the parades today, way too many people. I read that the one we went to Saturday night had close to 90,000 people at it. I can only imagine how many people will be there today.

If you've enjoyed reading about our fun Carnival experiences this year, come visit us anytime next year and we can parade together!

My sweet puppy dogs

I was able to steal a shot of my 2 babies snuggling together. I think they are starting to like each other!

Loot from the Weekend

Well, we went parading again this weekend. Last night we met up with some of Brad's co-workers in Mobile for the Crew of Columbus parade. We were supposed to meet between 5:45 and 6 with the parade starting at 6:30. I left the house at 5:20 - you would think that would give me plenty of time to get to downtown Mobile. It took me an hour and 45 minutes!!!! This drive should have taken me only 20 to 30 min. max - and get this, it was NOT Mardi Gras traffic. I was the only car getting off at the downtown exit, well I guess there wouldn't be much traffic 30 minutes after the parade starts. I was able to get to Brad and the others and see the last 2 floats. Lucky for me, Brad's co-workers are serious paraders. We stopped at 2 more spots along the parade route before eating dinner.

This is a little different than the parades last week. We got a little bit of everything (from a singing lobster/crawfish to Christmas candy and a used key chain)

Tonight we went with Brad's cousin, Jamie, her husband, Matt, and their daughter, Ella, to the Mystics of Time parade in Mobile. This parade had to be the craziest we went to out of all of them and when I say crazy, it really wasn't that crazy, just not what we are used to. We were on the 2nd row and in front of us was a lady all the way from Wetumpka (ok - all the way from Wetumpka is not very far, when she told us this I thought she was going to say all the way from Oklahoma or somewhere really far away). The main reason we started talking to her was because we noticed she had one of those claws to grab the leftovers on the other side of the barricades. Don't worry, she had her tailgating chair and was ready for the parade. After this parade we all walked away with "war scars". Brad got hit in the face while catching beads, I got hit in between the eyes by a medal coin, and Jamie got hit in the face with beads (this was after another guy took beads right out of her hands).

Jamie, Matt, and Ella

Not pictured: A cup from Moe's, yes the place you eat (Welcome to Moe's!) and a foam noodle for the pool

Happy Birthday Dad!

Happy Birthday Dad!! (Brad's dad that is) My wonderful father-in-law is getting another year older today. We love you and wish we could be there with you to celebrate!

Thank you Granny!

Brad's mom came and stayed with us for a week to help get Ellie and Madi adjusted. We had a great week and appreciate her help. Come back any time Granny!

Pictures from the Weekend

Here are some pictures from our weekend...

Guys working hard

or are they??

Float from Neptune's Daughters parade.

The other parade we went to was the Knights of Ecor Rouge



After all the hard work Justin decided to take a dip pool

It was 58 degrees - a little too cold for the rest of us!

Our little oreo cookie

(Ellie, Laney, and Madi)