On Selling, On Buying and Prattling on..

Whew.

I've been running around all morning.

This morning I decided to sell Natalie's exersaucer to Once Upon a Child since it didn't sell in the newspaper ad I listed. Or Craigslist.

It was taking up too much space so I figured I may as well get ripped off by Once Upon a Child.

I managed to fit it into the PT Cruiser and I strapped Natalie into her carseat and we were off.

I also had a tote of clothes to sell and the lady working there said it would be about fifteen minutes for her to go through everything.

So I brought Natalie to to the toy area.

"Look, look!" she kept saying, pointing to everything. She happily climbed on a musical horse and went, "Weeee!"

It actually took the lady closer to a half hour. And Natalie started to get bored with the toys so I started to walk her around the store while holding her hand. Of course she would try to break free. At one point she did and ran down a clothes aisle.

By the time the woman was finished I was exhausted.

She gave me $53 for everything which was pretty good I guess.

After that we headed to Gymboree.

I was curious to see what the lady had pulled aside for me. (See previous entry for details.)

I had given Natalie some raisins to munch on and she thought it would be funny to throw them at my head.

At first I thought it was a bug when I felt something slide down my arm and I went, "EEEEEEEEE!"

Which Natalie mistook for "Weeee!" and she happily replied, "WEEEEEE!" and threw another raisin at me.

That's when I realized that it wasn't a bug.

"Natalie. We eat food. We don't play with it," I chastised her as I parked at the mall.

Natalie's response?

To just throw down her box of raisins.

Okay then.

I got out her stroller and plopped her in there and we happily headed for Gymboree.

It was the same worker as yesterday, thank goodness, so when she saw me she smiled and went to retrieve the items she had pulled aside.

"I'm sorry I couldn't find anything for your boy," she said apologetically.

"That's okay," I said.

"I just have so much to go through in the back that I didn't have time.." she added.

Ooo. The back room again.

How I would love to get back there.

What she gave me was a huge bin full of girl clothes.

My heart started to race with excitement.

"Anything you don't want just set up here," she said, gesturing to the counter.

Of course right when my hand touched the clothes Natalie wanted out of her stroller.

"But sweetheart, Mommy is looking at clothes for you," I explained as though that would make her suddenly decide to sit back down.

No such luck.

She wanted out and she wanted out NOW.

So I had to put her on my hip as I went through the clothes with one hand.

I think I only put like 5 things back.

And seriously, that's me being good.

Because I wanted it all.

Then I wandered the store and found Tommy some shorts and a shirt.

And I have to point out that nothing was over $10. I think the dresses were $7.99, the bottoms $4.99 and accessories were about 99 cents and below.

Okay so I did spend $108.

But it's all for the summer and I walked out with a bag stuffed with clothes.

As I was walking to the car the phone rang.

It was Tom.

He must've sensed that I had just bought clothes or something.

Spiderman might have Spideysense.

The Jedis might have the Force.

But my husband has the "Oh crap, my wife has bought more clothes!" sense.

"Where are you?" he asked.

He had been sleeping when I left and I assumed that he would keep sleeping until I got back.

"Gymboree," I said lightly making it sound like I didn't just spend $108.

"Of course," Tom replied. I could imagine him rolling his eyes.

"Do you need anything while I'm out?" I quickly asked before he could ask me how much I spent.

"No," Tom said. "So how much did you--"

"LUNCH!" I burst out with.

"Huh?" Tom was perplexed.

"We should do lunch," I said. "I'll meet you at Perkins."

"I guess we can do that..."

"See you there!" I said and hung up the phone.

Phew.

Ten minutes later we were walking into Perkins.

It should be called Old People Central because seriously, most of the patrons are over the age of sixty.

Natalie received a lot of compliments on her pumpkin hat that she had on.

"Did you make that?" one old lady wondered.

Hah!

Like I could ever learn to knit. I haven't the patience.

"I bought it. At Gymboree," I explained.

She raised an eyebrow. "Jamboree?"

"GYMboree," I corrected.

She still looked confused so I added, "It's a children's clothing store." I bit my tongue so I wouldn't add, "The best place EVARRR! Your grandchildren would LOVE it!" and scare the living crap out of her.

Anyhow, I decided to get the biscuits and gravy.

I started prattling to Tom on about how I sold stuff at Once Upon a Child, how good Natalie was even though she didn't want to sit--

"Tom, we must produce children who hate sitting or something..."

Then I talked about how good the desserts and Perkins looked and should we get a pie, did we NEED a pie, should I get a cookie, did I NEED a cookie--

"Amber." Tom cut me off mid-prattle.

"Huh?" I pretended to look baffled.

"How much did you spend at Gymboree?"

Oh.

Well damn.

"Not much," I said. "Ooo this pie looks delicious, Tom. Look at this pumpkin pie--" I jabbed my finger at a picture of a pumpkin pie covered in whipped cream.

"Amber," Tom said sternly. "How much?"

"I got summer stuff. None of it is for now. For next year which means I won't have to buy as much next year which I can do because I'm never as thrilled with Gymboree summer stuff as the fall and winter. I got some amazing deals and--"

I saw Tom's expression. He did not look amused.

"One oh eight," I muttered.

Tom's eyes nearly bugged out of his head. "One HUNDRED and EIGHT dollars?"

A few old people glanced over at us.

**Hello! Welcome to the Amber and Tom show. In this episode Amber has gone clothes shopping (again) and her husband Tom is not amused. Please join us next week when Tom retaliates and goes out and buys a bunch of new computer games.**

"But I got great deals," I assured Tom. "All the items I bought would have been well over $300. I know because the lady told me."

"I don't care that you buy clothes. It's just, we're sort of running out of space for them," Tom reminded me.

"I'm going to be selling some next month," I promised.

"I know you. You get attached to things." He made a face. "I bet you were sad to sell the exersaucer even."

It's true.

I was.

I nearly didn't hand it over. I held it to me for a few seconds before handing it to the lady. I think she thought I was nuts.

Tom dropped the whole clothes issue and moved on to another topic.

"Oh I saw a commercial last night. Taco Bell has new fruitistas. They're fruitistas and cream," Tom said.

Mmmmmmmmm.

I love their strawberry fruitistas. And now they've added CREAM to them?

Even better.

My eyes must've lit up because Tom went, "And yes, I'll take you to get one when we're done here."

Awww.

He knows me well.

He knows I MUST try the new things that fast food places offer.

I tried the Triple Berry and Cream Fruitista and it was delicious.

Tom, being the weirdo that he is didn't even want to try one.

"I just like simple things," he told me.

I will take pictures of all the clothes I got.

For now I have pictures of Natalie: