My Wal-Mart Woes

Wal-Mart is not my favorite place to shop. I am forced there by the low prices. I endure the long lines, crowded aisles, and bad service to feed a hungry family of six. Well today's trip takes the cake!

I left Noah and Isaac with Bo and headed off with a long list of things we needed: household items, groceries for the week, and baby food. Isaac isn't ready for baby food, but I had ten coupons that expired soon so I went ahead and stocked up with four full bags of pureed bananas, sweet potatoes, squash, green beans....you get the idea. So anyway, I get to the check out and there are HARDLY ANY CASH REGISTERS OPEN so all the shoppers are crammed into LONG LINES and forced to WAIT while hoping the milk doesn't go bad in the meantime. I decide to be patient and make the best of it. What the heck, I'm kid-free, I'll just relax, clean out my purse, text the kids. Joshua and Caleb and I text back and forth a while and then PRAISE GOD it's my turn. It's been about twenty or thirty minutes. I load all my stuff onto the belt and the cashier rings everything up and scans my coupons. On the last one, the little computer thingy that controls the register FREEZES UP and she can't complete my transaction. A manager comes over and says "wait a few minutes and see if it will clear". Wonderful, more waiting. There is still a LONG LINE, mind you, and people GETTING ANNOYED behind me. So the cashier and I just stand there, waiting on the computer, looking each other. My phone beeps and it's Bo, texting me "BABY HUNGRY". Now I get upset. I tell the cashier I can't continue to wait, I am breastfeeding and my baby is hungry. The manager comes back to see if the cash register came back to life and when she sees it hasn't, tells me we have to re-scan everything. WHAT????? Yes, I had to pull all my bags out of the cart, dump everything back on the belt of a new cash register, and re-scan every item INCLUDING ALL FIFTY OF THOSE LITTLE BABY FOOD JARS. This takes another twenty minutes and by then my patience is gone, my breasts are full, and my nerves are frayed. Jesus help me.