Ice cream, Poop and a Sam's Membership Card

Ryan finished work early this past Saturday and with the weather being so lovely, we decided to go get ice cream. How wonderful to take your little girl to get ice cream during the early spring! After debating whether or not to take Shelby and Bronco, we gave in and decided they needed to get ice cream too. (We have been feeling quite guilty that they haven’t been on our more recent walks; its just too dramatic with all the dogs in the neighborhood. So now they just stand at the fence and whine as we take Lydia down the road....very sad.) Anyways...back to ice cream...we parked at Cold Stone, rolled down the windows for the dogs, and headed in to make our yummy selections. I ordered my coffee ice cream with cookie dough and Ryan, who is holding Lydia, whispered, “Ashley, I smell something.” I leaned in to smell my daughter and I didn’t smell anything...I even checked and didn’t see anything. Ryan ordered, we paid, and I carried out the ice cream. Walking back to the car, Ryan exclaims, “Ashley, she has just pooped all over herself!” I didn’t believe it so I looked at my little girl only to see poop down her leg. I put the ice cream on the floorboard of the back seat so I can change her. Poop was everywhere....on her clothes, in her shoe, on the car-seat, on the backseat....everywhere. I threw off one of her poop laden shoes, nearly missing Ryan’s ice cream. He shouted, “Don’t get poop in my ice cream.” If you have ever tried to change a diaper using the backseat of a car...this is nearly impossible...especially with her car seat in the way. I feverishly wiped her. Meanwhile, the dogs wanted to leap over the seat to get the ice cream. “Why did we bring them again?” I thought to myself. Ryan attempted to help me lift legs right before Lydia hit her head on the seat buckle and started crying. I threw the dirty wipes onto the floor....you guessed it, next to the ice cream. “Ashley, I said don’t get poop in my ice cream!” I took a moment to take a deep breath feeling the tension mounting. By that time my darling husband said out loud to himself, “You know what Ryan, how about we move the ice cream for your wife while she changes her diaper.” Threat neutralized. We got a to-go bag for the soiled garments and threw away the dirty rest. Thinking about it now...I feel awfully bad for putting a dirty diaper and wipes in the trashcan inside of the Cold Stone...those poor patrons! Lydia was all clean at this point but now does not have any clothes. Nevertheless, we sat in the back seat next to our recovering child and enjoyed our ice cream...in our poop smelling car.

One of our other goals for the day was to see if a Sam’s Club membership would be good for our grocery budget. Since we were planning on taking Lydia inside and I didn’t have a change of clothes, I made a quick outfit run in a nearby Buy Buy Baby. Having a clothed child, we head to Sam’s....along with everyone else in Augusta on a Saturday. “Well, we are already out,” we thought. We each grabbed a huge drink to sip on while we went inside, some relief. It was actually the first time I had ever been inside a Sam’s so I was impressed. To make an already long story short...I almost ran into a lady with Ryan’s blue poweraid....Ya know...one of those “Hey Ashley watch out!” just as you are turning to see what it is and then bam!....this poor lady was about an inch from total devastation... and Lydia later dumped all of her “puffs” on the floor. Oh, yeah and stand in the long line with your infant with no puffs in order to get a membership card. Sam's trip: check. Ugly membership card picture: check.

What a day. The Lord really came through for us in giving us an abundance of patience for each other, Lydia, and the rest of Augusta who decided to shop on a Saturday afternoon. In fact, we laughed and had a deep sense of how blessed we are as we headed back to the car...very rare and inorganic feeling after such a frustrating day.