Smells Like A Grandma

The back of my van is the storage unit for all pending D.I. donations. It has been full for quite some time now so I thought I would do the family a favor and finally donate the donations.

I always tell myself I won't go in, "Liz, you know you have enough junk. DSSH will poke fun at you if you bring home any more D.I. stuff. Don't do it, Liz, don't do it. Aw, great! There she goes. Oh no, she sees the book section..."

At which point I throw up my hands in sweet surrender and go back out to the car to bring the kids into the store. Pablo steps through the door and stands there while I load Sweet Terror and Monster Man into the cart, "Monster Man, if you don't sit on your bum you are going to fall out and then you will bleed." I know I will be saying this to him every five minutes for the next hour. I know I shouldn't have a kid sit in the back of the cart because it is dangerous. Let me just say that falling out and bleeding is safer than all the times I have lost Monster Man and all the times he has pulled stuff on top of himself while in stores (like the time he pulled/tipped the cart over while Sweet Terror was in it, and I was holding onto it). Meanwhile... Pablo is still standing there at the front of the store with his hands in his pockets seriously thinking about something. He figured out whatever it was that was bothering him because he then came over to me and loudly proclaimed, in front of everyone at the cash registers,

"MOM, THIS PLACE SMELLS LIKE A GRANDMA, THEY MUST HAVE GRANDMA'S HERE."

It was one of those moments where I was glad I wasn't drinking milk, because it would have come out my nose. I whispered, "You're right, you have a good nose", then I patted him on the head and pushed our cart towards all that grandma smelling booty. I love going to D.I for the books. They sell kid's books for 25-50 cents and at that price I can be ok with the fact that my kids like to use them to build trasportational highways. I like to go through the kid's books one by one so I don't miss any hidden gems. The kids are happy to sit and read books while I look for the first half hour. The next half hour is spent by repeating, "I promise we will go see the toys in just a minute, I'm almost done", while Sweet Terror drops books on my head as I thumb through the last of the very bottom shelf.

It was all worth it, in my selfish opinion, because I found some really great books, I only spent 9 bucks, I was able to get a shopping high and indulge in the self righteous feeling that I BUY BOOKS, all at the same time.

BOOK FOR ME

The sixty-year story of the world of Hollywood and its effect on America. From pre-nickelodeon days to the present (This is an old book because its "present" is 1956 and Gregory Peck).

I am going to LOVE this book. I will never forget seeing my first nickelodeon at an old ghost town exhibit with my mom and dad. I have been fascinated with old movies ever since.

BOOK FOR COOKIE (and me too!)

This book takes some of the greatest operas of all time and re-tells them in story format. I am so excited to read these with Cookie. I am going to find CDs of the operas so we can listen to them while we read.

I also found an ASL alphabet book, several great books for Pablo's science studies, illustrated folktales, historically correct coloring books, a book that has pop outs that build the alphabet letters in 3D, and many more. And all this is thanks to the Grandma Smelling Store.