Bad Day

Today started out good and ended good, but in between wasn't so good.

After walking Nathan to Fenner, Elijah and I walked home.  We were able to spot some bird families.  One was a Great Crested Flycatcher family:

Image from allaboutbirds.org

The other was an Eastern Kingbird family:

Image from allaboutbirds.org

Pretty great!

After Nathan did his NestWatch, we ate lunch and headed to the dentist (yay! :/).  What an unpleasant surprise that instead of scheduling all of us, the receptionist apparently only scheduled me.  So, I had brought all five kids with me and only Nathan got to see the dentist (he has braces and HAS to be seen every six months).  Now, we're off schedule from each other which means more trips to the dentist.  We went home and dropped Nathan, Elijah, Sariah, and Brigham off there and May and I started a long list of errands.  Seems she's tired of always being left home in charge and would rather do tiresome errands.

Our first stop was Dunham's.  Just this morning, my back started hurting while we were walking our six miles.  That's a sure sign that I need new walking shoes.  With a trip to the U.P. right around the corner, I wasn't going to survive without new shoes.  Too bad for me that Dunham's didn't have shoes that would work for me!  This added at least one more store onto our list.

We headed to the Health Food store for our powdered soy milk.  This was a benign trip.

Next we went to Radio Shack for a new battery for my tracphone.  Nope.  They could order it in for $18, but it would take five days.  In five days, I won't be here.  But, I could buy the SD card for Nathan's camera and did get sent to Batteries Plus.

At Batteries Plus, I got the bad news that they wanted $38 for the battery.  My kids just got tracphones that only cost $10 each.  No way will I pay $38 for the battery alone.  But, my number came off my Blackberry, so I've had it for a long time and it's on all the emergency, dr. etc. forms.  Can't change the number.  What to do?  How annoying.

Next we visited Dick's Sporting Goods.  Why are there only three pairs of WOMEN'S hiking boots/shoes to choose from?  I ended up looking at men's and not being entirely satisfied with any of them.  I decided to take some home and wear them around the house for a couple of days to see if I decide I like them.  Good news at this store, because the shoes were marked $89.99, but they rang up $42 plus some change.

Our final stop was Meijer.  Here we were only buying the non-food items for the camping trip.  We found most of what we needed, only there were no rubber bands.  I need rubber bands in my van kit.  Another trip added on sometime in the next coming days.  This trip was DE-pressing since it was so expensive.

Reading over all of this, I really don't know what the big deal was.  I must have woken up grouchy.  In my own defense, I did do A LOT of strength training yesterday and was feeling low on energy.  I do think that given what happened at the Dentist today, I began to look at things in a negative light and didn't really recover from hit all day long.

Then tonight, Joseph and the kids helped me clean the van out and Joseph took me shopping for the food we'll need for camping.

Tomorrow, we look forward to a trip to a bog near Grand Rapids and yummy food at the Twisted Rooster.  If you are from Michigan and haven't eaten at the Twisted Rooster, I recommend it.  Interesting, tasty food.  There are three locations.

Sorry for whining.  I'll go to bed now and maybe tomorrow I'll be all smiles! :)