What should have been an easy trip to Lowes wound up being longer than I anticipated.  Let me explain.

When Sam got home this morning, she was talking about the yard and the things that I need to get done.  She wanted me to run to Lowes to get some lawn/leaf bags, oil and filter for my mower, price out how much stain would cost to stain the porches, check to see if they had a couple stone squares that match our walkway, and a zero gravity chair (or cushions for our current yard furniture).

Andrew had my spare car key because he likes to hold it.  I told him to leave it in the car or give it to me and while we argued about this, my dad called.  It was a video chat, so we sat in the inner doors of Lowes talking to my dad.  Once he saw we were at the store, he said he would call us later. 

Ella got in the back of the cart and Andrew wanted to walk.  Lawn bags were right at the entrance, so we checked one item off the list quickly.  Then we walked over by the lawnmower stuff.  Naturally the kids had to get on all the riding mowers while I looked for the stuff for my mower.

Strike one.  They don’t carry my brand of mower, so there was no way to know if I had the right filter.  After this, we looked for her chair.  Strike two.  They didn’t have any in stock, but they did have cushions.  They were more expensive than I had hoped, but at least the chairs we have now are more comfortable.

Then we headed to the paint and stain.  I had done a quick measure of the porches and had an idea of square footage.  The stain can said it would cover about 250-300 square feet.  I called my father-in-law and asked if one can would be enough.  He told me that it should, but it might soak a lot of it up and may need a second coat. He told me to wait until we do a quick fix on a board that popped up, so I did.

While I called him, the kids were playing with these flashlights they found.  They immediately started asking for them.  I told them no, because they each had $40 flashlights in their hands.  I finally talked them each into getting little $3 ones. 

We went outside to look at walkway stones.  Strike 3.  They had the color I have, but not the same pattern.  Oh, and I didn’t know what size our stones were.  Because we were outside, the kids wanted to look at the flowers.  Now they are both out of the cart and running around. They were pushing spreaders, playing with fencing, and causing havoc.

We went back inside and went to the checkout, once I rang everything up and walked out the car, I grabbed my keys and loaded the car.  It was then that I remembered Andrew had walked in with my spare key.

“Bubby, where is Daddy’s key?”

“I don’t know.”

This leads me back inside the store for a  great search over every area we’d been.  I stopped at the service desk to ask if anyone had turned in a key first.  Nope.  So , we walked the entire store again.  I looked in every place he could have put it, including inside every spreader.

I felt bad for a guy selling a riding mower, because I was looking all around the one the customer was buying, just in case he dropped it.  Nope.

Paint aisle?  Nope.  Garden center?  Nope.  Chair aisle?  Nope.  I was just about to ready to give up when I remembered the flashlights. 

Sure enough, under a pile of small flashlights, there it was.  I was angry, but relieved.  Part of me thinks that I would have rather had him cry through the store because I wouldn’t let him hold the key than to have had to search the whole place for it.

The spare key is back on the hook of our key rack.