Way to go EK!!

I needed to get new tires for my car. After doing some research, I found Costco to have the best deal. My plan was to drop EK off at therapy in Irving at 1pm, drive back to Southlake to get new tires, and make it back to get EK at 3pm. Are you laughing?? When I called Costco, I was disappointed to hear they don't take appointments...they take you in the order you come, which would be ok, if I was the first in line. ;) The guy told me it'd probably take between 2-3 hours. Bummer!

So, I called my mom to see if she could help us out. New plan: Take EK to therapy at 1pm. Drive back to Costco to get new tires. Have mom meet AC and me at Costco at 2:30 to go pick up EK. Come back to Costco to pick up my car with new tires. Sounded easy enough! :)

The first part of the plan worked just fine. AC and I dropped off the car around 1:15pm and went inside Costco to eat lunch. (I love their pizza!) We walked around for a little bit. My mom came at 2:30 and we moved the car seats from my car to hers. (My car hadn't gone in yet to be worked on, it was supposed to be next.) We went to get EK from therapy and came back to Costco. I was hoping it would be done by then, since it'd been 2 hours. Well, as we're walking in, I see my car in the garage with no tires on. I was a little disappointed and decided to go inside and ask about it. The guy told me about 15-20 minutes more.

My in-laws came in town that afternoon and I decided to pick up some rotisserie chickens for dinner. My girls LOVE them AND they say "gluten-free". Since my mom was with me, I decided to venture into the store with EK and AC. Now, remember, I don't take EK on many errands anymore. There's always a chance she'll have a huge meltdown (for a reason I don't always know) and I won't be able to get what I need. I had NO idea how she'd do. We walked in, got a cart to put the chickens in, and I decided to let EK walk and hold my hand. (I also figured it'd be better for her to not see how many people were there.) We walked back to get the chickens and then looped around to get a few samples. She did fantastic in the store. No fussing at all! But as we approached the check-out lines, I started to worry. It was crowded and we had to wait a few minutes. She fussed some when I tried to pick her up when she was dropping to her knees. I put her down and reminded her to stand. That was the end of the fussing. :)

We went back to the tire area and checked on my car. STILL no tires!! I asked the guy at the front desk and he said it should be 5 more minutes. After 5 minutes, I walked back again to check and asked the guy who was finally putting tires on it. He said 10 more minutes. During that 30-40 minute period, EK never got upset. She just stood and held my hand. I was so pleasantly surprised!!!

We finally left Costco at 4:10pm. I'm happy to have my new tires and I'm relieved that EK did so well!! It makes me a little ambitious to try other outings with her. Hopefully I'll have more stories like this in the near future.

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