Wood or Laminate?

I decided to stop by Lowes yesterday on our way home from our picnic in the park. Matt and I had finally decided to purchase some wood flooring instead of the can't scratch it laminate for our new house. (Usually laminate is cheaper than wood and will hold up better with kids for scratching so we had planned to go with laminate, but me and my discount shopping skills found some wood that was discounted. We had to decided to go with the cheaper, nicer looking wood instead of laminate that will probably hold up better in the long run...conundrum). I thought it would take maybe 15 minutes...I'd already selected the product and talked to a sales associate about where we could buy more (they only had 12 boxes on hand locally and since it was a discontinued product, thereby discounted, I had to order from other stores to make up 45 boxes total). I picked up some shakes on the way thinking that would occupy the kids while I made the purchase. Unfortunately 10 minutes into the store, Grayson dropped his shake upside down on the floor with no lid. I picked up that mess, all the while talking to a new sales guy. G wanted to leave right then and there to get a new shake. The new sales guy was nice, but oh my word not smart enough to work in flooring or anywhere where it requires you to call other stores to see if a ready-to-make-a-purchase customer can purchase the remainder of a product every store in your fleet is trying to get rid of!! Matalley followed Grayson's lead and 10 minutes after picking up his shake, I was frantically trying to remove chocolate shake from the inside of my purse where Matalley "accidentally" dropped her treat. All the while, asking my salesman if there was anyway to look up the boxes by item number to determine which stores might have some on hand, rather than calling every store in the beloved U.S. (just trying to save some time). About an hour or so into my dealings with him, he decides to call the distribution office to see which stores might have stock on hand...seriously dude?!?! Was he not tired of my children asking for a new shake every 2 minutes that he couldn't have thought of that an hour before, when I suggested it?

So he gets the store numbers (3 of them) and their phone numbers but doesn't bother to ask where they are located. It was almost like he enjoyed watching me not strangle my 2 adorable, chocolate covered children while I desperately tried to keep them from touching, annoying, hitting, spilling, running, yelling, screaming, etc. At least we had the store numbers right? Oh no, before he starts calling he decides to try and not sell me the hardwood, but to purchase the laminate they have in-stock. After 15 minutes of his sales pitch, he realizes that I really just want to buy the hardwood I came in to buy and am not in the right mind to make a decision about another type of flooring (and neither were the kids). Very perceptive man, ha, ha. So he starts at the top of the calling list. Meanwhile I get online(thank you iphone) to look up the store numbers of each store to determine which is the closest to Amarillo, call the closest, buy the product over the phone, and work out a delivery schedule before the salesman can get through the first call. AND that is why you should go to school or at least learn to use the brain God gave us. Also, it was a very good lesson for me for a number of reasons, like why I should not buy chocolate shakes for my kids or plan to make a quick trip anywhere before nap time. I honestly could have done the entire shopping trip from home if I'd had enough foresight....and the stupidity cycle comes full circle:)

Oh well, at least I got to enjoy Grayson racing the baseball mascot around the ball park last night at the game...oh wait, no I didn't. G was dragged by Matt around the bases because he was too chicken to get on the field. He kept saying, "I'm not a baseball player."

After the game, we stopped by the house to see the progress the plumbers had made on our slab leak. This is where the new flooring will go, once the holes are filled in:) Matalley walked in and said, "Oh no, who did this?"