On why I should not be allowed to own a glue gun.

I knew that trip to Michaels would not go as easily as it might for say, oh, anyone else. First, Elisabeth decided this morning that she didn't want to go to Michaels. She already had a headband and didn't want anymore. You might think I would have jumped up and clicked my heels upon hearing this news, but I'm not that dumb. It would be just like the time we drove through Wendy's and she said she didn't want anything. So she didn't get anything. And then cried for a long tim about it. She is a little woman, after all. So when I picked her up from preschool, I asked her if she had changed her mind about making the headband and indeed she had. So off we went. First to CVS to purchase a headband and then to Michaels for the ecoutremants.

Let me set the scene. Elisabeth is jumping with every step, hyped up on whatever it is they fed her at preschool. Charlotte, on the other hand, is screeeeeaming - strapped into the shopping cart. And I asked where I might find the ribbon and the nice lady pointed me to the ribbon aisle. AISLE. Lindsay tells me there is an entire ribbon store in New York City. I have no doubt that an entire ribbon store would drive me quickly to illegal narcotics. Anyway - we started at one end and looked in the blue ribbon section, since that's her favorite color. When she found the one she eventually went with, she squealed with delight - which made the entire trip worth it. Even the other ladies in the ribbon aisle (who knew there was such a demand for ribbon...) looked up and smiled. So by then we had a headband and ribbon. We still needed flowers. Luckily we happened to walk down the wedding supply aisle and found perfect yellow and blue flowers.

I guess that I looked a little befuddled. With a shocking ability to read my mind, another Michael's helper lady said, "you know, you shouldn't use regular glue if you're planning on sticking those flowers to that ribbon." So she directed me to the glue gun aisle. Again -an aisle. Full of glue guns. So I found a cheap glue gun and set off to find ammo for it. There were bins full of bags. I made sure I got the regular sized ammo to go with the regular sized (i.e. not mini) gun.

So imagine my surprise when I got Elisabeth home and excited to make the headband and found out that some evil little Michael's helper had swapped the bag that I clearly picked up full of regular sized glue gun ammo and replaced it with mini glue gun sticks. What to do. I tried shoving the glue stick in anyway and shoved it down with a ball point pen. Bad plan, glue just came flying out the back and the pen is no longer usable. So I thought if I put enough mini glue sticks in that the rest of the gun would fill up with glue and eventually I could get the 5 drops of glue out that I needed. Let's just say that (a) glue guns are hot; (b) they can seemingly eat an endless supply of glue sticks; and (c) this glue gun in particular had a short lived career (5 mins tops). (I've been trying to come up with a joke here about how old horses go to make glue, where do old glue guns go? But the Bar Examiners have removed my sense of humor)

Elisabeth was very supportive throughout the glue ordeal:

"It's ok Mommy, we'll just go back to Michaels."
"It's ok Mommy, it doesn't need glue. Let's just read a book."
"It's ok Mommy, just call - she can help." (and, I did make one of those calls)

So finally we sit down with the Elmer's glue and wrapped the headband with the pretty blue ribbon. She was pretty happy with how it looked. Then Doug came home with cookie mix and within twenty seconds she had the refrigerator open, an egg out of the carton, the chair drug over to the counter, a spoon, and a bowl out saying "ok daddy, let's make cookies." "But, don't you want to help Mommy make your headband?" "No, I changed my mind - I can just watch from here."

You can see where I rank.

The headband, after all of this is nearly finished. It is "drying" and then I will take some pictures so you can all see my accomplishment. What I thought would take me 15 mins has so far taken me 2 hrs. What I thought would cost $5 has cost, well let's just say significantly more. But I have enough ribbon and glue and flowers to outfit the rest of our neighborhood with frilly headbands. I am definitely regretting my decision to throw out the last headband instead of at least try to clean it off...

(who would have thought I could write this prolifically on a trip to Michaels?)