Dear lady at Academy...

I need to publicly apologize to the sweet girl who ran the cash register at the customer service desk at Academy Sports.  I'm sure when she waved me over to her lane to checkout, she had NO idea what was about to hit her.

I took Yuri and Gigi to buy cleats and gloves for tee-ball.  Yuri is playing for the first time, and Gigi thinks she is too.  I've tried to explain the "bat girl" concept to her, but I don't think she gets it. 

We did pretty well during the shopping phase.  Yuri wanted pink cleats, but they didn't have any, so she settled for some that I told her look just like Haley Rae's.  Gigi wanted "boy shoes", of course.  (She's completely into all things boy-related... Superman, dinosaurs, etc.).  I got her the ugliest, clunkiest pair of cleats she could find, just to keep the peace. 

After we finished shopping and took two trips to the potty, our quick trip into Academy had turned into 45 minutes and $132.00, but we were finally ready to check out. 

I got in line behind a couple of other people, but then the girl at the service desk waved us over to her lane.  Sucker. 

Yuri started the "conversation"... and she said all this without ever drawing a breath...

"Uh, ma'am, how much is this?  how about this?  do you like these shoes?  what's your name?  what's your mama's name? do you know baby Sutton?  do you work at Wal-Mart too? My mama bought me some gummies.  Gigi's favorite color is green, but my mama said the green ones are too spiiiicy.  do you have some chocolate?  what does that button do?  what's that sound? what happened to your finger?  you got a boo-boo?......."  and so on...  (thank goodness she didn't blurt out that her daddy pees in the grass - that actually happened a few weeks ago)

All the while, Gigi is in the background saying "something stinks.  something stinks. something stinks. something stinks".   

As we're leaving, the cashier says goodbye to Yuri and Gigi. Yuri yells out, "Byeeee!  I LOVE YOU!!" And Gigi yells out "Byeeee!  I WILL MISS YOU!!"

People all around us are smiling and I can tell by the looks on their faces what those smiles meant.  Half of them looked at me and thought - "Aw, they're so sweet.  You're very blessed".  The other half looked at me and thought - "Aw, they're cute.  BUT HAVE YOU LOST YOUR MIND, WOMAN!?!?" 

I am definitely blessed, but I'm not sure my mind is completely intact either.