Can you hear me now?

Think its going to be another story about cellular service? Nope!

It's gonna be a tale of a man who shows endless amounts of evidence that he doesn't listen to his wife. She speaks. The sound goes to the husband's ears. The sound comes out the other ear. Nothing left in between in those ears. NOTHING!

Friday night after the kids were in bed I was chatting with my hubs.

Me: So what's our plan of attack for tomorrow's trip?

[We were going up to celebrate a birthday party at his cousin's house]

Hubs: We're going up around 10am. We'll stop by the mall for lunch. We can pick up a gift at the mall. Then we'll head over to the party.

Me: Where you planning on picking up the gift?

Hubs: The Children's Place

Me: We always go to there to get her (the birthday girl) a gift.

Hubs: Well, where do you suggest we go?

Me: Why don't we go to Kohl's that's right next to the freeway? Then we can grab some lunch at In-N-Out Burger across the street. Then we can go to the new IKEA store down the street after that.

Hubs: Hmmm...

Yesterday we drive up. Where is he driving to? The MALL! The thing about the mall is that he always parks in the same area all the time. The Mall is shaped like a capital A. He always parks at the end of the bottom right leg of the A. The food court? It's at the top of the A. So we have to walk all the way with two not-so-happy kidlings to the food court.

Once we've finished eating. Where do we head to buy the gift? The Children's Place. Thankfully, we detoured to the Gymboree store & picked something from there. Of course, he bought something at full price. And it wasn't the cutest thing there. It was cropped jeans and a striped t-shirt. Of all the things to pick! If you're going to pay full price you might as well select a unique cute outfit. You know?

We were finished. We headed back to the car. The long trek back to the car. The party started at 2pm. It was only 1pm. What did the man do? He drove to IKEA! We ended up parking a 10-minute walk away. We had to park across the street at a fitness center.

Me: Why are we even bothering? Let's just go. [I say this as he's looking for parking]

Hubs: Why? Let's do some window shopping.

Me: Fine. But I'm NOT going to carry your children.

We trek in. The hubs and I trek in. He is carrying BOTH kids. We got in. It's a madhouse. They're having a sale. Window shopping? Nope! It was all about trying to maneuver. Trying to keep an eye on the Bear (who wanted to wander on his own). About 20 minutes of trying to browse. I get sick of it. He's not keeping up with me. He's not looking at the stuff I'm trying to show him. The kids are cranky monsters. It's NOT fun. Going to IKEA is supposed to be FUN! We attempt to make a quick exit. No doing. It's a long trek out.

It's along trek out when you end up carrying a 30-pound child on your hip. And then carry said child on your shoulders when your arms feel like they're going to drop off your body.

Then we show up 30 minutes late for the party.....Go figure!

Now if he had gone with my plan? We wouldn't have any wasted time driving to and from place. We wouldn't have wasted time carrying the kids in and out of places. We could have gone to Kohl's and easily selected some clothes. They've got those cute little carts so if the kids didn't want to walk we could have kept them occupied with cart racing. Eating at In-N-Out Burger is always a hit. We could have eaten outside (it was about 70 degrees) and had the kids run around a bit to burn some energy. Then we could have gone to IKEA early so I didn't feel rushed. But NO! He didn't listen to me yet again. And we ended up with a cluster#uck. The kids were cranky. I was cranky. Not a good scene.