TIME OFF

It felt nice to have a few hours all to myself!

It is (or was... 39 minutes ago) Friday! Brice is finally working again after being off for a month or so for school purposes. He was scheduled to work from 5-9:30pm and I really wanted to come to the mall with him. But I realized how hard it would be going around the busy mall by myself with Kyla, who always whines about how tired her feet are already (and that shopping is sooo boring- thank God!), and Kaelene, who for some reason whenever we're in the mall decides she'd rather be carried by either me or Brice instead of sitting in her stroller. So I decided to stay home and just do some cleaning up (yeah right!). But everything changes when Kyla decided (last minute- as always) she didn't wanna stay home and she wanted to go to Brice's sister's place and play with her cousins. So Brice called up his sister and asked if it was okay for Kyla to stay with them 'til he's done work. She said it was fine and that Kaelene should come over too. When Brice told me that they wanted Kae over too, I thought, "hmm... maybe I should go to the mall..." Brice and I made sure that it was really okay for Kae and Kyla to stay there without either of us before I made my final decision: "YES! I AM GOING TO THE MALL!"

I got ready in less than 5 minutes and off we went. After we dropped off the girls, Brice and I drove to Yorkdale Mall. He was teasing me saying how I was all dressed up and my reply? "Of course! I'm going to be single for the next few hours!" :-) When we got to the mall, Brice got off and hurried to work while I had to go find parking- on a Friday afternoon! Thank God it only took me less than 5 minutes to get a spot- I've waited more than 30 minutes in the past! As I turned off the engine, I had butterflies in my stomach. Hahaha! I realized that I haven't been in the mall all by myself and all dressed up in a very looooonnnnnngggggg time!

I had 4.5 hours to kill. I told Brice I was gonna get soooo bored cuz I usually finish walking around the whole mall in an hour. He told me to just chill and finish reading my book. But whatever! I was gonna enjoy the few hours of freedom I have from being MOMMY. So I started walking around and I went inside pretty much every single store in the mall. I wasn't planning on shopping (cuz I'm broke as it is- haha!) but I NEEDED to find me and Brice something to wear for Christmas Eve... something CHEAP (at Yorkdale!). I went inside Mexx, Club Monaco, Dynamite, Zara, H&M, A&E, Gap, RW&Co., Aldo, Brown's, just to name a few. It was then that I realized how much different being there by myself was compared to when I have the girls with me. I actually got to see every single item the store had, I got to try on stuff (I would've gotten these really nice pair of jeans but they weren't on sale... ggggrrrrr...) and I didn't have to worry about Kyla complaining how bored she is and/or Kae crying cuz she's... well, take your pick: hungry, hot, wet diaper, or probably just bored too. Also, I finally got to go in the newly-opened Crate&Barrel. I finally got to go inside stores I've never been to even after the hundreds (maybe I'm exaggerating just a bit) of times I've been to Yorkdale. And I've discovered a few things, too! The 'Hudson's Bay' store in Yorkdale has 4 levels! I always thought that that 'Bay' store was boring. Boy, was I wrong! It was almost as big as the downtown store. And afterwards, I walked and walked some more until my feet started to hurt.

When I finally decided to sit down and read (I totally forgot about the book I wanted to finish reading), it was almost time to go home! Wow! I actually spent almost 5 hours walking around and shopping- a bit. I waited for Brice outside his work and when he came out, I showed him everything I bought and... NONE OF THEM WERE FOR ME! They were all for the kids! When he asked me how my 'time off' went, I said it was nice not having to worry about feeding Kae, changing her diaper and pushing the stroller around! Kyla wasn't there to repeatedly ask me how I could possibly find walking around the mall 'fun' and complaining that she's tired and hungry (and she'll only eat at Casey's at Yorkdale). Then I realized, I actually missed my two girls and I couldn't wait to come home and just do whatever we usually do at home- watch TV/movies, play Monopoly or just lie in bed playing DS or just simply talking about how our day went.

Oh... and I couldn't wait to have dinner... (all that "mall-ing" made me forget that the last meal I had was more than 8 hours ago!) Thank God for cheap Jap food take-out!