Why Brandon is afraid for his future.

I ran out of laundry detergent Monday morning. As any mom will tell you, running out of dishwasher or laundry detergent will bring a household to a halt. So, after ballet Meredith and I went to Costco.

When our entire family goes to Costco, I have to set aside at least an hour. If it’s busy, and hour and a half. We also spend way more than we need to. Merdi and I can be in and out buying only what we need. And yes, we needed a three pound bag of pita chips and a huge tub of hummus. (Which, by the way, was labeled, "hommus." I found that slightly unnerving, but I managed to gorge myself just like hummus.)

As we were rolling towards the detergent aisle, Meredith couldn’t help but notice the ginormous inflatable water slide/basketball court/climbing wall/pool suspended from the ceiling. Of course she wanted to buy it. Heck, I wanted to buy it!

Meredith: “Oh WOW!!! Mom, let’s buy that! It’ll be perfect for the yard!!! My friends will freak out!!!”

Me: “Oh, gosh I don’t think so. That’s a lot of money.”

Meredith: “O.K., I’ll buy it.”

Me: “It’s $744. Do you have $744?

Meredith: “No, but you do.”

Me: “No I don’t.”

Meredith: “Well you don’t, but Dad does and you have Dad’s cards.”

Me: “I’m pretty sure Dad would be really, really mad at us if we brought that home.”

Meredith: “No, he won’t. He won’t know about it. We’ll hide it in the garage and we won’t get it out on the weekends.”

Uh oh. I recounted the story for Brandon and his only response was, “Yeah, well I know who won’t ever have a card.”

I tried to find a picture of the inflatable heart’s desire, but Costco doesn’t even have it on their website, which is a good thing. If Meredith knew how type, it would probably arrive via UPS by week’s end.