The Stolen Swing

Jeremiah and I had a great time shopping for Dalaney's birthday.  It's the first time since she's been home that we had bought her anything to play with and it was super fun now that we know what things she likes.  In fact, we made a day of it.  We all went to Florence and went out to lunch and then walked all over Toys r Us letting Dalaney play with things as we made the final decisions about what her birthday gifts would be.

We finally narrowed down our choices and headed to the checkout with a baby pool, a swing for the porch, some noisy toys, and a set of blocks.  Our cart was pretty full with the pool and the giant box for the swing.

The checkout lines were pretty full and we got lucky when a nice lady opened up a new line and people quickly filed in behind us and our full cart.  The check out lady signed me up for a Toys r Us reward card and in doing so I gave her my email address which has Grant County in it.  She asked if I worked at the school and I told her I did.  It turns out that her brother subs at our school and had even subbed in my room before.  As we were chatting, she was ringing up our purchases as I put them on the counter and I ended up having to get the box with the swing in it out of the cart for her to scan.

  We finished up and headed to the car just as Dalaney started to let us know she had had enough shopping for the day and was ready to go home!  As I was driving on the interstate, I got to thinking that my total at Toys r Us wasn't as much as I thought it was going to be.  I dug around in the bag on the seat beside me and looked at the receipt as I was driving.  (I know - very safe driving habits!)  From what I could tell from my quick glances at the receipt, the swing wasn't on there.  Huh?  But I specifically remember picking up the box for the cashier to scan....that makes no sense.  Puzzled, I told Jeremiah I thought we hadn't paid for the swing, and he said, you mean we stole it!!!??? 

Everybody had a great laugh about the stolen swing, but I didn't really want to drive all the way back to Florence that day to pay for it.  So, I decided we would go ahead and give her the swing for her birthday and return the box and receipt, explain what had happened and pay for the swing the next time we were in Florence.

With that decided, I wrapped the huge box and gave it to Dalaney to unwrap at her party.  The morning after her party Jeremiah and I decided to hang the swing on the front porch and let the swinging begin.  I wish you could have seen my face when I cut the tape on the top of the box and opened the lid.  There wasn't just one swing in the box, there were four swings in the box.  I had inadvertantly "stolen" and entire packing box of swings!  Jeremiah and I laughed ourselves silly over this and Jodi has added this to my list of "criminal behavior" and says I migh not be a fit parent with such bad habits! 

You'll be happy to know that the swing hanging on my front porch has now been paid for and the packing box and extra swings have now been retured to the the Toys r Us without further ado.  Even so, I'm pretty sure Dalaney's swing will always be referred to as "the stolen swing!"

Dalaney seems to like the swing an awful lot and I'm wondering if it's more fun because it's stolen! :)