In My Defense

I know, when your kids start out with something like 'Mom, don't get mad', you know that someone is injured, something is broken, or someone is in trouble. This is a story just like that, although no one was harmed in the making of this story.

So, in my defense, I really was ok with just getting the kids stuff for Christmas. Its just that type of year, with money being tight (for most everyone, I'm sure). Plus, all of the things that I want (fence to keep Pixie in our yard, new camera) were definitely outside the budget. So, even for the camera, I was willing to wait until my birthday.

That was until we went to Cabela's Bargin Cave. We were at Cabela's to buy a present for my brother-in-law and, of course, Keith has to visit the Bargin Cave. On the table, as we were leaving, we find a camera marked down to $80. It was the Cannon Powershot A470 (7 Megapixels).


Now I have a Powershot (A20, bought in 2001) and I love it. It still takes beautiful pictures. And when the cashier told us that it was marked down even lower to $50, I think the flood gates opened in my little heart. Maybe I could get a camera?! Sure, its not quite the latest thing, its a little funky looking, it didn't come with any of its accessories or a memory card, it didn't have a fireworks mode and . . .

. . . it wouldn't focus on anything in the store. Bubble burst (if this were a sitcom, this would be where you'd hear the audience 'ahh' in sympathy). Keith tried for quite a while trying to get that camera to work, but in the end we had to give up and leave that as camera broke. Both Keith and I, all day long, would talk about that camera, what a good find that would have been. I still was under the delusion that I could wait until my birthday. I even told Keith at bed-time that I didn't want him to look for cameras, that I'd wait.

That lasted until I woke up. The first thing I did was browse Costco.com and find the Cannon Powershot A590 (8.1 megapixels) for not that much more than the A470.


That's when the little kid in me jumped out and shanghai'd the adult Kim. You know how kids are when they are excited, they don't breath when they are talking and its all one sentence like

'Mom, Ifoundthisdoganditfollowedmehome,
andIreallywantokeepit. I'llfeeditandwalkitand...'

So, imagine me on the phone,

'Keith,Ifoundthecannon590, anditsonly130dollars, andithasthefireworksmodeljustlikeTiffany'scameradoes,and...'

It took quite a while on the phone before I would breathe in between sentences and put space between words.

I also had to appologize for all the times I thought ill of Keith for this exact behavior. I have gained an understanding of how my dear husband's mind works.

The rest of Tuesday was me searching for the best buy online and then going to Fry's and Best Buy to get the price match. In the end, I was resting at home on the couch with my new camera and trying to figure it out before the big picture taking events of Christmas Eve at Grammy's, Christmas morning at home and Christmas Day at Grams' house.

I really topped myself this year. Last year, I bought myself a nice blouse.

The hard part was being the kid that got sent in first to calm Mom down before you dragged in the actual banged up brother. So you'd have to run in, 'Hey, Mom, everything's fine. I just wanted to run in at full speed and say hi. And OK, so, you know Kevin? Of course. Well, you know how his right arm -- usually it would bend like that? It's not bending like that right now. And it's no big deal because we already looked at it. But we were thinking, since you said that you had to go get milk later anyway, then we were all thinking if, when you go, you just might want to take him to the hospital? And if you get peanut butter, get smooth.'
~ Bryan Regan, Bryan Regan Live