Just got a great deal!

I walk a lot.  I have foot issues that require me to wear lace-up shoes.  Between the walking conviction and the lace-up obligation, I live most of my life in athletic (tennis) shoes.  I’m hard to fit, and it’s very hard for me to find comfortable shoes.  I wear out tennis shoes quite rapidly.

Several years ago, I happened upon a style of Skechers, which I bought online and which fit me perfectly.  What a blessed relief!  Through the years, I have probably bought half a dozen or more pairs of the same style – sometimes online, sometimes in their local store.  The shoes usually run about $50 a pair, but if I can hit them at a sale, I’ve been known to buy two or three pairs at a time.

My current pair is falling apart, so as I prepared to pull out my last new pair, it occurred to me that I probably ought to order some more.  I went online and learned that THEY HAVE BEEN DISCONTINUED!!!  This was very, very bad news.

I then called the local store to see if perchance they still had a pair or two in stock, but sadly they did not.  “Gaye” told me that this is a very popular shoe, though, and that she might be able to find another store that still has some left.  None in Missouri, one pair in Texas, but wait!  A store in California still had four pairs!  She advised me to buy them all, and since our local store was running a Buy One Get One Half Off sale, once the California store opened, she’d call and see if they were also running the same sale.  She’d call me back.

I waited all day for the phone to ring and it did not, so at 5 PM, I called the store.  “Gaye” was on a conference call, but “Heather” knew of my request and told me that the California store did indeed have four pairs in stock (with the same sale) and she had reserved them for me.  All she needed was my credit card information, which I gladly gave her!

Very soon four pairs of my favorite tennis shoes will be headed my way for a grand total of $130.15, which averages out to $32.54 per pair, a superb deal, if you ask me.  This made me smile.

9:30 is now too late

Usually, we do the Wal-Mart shopping (mostly grocery with some non-food thrown in for fun) on Wednesday morning, right after Andrew’s 8:30 – 9:00 AM piano lesson.  At that time, we can slide right into a spot next to a cart corral, which is always my parking place of choice, and we can get our stuff and get out in a fairly decent amount of time.  On a good day, we’re back home before 10:00 AM.

This week, due to a special recital practice, we are apt to be at the piano lesson till 9:30 instead of 9:00 AM.  We then need to drive to Springfield and do Sam’s and the library before an 11:00 AM orthodontist appointment.  I had figured to do the Wal-Mart in Ozark on the way home, but I have an appointment in Branson at 2:00 PM, and although the Ozark Wal-Mart is quite fine, it’s laid out differently than Branson’s, so when I’m in a hurry, I get frustrated trying to find things in there.  Given all that, I decided to go ahead to our normal Branson Wal-Mart today (Tuesday).

The problem is that I didn’t decide that until 9:05 AM, and since I hadn’t yet made the grocery list, I didn’t leave the house till 9:15 AM, and I didn’t get there till 9:30 AM. It’s May 1 and the season is on, but I was able to snag the one remaining cart corral-adjacent parking place and whiz through the non-food purchases.  However, all whizzing abruptly ceased when I hit the grocery side. Numerous customers were driving electric wheelchairs and/or pushing carts v-e-r-y  s-l-o-w-l-ythrough the aisles.  I attempted to negotiate deftly, but this is hard to do when one is determined not to side-swipe LOLs (little old ladies).  Of course, LOLs have as much right to shop as I do, and since I may be one someday, I smile, cut them a wide swath, and treat them cordially.  After all, “the way you treat others is the way you will be treated!”

All that to say that I was emphatically NOT efficient on my Wal-Mart run, and cashier “Patty,” while good enough, is nowhere near as fast as “Nita,” “Magdalena,” or “Kathy.”  Sigh.  I just have to face the fact that 9:30 AM is now entirely too late to go to Wal-Mart.

Jeopardy question: What is $16.95?

Answer:  The cost to send up to four pounds of anything to Hong Kong.

Note that the “small flat rate box” and the “padded letter-size flat rate mailer” both go for $16.95.  The latter holds more than the former, but you will have to completely enshroud your package in packing tape to guarantee that it won’t rip open in transit.

My grocery decisions

In light of these self-evident truths:

1.  Wal-Mart’s produce leaves much to be desired.

2.  Harter House has generally good produce at generally high prices.

3.  Country Mart has generally good produce at extremely high prices.

4.  Most pre-packaged goods are much cheaper at Wal-Mart.

5.  The Harter House weekly specials that begin on Wednesday of each week are unknown to me (and therefore cannot be planned for) until Thursday’s mail runs.

6.  Harter House is 12 miles from home.

7.  Country Mart is 10 miles from home.

8.  Wal-Mart is 8 miles from home.

9.  Wal-Mart rarely has in stock at any given time the full list of things I’d like to buy there.

10.  Wal-Mart’s strawberries must be eaten the day they are purchased.

11.  No matter how much fruit I buy at any given store on any given day, it will be too much and some of it will go bad before we eat it.

12.  No matter how much fruit I buy at any given store on any give day, it will not be enough and we will run out of some of it before I get to a store again.

13.  Someone will want something from the store I just went to, right after I get home.

14.  I YEARN with deep longing for the days when I shopped at the grocery and at Wal-Mart on the same day, only ONCE a week. . .

My current plan is to go to Wal-Mart once a week and Harter House once a week.  When and how to do this with minimal trips away from home is yet to be determined.

Never seen ‘em ALL open before

Not even at Christmas!

Jessica and I made a small Wal-Mart run this afternoon for an odd assortment of items:

- a soap dispenser to replace the non-functional one in our bathroom

- some 40 watt light bulbs

- two pairs of scissors (in most houses pens go AWOL; in our house it’s scissors)

- smaller sweat pants for me   = )

- some miscellaneous groceries

Between light bulbs and scissors, we passed a white-haired gentleman who looked familiar.  As we passed him, I said to Jessica, “I believe that’s Mr. Smalley.”  I turned back and addressed him, and sure enough, it was!  I told him how much we appreciated his ministry and how much our family had benefited from his wisdom through the years.  He proceeded to tell us all about his latest focus on memorized and meditating on scripture; how it affects our actual brain structures and the fact that he’s working with Navigators on his newest DVD, which will be out in a week or so.  I shared that Andrew and I are currently working on the first 60 Navigators verses, and that Scott had made me memorize them when we were dating.  He thought that was a great pre-requisite for a romantic relationship.  He was just as engaging in person as he seems to be in his books and videos.  I walked away smiling.

Jessica and I moved on through the store and had finished most of our shopping (minus produce) when the lights went out.  Now, we were over near meat, and that sector got pretty dark, but it seemed that the lights were still on in the central part of the store.  Nobody panicked, and we just kept shopping, noting that all the bananas look greener in the dark and that in dim lighting it can be hard to distinguish a good head of Romaine lettuce (not that Wal-Mart is ever known for carrying good heads of Romaine lettuce) without a flashlight.

While we were there in front of lettuce, a charming female voice announced over the loudspeaker that Wal-Mart was experiencing a problem (no joke) and that everyone must move IMMEDIATELY to the front of the store and check out RIGHT NOW.  Jessica took off at a run, and I followed.  Something else was announced about there being only fifteen minutes that the cash registers would work, so we slid into a line and watched all the commotion as we waited.

The ONLY electrical things working in the entire store seemed to be the cash registers.  All the lights were out, and what appeared to be lighting in the center of the store was actually daylight through the skylights.  Even the conveyor belts were off and we manually pushed our purchases up to the cashier.  She was checking as fast as she could and another employee was sacking.  When do Wal-Mart employees sack anything?  The one sacking kept telling the one checking to go as FAST as she could, because the generator running the cash registers only had a few more minutes.  Interesting.

While I watched the checker madly sling our purchases to her left, I looked around and noticed that, as best I could determine, EVERY checkstand in the store was open.  They must’ve pulled every employee who knows how to work a cash drawer and sent ‘em all to the front.  I’ve always wondered why Wal-Mart installed 20+ check stands when only six or eight are ever in use even in the busiest of times.  At first I thought they put in so many because they’d need them at Christmas time, but they certainly weren’t all open then.  Now I know that they only need all those checkstands when the power goes out.

I paid fast, and we grabbed our stuff and ran out the door.  The door, by the way, was standing wide open, I suppose because it had been in that position when the power went off.  Outside, employees politely but firmly told people trying to enter the store that they could not.

All in all, it was quite the little experience, and Jessica and I agreed that it was about the most interesting Wal-Mart run we’d ever had – and trust me, we have had MANY Wal-Mart runs.

 

The great debit card mystery

Until a few weeks ago, I had never used a debit card in my life.  That was a good thing.  Debit cards and I don’t get along very well.  I know people who are lactose intolerant, and I am pretty certain that I am debit card intolerant.

One of our ministry bank accounts has a debit card.  Actually, since Scott and I are both signers on the account, we each have a debit card.  I never wanted a debit card – they don’t earn miles or hotel stays, they require a PIN, I’d rather use a credit card, etc. – but I have one.  Therefore I had to learn how to use it, and I debuted that process a few weeks ago at Staples.

We had set the PIN for the debit cards to a certain four-digit number that’s easy for us to remember.  We assumed that when we set that PIN, it was set for that account, period, end of discussion.  So when I went to pay for our ministry purchases at Staples, I was shocked and slightly embarrassed to have the little screen tell me that I had entered an invalid PIN.   I knew that PIN as well as my middle name.  It simply could not be invalid!

I faltered there at the checkstand, not knowing what to do to pay for my order, and of course, there were people in line behind me.  The cashier told me to try again, which I did, with exactly the same result.  Then he told me to just run it as credit, rather than debit.  I did, and I guessed that the bill was paid.  However, I was skeptical, so I immediately called the bank to find out if I would be sent a credit card bill for that transaction.  NO!  It turns out that that even by running it through as credit, it had already come out of our account.

Well, that made my lightning fast mind think, “Why use the debit feature at all?”  I came home and told Scott that the PIN was wrong.  He subsequently called the bank and was told that he’d have to come in personally to re-set the PIN.  Which he did, and we thought all was well.

All was not well.  We gave my card to one of our helpers, so that he could purchase some stuff for the ministry.  Lo, and behold, he had the same problem – invalid PIN – AFTER Scott had supposedly re-set the PIN.  I told him to run it as credit, and he did.   I called then called the bank to tell them that evidently the stupid PIN was wrong and to please re-set it to the four digit number of our choice, but my “Personal Banker” told me that the bank didn’t have any record of the PIN (really?!??) and that I would have to bring the card in personally to re-set it.  Sigh.  Life got busy, and I totally forgot about the problem – probably because I never use debit cards. . .

Then today, our helper was making a ministry purchase with the debit card, and he called to say that (of course) the PIN claimed to be invalid, but the store where he was shopping required the card to be run as a debit, not as a credit.  He had held up other people in line trying to deal with this.  How frustrating.   I asked him to pay for the supplies, and the ministry will reimburse him, but I was MIGHTILY fed up with the stupid debit card / PIN situation.

So I called the bank and was told (again) that I would need to bring the card in personally to re-set the PIN.  Why on earth a perfectly good PIN had to be re-set to what it already was made no sense to me, and a trip to the bank was not what I had planned today, but whatever.

I went to the bank.  I sat waiting for 15 minutes till “My Personal Banker,” “K,” appeared.  This lady is not my favorite person in the world.  We have dealt with her on numerous issues over the past couple of years, and about 63% of the time, she messes something up.  I was really fervently hoping to get the other personal banker, “S,” who is very professional and handles things well, but it was not to be.

Sitting at “S’s” desk, I calmly explained the problem and my frustration.  I handed her Scott’s debit card for that account and told her that I wanted to re-set the PIN.  (I did not mention to her that the PIN was already exactly what we wanted it to be and that why it would have to be re-set to itself was far beyond the reasoning powers of my 50-year-old brain.)  She asked why I wanted to re-set Scott’s PIN and I told her that someone else had my card.  She was okay with that.  She pulled up all the blurb on the screen and then announced that this debit card did not pull funds from the aforementioned ministry account, but from a different account we have!

At that point, I was dangerously close to losing my cool.  I called Scott and explained that I was his frustrated wife at the bank, that “K” said the debit card from our ministry account was actually pulling funds from a different account, and would he please speak to “K”  directly.  He would and he did.  She insisted it was a different account, but after a few minutes on the phone with My Hero, she realized, admitted, and apologized for her error.  It DID pull from that ministry account.

She then further explained to Scott the missing link that solved the great debit card mystery:  debit card PINs are tied to cards, not to accounts.  Golly Gee Whillilkers, as Gomer Pyle would say.  That cleared things up considerably.  If Scott had indeed re-set his PIN a few weeks ago (back to what it had always been), then his card should have worked fine, but mine – which our helper had – would not necessarily work.  It, of course, still had the initial correct PIN, which had never been re-set to the correct PIN.

I then re-set the PINs on both cards, and “K” walked me outside to the ATM, where we tried Scott’s card, and it worked.  I then called our helper and asked him to take his (my) debit card to his local bank branch and try it, which he did, and that card worked, too.  Hallelujah!!!

The only outstanding question is this:  Now that both cards have the correct PIN(s), (which are, uh. . .  the same PIN(s) they have had all along), how can we know if either card will work the next time we try to make a purchase?  And, of course, there is this corollary question:  When will one or the other of the cards decide that in order to function, it needs its PIN re-set to what it already is?

Dear Wal-Mart

Dear Wal-Mart,

It’s really a shame that I have had to leave my local grocery – the one where I have shopped every week for fourteen years, where the checkers watched our kids grow up, where the sackers know me by name and know I want paper without my saying a word, and where smiling staff load my groceries into the van for me – to do my grocery shopping at Wal-Mart.

I liked Country Mart a lot, but when Price Cutter bought them out, things went downhill fast.  First they raised their prices substantially.  Next, they started treating their employees (my friends, which see above) like dirt, and that made me mad.  Then they rapidly raised prices (15% and 20% at a whack) on almost everything.  They cut the selection and eliminated staple products I had bought weekly or monthly for years.  They raised prices more, and then they hiked the prices.

I can save about $35 a week by buying my groceries at Wal-Mart, although about every six weeks I do have to do a Country Mart run to stock up on a few things I can’t get at Wal-Mart.  However, the challenges of scheduling a Wal-Mart grocery trip are really becoming limiting.

It used to be that if I could get through the check-out by 10:00 AM, all was well, but now I have to be done by 9:00 AM in order to be able to do anything else with my morning.  I am a busy mom with kids at home who need my attention, and I need to be able to drive fifteen minutes to town, do my grocery shopping, check out, and drive back home – all in a little over an hour.  However, your new plan of having me stand in the checkout line for 2o minutes or more really cramps my style.  I think it wouldn’t bother me so much if I didn’t have to look at the 18 unmanned check stands while I stood and waited and listened to other disgruntled customers (last week, one lady behind me actually hollered, “OPEN UP SOME MORE LINES!”) and watched your exquisitely slow cashiers do their slow-motion show.

I used to be a grocery checker, and I can tell you that although we didn’t have scanners to slow us down, we checkers were fast – very fast.  We were paid to be fast and accurate, and we were incented to get faster.  We flew like the wind while we checked out groceries, and those were the days when we (not the customer) unloaded the cart!  I know from experience that it is possible to check groceries fast.  Granted, the scanners add a little time, but if checkers want to move fast, they can.  It’s just that most of your don’t, won’t, or can’t.  You do have a couple of fast ones and I know who they are, but sometimes they are not there when I am, or they are stationed on a 20 items or less line.  A true shame.

Last week, I got to the checkout a few minutes after 10:00 AM.  My bad, I know, but I had a full cart and it had taken longer than usual.  There were three 20 items or less lines open at the grocery end, but I didn’t qualify for those.  There was one big line open.  At the non-food end, there were two 20 items or less lines and one big line, but the big line was manned by a woman who I know to be slower than Christmas.  Back at the grocery end, I opted for the only other line in the entire store where I could check out, and it becmae obvious over time (and I spent a lot of time there) that the slower than Christmas dame must’ve trained the young lady I faced.

Well, I didn’t actually get to face her for almost 20 minutes, because she picked up each item, rolled it carefully around to look for the bar code, examined it closely, and then very slowly waved it in the direction of the scanner.  Now she was nice enough, but she was truly slower than molasses in January.  Meanwhile, my ice cream was melting (and she did not put it in a paper freezer bag), I needed to pick up my son from his piano lesson, and I was getting VERY frustrated!

WHY would a grocery store not have more than two big line checkers working on a Wednesday morning at 10:00 AM?  Don’t ladies still do their grocery shopping in the morning? Does it take rocket science for you to schedule your cashiers when the customers are there?

Financially and ethically, I’m stuck with Wal-Mart for groceries, but now that I know that I have to be done by 9:00 AM in order to be able to check out, I may have to forgo my morning constitutional on grocery days, and that would be very sad.

In any case, I have now resigned myself to visiting your store efficiently only before 9:00 AM and after 9:00 PM.  Frankly, I think Sam would be disappointed in you.

Sincerely,

Walnut Shade Mom

I’ve been alarmed

I think the world is getting a little too high tech.  I know what it’s like to set off an alarm when I leave The Library Center or Staples or even Wal-Mart, but this morning, I got beeped going INTO a store.

Yes, it was the Mart of Walls, of course.  It was 8:30 AM and I smiled at the friendly greeter as I sailed through those noble and extremely familiar portals.  My whole day was timed down to ten minute segments, and I was already ten minutes ahead (what joy!), but I was a woman on a mission, so it was a good thing that there were no small children or elderly women blocking my way.

As I breezed in, an alarm went off, but I knew it couldn’t be me (after all, I was going IN, not out), so I kept on striding.  But looking around to see which unfortunate soul HAD triggered such a loud alarm at such an early hour, I saw not a single human anywhere nearby – except the greeter, of course.  I paused and said to him, “it’s not me, is it?”  He replied that it probably was and then approached me with a scanner wand-type thing.  It gave me the same feeling I get when the foil wrapper on the Certs in my pocket triggers airport security.

Now, I was pushing a cart with only one item in it – my purse.  He said, “It’s probably some purchase you made at another store.”  I thought back over my morning.  The only other store I’d been to was Jiffy Lube, and although I had spent almost $60 there, I was carrying no purchased item to show for it.

The greeter was zoning in on my purse, and as any woman knows, a man reaching for your purse does not give you a warm fuzzy feeling.  I beat him to the punch, and zipped it open, so as to reveal that there was obviously nothing stolen in there – only my wallet, some feminine unmentionables, my camera, and . . . oh, yeah, the unopened CD that Katie had asked me to “please return at your convenience.”  She had bought two for Andrew’s birthday, planning all along to see which other ones other people gave him and then return one of them.

I showed the greeter the CD (thoughtfully rubber banded together with its receipt and Katie’s debit card).  “Could this be it?  I brought it to return but totally forgot it was in my purse.”  He scanned the CD and said, “Yep, that’s it.”  I was given a bar code label and pointed toward the customer service desk, where I quickly completed the return.

The rest of my Wal-Mart jaunt was uneventful, but I really found that initial alarm experience to be a bit jarring.  What if I had had a CD in my purse that I owned and didn’t intend to return? Would that set off Wal-Mart’s alarm?  What if someday they decide that my own digital camera is alarm provoking?  Or my wallet?  Or the FIVE bank deposits I also happened to be carrying for a trip to the bank a couple hours later?  Will lip polish do it, too?

The greeter was quite friendly and very polite, but I still think that what’s in my purse should be none of his (or his company’s) business.

Mobile’s gone; tomorrow’s planned

Sometime this afternoon, someone came and pulled out the mobile eyesore from the parking lot next door.  I am thankful that it’s gone.

Scott, Katie, Jessica, and I played bridge tonight and it was fun.

I have created a list of menus for the next ten days and shopping lists for Wal-Mart (which I guess is becoming my default grocery store, even though I’m not too thrilled with the idea), Aldi, and Sam’s.  My plan for tomorrow:

6:00 AM – get up and read

6:30 – walk and pray

7:15 – shower and dress

7:45 – leave to take van to Jiffy Lube in Hollister for an oil change

8:40 – arrive at Wal-Mart and do weekly grocery shopping

9:30 – leave Wal-Mart

9:45 – arrive home where boys will break off their academics (which they have been DILIGENTLY doing in my absence!) to unload and put away the groceries

10:00 – leave to take Andrew to piano lesson

10:15 – during his lesson, go to the bank

10:45 – pick up Andrew from piano lesson

11:00 – arrive home, keep Andrew going on academics, check Josiah’s algebra, eat lunch

1:30 – leave with Jessica and Andrew to go to Springfield for Aldi, Hoover Music, Green County health department (for Jessica’s typhoid immunization), Sam’s, and The Library Center

5:15 – leave library to go somewhere to eat

6:15 – arrive at church (Andrew to help with prep for Kids Church, Patty to tutor Ernie)

6:45 – Bible study at church

8:15 – head for the hills

9:00 – arrive home to put away Aldi and Sam’s

9:30 – check email

10:00 – fall into bed

Shoe shopping

Jessica went to (help with?  deliver things to?) the AIM mission trip training camps after church today.  Once her mission there was accomplished, she went somewhere to do some shopping for her upcoming Hong Kong trip, and Scott met her there (to advise her?  to help her?  to pay for something?).  As you can see, I don’t know much.

Then the phones – both house and cell – started ringing.  It went something like this:

Scott called my cell to ask me if I need him to buy Andrew new dress shoes, because wherever they are is having some great sale.  Andrew had mentioned on the way to church this morning that his dress shoes (black, which he wears for church and for AIM – where solid black shoes are a requirement) are way too tight.  He is clearly entering his growth spurt.  I remember this season with Josiah.  It’s where you buy new shoes and new jeans every three weeks, no matter what.

At the time, I was simultaneously on the phone with a friend who has serious marriage issues.  I told Scott I’d get off that call, go look in the shoe box in the playroom to see if there were any dress shoes (preferably black) that Andrew could use), and call him right back.

I got off the call, had Josiah go find Andrew who was out mowing, met with Andrew in the playroom, found one super nice pair of light brown suede lace-ups that Andrew can wear to church (size no longer decipherable) and one pair of dark brown penny loafers that I had him try on, just to figure out what size he’s in.  Men’s 8, but he DOES NOT like penny loafers.  Duly noted.

I called Scott back to tell him that Andrew could use a pair of black lace-up dress shoes in (at least for the month of June) a size 8, that he has brown dress shoes that fit but needs a pair of totally black ones for AIM, and that he DOES NOT like penny loafers.  My call was – of course – forwarded, so I left that message on Scott’s voice mail.

Some twenty minutes later, having received no call back from Scott, I called Jessica – who answered – and asked her to ask Dad if he had received my voice mail.  He had not, so I repeated to her all the information pertaining to Andrew’s black, non-penny loafer dress shoes, size 8.  I felt that my task was done.

Until Scott called me to ask about black dress shoes for Andrew.  Did he need dress shoes?  walking shoes?  dress shoes like Scott wears to work?  What about some nice black penny loafers?  Uh, let’s see. . . yes, no, maybe, and definitely not.  He DOES NOT like penny loafers.  And what size does he need?  Well, today he needs an 8, but you could get him an 8.5 or 9 and let them be a little big and last longer.  Scott said he found some great ones, but they were $70 (!!!) and he really didn’t want to pay that much.  Noted.  He then asked how much would it cost if I just got them at Wal-Mart.  I told him that you can’t buy shoes at Wal-Mart any more.  That they have no selection and there aren’t any shoes there to buy.  That if he doesn’t see any that will work at wherever he is, I will just take Andrew some other time and we’ll drive all over till we find a pair of black dress shoes.  He said okay and we hung up.

Less than three minutes later, Scott called back to talk to Andrew.  Who was still out mowing, so I once again sent Our Trusty Llama to find his younger brother.  I guess Scott and Andrew talked, but I didn’t hear that conversation.

Thankfully, my phone did come back to me, and about four minutes later, Scott called it, asking to speak with Josiah.  Whom I located in the first floor and who then came up and talked at length with his dad about shoes.  At least I think it was about shoes, because the end of the conversation that I heard included comments like “size 11″ and “the last time – well the only time I bought expensive shoes” and “turned out well”  and “sounds good.”

Now the phone hasn’t rung for at least ten minutes.  What can this mean?  Did Scott and Jessica actually find some gonga-deals?  Are they standing in line to pay for 15 pairs of shoes; all at “buy two, get three free” pricing?  Are they perhaps already on their way(s) home?  Will Scott get here in time to start the fire and grill the meat he asked to have for supper and have it all ready by 6:00 PM, which is when he asked Katie to be home?  (It’s now 5:35 PM.)

These are the questions that intrigue me as my husband and daughter shop till they drop in their quest for a steal-of-a-deal on shoes.

PS – The phone just rang again.  It was Scott for Josiah, but I don’t think it was about shoes.  It sounded more like a charcoal starting kind of a call.

PPS (written several hours later) – Scott and Jessica arrived home at 6:30 PM with one pair of tennis shoes for Josiah, two pairs of shoes for Jessica, and LOTS of amazingly great gear for her Hong Kong trip, but no black non-penny-loafer dress shoes for Andrew (size 8).  It looks like that particular shopping jaunt will fall to Walnut Shade Mom.