Snips Snails and Pigtails

‘Boy #2’ had a birthday in early June. His present… a Nintendo Wii. Well, that’s what we had planned to get him anyway. Actually getting our hands on a unit is another story altogether.


I literally called every single Target in the State of Oklahoma. Yep! Every. Single. One. I called every Game Stop, EB Games and most Walmarts. NO ONE had them. There were a handful of stores that had gotten some in their overnight shipment, but the units flew off the shelves almost immediately and had been gone for hours. I was laughed at, loathed and disconnected. It was apparent to me that I was not the only mother calling, trying to get my hands on the prized machine. I seriously phoned probably 100 different places. As time passed, I began to get more and more discouraged. How do you explain to a 9 year old that he won’t be receiving the gift previously promised to him??

I was tired and disappointed. When ‘The Hubby’ arrived home from work I told him of my efforts, exclaiming that ‘The Boy’ just wasn’t going to be getting a Wii anytime soon. Of course, being a stubborn man, he insisted that we would find one. Frustrated, I thew the phone at him and told him the only places left to call were 2 Toys R Us stores, South of Oklahoma City. They were the last on my list because I figured of all places, Toys R Us would be sold out.

Well, I was wrong. The Hubby spent all of 2 minutes on the phone. He found a TRU store that had just put 4 Nintendo Wii’s on the shelves.
They would not hold one and they would not allow us to purchase one over the phone. (Yes, we asked!) Within seconds we were running around the house in a panic. Yelling and hollering “Get your shoes on, get in the car!” The boys were confused to say the least. The looks on their faces to see their parents running around acting all crazy was priceless. Imagine 6 people running in every direction at one time. Oh, to be a fly in the wall! We had a 45 minute drive ahead of us… and I knew we weren’t the only ones to discover the store had them.

'The Hubby' called the store when we were about half way there… down to 3 Wii’s. Talk about stress!! I had no idea what was about to come…

Several minutes later I happen to look down at the gas gauge. We were nearly out of gas. Yes, you heard me right, OUT OF GAS. Here we are, speeding down the highway in unknown territory and the gas guage reads 0, as in Z-E-R-O.