Broken Wheelchair!

I met my mom for lunch today at El Charro.  During the summer, I am there once a week or so.  This restaurant used to be an old Roy Rogers (I think), so it has that "hole in the wall" feel to it.  In fact, my husband severely dislikes going there.  I LOVE IT.  The service is great, the food is delish, it's less expensive than any of the chains, and it has the best Mr. Pibb/Diet Coke mixed drink ever. If you are a Dr. Pepper/Mr. Pibb lover, you will love this drink. I don't know why it is so good here, it just is.

So halfway through the meal, my mom says, "Hey, I was hoping you could go with me to the mall, I need new shoes. I've had these for two years, and you know I wear them every day.  I think it is time!" (A little side note- my mom has tons of health problems, and one of them is neuropothy related to her diabetes.  She is only "allowed" to wear a certain type of shoe, and they are difficult to find.) The kids were good for a couple of hours, so I decided to go with her.  After waking the baby up from his 25 minute nap, (sad, I know) I met my mom and Big Boy inside. The first store we went to, did not have tennis shoes in wide.  All of the fat feet in this world and places don't carry wide?  I have a wide foot, both of my sons have wide feet, and obviously my mom has a wide foot.  There is a need for wide people.

My mom started ahead of me down to the next store, while I bought Big Boy the exact same pair of gray N's as his dad. They are seriously cute.  I leave the store and find my mom happily sitting in a wheelchair and her introducing me to a man as her new boyfriend.  I might have believed her if I 1- hadn't heard that before, 2- the man didn't say- no I work here, and 3- she hasn't been married for 40 years.

Since my mom is now in a wheelchair, that means Big Boy (4 years old) is left to push Little Guy (one year old) in the stroller.  Not gonna lie, I was quite apprehensive about it all. I am not even down the first ramp and I hear a squeak.  Followed by a squeeeeak.  I push her down the ramp and there was a bit of silence.  Not too bad, I can handle this.  Then we hit the store.  I try to convince Big Boy to stay right beside of me, while trying to turn my mom.  Squa-weeeeeek- squeak- squeak- squeak.  Now heads are turning.  While I am huffing and puffing, and my legs are almost in lunge position to get her into the store, I see Big Boy happily pushing Little Guy and all smiles from the both of them.  That is until he runs and the stroller tips backwards and Little Guy hits his head and screams in terror.  I calm him down, and we realize the store doesn't have the shoes, so its time to go!

Great, now I have to push her back up the ramp.  Ok- here it goes. I get a jogging start, and just go for it.   Squeak, squeak, squeak, skirch, bump, bump.  Oh good gravy, did I just run over my two sons?  Nope, whew!  But the dang thing can barely go now. It's broken. Lucky for us, my mom does have SOME mobility.  She gets out and pushes the wheelchair back as I take my son to the bathroom; coincidentally, we JUST went!  When I leave the bathroom, there my mom is, a grin from ear to ear, sitting in a wheelchair!? 

What is she doing?  It's time to go, boys are getting antsy and I can't walk much further in my pointed toe flats (yes, I still wear these, they are super cute), and my tight-butt jeans. 
"I got a new wheelchair.  The lady said there was nothing wrong with the old one, and you must just be lazy if you couldn't push me in it.  I told her that you weren't being lazy, but she insisted the other wheelchair was fine. Push me in this one, see if its better."

OMGoodness. Lucky for me, it was better. Mom was determined to get her new white tennis shoes today.  Off we go again.  This time it was definitely easier to push, however, we still had to go up that stupid ramp we went down on, I was still wearing Target clearance flats, and my sons no longer thought it was fun to be in the stroller, or push the stroller. We got her shoes, dropped off the wheelchair, and high-tailed it back to the car, well, at least my sons and I did! 


We took my mom back to her car at El Charro.  I sat in traffic on the way home as  Big Boy had a Frosty, and I shared nuggets with Little Guy.  We were finally at home- yay! Right?  Wrong!  I go to get Little Guy out of his car seat and I can't even bend over; my back is throbbing in pain.  I hope you like your new shoes Mom, really, I hope you do!