21 Days...

I'd say 3 short weeks but you know what will happen right?  The weeks will ddrraaaggggggg and it will feel like we redid the whole summer but in 21 days.  Uh...no.

Today I went supply shopping for the kids.
/insert whine
Who are these people who make the lists?  Someone please tell me.  Do they ever bother to talk to those people who MAKE THE SUPPLIES?????  Do the stores even LOOK at the supply lists to see if they have the supplies in stock?  I.DON'T.THINK.SO. 

OK, I'll be fair here and all you Squal-mart* haters...well, you can put your hands over your ears and do the LA LA LA thing.  I did find almost everything I needed at Squal-mart and reasonably priced.

@sidebar...with 4 kids in school, I do NOT take the easy way out and buy the little packages the school will make for the kids (and makes money on) because by November, their crayons are all broken, the  black, blue and red in their marker boxes are dry and of course, "someone" left the top of the glue stick and it's completely dry and someone "borrowed" their colored pencils and never gave them back.  So, then I'm going to head to Target and buy new....at 4x the current price.  Uh....no.

So, back to Squal-mart, I got all the crayons, markers, pens, pencils, protractors, rulers, scissors (yes, I bought new scissors...AGAIN, but for the last time...she loses these I'm sending her to school with a butter knife.  She'll keep track of it then), pencil pouch (because, c'mon, the pencil boxes are SO 3rd grade), glue sticks,  a few book covers (let the fights over who gets what color begin), graph paper, loose leaf paper (both wide AND college ruled) and composition books.

What I did NOT get, hence my whine are notebooks and folders. Most of the teachers want the kids having matching notebooks and folders for each subject but in different colors:  red for math, blue for language arts (that's ENGLISH to us old folks), yellow for science, etc...  Every year I have ended up at Target because they always have packages of 5 different colored notebooks (either wide OR college ruled) and the corresponding folder of the same 5 colors.  The package has ALWAYS cost $1 each and I usually end up buying about 10.  This year, Squal-mart had single notebooks for  $.50 each.  And Target, or at least our Target...

@sidebar...our Target added a small grocery section to it these past 2 months and the store now SUCKS.  They rarely have anything I am looking for.  The school supplies section this year is about half the size it usually is. If that...

had NOTHING.  Oh, wait...they did have "something".  However I wasn't willing to spend $3/notebook  and $2/folder(when I need at least 5/child) of the matching unicorn pooping a rainbow notebook and folder "set".

I figured, OK...I'll go to Office Max because every now and then (like when the "odd" teacher decides that THIS year they want ORANGE notebooks and there is not an ORANGE notebook to be found in our town, unless you're willing to pay $5 for it at Office Max) I have to buy that odd supply there.  Oh, I found the notebooks...in a variety of colors.  All for $1 each.  And no matching folders.

So, I came home notebook/folderless.  I'm hoping our town Target is just "under stocked" (that's politically correct right)  and I'll be able to find it at a different Target or Super Target.

OH, I do also need to purchase a new calculator for my oldest daughter.  School has recommended the TI-84.  Yes that would be the one that runs about $100 (although I saw it for $80 at Squal-mart).

I wonder if the schools get a kick-back from Texas Instruments?

/ end whine

*Don't everyone get your panties in a knot over Squal-mart.  I actually shop there frequently but hate doing so with my own children (Mom...can I have this...staple remover?  luckily there was only one with me today but sadly, she was voted by a jury of her siblings, most likely to ask mom to buy her the store), but it was made worse today because EVERYONE seems to turn this into a family affair and there had to be 50 kids all running and grabbing stuff.  It was like Chuck E. Cheese with crayons. *shudder*