*^$&%@# School Supplies!

Ok -- Brandon is going into 3rd grade and school starts on Monday. This is the first year we've had to buy school supplies ourselves. (Previously, the school purchased the supplies and sold them to parents as a fund raiser, which was wonderful to plunk down $20 and get a bag of everything the kid needed for the first day of school. I'm sure the teachers appreciated that the kids had exactly what they needed, too.)

I started buying items off the school list about a month ago, just a few things when I'd go to Target. Pretty soon, I had almost everything on the list, save for a few items that I just knew the stores would be carrying closer to school time -- like those red, blue, aqua and yellow folders, WIDE RULED NOTEBOOK PAPER, you know, the standard back-to-school stuff.

Alas, it is only 3 more shopping days until school starts and I can't find those folders or wide ruled notebook paper at Target or Walmart. Fortunately, the single subject spiral notebooks they had left were pink flowered and Spiderman. I guessed what Brandon would prefer and went with Spiderman. I'm glad I'm not shopping for a high-school or college age male -- I'm sure they would rather not have either pink flowers or Spiderman.

I suppose this will necessitate a trip to a third location -- an Office Depot or the like, but I am disappointed at having to run all over town looking for something that is probably on every school supply list. And I don't think it is because the stores have sold out, because I can't even find where the folders should have been or where notebook paper was stocked. Walmart had aisles of copy and computer paper and a couple stacks of college ruled paper, but no indication of wide ruled notebook paper. Hopefully the third trip will be successful, and the school supply list will be complete before Monday morning.