Shop....till you drop

Today was College Shopping Day. The all important, all encompassing, all consuming, all expensive day dedicated to the pursuit of bringing home the list upon lists of all the things my daughter deems necessary to survive in college. I never realized just how much stuff was needed! My older daughter headed off to the Naval Academy and we sent her with......a toothbrush. My younger daughter is going to a civilian college and OH MY GOODNESS - the list of things needed is almost endless. I didn't realize how much we missed by having our first go to a military school. We missed spending 10 solid hours of  nothing but shopping!  First Aid kits, sewing kits, bowls, notebooks, calendars, corkboards, towels, sheets, ziplock bags, containers, shower essentials. The list goes on and on.  Luckily my mom went along with us so that we could tackle the job together. When we arrived at our first store, and my mom said, "Now everyone get their own cart, because we will need at least 3" I thought - that is ridiculous.  Who needs 3 carts?  I pushed a cart because it seemed important to my mom.  Well by the end of our first adventure, all 3 carts were full and we almost needed a traffic director to help us get to the checkout lanes. We were determined to get all the college shopping done in just one day and we were successful.  College lists - DONE!  We had just one item we couldn't find - a sleep mask - but other than that, we tackled the list and checked off each item one by one until the day was finished.  We were there until the stores closed. Now the only thing on my list is to put my feet up and collapse!