Can you help us, please?

Monday morning a phone call came in with a bit of a strange request. Apparently someone who had this catalog thing before us decided to dump thier catalogs in the woods instead of delivering them. People walking along a provincial walking trail noticed them and called Sears to arrange for someone to pick them up. We became the arrangement. This was to be a super easy job and we thought a walk would be nice. So, we loaded up the van, took our little red wagon and packed some work gloves. Who knew what shape these old catalogs would be? We didn't want to have to touch them.
The directions were clear take this road to that road, turn right, find the well marked walking trail, walk 100 meters to the beaver pond, 100 meters past the pond and voila, find the catalogs and truck 'em to the warehouse.
We left the house at 2:30 fully expecting to be home by 4:30 or 5 at the latest, ready to make dinner.
We found the walking trail with no problem at all, but just to be sure, Caitlyn, Matt and Connor ran down the path to see if there really was a beaver pond. Yep there was, but it was 300-400 meters down the trail. Matt, Connor, Courtney and I grabbed the gloves and wagon and off we went. Just past the pond, the trail split into 2 trails. We figured if the pond was further than we expected so were the catalogs. Lets suffice to say that we walked forever through muddy, swampy, hilly, nasty trails for an hour... no catalogs.
We were freezing and I was exhausted from trying to look like I was having fun for the kids. This was NOT fun! Meanwhile, back at the van, Caitlyn is watching the babies and having tons of fun of her own as Molly had to pee... and they were stuck there waiting for us!
Thankfully we had the cell phone. Calling the guy at Sears was no help. He insisted we were in the right place and if we opened our eyes we could see those pesky catalogs. They were, after all, OBVIOUS from the path.
To the boys great delight, an army guy stopped to see if he could help us. I guess a lady waving her arms around speaking softly, yet FIRMLY into a phone while who knows how many kids are jumping around a van denotes someone needs help. Thank the Lord for this guy. Not only did he make the boys day by talking to them... he had a map. So did I. In fact, we had the same map... but he knew something I didn't know... there were 2 streets with the same name and one of them wasn't on the map!! This should not be allowed.
We went to the other street with the same name about 5 minutes from where we were (after taking Molly to the bathroom) and quickly found the walking trail. It was the same trail we were on actually, just further down. This was a straight as an arrow, dry, flat trail that was a pleasure to walk on. This was my kind of trail. The beaver pond was about 100 meters down the path, the catalogs another 100 meters down in the most dense thicket of brambles and alder bushes and burdock things you could imagine.
"OK, Mom, what do we do now?", Connor asks. I really, really wanted to say, "Go home and cry kid" but I didn't. Like a good mom I let the kids stay on the path as I blazed many trails through those bushes and threw the very waterlogged catalogs at the path for the kids to put in the wagon. They were strewn quite far down the trail. You'd think whoever dumped them could have had the decency to put them together, but no.
Just as I thought we were done, and I was certainly done, this was a job for prison inmates, Matt noticed the other side of the path also had some.
At 5:35 we were finished. Of course the warehouse to which these were to be taken closed at 5:00, but the "quick and easy" job was done. On the way to meet Dave, Caitlyn pulled out some tweezers and pulled the thorns from my hands. The workgloves were great, but they just shredded in the bushes.
Pizza Delight sure sounded good!! We drove in (no way was I cooking after this!) and just inhaled the wonderful aroma of pizza and garlic fingers cooking... Stomachs were growling... kids were grinning in anticipation of our wonderful dinner. There was no line. whoo hoo... We stood there for a minute or 2 when a frantic manager came out of the kitchen with this line, "Tell all your tables it will be at least a 45 min wait." We weren't even at a table yet. We left.
Ponderosa was a good choice!! All you can eat buffet! We ate until we could barely move and got home by 9 pm.
At first I wanted to forget this day... but now I want to remember.
Our circumstances were awful...
but we were happy...
we laughed at the ridiculousness of it all...
the kids will never think money comes easy!!
Next time someone has a quick and easy job for me, the answer is no.
When they want to know why, I will make them read this!!!