Prom Dress Shopping with 16 year old

This weekend I had the awesome opportunity to go prom dress shopping with my 16 year old daughter. We were downstate helping with the Big Ticket Tour on Saturday, so we stayed the night, got up Sunday and went to church, then hit the mall! The closest mall to where we live is over an hour away, so mall shopping for us is a real treat!

It really was a great weekend!!! I wanted to title this blog “Prom Dress $150, Hotel $90, Time Spent with 16 year old daughter, Priceless” but thought it was too long and I might get in trouble with Master Card. LOL. But it truly was a GREAT weekend! We had some real mother/daughter time with some great food and great conversation!

Besides the fact that every time we drove to another destination we went the wrong way…LOL…(I’ll get to that later!) we enoyed our time eating out, relaxing in the hotel, shopping and talking.

We started the trip early Saturday morning with a 3 and 1/2 hour drive to the city where the Big Ticket Tour was being held. We sang and talked all the way down. I forgot to take the directions to the venue with me that I had printed out, but being the somewhat techie person I am, I had my laptop with me that I can connect to the internet using my phone. So, I though no big deal that I left the directions on my coffee table.  However, even after firing up the laptop to look at the directions before we got into the big city, I STiLL turned the wrong way on the road to the church! When we realized it was not right, I pulled over and fired up the laptop again. Figured out where we went wrong and found our way. We were only about 5 or 10 minutes late to help out with the Tour.

We enjoyed the day, serving at the Tour. K-girl “womaned” the voting booth, while I “womaned” the ticket sales, information/Minister’s Connection booth. There is nothing better than spending time serving God and His Kingdom! Even though K-girl wasn’t enthused about “womaning” the voting booth, afterwards she said it was fun.

At the end of the evening, we’re talking like 8:30PM, we headed out to find a place to eat. K-girl really wanted Olive Garden, so we set out to find one. I Googled the directions and not having anyway to print, I hand wrote them on paper.

Well, once again, I missed the road to the mall. We were told that the Olive Garden was near the mall and the mall is also on the way to our hotel, so I thought how easy! Oh no! Of course we I didn’t think about the fact that these roads have Michigan turns which means you don’t turn left on the road, you go up further and make a U-turn, then turn right on the road you want to go down. Not thinking about that when I came upon the road that leads right to the mall, I didn’t even look at the name of the road because it said “No left turn” so I assumed it wasn’t our road. Well when I didn’t come upon our road, but instead came to the road our hotel was on (via the directions I wrote down), I knew I was just making a big loop! So, we found the hotel going the back way, but I still had to find the Olive Garden. So, we set out to find the entrance ramp to the expressway we needed. Guess what? Couldn’t find it!!! The reason being is it’s right across the street from the hotel parking lot and I couldn’t see the sign when I was pulling out of the hotel parking lot. So, I called my hubby who was familiar with the area and could Google it for me real quick so we didn’t have to pull out the laptop, wait for it to start up and connect.

When I got my hubby on the phone (thank GOD for cell phones!) He directed me right to the mall! Easy schmeezy right? Wrong. The information he was looking at said that Olive Garden was right in front of the mall. The corner he kept telling me Olive Garden was on had a Jared’s and a Men’s Warehouse. No Olive Garden. Finally on the third trip around the mall, I saw the Olive Garden on the opposite side of the street!!! I can tell you, it was not well lit which is the reason I didn’t see it. Oh, K-girl was talking to her boyfriend this whole time, so obviously she wasn’t even paying attention to all of this nor helping me out.

We did have a really nice meal at O.G. and the service was great! We left full and fat…LOL.  Then we headed out for another adventure back to the mall. You would think by now that I wouldn’t have a problem finding my way around…wrong again!!! I took the wrong entrance ramp and ending up going West instead of East! Go figure! I knew it too because the distance from the mall to the hotel is 2 miles on the Interstate and we were going way too far! As soon as I could, I got off the expressway, went across the overpass and got back on, heading East.

We found our way to the hotel, finally. I had already gotten keys from our friends whose name the room was under, so I didn’t have to check in. I called her to see what was the best door to go in. She gave me directions to our room, but guess what? Yep, we went the wrong way again. I’m pretty sure she said right when she should have said left. Too funny! We finally made it to our room, which was on the 2nd level, over the pool area. Ugh. It was loud but K-girl and I blocked it out pretty well. K-girl turned on the TV and was out in 5 minutes. I stayed up a bit longer, Tweeting and checking email.

So, morning comes. We got up pretty early actually. Church didn’t start till 11:30. We went down to eat the continental breakfast and then checked out of the hotel. I Googled the directions once again, just to be sure!!! We even left the Google page up so I wouldn’t make another mistake!

As I pulled out of the hotel parking lot, (not yet realizing the entrance ramp was right across the street) I turned left trying to find the entrance ramp. Nope. Not there. So I turned around and found it coming from the other direction. I still couldn’t figure out why I didn’t see it before!

When we got off the exit ramp to go to the church, guess what? Yep, we went the wrong way AGAIN!!! I am not even kidding! Luckily, I had it figured out by now (you’d hope!) and so we made it to the church with plenty of time to spare. We even had a latte!

After church, I knew I had to turn right out of the parking lot, go just a couple of blocks down the road and do the funky U-turn thing, then turn right on the road to the mall. Whew! Yes! Accomplishment!

K-girl and I had a great, relaxing day shopping. We found some great deals on things I needed and she needed and she even found a prom dress she loves!

After about 4 hours of shopping, hitting all the stores WE wanted to, with tired feet, we decided to head home. By now we were both hungry for dinner (we didn’t have lunch) so I thought we’d just pick a place as we pulled out of the mall parking lot. But not before Googling the directions to get home. So I fired up the laptop, and had them handy for when we left the restaurant.

After eating a nice juicy burger at Max & Erma’s we, got settled in the van for the 3 1/2 hour drive. With Google Maps in front of us we couldn’t go wrong, right? WRONG!!! Once again! I didn’t Google Max & Erma’s as the departure site, I Googled the Mall. So after going the wrong way for a few seconds and realizing it, we once again turned around and started in the right direction.

Finally, we were on our way home, and once I was on the expressway it was easy sailing after that. Can you believe all this??? I didn’t want to tell anyone because no one will ever trust me again when it comes to directions. LOL. Usually I am really good at them, so I don’t know what the deal was this time! Weird. Anyway, we made it home, got prom dress and have a great story to tell that will make everyone laugh.

My hubby’s response to all of this was, he thinks we will someday end up down there and this was my way of learning my way around the area! We both love it there and would totally live there! If it’s God’s will then we will for sure!

It was my hubby that informed me that the entrance ramp to the expressway was right across the street from the hotel parking lot! He laughed so hard when I told him how many times we got lost! It was great!

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About the author  Mary Lutz began blogging in 2004 on her personal blog. In June of 2008, she began her own Virtual Assistant Business, and discovered her passion for writing. Besides writing for her own blogs, she also writes for other Work at Home Mom sites. Read more from this author

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