Why I Need Walmart

We have a Relief Society activity tomorrow that I'm in charge of.  I try to keep things fairly simple, so I made a plan and a shopping list:

1. Colored table cloths
2. Chips and Salsa
3. Craft supplies for four centerpieces (clay pots, Styrofoam balls, and dum dum suckers)

Original centerpiece idea- to be used in one of our games

Easy, right?  Except that it wasn't.

• The first challenge was that buying this stuff required stopping in multiple stores.  The Styrofoam balls would be at the craft store, no idea where the clay pots would be (maybe thrift shop?) and the candy could be at the PX or the Commissary.  
• After figuring out all the stores I'd have to go to, I had to plan when to go.  Because every store on post has random opening hours, and I wasn't going to make more than one trip (30 minutes one way), I had to make some extra effort.  To give you an example, the commissary is closed on Fridays.  The craft store is open 3 days a week, starting at 11am.  The thrift shop is open 2 days a week for only a few hours....  So I went on a Tuesday, when everything was open between 11 and 5.  
• My first stop was the craft store.  The size of Styrofoam balls I needed cost $5.50 each.  I wasn't about to spend a quarter of my budget on one small part of my decor!!  Craft stuff here is so expensive. So I bought some smaller, cheaper ones. 
• Which ended up being pointless, because I couldn't find clay pots anywhere.  Not at the craft store, not at the PX.  And I didn't have time to drive around to random German stores hoping to find them.  So I sat in the aisle of the PX trying to come up with a Plan B.  
• While I debated centerpieces in my head, I went to get plastic table cloths.  I had two options: barbie pink, or "happy birthday."  Really?!  So basically things will look very girly tomorrow, which doesn't go at all with the theme, but I guess at this point I don't care.  (Glad it's not an Elders Quorum activity).
• My last disappointment came at the Commissary.  I was looking for chips and salsa.  I walked down the chips aisle, and didn't see any taco chips.  I thought that was weird, so I walked through again, and realized that about 9 feet of shelving was empty.  Tostitos. Santitos.  Scoops.  Hint of Lime.  Baked.  Organic.  ALL of it was out of stock.  And when the only food you're serving is chips and salsa, the chips are kind of essential.  [fortunately, after driving 30 minutes to the grocery store near my house I found the hint of lime chips--and 3 feet of empty shelving where the cheaper brands usually are.  But at least I have chips.] 

All of this leads me to one conclusion:  I need Walmart! I could have purchased everything in about 30 minutes!!  Instead of half of my list in 3 hours!!

Sorry. I just had to get that off my chest.  

This is what I ended up doing for centerpieces... different candy.  Different container.  It will work.  But I'm ready for it to be done. 

And our PINK tablecloths.  Pepto bismol anyone?