So you had a bad day...

There are certain things one doesn't want to write about publicly, but in the interest of maybe making someone else feel better I will share "one of those days" with you.

After watching Joseph scratch his head for a couple of days I finally thought, I better check. Sure enough, it was the dreaded hair infestation. And Rebecca, too. But here I have to tell you that for her, poor girl, it was the third time this school year. Can you believe it? And believe me, I'm beginning to be an expert right now. People ask, have you done this or that? Yes, I've done it all, including spending more money than you want to know and done more loads of laundry than I can count....

I worked on the kids that evening and had the professional lady come out the very next day. (Did you know there were professionals to help with this issue? I didn't the first time.) As she was working on Rebecca, Joseph started throwing up. I thought it was just because he was eating popcorn on an empty stomach (I was letting them watch movies to distract them from getting their hair done), but no, he had a fever, too, so it was the stomach flu.

So, on top of dealing with the dreaded you know what, I had a sick kid.

But no day would be complete without damage to your car, right? I dragged all my kids, including the feverish, sick kid (who didn't want to move) into the car so we could pick Warren up and then proceeded to back out of the driveway. Crunch.

Oh no, not the stroller again. Please let it not be my stroller. But no, it was the tail light, which had been coming loose for sometime and had chosen my special day to fall off the car. So, we took it in a few days later and even though they had quoted me $80 including labor over the phone someone apparently misquoted and it was actually $250. Arg. Oh, and of course they discovered that it was time for our back breaks to be replaced, too. Like my friend once said, you blow on a car and it costs you a hundred dollars.

I have to admit. The first two times we had the infestation I didn't do so well. Especially the second time (It was several months later, so not related.) The second time I completely lost it. Majorly. This time, after thirty seconds of tears the night we discovered it, I actually did well. I've been laughing at the irony of it all. And on top of it, one of my friends wrote to me about an infestation they are fighting in their house of a different kind. I'll DEFINITELY take mine over hers. Mine is conquerable, even if it's hard.

To quote Bob:

Can we fix this?

Yes, we can.



Hope your week was better than mine.

And the winners are...

Nighttime wakings:

Rebecca: 1
Joseph: 2
Theo: 3
Mommy: 6
Daddy: unknown

Number of beds slept in during the night:

Rebecca, Joseph, Theo: 1
Mommy: 1 bed, 1 rocking chair
Daddy: 3

The Flood

Last week the Sunday morning milk spill. This morning, the flood. Warren chopped off the head of a sprinkler while mowing last night. We had to run to a ward activity and completely forgot to fix it after we got home. Of course, the sprinklers were on this morning and I'm sure this spouted like a whale. It doesn't look that dramatic on camera, but you need to know that the little canal we have going on in the picture is about a foot and a half deep, with plans to be filled with dirt and sod. So, in order to save my red mandevilla from drowning, the kids and I spent about 45 minutes taking bucket after bucket of water out of the river before church.

When it rains, it pours.

Grocery Store Stories

Why is it that when you're in the grocery store people seem to think they can give you their life story on child raising and inform you of things you are doing wrong whether it be in looks or words?
Yesterday in the grocery store Rebecca was playing with all the stuffed animals in the Easter display and telling me repeatedly: "I want that." With a cool demeanor I kept walking, saying, no, and continued my shopping. A woman passing by overheard my daughter's demands and informed me: "We don't get everything we want either! When we go to the car lot we want the newest car on the lot but that doesn't mean we get it!" I politely answered her: "No, we don't get everything we want either." She proceeded to tell me how she had 4 kids and used to take them all grocery shopping. I politely answered: "Well, I come from a family of 5 and my husband comes from a family of 7" so as not to be outdone by her because all I had with me were my two own children. She continued to praise her own past exploits of managing to take 4 or more children shopping with her as I continued to struggle with my two. She watched my daughter put groceries of her own choosing in the cart and told her: "You have to ask your mom before you put things in your cart. She doesn't have money for everything!" Thanks a lot for that advice.
Her comments wouldn't have been that bad except that I was already ruffled by Rebecca's asking for everything and Joseph trying to reach for everything while trying to stay completely cool, calm and collected, and trying not make unwise purchasing choices, trying not to give in to my children etc etc. But then I rounded the corner, made it to the back of the store where an elderly lady looked at my children, looked at me and said: "Your children are beautiful."

And with a completely sincere thank you, I melted.

Have you ever...?

Have you ever...

....cooked a meal with all four burners going while holding a 29 pound kid in one arm?

....washed the kitchen floor with a kid sitting in your lap?

....told a kid massage oil is NOT a good toy?

....vacuumed and swept 6 times in a day?

....done 6 loads of laundry in a day for a household of only 4 people?

....breathed a sigh of relief when 8:00 o'clock came round, the kids were in bed, the house was still standing and you made it through another wonderful day?

I have.