If You Get Squeamish Like Me, Do Not Read This Post!

You all know we are leaving on Saturday for our dream vacation. But there is always a million things to do first. One of them was to take care of the Dog Walker's big toe. He has been complaining about it for several weeks now and I've just been hoping the problem would go away...but it didn't.

Last Thursday I decided we had to do something about it before we headed out of the state and away from our regular doctor.. So I called the doctor's office and made an appointment. The Dog Walker was about to have his third surgery. He had an in-grown toenail that was NOT going to get better.

He groused about it all weekend. He alternated between happy to take care of the problem and total hysteria. It didn't help that he called the Gym Rat and asked him how his toe surgery went a few years ago. The Gym Rat told him that there was all kinds of blood and stuff and just to not look at it and he would be fine.Yeah right. Thanks, Gym Rat.

We drove over to the doctor's office together and the Dog Walker was trying hard to maintain control. We got through all the weighing and measuring and blood pressure stuff and then the doc came into the room. He carefully explained the "procedure" to us and the Dog Walker sunk down in his chair. He was done. I think if he could have run away, he would have.

They left us in the room for about 20 minutes before we were led into the "operating" room. The Dog Walker laid down on the gurney, because of course he couldn't see what was going on (again, thanks, Gym Rat). Then the doc came in and started numbing his toe. He moaned and groaned and squealed and tried to hold still, but he didn't get up and run away.

 
After the doc had pumped a sufficient amount of crap into his toe, it blew up like a balloon. I tried to get the Dog Walker to look at it, but he was having none of it. So I took a picture with my cell phone and showed it to him.

He was pretty grossed out and he had time to dwell on it for the following 20 minutes while the numbing took affect. That's when he decided maybe I could write an awesome post on his poor sad toe. (Although he was worried about how disgusting the pictures looked.)

At last the doc came back in and performed the surgery. All went well and he even got a lovely bandage to wear home.

And now he can walk all over the country without his feet hurting...OK, at least this foot.

Construction Update

Remember my ceiling problem in my kitchen? I thought you might like a little update.

So my sweetie started digging into the disgusting mess that used to be boards beneath our shower. After he slowly and carefully chipped out a huge square, he repaired the liner pan with this special rubber stuff that looks like the thera-bands I got from my physical therapist last year only bigger. He had to carefully glue everything in place with this horrible stinky glue that sent us all to the great outdoors while we aired out the house.

Then after several more layers and some Gorilla glue and some wood, he sent the Drama Queen to Home Depot for the drywall. It was my assignment to clean up the area with the vacuum and remove the incredibly awesome letters Teach had installed as a gift for me. (I'm hoping she has a little more vinyl so we can replace them after everything is repainted.)


After I got down from the ladder and tossed the crumpled pile of vinyl into the wastebasket, I pulled out the shop vac and started vacuuming the floor. This project had created quite a mess! My sweetie had thought to cover the couch that was down a step in the family room, but since our hardwood floors are in need of refinishing next month, he didn't bother to use a drop-cloth.

I found several little splotches of glue on the floor right below where the light used to be. They were difficult to clean up, until I thought to rub a little Vaseline into them. The trouble is, I didn't quite get all of them, because the next time I crossed the room to turn off the shop vac, my feet tried to stick to the floor.

I took a paper towel and wiped off the sticky mess and assumed problem solved. Then I spread out the drop cloth and moved on to other things.My sweetie spent a couple more hours up on the ladder before he finally quit for the night. Since I had already put up my post, I followed him upstairs.

As I got ready for bed, I suddenly remembered those dirty sticky socks and I grabbed a clean pair. The first sock pulled off easily, but not the second one. It was stuck to my foot in three places!

My sweetie was watching Smokey and the Bandit that is until he heard my whines of frustration. He rolled over to my side of the bed. "What's wrong?" I carefully started picking at the first splotch of glue. "My socks are glued to my feet!" I was remembering that "I Love Lucy" episode where she accidentally glued a fake beard to her face. She had to have a special remover.

After examining my foot, my sweetie recommended acetone, then left me to my own devices.

It took me about 15 minutes to finally scrape off the sock and another 15 to calm down. Other than a small piece of skin, there was no permanent damage except to my psyche...maybe it's because I'm a bit claustrophobic, but I like to be able to take things off whenever I want to...without a chisel.

The Construction Zone

So like it or not, I find myself in the middle of a construction zone. A few days ago, a huge paint bubble showed up on our kitchen ceiling. After a couple of pokes, water poured out. This was not happy news. We built our house almost 18 years ago with a local builder. It was a huge building boom in Utah. Our particular street had a dozen homes going in at the same time. Contractors were in high demand and so were sub-contractors. The rumor was that we got the substandard plumbing group who spent half their day on the job drinking.

They made a mess of our plumbing! We've had to take down drywall twice in the family room  because the bathtub upstairs had leaky pipes. That is still an on-going problem. Then about 5 years ago the ceiling in the kitchen nearly came down when the shower in our bedroom finally gave way. When we brought in someone to fix it, he said that the plumbers had cut the pan (or liner) that should have been keeping all the water in the shower. It was an awful project! I hate being without the kitchen. We spend so much of our gathering time there.



But here we are again.

My sweetie ripped out the kitchen ceiling and found all sorts of water damage. The Dog Walker moved the kitchen table into the living room where we can all feel like goldfish on display while we eat. And my sweetie uttered those dreadful words, "The damage is worse than I thought...it's going to take a couple of extra days."

It's a good thing I'll be spending all my time at the ball field.

Guest Blog - Bad Dad by Sweetie

So I've been working a bit of overtime lately. As always after a bit of that I start feeling like a bad dad, even when we need the extra money, the guilt seems to build. So I've actively been trying to do a bit extra... I know quality time is a myth... but so is Santa and he brings me some pretty good stuff, so why not some good results from the quality time fairy?

Here's some of the things I wanted to get done today... 

Get the grass growing better.   (This one's for my wife)

Fix some things around the house...

Listen to conference... (Eternal Salvation, but it's also a good example for the kids)

Work... (So I can get ahead at work and can take a 5-day weekend next weekend)

Play with the little kids...

Play with the big kids...

Tell the teenagers I love them and I'm proud of them... (I've been thinking a lot about what good kids they are but never when they are around ...I need to tell them)

Figure out why the shower is leaking....  (Everyone would like that fixed)

My brother has offered to fix a chair... (He is a way better wood-worker than I am... can't seem to get it to his house)

So all that was on my mind about 8:00 Friday night when Bossy came in to tell us that as she was closing the garage door a mouse ran out. Needless to say, my wife was less than enthused...that suddenly became my top priority.

I got up early, despite sleeping on the couch half the night because there were too many people in our bed... Headed out for some mouse gear...and some grass seed... (forgot the peat moss, and some parts to attack the shower problem...) Set out some de-mousing gear.. Quickly started mowing the lawn before reseeding, trying to get done in time that I could listen to conference while spreading grass seed and raking it in. Oh crap, the rake is broken... Guess I'll go inside and check on the family.   

Shortly after I got settled, Bossy came in offering to help clean the garage so we could assess how bad the mice were...  Offer was to good to pass up... I looked at all the kids nicely watching general conference... 

Expectation

Reality (Thankfully not ours)

"OK Kids... new plan we will be listening and cleaning at the same time... That was Bad Dad Number One. All the kids worked together to accomplish a huge task in a small amount of time, but the tiny radio was hard to hear....  Bad Dad Number Two. (Didn't find any mice, BTW.) We worked until almost three when I decided to finally feed the gang..  Pizza Hut... me trying to be a good dad... and teach the kids that rewards come to hard workers. After getting to finally sit and watch the last 1/2 hour of conference... I got feeling guilty and decided to take advantage  of the howling wind and take the kids kite- flying. The only problem was that I had to be showered and to the church  by six... I had about 45 minutes... 

Flying kites with kids is like fishing with kids only there are no hooks... but way worse tangles, and the odds of success are about the  same. But with today's winds the biggest danger was the kites self destructing. I was excited... i was being a good dad. Crafty had been talking about how she had never really succeeded at flying a kite, and today she would.  

 
They all got the kites up and crashed them and tangled strings... Of course it took me a while to assemble and get all the kites ready to go. As I was working on the last one, I noticed Crafty chasing a loose kite across the park towards the trees. Then I looked over and saw her trying to get the kite out of a tree. Sighing, I went back to getting the last kite in the air and then I would go help her. The kite seemed to be down and she was sitting, enjoying the shade I suppose...     Drat! The string is tangled right out of the box. Why is Crafty waving to us? Maybe her string is stuck...   i shout to Prima Donna to go help her.

Still working on the string about five minutes later. Prima Donna is further away and obviously can't hear me. Crafty is still waving and my string is still tangled...  "Sport, go help your sister," I call. Sport and Curly suddenly get their kites tangled mid air. I Start working on that. I glance over at Crafty. She still doesn't have any help...  

Oh good, divine intervention.. the pink Barbie kite is loose and heading towards Crafty. It drops right by her. At least she will get her help. I finally get the last kite in the air. Curly is by himself, getting dragged across the field...  Thankfully a big gust downs his kite. The Angry Birds kite is broken, but at least Curly is safe. 

It must be time to start cleaning up. Suddenly, I have a brilliant idea. The kites have short strings... If I put the long string roll on a new kite.. I bet I can get it pretty high. The string is pink and Barbie will match. Just as I get the string tied on, Crafty shows up in tears. "Dad, I broke the kite!" I glance at her unhappy face, "That's OK," I assure her. "But Dad, I got the string stuck in the tree and the fence and me and I couldn't move and no one would come," <sob> "and help"  <sob sob sob> "me!"  I try to soothe her, "I am sorry... want to see  a kite really fly?"  <sob sob> So I left her tied up for about ten minutes...or so.... Evidently she was waving and crying, but down wind we couldn't hear... Bad Dad Number Three. But surely she would like this. so I risk a man card  and start flying a pink Barbie kite with pink string. <sob sob>  "Dad, I'm thirsty... it's too windy, let's go home." Then as the kite gets higher and higher, they start to watch... 

 

The wind is really too strong for the kite... it's like a big fish. It needs line or something is going to snap.I have the spool on my fingers and the kite is taking the line SOO fast! Then suddenly the wind dies.  I drop the spool but the line tightens and the kite starts to climb again.... and suddenly off she goes. The string is burning my hands. The spool is on the ground. I look down... plenty of string...  up up up she goes.. this is SOO cool.. and then suddenly WHOOSH! Right through my fingers.. the string is gone... kite gone... Now it's Scout  <sob sob> "My kite! <sob sob>.... Bad Dad Number Four.

A few hours later.. the little ones are bouncing off the walls throwing pillows from the couch at each other, Bossy is telling them to stop. She can't see the need for some unwind time. I have a brilliant idea. I loudly demand all the pillows. After getting them all, I mass fire, bouncing them off the kids. They got the message immediately and I was soon in a pillow fight..  all against me! I got buried several times. The big pillows from the other couches came in...  then suddenly the fun was over. It seems I had caused so much excitement Curly's asthma had flared up and he started coughing. He ran to his mom and his supper come up all over my wife.... Bad Dad Number Five.....  



I never did make it back to the grass.. or the plants I bought....or the chair.. didn't get much work done..but quality time? I got that one...and the Bad Dad award to prove it.

More Fun

Filling up the Sand Pit

Do you remember back in January when I said we made a day trip to the Natural History Museum? I actually said I might take the entire family back and PAY FOR IT?! I know, huh? Crazy...doesn't sound like me at all! Well, something awesome happened to us this week. After lots of hard work and effort, my sweetie got a raise! We decided to celebrate by taking the entire family (except the Gym Rat and Gamer who both had to work) to the Museum of Natural History.

I know this will make you giggle, but we can actually get in on a GROUP rate where 15 can go cheaper than 11. I was surprised how busy it was for a good-weather Saturday. I thought most people would be out working in their yards, but I guess they all needed a break too.

Baby Doll walking on the Glass Floor - She was so confused!

Teach

We got there about 1:30. Since we had the big van, my sweetie had to park clear down the street, but he nicely dropped the rest of us off first, so we paid for the tickets and waited for him to join us. We had only walked about 100 feet when two of our party just HAD to use the restroom. Since one was Bossy's, she agreed to take both. By the time she rejoined us, I heard rumors that Baby Doll was in need of a change. I had hoped those unpleasant odors were just the smelling stations in the prehistoric area. Thank goodness I sent my sweetie back in the house for the diaper bag!

Sweetie and Scout

Unfortunately, I forgot to grab it when we jumped out of the van, so it was down the street in overflow parking. My sweetie offered to go after it, but this was his first time in the museum and I had already been seen it, so the Drama Queen and I hoofed it down the hill. As we were walking, we noticed several empty parking spots in the upper lot. So instead of hiking back up to the museum, we jumped in the van and started circling. The first spot I tried was too small. I carefully backed out and decided to try again. The second one was only marginally larger, but after easing the van back and forth three or four times, we finally decided we were actually between the white lines.

We only missed one whole floor of fun or at least the Drama Queen did. I still had the diaper to contend with. I scooped Baby Doll out of the stroller and we headed for the restroom. We finally rejoined the group on the fourth floor, just in time to play with the puppets.

  All in all, it was a great time, and way more fun than cleaning the flower beds!

Lizards

Were you worried? I know, I just couldn't do it. So here I am, losing sleep, writing another post.

Tonight I was reading to the kids before we went to the library to return some books. Sport was interested in this book about lizards. He read the first half out loud and then I read the second half. The kids thought the lizards were awesome! Me...not so much. Lizards and I go way back...

It was about 1977. I was a sixth-grader in small-town Utah. Our district was rather poor so we didn't have much money for field trips and other frivolities. The powers-that-be decided it would be a great idea to have us discover our own county! We made a trip to Spring City to see the old houses there that were considered historic landmarks and we looked for trilobites west of Ephraim. Then we rode up into the foothills looking for I don't remember what.

Our teacher was busy pointing out the various rocks and plants when some of the boys found a lizard. It wasn't a very big lizard, probably about six inches long and rather harmless. They were actually running all over the rocks so it wasn't that difficult for them to catch one. Then the boys proceeded to run up to a group of unsuspecting girls and send them screeching and running in all directions.

Well that wasn't going to work with me.

My class on the actual field trip to Spring City

I had two older brothers and I had certainly been around lizards before. It wasn't long before Mrs Howell got wind of the situation and she ordered the boys to release the poor creature. I was about twenty feet away when they set it down on a rock and started chasing it. Of course it ran straight toward me!

I turned away, hoping to not get trampled in the stampede. The boys zipped past me, intent on terrorizing the lizard if they couldn't use it to terrorize the girls. Fortunately they lost sight of the poor thing and after about 5 minutes of searching, they headed off on new adventures.

I was left standing there...in my pink bell-bottom jeans.

Sixth-grade Me

It wasn't long before I started feeling uncomfortable. Something was itching my leg. Then I felt a distinct movement. I turned away from the group and in a panic, I unbuttoned my pants. He was on my hip, crawling steadily upward as I ripped open my fly and stared into his beady little eyes. I stifled a scream; I couldn't let anyone see me with my pants undone. Without touching him, I urged him to QUICKLY leave my person.

Apparently he had seen his only escape route from the boys as running up the inside of my pant leg. Yeah, you can be grateful that skinny jeans are all the rage now. He might have tried the same thing, but he would never have gotten past my ankle.

Sharing Treats

My sweetie and I went to the Stake Valentine's Dance tonight. I told you all about that last year and it was pretty much the same this year except that on the serving table they had thrown piles of chocolate kisses. I was so excited to find some with almonds since they are my very favorite! That prompted an interesting discussion later at dinner. Is it OK for parents to hide treats from their kids and not share?

One day when my sweetie was a kid, he was hanging out in his mom's room and on a whim, he opened the tiny cupboard on the headboard of her bed. Imagine his surprise when he found an entire bag of Danish Wedding Cookies! Surely she wouldn't miss just one...

That was the beginning, and by late afternoon, the entire bag was gone.

It wasn't long before his mom discovered the powdered sugar on her pillowcase and the empty bag in the cupboard. As my sweetie tells it, "She hollered up a storm!" (He doesn't even like those cookies anymore because he was so traumatized by her reaction.) After all, shouldn't parents want to share their good fortune with their kids?

I never knew my mom to keep many treats at the house, but maybe that's just because I was never as curious (or maybe desperate!) as my sweetie. If we wanted chocolate and treats, we just headed to Grandma and Grandpa's house. But I do remember going through the China cupboard one day and finding a box with what looked like little square chocolates in it. I didn't figure Mom would notice if I took just one...

I put that tiny brown square in my mouth and tried working it with my jaws. It was hard as a rock and after about 3 seconds, I spit it into the garbage. It was awful! I tipped the lid over and looked at the name again... "Ayds, appetite suppressant candy.". They were diet pills! No wonder they tasted so bad.

The other time I found Mom's candy stash I remember vividly. I had gone down in the basement to get something for her out of our food storage room. For some strange reason, I happened to look up toward the top of the freezer. I must have been at least ten or twelve, or I never would have been able to see, let alone reach, the giant Hershey's candy bar resting on top in all its delicious glory.

I was so excited! I grabbed it down and noticed that obviously I wasn't the first one to discover its existence. The wrapper had been torn and tiny bits of chocolate fluttered to the floor. I carefully pulled off just one square and popped it into my mouth. It's sweetness still lingered on my tongue and tainted my breath as I headed back up the stairs. So good!

It took me about half an hour to realize that if I didn't go for a second piece, I knew I was going to die right on the spot. I sneaked back downstairs without an errand and reached again for the candy bar. As my trembling fingers broke two pieces from the bar, a realization hit me.

What I had assumed was a sibling stealing chocolate before me had actually been tiny teeth marks. My partner in crime was definitely a mouse!

And I was about to be violently sick...

Cleaning the Vacuum

See all that food on Baby Doll’s tray? Now do you notice that mischievous little grin? She has a new philosophy. As soon as she is finished, she sweeps all that is left right off the edge and onto the floor. Now this isn’t a problem if the dog is around; Daisy licks everything up real quick. Unfortunately, sometimes she is outside and then I have to sweep everything up.

If I were a stellar housekeeper, crumbs would disappear as soon as they were made. But that’s not my life. I sweep the crumbs (and the cars and the crayons and the candy wrappers…) into a pile and then I wait for one of the kids to take care of it for me. This is probably a big mistake because if I were cleaning “the pile,” I would first PUT AWAY the crayons and the cars and toss the candy wrappers and big crumbs BEFORE I ever get out the vacuum. The kids usually manage to take care of the cars, but everything else goes right up the vacuum!

Maybe if we had a regular vacuum this wouldn’t be a problem, but we happen to have a Central Vac and that means all that dirt (and crayons and candy wrappers…) travels through pipes in my house and down into a large canister in the furnace room. About once a month or so we take this canister off and dump it. It’s a good system …when the kids aren’t using it.

So I finally got tired of having bad suction in my kitchen. We took the 40- minute drive to visit my BIL and borrow the “big drill” and the worm. I’m pretty sure I’ve mentioned that my FIL was a plumber. When he passed away, he left tons of tools to his kids. This particular worm has cleaned tons of drains and it happens to work perfectly for cleaning out vacuum pipes as well.

It’s quite a procedure! My sweetie is at the front of the line and he is responsible for feeding the worm down into the hole. We station kids about every 5 to 10 feet along the worm to keep it from ripping holes in the walls or scraping up the floor (like we’d notice!).


The kids have to wear work gloves to protect their hands from the spinning metal. Because the worm is so long, we have to take it clear out the front door and into the yard. I get the fun job…I get to run the drill! It takes us about 20 minutes to get everything set up. Then it takes about 2 minutes to clear the blockage.

I’m so glad a married a plumber’s son! The company charges nearly a hundred dollars to come out and do the same thing. I know one lady whose kids kept sticking their Hot Wheels cars down the pipes. That’s a pretty expensive racetrack!



But the best story I know about a Central Vac came from one of my students when I was teaching. He tells a story of building a new house. During the process, they had to put a bunch of stuff in storage. When the house was finally done (with a Central Vac installed), they went to the storage unit to get their furniture.



They carried a heavy dresser into one of the bedrooms and pushed it up against a wall. When they opened the middle drawer, they found a huge horrible surprise. A family of mice had nested there and baby mice were suddenly running around everywhere. My student pulled the door of the room closed and quickly plugged in his central vac. Then he proceeded to vacuum up each of those baby mice until they all disappeared. And not a single one clogged up the pipe. Can you just imagine the smell when he dumped his canister? Ewww!

See any mice, Curly? I have the vacuum out!

Work for a Song

Some random house

I was raised with an interesting philosophy…if you can make money, any amount of money by working, you should do it. When I was a teenager, I worked at Taco Time for a couple of years. When I finally quit that job, I needed to figure out a way to make a little money. I wanted to take some voice lessons and even at a discounted price they were $10 each.

Grandma got tired of hiring me to help out at her house, so she started talking around with a few of her cronies to see if anyone had any work I could do. I didn’t want a full-time job because I was already stretched to the breaking point trying to attend high school and college at the same time. I was a member of the choir, in the musical, on the Youth City Council…you get the idea.

So Grandma had a friend. She was an old spinster-type who lived alone in a big old house on Main Street. We rarely saw her even at church, although I knew who she was by sight. Anyway, she was looking for somebody to clean her house. Since Grandma had taught me to clean so well for money, we both thought this might be a good way to bring in a little cash.

Grandma arranged everything and all I had to do was show up on Saturday and work until it was done. The problem was that there is no way I could have cleaned this lady’s house in a month full of Saturdays! It was a total disaster!

I started with the kitchen. It looked like it nothing had been touched for at least a week. The sink and counters were piled with dishes, many of them still containing spoiled food. Some pots and pans had fallen to the floor and no one had bothered to pick them up, their contents spilling onto the faded linoleum. There were boxes and packages and wrappers here, there and everywhere. Some empty, some not.

Not our house

It took me about 4 hours just to clean up the kitchen. She didn’t have a dishwasher, so everything had to be washed by hand. Because of all the rotten food, I had to keep changing the water. By the time I was finally finished and had mopped the floor, my fingers were shriveled up like little prunes.

I moved on to the living room (and of course found more dirty dishes) although it wasn’t quite as bad as the kitchen. It only took me about an hour and a half before I was able to vacuum. By that time, I was extremely tired and ready to go home. Unfortunately, my commitment was for 8 hours and I wasn’t there yet.

I walked passed the bathroom without even opening the door and headed for her bedroom. In hindsight, that was probably a bad choice. The room was rather dark, with heavy curtains covering the windows. The TV blared in the corner and the room was mostly filled with a large bed…and she was in it! I switched on the light and she glared at me although she didn’t say anything, just harumphed and rolled over.

I don’t remember the type of flooring in the room, but it wasn’t carpeted, unless you count the garbage that lay all over it. I headed back to the kitchen and started looking for a trash bag. I finally found one and stomped my way back to the bedroom. I was getting angrier by the moment. This was not what I had bargained for!

picture credit

Thankfully, almost everything on the bedroom floor went straight into the garbage bag. I will spare you the details, but the worst thing I pulled out was halfway under the bed…a half-eaten pie, moldy, with a fork still stuck in it. As the minutes ticked away, I swept the remaining crumbs (and there were a lot of them!) into the dustpan. I was finally finished. As I turned to go, she demanded that I take care of a few more random items and then mumbled something about getting the money to Grandma. I washed my hands in hot water right before I headed out the door. I was so glad to be rid of that place!

A couple of days later, Grandma brought me an envelope with my pay. I opened it up and out dropped a ten-dollar bill. “She wants to know if you can come back next week,” Grandma smiled. I turned the bill over in my hands, hoping that it was stuck to another bill somehow. Just enough for one voice lesson. “My days as a maid are over!” I vowed. Yeah, right.




Eeeww de Toilet

Curly had a little lamb...

Not the real blue comb

I was “working” on my computer today…ok, I was blogging…when I heard the toilet flush. About 30 seconds later, Curly came in. “M..o..m?” he sort of whined. Distracted, I turned to reach for him and he placed a wet pair of underwear in my hand. I immediately dropped them to the floor as he said, “These fell in the toilet…”

Now how many kids do you know that drop something in the toilet and then fish it out? I only know one…

Most of mine drop something in and they holler for Mom to do the dirty work. I remember once when I was in high school, I was getting ready for a dance. I’m not exactly sure how the comb fell into the toilet since I have always been pretty good about shutting the lid, but the next thing I knew, my favorite large blue comb was sinking to the bottom. And I did exactly what you would expect. “Mom!” I yelled. Only she didn’t come. After a moment or two I tried again. I knew she was in the house, so I went to search for her.

When I finally found her, she was calmly folding laundry. “Can you come and get the comb out of the toilet?” I was pretty frantic by then. What if somebody used the facilities without seeing it? What if they flushed it? This was a disaster. Mom’s eyes were still on the TV show she was watching. “You can do it,” she responded. I was NOT happy about this turn of events. “Ewww!” Then she looked at me. “What are you going to do when you are the mom?” she asked. “I’m not coming over to take care of it for you. You just as well get used to it now.” Then she turned back to her show.

I stomped out of the den and back to the bathroom. Angry, I plunged my hand into that toilet water and retrieved my comb. And you know what? It wasn’t that bad. I turned on the sink and ran the water straight hot. I scrubbed my hands and my comb with soap and soon everything was back to normal. (Now, I’m pretty sure I would have just thrown the comb in the trash, but that was not an option then. I wouldn’t have had the funds to replace it.)

picture credit

But that whole experience taught me a lesson. I didn’t need my mom always bailing me out of hard situations. If I was in hot water (or toilet water) because I had made bad choices (like leaving the toilet seat up), then I needed to just take care of myself. It was a bit of a turning point for me. In one single moment, I suddenly became much more independent and maybe a little more grown up and a lot more careful about always shutting the lid.

Three Strikes and I'm Wiped Out

Yesterday I was sitting in church during our first meeting and Baby Doll elected to fill her diaper and then be ornery about it. So I took her out to the changing room, got her fixed up, gave her a little milk, and rejoined the family.

In our church we have three hours of meetings for everyone on Sunday, and each one is about an hour. We left our first meeting and headed for the second. About 10 minutes into that one, she pooped again. So I took her out again, changed her diaper, gave her a little more milk, and rather than disrupt class again, waited in the hall until it was over.

While I was waiting, I was joined by the Bishop’s wife. She was carrying a large container of Red Vines licorice and offered one to Baby Doll. Now my little girl loves red licorice and she was wearing a red dress. It didn’t seem like a bad idea until I remembered I was wearing a white blouse! Red juice oozed from her little hands as she happily sucked/chewed on the piece of licorice. I turned her this way and that to keep those little hands from grabbing my clothes.

We finally entered the last classroom with only a small stain and I quickly sat down and retrieved a wipe from the diaper bag. She grabbed it from me so I pulled another one from the box. I figured she could wipe her own hands a little while I rubbed the red goo from my arms and hands. After about 30 seconds, she bit off a piece of the wipe. I fished it out of her mouth and tossed it in the diaper bag just as she bit off the second piece. People were starting to snigger around us. Me gathering bits of wipe as she tore it into smaller and smaller bites. I finally got the whole thing away from her and stowed safely away.

Then the lady teaching the class passed around a basket full of mint chocolate chip cookies. I took one and carefully broke off a small piece for Baby Doll. But instead of being grateful, she grabbed the big piece and shoved it in her mouth! Pretty soon we were smeared with chocolate cookie crumbs and mint chips. Dare I admit that I pulled out the wipes again?

After a failed attempt to clean her up, I sniffed that familiar aroma…I gathered up the diaper bag, wipe shreds, Baby Doll, and headed for the changing room for the third time. I changed her diaper, washed her smucky little fingers, and then mopped myself with a couple of wipes. Then I dug in her diaper bag until I found the remains of the bag of Cheerios. (The good ones, not the ones that ended up inside my sweetie’s shoes during Sacrament meeting.) I proceeded to down the entire bag! Not sugar, but desperate times call for desperate measures…Baby Doll didn’t mind…she’d found another wipe.

Food for Thought - Zucchini Bread

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Hey, how are your gardens doing? Usually by this time of year we have plenty of fresh produce just waiting to be eaten. This year May and June were so rainy we were forced to plant everything late and now that we have stuff actually growing, nothing is producing. Today my sweetie brought in a cabbage and four beautiful little zucchini. I was so excited! Most of us love zucchini at our house for at least the first month… My favorite way to cook them is to slice them about an eighth of an inch thick. Then I toss them all into a frying pan on medium heat with a couple of tablespoons of butter. I stir them every few minutes so they don’t burn, otherwise I keep them covered. Once they start to look clear, they are done. Yumm! My second favorite way to use zucchini is the 3rd grade Zucchini Contest. Our elementary school does have a sense of humor. In the fall, after the harvest is in full swing and people have tired of zucchini, they have a contest to see who can dress the biggest zucchini in the funniest way. We have turned ginormous zucchini into Santa, baseball players, Frankenstein…anything goes! We have also provided zucchini for those poor unfortunate souls who don’t grow gardens. Several years ago, our church had a pumpkin-carving contest and instead of pumpkins, we used extra large zucchini, covered them with fake blood, and labeled them Ammon’s Enemies. (That’s BOM humor…Ammon cut off all the arms of the guys who tried to kill him.) Ewww! But I do want to share a recipe with you today. I’m not sure where this recipe came from originally, but it has become a family favorite. The only downside is that with the shredded zucchini, the dough doesn’t taste very good. I always add extra walnuts (because I love nuts!) and make sure you stir it well or all the nuts and raisins will end up in the bottom of your loaf. Even my icky picky eaters love this bread and they know it has zucchini in it. Leave me a comment and let me know what you think. Enjoy!

Zucchini Bread

2 cups flour
2 tsp cinnamon
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
½ tsp baking powder
3 eggs
2 cups sugar
¾ cup oil
2 cups grated zucchini
1 ½ cups chopped walnuts
½ cup raisins

Preheat oven to 350. Mix together flour, cinnamon, baking soda, salt and baking powder. Put aside beaten eggs. Add sugar and beat until thick.

Add oil and beat well. Mix in zucchini, nuts, and raisins.

Add the dry ingredients and mix well.

Pour into well-greased and floured bread pans.

 Bake for 50 minutes or until done.

 

Enjoy!