Before I receive any more undeserved pity, I must announce that my fridge is now fixed. So I only deserve 7 days worth of pity, no more. The repair people actually did come yesterday evening at about 6:30pm. They obviously went to great lengths to come and do my repair and for that I am grateful. It's amazing the kind of results you can elicit when your sob story involves two little kids. Once they actually got here, they were able to fix it in about 10 minutes. Such bitter irony: almost a full week of waiting for 10 minutes of work.
Last night M and I spent a romantic evening cleaning out our fridge. There was an exciting new ecosystem forming in there, but we decimated it with a variety of cleaners. This morning the fridge had been running long enough that I could take everything out of the coolers and put it back in it's proper home. I can just hear my mayonnaise saying, "Ah, home sweet home."
Wednesday, October 3, 2007
Tuesday, October 2, 2007
Why Do Stereotypes Have to Prove Themselves True?
All right, appliance gods, we have to talk.
First of all, there's the spelling thing. When I want to use the full name "refrigerator," it uses only a "g," but when I want a shorter way to say it "fridge" has a "d" and "g." What up with that? Do you know how many times a day I've had to remember that distinction in the last 7 days???? Which brings me to the larger issue.
My refrigerator is a glorified cabinet. No wait, it's worse than that because now it's full of melted ice water (from the brief attempt to keep it cold in there with an extra bag of ice we had), rotted produce remains (the stuff that wasn't worth saving), and the smell of warm barbecue sauce. My other cabinets definitely don't have those problems, no matter how bad a housekeeper I am. So make that, "My refrigerator is a big stinky cabinet." I mean, I love Rudy's Sause, but not enough to enjoy "eau de BBQ" every time I open the fridge out of mindless habit. (Why do I keep doing that? You'd think I'd learn. Especially since the only way to get to my fridge is to basically trip over the two big coolers in the middle of the kitchen floor full of ice and all my perishable food staples. I suppose if nothing else, maybe this experience will break my habit of mindlessly opening the fridge when I'm bored.)
How could I abandon my Rudy's Sause to the broken fridge abyss you ask? We all have to make choices in a moment of crisis. I did the best I could... Back when the fridge first started to go, the things made of predominantly vinegar seemed like they would fare better in the slowly deteriorating environment. I mean, better to lose the the mustard and bottles of salad dressing with only a few tablespoons left of whatever creamy dressing whim struck me when I was pregnant than risk a coup when Scott discovered we'd be spending another week where he couldn't drink milk. (Yes, you're doing the math right. I'm not making any announcements about being pregnant again. The salad dressings were past their expiration dates anyway.) The problem became compounded when my first and thoroughly useless repairman came on Friday and my fridge gave up the ghost. Or maybe I should say it gave up the rest of its freon. It used to cool at least a little bit. As I watched, the repairman opened up the back, pointed out a bad weld on what he called a previous repair (previous repair?!?!? your guess is as good as mine...), then touched the suspect spot. This commenced a loud hissing sound that signaled a new chapter in our refrigerator saga. No longer were we in the "mildly cool" stage. No, no! Now we'd progressed to "accelerate bad smells because it's musty and warm in here" stage. So in the interest of whining as much as possible, here is my timeline:
June 23, 2007 - We purchase a brand new (still has all the packaging tape and styrofoam) LG refrigerator from a scratch and dent appliances store. It indeed had some pretty significant cosmetic damage, but since I have two children under the age of 5, this seemed irrelevant. It comes with a full manufacturer's warranty, so everything will be fine, right? (On the cosmetic side of things, it was a good call. My kids have already generated two new dings on the front of this thing in the two months we've been using it.)
July 21 - We actually pick up our new fridge and start using it.
September 22 - We notice that our recently purchased ice cream is more of a chilly soup/foam. It never recovered from the trip home in the trunk. We wonder if we've overloaded the freezer and blocked air flow. We move a couple things to the chest freezer in the garage and turn the freezer a little colder.
September 24 - We notice that things have not improved in our freezer. We completely rearrange everything so that we have even less than before in the freezer and spread it all out in a nice even layer just begging to be frozen. Also, we adjust the temperature again. I begin hunting for our owner's manual. "Which box I haven't unpacked yet did that end up in?" Also, I must not forget to mention that, apparently oblivious to the mounting peril, I go the grocery store for our bi-weekly trip and stock up our fridge. How dumb could I be? But hindsight is 20/20...
September 25 - We try everything suggested in the owner's manual. We start cooking up our own ideas. We leave only a few things in the freezer and place a test cup of water in there to see if it will freeze overnight.
Wednesday September 26 - By morning, the cup of water in the freezer has succeeded only in forming only a very thin layer of ice which begins to disappear as the morning wears on. I decide to call LG. I spend my morning making touch tone selections and listening to hold music. They reffer me to someone who offers to come the next morning, but Claire has a preschool field trip we're all going on, so I put it off until Friday morning. If only I had known then that the freezer inadequacy was just the tip of the melting iceberg. After I set up a repair appointment, I realize the few things we've left in our freezer are now thawed and dripping everywhere. So I transfer what can be salvaged to the other freezer, then start to realize that my problem may be getting worse. Is it me, or is the fridge not quite cold enough? After an hour of conflict, I finally ignore the voice in my head that says, "The fridge is definitely colder than a breadbox (what scale can you use?), the food will be fine" and heed the alarmist voice in my head saying "How will you know if the fridge is cold enough? Do you want another upchuck festival?" (Man, that just keeps coming up, doesn't it? Sorry...) I pull out our cooler and borrow one from the neighbors. I scrounge ice from our house and our poor under-appreciated neighbors.
Friday September 28 - Repairman #1 comes. His name was given to me by LG, so why couldn't he fix anything? He doesn't "do" the sealed system. Well I don't "do" soggy cheese that has been floating in a cooler full of ice and water. So I call LG again and get three different names of other repair companies so I can call until I find someone who does "do" the main components of refrigerators. The first company I call sounds like it will work great. They can't quite squeeze me in that day, so I schedule them to come Monday morning. I try calling the other two companies and leaving messages to see if they can come any sooner. They never return my calls. Hmmm.... I guess we'll wait through the weekend.
Monday October 1 - Repairman is no show. I get a call at about lunchtime telling me that the repair guy is bogged down with some huge job that turned out to be more than they expected. He won't get to me today, he'll come the next morning at 10am so that I'll be back from dropping Claire off at preschool.
Today, Tuesday October 2 - Repairman is no show by 11:30am so I call to see what's up. He's behind but he'll come this afternoon. Well, that's all fine and dandy, but I have to pick Claire up from preschool at 12:15. Now, we all know how this works. If I go, I just KNOW the repair man will definitely come while I'm gone. But as long as I'm here, he'll never show up. I mean, afternoon seems like it would mean later than 12:30, but I'm not willing to bet a likely case of food poisoning on that. At this point, I'd rather eat the soggy ziploc bag of raw bacon we fished out of the cooler yesterday than risk not having my fridge repaired as soon as humanly possible. Ah ha! I need a substitute me! Enter my good friend Liz. I frantically call and have her come stay at my house while I go get Claire. She is under strict orders to pretend to be me at all costs if the repair people try to make contact. (What will I do when Liz finally finds a job? Then she won't be available for crisis impersonations and other sundry shenanigans!) Of course, the repair company does call while I'm gone. Of course. They tell her some sob story about how they're short-handed and over-worked. Cry me a river... Wait, I'm already up to my neck in river generated by melting ice in my kitchen. They tell her/me that they'll try to come later in the afternoon but that if I'm desperate, I can see if LG will just send me a replacement fridge. He also says this would probably take about 3 weeks. Gee, I wonder what I'll pick???? Anyway, at about 4:30pm today, I called to see if they were still going to come now that afternoon was rapidly turning into evening. They said they'll still come before they finish up for the day. I'll believe it when I see it.
Everyone jokes about how terrible it is getting warranty repair work done. Everyone jokes about how terrible repairmen are about coming when they say they will.
I hate living in a joke.
First of all, there's the spelling thing. When I want to use the full name "refrigerator," it uses only a "g," but when I want a shorter way to say it "fridge" has a "d" and "g." What up with that? Do you know how many times a day I've had to remember that distinction in the last 7 days???? Which brings me to the larger issue.
My refrigerator is a glorified cabinet. No wait, it's worse than that because now it's full of melted ice water (from the brief attempt to keep it cold in there with an extra bag of ice we had), rotted produce remains (the stuff that wasn't worth saving), and the smell of warm barbecue sauce. My other cabinets definitely don't have those problems, no matter how bad a housekeeper I am. So make that, "My refrigerator is a big stinky cabinet." I mean, I love Rudy's Sause, but not enough to enjoy "eau de BBQ" every time I open the fridge out of mindless habit. (Why do I keep doing that? You'd think I'd learn. Especially since the only way to get to my fridge is to basically trip over the two big coolers in the middle of the kitchen floor full of ice and all my perishable food staples. I suppose if nothing else, maybe this experience will break my habit of mindlessly opening the fridge when I'm bored.)
How could I abandon my Rudy's Sause to the broken fridge abyss you ask? We all have to make choices in a moment of crisis. I did the best I could... Back when the fridge first started to go, the things made of predominantly vinegar seemed like they would fare better in the slowly deteriorating environment. I mean, better to lose the the mustard and bottles of salad dressing with only a few tablespoons left of whatever creamy dressing whim struck me when I was pregnant than risk a coup when Scott discovered we'd be spending another week where he couldn't drink milk. (Yes, you're doing the math right. I'm not making any announcements about being pregnant again. The salad dressings were past their expiration dates anyway.) The problem became compounded when my first and thoroughly useless repairman came on Friday and my fridge gave up the ghost. Or maybe I should say it gave up the rest of its freon. It used to cool at least a little bit. As I watched, the repairman opened up the back, pointed out a bad weld on what he called a previous repair (previous repair?!?!? your guess is as good as mine...), then touched the suspect spot. This commenced a loud hissing sound that signaled a new chapter in our refrigerator saga. No longer were we in the "mildly cool" stage. No, no! Now we'd progressed to "accelerate bad smells because it's musty and warm in here" stage. So in the interest of whining as much as possible, here is my timeline:
June 23, 2007 - We purchase a brand new (still has all the packaging tape and styrofoam) LG refrigerator from a scratch and dent appliances store. It indeed had some pretty significant cosmetic damage, but since I have two children under the age of 5, this seemed irrelevant. It comes with a full manufacturer's warranty, so everything will be fine, right? (On the cosmetic side of things, it was a good call. My kids have already generated two new dings on the front of this thing in the two months we've been using it.)
July 21 - We actually pick up our new fridge and start using it.
September 22 - We notice that our recently purchased ice cream is more of a chilly soup/foam. It never recovered from the trip home in the trunk. We wonder if we've overloaded the freezer and blocked air flow. We move a couple things to the chest freezer in the garage and turn the freezer a little colder.
September 24 - We notice that things have not improved in our freezer. We completely rearrange everything so that we have even less than before in the freezer and spread it all out in a nice even layer just begging to be frozen. Also, we adjust the temperature again. I begin hunting for our owner's manual. "Which box I haven't unpacked yet did that end up in?" Also, I must not forget to mention that, apparently oblivious to the mounting peril, I go the grocery store for our bi-weekly trip and stock up our fridge. How dumb could I be? But hindsight is 20/20...
September 25 - We try everything suggested in the owner's manual. We start cooking up our own ideas. We leave only a few things in the freezer and place a test cup of water in there to see if it will freeze overnight.
Wednesday September 26 - By morning, the cup of water in the freezer has succeeded only in forming only a very thin layer of ice which begins to disappear as the morning wears on. I decide to call LG. I spend my morning making touch tone selections and listening to hold music. They reffer me to someone who offers to come the next morning, but Claire has a preschool field trip we're all going on, so I put it off until Friday morning. If only I had known then that the freezer inadequacy was just the tip of the melting iceberg. After I set up a repair appointment, I realize the few things we've left in our freezer are now thawed and dripping everywhere. So I transfer what can be salvaged to the other freezer, then start to realize that my problem may be getting worse. Is it me, or is the fridge not quite cold enough? After an hour of conflict, I finally ignore the voice in my head that says, "The fridge is definitely colder than a breadbox (what scale can you use?), the food will be fine" and heed the alarmist voice in my head saying "How will you know if the fridge is cold enough? Do you want another upchuck festival?" (Man, that just keeps coming up, doesn't it? Sorry...) I pull out our cooler and borrow one from the neighbors. I scrounge ice from our house and our poor under-appreciated neighbors.
Friday September 28 - Repairman #1 comes. His name was given to me by LG, so why couldn't he fix anything? He doesn't "do" the sealed system. Well I don't "do" soggy cheese that has been floating in a cooler full of ice and water. So I call LG again and get three different names of other repair companies so I can call until I find someone who does "do" the main components of refrigerators. The first company I call sounds like it will work great. They can't quite squeeze me in that day, so I schedule them to come Monday morning. I try calling the other two companies and leaving messages to see if they can come any sooner. They never return my calls. Hmmm.... I guess we'll wait through the weekend.
Monday October 1 - Repairman is no show. I get a call at about lunchtime telling me that the repair guy is bogged down with some huge job that turned out to be more than they expected. He won't get to me today, he'll come the next morning at 10am so that I'll be back from dropping Claire off at preschool.
Today, Tuesday October 2 - Repairman is no show by 11:30am so I call to see what's up. He's behind but he'll come this afternoon. Well, that's all fine and dandy, but I have to pick Claire up from preschool at 12:15. Now, we all know how this works. If I go, I just KNOW the repair man will definitely come while I'm gone. But as long as I'm here, he'll never show up. I mean, afternoon seems like it would mean later than 12:30, but I'm not willing to bet a likely case of food poisoning on that. At this point, I'd rather eat the soggy ziploc bag of raw bacon we fished out of the cooler yesterday than risk not having my fridge repaired as soon as humanly possible. Ah ha! I need a substitute me! Enter my good friend Liz. I frantically call and have her come stay at my house while I go get Claire. She is under strict orders to pretend to be me at all costs if the repair people try to make contact. (What will I do when Liz finally finds a job? Then she won't be available for crisis impersonations and other sundry shenanigans!) Of course, the repair company does call while I'm gone. Of course. They tell her some sob story about how they're short-handed and over-worked. Cry me a river... Wait, I'm already up to my neck in river generated by melting ice in my kitchen. They tell her/me that they'll try to come later in the afternoon but that if I'm desperate, I can see if LG will just send me a replacement fridge. He also says this would probably take about 3 weeks. Gee, I wonder what I'll pick???? Anyway, at about 4:30pm today, I called to see if they were still going to come now that afternoon was rapidly turning into evening. They said they'll still come before they finish up for the day. I'll believe it when I see it.
Everyone jokes about how terrible it is getting warranty repair work done. Everyone jokes about how terrible repairmen are about coming when they say they will.
I hate living in a joke.
Thursday, September 27, 2007
One of Those Stupid Things that are Actually Pretty Cool for Learning About People
The title is a tribute to my sister. She emailed me something very similar to this recently and the subject was something like that. The subject was the only reason I answered it. This time I'm doing it because I'm willing to humor Ralphie, who "tagged" me. I'm not sure exactly what this means - for me it conjures images of Ralphie's stylized gangsta name being plastered with spray paint across my forehead in the dead of the night. (Wow, wouldn't you love to see that? Ralphie, or should I say Ralphmaster J, you'd better get cracking...)
What I Was Doing 10 Years Ago: Well, ten years ago I was just beginning my senior year of high school. Filling out college applications -- okay, who am I kidding, I only applied to BYU and then focused on scholarship applications. I was co-captaining the ID Unit of our marching band, so let me paint a mental picture for you. On Fridays I wore something akin to a cheerleader skirt with a polo shirt embroidered with my name and I sported gleaming white keds. On Saturdays, picture me in sequins, spandex, dance shoes and tights, gobs of makeup and spinning around a big sign with the letter "R" on it. Are you laughing yet? Also, I was trying only somewhat successfully to combine early morning religious classes with reasonably advanced high school classes with a late night math class at the community college. Last and definitely least, I was starting a relationship with a guy that really didn't work out (a high school relationship not working out, who'd-a-thunk?) On the up side, he helped scare off the creepy over-eager guy in my college math class that wouldn't leave me alone.
What Was I Doing 5 Years Ago: I was a newly-wed finishing my last semester of college. We lived in a stylishly cute little apartment with no furniture to go in it. I was taking floral arranging with my sister since this was the only semester we overlapped at BYU. We lived down the street from a florist, and M would frequently get suckered into buying me flowers on his walk home from school (not that I'm complaining). I had a comparatively easy course load since I only had a final few classes that I hadn't been able to squeeze in within 4 years. I worked part time as a TA for Electrical and Computer Engineering 485: Introduction to Digital Communication Theory (geek-o-matic, no?). I was debating whether to start my masters degree, a decision that was in no small way influenced by the misery of another class I was taking that semester, EcEn 580: Stochastic Processes. This class was at 8 am and taught by my least favorite professor in the department. The TA kept incorrectly grading our papers. The TA was completely inaccessible (as was the professor). The TA barely spoke English. Unfortunately, I needed this class to be able to do anything useful for my graduate work the next semester. M and I even went on an all expense paid by BYU trip to San Diego for a technical conference because I was intending to start my graduate work in that field. It was an agonizing trip. I was surprisingly bored even though I did know what they were talking about (imagine if I hadn't!). I think M enjoyed the conference more than I did, and it wasn't even his area of focus. Needless to say, I wasn't that upset when I decided the Lord's will for me was for me to move on to learning new things, and I gave up on electrical engineering grad school for the time being and dropped that cursed stochastic processes class. You know the class must have been bad since I'm still whining about it 5 years later!!!
One Year Ago: This one is the most boring of the three. I was living in our apartment before our last one. It was a nice apartment. Big kitchen (possibly bigger even than my house!), 2 bathrooms (unlike our last apartment which only had one), master bedroom closet big enough for Scott to sleep in (which he did sometimes - don't go calling child protection services on me though, it really was a big closet). I have nothing interesting to say about 1 year ago, it was merely a pleasant way station before we bought a house.
Yesterday: I took Scott to the doctor so I could pay $20 to have them tell me that essentially, they don't know what caused his 5 day upchuck festival. Came home and called about our broken fridge. Called about our dripping AC secondary drain line. Noticed our fridge was breaking even more and transferred all the contents of our fridge into coolers with ice. Made dessert for the bible study group I go to on Wednesday nights. Frantically searched the house for our refrigerator receipt (I seriously need to unpack more boxes). Fell asleep on the couch in a mixture of exasperation and relief when Claire fell asleep for her quiet time. Woke Claire up from her nap and dealt with cranky "you woke me up" Claire (but I didn't want her to be up until 11pm). Went to potluck dinner/bible study group next door. Came home about the same time as M got home from his meeting at church. Exerted every last ounce of my waning strength to get the kids to bed before it was 11pm. Collapsed on the couch with M and we finished watching "Stranger Than Fiction," which was quite possibly the best new movie I've seen in something close to a year. LOVED IT!!! Still thinking about it. Gotta buy it...
Five Snacks I Enjoy: Well, if by snacks you mean desserts, I'm set! OK, I'll try to lean a little more snackish...
1. graham crackers with peanut butter and milk (but sometimes Nutella and sometimes substituting chocolate chips and marshmallows to make s'mores...ok, let me be brutally honest, I enjoy any combination of peanut butter, Nutella, chocolate chips, and marshmallows on either graham crackers or tortillas for a sort of dessert quesadilla! whoops, I ended up with dessert after all - I'll try harder)
2. cheese
3. banana, Nesquik, milk/soymilk, and ice smoothies (there I go again so I'll append:) and fruit and smoothies
4. trail mix
5. Nature Valley Sweet and Salty Nut granola bars
Five Things I Would Do With 1 Million Dollars:
1. pay off my mortgage
2. landscape my entire backyard based on my sister's design
3. buy furniture for my whole house, all in one coordinating chunk
4. remodel my kitchen
5. invest, invest, invest (I don't think that has to count as 3 things, does it?)
Five Places I Would Love To Run (Away) To:
So I'll take this as travel dreams:
1. Europe (pretty much most of it, do I have to break it down?): Most interested in Italy, England, Scotland, Norway, and France (but only for the Louvre)
2. New York City
3. Anywhere terribly tropical and beachy
I get to stop now because #1 was really like #1-#5
Five TV Shows I Like: I'm really only a movie person but I love the Berenstain Bears and Sesame Street because they mean I get to go upstairs and sew. M and I do occasionally indulge in the Biggest Loser or Letterman.
Five Things I Hate Doing:
1. Cleaning. Period. (not organizing and tidying, just actual cleaning)
2. Making phone calls to people I don't know.
3. Waking sleeping children
4. Doing anything without my contacts in
5. Getting into a hot car without the AC already running full blast at my face and feeling my makeup pool and drip mixed with my copious sweat (READ: May through October here in Texas)
Five Biggest Joys Of The Moment:
1. Scott blows me kisses as I leave his room when I lay him down to sleep (I'm SO lucky that I got a good sleeper this time around)
2. Listening to Claire wonder what two numbers added together is and then figuring the answer out herself
3. Letting the kids jump without worrying about neighbors, washing our car as a family in the driveway, and debating paint colors - in other words, living in our own house
4. Having my own sewing/craft room. We'll see how long it lasts, but it's great for now.
5. M and everything about him - though I'd like to think this isn't just a joy of the moment :)
Five People That I Tag: I dunno. Ralphie already took most of the people I know really well, so I guess I'll inflict this on some unsuspecting acquaintances with blogs. Who knows if they'll all actually see this post and realized they've been tagged, but I guess then they'll luck out and be off the hook. Mary Beth Glauser, Jana Greenhalgh, Debbie MacKenzie, K King oh, and Janssen (though I can't help but wonder if she'll hate me for it - why didn't Ralphie tag her? does Ralphie know something I don't?).
Oh, and Ralphie, if you don't like the moniker I gave you, feel free to change it. When pretending I come even vaguely close to running in those circles, I go by the gangsta name Chili G Dawg. I wasted a lot of time in years past deciding on the perfect rapper name for myself, so don't let some whim of mine make you rush into yours :)
What I Was Doing 10 Years Ago: Well, ten years ago I was just beginning my senior year of high school. Filling out college applications -- okay, who am I kidding, I only applied to BYU and then focused on scholarship applications. I was co-captaining the ID Unit of our marching band, so let me paint a mental picture for you. On Fridays I wore something akin to a cheerleader skirt with a polo shirt embroidered with my name and I sported gleaming white keds. On Saturdays, picture me in sequins, spandex, dance shoes and tights, gobs of makeup and spinning around a big sign with the letter "R" on it. Are you laughing yet? Also, I was trying only somewhat successfully to combine early morning religious classes with reasonably advanced high school classes with a late night math class at the community college. Last and definitely least, I was starting a relationship with a guy that really didn't work out (a high school relationship not working out, who'd-a-thunk?) On the up side, he helped scare off the creepy over-eager guy in my college math class that wouldn't leave me alone.
What Was I Doing 5 Years Ago: I was a newly-wed finishing my last semester of college. We lived in a stylishly cute little apartment with no furniture to go in it. I was taking floral arranging with my sister since this was the only semester we overlapped at BYU. We lived down the street from a florist, and M would frequently get suckered into buying me flowers on his walk home from school (not that I'm complaining). I had a comparatively easy course load since I only had a final few classes that I hadn't been able to squeeze in within 4 years. I worked part time as a TA for Electrical and Computer Engineering 485: Introduction to Digital Communication Theory (geek-o-matic, no?). I was debating whether to start my masters degree, a decision that was in no small way influenced by the misery of another class I was taking that semester, EcEn 580: Stochastic Processes. This class was at 8 am and taught by my least favorite professor in the department. The TA kept incorrectly grading our papers. The TA was completely inaccessible (as was the professor). The TA barely spoke English. Unfortunately, I needed this class to be able to do anything useful for my graduate work the next semester. M and I even went on an all expense paid by BYU trip to San Diego for a technical conference because I was intending to start my graduate work in that field. It was an agonizing trip. I was surprisingly bored even though I did know what they were talking about (imagine if I hadn't!). I think M enjoyed the conference more than I did, and it wasn't even his area of focus. Needless to say, I wasn't that upset when I decided the Lord's will for me was for me to move on to learning new things, and I gave up on electrical engineering grad school for the time being and dropped that cursed stochastic processes class. You know the class must have been bad since I'm still whining about it 5 years later!!!
One Year Ago: This one is the most boring of the three. I was living in our apartment before our last one. It was a nice apartment. Big kitchen (possibly bigger even than my house!), 2 bathrooms (unlike our last apartment which only had one), master bedroom closet big enough for Scott to sleep in (which he did sometimes - don't go calling child protection services on me though, it really was a big closet). I have nothing interesting to say about 1 year ago, it was merely a pleasant way station before we bought a house.
Yesterday: I took Scott to the doctor so I could pay $20 to have them tell me that essentially, they don't know what caused his 5 day upchuck festival. Came home and called about our broken fridge. Called about our dripping AC secondary drain line. Noticed our fridge was breaking even more and transferred all the contents of our fridge into coolers with ice. Made dessert for the bible study group I go to on Wednesday nights. Frantically searched the house for our refrigerator receipt (I seriously need to unpack more boxes). Fell asleep on the couch in a mixture of exasperation and relief when Claire fell asleep for her quiet time. Woke Claire up from her nap and dealt with cranky "you woke me up" Claire (but I didn't want her to be up until 11pm). Went to potluck dinner/bible study group next door. Came home about the same time as M got home from his meeting at church. Exerted every last ounce of my waning strength to get the kids to bed before it was 11pm. Collapsed on the couch with M and we finished watching "Stranger Than Fiction," which was quite possibly the best new movie I've seen in something close to a year. LOVED IT!!! Still thinking about it. Gotta buy it...
Five Snacks I Enjoy: Well, if by snacks you mean desserts, I'm set! OK, I'll try to lean a little more snackish...
1. graham crackers with peanut butter and milk (but sometimes Nutella and sometimes substituting chocolate chips and marshmallows to make s'mores...ok, let me be brutally honest, I enjoy any combination of peanut butter, Nutella, chocolate chips, and marshmallows on either graham crackers or tortillas for a sort of dessert quesadilla! whoops, I ended up with dessert after all - I'll try harder)
2. cheese
3. banana, Nesquik, milk/soymilk, and ice smoothies (there I go again so I'll append:) and fruit and smoothies
4. trail mix
5. Nature Valley Sweet and Salty Nut granola bars
Five Things I Would Do With 1 Million Dollars:
1. pay off my mortgage
2. landscape my entire backyard based on my sister's design
3. buy furniture for my whole house, all in one coordinating chunk
4. remodel my kitchen
5. invest, invest, invest (I don't think that has to count as 3 things, does it?)
Five Places I Would Love To Run (Away) To:
So I'll take this as travel dreams:
1. Europe (pretty much most of it, do I have to break it down?): Most interested in Italy, England, Scotland, Norway, and France (but only for the Louvre)
2. New York City
3. Anywhere terribly tropical and beachy
I get to stop now because #1 was really like #1-#5
Five TV Shows I Like: I'm really only a movie person but I love the Berenstain Bears and Sesame Street because they mean I get to go upstairs and sew. M and I do occasionally indulge in the Biggest Loser or Letterman.
Five Things I Hate Doing:
1. Cleaning. Period. (not organizing and tidying, just actual cleaning)
2. Making phone calls to people I don't know.
3. Waking sleeping children
4. Doing anything without my contacts in
5. Getting into a hot car without the AC already running full blast at my face and feeling my makeup pool and drip mixed with my copious sweat (READ: May through October here in Texas)
Five Biggest Joys Of The Moment:
1. Scott blows me kisses as I leave his room when I lay him down to sleep (I'm SO lucky that I got a good sleeper this time around)
2. Listening to Claire wonder what two numbers added together is and then figuring the answer out herself
3. Letting the kids jump without worrying about neighbors, washing our car as a family in the driveway, and debating paint colors - in other words, living in our own house
4. Having my own sewing/craft room. We'll see how long it lasts, but it's great for now.
5. M and everything about him - though I'd like to think this isn't just a joy of the moment :)
Five People That I Tag: I dunno. Ralphie already took most of the people I know really well, so I guess I'll inflict this on some unsuspecting acquaintances with blogs. Who knows if they'll all actually see this post and realized they've been tagged, but I guess then they'll luck out and be off the hook. Mary Beth Glauser, Jana Greenhalgh, Debbie MacKenzie, K King oh, and Janssen (though I can't help but wonder if she'll hate me for it - why didn't Ralphie tag her? does Ralphie know something I don't?).
Oh, and Ralphie, if you don't like the moniker I gave you, feel free to change it. When pretending I come even vaguely close to running in those circles, I go by the gangsta name Chili G Dawg. I wasted a lot of time in years past deciding on the perfect rapper name for myself, so don't let some whim of mine make you rush into yours :)
Scott's Morning Sickness
For awhile I was beginning to doubt the impossibility of my 19 month old son being pregnant. Scott threw up once each morning from Friday morning of last week through Tuesday morning. (For those who are counting, that's 5 days.) It was so weird. Poor kid. I think the hardest part for him was the fact that we wouldn't allow him his usual daily ration of a quart of whole milk. He still wanted all our food, but you know what they say: good appetite doth not a stable stomach make. (I think that's a proverb or something, right?) It broke my heart to refuse him food. (This furthers my suspicion that I have unhealthy attitudes towards food...)
Every time "it" happened it was before noon, sometimes in his crib before I got him in the morning, sometimes in my living room, and then nothing for the rest of the day. All I can say is hallelujah for the fact that my entire downstairs is tiled. I've never before experienced such calm feelings around a volatile volcano of vomit. (You didn't actually think I would spare you the gory details did you? I held out as long as I could, but I am still me.) I was very nearly cheerful even while cleaning up spew since there was no carpet involved. I would have to say that the award for most entertaining upchuck goes to Tuesday morning's remnants of a green popsicle from the night before on Scott's white crib sheets. Talk about "the technicolor yawn."
I still don't really know what it was that caused it all, I'm just glad it's over. His pediatrician suspects the culprit was "mucus buildup" from a nasty cold. All I know is that I'm almost going to miss Claire talking on her toy cell phone to the "throw up cleaner guys." Man, who are they and how do I get them to come???
Look for my impending post on our broken refrigerator adventures... anybody have a spare fridge they wanna let me borrow?
Every time "it" happened it was before noon, sometimes in his crib before I got him in the morning, sometimes in my living room, and then nothing for the rest of the day. All I can say is hallelujah for the fact that my entire downstairs is tiled. I've never before experienced such calm feelings around a volatile volcano of vomit. (You didn't actually think I would spare you the gory details did you? I held out as long as I could, but I am still me.) I was very nearly cheerful even while cleaning up spew since there was no carpet involved. I would have to say that the award for most entertaining upchuck goes to Tuesday morning's remnants of a green popsicle from the night before on Scott's white crib sheets. Talk about "the technicolor yawn."
I still don't really know what it was that caused it all, I'm just glad it's over. His pediatrician suspects the culprit was "mucus buildup" from a nasty cold. All I know is that I'm almost going to miss Claire talking on her toy cell phone to the "throw up cleaner guys." Man, who are they and how do I get them to come???
Look for my impending post on our broken refrigerator adventures... anybody have a spare fridge they wanna let me borrow?
Wednesday, September 26, 2007
Posting for the Sake of Posting
I'm dying to post, but everything I want to write about right now will take more time to compose than I have right now. Why, why can't I be more concise? Well, at least this post will be short.
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