This morning started with the usual routine. This would be me trying to wake up but resisting with every ounce of my being. Naturally, morning won. I wandered from the bed to the recliner to supervise children who should be getting ready for school. Sometimes they get distracted. There was a Diet Coke consumed. It didn’t help, but I did consume it.
The boys were off to school. Yay! Ben was out the door. Lance was sent to turn the sprinklers on. Might as well get an early start before the day gets too warm. I figured I spend the day working on some web design and other stuff as well as run a few errands. Figuring but not hitting the “enter” button. Still it was a busy day.
I went out to move the sprinkler about 30 minutes after it had been running. I had it only spraying the worst part of the yard yesterday evening. We’re trying to get as much water into the ground as possible in hopes that it will recover and fill in some of the spaces were cinch bug got it last year. We’re trying to encourage it to root and spread.
I was standing there waiting for the sprinkler to run its rotation so I could make sure it was covering what I wanted it to water and I could honestly say, “Wow, this is a beautiful day.” It was simply divine outside at this time. It was probably about 9:30-10am. Unfortunately, the “niceness” from right then and there would not last. BUT, they say there is a cool front heading our way so hopefully in the next few days we’ll have a couple of really pleasant days. A not so gentle reminder of what we won’t be experiencing again until sometime come October (maybe).
I sent Lance back out to turn off the sprinkler about 30 minutes later. He didn’t come right back in. Why should he? I mean, there are now puddles of MUD in the back yard to compliment the sandbox that is also wet. Fortunately, he was content to just run in the sprinkler and get soaking wet. He did come in and stand there on the hard tiled dining room floor DRIPPING saying, “I’m wet, really wet, I need a towel.” Now, I don’t play that game. I told him to strip down right there. He had on all dark clothes and he was DRENCHED. The dark clothes will be important.
He stood there in his underwear. “The spider-man underwear has got to go too.” I got this look of total disbelief. How could I dare ask him to strip butt naked in the dining room? Hmmm, maybe so you don’t get the entire house wet! He obliged because it meant that he could then streak through the house butt naked to find a towel. Now, the way this would really go is that he’d find the towel before he wandered off to find clothes. He would, of course, again streak through the house to find the clothes because the towel was only useful for drying off, not for covering his nakedness.
There is never a dull moment in a house full of boys.
So what about those dark clothes? A mother quickly learns that a sopping wet thing of any nature can quickly become her best friend. The kids like to put those single serve drink mixes in a water bottle for their lunches. Lance has learned that he “can” open them and pour them into his own bottle. He’s real cute about it. Well the other day, when Daddy was left in charge of his person and all actions, he found a larger more convenient “lemonade” mix. He found the Crystal Light mix canisters that have little cups inside that mix up a full gallon or whatever the amount is. At any rate, the amount is way higher than a single 16-20 ounce water bottle. He pulled back the foil lid on the little cup and poured it into the bottle. He even cleaned up the mess…kind of…I have to say he didn’t do too bad of a job in that department for only being 4.5 and this being a fine red powder that has now gone everywhere – the table, the chair, the floor. Anyway, I haven’t had enough desire, energy, or time to properly mop the floor so the red powder that was “stuck” to the floor on who knows what was already on the floor in that spot (it is under the chair that Lance normally sits in so there is no telling what has dropped there). Well these sopping wet, dark colored clothes became the wet rag to wipe up the red drink mix powder that was stuck on the floor. I have to say that it did a pretty darn good job getting it up as well. Granted, there will be some bleach (or more likely didi7) going in the grout lines, but dang it a good wet rag should never be discarded before serving another purpose. Shhh! That was a secret confession, I use wet clothes to clean up messes.
I am in the meantime trying to get some work done. I have a magazine ad that needs to be done for proofing by tomorrow sometime. I had ideas and a bare bones layout started, but that was as far as I was getting. I needed a logo. I decided to stop and work on that earlier in the week. At least give something to show for that. We are probably no where near the end result, but a start is what we needed. Well, what I needed. I mean, what good is an advertisement if you don’t have a recognizable “brand?” So I get this ad started and looking like what the client wants. No big deal. I am so not liking it. It didn’t meat the “with more pop” specification I was given during our business meeting last Friday. So I started fiddling with it. Keeping the same “shape” and “general content” but changing it up a bit. The ideas just started flowing and it started coming together nicely. Wow! It hasn’t been like that in a while. Must be the change in clientele. Anyway, I spent more of the day working on that than I thought I would…figuring that I’d finish it up Friday morning and send it off for proofing (approval) sometime Friday afternoon. Our true deadline isn’t for another week, so we’ve got plenty of time to tweak. I ended up sending it to him this afternoon. Surprises do sometimes happen. It just started to come together. We’ll see what he has to say…I’m trying to wait ever so patiently.
So while I am working, I’ve started the washing machine with a new product I found at Target yesterday when I was looking for something else. I didn’t find what I was looking for. I wasn’t even going to buy this item to be real honest with you. I stewed on it a little bit while I scoured the cleaning aisle looking for what I needed. It just kept calling me. Mocking me. Taunting me.
Now, I’ve tried a similar product and it did not work. It didn’t. My washing machine has been displeasing me. It has been displeasing me since Hurricane Ike rolled through town last September. My washing machine has STUNK ever since then. I hate to admit it, but I’ve got a stinky washing machine problem. I’ve tried heavy bleach. I’ve tried lots of vinegar. I’ve tried other things. Nothing has worked.
Well Tide makes a washing machine cleaner (new). It wasn’t super cheap, but it was cheaper than hiring someone to figure out why my washing machine stinks. So at $6.99 I bought it. What did I have to lose besides $6.99 + tax?
I ran the load of towels that I forgot to put in the dryer last night. I had a child empty the dryer last night, but I never got back to getting the clothes into the dryer. This is a bad thing. The things in the washer start stinking after only 3-4 hours in there…imagine over night. Ick! So I washed those first.
I followed the directions, running an empty load with this stuff in it (looked like powdered Tide if you ask me) with hot water. The house smelt like an heated box of Tide left open. *laugh* It was rather potent. My washer didn’t stink anymore though.
I then ran a load of clothes. They have been sitting in there since at least noon this afternoon. I got distracted and never got back to get them in the dryer. We’ll see if it worked, soon enough.
Also while I’m working. I’ve taken a call from my oldest, bestest friend Margaret’s mother. She had some computer questions. That took a while. Hopefully, she understood what I was saying. Margaret, if you’re reading this, “Hi!” *waving*
Then there was the vacuum incident. Lance has had this fascination with my vacuum cleaner the past couple of days. I was pleading with him to just leave it alone. Not to pull on the handle and leave it laying down (the handle, not the vacuum). I was pleading with him to not twirl the cord like a jump rope. Remember I said there is never a dull moment in a house full of boys? Now you’re probably beginning to understand why. So I just really want him to leave the vacuum alone. I especially wanted him to stop taking it apart and trying each of its attachments on it. I didn’t think that this was too much to ask. Really, I didn’t. Oh, I was so mistaken! Evidently the hose makes a great “race tunnel” for Hot Wheels race cars. That is, of course, until you get to the end where the attachments go on the hose because it narrows down. Yep, you guessed it…he got a car stuck in the vacuum hose. *rolling eyes* Not just a little bit either. I mean STUCK! Not moving, stuck. He was even pulling on it trying to get it out of the hole that it was too big to go through. Let’s pull it further into its trap why don’t we? Let me just say that there was some soap and lots of hot water involved, but I did finally manage to free the race car from its hose tunnel. Lance was then told to never do that again. The hose is still in my kitchen sink because I still have to rinse the soap out of my vacuum cleaner hose now.
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