Funny and Frustrating...

I've had quite a few random things happen in our lives the past few days - so I thought I would tell you about them all in one long post....

Funny:
Steven does our laundry - he loves to line dry every item from a pair of socks to the queen-sized sheets. He wants things stiff, scratchy and thoroughly dry. And I don't care, 'cause I don't have to do it. Most of our clothes are knit/ready-to-wear type stuff that holds up under the line drying process without accruing too many wrinkles... at least not enough to worry about.

I remember when we were first married I did a load of laundry and Steven had taken it out of the dryer for me and he crammed as many pieces of clothing into the laundry basket as he could - mashing them down to make more room for others so he only had to make one trip. Said laundry basket then sat on the floor for a few days - the clothes never folded - just crammed together getting more and more wrinkled. By that time even the T-shirts were accordion style.

He pulled out a shirt from the wad one morning and I asked him, "need me to iron that for you?"

"Iron? What?! I don't need anything ironed."

And that is when I knew we would get along just fine in the laundry dept. because I don't iron. I mean I know how to, I could, I just would rather not.

So this morning that will help you understand the following scene. I had a shirt that needed ironed - one of the few that I own that will not survive the laundry process. I have ironed in the past, but I guess it's usually after the kids are asleep because this was Huston's reaction:

Me standing in front of the ironing board...

Huston: Wow! What is that!!??
Me: confused look on my face... Ummm. It's an ironing board.
H: Isaiah come see, mom has an ironing board!! Avery, look! Ironing! He and Avery then stands there watching every move I make - like it is the latest invention and he wants to see how the thing works... it's like they're viewing history in the making I tell ya!

I'm sure their wives will thank me someday because no matter what their philosophy is in the ironing department is it is sure to surpass mine... and it obviously takes very little to impress Huston.


Frustrating:
The Avery potty training saga continues. I had a brilliant idea. Remember a few months past I had attempted to spur Avery on in the potty training dept. and pretty much crashed and burned?? I have thought about it since and determined that what Avery needed was tangible prizes and instant gratification. You see for me to tell him, "Avery if you go in the potty you will get a *fill in blank*" - if Avery couldn't see his goal he wasn't interested and candy just wasn't cutting it either - there were other times he knew he would get candy (from grandma, etc) and so that just had no pull.

So enter brilliant plan. I decided to go to the $1 store and gather up a whole bunch of cheap prizes. I wrapped the prizes up as presents and put them in a basket to sit by the toilet. Every time Avery would use the toilet he could grab a present. Yep, it didn't work. He is so stubborn. He pooped so many times the other day (in a diaper) that his little bottom was raw. I told him it was definitely time to use the potty and he refused it all. day. long. I'm pretty much to the point of disciplining him for these incidents because at this point I am quite fully convinced it's a total power struggle. Stubborn, stubborn diaper wearing boy!!

Funny & Frustrating:
So yesterday I met the flooring guy at our new house to let him take a look around and tell us what his plan of action would be in getting the ball rolling on that project. The water guy also came and went that morning and it turns out we had a toilet that was constantly running - the water guy advised us to turn off the water valve at the base of the toilet until we could get it fixed so that it wouldn't run up our water bill. After I got things squared away with the water guy I went back to finish off business with the flooring guy and he mentioned in passing that I probably should check for slow leaks in the piping just to be safe (a pipe did break in the place over the winter) because that would certainly cause a lot of damage. I thought, "Oooo, yeah, better do that." Then I got sidetracked and forgot to check. When we parted ways I shut and locked the door and we left.

All night last night I kept thinking about the house. Maybe it was the passing check the pipe suggestion that I hadn't followed up on, maybe it was the weight of the endless projects ahead of us, for whatever reason I just couldn't shake the house from my mind. I was supposed to meet the painting guy at the house today, but he never called. I determined that in order to be at ease tonight I had better go check on the house. I loaded all the kids up into the Ford Focus I am borrowing from my grandma (our van is in the shop) and we took a trip out to the country. As we pulled in Isaiah said, "Look the door is wide open!" And sure enough our front door was standing wide open. I obviously didn't lock it like I had thought!

I went to the door and first closed it to figure out why it might be opened. I determined that the front door doesn't really latch very well unless it's locked - so if you close it while it's still unlocked it is easily pushed open. So I am sure I closed the door (I mean the flooring guy wouldn't have let me leave the front door wide open!) but because I didn't lock it (like I thought I had) I bet a strong wind easily pushed it open.

So after that was determined I carefully entered the house. Do you know how creepy it is to enter a house that you know has been standing wide open overnight - a rainy overnight no less? I yelled a couple of times and very cautiously walked from room to room. As I got closer to the kitchen I heard a chirp. There was a bird in our kitchen! And another one in our master bedroom. It took me what felt like hours (but probably actually only 15 minutes or so) to shoo those birds out of open windows. It was quite humorous by the end of it all. I am just so thankful that I didn't stumble upon a possum, raccoon or skunk!

And to tell you the truth I couldn't bring myself to go downstairs to check the basement (the door to the basement staircase was open - so there could potentially be something down there) but I just couldn't go see. I had enough of an adventure. Steven can go check the lower level... *shiver*

So the moral of the stories are: iron often enough to acclimate your children to the common laundry tools of the trade, send your stubborn children to potty training schools (why don't these exist?? I would pay the money!), and always make sure the doors to a house in the country are closed tightly before you leave or you'll be sharing living quarters with varmints.