When it rains...

There are lots of cliches for the seasons and experiences you go through in life. For instance, the title to this post "When it rains... it pours." I'm living proof of that right now.


These last two weeks have been just about all I can stand... and to quote Popeye, "... and I can't stands no more!"

What's happened?

Well, you start out with one kid waking you up on Monday with an ear ache so bad he's in tears. Knowing what a high pain tolerance Drew has, I knew it was bad. Ben had been running a fever and started pulling at one ear so I suspected he had one working as well.


Dr. Knapp said that on a scale from 1-10 with 10 being a ruptured ear drum, Drew was an 8 1/2. Ben about a 4. Ben had a double ear infection. Drew was just the one ear. C'est la vie.


However, whatever was going on with Ben was more than his ears. I was having to carry him everywhere. I mean, EVERYWHERE. It really became exhausting. I couldn't even eat lunch without him SCREAMING and CRYING while tugging on my pant legs at the table.


And frankly, I don't know about you but if I'm going to have a meal, I'd like to do so in some peaceful, quiet, enjoyable manner... or while accomplishing something.


So, what's a mom of a screaming toddler to do?


I ate out, of course.

EVERY.

SINGLE.

DAY!


The only way I was able to eat lunch was during Ben's "happy time."


When was his happy time? It was a) when he was asleep, b) when he was being carried, or c) when he was in the car. That's it. That's when he was quiet and so that's what I did. You just do what you gotta do.

So, that's not so bad, right? Couple sick kids. No problem.


Come to find out on Friday night someone had stolen our Visa debit card number and had lovingly charged up $2400 at Lowes... in Louisiana. Thankfully we got that taken care of. I feel badly for the stores that have that happen to them. It really makes me angry for people that are so dishonest and those that steal. I'd like to kick them in the shin... for starters.... while wearing steel-toed boots.


And the whole refrigerator saga. Our side-by-side hasn't been fully functional for a while. I mean, it freezes and it refrigerates (or it did) but the water dispenser wasn't working. We had a repair guy come out and he told us that this particular model, the only way to fix it was to empty the unit, unplug it and keep the doors open so that it'd thaw out. Um.. yeah, not happening.

For some other reason, the ice dispenser kept having a build up which would jam the plastic thingy (it's an industry term) that spins and pulls the ice forward and down into the shoot. Well, it got so jammed, it broke so now the ice maker didn't dispense. No biggie, I can live with opening the freezer to get ice. Whoopie.

However, those are two extra features that aren't necessary. They're nice to have and frankly, who wants to spend money to fix an old fridge just for "fluffy" reasons? Not me, I'm cheap. So when I go to make breakfast and every.single.egg is frozen. That's a problem. All my produce? Yeah, it's frozen too. My milk? It's a block of ice. The refrigerator is freezing all my fresh food. I draw the line there.

I call the repairman. We're scheduled. HE calls me to talk about it and it'll be a $300 piece. So that means in the last 3 years, we would have sunk nearly $800 into a fridge that STILL won't do all it's DESIGNED to do. We'd had enough and so we started looking. That's SO ... so... not fun.

I found one... Andy found one. Everyone said to look at Lowe's. They had a great sale. We got a GE Profile French Door fridge ORDERED.... Yeah, so it's ordered. Has been for a couple weeks. It's not here. Doesn't do a lot of good, huh? Supposedly it's going to be delivered in the next week. Who knows. But there's another ka-ching that we didn't expect. But we did get an excellent deal on it. And now it has a warranty.

Monday, before Drew's baseball practice, Josh needs help on math so I start flipping through his workbook to see where he needed help... LAWDY the grades in there were NOT making me happy. He's making LESS than stellar math grades -- OVER STUFF WE LEARNED LAST YEAR!

OK, "we" didn't learn it. I taught, he learned. He was making 100's when I taught this stuff...he said he "liked" math and that it was his favorite subject and now he's back to saying, "I can't do this" and he "hates math" and the self-esteem thing... yeah, kaput in the math department. I jumped his tail about the attitude. Grrrrr... (and the grades!)

So, he doesn't get finished with his math homework before we have to leave for Drew's baseball practice. Josh has a game starting at 7:45 p.m. (on a school night -- they're stupid -- the planners...that's crazy late for these kids!)

Drew and I get home from his practice. Andy and Josh are at Josh's game. I go to tuck Drew in upstairs and he looks at his alarm clock (it has an internal temperature reader on it). "Mom, it's 90 degrees in here." I was like -- you know, it IS really warm. I go to check. THE FREAKIN AIR CONDITIONER WON'T EVEN TURN ON.

SHOOT ME NOW.

I just tell him to grab his pillow and he can sleep on the couch. It's a major treat for him. I lock up the dogs, put Drew on the couch and I'm just freakin DONE with the day.

I KNEW our bedroom AC has to be replaced ($4200) and I certainly don't want the upstairs to do the same.... can you see all the ka-ching ka-ching ka-chings happening in my life? STRESS MUCH?

But wait, there's more...

Ben is swinging yesterday and I hear the computer fan making a weird noise so I go shut it down before it wakes him up. No biggie, right?

Only to find out later in the day, when I try to turn it back on, it's dead. Oh yeah, you guessed it. NOTHING. This is my tower. My tower with EVERYTHING ON IT! I'm nearly in tears.

Oh, it gets better...

While I'm over there figuring that out, I hear a loud crash and stuff breaking. The stupid dog was jacking around or got tangled up in the electrical cord for my SCENTSY WARMER that was TURNED ON and he got hot cinnamon wax all over the (newly painted) wall and trim and floor and Josh's new Dallas Cowboys shirt and the 5T ski bibs that were going to go in the attic and... yeah..

We had to leave for baseball practice and if I had to go over there to start cleaning it up, I would have burst into tears. My little world is falling apart all around me I fear (it's my pity party... I know that's not true but when everything seems to happen in such a short time span it really, truly, completely sucks.)

I pull out of the drive way and head down the road.

"What's that white stuff?" asks Josh.

"What white stuff?" I ask.

"That stuff on the ground," he says.

I see nothing.

Drew pipes in, "Those are raindrops on the windshield. DUH!" (Sarcasm is genetic.)

I honestly agree with Drew, however.

Then I saw it. One.... then two... then three...

Yeah, hail. I'm thinking... you know.... lets take cover. I pull over into a car wash stall and sit there... and then it hits. Marble sized hail just starts to POUR!

Wouldn't that have just been the stellar ending to this whirlpool of Murphy's Law that I'm drowning in? It stops, I pull out... and think better of it and back in again. Round two comes down harder.

"Smart move, Mom," Josh gives me.

We start for the fields. Andy calls to say we should wait because it's bad over the fields right now. We go to Sonic and get the kids something to eat. The storm passes, it's nice and sticky humid. Head to the feels. Practice is canceled. Ugh!

We go home. I'm done with life for the day. I want to check out.

So, instead of having a diet dinner last night and staying "on plan" I had a pb&j for dinner ... and a big ole piece of chocolate chip cookie pie for dessert after getting home from about an hour at the FWC varsity baseball game.