Room for Improvement

Monday was a nightmare. Tuesday and Wednesday have not been much better. At least they haven't been worse.

Let's see.... Tuesday. Morning student had to reschedule, no biggie. Jerry was his usual make me crazy 3 year old self. Michael has an ear infection. My children were hooligans while I was trying to teach. I never made it to the gym. Jerry flooded the upstairs bathroom.

I was on the phone with insurance, a headache in itself, when I heard hysterical laughter and the toilet lid slamming. This could not be good, I knew it. Before I was finished on the phone I could hear Michael screaming from the top of the stairs. By the time I got off the phone and upstairs there was a sight to behold. Michael was soaking wet from head to toe, Jerry had no clothes on, and there was standing water in my bathroom. *Run for the towels* and step on soaking wet carpet. Irritation is a mild word for how I felt at the moment. The rascal had taken a tub toy and scooped water out of the toilet and dumped it on Michael, the bathroom floor, the bedroom floor, and the hallway. As I was trying to contain the mess, Michael walked into the bathroom. Well, he tried to. Grippy feet on pajamas don't help much when an inch of water is covering the floor. Down he went, and none too happy about it either. Eventually everybody got dry clothes on and the disaster got cleaned up. Hey, it could have been worse.

I also went "fishing," but you will have to wait until the next post to hear about that one.

Wednesday brought the pleasure of two more nasty ear infections, Jerry this time. We also had red juice on the floor, banana smashed on the kitchen floor while I was teaching, sneaking food, temper tantrums, very busy bodies, no nape and minimal nap, a motorcycle thrown at Michael by Jerry, and ruined dinner.

Ah, dinner. I had great plans for dinner. We had leftover makings for chicken cream cheese enchiladas that I put together. The oven was pre-heated and ready to go. All I had to do was put the dish in the oven. Then, of course, disaster strikes, in the form of a 3 year old. Jerry decided it was a good idea to flip the lock over to "lock" for the self-clean cycle on the oven. With my oven, I don't know about yours, this is a problem. I tried to turn the oven off for a few minutes and then back on. Nope, the cleaning light kept blinking. Maybe if I just set the temperature it will cook anyway. Wishful thinking. Finally I went up to find the instruction manual. While searching the hooligans went nuts doing who knows what. Poor Tyler was trying to finish his homework, so their antics were less than appreciated. Children were quickly banished to their room to play until dinner was ready. Finally I found the information I was looking for. Not good. In order for the oven to reset after turning off the self clean cycle, it has to cool completely. No time for that, Tyler has class in 45 minutes. I kept trying to turn the oven back on, hoping it would think the temperature was low enough to reset. No such luck. While banished in their room, Jerry threw his motorcycle, a ride on toy, and hit Michael. I give up. Tyler ended up with leftovers and made it out the door for class in time. I even got his lecture notes printed for him. Maybe he will want dinner when he gets home. Yeah, probably not. Another wasted effort and lost attempt at getting something right.

Go ahead, laugh at our misadventures. Smile and say "I am so glad it is her and not me!" Share some story that is worse than this one. Let me laugh at your misfortunes, please. Post on your blog and tell me to go read it.

Eventually we will laugh, but for now I just want to quit. Tomorrow is going to be better. It has to be. I can't take many more of these days. One more and I just might run away and not come back.