Tuesday, September 18, 2007

How Quickly Things Change

This morning was an exercise in the roller coaster of emotions that come with my occupation. Overseeing my oldest two children getting ready for school went as smoothly as it usually does. Maia was ready a little faster than usual and required few reminders from me to stick to her morning routine; that was wonderful! Mason had a little melt-down over something that I cannot even remember; that was annoying!

After they went to school, I loaded up my little ones and took Teensy and Selena to preschool. For the first time since it started, Teensy happily entered the strange new house without a single tear! Hallelujah!

I took the chance to run to Costco to fill-up my gas tank and buy my week's worth of milk. (Buying a week's worth of milk at a time is a recent discovery of mine and I don't know why I never thought of it sooner; it's a dream!) Anyway, I cruised through Costco, managing to buy only items on my list (okay, except for one Barbie DVD--but two of my girls have birthdays coming up and it was such a good deal!) and keeping Mackenna in the cart the entire time.

After we came home, Kenna and I had a little chill time and I chatted for a minute on the phone with my sister. Then, we loaded back up to go pick up the girls. Teensy and Selena had had a wonderful morning at Miss Rebecca's house and were somewhat loathe to leave the My Little Pony toys and the pet turtles, but they came without putting up too much of a fuss.

The weather is just so perfect today that I promised the girls we would have a picnic lunch outside. They played happily while I made sandwiches and washed grapes. We headed out to the front where they ran and played between bites. I was overwhelmed with a feeling of contentment as I sat outside on this gorgeous day, enjoying my turkey wrap and watching the girls giggle and play.

Then Marlee had to go to the bathroom. I herded all the girls in since it was time to start reading books before nap time. I wasn't quite in the house yet when I heard commotion in the powder room. I knew the toilet was overflowing before I even saw it. I dropped the lunch trash and lunged into the bathroom to reach around the toilet and shut off the water. Too late. Water was going everywhere! I ran to the basement to get a towel.

Well, one towel was not enough! When I went to look for a second towel, I ventured into the laundry room which is directly below the powder room. The exposed duct work was dripping with the toilet water from above! Yuck! It dripped all over my back. Isn't that lovely? There is no way to escape being under the duct when you are in my laundry room; it's just that tight of a space.

Grumpy to have toilet water now on both the hem of my pants and soaking through the back of my shirt, I ran back upstairs to finish cleaning up the flood and mop the powder room floor. (Ironically, and irksomely, the last chore I did before going to bed at two o'clock this morning was cleaning and mopping my powder room! Ugh!)

While I was mopping I could hear the girls behind me in the living room saying something about...cotton candy? I turned around to have a peek. They had unzipped the throw pillows on my good couches and were pulling out the stuffing! BIG No-No! All feelings of contentment were long-gone when I growled at those three girls to put the stuffing back in the pillows zip them back up.

How quickly I let my mood change. I was a real grump. Happily, I report that I got over it and read a few books to the girls, put them down and am now enjoying some nice quiet time. Ah, the contentment is back.

9 comments:

Jenni said...

Wow, that is a lot of happenings all before 1pm!! Glad Marlee did well at preschool and what a good mommy to take the girls out for a picnic lunch! Sorry for all that transpired after that... But it was so fun to read about!! :)

the design boss said...

I am so sorry, It always seems like that is the way life goes it is fabulous and then everything comes crashing down! I'm glad it got better!

Wendy said...

Confession: I found your blog a couple of months ago and have been reading it every so often, but never leaving a comment. I am like a back country wilderness camper on the internet with a "leave no trace" policy generally...but I wanted you to know how fun it is to feel like I am in touch with a bit now, even though you've had idea you were in touch with me!
Cu Drag,
Wendy Sue

Jann said...

What a crazy day. Man, it just isn't fun when stuff like this happens. My children are terrified to flush our toilets. We finally put in one of those really great, will not overflow even with 100 feet of tp, toilets. They still will not flush it.

Joni said...

That would be such a nightmare! Especially for me because I don't know how to turn off the water. You never know what's coming when life is spent with small children...!

Unknown said...

I am so glad other moms have moments like that too. When it rains at our house it pours. We too have had some water leak problems with water going everywhere, kids aware that mom is busy and distracted--so go and do all the things she can't see us do. As Abbey saw the water spraying out from under our washing machine, she said " Oh, great the mean mom is going to come out!" I have learned I have to handle these situations a little better. :)

Corinne said...

I HATE toilet problems. Serious hate. I'm sorry my friend!!

Tracy said...

I'm sure my angel had nothing to do with the pillow incident. I'm sorry it was so stressful. I'll bring you some M&M's. :)

Deb said...

i always feel like a good mom when we have a picnic. interesting. and you returned to contentment a lot sooner than i would have. i think i would have been grumpy about it for a lot longer. :) way to be happy, mendy!

Quotation of the Month

There is no way to be a perfect mother, and a million ways to be a good one.

-Jill Churchill