Sewer, toilet, sewer, van, income, garage door...still with me?

I already hate 2011. 


So far this year, the sewer has back up, the toilet has broken, the sewer backed up again, my husband was supposed to get a bonus but didn't(yeah they informed us they can't figure it out yet because of the end of year crap they have to do..BULLPUCKY! is what I say, so we get to wait two more weeks, he hit a mailbox w/ my van, and last night the garage door broke.   Not broke a little bit and was an easy fix, oh no, the STEEL cables on both sides of the door snapped.  Luckily no one was in the garage or near the door when it happened, BUT it just means we can't park in there.  UNLESS we want to, both of us, go out every morning and open the steel core door manually, then one person holds it while the other pulls the vehicle out.  This is NOT my year.  I'm going back to bed, wake me up when it's 2012...the worlds supposed to end then anyway right...I can party all year and then bite the bullet in December.

AND, forgot this one, my daughter lost her baton, which she needs to practice her solo for the season's first competition in two weeks.  

Cashback? for doing nothing? It's true!

If you sign up for Ebates.com and become a member (it's free) and you shop through their links to your favorite stores you can get cash back for your purchases!  I know I know...too good to be true right?  Not so, I've already earned cash back and I LOVE to shop online because it's so darn convenient.  They also have some great coupon codes too!  AND AND you get credits for every person you sign up...So what are you waiting for? Sign up already :D  Here's the link you need: Sign me up for Ebates!

When your heart breaks for them

Well this week has been awful, w/ first our sewer backing up, then my husband hit a mailbox w/ my van, then the toilet broke, then my husband got a really crappy paycheck BUT the saving grace has been that he was hosting a poker party for his birthday on Friday night.  Cool, so he'll play poker and our friends who were playing the tournament would bring their kids and our kids would get to play w/ their friends and have fun too right?!

Friday came and we did all the things that folks do when they expect a large group to come over, clean the house, set up for the poker tourney and what have you.  The tournament was to be played in the garage, and the kids would play in the house.  Party time 7:00.  We have a group of friends we affectionately call, "the Crew" because we all take turns hanging out together at each others houses nearly every weekend and our kids are relatively the same age, go to the same schools and play well together.  Several of the crew members were playing in the tournament, so I figured(another word for ASSumed here) that they would bring their kids.  My kids, well the two littlest were very excited about the party, and hanging out w/ their friends.  I took my daughter w/ me on several errands and she had to tell every cashier we were having a poker party.  My son helped his Dad set everything up and was likewise excited.  7:00 rolls around and no kids have shown up, the crew is there and didn't bring their kids...but they may possibly be showing up at some time w/ their respective spouse.  Nope, that didn't happen either...SO my two littlest kids and I hung out in the house by ourselves watching Disney channel reruns all night.  VERY anti-climactic for them, they were bummed and I felt bad for them.  They were SO excited and then, nothin'.

Flash forward to today, we didn't have any real plans, so by mid morning they both asked if their friends from the crew could come over.  Yea, probably, why not... so I call the parents of said friends (two separate families) and the kids were not immediately available, but possibly later.  They were planning to ice skate and would call me when they got there.  GREAT! My kids love to ice skate! Yes definitely give me a call, they would love that, and they were so bummed last night to not get to hang out w/ their friends.   Then I had a friend w/ a hair emergency so I had to go help her.  By the time I got home at 6:30 I hadn't heard from anyone so I sent off a text to find out.  Only one of the three people I sent texts to replied that ..."they had already skated for a bit and were just getting home and were planning to stay home tonight."  Which my daughter read over my arm, and promptly started crying because she really wanted to skate, had even had her doll all dressed in ice skates too to go w/ her.  Poor thing...I swear I felt my heart crack right in half, she was so upset.  The skating was to take place at one of the crew's parents house so I didn't feel comfortable going w/o them there, so we wouldn't be going at all then.  We also couldn't afford to go to a skating rink instead...what a crappy week it's just never ending. 

My husband broke my van

  Here it is, my poor van.  This is what it looks like after my dear husband hit a mailbox w/ it.  Let me tell you MY MAN knows how to do it right...he's not looking for your ordinary run of the mill mailbox.  We're not talkin' about those wimpy mamby-pamby mailbox's that most people have, sittin' there on their sissy-la-la poles...NOOOOO.  My MAN hit one that is all covered in bricks...you may have heard the term "brick-shithouse"  well yea, that about sums it up.  This is what it looks like, this is not the actual mailbox obviously because it's winter here, not summer and there is NO green grass.

  Let me assure you that no mailboxes were harmed in the damaging of this van, the mailbox is no worse for the wear, the van on the other hand is going to cost at least $250 to fix, thank God it's still drivable.   He was worried I was gonna be mad...perturbed, maybe..but I'm not really mad, what can be done, what good is mad gonna do?

Shit or Shinola?

Well today I don't get to choose, it was shit.  The sewer backed up.  First let me say EWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!
OK now I feel a tad better.  LUCKILY we don't own our house(tho sometimes it sure doesn't feel like luck) so we just call the landlord (who happens to be my parents) and tell them and they handle it.  HOWEVER I still get stuck w/ the clean up.  We have a half finished basement w/ a bathroom and utility room and the other half is a crawl space.  Yeah so the sewer of course backs up into the shower down there, and all over the bathroom and laundry/utility room floor.  Did I mention this happened about 10 minutes before we have to leave for church?  No, I don't think I did.  Yes, 10 minutes before church the sewer backed up.  Well Mom is already at church, the water wasn't really continuing to overflow as long as no one used the toilet, sink, bathtub, or washing machine so we decided to leave and go to church anyway, deal w/ it when we got home.  Got home from church tried to call a plumber we've used before, no luck.  Called a few others who don't do Sundays (WTH? Why are you a plumber?) finally found one.  Vandermeer plumbing I think...anyway, nice guy, did a great job and the price was REALLY reasonable for a Sunday call.  Shower and bathroom floor are all fresh and clean scrubbed w/ bleach...still have to do the laundry room, but it wasn't dry enough yet...tomorrow.

MEANWHILE, my husband had also decided that today we were gonna put our bed frame back together.  See, we had gotten new carpet in virtually every room of our house in April, then my Mother decided we were also going to paint every room in the house, so we figured why bother putting the bed frame back together if we are just going to have to take it back out.  It's also an EXTREME pain in the ass to do.  So it's been living in the garage for a few(9) months.  It also needed some new holes drilled in it because the old ones were stripped.  Well ya know how they say that buying a house is one of the most stressful things for a marriage?  For us it's assembling/building ANYthing...we do NOT see eye to eye on anything constructive like that...if I would do it one way w/ less steps my husband would do it totally the OPPOSITE way and I swear just add more steps to piss me off.  SO while the plumber was here fixing our drains we were fighting over the wretched bed frame in the garage. 

THEN...I had the BRILLIANT idea of not taking it back apart once we fought it together so we could easily take it back in the house...NOOOOOOO that would be TOO easy, I said, "Hey why don't we just try to carry it in the house together so we don't have to fight it apart and back together again".   Guess what?! That bitch is HEAVY all put together, by the time we made it to the front door, of course arguing at least half the way.  I wasn't sure I could carry it at all anymore.  It was wicked hard to get it through the front door and then we had to maneuver it into our dinky bedroom. If I wasn't sore and tired before, I sure as shootin' was by this time.  We did manage to get it into the bedroom all together...but let me tell you, it was NOT pretty, tho I'm sure it was laughable.  It is all in now, and back together and ready to sleep in, of which I'm VERY thankful, because I was really tired of sleeping on the mattress and box springs on the floor, but I'll be sore tomorrow, my shoulder is killing me and I think I pulled a boob. 

Just when you think they're not listening

Two posts in one day! 

So, every other Thursday my oldest two boys have dinner w/ their Dad and then come back home.  They both have/had Christmas money left so they took it with them.   They got home and my oldest(he's 16) bought an MP3 player, it was about $50, he said, "I used all the money I had left"...I pretty much just said, "cool" and didn't think much of it...then he said, "I gave $50 of my money to *his best friend* so he could buy something nice too".  I couldn't say anything intelligent I was just awestruck and probably said something stupid I don't remember...but AWWWWWWWWW....what a sweet kid.  His friend used to live across the street from us, and they lost their house to foreclosure, they've been living w/ friend/family since.   His friend is a good kid that I enjoy having over and I'm so proud that my son shared his money w/ his friend.  I read about other people's kids doing this all the time, but I only hoped that any of mine would be so generous.  They are turning out alright after all  :D  *happy Mom smile*

Ahhh the smell of dog crap in the morning.

Well we have a wonderful dog that was rescued from the humane society.  She has NEVER had an accident in the house...well sort of.  She is very easily intimidated and will sometimes squat and pee a little if someone new reaches out to pet her.  But she has NEVER pooped in the house.   She is crate trained and will go in there, but doesn't like it and hates being left home alone.  We've been leaving her out when we're not home for some time now w/ no issues, she doesn't chew on things, she doesn't potty in the house, she just sleeps.

So today, I come home from cleaning the horse barn as I do everyday, and she met me at the door, I could smell dog poop but I thought at first she just farted, because yea...she's good at that.   So I proceed into my house and the smell doesn't go away.  It's worse near the basement...so I head down the steps.  Yep, she pooped AND peed on the basement floor!  Darn dog... I guess it's back to the crate every day.  I can tell you it is NOT a lovely smell or mess to come home too.  Of course I had to clean it up so I decided to clean the basement while I was at it.  Now all is clean and much better smelling....maybe she was just trying to tell me something. "clean the damn basement lady!"  Dogs!