For Your Entertainment

A convergence of events occurred last night that just about drove me over the edge. Right here for your amusement.

1 - Julie went into the kids' bathroom and made some mischief. She got a plastic cup the kids had left in there and poured potty water on her head. To make matters worse, Audrey has not developed the habit of flushing and she was the last visitor to the bathroom. Nasty. So I gave Jules (who was stinky) a sponge bath in my bathroom sink.

2 - After the cleanup, it was bedtime for Julie. I took her to her room where she immediately started throwing a fit. She refused her usual bedtime comforts: blanket, stuffed giraffe and lamb, and pacifier (a.k.a. "nini"). Instead she started throwing a tantrum. Fine. I turned on her night light, turned off her room light, shut the door and decided to let her cry for 10 minutes.

Ten minutes later I could hear her winding down, so I decided to go in and offer her the nini. Imagine my surprise when I peered down into the crib in the darkened room and saw blood on her face, pillow, sheet, hands, and pajamas. I think she bumped her nose on the crib when she was oh-so-dramatically flinging herself down during her tantrum. I got her up, cleaned her up, gave her the nini, changed the sheets and put her back to bed. She was very happy to get her nini and lay down quietly.

3 - All kids were in bed, it was after 9:00, and I was watching a show and knitting. I hear the cat flap open and shut and see the cat walk past with something in her mouth.

A live mouse.

Oh, joy. I hate mice. I do that weird "stand-on-a-chair-to-flee-the-scary-mouse" maneuver when small furry things are in my house. And this is a regular occurrence, unfortunately, because Gray Cat thinks she needs to stalk her prey in my living room. Stupid cat.

I sat in my chair (feet safely above ground level on my ottoman) and calmly watched her toy with this mouse for a few minutes before it escaped.

It ESCAPED and fled to parts unknown in my house. All I can think is, "We're gonna find that stupid thing, alive and well, when we pick up the kids' rooms tomorrow after school ." Sheesh. I even shook out my slippers this morning before I put them on.

So that was my evening. It's now been 7 days since Steve left for Reno and I'm ready for him to be home. He comes home tonight. I just have to live through the day.

The one gigantically bright spot of my day happened when I went to wake Caleb up this morning. I've set his clock radio alarm to come on at 6:40 to an easy listening radio station. It's the same station that plays Christmas music 24/7 during the holidays. I thought they started after Thanksgiving, but discovered...

...they started already! Caleb was laying in bed listening to "Oh Holy Night" and it made my heart glad to hear my favorite Christmas song the morning after last night's wonderful events. All the radios in the house (and my car also) are now set to 99.5 for the next 6 weeks. I love Christmas music!

So now when my MP3 player runs out of the financial guru dude MP3 files, I can switch it over to radio and listen to Christmas music. I like that. Especially today because I have a lot of housework to do and my MP3 player is the only thing I need to make the job go smoother.