Laundry emergency

So my day started off this morning by discovering I had washed and dried a full load of Josh's clothes with an ink pen that he had left in his school shorts. Ugh. Apparently they were hung on a hook in the bathroom (which means he was going to wear them again, I guess?) and when we painted, the shelf came down, the shorts were tossed in the hamper...

I guess I could blame Josh for not emptying his pockets, I could blame Pat or one of the girls for tossing them in the hamper, or I could blame myself for not checking his pockets. It's all pointless now who's to blame. Unfortunately I spent two hours (6 am-8am) this morning scrubbing ink off of two brand new American Eagle polos, a pair of khaki Docker pants and shorts, 5 brand new white t-shirts, Pat's dress shirt for work, school polos (one I just threw in the trash because it had a few holes in it)... well you get the point. A few hundred dollars of clothing potentially destroyed. Thank goodness I'm a hairdresser. I used up 3 whole cans of L'oreal professional hairspray to remove the ink. The white t-shirts were the worst...I finally just tossed them in bleach water. I even threw the khaki pants and shorts in bleach water in desperation. (WHAT COULD I HURT?) The red/white AE polo was horrible. He wore it once. There is only one small spot of ink on the back. I cannot believe that I managed to save his wardrobe from a disaster. My hands are raw from scrubbing for two hours, but ah...what a feeling of accomplishment when they all came clean. Mama would be proud.

Needless to say, I've been doing laundry all day once I was on a roll.

random things that happened today:
Jake took a puck to the "boys" this morning at hockey practice. (ouch) I hope he learned his lesson that he must use a cup for practice as well as games.
Josh was offered a very large scholarship to the local University to play college football today. He is still checking out the other Universities and weighing out his options.
Jake and Josh had a doctor's appointment and both of them are on antibiotics. They thought Josh had mono which was negative (thank God) because his tonsils were so big they were blocking his throat. He's had tonsilitis for a month or more. (swollen glands, sore throat off and on, etc) Jake has a double ear infection causing him to have headaches and dizziness, a screaming red sore throat and a sinus infection. Ryan just was in last week with the same thing.

$100 in copays later, I am sent to the pharmacy to fill another $50 in prescriptions.

Painting on a holiday?

Well, after all...it is Martin Luther King Day ya know. Pat didn't have to work today but I was busy doin' hair. What was I thinking? Well my girls agreed to help me finally paint my bathroom today. They washed down the walls and just dove right in while I was downstairs cutting hair. Then I came up and had to make some dinner...by the time I got in there, they nearly had one coat in the entire bathroom. I cracked open the white paint and started painting the trim. It was getting late and Jen had to go back home so I closed the paint cans for the night and decided I'd finish tomorrow.

I was a little nervous because I didn't want it to look like that old fashioned blue/green from the 50's. (it's called Spa) It looks a little bit like the color of Crest original toothpaste. Well I must say, I totally love it. Especially when I threw some accessories in there. Now I need to go shopping for some nice wall art and some matching towels in chocolate brown.
Pictures to follow when I get it all done.

Weekend away

We just spent the weekend in Petoskey. The boys had hockey games on Friday and Saturday nights and won both games. It was a beautiful snowy weekend getaway in a new Holiday Inn. A day where I didn't have to think about bills, cooking, dishes, laundry, etc.

Unfortunately it was the first thing I had to think about when I walked in the door.

We got dumped on quite a bit while we were gone. Beautiful fluffy white snow. It looks like a scene from Currier and Ives outside my window. The sun is shining and reflecting the snow like the finest Swarovski crystals.

Time to get back to reality.

The first official Bridal Shower plans

I'm thinking about these invitations...

what a cute idea! I'm checking into this as a table decoration.

Oh dear...here we go. This is the year of the first wedding. July 18th to be exact. I am so nervous/excited all rolled into one. It's just because I don't feel competent to plan large events. I'm confident Jordanne has got all of the details worked out for the wedding (except the financing part which makes me shudder) but last night we got together with the Maid of Honor (MOH) and the Mother of the Groom (MOG) to hash out the details of the infamous Bridal shower. So it was the four of us: the BTB (bride to be), MOH, MOG, and MOB. (mother of the bride) Me, Jen and Jordy had done quite a bit of talking about the theme and our ideas. We decided we are having "Breakfast at Tiffany's" themed Bridal shower. It will be on April 11th which is the day before Easter. I sure hope people come. It's going to be totally fabulous Dahlings.

Of course we will capture the moment on camera when the time comes. For now, we are gathering more info. I spent the afternoon looking for ideas on the internet. I think Jennifer is going to do a photo shoot with Jordy dressed up like Holly Golightly (aka Audrey Hepburn). They plan to take some downtown shots outside of Tiffany's in Chicago too. We really want to knock it out of the ballpark. The guests will be asked to dress in black and white...we have 1950's and '60's wedding photos (care of Grandpa Stocker who was a wedding photographer) which will go with the vintage theme of Breakfast at Tiffany's. Oh, the possibilities are endless. Combine it with 3 talented and crafty ladies and voila`! Should be fun. My head is spinning.

How stupid can I be?

this is what my little quandry sort of looks like.

Who will put HUMPTY DUMPTY together again???

HELP!!!OMYGOSH! I have just decided I am as dumb as they come. First off, who on earth cleans their refrigerator out at 11:00 PM on a Monday? Of course, I'll admit I was kinda dumb for thawing a frozen block of hamburger in the fridge without putting a plate underneath it. I guess I should have known the Kroger plastic bag that it was wrapped in would not hold the bloody mess once it thawed. I should have known better, but I wasn't thinking it would happen. Of course it's going to happen. It does. Every.single.time.

So at 10:30 tonight I disassembled the entire refrigerator to wash away the evidence of the bloody massacre that apparently took place while nobody was looking. The only problem is...I absolutely CANNOT figure out how to reassemble the shelves. I have tried every configuration imaginable and it just does.not.work. It looks like I messed it up the last time I assembled it. Oh I remember that day oh too well. I had major back problems and was hopped up on vicodin. You ask, "who on earth cleans their refrigerator when they are having major back problems while taking vicodin anyways?"

Well, the same dipsh#t who cleans their refrigerator at 11 pm on a Monday night. That's who!

So here I am, searching the internets for a manual on how to put the shelves back in. Much to my chagrin, I was unsuccessful at locating any assistance. I suppose I am just going to end up putting it back together like last time (even thought it's not right) and vowing that I will NEVER take out all the shelves to wash my refrigerator EVER AGAIN! I think I'm going to polish off that bottle of margaritas and call it good. UGH! I feel like Charlie Brown.

Time to go to bed.

The first week of '09

This is the color palette planned for my bathroom re-do.

This muted "spa-blue" color will be the color I am painting in my bathroom.

So far, this first week of '09 has been relatively uneventful. I've been absolutely exhausted for some reason. I don't know if it's the afterburn from all the holiday excitement or if I've got a touch of the yuckies. Regardless, I haven't felt like taking down the Christmas decorations, even though the tree went out this past weekend due to the fact that it was becoming a fire hazard. I really must force myself to get off my butt and do something but the essentials (grocery shopping, cooking, laundry, dishes) have been all I've got energy for right now. (And doing my hair appointments)

I have all sorts of plans for this year. My first project is to finally paint our kid's bathroom. I only stripped the wallpaper back in September. It's been totally bare for months. I don't know why I am putting off doing it. The plan is to start on Friday. Let's see if I can actually set a goal and achieve it. I've been thinking about giving it that "spa" feeling. Of course I must research for inspirational ideas (which is a good excuse to do nothing again this afternoon).

First things first

Oh my goodness, how time flies in "Oh- NINE". I can't believe it's already the 4th day of this year...and what have I accomplished? The boys go back to school tomorrow, Pat goes back to work tomorrow and here I am in a pile of Christmas ornaments/decorations and pine needles, laundry, dishes and dust. We had two out of town hockey games on Friday and Saturday which seems to have stolen two entire days of our vacation. (and we came back empty handed...no big trophy to start the New Year off right.)

I know what I should be doing, but first things first. I must update the blog. I need to document my life periodically. I do this so I have a record that my crazy life truly does exist. Even when it appears to be mundane.

Oh how I love lazy Sunday mornings. Sometimes we go to church on Saturday nights and sometimes we go to 5:30 mass on Sunday night...just so we can have an occasional "lazy Sunday morning". I grab a cup of coffee, read the paper, lounge around in my bathrobe and slippers for a good part of the morning...eat bagels and cream cheese...enjoy the quiet before everyone in the house wakes up and starts looking for food.

...and on that note, the natives are all coming alive. I better go start some breakfast.