Out of the dark

We lost power last night and had to hang out in the basement during a rough storm last night.  Miss M educated me on all facts surrounding lightning while we rocked in the glider and JJ slept on her crib mattress.  So glad that we haven't gotten rid of those things yet!  And today JJ FINALLY went back to school after being home sick for over a week with strep.  I'm on meds too - because JJ likes to give mouth kisses when you least expect it.  I'm exhausted after a week at home with her and I'm reminded of how awesome stay-at-home moms are.  She fought hard to stay home and showed up at her classroom in only her nightgown, no shoes, no socks, no coat.  And it is just 40 degrees here today.  That's how she rolls.  Which might be why her immune system was compromised in the first place.

Chicago weekend

I had a great trip to Chicago this weekend with my friends.  So great that there are really no pictures to post!  I do have two that we attempted to take at breakfast yesterday (in the mirror) so here's all I've got:

We ate amazing food all weekend:  M's House, Nookies, a great Mediterranean grill in Lincoln Square, dinner at DaVanti Enoteca and breakfast at The Breakfast Club.  And of course we finished it off with a trip to Ikea.  My friend M has lived in Chicago for at least 7 years and has never been there!  She got some great stuff too - especially the stool for her kitchen counter.  I got some drapes for our guest room and some fun play food for the girls.  A got some baby shower gifts, and a play rug and table & chairs set for her little guy. 

We didn't have time to watch "Pretty in Pink" that M rented for us, but we got to meet her wonderful neighbors and friends and A and I had over 10 hours of interrupted talk time - AMAZING!

And J was great with the girls back at home.  There was another haircut incident, but it only involved stuffed animals and dolls this time.  They raked leaves, picked up gumballs in the yard, went out for ice cream, watched movies, went to Lowe's, etc.  Sounds like we all had a good time.

Last night we took the girls to the Magic House (St. Louis Children's Museum), and the girls had such a great time.  We usually split up and each follow one girl because they're interested in completely opposite things.  So here's a few poorly taken pictures of JJ playing in the construction zone and in the Legislative Branch of government:

It started Thursday morning....

....at 5:45, Miss M crawled in bed with me while Jeff was in the shower.  JJ showed up a minute later on the other side of me.  Then M said she didn't feel good and threw up all over Jeff's pillow and the sheets.  It smelled so nasty - unlike any other puke that she has spewed.  I scooped up all of the chunks - seriously, it looked like her tummy hadn't digested any of dinner from the night before - and Jeff took the sheets downstairs straight into the washer.  Usually Thursdays are just me and JJ, but it was three's company now that M was sick.  After Jeff left for work, I hopped in the shower.  When I got downstairs, the girls were watching TV and there was raisin bran ALL OVER THE RUG.  So I got out the vacuum.  Since M is afraid of the vacuum - still at 5 years old - the two of them went upstairs.  M came down before I started and asked if she could empty the dress-up bin (plastic Rubbermaid bin) and pretend that it was Fruitsnack's tank.  (Fruitsnack is her pet alligator [plastic].)  I said okay, as long as no water went inside of the bin.

So I vacuum for about 10 minutes and then head upstairs to check on them.  This is what I find:

They emptied all of the soap into the bin, climbed in with Fruitsnack - and Ariel - and the suds are overflowing onto the floor.  I put them both in the shower to get all of the soap off and while I'm scooping out water of the tub, my iPhone drops out of my kangaroo pouch of my sweatshirt and into the soapy water below.  I've had enough friends do this that I know a bag of rice is my best chance of immediate repair. 

At this point, I'm already about to lose my cool because in case you haven't been watching the news, the state of Missouri was covered in snow for the last month and we haven't been out of the house much. 

I need to do some laundry and check on the throw up sheets, so I get some washable markers and poster board for the girls and encourage them to make fun, brightly colored posters for our house.  Of course, my kids are brilliant and don't limit themselves with paper, so when I come upstairs from the basement, they have decided that their hands and feet make better canvasses:

Oh, look! They match her dress!

They have been walking around with their "artwork" so there is marker on the rug, on the couch, on the wood floor - EVERYWHERE!  I get a washcloth and wipe down their hands and feet.

After this, I resort to turning on the TV so I can clean up the rest of the mess.  My kids don't really watch TV if I want them to, so they want to play with something else.  I've had the playdoh hidden away for quite some time, but because it's freezing outside and markers are already out of the question, I figured I'd let them play with it at the kitchen table.  I am out of the room for less than 5 minutes - how dare I use the bathroom or run upstairs to put clean sheets on the bed! - and I return to them making "recipes" with the playdoh, which means that they are mixing water into it.  Yuck & disgusting.  Playdoh & water do not mix well.  I start yelling at this point and I throw away all playdoh and swear that we will never get more.  I put all the playdoh toys in the Goodwill bag. 

Then Miss M vomits again, this time making it to the bathroom, but I feel so awful for her as she shakes and quivers from being so sick.  She still hasn't eaten anything so she's dry heaving and crying and just a mess.  I feel sorry for her and she's been begging me for days to paint her face because the face painting from Sunday school had to be washed off only hours later and I told her I would paint it again sometime this week.  I go into the kitchen to clean up the brushes.  It's too quiet, so I go back into the living room.  I guess it's my fault for painting her face like a cat:  cats like to climb on windowsills.

The two little kittens

I wish I hadn't painted her face before she started climbing because this picture would have been an awesome framer.  I will probably still frame it because she's some sort of animal most days anyway.

Later on in the day, JJ finds some safety scissors and cuts a hole in M's favorite pants, while she's wearing them.  This is upsetting anyways, but also because my girls don't have but 3 pairs of pants between them that they are actually willing to wear.  At least they were from Target on clearance instead of the ones from miniBoden.  But M is all kinds of upset about it so I put J in time out.  The rest of the day is full of screaming, fighting, JJ telling me she wouldn't love me anymore if I didn't give her a Hershey kiss, etc. And you wouldn't have believed I had a sick kid if it weren't for the lingering smell of puke and the stains on my sheets.  M was fine the rest of the day and it appeared to be just a one day stomach bug because there was never a fever and no throw-up past noon.  By the time Jeff got home I was exhausted.  I literally fell on the couch and couldn't move.  I was SO looking forward to both of them being in school the next day.....

Until the next morning when I went out to start the car and NOTHING.  I cursed in my car and had a mini-meltdown and called Jeff to tell him that I was going to lose my mind.  I couldn't even get the keys out of the ignition and the sliding door wouldn't close (it had started to open when I pushed the button on the way out the front door, but had stopped, slightly ajar), so this constant, annoying beep rang in my ears.  I took the girls back inside, called AAA and waited an hour for him to arrive.  I could have walked M to school during this time, but I didn't want to miss them coming to jump start my car (this is all I thought it might need), so we waited around.  Once he got there and popped open my hood, he told me I might want to take the girls inside because there was an animal in my car.  M is an animal lover and the AAA guy and I thought that it might have been injured and stuck while I was driving and it might be gross when he pulled it out.  Not the case.  The *#&@^$ rabbit was still alive, uninjured and had happily chewed through all of my wires.  Not just in one place, MULTIPLE places.  He had a whole day of my car not moving due to M being sick.  And it has been insanely cold, so my car was the perfect place to keep warm.  And apparently in their efforts to be more "green" cars have wires that are coated in soy.  I wonder if they thought about the fact that animals would find that tasty.  I would have taken a picture of the rabbit, but my iPhone is dead.

So we are going on the 6th day of minivan being in the shop.  If it weren't for my wonderful neighbor, Kim, letting me borrow her sweet Infiniti SUV that day to take JJ to school almost 4 hours late, I would have had to call someone to fill in for me while I ran away.  And yesterday my amazing friend, Gail, picked up JJ and I to take us to our church playgroup and then my sweet friend Maddie let me borrow her car -which was honestly my dream car for the longest time.  I love you more than ever, Volvo station wagon.  And the heated seats have been nice - except it's not freezing anymore.  It's supposed to be 68 degrees tomorrow - hallelujah!  We're heading to the park tomorrow if JJ doesn't have another drama presentation like she did this morning.  That girl is going to be a great actress someday. 

Feeling stuck

Today I had really high hopes of accomplishing major things: 

Cleaning my entire house
Removing the glue from the walls in the guest bedroom to prepare for painting
Clean up my grandfather's tool carrier so I can paint it and put plants in it
Call the unemployment office to ask why I'm not getting any $ from them even though I filed in December
Find a way to make $100 more each month
Read more of the Asperger's book
Do one nice thing for myself (kind of a goal I've tried this year for every day - it doesn't always happen)
Blog
Get dinner started
Yoga or Running
Find hooks for front hallway for the girls' backpacks and coats
Get together a bunch of stuff for Goodwill
Laundry

So I only have 20 minutes until I pick up M from school and I have only accomplished Blog, get dinner started (which really means that I've just set the chicken out to thaw), called the unemployment office (they gave me an email to write to but didn't tell me what I'm supposed to be writing about and then hung up), and cleaning up my grandfather's tool carrier - which took up my whole day because it's completely caked in mud and oil. 

And I watched Marley & Me while doing that so it wasn't as painful.  Now it's drying out on the table so I can sand it later.  I think I'm going to paint it an off white, similar to what it looks like it was originally painted.  It's been sitting in our basement of all of our 3 houses for some time so I really wanted to finish it.  Although, I don't think my husband will be very impressed that cleaning a family heirloom took hours and hours of my time.  And honestly, I'm kind of wishing I had done the yoga this morning first thing.  I could see if M wants to join me when she gets home, but I remember trying that before and she didn't stay interested too long.  I'm just in a rut, feeling stuck, whatever you want to call it.  And watching Marley & Me has made me even more of an emotional mess.