The Best Laid Plans...

It was going to be a fairly low key day.  I wanted to do as little as possible, as this mono has left me feeling really weak & tired.  Unfortunately, there isn't a lot of time for weak & tired when you are a parent.  My plan was to put away the 6 heaping baskets of laundry that have been folded & waiting to be put in the proper dressers.  We were also going to make the kids Valentine's Day mailboxes for school.  And I was going to nap with the Little Boy.  Naps are a good thing.

There was this smell in the basement living area.  It would not go away.  It has gotten worse each day.  My husband said that I was imagining things.  This from a man who can't smell a thing.  I swear, his smeller is broken.  Mine is not.  I decided that we'd find the source of the smell & then get our chores done so that we could bond as a family.  Then take a nap.  I told the kids, "...we will find out what is causing the smell in this room; it had better be a dead mouse, because if someone had food in this room again, I am going to go ballistic."  It was then that the little boy asked, "what is ballistic, Momma?", to which the Girl replied, "it's when she gets all ugly & acts like she's the boss of everybody."  (WHAAA????)  I then glared at her & said (very loudly), "EXCUSE ME?!??"  The Girl then told her little brother, "it's when we better do what she says, because if we don't, we are in HUGE trouble". 

My kids are only allowed to eat food in the kitchen.  There was a time when they were allowed to have a snack in their bedroom, but those days ended when I found apple cores, banana peels, & fruit snack wrappers under beds & behind furniture.  I was certain that I was going to find rotten produce, so we started pulling out furniture and the deep cleaning began.  Little Boy was ecstatic when the vacuum cleaner came out.  I know, right?  In his defense, he's only 3 years old, so the vacuum cleaner isn't evil in his eyes.

We cleaned two bedrooms & almost all of the living room, when I was getting so frustrated.  Where is that awful smell coming from?!?  I was beginning to think that we really were going to find a dead mouse hidden somewhere.  But where was it??  I was half tempted to look in the curtain rods for rotting food (remember the story about the divorcing couple & how the husband & his new lady friend wanted the house, & how the ex-wife put shrimp in the curtain rods? Yeah, my mind was going there).

THEN IT HIT ME!!  LOOK IN THE COUCH!!  If you take the cushions off of the couch, there is an area where it is ripped, & you can lose things like Lego's, iPods, Hot Wheels cars, Mommas lipstick, & stuff like that.  So I got the attachment thingy from the vacuum cleaner out & sucked up everything in that hole.  No dead rodents, but the smell was even stronger than before.  I pulled the couch out from the wall & tipped it onto it's back.  Guess what I found?  MOLD!!!  I wish I had found a mouse, because mold is the enemy.  How in the world is there mold on the bottom of the couch??

Last summer we had a little bit of a flood in our basement.  Yes I know, there was a drought last summer, but we had a flood in our basement.  My sister-in-law had watered her flowers on the side of the house, & forgot about the running hose while she went inside to take a nap.  This happened every day for about a week straight, until one day the basement was flooded.  It was a mess!! 

Eventually, we got everything cleaned up, dried out carpeting & walls, & didn't lose anything.  Until today.  When I cut into the fabric that covers the bottom of the couch, it was putrid!!  I cut that sucker off, threw it away, & call my husband, who was at a job (these things often happen when it's his week to be on call--naturally). 

I finished cleaning the basement, & we got to take a little Family Field Trip to Nebraska Furniture Mart after the Husband got home.  I was sooo tired.  And sooo cranky.  We had to take the Little Boy (the older two got to go & play at a friends house).  Little Boy was cranky.  Remember, he & I didn't get our nap, and we've both been under the weather.  I just wanted to go downstairs to the bedding department & take my nap.  I didn't like a single thing that I saw.  I wanted to go home.

We walked in the freezing cold rain to the building where the bargains & discounted merchandise was located.  The Little Boy had to visit the restroom approximately 348 times.  With Daddy.  This made me happy, because I usually have to schlep this kid with me to the ladies room everywhere we go.  It was Daddy's turn, & I was tickled pink.  It ALMOST made up for not getting my nap, when I saw how frustrated the Husband was getting.

We found the couch.  It's not perfect.  I don't want perfect.  Our children are still young, we don't need perfect furniture.  By perfect, I mean I would have picked something much nicer it I didn't have young children.  Right now, it's all about durability, cleanability, & looks.  In that order.  We will get the couch later this week when our friend with a pickup truck who owes a favor, can help us out.

While I was on kid bath/shower duty, the Husband was making dinner.  I already knew that those kids of mine would be going to bed early tonight; the Gypsy's are on TV, & I knew I was going to indulge in some entertainment tonight.

At dinner, the Boy was asking when they would get to make their Valentine's boxes.  The Girl asked if she still had to help put "all of those huge baskets of laundry" away.  The Little Boy asked, "why you not go ballistic, Momma?  I was waiting to see ballistic".

How do you tell this sweet little boy that he just needs to give it a few years, THEN he just may see his Momma go ballistic....