weekend review & joys of parenthood

Saturday morning, the weather channel said that we would be getting snow and temps in the teens. So as soon as Hubby woke up, I bolted out the door to go get some ice melt to put on the driveway before they ran out. I got there in plenty of time, seeing how they still had a huge pile of the stuff. It was also 52 degrees out. Eh...

I reorganized a bunch of boxes of stuff and put plastic storage bins I had been storing inside, out in the garage. Seven of them! Which made room inside for the scads of toys that a friend at work gave me on my last day on Friday. Since my tax class is finally finished, I finally have time to start clearing up all the stacks of junk that have slowly been collecting in all the corners over the last couple months. For the first time in a long time, we can see the feet of the wooden chair/clothes tree in the corner of our bedroom. Hubby asked where the husband pillow was. I thought for a minute, and said that it's been on the futon since Quint was about 4 months old. I used it for nursing. Has it really been that long since that corner has been cleaned out?!

Over the course of the weekend, I ran the dishwasher twice (after collecting stuff from everywhere) and washed probably 8 loads of laundry. Weird stuff. Like the canvas tarps we had spread out on the deck. Three loads of hanging clothes - I was surprised we had that many hanging clothes. Of course, one whole load was the throw up clothes. More on that later.

Saturday night, we had a friend over and he and Hubby took down the four poster bed in Quint's room. I had been lobbying for this since before Quint was born and I finally got my way. I wanted more floor space upstairs (where it's warm) for Quint and I to play this winter. Soon we will be a family of four and no one expects us to provide really nice guest accommodations when we're a family of four in a three bedroom house. This bed is really pretty, really old, and as a result, has limited use. It's full size, and if you're over 5'5", your feet constantly hit the bottom footboard. Plus the mattress sits at dining room table height or higher. Most people need a step stool. Anyway. So this thing is finally coming down!

The guys are up there doing their guy thing with the power screwdriver. Which seems to be slipping a lot from the sound. A few minutes later, they come downstairs and say that the bed can't come down today. They've stripped out a screw and need a different drill bit to finish. I had been napping under an electric blanket. I sit bolt upright and offer to go buy the bit. They both look astonished. It's 45 degrees out, with a steady rain and a lot of wind. Lowes closes in 30 minutes. I put on a cap to cover my hair and rocket out the door with the drill bit in my hand.

The guys refuse to read the directions for the new drill bit. After a couple minutes, they determine that the new grab-it drill bit is worthless. I dive in and ask politely, "can I try it?" They both slowly turn to look at me, small pause, and our friend says, "sure, you can give it a go". Keep in mind, I am half the size of one guy and 1/3 the size of the other. I get down there with the new bit and try to turn it very, very slowly. It comes out about a quarter to half an inch and won't turn any more. But now we can grab it with a wrench and keep twisting it. I unscrew the rest of the screws because "I can fit in there better". Yeah. Right. I keep the speed low on the drill and none of the rest of them slip.

I'm gloating here because I certainly couldn't gloat then! Not only is that stinkin' bed OUT OF MY WAY!!! But I managed to finish the job properly! And better than the men - shhhhh I didn't say that...

Now there's so much room in that bedroom, it feels like 3 times the room it was! I found myself making snow angles in the massive floor space. I've also put together the toddler table and chairs and Quint and I have had some fun with that already.

Saturday night, it rained and rained and rained. Then Sunday, it froze and snowed and snowed and snowed. Well. At least by Tennessee standards. It didn't cover all the grass, but it did make the slope which is our street a lovely ice slick. After church, I was extremely glad that I didn't have to go anywhere. I had bought my groceries on Friday.

I showed Quint the snow on the back deck and he said, "oooooo" a lot. Monday morning, I showed him out the window and he said, "oooooo" a lot and bounced up and down.

Today, I started my job at H&R Block. That is to say, our first orientation was today. I had an ice covered slope to get out of our neighborhood and about 16 degrees outside. With my luck going as it has lately, I did not want to brave taking Quint to Priscilla's. She lives at the top of a windy, very steep slope, that will be just as covered in ice as our street. Non-neighborhood streets are usually not so bad. The worst part us usually getting out of your neighborhood. I asked Hubby to take Quint. We were both extremely snappy with each other this morning and that conversation didn't go well. So I finally convince the Ohio boy to take the more dangerous trip with our son and he goes out to scrape off his car. While he's outside, I call Priscilla to make sure she's open. She is, but at 8am, no children have arrived yet. Or maybe that was the doorbell she just heard.

Quint has been acting whiney and clingy and has a bit of a boo-boo lip. He acts like he wants a nap, which is odd. I'm holding him on my hip and he coughs a bit. It sounds funny. I look at him and ask, "are you getting sick, honey?" He promptly coughs once more, and then vomits on both of us. Thankfully, I did not jerk him away from me, but rather cupped the end of my sweater to catch it before it hit the carpet. Quint now can't go to Priscilla's. Ten seconds later, Hubby comes back in from defrosting and scraping his car. I tell him, Quint just threw up, he can't go to Priscilla's. He drops his head in defeat, then snatches the fuzzy hat off his head and violently throws it behind a chair. I'm with ya, honey. But I'm covered in vomit as well. Thankfully, blueberry yogurt smelling vomit. Not really unpleasant. And I'd taken my anti-nausea pill about 20 minutes before. I strip off our vomit clothes in the bathtub, change him, and put him down for a nap.

I dress in office clothes (the vomit clothes were comfy, snuggly, house clothes) and leave for my orientation at "The Block". It takes two tries to get out of the driveway, but going from the garage, you can get some speed up before you hit the slope. In the street, my wonderful 12 year old Lincoln Towncar did amazingly well! It has traction control which is kind of like "4 wheel drive-lite and only in a pinch". Taking the same philosophy as unscrewing the screws Saturday night, I very slowly made my way up the hill. The next busier street wasn't a whole lot better, but the next busier street after that was fine, as was the highway and the rest of my journey.

Orientation was interesting, and they were having technical troubles, and other troubles because it didn't occur to anyone, including me, that we'd need a Social Security card to start our new job (duh!) and as a result, they let us go early. Once that many things keep going wrong for 2 hours straight, just throw in the stinkin' towel! The roads were A-OK once I got back home. Our street had completely melted between 10am and 11:30, in 14 degree weather, which seems unlikely, so I bet the salt truck did our street. I ran back home to get my Social Security card at 10am.

Once back home, Hubby went to work. He said Quint hadn't seemed really to feel bad, but he did have a second dirty diaper. Very odd. As is typical now, Quint was a complete whiney butt for me where he didn't whimper at all for Hubby all morning. He whined constantly unless I was on the floor playing with him. Motrin helped some. And he had two more dirty diapers. So clearly things aren't quite right with little boy's guts. I haven't broken the news to Hubby yet that Quint probably will need to stay home again tomorrow due to his guts. I'm sure that will go over well.