What is that smell?!

It happened again... I smelled something in our house. And it wasn't good. I opened our hallway closet door to get the Swiffer, and an awful stench came out. The stench of something rotting. You know the one... normally it comes from your fridge, trash, or something lost in the car. Not this time. And from a place that food should never be. Ugh... I dreaded finding it, yet knew the dirty work had to be done.

So I followed my nose, sniffed around. The problem was that the stench had permeated the closet, so locating it wasn't going to happen late last night. I left the door open, hoping to air it out overnight.

In the morning, I smelled again. Dang it. Still there. I pull out the vacuum thinking "there's no way it's from there... is it? Did I vacuum up some food somehow and it's become hairy and funky now?" But it wasn't in the vacuum. The rest of that closet has clothes in it, and some tote bags from grocery shopping. But I always put that away when they are empty... AFTER the shopping. Never putting away until empty. Unless...

I pull out the bag of bags. If you use tote bags for groceries you know what I'm referring to. It's your big bag of bags that goes with you, with a wide array of styles, shapes, colors. At least mine are. Picked up from various free events, with a bonus giveaway. Not matching anything, yet so useful you just don't care.

I dared to look in the bag of bags,  and pulled out the first one. Smells fine, no weird lumps. Pull out the next. Nothing. Thank goodness.. Pull out a third. Still nothing. What gives? What is that smell?

Then I see it. A produce bag. Some form of produce item that once was fresh and beautiful has turned rotten... squishy, soft, and just plain full of grossness (Is that a word?). I pull it out like it's a dirty diaper (although I think I'd rather have one of those that one of these!). Yep... I knew I bought a yellow squash last week! Now I know I'm not going crazy on that one! Trying not to throw up, dry heaving through the house it quickly makes it's way past any interior trash and goes straight to the outside trash. Yuck. After getting my gut to settle a bit, I go back in. I can handle a lot of gross things... been on a farm, ranch, had kids,... all kinds of totally disgusting things can happen. But this... is the worst. I hate rotting food. Not much else can make me heave like that.

Note to self... next time I am missing something I swore I bought... check the bag bag... you know the one.

Attempt #1,254,357... I lost count

Funny how blogging just hasn't ever hit with me.. yet. It's also funny how I have great ideas to share or journal in a blag, send it out to the void and a few readers that could possibly be worth a few minutes of their day, only to forget my amazing awesome thought by the time I get home,... or out of the shower... or done with the laundry... or done practicing. Perhaps I need to carry a little tape recorder with me, record my mini thoughts, and then hope when I have a chance to listen to them I will remember what on earth I was rambling about, rambling on. I wonder if other people have the same issue, or if I really do have a focusing issue. And as I sit here and figure out how to end this thought, my brain is already back to my list of to-do's for tomorrow, how early I need to get up to accomplish them, and what I still didn't get done today... and there goes  my amazingly deep or funny or entertaining blog idea. Dang it!

One day... until then, perhaps I will try this again. It's only been about 2 years since the last entry.. certainly I can try again, right? If at first you don't succeed...

One of THOSE mornings...

Yep... it was one of THOSE mornings this morning. Started out great. Got the girls breakfast, dressed, playing nicely.  We decided we had time to do a quick toenail polish and then take a walk. (Mistake number one... never think you have time to do a "quick" anything... that's when things always go wrong!). We got the nail polish bag (a ziplock with all the bottles, remover and stained rags in it) and started scrubbing. Both girls had the old off, the new on. Everything was going according to plan (Mistake number two... things never go according to plan, at least not in my world). The ziploc bag fell off the couch and the bottles spilled out of the bag onto the carpet. No big deal, right? Just closed bottles. So the youngest got down and started putting them back in the bag, while I worked on finishing the oldest. Then I heard a word not always good to hear when working with nail polish... "uh-oh". I looked down and there was red polish all over her hand. Uh oh is right. Then I looked for the source, thinking a lid came off somewhere. But I wasn't so lucky. I found the source... a bottle broke when hitting another one on the way down. Ok... so clean her hand off, and then deal with the bag. Easy enough. Except when I moved the bag I noticed the polish on the carpet. Great. Fantastic. So I moved the bag off of the spot, and pursued cleaning a little polished palm and fingers. That done, I moved the bag to get it taken care of, and noticed another spot on the carpet under the bag. What?!?! How did that get there? Looking closer I notice the bag doesn't just have polish on the inside and outside, it's leaking...dripping... on the carpet. Fabulous. I rush the bag to the bathroom sink... think twice and put it in the trash can. Figured it could stay there while I work on the carpet. How do you get it off the carpet? I look it up online, to find that you should use non-acetone remover. But of course all I have is acetone... I try it. Kind of works, but it smears all over. Great. I look up other methods. Try Windex, one says.. and use a cold wet cloth. I do (all the while keeping the girls out of the mess, which for whatever reason they gravitate towards it like flies to fly paper).  It kind of works, so I figure I can cut out whatever doesn't get out. That fire out I'm feeling okay. Then I remember the mess in the trash can still yet to deal with. I could just throw it away, but I'd be tossing 20 bottles of different colors... tempting... instead I opt for cleaning it out, with a big sigh, I grab the bag and decide it would be smart to get latex gloves on. And of course the box is empty. Ugh. One by one I clean the bottles of nail polish, and opt to throw out the last 3 that's swimming in the bottom of the bag. Then I clean the sink as it has polish in it from the leaking ziploc bag. Lastly I clean my hands, which are full of polish as well. In the end, the toes got polished, the walk didn't happen, and I got a cleaning lesson. Oh.. and yes, red was the color of the polish, tan is the color of the carpet. Things never go according to plan.

The perk of a small town

I've lived in many cities... some big, some little, and some in between. Where we are now is one of the smallest I've called myself an actual resident. Moving from a 150,000 population to a 6,000 population has had it's ups and downs. There are some differences, believe it or not, to living in the smaller town. Some of the difference are things we never would have thought about until living here. Yes, we miss great restaurants, coffee shops that are open late, and the like. We all know there's no traffic to compare to the big city. Nope... can't compare that one at all.  One sign you're in a small town... there's no wait to get your driver's license, or to pay for your license plates. In the big town you take a number, wait an hour or so, and then are handed a plate. In the small town, you don't wait more than 2 minutes, and then when you do get to pay, they actually help you pick out your plates numbers and letters. Another perk to small town living... the local donut shop. I went there one day and learned I didn't have cash on me... they don't take credit. But they will take your word that you'll pay the next day. Crazy, right? I don't think that ever would happen in the big town... even if you were best friends with the cashier and was in-laws with the baker. In the small town you can go to the clothing store and take a dress "on approval"... that is, take it home. If you like it, come back and pay for it. If not, just return. Pretty sure that's not allowed at JC Penny or the Buckle last time I checked. Living in a small town you do need to be creative sometimes with things to do, especially in the winter when the weather is crummy. Tonight we went to Cabelas, and walked around. The highlight for the girls was trying on life jackets for the boat, and then "sweeping" the floor with pink snow brushes. Hey... whatever works, right? Life in a small town can sometimes be frustrating, but taking a step back to look at life, forcing one to slow down can be a good thing.

A color wheel? Really?!?!?

As a parent, we do things we didn't think not only we'd be doing, but we find ourselves discussing them, in great detail, to other parents. Who, in return, have just as good of stories to tell back. You know what I'm talking about... the gross stuff. The boogies, the burps, the vomits, and yes, the poops. What's interesting is that pre-kid, you wouldn't really talk about it. After kids, bring it on! And if you can find someone to share it with you, even better. I found myself talking with a friend about such subjects the other day, and the wonderful subject of poo came up. Not just about it, but the color of it. Amazing stuff it is (and now, if you're not into kids or a parent, this is where you will probably stop reading... no hurt feelings). In fact, it's so amazing and intriguing, that if you google such key words, you will get over 639,000 webpages addressing such topic. Just over the color. And did you know, you can even get a color wheel, explaining it all? A color wheel? What?!?! I thought those are just in art class to teach primarys, secondarys, blends... not to decipher poop color. And now, you too, are intruigued, and just make look at the color wheel yourself. And if you want to discuss it, I'm open to such talks. Yep, I'm a mom. And proud of those little "talks". Bring it on.

Oh man! I forgot it again!

Have you ever had a day where you swear you left your memory somewhere... like in another town, in bed, your other pants... somewhere besides in your head? I often think this (more often than I want to admit really). I had this thought today when grocery shopping. I was feeling fairly good at having found most of what was on my list, even a few things I had forgotten (big surprise, right?) to write down. We head to the check out and realize I forgot some crackers. So we head all the way to the back corner of the store, pick them up, and head back to the check out. We get all the way there and realize that we forgot (there's that word again) to get some juice. Where's the juice but in the far back corner, one aisle down from the crackers. So back we go. Got the juice, and back to the check out. Keep in mind that I had the super long bus cart that has the extra 2 seats attached for the girls to ride in. Overall it goes faster in the big cart, but momma gets a good workout with that thing! It's not like the store is 5 miles long, but when you're pushing a full cart plus 2 kids in it at a pretty good pace, you can really burn some calories! We check out, get home and go on with our day (praying we didn't forget anything. And as I'm writing this I remember that I forgot (yep... again) that I left softener salt out on the back porch, just waiting to be brought in. Now if I could only remember where I put the...

Oh wait....

We decided that we needed to finally get rid of our 70's style doors in our house. You know... the hollow, stained with time and paint, mini-dented up doors with bright yellow brass handles. (Works for some, but not for us).  We were up for it, being somewhat do-it-yourselfers (probably not a real word, but you get it). So we got to work. We discovered most doors were standard size, but two of them were too narrow and had to be special ordered. So we ordered them, didn't really have a choice. I guess we could leave half our doors replaced and half old.... not really. The store called this week that they were in, so we took a trip to Sterling to pick them up from that big orange store. Quick trip in and out. (yeah right... how many times does that really happen?)  Already paid for the doors upon ordering so all we have to do is pick them up, and take them home. Oh wait... while hubby gets the doors, can I pick up some clay pots for the aquarium? No problem, those are cheap. Oh wait... and while you're doing that... can you look for some stones to put in for the fish? No problem, in the next area, those are easy too. Oh wait... and while you're in that area, can you get me a small plant for my office? No problem, easy.  So off I go with the girls, and on my way I spot some cleaner for the shower, put that in the cart too. Got the plant, check. Pots, check. Stones, check. Let's get out of here. Oh wait... while we're here let's just LOOK at exterior doors for the front and see what's in stock, what we may need to order, etc. Let's just look . And we do. And we find a door that's 50% off. And not damaged. Unheard of. We debate for about 2 min and go for it. That also means new door hardwear, and oh yeah, you'll need to paint a UV coating on it to protect it from sun damage. Check.  Oh, and the threshold that comes with the door is that bright yellow gold you were trying to get rid of on the old doors, so we'll need to fix that somehow... Finally, 45 min later, what should have been an in and out trip ended up being a few more things. Funny how that happens in that store. Somehow the possibilities of newer carpet, different paint, fixtures, inspires us to pile on more projects, that we somehow don't have time for but eventually get done. And every time we swear the next house will not be a fixer upper.