Murphy's Law

You know what I mean. "Whatever can go wrong, will go wrong." We've all had days like this. It's not always big things that go wrong. Sometimes it's just a whole bunch of little things that add up. It's enough to discourage you and cause you to think "This is the worst day--EVER!!!"

Today has been one of those days. Right now, I'm thinking to myself "I think I would like to go back to bed and start this day fresh."

Before we even left for church this morning, things were starting to run amok. My baby girl, who is the best burper ever, refused to give me a good burp. As soon as I placed her in her carseat--with all the straps fully buckled, of course--she spit up half the contents of her stomach. Rob and the kids were already in the van (kind of Rob's way of saying LET'S GO!). So, I took her to church with a wet shirt front. Not a big deal, right?

I also forgot the checkbook. We were supposed to buy tickets to the Spring Banquet. I can write the check at home and bring it tonight to the evening service. Not a big deal, right?

Then, as we were leaving after the church service , Rob decided to ask Aurora to take a few things out to the van. In her defense, she'd never been asked something like this before. Usually, we all pile out to the van together; she has never been given keys to lock or unlock the doors. There's an obvious reason for this: She locked both our sets of keys in the van! My set of keys was on the diaper bag she was asked to take out to the van. Rob gave her his keys to do the task. We had to call a locksmith to pop open our locks. That's $40 we'll never see again. *sigh* This one was kind of a big deal. Not the end of the world, though.

We had been home from church for a short period of time; long enough to feed the kids lunch. There was a knock on the front door. Remember that fence I was telling you about in my recent post? Our neighbors who share that fence with us are tired of looking at that eyesore. They want to replace it soon and are willing to share the cost with us. It's awesome that they are willing to do that! We can't afford the whole durn thing. However, God is going to have to provide for this one because I just don't know how we're going to do it. This one was kind of a big deal, too. Again, not the end of the world, though.

While the neighbor was talking to Rob on the front porch, I kept hearing a buzzing sound in the window. Upon investigation, I found a bee. In my house! Yipe! I put the baby in her crib and became the Ultimate Bee Hunter. I did get some revenge on Rob for all the times he has killed a bug and then shoved it in my face while screaming "Aaah!". He has freaked me out on many occasions and I took this opportunity to return the favor. I got him good, too!!! So, see? No big deal, right?

I really didn't have any problem with the way today has been going until: Murphy's Law affected my baby! That's just plain low. Ellie has really been responsive to her Winnie the Pooh mobile. She loves it! She will follow the characters while smiling and cooing at them. I wound it up before I killed the bee. When I went to pick her up from her crib after the bee was properly disposed of, I realized that I never heard the music begin. Her mobile winder wouldn't wind anymore! Talk about the straw that broke the camel's back. I just wanted to cry.

It's now 2 o'clock in the afternoon. I am waiting for the next step of Murphy's Law to jump out and bite me in the rear. *sigh* I haven't even had lunch yet. No big deal, right?

*Edited to add: at 3 p.m. I broke my favorite "Count Your Blessings" spoonrest. Does anyone else see the irony in that?

Why I Can't Have Anything Nice

I am dreaming of apartment living today. Back when we had no worries, no dogs, and no upkeep. Yes, I would much rather live in an apartment today.

We have been nursing our back fence for years, hoping it will last until the van is paid for in 2012. We've been patching it up and handling it with kid gloves. I'm just so sure that one of these storms is going to take this whole thing down. This fence has survived the ice storm in Dec 2007, the hail storm April 2008, various 40mph wind storms and tornado watches and warnings. However, it couldn't hold its own against an 8 year old girl.

That's right. Aurora took 3 planks out of this fence yesterday. I didn't notice it until I woke up this morning. Needless to say, I was livid! We have 2 dogs and they need to stay in our backyard. I told her she was NOT going to pull any more planks off, or we were going to make her pay for the replacement boards. I'm thinking about making her pay for at least a percentage of the cost. Little Stinker! I don't know why she gets these destructive motives in her head. What is it about things that she thinks she needs to tear it apart? I remember being a kid and wanting to build things. When I saw broken things, I wanted to fix them, not tear them down!

I've known about her Boppy for many months now. She decided one day that she didn't want her Boppy to have any more tags on it. No problem, right? Except the Boppy's tags are sewn into it! She pulled the tags off, which left a gaping hole in the side! I've made her live with it, since she obviously put a lot of effort into ripping the tags off. I mean, I can barely get those plastic tags off shirts--you know, the ones that fall off anyway after you wash and dry them 5 times? I have NEVER been able to get cloth tags pulled off anything. How does she do it? I am going to patch this hole up and put away her Boppy. It was the pillow I used when she was an infant and I'd like to say I'll hold onto it forever, but chances are I won't. In the meantime, it is worth it to patch it up. Fluff is falling out all over the place.

Upon inspecting the backyard, I noticed some other damages made by someone. I don't know who did this, but SOMEBODY has been peeling paint off the siding. The alleged culprit started with a hail mark, smaller than the size of a rice grain and began pulling the paint right off, one tiny piece at a time. All the paint chips are on the ground below the picture. For time and interest's sake, I saved you all from one more photo. *sigh*

And, then there are the dogs. I have many photos from all over the yard that look just like this one. It all started a few months ago with Salty digging for moles. We had moles in our yard and he would root around under the ground and get them. I don't know what ever happened to them, but shortly after he started digging for them, they disappeared. Good dog, right? Well, it was good until Sassy came along! My mom warned us that Sassy was a digger. I had no idea how serious she was! These dogs have come into the house with mud all over their paws and whiskers. I have tried to discourage it by giving them both baths immediately and saying no digging the whole time I'm spraying their faces with the shower head. It doesn't seem to be very effective. Their biggest hole is a foot deep and right next to our foundation.

See the photo at right:

Every time things like this happen, on top of all the other woes this house brings upon us (leaky chimneys, a potential sagging foundation, insufficient heating and air conditioning, water in the duct work, etc.), these little things are bugging me today. The one area of the house that we really didn't need to pay much attention to--the backyard--is now being destroyed. And, not by the elements. I can't blame Oklahoma for these things, can I? *sigh*