My world revolves...

As I was doing my morning stuff this morning I realized that I hadn't blogged in a while. I apologize for that, but it has been a bit crazy around here. Nothing exciting I assure you. So I guess I'll just update everyone on what has happened in the last week:
I got up for my paper route early Friday morning. Dave went with me to help ease the stress of starting a job (It's been over 4 years since I worked and I was a bit nervous).We got down there at 2:30am and Annette (the manager) helped walk me through the process. I picked a route and started "stuffing" (putting the inserts in the paper). Then the main paper came and we rolled and bagged all of the newspapers that had to be given out that morning. My trainer, John, was wonderful in helping me to understand how things went. He has been doing the newspaper for 6 years!! We went on the route (which was all student house equipped with the most stairs I've ever seen in my life!!) We got done around 6:45 and came back home. I didn't do too bad, but I was in such pain for the rest of the day!! My legs ached and my knees felt like they were about to collapse. Soooo many stairs!!! So I called Annette and asked if they had any routes that weren't student housing. She had one that was mostly residential and just a little student housing. I accepted it and was totally excited to do a new route. We got to bed late that night and as we were laying down, Dave explained that he had a bad feeling about it. He listed off reasons that he didn't want me to do the paper route. All very good and logical reasons, like "how was I going to get to the warehouse to do the papers when none of the roads were cleared?" and "what happens when there is a problem with the jeep?" I understood all of his ideas and agreed that if he had a bad feeling then we should probably not do it. I called Annette that morning and explained that it just wasn't working out and apologized for the inconvenience. She understood and told me not to worry about it. So I'm done with the paper.
We went to a fire department breakfast that morning with the family and had a pretty good time (aside from the fact that it was freezing outside and I was exhausted still). We planned on working on the jeep at the shop that morning so after the breakfast we headed down to Doug Smith. We got down there and Dave honked the horn to get someone to open the bay door. Except when he pushed on the horn, nothing happened. He pushed on it again and guess what happened... the car died. Great timing, huh. I will say that if we had to break down somewhere, Doug Smith was probably the perfect place to do it. So we pushed the car into Dave's work area and began testing everything. We were dumbfounded. I began to panic about 30 minutes in to this diagnostic attempt. If my husband can't fix it, I just don't know what to do! I was of no help during this time as I have no clue what does what in that area. So I started tearing out the brake booster while Dave worked on the electrical stuff. I successfully pulled out the brake booster (after about an hour fighting with the interior bolts that held it to the firewall) and put the new one in. By this time Dave had been working on the electrical problem for about 6 hours. I finished up what I could do and began working with him to try to resolve the problem of the car that does not start. I was looking up wiring diagrams and ignition switch information in my Jeep Bible to try to find a solution or at least another angle to look at. After another hour (about 7 hours total) we gave up and went and got lunch. Scott came and picked us up and we got Cheryl's car to use until we could fix the jeep. The rest of our weekend is a bit of a blur. We were so stressed out about the car and how we were going to fix it. Plus we had to get our sleeping schedule put back together after the paper route didn't work out. It was just plain exhausting!
On Monday I started applying for a new job. I ran through a bunch of ads and looked online. One of the places I applied at was a hotel chain. Basically they rent out studio rooms, one week at a time. So it's like week-to-week renting. Cool idea but I don't think they have the logistics worked out all the way. Anyway, they called me yesterday for an interview and to fill out their personalized application. When I got there, the manager had to print off an application and he gave me a list of jobs for me to look over and choose from. The only problem I could see at that time was the fact that almost all of the jobs required you to live at the hotel. They gave you a studio; paid your utilities, phone, internet, and cable. All you had to do was live there and earn a paycheck. Which would be great...if I didn't have a family that I loved and would like to see every once in a while. There was only one job that didn't require you to live on site, but the hours are from 9am to 3pm. Which would mean that I would have to hire someone to come take care of Bradley while I went to work. Yeah, not going to happen. I filled out the application anyway and the manager said that he would call me in a week if they had any openings. I also went in and applied at Walmart last night in the hopes that I can find a job fairly close that will allow me to work at night and earn a decent paycheck. I know your fingers are really cramped by now, but please keep them crossed for me!!

So that's pretty much the update. Lots of information, I know, but really nothing all that interesting. Today Lisa and Cheryl are coming over to help me work on Bradley's room (we are going to paint a jungle scene on his closet doors) and so I'm totally excited for that!! I hope all is well with everyone!!

If I had only thought about it...

You know how annoying it is to lose something, right? You need that particular thing right now and so you rip the house to pieces and do a complete autopsy in every room looking for it. Then you get so frustrated because you have spent the last 3 hours of your life looking for it. And the smaller it is or the less important it is makes you more and more frustrated because you still haven't found it and it's not very important, but you just can't stop looking for it because you needed it and now it's gone. So you finally give up, you throw your hands in the air and wave the white flag of surrender.... Then a few days later, the item that you wasted so much time looking for, shows up. Just sitting there still laughing at you. And you are so mad whether at the item for not saying something while your tore your house to bits or at yourself for not looking in that one spot where it was. That's how I feel right now. And yes I'm angry at my book for not saying anything.

In other news, I received a call this morning from the paper. I'm to go to Provo at 3am tonight (or tomorrow morning, however you want to look at it). Wish me luck!! I'm so scared!!

Games, children and cats...OH MY!

Yesterday one of Bradley's friends came over to play for a while. They wanted to watch a movie and given that they had already destroyed Bradley's room, I conceded. I made the mistake of not wanting to watch Curious George all over again. I went upstairs while the boys were in the basement watching the movie. Things were fine for quite a while. I would periodically sneak down the stairs and check on them. For the most part they sat beside each other laughing at the monkey and the silly things he does. I got quite involved in a conversation with Bradley's friends' mother and neglected to sneak down in time to see the devastation they had created. All of the games that I was storing in a bookcase were thrown all over the floor!! Not just the boxes, oh no, all of the pieces and boards and cards. They chose the games with the most pieces and pulled them down. They then decided to take all of the pieces out and throw them, I guess. Titanic, Life, Monopoly, Scene It, etc. ALL OVER THE BASEMENT!! I know, I know, it was my fault. I'm virtually hitting my head against the wall, I promise.

In other news: The newspaper hasn't called me back. Not once in 3 weeks!! So I'm exploring other options. If you know of a job, please let me know!

The week so far...

Let me start by saying I kept my word about the fridge lock. I scoured websites online and found plenty of items...online. As a last ditch attempt to buy one that day, I went to Walmart and looked in the baby section. And there it was...the answer to my prayers! Plus, it was only $4.50!! I quickly grabbed it before another anxious mother took it right before my eyes, and I guarded it with my life until I got it home and installed it. I followed the instructions carefully, making sure I didn't miss any steps that would create a glitch in this wonderful invention. I placed it where I wanted it, took off the paper backing to expose that magical adhesive that would save my sanity, and pressed down REAL hard..... 10 minutes goes by and I'm celebrating (physically giddy with all the excitement this brought to my life). Life is going to be great from now on!! I can enjoy my life once again! I don't have to worry about bad milk any-.... What was that noise? Would you like to know what that noise was? Would ya? That noise that I heard coming from my kitchen? Are you sitting on the edge of your seat? Holding your breath anxiously waiting the answer to that noise I heard? That noise was Bradley. Him and all of my hopes and dreams being drop-kicked out an 80 story building and crashing on to a busy street being run over be 25 semi-trucks...and 3 dump trucks. That was the sound that my oh-so-wonderful, life-changing item (that I guarded WITH MY LIFE) made when my 3 year old pulled with all his might (with the help of gravity and his ninja brain) on the refrigerator door and popped that door lock right off!! That was the sound!! I called Dave frantic and on the verge of tears to tell him of this travesty. He calmly explained that maybe it needed to set up a little before the adhesive stuck the right way. I not so calmly ran that idea through my head and decided that he was probably right. SO I re-installed this magical invention and gave it a stern talking to explaining all of hopes and dreams and how I wasn't going to scrape them up from that busy street again. *TWO DAYS LATER* I have regained my confidence in this lock of all locks and I am starting to get used to the idea of grabbing the top of the fridge to open it. Dave hasn't had much success in remembering, but he's at work all day in a child-free environment, so I can't blame him much. I am going to get something from the refrigerator thinking nothing of it...and what happens?...I forgot to open it with the lock....That's right, after the testing and experimental phase of this wonderful lock, once I had regained my confidence in it and truly believed with every fiber of my being that it had had enough time to set up and the adhesive was perfectly sound, IT POPPED RIGHT OFF!!! I was devastated!!! It was like someone close to me had died. I lost all faith in humanity for creating what looked like the best thing ever and turned into just a drawn out misery maker. Dave once again was at my side with a creative idea to console me. I had given up completely but he had the brilliant idea of spraying 3m adhesive on it instead of leaving the stupid plastic adhesive on there. I had no energy to argue with him. "Sure," I said. "Do whatever you want with the worthless thing." So he did. He sprayed the special adhesive on it. Waited the allotted time frame and placed the lock back on the top of the refrigerator. We tested it out a few times, but I didn't hold my breath. I didn't want to put my faith in anything again....It has been 3 days since we made our improvements and I must say that I am impressed. Not once has it budged from that spot that Dave specified for it to go. And it has been 3 days since Bradley has gotten into the fridge. I am not quite used to sleeping in peace, but I'm sure I will acclimate soon.

Dave's blog

So I mentioned Dave's blog a few posts ago. Apparently when I typed the address for the blog, it didn't show up in my post. I apologize. Here is Dave's blog address: http://sonandi.blogspot.com. Hopefully that will show up.

In other news, I'm buying a fridge lock today. Yep! I'm not going to bed tonight until the refrigerator is securely locked. If I had the money I would have a motion-detected laser field placed around it, but alas it will not be today. Yesterday I went to Bradley's room around 7:30 to get him ready for the day. What do you think I found in that room?... An empty Sprite bottle and a newly re-filled hand soap bottle (not as full as I remembered). So I decided to have a grown up discussion with my ninja. I sat him down on his bed and asked, "Bradley, why is the soap in your room?" To which he answered, "Because my hands were sticky." A reasonable answer I must say. For a 3 year old, his logic in unparalleled. So I continued my discussion, "Why were your hands sticky." Without one hint of hesitation he replied, "Because of the Sprite." "Why is the Sprite in your room, Bradley?" "Because I was thirsty." Again with the logic!! How will I ever overcome that logic!? So I told him that if he continued to take drinks up to his room that the bugs would come in when he's sleeping and bite him. Faulty reasoning on my part, I know. For now, every night he still finds some ninja way to get liquid up there (last night he pulled a nearly full gallon of milk out of the BACK of the fridge!), but he is also terrified of getting eaten alive by bugs in his sleep. I will now accept my award for dumbest mom of the year. Thank you. So today I am off to find a fridge lock and I refuse to come home until I have it in my hand.

Comments are welcomed again!!

I don't know what happened with the comments area of this blog. Whatever it was has been fixed now. I'm sorry that it has taken me this long to fix the problem. I kept looking and looking at the account and couldn't find anything wrong with it. I finally decided to look at another blog that I have and just copied the comment settings. So, now we can post comments!!!

In other news, Bradley is now quoting Juno and if I have to look at one more liquid in his room (on the carpet or otherwise) I'm going to scream.

Thank you for keeping up with my blog. The Wonders of Motherhood will soon be imported to this blog. I don't repost stuff there so I figured I'd just put the two together.

Dave in Denver Sucks!!

This week Dave went to training in Denver for the new model updates on the 2010 subarus. Which basically means my life would pretty much be quite miserable from Wednesday to Saturday. I don't know how excited Dave was to go, but I couldn't wait until today (which is actually yesterday given the time.)

It's started at 6am Wednesday morning. Bradley woke up and wanted Daddy. 6...IN THE MORNING!! I woke up with Dave so I could spend a few precious minutes with him before he left. ENTER BRADLEY... He was fairly well behaved aside from being in the way. We saw daddy off safely, but he immediately wanted eggs for breakfast. So I scrambled 2 eggs for him and then we went downstairs to watch Bedknobs and Broomsticks. I was about to crash, so I stopped the movie and talked him into coming upstairs with me. I put him in his room and fell back to sleep. He then destroyed his room and started kicking down the door at 8am. I woke up and began my day. He went and played at the neighbors house (the one from the last post) so that I could get some things cleaned up around the house. Then we went down to American Fork and spent the night with a friend. Bradley took no nap that day and was miserable (as was I) until he finally went to sleep around 10pm.
We awoke at 7 (I didn't fall asleep until around 3:30 that morning) and started the trek back home. He was still fairly tired that day so I put him down for an early nap and got another section of the house cleaned. A friend of mine came over that night and our boys played quite well together. Once they were leaving the horror show started. A brand new gallon of milk disappeared from the fridge as well as a pitcher of lemonade. The milk carton reappeared in Bradley's room but the milk inside of the carton seemed to have exploded...all over him and the room. It must have something to do with the black hole that it travels through. There is also a mysterious stain on his walls that even the Mr. Clean magic eraser can't get rid of. (That was my saving grace when Bradley got into my makeup) I thought the Magic Eraser got everything...but I was wrong. Again let down by cleaners I reduced myself to straightening up the house. Trying to keep up with stuff so Dave would have a nice house to come home to.

Friday was much the same. Another pitcher of lemonade in the room, more of a mess to clean up and another friend staying the night to keep me safe (at least mentally). Bradley ate 6 tacos Friday night (taco night) and then 3 more Saturday morning. We cleaned Bradley's room together so Daddy would see it all nice and semi-clean. Daddy came home this afternoon and Bradley latched onto his leg practically. I wish I could have done the same!! I missed him sooo much!!! I checked on Bradley a few minutes ago and so far I can see no liquid containers in his room. Please send advice for breaking this habit!!!

We are hoping to have a quiet weekend here at the house, but I have a sneaking suspicion that it won't happen as long as Bradley is alive and well. But at least Dave is home to love on when things get too rough for me to handle.