Friday, February 20, 2009

WARNING: Disposable Diapers Not to Be Washed

I made a huge mess last night. A mess that, now that I've done it once, I can't believe hasn't happened sooner and I still don't know how it happened. I will, naturally, blame it on Bill!

After spending most of the evening with Carrie, catching up on life, I came home at 9:30 and immediately started in on the household chores that I had neglected since Sunday (due to my growing addiction to 2009 TV programming...it started innocently with LOST on Wednesdays, then I got addicted to The Biggest Loser on Tuesday and just 2 weeks ago, I added The Bachelor on Monday).

The Catos are heading to Kentucky this weekend and since I've promised to bring Jim-n-Nick's BBQ for supper, we need to hit the road by 5:00 pm. Easy task...nope! Because I have to get home from work with a 2 year old and get the vehicle packed before Bill gets home because I don't like how he packs luggage!!! So, in order to meet my self-imposed deadline, it was a requirement that the bags be packed and sitting at the door on Friday morning. But before packing, (return to paragraph 2) I had to catch up on neglected laundry, housework, etc. So, at 9:30, I dove into the laundry. We keep the laundry sorted pretty well with all my different hampers, so I didn't even go through the clothes. No time for stain checks, I dumped the hamper with all of Claire's clothes in the washer with one motion, slammed the lid down and off to the next chore.

10:30 pm...laundry check...I head into the laundry room to switch Claire's clothes to the dryer and throw the next load in. As I was unloading her clothes, these granules kept falling out. As most of you know, I have dealt with allergies my entire life, so it's not uncommon to find a washed kleenex in the laundry. That was where my mind first went. Nope, not tissue. Then, horrified, I thought, "Oh no, one of my push up bras has exploded and this is what that gel is made of"...but no bra in Claire's laundry.

As I kept investigating, in the very bottom of the washer, there lay the culprit. A completely water logged disposable diaper exploded!

I may be the only one that has ever washed a disposable diaper and had it explode, but in case I'm not alone, you can picture it. Thousands of granules all over Claire's clothes, in the washer, on the floor...EVERYWHERE! And those things are stubborn. I got the vacuum out and they don't like to move. Oh it was a mess.

It was 11:30 before I got it cleaned up and I went to tell my sleeping husband about my fiasco. As you can imagine, he didn't really care!!! Which further caused me to blame him for the diaper being in the laundry in the first place!

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Fwimming at the YMCA

No, I did not mispell it. That's what Claire calls "swimming". I'm not ready to take her to a speech pathologist quite yet. It's just too cute to hear her pronunciations and her mis-pronunciations. Here are some of her other common mispronunciations and their equivalent translations!!!!

Moddy = When she wants "Daddy" but starts out calling for "Mommy" and switches mid-stream
Dammy = No, she's not cursing, this is when she wants "Mommy" but started out with "Daddy"
Fwimming - Swimming
Faffle = Waffle (it took Bill forever to figure this one out and she was in a full-fledged tantrum of annoyance with him by the time he deciphered it)
Melmo = Yes, of course, it's Elmo
Molient = Only Aveda users would appreciate this one, this is her pronunciation of our hair gel, Phomolient
Choco-Milk = Chocolate Milk

I'll come back and add some more as I think of them. Check back occasionally for a good laugh!

Wednesday, February 4, 2009

...loves to travel...

Sound like a classified ad? Sound like the hobby list of some individuals? Traveling is a large part of my job. "Loves to travel" would have described me when I was single. Being a person that didn't fly until I was 18 years old, I took every opportunity to travel the US, to see states and areas I had never seen. When working a weekend event, I would stay over until Sunday (and sometimes take a red-eye home Monday morning) in order to travel longer.

Then I met Bill. And although I still loved to travel, I was not as prone to stay over on weekend events. But I was still up for going to both my events and with my team-mates on their events.

Then we had Claire! I stopped traveling with others and tried my hardest to be back in Nashville as soon as I possibly could after an event. I got a little more ancy when a return flight was delayed, and heaven forbid...CANCELLED! This laid-back traveler would become plum UPTIGHT!

So, these days, I only travel about 12-13 times a year which averages to one trip a month (it doesn't end up being that neatly planned though). At a recent airport, one of the security lines was labeled specifically for "Experienced Travelers". These are those individuals that can get shoes, belt, coat off - computer out of computer bag - their ziploc bag of toiletries out of their bag in 5 seconds flat. No tolerance for waiting on those that may stumble through the foreign process.

I once would have considered myself one of these individuals, but I'm losing my edge as an experienced traveler.

In just 7 short hours of traveling today, I have:

1. Forgot to pre-check in for my Southwest flight which caused me to have a horrible seat
2. Misplaced my event cell phone
3. Forgot my personal cell phone charger - my only source of communication for 3 days
4. Forgot my ipod charger - my only source of entertainment for 3 days
5. Left my personal cell phone in the rental car that has been valet parked
6. Stumped my toe on the hotel bed and pretty sure it's broken (with 3 more days of being on my feet ahead of me).

Oh, how I pray that my travel saavy returns...SOON!
4.