Mayhem

Today was crazy. Not one single thing went as planned. We went out of town last night. We'd spent the night at my MIL's, planning on having breakfast with my parents this morning since yesterday was my mom's birthday. But my mom was sick and cancelled on us. While we were there, Scott decided to drive to the next town past that to buy a part for his tractor. He called the store to make sure they were open, drove an hour to get there, and got there with a half hour to spare. Except they'd decided to close early. He drove to two other places that were supposed to be open and carry the part. One was out of business. The other closed 10 minutes before he got there.

Meanwhile, my MIL decided to try to talk me into doing stuff I didn't want to. She started by trying to get me to agree to help her can beans this summer. I declined but she started pressuring me. I finally explained that the reason I don't grow a garden is that I don't want to work in a garden and I don't want to can vegetables. She still tried to talk me into it, but I was firm. So then a few minutes later I noticed Zaven was looking through her tools and asked why. He said she'd asked him to find her screwdriver so she could take the storm window off of her big picture window and clean between the panes. Ummm... this is a huge picture window made of untempered glass. She's disabled with a bad back and very unsteady balance. And we've already told her that as soon as Scott gets back we're leaving town. I told him to tell her no because it was a bad idea and this wasn't a good time. I heard him tell her no. Then I went to talk to her and explain that she needed to get help for that. She told me that she had help. I asked who. She said that I would be helping her. No. I told her I would not be helping. She needed 2 or 3 people and besides, we were getting ready to leave. Then I went and sat down. But the next thing I know she's got Zaven outside unscrewing the frame. I didn't say or do a thing. I just sat there watching and waiting for it to fall down. Just then Scott drove up and told her the same thing I had. We were leaving and it was a job for at least 2 people in good health. Besides, it was painted shut. If she'd bothered to look between the panes she'd see that it didn't need cleaning. She finally backed down. She asked that the next time we were in town we'd help take it down since the paint on the wooden frame of the actual window was starting to peel. She didn't want to wait until the wood was rotten to deal with it. We agreed. We would have agreed to that all along. We just didn't want to start a big project completely unprepared and in a hurry.

Then we went home. Zaven is having a party in a few weeks so we really needed to clean house. There was a lot to do and not much time. So of course things went wrong. First, Scott had to drive to the next town over from ours to meet a computer specialist. Just after he left, Zaven started cooking dinner. And he promptly stabbed his left hand with a knife. Hard. Blood was just pouring out of it. So I wrapped it in a towel, had him apply direct pressure, and we headed outside so I could drive him to the emergency room. I wasn't too worried about him bleeding but I thought he might had hit a tendon or might need a stitch. And I was worried about the fact that he'd been cutting raw meat. The knife went through raw sausage and into his hand. So I wanted to see if we could talk a doctor into giving him antibiotics.

But when we got outside, my car was gone. Scott's was there, but no keys. So back inside, and I tried to call Scott. No answer. I left a message to call me back right away. Then I called 911. I figured they could send an ambulance to check it out and see if it needed further treatment. So we're waiting around for them when Scott calls. Caly tells him Zaven cut his hand and we're waiting for an ambulance. He swears and says he'll be right home and hangs up before Caly can tell him that all we need to know is where his keys are because it's not that bad. And then he skipped meeting the computer specialist and instead drove home at an insane speed. He got here just before the ambulance. Zaven was fine, of course. Scott drove him to the emergency room. They debated giving him a stitch or not but Scott asked them to try it with just a butterfly first. And then he didn't insist on getting an antibiotic. I have no idea why. What were they thinking? Raw meat is not exactly germ-free.

Just after they got home from the ER, we broke Quinn's dresser. It has a changing table built into the top. It has safety hinges and it opens and closes so that when it's shut, it just looks like a dresser drawer. But Quinn wedged something into the hinge and when Caly opened it, it would open. She tried to force it when it didn't move freely. It broke. Since it was very worn out and had been made of particle board, we decided to just go ahead and trash it. I took all Quinn's clothes out and put them in a set of plastic drawers I'd bought last week at goodwill. Then we took the dresser outside and broke it apart with a sledge hammer (which Zaven and Caly really enjoyed) and then took the pieces to our burning pit. The minute I lit it on fire it started raining heavily and put the fire out.

Then we tried to calm Quinn down. He did NOT like seeing his dresser being taken outside. Scott finally got him to sleep, but every time we tried to lay him down he woke up screaming. Finally we just let him try to cry it out. He calmed down but didn't go back to sleep. A half-hour later when we tried to put Zoe to bed we found that Quinn had peed his diaper so full that it leaked. And he'd been sitting in Zoe's bed when he did it. Oh, and he'd found the bag balm we use as a diaper cream and put most of it in his hair.

So the best part of the day (a day we desperately needed if we're going to get the house ready for a party) was spent basically doing nothing but trying to keep ahead of the mayhem.

But hey, nobody died and we didn't burn down the house (knock on wood). Maybe tomorrow will be better.