Today I took the van in to get the oil changed at Wal-Mart. I even picked up the van somewhat so they'd actually vacuum it for a change instead of checking the box on the receipt that says vacuuming was not done because of "personal items on the floor."

It took forever, but eventually my son and I were waiting just outside the repair shop boundaries (in the facility, but not going past the DO NOT ENTER sign) where we could watch them working on the cars in there, holding our receipt to pick up the van. It was still sitting in there, waiting for the car in front of it to move so they could pull it out.

For the first half of our time standing there, maybe 5 minutes, my son wanted me to hold him. We leaned up against the cement half-wall and watched the workers. On the wall was a tray. A plastic blue tray. Probably had lunch on it at one time, who knows. At any rate, my son kept reaching out for the tray and I'd tell him no, it's going to fall off, leave it alone.

You know where this is going, don't you.

So we dealt with the tray for about 5 minutes before he wanted down, so I had to watch him carefully as he would try to sneakily get past the DO NOT ENTER sign. He'd put one foot over the yellow line, I'd say NO, he'd pull it back. Then he'd reach his arm at, I'd say NO!, he'd pull it back. One of those times you really just want them to hurry up and let you leave.

I sat my purse up on the cement half-wall and bumped the tray. About 3/4 of it hung dangerously over the edge. I put my purse back on my shoulder.

My son continues to goof off and I tell him how's a dangerous place, don't touch anything....when...yes, somehow I bump that stupid tray and like in slow motion, I see it slide off the half-wall and disappear...down, down, down...splash!

My son peers around the corner. I lean over the wall to see the tray floating in the nastiest black tub of water.

Of course my son says, "Mom! Why you do that?"

And to top it off, they hand me the checklist as I'm leaving and it says they didn't vacuum due to "personal items on the floor." Just how clean does it have to be? I *meant* to leave the Pokemon dice and pennies on the floor.
- posted by Christine @ 8:45 PM

 
I've never been the most graceful person, but falling down twice in the last two weeks, potentially in front of neighbors, isn't any fun.

The kids and I were walking home from school one day. I had the dog on the leash. At one point we decided to take two different trails to the house. They run parallel to eachother, but one goes through woods while the other one is an actual trail. Since the dog was running me towards the woods route, that's how I went.

Unfortunately it had rained the day before, and I hadn't anticipated mud being there. I just know the neighbors saw me when one foot slid out from under me and I flopped down into the muddy guck. The dog turned and looked at me for a second, then started pulling on the leash again, so I got up and took off, not wanting to look back.

Today that darned dog took advantage of the fact one of my hens decided to escape from the coop while I was retrieving eggs. My dog really likes to chase chickens. The poor hen started to half run, half fly (I read once that the furthest a chicken has ever flown was 12 feet--sad huh) with my mischevious little dog running behind her, putting her paw on the hen's wing. I was screaming, "NO! NO!" and running around the yard with a handful of eggs (I just now am wondering why I didn't put the eggs down, but oh well).

The neighbors (the ones on the other side of the house) were out in their yard playing baseball this evening. I don't recall hearing them making noise as this event went on, so I have a bad feeling they could hear me screaming.

I don't know what I slid in, maybe wet grass, but down I went. The dog continued to chase the chicken as the kids yelled, "MOM! MOM!" I got myself back up and ran to the coop door where I was able to open the door and the hen ran inside, scared to death. I closed it, yelled at the dog, and thought, dang my arm hurts....
- posted by Christine @ 8:38 PM

 
Hey it's one of those freak waves!
- posted by Christine @ 10:46 AM

 
Wanna hear how bad my office has gotten?

The kids brought an extension cord into my office. Not sure why. Bright blue. Laid it on the floor under my chair.

Well it's been there for so long now that it's wrapped itself around the base of my chair.

So now as I sit here at my desk, the cord has gotten so tight under there that it forces me to be swiveled to the left as I type.
- posted by Christine @ 8:40 PM

 
I've been feeling kind of icky today, so I went back to bed for awhile since the kids are on spring break and they were actually getting along for a short time.

I heard the phone ring a couple of times but ignored it.

When I came downstairs a bit later I asked my daughter, "Who called?"

She looks up from the lincoln logs, "Mom! I think there was a very serious call on the machine! From the FBI!"

Of course that made me curious enough to go check the messages. One message from my stepson's friend, one from my mom, and one is a recording of a voice.

"Hello...this is your local MCI carrier, and we have some important news for you..."
- posted by Christine @ 4:13 PM

 
A man's phone results for calling Jenny at 867-5309 (you '80s people know what I'm talking about!).

http://danstheman.com/Jenny.htm

Thanks to my transcription friends for the link!
- posted by Christine @ 12:17 PM