Crazy Week/Weekend

This week was . . . exciting.  Fortunately I've had news and read blogs of people I care about and their for real troubles helped me keep my perspective.

First, I had a small problem with hubris and painting.  After Lindsay Ann and I painted my bedroom orange and Timothy and I painted the living room gold and various other painting projects, I felt like I was a pretty good room painter.  Ahem.

I started taping a wall to paint in Little Boy Blue's room and was a little miffed that the tape wasn't sticking very well.  I decided, unwisely, to forge ahead anyway and just plan on doing more touch-ups than normal.  What I didn't realize is that paint doesn't stick if your walls are too cold.  Good to know.

 Wednesday night I was downstairs putting children to bed when I heard a terrific crash.  Miriam and I rushed upstairs to find the oven glass covering the floor.  Cowen was drying the dishes and had pulled over  a chair to put some dishes away in the high cupboard.  He lost his balance, grabbed onto the back of the chair, knocked it over and hit the glass just right to break it.

That's Cowen washing glass off his foot.  He was not injured.  Well, there was one cut on his toe that required a bandaid, but really, the little man was lucky.  I'm so glad his head didn't hit the oven.  I think his life passed before his eyes or he was in shock a little bit because I've never heard such panicked, hysterical crying before.  He calmed down once I gave him a hug and told him that accidents happen.  Then he said, "I hope you can still make me chicken legs for my birthday."

On top of the oven and paint problems, there was a crazy ice storm that made my driveway and walkway very unhealthy for pregnant people carrying almost-2-year-olds around.

And our fridge died.

Fortunately Timothy was able to take Friday off (I might have begged, just a little--I was a little daunted by the sheer number of problems when I couldn't even go outside).  Timothy spent the morning getting rid of the ice on the walkway and driveway.

He had help.  Cowen is a good worker--especially for manly chores like breaking up ice.

Before the ice project, Timothy went to the local refurbished appliance store and found us a fridge.  Then the ice.  Then, Friday afternoon, he drove to a different appliance store and found a replacement door for the oven.

Yes, the door is black and the stove is white BUT the black oven door only cost $25 and replacement glass would have cost $150.  I'm all about the two-tone look.

Timothy filled in his Friday paying bills and helping me with other smaller chores.

On Saturday, Timothy and his dad spent the morning getting the new fridge inside our kitchen.

The fridge is quite a bit larger than our old one so it doesn't fit perfectly (what fridge would in our 2 in x 2 in kitchen?), but my goodness it is lovely to have more room!  The top shelf holds 5 gallons of milk with room to spare!!!!  The produce drawer can fit carrots and celery AT THE SAME TIME.  We didn't want to spend money on a fridge right now, but we sure are enjoying it.

As for the paint-not-sticking problem, I cranked up the heat to 74 in the house (egads--I've been dying of heat these past few days; I usually keep the house at a pleasant 66), and borrowed my friend, Julie's, space heater.  Worked like a charm.  Yes, the touch-ups took much longer than they should have but the wall looks great now.

I would show you a picture but I can't until the great reveal.  I would tell you what Timothy spent all Saturday afternoon and evening doing, but I can't until the great reveal.  I'm pretty delirious with excitement though so hopefully the great reveal is sooner rather than later or I'll never be able to hold out.

As for me, Saturday I took Harriet and Eli and went grocery shopping.  Yay for food!

And that was our weekend.

PS  Of course, since Timothy worked so hard to clear our driveway and walkway, it snowed another 6 or so inches today.  Wahoo!  Unless you're the one shoveling.