Monday, September 8, 2008

Might As Well Laugh!

We live in one of those disposable houses, you know, a manufactured double-wide. These things aren't meant to be lived in for hundreds of years, like those beautiful old eastern brownstones are. If fact, I will be surprised if this one is still standing in another five.  It was already eighteen years old when we moved into it, but it was occupied by an older couple who didn't do things like punch holes in the bathtub.  (Emily did that.  Fell off the edge backwards and smacked her head on the bottom.  End of tub.  The kid was fine.)  We have lived here less than five years, and in that short time our home has sustained a few injuries.  We have water stains on the living room ceiling, the result of cleaning out the swamp cooler duct with the garden hose.  (That was not our idea.  A friend was "helping".)  The towel racks in the girls' bathroom have been torn out of the walls three or four times. The shower floor is cracked.  That cheap mobile home trim is coming off in several places. The floor vents are loose and bent.

And there is pudding on the kitchen ceiling.   I was handing Emily a bowl of vanilla pudding, and somehow I threw it on the floor.  I don't remember exactly what happened, but my blood sugar was really low, and when that happens I tend to do things with jerky motions.  Anyway, the bowl flipped over and landed right side up, but the pudding was projected in every direction in big thick blobs!  I witnessed almost the entire contents  rain down, each blob landing with a SPLAT, quite the unusual phenomenon.  The refrigerator and cabinets were totally plastered.  The floor had a new finish.  And the ceiling.  I forgot to check it, because really, I didn't expect pudding could fly that far.  Well, when something like that happens, you can either laugh or cry, so after the inital shock (and my temporarily silent children watching to see how Mom is going to react to this disaster), I broke out in a good laugh. The good news is that 1) the kids didn't do it, and 2) it wasn't chocolate (now that would have been a terrible waste, lol!).  The bad news is that the mulititude of yellow ceiling blobs was not discovered until we were on our way out the door for church. So, the pudding wasn't tended to until it was dried and stuck for good on that popcorn texture stuff.  Sigh.  Oh well, like I said, it is a disposable house...

But you know what? I am really thankful for this disposable house.  A museum my home is not, and I wouldn't want it to be. Someday my adult daughters and I will be having a spot of tea together, and we five will reminisce with laughter (and probably resulting tears) the time when Emily put a hole in the tub with her hard head, and the time mom threw pudding at the ceiling.  Emily will say, "Really?!  I don't remember that..." and Alison will say, "Look, Em, right here.  See this yellow stain? and see these spots where Mom had to scrape the popcorn off the ceiling?"  And I will be really glad I laughed at myself.

9 comments:

  1. Great attitude... I have to make sure to keep the anal me in check, and to laugh more. Goodness knows my boys give me enough fodder to laugh, lol!


    Here's to pudding on the ceiling and holes in the tub, cracks in the walls and holes in the yard (my house).


    Have a great day!

    Shani

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  2. Where are the pictures???


    You are right, Laughter is the best medicine!!!

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  3. The next time your blood sugar gets low, come on over to my house, I need to paint my family room. lol (Dear, you really do need to take better care of yourself!)


    I just hate my popcorn ceilings - I did something like that once only with horse medication and a siringe - only it was brown. You know what? Kilz doesn't cover everything.


    Hey, when your house does finally fall apart - come on up for a nice loooonnngggg visit.

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  4. "A tent or a cottage, why should I care?

    He's building a mansion for me over there . . ."


    I agree wholeheartedly with you about no museum houses. If you saw our living room ceiling you'd be thankful that it's pudding and not permanent gray scratches from light-saber battles performed with pvc piping between two pre-adolescents. About 4 years ago and it's still there and will be there until we are gone. Our sliding glass door off our bedroom STILL doesn't have the deck built and it's been about 5 years. And the back porch is a health hazard with the 2x4s in dire need of repair. And those are the things I can think of off the top of my head. If I study on it, I'll think of more. LOL


    My secret to attitude adjustments are simple (at least today's was). I told Nathan that perhaps he needed to write "A square is a special rectangle" 25 times in order for the lesson to "stick." (This was after drawing and writing out the geometric definitions of the various figures). He knew very well that a square is a rectangle, but insisted it wasn't. I told him that he was thinking as a child and it was time to move on and accept new and more complete explanations for some math concepts. He couldn't stubbornly refuse to agree just because he felt like it. My DD was going out of her mind, and it didn't help that math is not her strong suit and she confessed later that she didn't know that a square was a rectangle until she started teaching it in the new Math U See book. Oops. I told her she must have forgotten because I surely taught that when SHE was at home.

    Grrrrr.... I think 85% of what we teach our kids they forget, but as long as they remember the important, spiritual things (which she has remembered fully) I feel our education was well worth it. :-)

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  5. I hear ya! I've had to really work at not overreacting to spills. I was patting myself on the back about how good I've gotten at handling those spills - emotionally, that is - and that very same day, my son spilled chicken noodle soup and....well, I don't remember the other thing that was spilled, but it was on par with greasy chicken noodle soup. What a test! I passed. I didn't laugh, but then I didn't freak out. ;-)

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  6. OK, I tried the categories thing but it doesn't show up on my blog. Is there something else I need to do.


    BTW, thanks for the reminder. I'm always a bit overwhelmed living here in the city with the condition of our fixer. Most wives around here work. Their houses are nice and the rooms are painted. The carpets are clean and the doors never seem to have fingerprints on them. If I didn't have an attitude I'd never have anyone over. :-D

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  7. you commented me on my blog, about the hazelnut reeses! I just wanted to say that I didn't even know there was such a thing, and i got beccathegreat to make my template, so you can thank her! :)


    thanks for the comment!


    Hannah

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  8. Thanks for visiting me and commenting regarding my diamond post.


    I have had a thoroughly good time reading a few of your posts and visiting your girls as well. Nice to meet you!!


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  9. That is too funny. I am glad you take chocolate so seriously.

    Jenn

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