It Was Bound to Happen

It happened. I knew it would, and it finally did.

We went to buy mice to feed our snakes. They come home from the pet shop in a little cardboard box. Sometimes the shop keeper tapes it up really well; sometimes not so much. Well, H put the box on the floor of the car, and proceeded to step on it (accidentally) just enough to cause the box to collapse on one end. (In his defense, the box was not taped very well this time, even though I mentioned my concern to the pet shop worker when we were checking out. Also in H's defense, nobody else wanted to hold the box all the way home either, so the burden was not entirely on him.) We didn't know the box had a gaping hole in it until H looked down and saw a white mouse in the car. He hollered, and the mouse ran! He climbed into the panel that covers the wiring, etc. in the front seat foot area of the car. Now what?! H saved the day, redeeming himself! He coaxed him out with a crumb of food, and H caught him. Phew! That was a close one.

And let's just hope we learned a few lessons from this.

Mother in Law's Quilt Finished

Well, I am excited that I got my mother-in-law's quilt finished tonight. She has been very sick, and I want to have something to give her if she goes into the hospital again, or if and when she gets a liver transplant. The colors in the quilt will match their house nicely. The darker color is a dark rust, not red as it appears to be in the picture. And if you are wondering, the fabric is "Dandelion Girl" by Moda. You may also be wondering: "Yes, I am a lazy quilter." This quilt was entirely machine sewn, including the binding which was also machine finished. But at least I'm getting some quilts made. I know it wouldn't be happening if I had to hand sew them. : ) I've now finished 4 quilts in under 5 months. This quilt has been the smallest so far, and is a large lap size. Oddly enough, quilting doesn't seem to take up too much of my time. I actually think I am keeping up with housework better, because I have this fun outlet of something "just for me".


I am very UPSET right now, though, because I cannot get Blogger to upload any pictures. I seem to have "pop-up" blocker, and even if I turn it off, I am still not able to load any pictures. I cannot even get the "Help" menu page to display if I click on it. Where can I go for help if not on the help page?

Somebody, Please Help!! I'm begging now..... I am very visual, and I don't feel like blogging anything if I can't attach pictures of what I am talking about!

UPDATE--I was able to upload pictures using a different web browser. Hooray!!!!

Recent Mishaps

We have suffered several mishaps the past several days. Some of them were not worthy of their own blog entry, but with our recent trend, I thought I would post them all together.

My hubby C has a race car, which he races as a hobby for the fun of it. He races on several dirt tracks within a couple hours radius from our home. He often takes the boys with him to watch him race, and the boys are also pretty good help as his pit crew. Well, this past weekend C took the boys and a friend/employee of ours with him. The races were delayed a few hours due to rain, and by the time C's race took place, it was getting later in the evening. This does not sit well with our son C. He has difficulty staying up late sometimes as he's such an early riser. Our friend A was sitting on the bleachers with the boys watching the race. It was quite chilly that night since they drove a couple hours north to the dirt track. Since he was cold, C was hunched over on the bleachers with his knees up and his chin resting on his knees and hands. He must have fallen asleep and A and H couldn't tell. The next thing H remembers is some guy standing below the bleachers calling out, "Hey you guys. There's a kid down here under the bleachers asleep on the ground. He must have fallen while he was asleep." Sure enough, C had fallen asleep and did fall off the bleachers. Luckily, he didn't break any bones! The amazing thing is that he never woke up when he hit the ground. He did, however, sustain a bloody nose, scraped up face, and a pretty badly chipped tooth. The tooth hurt him for several days and it was difficult for him to eat. I don't know yet if he'll need a cap on the tooth or not. We'll watch to see if it gets to hurting him, and check with the dentist at his next check-up.

I inadvertently ate some gluten, so I am very groggy and sleepy today. It usually lasts a couple days so should be over soon. At least it wasn't C who got glutinated this time!

I knew it was going to happen: Brooke got silly putty in her hair. We tried for a while to get it out, but to no avail. Finally, in a flash of inspiration, I remembered peanut butter as a remedy for chewing gum. I actually used some oil instead, and that worked well. I was so thankful I didn't have to cut the bottom 4 or 5 inches from her hair. It's finally getting longer, and we didn't want to ruin that!

We have been enjoying our little tea parties so much! It's been more difficult lately since I broke my tea pot, meaning I have to heat up each mug of water separately. I had that little 4 cup micro-kettle for about 18 years. Yes, I had it going into college in 1989. I have no one to blame but myself. It was a stupid clumsy moment. I admit it. I am VERY clumsy at times. I shouldn't tell you guys that because now nobody will let me hold their baby. But really, I have never dropped a baby. Even when I tripped down the stairs in my own home, carrying H at the time, I fell and never dropped him! He was fine, but I swear I broke my big toe. In any case, it hurt for a couple years. And poor guy, my oldest son H has the same clumsy gene. We joke about it sometimes. At least I'm in good company.

Totally out of character for her, B broke a mug that matches our set of dishes. She wanted to be a big girl and put her dirty dishes in the sink. Only trouble is, she's not tall enough to set things in the bottom of the sink. She dropped it in, and that's how it happened. It's kind of a shorter wider mug, which the kids like to eat their applesauce out of. I tried to find more of them at the Pfalzgraf outlet, (where I go to get replacements for the broken plates, bowls, etc.) and they don't seem to be making them anymore. So I only have about 3 left, and we use them all the time. Oh, well. I figure when the kids are a few years older, I'll get a new set of dishes. I have never picked out a set of dishes for myself, not even when we got married. The dishes we have were C's which he had before we married.

And our final, notable mishap, was when B burned her fingers. C and the boys had a bonfire going, burning all the brush we've cleared off our property for the blueberry field preparation. At the end of the bonfire, the boys were supposed to find the straggler branches which didn't get into the fire. B went down there with them and was helping find unburned branches. (The fire was burned out at this point and did not appear to be dangerous.) B found what she thought was a branch, but it was really a steel rod. She picked it up and it was still hot. She burned 3 of her fingers on the tip. Two fingers were not very bad, but the middle finger was quite charred, with a burn spot almost the size of a dime. I put some lotion on it that I routinely use for us fair-skinned blondies when we sunburn. It contains royal jelly from honeybees. For 2 days, I kept putting more on the fingers, and they never blistered during that time. Since they hadn't blistered in 2 days, I figured they were doing well enough I didn't have to worry about them any more. That's when the worst finger blistered up into a huge pocket of fluid. It was so taught, I had to prick it 3 different times to let it drain. It lost the damaged skin now, and all is well. That royal jelly works wonders on burns! I am truly amazed. On bad sunburns, we hardly peel at all, and there are certainly no blisters. It's good stuff.

That's all the mishaps I can think of right now. Maybe our little string of bad luck is over for a while.