Such is life...

Today has been just like any other day here at the Nelson residence.....CHAOTIC (thus the name of the blog)! First off, we'll go back to New Year's Eve. Chris (my hubby for those of you who didn't know already), discovered a weird rash which turned out to be chicken pox (yippee for us) and on top of it all, ALL the kids got sick from our recent trip to visit family over the Holidays. I guess that leaves it to me (super-mom-wanna-be) to care for everyone and not get sick myself (to which, migh I add, I have failed miserably). So, we've started off the New Year with a bang already.

First story of the year: Chris decided to make pie (pineapple pie, which I don't think I'll ever eat again, by the way). So, for dessert one night, we had pie with whipped cream. And the whipped cream just didn't get put away fast enough I guess. I had gone to feed Celeste and put her in bed and went walking back into the kitchen to find Tyler on the floor, up to his elbows in whipped cream, the container sitting next to him and him using the cream to polish my floors! I was literally speachless. I screamed, and Chris came running saying "what!" and I just shook my head and said "it is SO your turn to clean up one of these messes". (for those of you who didn't know already, my boys are NOTORIOUS for messes such as this.....sugar, flour, oats, popcorn kernals, etc)

Later that night, Celeste was cranky, which is very unnatural for her since she's such a mellow baby. All evening all she would do was fuss and cry. I tried swaddling her, feeding her, changing her, burping her....nothing would work! So, finally I decided to go into my room, turn off all the light except my bedside lamp, and try to feed her and get her to sleep for the night. It was working like a charm, until........her eyes shot open and she let out a very high-pitched, loud scream, and then......the explosion happened. Now, I'm a fairly experienced mom who deals with stuff like this on almost a daily basis, but this was no ordinary explosion! I was out the sides up the back, up the front clear up to her armpits (this could explain the discomfort she was feeling all evening). So, I get her all cleaned up, clothes changed and a new blanket for her, and she just sat there and cooed and kicked and was happy as a clam there on my bed. So I took the clothing to the laundry room to be washed and came back and wrapped up the diaper and threw it at the garbage can, which is probably less than 3 feet from me. Now, in the 2 months that I've been doing this, I've become a pretty good shot at the can, just hit the wall behind it and it falls in! Well, I should have granny tossed this one because as soon as it hit the wall, it exploded all up the wall and then (if that wasn't bad enough), it landed in my basket of CLEAN clothing! I just sat there staring with my jaw hanging open, and then just cracked up laughing histerically. Chris comes in to see what exactly is so funny, and looks at me like I'm a crazed person when I just point to show him (it's amazing what seems just funny as can be when you're so sleep deprived!).

And then today...Chris decides he's well enough to go to work...on the day that my body decides to give in to the illnesses plaguing my family (no, I don't have the chicken pox, but I have every other blessed illness that's been floating around here). Well, I decided that after a day of dealing with the kids, I just wasn't going to feel like making dinner, so I put a little something in the crockpot to cook all day. Easy enough of a recipe, and not exactly sure why they have you put it in the slow cooker for 8 hours when it's already cooked when you put it in! But, anyway, I get it there and then go to the bedroom to lay down for a while since Celeste is sleeping, and I hear this major crash coming from the kitchen! So I literally jump out of bed and run into the kitchen to see the crockpot on the floor turned over, Tyler laying on the floor under one of the bar stools, and Terra and James with black permenant markers (which should be banned from all house-holds across America, especially mine)! Upon further examination of the room, there's water everywhere (mind you I was only gone from the kitchen for a matter of MAYBE 2 minutes), the lids are OFF the popcorn and oats buckets (but the contents seem to be untouched) and the cabinet under the sink is wide open, with cookie cutters spread all over the floor. I was able to salvage about half of what was originally in the crockpot, and plugged it back in (trying really hard not to cry at this point in time and trying even harder not to blow my top at the kids....all the while doing this one handed because I have a sobbing little boy in my other arm - who has a goose egg from hitting the wall on the way down from atop the barstool). I send the kids into the living room to watch a movie, get Tyler a sippie to hopefully calm his nerves a bit and then go back to the kitchen to see about cleaning it up the rest of the way. This is a point in life that I'm really greatful to have a pair of dogs running around. I go outside and bring them in to help me clean up. They've licked the floors and bar stools clean and also cleaned up some cereal that the kids decided to drop under the table while eating breakfast this morning and then back outside they went! So, now it's my turn to go in and swiffer the floors the rest of the way, but I'm ready to just call it quits for the day already!

*sigh* And we're only 9 days into the New Year! Oh the joys of life!