Lisa and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

It had been building up for awhile.  I was feeling crummy and falling behind on my To Do list (which has about a million no-fun responsibilities along with a hundred fires to put out).  So the night before the bad day, I asked Sheila to pick up Fisch in the morning and keep him for a few hours, so I could catch up.

The next morning... 

• Fischer wakes up too early and won't go back to sleep
• I get over it and start the laundry and clean the kitchen, I turn on the dishwasher
• I hear water falling in the basement
• rush down to find water pouring from the ceiling and all over the washer, dryer, shelves, clean folded laundry pile, and floor in the laundry room
• run back upstairs to find the source
• can't find anything
• run back downstairs to see that it has stopped but there is an enormous mess of water and gunk
• start to cry (I don't know why) and call my dad
• still weepy... call Andy
• while on the phone with Andy Fischer falls off his chair and is screaming bloody murder
• My stress level hits the roof
• Doorbell rings, the dogs start barking and jumping on the furniture (a no no), Fischer is still screaming, I'm falling apart on the phone
• I open the door, yank the dogs into a bedroom, shove a screaming half-naked Fischer at Sheila, go into the office and slam the door (very grown up of me)... still on the phone with Andy who cannot be very helpful because he is an hour away!
• Off the phone, find Sheila in Fisch's room trying to get him dressed, I put on a nice face... as if I'm not falling apart at the seams and go out to the garage to grab his car seat
• I drop it on my toe, which splits open
• Sheila tells me to get out of the house and go sit at Starbucks for a few hours
• She leaves, I call a bunch of fix-it guys who are too busy to come.  I am trying not to let them hear that I am crying
• Did I mention that my hormones are a bit out of whack these days?
• Look at the mess again and realize it has to be a sewage pipe because the "gunk" is actually bits of rotted and disgusting food!  Probably from the dishwasher.
• Finally get a guy to agree to come in a few hours.
• Find chocolate and eat it - feel a tad bit better, complain the entire story on the phone to Wanda
• Feel sick to my stomach, can't accomplish any of my to do list with the water off and the HUGE mess lurking in the basement
• Go to my parents' to go to the bathroom and then get the brilliant idea to randomly, take a bath in their giant jetted tub.  Ahhh, much better.
• Come home, wait for the guy.
• He comes and tells me it is worse case scenario and he will have to rip apart the basement ceiling until he finds the pipe, then we'll have to rip open the wall too because of all the food.
• He can't come till Saturday.  He tells me to clean this up immediately because of the dangerous bacteria, and If I don't he will lecture me when he comes back.
• He leaves and I have to leave immediately to go pick up Fisch and meet Andy to close on our refinance of our house.
• Rush home to start cleaning up the mess before my student comes
• He never shows
• I'm just saying...  yesterday sucked!  Oh and I can't use my dishwasher, my kitchen sink, the washing machine or the dryer... fun times.
• Sooo, how are you?

Sometimes I'm Brilliant!

Once in awhile I have a brilliant idea... and I just have to share. Now before I do, I'd like you to know that I'm completely aware that my "brilliant ideas" are usually things everyone else already does and are categorized under "common sense" for them.... but please don't burst my bubble.

Cooking and cleaning have never been my strong points and were pretty much avoided at all costs before I became a stay-at-home mom... so in a way, I'm a newbie at homemaking.

Anyway, on to the brilliance...

You know the rubber splash guard in your kitchen sink that keeps the garbage disposal from spraying you in the face? You know how the underside can get so slimy and disgusting and can even smell? Did you know you can clean that thing??? (Of course you did, be quiet.)

I've come up with a fantastically easy way. Get a brand new round toilet bowl brush and spray it with bleach, then stick it all the way down into the (off) garbage disposal until the splash guard flaps have closed completely around it (meaning the brush is hidden beneath the flaps, and you are just holding onto the handle). Then bring it back up and prepare to be mesmerized and disgusted at what comes off the underside of the flaps. Rinse and repeat until the brush comes out clean.

Ta daaa... I cannot believe I just gave a cleaning tip! Will wonders never cease. Do you have a brilliant cleaning tip? Obviously no tip can be too commonplace for me (don't worry I've never heard it and have never done it and could really USE it. I love tips!). Do share.