Ah the joy of live music - last night at Mass, Rochelle, Marlene and I did a trio version of Point of Grace’s “One King” in honor of Epiphany (which is Three Kings week). I don’t much care for “We Three Kings” so it was nice to do something a little different. There are basically 4 verses to the song, but the beginning is really really lowwww, so Rochelle took the first two verses and chorus, then I did the 3rd verse and Marlene did the 4th and the rest we did (mostly) together and there was even a choir part in there! However the 2nd and 3rd verses are both key changes. The 3rd verse has a nice little instrumental run up to it so Marlene could find her note nicely, but the 2nd verse is more of a cold key change, as in, the key change basically happens on the first note of the verse, and since I didn’t know the song before Thursday, I just kept praying I’d do it right. And I did. Every time we practiced it. But during mass? Not so much. We came to the conclusion that it wasn’t actually my fault, because either Mike (piano) or one of the other instruments played a note that made me start a third higher than I should have. Luckily, I was able to fix it on the 2nd line and get back in the right key, but talk about an adrenaline rush. Yikes! I was so mad because I’d gotten it right every other time, even though I was nervous about it because I had to come in right on a key change. It made me feel better to know that it wasn’t totally my fault, though…lol!

On the way to Generations yesterday morning, a few cars were coming down the end of our street (there’s a church parking lot there) as we were trying to go the other way - it’s not a really wide street in the first place, so every time a car would come and look like it wasn’t going to let us pass, I’d say “Dude!” which is my clean way of saying, “Hey effing jerk!” when LG is in the car. Well, she decided that it would be fun to copy me, so she kept repeating it every time I said it which was really pretty funny and cute. And then we got her to say “Hi Dude!” to Marlene’s son when she got to church. Too funny.

And finally, last night we had a visiting priest from a charity organization that works with the poor in Latin America and the Caribbean. Obviously, he was there to solicit donations for his organization, which is fine. He told a story, though, that brought tears to my eyes - and not because of the people that he serves, but because he talked about a donor’s 11 year old daughter and how she treated these people when she went on a pilgrimage to Jamaica with her father. All I could think and hope was that when my daughter is 11 years old, she has half the compassion of that young lady. If she does, it will be a beautiful thing. Sometimes she shows compassion at 3 years old, but sometimes she doesn’t. I think that’s fairly normal at this age, but I do know it’s something that I want to instill in her heart. I pray that I am able to do so.

Yesterday LG finally decided that she wanted a Mickey Mouse Clubhouse birthday party. I found the party stuff in a catalog, but I want to look around town to see if it’s available here before I order it, because that usually tends to be more expensive. And plus, I can wait longer so I know how much stuff to get and don’t have to overbuy.

So this morning at breakfast, I told Mike that we were going to go looking for party stuff today, but not actually buy it - just see if we could get it so I’d know whether or not to order online, since that needs to be done pretty soon since the birthday party is in 2 1/2 weeks.

He has a church staff meeting this morning and I need him to go to the bank before I go grocery shopping. So before he left he was talking about when he was going to go to the bank and asked if I could wait til later today. I told him I wasn’t going to the store today (meaning, of course, the grocery store). He was happy to hear that because it meant he didn’t have to rush to the bank between the meeting and the staff lunch. He got ready and left.

LG and I were sitting on the couch reading a book and I looked up and saw my car driving off. The only car we have with a car seat. The only car I ever drive (because his truck scares the crap out of me). I drop the book, grab the phone and the following conversation ensues:

K: Did you just take my car???

M: Yes, you said you weren’t going to the store.

K: I said I wasn’t going to the grocery store. I told you we were going to look for party stuff today.

M: Oh. *sigh* Turning around.

K: Thank you.

We hung up and a few minutes later he came back in with a sheepish look on his face, got his truck keys and left again.

Men. lol!

2:00 am The power goes out. I sleep through it. Mike didn’t, but chose not to do anything about it and went back to sleep.

4:30 am I wake up and realize the power is out. (I hate you APS.)

4:45 am After I find two flashlights that do not work (so that I can find the power company’s number) and get into a whisper fight with Mike over batteries (because he wants to sleep and I’m already mad he didn’t call the power company in the first place), I use the light of my cell phone as a flashlight and find the number. I call the number and go through a whole long ridiculous voice menu to report the power outage, having to look at the account number (with the phone I’m trying to use as a flashlight while pressing buttons whose lights keep going out) and start over again because I “did not enter the number in the time allotted” (I hate you APS), and finally get it reported. They (and by they, I mean the recorded voice) tell me to call back in two hours if the power is not back on yet.

5:30 am (ish) I finally get back to sleep.

6:30 am The power comes back on. I know this because the ceiling fan light came on as it always does when the power goes out because it’s on a remote control and therefore you have to leave the switch in the on position in order for the remote control to work. I fumble around for the remote control and finally get it turned back off.

6:40 am I start to drift off to sleep again.

6:45 am Little Girl wakes up and comes and climbs in bed with us, thereby destroying any chance I had of going back to sleep again.

I hate you APS.

Dear Mike,

It doesn’t do me a lot of good if all I can find the is the stand-up mixer, but not the attachments, or the attachments to the hand mixer but not the hand mixer itself. Doesn’t quite work. So next time when you put things away, please take that into consideration.

Thanks,
Your loving, but frustrated, wife

Edited to add: I finally found the attachments for the stand mixer in a drawer with the pyrex measuring cups. Because that makes perfect sense right? :P

Tell me that you found one of LG’s sippy cups in the car and then proceed to describe to me exactly what the state of the leftover milk in the cup was in graphic detail. Next time I will show you in graphic detail the entire contents of my stomach. Heh. ;)

After LG goes to bed at night, Mike and I retire to our bedroom to watch whatever might be on the DVR that we both watch. Mike usually brings his newspaper to read during the commercials, although he sometimes reads during the shows, too. And he inevitably decides to rustle the stupid newspaper right as a character speaks a critical line quietly. Last night he did it during Heroes (grrr!) and I reacted by punching him in the arm and saying “SHHH!!!”

We thought LG was asleep, but she apparently was not because for the next 10 minutes we heard “SHHH!!!!” coming from her room at random intervals.

And then we did that thing where we tried really hard not to laugh out loud. Because, you know, we didn’t want her to KNOW we knew she was awake. Or something.

Or Why I’m Going to Fire Mike’s Truck

8:45 p.m.-ish - Mike calls to tell me that his truck died, but he managed to coast into a convenience store parking lot and park. He called the sound man to come pick him up, and gathered all his stuff. Then he made the “fatal” mistake. He decided he had to go to the bathroom. So he left all his stuff in the car, locked the door, and walked to the store. When he reached the front door, he realized that he had left his keys in the ignition. So he calls me and asks if I can come over there and get his keys out of the car. Um, no, LG is asleep and I’m not going to drag her out of bed. He tells me he hopes no one breaks into his truck before he can get back in the morning.

10:45ish - It dawns on me that if someone breaks into his truck and takes the keys to a car that won’t start, they’ll also have our address and keys to our house. I freak out and call Mike who has to call me on his break. He finally calls and I freak out some more. And it does no good because “he is working and he can’t do anything about it”. Well, he could, but he won’t. So…

11:10 - I get dressed, drag a very disoriented LG out of bed, put her in the car (still in her jammies of course) and drive over there to get his keys and other stuff out of the truck so that I don’t have to spend the entire night panicking over every noise because I think someone is walking into our house.

11:35 - I arrive at the convenience store, get his junk and truck keys, get back in the car, and drive home.

11:50 - As I approach the freeway exit to get to our house, I realize I didn’t get the stupid garage door opener out of the truck. I contemplate turning around and then decide that it’s not worth it. They might get in the garage, but they won’t get in the house.

11:58 - I redeposit LG in her bed and go message my online friend that we made it home safely so he doesn’t have to call the police to search for us.

12:00 - Mike calls to check on everything since I had texted him before I left the convenience store and tells me the garage door opener was in one of the bags I grabbed, so no worries there. I told him he owes me something really good for Valentine’s Day. We’ll see.

At least now I can sleep without worrying someone is going to walk into my house. Of course, it’s 1 a.m. and I’m not asleep yet. But at least the reason I’m awake is not because I’m a stressed out nervous wreck right?

P.S. If someone steals the truck between now and when he goes to rescue it? We won’t care. I’m just saying.

Have you ever called your husband’s cell phone and had a female voice answer? Was your first reaction to think that you had dialed the wrong number somehow, so you immediately looked at the screen to see what number you had dialed?

Yeah, that happened to me today. It wasn’t the wrong number. It was Rochelle’s sister because he is doing some remodelling for them and he apparently had his hands full, so told her to answer his phone.

For a minute there, though, I thought I was in an alternate universe in which I might have to kill him.

My day sort of started at 4:30 a.m. when Mike got home and woke me up to tell me he was home so late because his truck broke. Again. This time it’s something to do with the steering column. It needs to hold on until July when my car is paid off and we can afford another car payment. Bad truck! Bad! Bad! Then he said he was going to sleep on the sofa so I could get some rest. Of course, he could have just said he was home and I’d have gone back to sleep, but nooooo, he had to tell me the truck was broken and that got my mind going a thousand miles an hour with questions. Argh. (Read on …)

3:45 am: Melody goes ballistic, waking me up from a deep sleep. Mike is sleeping on the sofa (ironically) so that I can get some undisturbed sleep (is there such a thing?) since I had a wakeful night the night before. After the barking started, I braced myself for hearing screaming toddler, but nothing. She slept right through it. Lucky kid. I hear Mike telling her to be quiet from the great room. She finally stops barking and all of a sudden I realize I’m hot. And why is it stuffy in here? And why is the ceiling fan not on? And…OH CRAP! The power is off. I know everyone has been going through a heatwave lately, but trust me, when you live in the desert where the temps are up in the 110s, the realization that the power if off makes your heart just sink.

3:50 am: I get up and start looking out the windows to assess the situation. I notice that the houses on all the lots right next to us don’t have power either, but the rest of the surrounding area has power. That’s a good sign. Then I walk out to the great room and tell Mike the power is out. He asks what I want him to do about it. Um, MAKE IT COME BACK ON. Duh! He does nothing but roll over. Hmph.

3:55 am: I go back to the bedroom and open my cell phone so I can use the light to find the flashlight. I locate the flashlight and then find the power company bill so I can call to report the outage. I get that done and then I walk back out to the great room because why should I be the only one awake? Mike tells me to just go back to sleep. I, of course, am worrying about the baby getting overheated and us not waking up on time and all those things that you have to worry about when the power goes out. I tell him I’m already hot. He say get a cool washcloth and again rolls over. Hmph again.

4:00 am: I check on Little Girl just to make sure she’s okay. She is. I get the washcloth and cool myself down and climb back into bed because really what else CAN I do? I can’t get online and whine in my blog because that would require electricity which we still don’t have. I set the alarm on my cell phone just in case. I start drifting off to sleep just a bit…

4:13 am: The ceiling fan light clicks on (for some reason it comes on after a power outage even if it was off when the power went out). It’s BRIGHT! Melody barks. Again. (Melody, the amazing electricity sensing dog :P) Little Girl sleeps through all that too. I jump out of bed and desperately search for the ceiling fan remote control so I can turn OFF the light and get the fan back on. I finally get all that done and I crawl back into bed. I figure Mike has probably figured out the power is back on and if he hasn’t what good will it do to tell him anyway?

5:00 am: I am still awake. I try every trick I know to get back to sleep, but nothing works.

5:30 am-ish: I finally fall back asleep -probably from sheer exhaustion.

6:30 am: I wake up for some reason. I look at the clock and roll over and go back to sleep.

7:28 am: I again wake up for some unknown reason. I look at the dvr clock and groan. I turn off the cell phone alarm so that it doesn’t wake up the baby who has slept through everything. Lucky kid. I lay there wishing I could just go back to sleep for another couple of hours, but I can’t. I get up and start the day and try to be happy that the power was only out for half an hour and I’m just tired and not a hot sticky mess.

And how was YOUR night?

If you didn’t already, read Theresa’s story of what happened to her Mike yesterday.

My Mike had an “incident” today as well. It was nowhere NEAR as scary or dangerous as Theresa’s Mike, but still…it begs the question. What is it with men?

My Mike’s incident was that he cut his finger on a tile this morning while he was laying tile for one of his clients. I asked him when he got home if it needed stitches and he said “probably”, but of course he didn’t go get it looked at when it happened, and if you don’t get it looked at right away, there’s not much they can do about it.

I guess the fact that he actually needs his fingers to play the piano was less important than the fact that he didn’t want to take time out from his tile job. Although I’m sure had it been serious he would have gone to the ER, but still. What is it with men?

Wednesday is grocery store day. But I was not in the mood to go to the grocery store yesterday and since we were not in danger of running out of milk and had something for dinner, I decided I would go this morning.

This morning I sat down and started making my grocery list. There wasn’t much on it because I just couldn’t think of a lot of things I wanted to get. I knew I’d find more stuff when I got there, though. But the more I thought about it, the more I realized I wasn’t in the mood to go today either. So since we still had plenty of milk and something for dinner, I decided to go tomorrow morning.

Mike had to play for a funeral at church this morning. I was planning to go to the grocery store right after he left. But of course I decided not to go.

A little while later, I happened to look through the window in the garage door. And my car was gone. Mike had taken it to church.

All I can say is, it’s a darn good thing I decided not to go to the grocery store today. Because he would have received a really pissed off telephone call if I had gotten LG ready to go and then found out my car was gone.

I will be telling him in no uncertain terms We will be having a conversation about how it is not appropriate to take my car without telling me ESPECIALLY SINCE WE WERE HAVING A CONVERSATION ABOUT ME GOING TO THE GROCERY STORE RIGHT BEFORE HE LEFT.

*sigh*

Update: The singer who sang with Mike at the funeral came home with Mike to wait for his ride, so Mike was spared the full wrath of Karin and just got a gentle rebuke. Yeah, I know. I’m way too nice. ;)

This afternoon we (as in Mike, Marlene, me and another male singer) provided the music for a wedding ceremony. I have to say it was the most flawless wedding ceremony I’ve ever seen. There were a couple of teeny weeny glitches but nothing that involved the music. In fact, the music was just about as close to perfect as live music can get. The bride was radiant. The groom beamed. It was a lovely wedding. (Read on …)

What would YOU do in this situation?

Your husband brings home takeout from the church fish fry so that you can eat before you have to run over there with the toddler to do Stations of the Cross and he has to run off to work. (He was over there installing a ceiling fan.) The dinners come with dessert and trying to be thoughtful, he gets two pieces of chocolate cake (since he doesn’t eat chocolate) just for you because he knows you are PMSing. He forgot you had given up sugar for Lent (oh the inhumanity!).

Do you:

A) Eat both pieces of the chocolate cake because you don’t want to hurt his feelings and darn it you’re PMSing!

B) Whine that you can’t have chocolate cake and how could he forget that you can’t have sugar and now there is chocolate cake in the house and tell him he’s mean until he hides the chocolate cake in the fridge and tells you eat it next Saturday night when Lent is over.

C) Tell him thank you very much because you know he did it out of the goodness of his heart and that you’ll eat it later, then put it in the fridge or throw it out after he leaves.

D) Take it from his hand and throw it in the trash moaning something about sugar not being allowed in your house and how on earth could you have forgotten that really?

E) Find the chocolate cake in the fridge the next day and eat it then because you really can’t stand to see perfectly good chocolate cake go to waste. And you’re PMSing.

or

F) Take the chocolate cake and smear it all over his body, then lick it off, because that doesn’t count really does it?

In the comments tell me what you would do and what you think I did and I’ll update tonight or tomorrow and tell you what I really did.

Being a good parent is not cursing in front of the child when you stub your toe on the box of diapers you brought home from the store which does not move at all when you kick it because your husband set a bin of tools on top of it. And then you challenge your husband to do the same thing the next time he stubs his toe. Yep. Anyone wanna place a bet on who wins that challenge?