when it rains it pours, literally and figuratively

Thursday night I had an eye doctor appointment. As the receptionist walked me to the exam room she asked how I was. For a brief second I wondered how she'd react if I told her how my day had really been. What she was say if I gave her a complete rundown of my day? I didn't give it to her so I'll relay it here in painstaking detail.

First of all, all week we've been deep in the trenches of Operation Potty Training Intensive. The timer goes off every 20 minutes for AB to sit on the potty. We've had absolutely no success with anything making it into the potty. She had an accident while standing on top of her barn which resulted in the barn and all the animals having to be washed. We bring the potty, wipes, paper towels and dry underwear from room to room. It's such an ordeal. Each day she's had less accidents but since she isn't using the potty I don't feel like we've had much progress. I told her to pay attention to a feeling she might get in her belly. That means she needs to use the potty. After an accident I asked if she had the feeling and she said she did. I asked what it felt like and her response was "magic and unicorns and my heart beating feels yike butterflies."  

I woke up Thursday morning knowing it would be another long day of training. I was determined for it to be a good day! Positive thoughts! Fun times! Then I walked into the kitchen and the table was covered in ants again. We've sprayed multiple times but each time it rains ants make their way in. No matter how clean I keep the table they always come back. Later in the day I found a caterpillar on the floor by the sink. Our house is turning into an insect sanctuary city. 

Between PTI and constant rain all this week we haven't gotten out much. I have a few friends who take their children to the same music class we go to so we had planned on meeting at class that morning. It was pouring like I've never seen as we got ready to go. I hoped Shelley would text me to say she didn't want to drag her kids out in the rain. I wanted to cancel but Annabelle was excited to go and she's had such a good attitude about PTI that I wanted her to do something fun. If there's one thing you need to know about me it's that I HATE HATE doing errands in the rain. I do not like getting my clothes wet. I don't like wet socks. I don't like my feet getting wet if I'm in sandals. I don't want to sit in the car or arrive at my destination in wet clothes. I love swimming and walking in creeks, but rain water is a different story. We got soaked getting into the car. We got soaked getting out of the car. We got soaked when Annabelle said she needed to use the potty (false alarm) and we made an emergency stop at Tim Hortons. 

When we got home I went to look at a room in the cellar that sometimes gets a puddle on the floor when it rains. The entire floor was covered in water. I had to lug bags of Army gear, instruments, backpacks and boxes to the other room. I had no idea how to clean up the water so I did what I could and waited for the landlords to come and save the day.

Before music class I was in Annabelle's room getting her clothes. The door hit the shelf behind it and a frame crashed to the ground and smashed into a million pieces. I did what I do best and shut the door to deal with later. When I finally vacuumed it up (after an accident and the flood) I saw that the picture inside was ripped. It's a print of You are My Sunshine that Mom gave me after Grandpa died. He always sang the song to me so its a special picture. That's when I gave up on life. Except I couldn't because Annabelle refused to nap and I dropped my water bottle on the way out the door.

I thought about telling the receptionist my lengthy sob story but thought better of it. We didn't have enough time to fully cover all the details.