Rainy Sunday

Yesterday, I got a call from another mystery shopping scheduler (this happens a lot; I'm in high demand, don't you know. Hee), asking me to please, please, please do an urgent bowling shop out in western Chesapeake this weekend.

Now, that's far from here. Certain parts of Chesapeake are right down the road from us, but that's a 50+ mile round-trip from here. And we're all still recovering from the flu, and it's short notice. So I told her all that, and she said, "Name your bonus."

I named my bonus, a pretty high, unheard-of amount as far as bonuses go. She sucked in her breath. She balked. I held firm. She told me she'd have to take it to the client and get their approval, and then she would call me back.

A while later, she called back. They approved the bonus! I'm still kind of patting myself on the back over that.

So, that's what we did today: drove out in the pouring rain to western Ches and went bowling. Everybody was game (heh), and all five of us bowled at some point in the afternoon. The girls, who had bumper-bowled using the ball-rack for rolling the ball with me recently, wanted to do that again. So we used the bumpers.

And that's the ONLY way Rob and I managed to break 100. Ha, we suck at bowling. In fact, the second game, neither of us DID break 100! I managed to beat him both games just the same, which is the more important thing - right, ladies? ;)

And guess what? Right in front of an employee, I got a strike when the pink pin was the head pin, and she said that meant I won a free game! Shortly thereafter, she gave me a certificate for the free game, and I'll probably never use it unless I get that big bonus again, but still, it was fun.

The kids had fun, too. When they weren't bowling or eating the required-purchase pizza, they were at the games, pretending to play. And we happened to be bowling right next to a family whose little girl is in Jack's class at school, so they had fun with her, too.

That bowling alley is really nice, too - it was clean, with a big pool table area, and even an indoor mini golf course. We enjoyed it. Of course, I didn't bring my crappy camera (I hate the new one, I really do), so no pictures. Bah!

When we got home, the kids went to find their glasses (no luck) while I farted around checking email and, oh, I know, talking to my sister. We BSed on the phone for a long time, and she told me that my BIL (her husband) had been looking at my Facebook profile picture. He said my face looked "chiseled." Now, Rob thinks that's not a compliment for a woman, but when you've been a chubbalump as long as I have, it certainly is!  I will take "chiseled" over "squishy dough face" any day of the week, TYVM.

So after that, I decided to make dinner. It was already after 1900 by then, so I was hoping I could get the kids to eat. It wasn't a fantastic dinner, but it was quick and edible: Cheesy Tuna Helper, peas, and Grands biscuits.

Now, I don't know about your husband, but mine told me probably the day we got married that he HATES tuna casserole and could I please never make it?

Nevertheless, he sucked it up (don't ask me why I bought it, other than it was on a good sale, with coupons, and I had a ton of tuna to use up) and finished his entire plate like a good boy. Because he's a decent sort of fellow like that.

I ate my quarter-cup-sized portion, and it was okay. But the kids, they didn't even eat their half a biscuit. Chloë ate a few peas and a little tuna, but not much at all. The Littles didn't eat a single bite. They're all still coughing and generally feeling malaise (I just wanted to say "malaise," but that doesn't sound right, does it), and not eating. Except for Sophia, who ate entirely too much Halloween candy this morning before I woke up, and told me she had a bellyache!

Anyway.

After dinner, Rob took the three of them up to the bath to get cleaned up before bed. He had to sit with them, because the lights are burned out in their bathroom, and though he changed the bulbs, they are still not working. The wiring in this house is a nightmare, but shh, don't tell the prospective new owners when we try to sell it in a few years. Maybe by then we can afford a decent electrician to fix things.

He texted me from upstairs that both Jack and Chloë are now painfully thin after The Sick, so it was no surprise when he came down with them after bath and fed them each a bowl of mint chocolate chip ice cream, with instructions to eat every bite. "And not because you had a good dinner, either," I heard him say. Poor kids. They need to put the weight back on. At least they ate it, all of it.

As for me, I cleaned. It started when I was cooking dinner, and the floor was gritty and gross under my bare feet. I swept that while cooking (I'll have to mop it tomorrow) and then cleared the huge mess off the table and washed that down, so we could sit down to a presentable meal.

Then I finally found the Swiffer Sweeper (love that thing) pads to dust the living room, hall and office floors. I collected a ridiculous amount of dog hair, along with candy wrappers and general kid detritus.

I couldn't stop there, because Tiger Lily had tracked in a bunch of mud after going potty today, so I found the wet pads for the Swiffer Sweeper (they had been lost for a couple weeks; Rob hid them on me) and "mopped" the same floors. Scrubbed. I gave myself a blister, but man, it feels and looks so much better in here! I'm loving it.

And finally, I scrubbed the downstairs bathroom. It was pretty gross; I hadn't cleaned it in a while. Now, it sparkles - but please don't eat off the toilet. That's just nasty.

There's still more to be done, but if I had done all this BEFORE the black-tutu girl and her mom came over yesterday, I wouldn't have been embarrassed to let them in. We won't discuss the upstairs, though, which is much worse...

In tutu news, I think I showed you all but the last one I made last night, so for the sake of having at least ONE picture in this post, here it is:

Hot pink and purple, for Etsy - but nope, I lied, I made two tutus last night:

Red and black, also for Etsy

And guess what? While I was cleaning tonight, three of those tutus I made yesterday sold on the Etsy site! And another friend on Facebook is going to take two more, as soon as she gets home. So that was exciting. ☺

And now, I'm going to make one or two more before I turn in for the night. We're going to try sending the kids back to school again tomorrow and see how that goes, and 0700 comes around early.

Have a great week!

Fin.