Crappy Week

A few weeks ago we experienced—quite a bit of crap. (Warning, this article is NOT for you high society readers.)

Church
During youth group at church one of my girls comes rushing in all flustered and animated and quite loudly states, "Guys, the bathroom is disgusting! Someone pooped all over the toilet and it is smeared everywhere…in two stalls! I didn't even go to the bathroom because I was too busy throwing up!"

You can imagine the face everyone in the room is making at this point. I look around to realize NO ONE besides me is going to step up to investigate, nor offer to clean it up. This thought takes me back to my bathroom cleaning days in college and I think "Well okay then, we can't just leave it—I have experience with poop smears...I'm going in!"

I borrow one of the girl's hair ties to keep my hair out of my face (well let's face it, out of the toilets while cleaning) and head for the janitorial closet—which to my dismay has NO plastic gloves in stock. NONE. So I shove my arms into a couple of trash liners and tie them around my armpits. I dive into the bathroom stalls armed with every kind of cleaning spray I can find and about a million paper towels.

I'll spare you the finite details. Let's just say the problem isn't as bad as my friend has described. But yes, there is poop involved. I go ahead and clean ALL the stalls and doors/handles while I am there. It takes me a half an hour to return things to normal.

Next time I will ask for help. Next time I will get the youth involved—teaching moment! (But please don't let there be a next time.)

Babysitting
The day before the stall incident, Adam and I watched a couple of girls and the family dog at their house. We took them out on a wagon ride to get the girls' wiggles out, give us something to do, and allow Rosie, the dog to take care of business.

While we were out Rosie DID NOT take care of business. A half hour after our walk, We discovered a LARGE, fresh present piled on the hardwood floor. She must have been saving it up, I've never seen this much come out of a dog before. The girls thought it was hilarious! A lot of giggling and chastizing of the dog ensued.

Later we were playing hide and go seek.
And I stepped in another present.
With my bare foot.
It was wet and squishy and now smeared into the carpet.

If you think the girls were laughing before—you should have heard them now. One of them could barely talk. My foot did not think it was funny.

The part of me that does not like babysitting, and the part of me that does not like pets, held hands and in affirmation said "See? THIS is why."

Marathon
Adam ran a marathon at the end of the week. Before starting the race, while it was early and still dark Adam decided he better take care of business. You can imagine how dark it must have been in his unlit port-a-potty. So to be safe and take care of anything he couldn't see, he wiped down the seat with some toilet paper before sitting.

Upon standing Adam realized his leg was a little wet. Upon further investigation he sickeningly discovered he'd SMEARED someone else's crap all over the toilet before SITTING in it! Evidently someone had  "hovered" and MISSED! Are you gagging yet? He was. And furious!

Pouring his entire water bottle all over his leg he commenced to consume ALL the toilet paper to wipe himself down…fighting reflux the whole time. You can bet he washed his hands three times over. Too bad he still had to run a three hour race with an "infected" leg. Shudder.

We did not stay to hang out in the city after the race. It was a shower or death.

Epilogue
At this moment, I don't know of a better time to say "Shit happens."

Get Away

Last weekend we escaped. And we both had a legitimate excuse to dump our responsibilities for 24 hours which was wonderful. It was un populated. It was quiet. Password: Camping is like... (include capitals and spacing)

Camping from Anna Zenk on Vimeo.

Too bad a sudden downpour with frightening lightning and hail ended our bliss on the beach a few hours too early. We escaped, but not before EVERYTHING was drenched and shoved into the back of the car in a sandy sopping heap....Can't have it all.

Superheroes in Excellence

Giving my girls the opportunity to come up with the Young Women in Excellence theme, one of my Mia Maids wanted it be Superheroes. So I threw together a spreadsheet of ideas and the President got it approved. (You should have seen how excited my Mia Maid got when we told her the idea was a go.)

So we got to makin' posters and writing out parts.

We had the girls liken an assigned value to a superhero and then tell how we show that quality in our lives as well. For example: Batman continued to show faith in the citizens of Gotham, knowing they make the right decisions even though all evidence pointed otherwise. As Young Women we show faith by ________________.
I was impressed, many of the girls were extremely thoughtful in applying their values to their hero.

I put their part on the back of their superhero's icon—this made an engaging visual for the audience to look at while the girls read.

We have table cloths in each value color...so we repurposed them for the evening as capes. Aren't the girls awesome for playing along?

The treat idea below was fun, however, the candy was WAY overpriced. We could have stuck with colorful popcorn and rice crispy treats and been just fine.

This project is cross listed on the Thousand Phases site along with the idea list and outline for this theme.

Keeping it Reel

A couple of weeks ago we hitched a ride with Adam's dad to Utah—he needed to go for business and wanted to fly fish too. (Adam's dad used to SKIP his college classes to go fishing. And since there is NO fly fishing in Texas he was determined to make it happen.) So we all took the whole week off, packed into the car and started out on our 24 hour trip.

We stopped in Nebraska at Adam's grandma's house. It's a quiet place, out in the middle of corn fields. After hunkering into a bed in the nice cool basement we heard thumping on the glass window. I figured it was a june bug, and then realized it was too loud and thought maybe a frog was smacking his sticky little body upon the glass. Pulling the curtain back, I was surprised to see a baby bunny hopping up and down trying to get out of the window well. Adam woke his dad who pinned it down with a hoe so Adam could jump in and catch it. Have you ever heard a rabbit scream before? Poor thing was scared to death. But a few moments later, he scrammed.

The next morning we left before sunrise to start our 15 hour trip to Utah. After such a long drive we all went fishing the next day....based on this shot wouldn't you say it was worth it? I love this image Adam captured. I am STILL trying to contain myself and refrain from adding a rainbow in the background to help it reach perfection.

I fished for one and a half of the four days we were there. Both times were after rainfall, so both days were a bust for me—no fish. I learned when the water is muddy, the fish are full and can't see your fly hit the water anyway; good luck catching anything. But I DID catch a tree, several weeds, a couple of rocks, a stick or two and an old t-shirt and also a mild case of stinging nettle. Gah! I always forget what it looks like until I'm sitting in it.

The last day of fishing we woke early and hiked into Lower Fish Creek...most of the hike was along train tracks. A lot of them. I have decided I hate train tracks, they are impossible to walk on for long distances. I'm sure you know the spacing of the ties are too close together for a normal stride so you are either taking short marching steps or huge dancing ones...or slipping all over the rocks. Guh. Don't tell the guys but on the hike back I wanted to cry—or at least take a REALLY long break. Maybe visit with a cow or two before moving on....perhaps ride one....

Of course Dad was the most successful in number of fish caught.

This is my brother-in-law.... an in-law like me. He's new to this fly fishing thing too. But HE caught a fish. (Yes those are socks hanging from my hat. They needed to dry.)

Adam says he caught the largest fish. But admits he needs to learn how to hold it for the camera.

Mom came too and decided she wanted to have a go at the river. She now has her own weighters.

Since I was in the area, I called up Dwynne and surprised her. I asked if she wanted to go on a date with me. She thought I meant a date on Skype. NOPE! "What's your address cuz I'll be there in an hour!" Of course she kept asking me if I was serious. So we spent the afternoon and evening together.

The next day Dwynne picked me up after lunch and we drove to Natalie's house and knocked on her door. She opened the door and kept smiling and blinking. It was funny to watch the gears turning as she struggled to understand. So I just kept smiling at blinking back at her until she'd figured out it was me.

We all hung out. I spent the night. The next day we went to see my Aunt which was great, and then at the end of the day Dwynne took me back to stinky, fish smelling Adam.

It was a long trip but totally fun (and VERY busy!) We haven't been back to Utah since Adam graduated (so weird to be there with all those memories). Thanks to Mom and Dad who rented a van so we could go along.