Tuesday, November 9, 2010

At Least I Didn't Leave the Iron On









Ten year old youngest daughter whispered, “He took it better than I thought he would.” Then she acted out what she expected him to do when he opened the garage door and stepped into the kitchen to see buckets and wet stains on the ceiling.

“GOSH!” she grunted with a contorted face and body movements indicating extreme frustration. “That’s what I thought Daddy would do.” Then she laughed.

*****

It is the best plan. Husband and two oldest daughters leave early for a college football game and youngest daughter has nowhere be (no driving for me today!); a perfect day to catch up on cleaning.

My dear mother just left a week earlier after a three day visit and a hundred suggestions for me on how to make things around the house look a little better. Sooo…I hop to it.

First task – laundry; I have one load going. I’ll do the whites next. But first, I need to soak the cloth that mom used to dust to get the furniture polish out of it.

I close the drain in my master bath sink, turn on the water, put the cloth in, pour in a little bleach…

I blackout.

I’m now running around the house with Layla-the-dog on a leash.

“Oh, I think I’ll give her some more exercise and walk to the corner and back.”

Back home, as I open the kitchen door, Layla and I are met with a very excited ten year old who was on her way to search for us.

“Mommy, there’s water coming out of the ceiling!”

I dash up the stairs, thinking…my washer…how could it be overflowing? It’s still new!”

At the top of the stairs, I glance in the laundry room. Normal.

Still racing in my 4-minute mile pace, I head towards the sound of running water and quickly turn off the faucet. I take two seconds to assess the situation. Do I clean the kitchen or bathroom first?

The kitchen.

Down the stairs to the garage, get buckets, put under streams (by now) coming from the recessed lighting and a flat speaker cover.

Run back upstairs with useless mop. Throw down towels instead.

Repeat this pattern a couple more times.

Door bell rings. It’s a relative. Gotta let’im in.

I add socializing to the fiasco.

I can’t remember when I put on the tank top and shorts, but as I one-leg it up to a two foot-plus high counter stool to check inside the cabinets for hiding water, the thirty-one year old relative notices. My age comes up in our conversation and he exclaims, “Wow, you’re in amazing shape!”

Nice that I lost those few pounds recently; hope to keep it off through the holidays. Ha! Fat chance…no pun intended.

I digress.

My great plan for the day is ruined, and as ugly as the situation is, I refuse to “lose it.” Yes, internally, I moan a little about having so much responsibility and the need to multi-task, and a few other good excuses - but I let it go; just clean up, and let it go.

It helps that my children think it’s very funny. My middle daughter says, “This is when I’d like the teacher to ask us to write a paper about what we did over the weekend. ‘My mother flooded the bathroom and it came down through the kitchen ceiling.’”

All three girls laugh.

Husband/Daddy retreats to the couch and a TV football game – his substitution for a drink.

Hey…at least I didn’t leave the iron on and burn down the house.

What was your blunder? Have you let it go, or do you still feel quilt?

25 comments:

Just Two Chicks said...

I am so glad to read this blog! It only proves I'm normal and not suffering from some type of early dimentia!I am sorry that happened, but it does make for some good, laughable memories later in life :)

Menopausal New Mom said...

Wow Anita, I've got no story to match this yet. Although I can easily black out while blogging for hours!!

I'll be more careful!

Sharon said...

Ugh, I have those days...a little too often! I'll start something, then forget what I'm doing..usually with a pot of water on the stove. I remember just in time before it completely chars my pan!
Glad everything got cleaned up! :)!

Unknown said...

I haven't done anything like that "yet" but I'm sure it's on its way.

I have attempted to boil eggs but forgot about it and the water boiled out and the eggs exploded. It smelled so bad! At least you gave the kids something to write about at school.

Nakamuras on Saipan said...

OH...can I ever relate. It's a long story - but once we were house sitting for some friends of ours-the husband of which works for the FBI. I was trying to brown some ground beef and ....forgot about it-only to come into the kitchen with flames literally shooting up from the pot and licking the cabinets!! Another two minutes and I would have burned the house down. After reading this-at least I know "it's not only me"!! It's world wide...lol.

yonca said...

Anita,so sorry that happened but also glad it gave you guys a good laugh:)
I had a bad experiences with my old kettle.Thank god I was lucky, nothing happened.
The good thing about electric kettles is they have shut-off sensors when the water is ready so
there's pretty much zero room for error.
Then I got one:))

Betty W said...

A few years ago, I received a new toaster oven for my birthday. I was excited to use it and turned it on, to preheat it. Soon I saw smoke billowing out of the oven. When I opened the door, flames came out! What happened? I had not removed the instructions booklet, that was in between the heat elements!

Yeah, been there, done that. :)

Eileen Astels Watson said...

Bless you, Anita! That sounds like a day that'd drive me to massive depression. I'm terrible for holding onto guilt. So bad, I know! Thankfully, like you, I have a very loving and "let it go" hubby to balance me out.

Kate said...

Ha - what a nightmare! That's what comes of trying to be too domesticated. I shall use your experience as a good reason not to start to tackle all those tasks waiting for me!

Buckeroomama said...

Things could have been worse. :)

The closest I've come to this was burning the cookies I baking, because I was chatting on the phone with the friend that I was baking them for! When the timer rang, I just shut off the timer and totally forgot to turn off the oven and take out the cookies. :(

Rebecca S. said...

Stuff happens...unfortunately. But, hey, you've given your kids another story for their funny family stories file. My kids have a few of those at my expense, too. It's humbling, but since nobody got hurt, I would shrug my shoulders and smile...until the next time, that is!

Anonymous said...

OH, oh, oh, oh, do I sympathize with you. :) Yes, it is a good thing you didn't burn the house down, bless your heart.

gayle said...

So glad you didn't have too much damage! Other than backing into my husbands car by accident one day when I was mad....I have been pretty accident free!

People Who Know Me Would Say: said...

You made me chuckle Anita!

It's easier for me to remember my husband's blunders. (Why would that be?)

Once we went to Walmart (a couple of miles away), went shopping, were checking out and he said, "Yikes! I left the potatoes cooking on the stove!

We got home, the water had evaporated, the pan was red hot, the potatoes were burned and the house smelled awful, but we somehow averted fire! Oy.

Cindy said...

I haven't done anything quite that damaging but I've come close. I have a cast iron skillet I use a lot and as you may know, it needs to be "dried" after washing by heating it on a burner until the moisture evaporates so it won't rust. I can't tell you how many times I've turned the burner on then got distracted. After several minutes I start smelling something hot and remember the skillet. So far it hasn't gone so long as to turn red from the heat! lol

Robin said...

OMG..my hubs is sitting here right now and as Im reading I say..Will my blog friend did the same thing I did with the faucet...we both laugh..even though it is not too funny....I also left cheese sauce cooking when I took the girls to dance...almost burned house down...and ..well I think that is it....but now..so many times I run back to make sure I turned off stove...Im glad yours turned out alright..!

Georgiana Daniels said...

YIKES! So glad the water didn't do even more damage, although it sounds like plenty. That whole ordeal would send me into panic mode. I'm not good under pressure!

diney said...

Me do anything crazy like that - never. Great story :) xx

One Photo said...

Well it makes for a good blog post :-)

I am so sorry that happened, I hope the clean up was not too long drawn out or the fixing up too expensive.

forever lost said...

brand new van...our first second car 1982. While visiting family I piled all my sisters and nieces into the toyota mini van and went to get gas.
Pulled in too sharp and crunched the side of the van into cement barrier around the pump!
Cried and cried that my husband was going to divorce me!
oh and yes I am way over it!! LOL

humor is the best way to deal with that stuff!

Stephanie said...

Oh sweet girl! Brings to mind that old song "Mama said there'd be days like this" At least you got a great blog post out of it?
Hugs!

SuziCate said...

Oh my goodness! My neighbor did that last year, and I helped her dry vac and fan it out...what a mess, but not nearly as bad as when our hot water heater went out during the night and hubby was out of town! The things that happen and we somehow muster the courage and stamina to deal with them! Glad things turned out well.

Abby said...

Ha! I think we've all had days like this - now I know I'm not alone. I like your daughter's take on it, about hoping for a writing assignment!

Lisa Smith said...

Does backing my Suburban into the middle of the yard and demolishing my brick mailbox count? Not to mention the dent in the car...
All in a day's work! Haha
Love your humor :)

CeCe Wilson said...

Ah! So many others. . . I'm so grateful. Not of you flooding your house of course Anita ;0) I used to wonder if I was the only one that did things like this. But at least you didn't set fire to a box on your front porch because you didn't realize the ashes from the fireplace were still hot and in spite of the fact that you lined the box with foil and the box around the foil burned to literal ashes but the foil remained intact and you have a huge smoke and flame stain right below the Christmas lights where the box was to remind you of how you almost set fire to the oldest historic house in the neighborhood and potentially killed your family! Whew! LOL! That's not funny really, I guess. Maybe it was more of a laugh of relief, but I think moms have to have special mission angels to keep us. Great post Anita!