Calgon take me away...

If it were only that easy. Last week was L O N G . Might as well give you the day-by-day so you can get a full appreciation of why I haven't been around.

Monday: Hint of throat tightness. Keep this to myself because Mike always gets paranoid about getting sick. I Try Piper's Halloween costume on her for the 1st time. The one that I was so proud of myself for buying 2 weeks earlier. Last Halloween found this mom procrastinating and not realizing that good moms find the best selection of toddler costumes more than a week before Halloween (down-side of small towns). I never bothered trying it on her because it looked big enough and if anything, clothes in her size/age are a bit big on her. So that leaves me on a Monday before Halloween without a costume for my child. I decide to pay for 2-day shipping and order a kitty costume online. Comfort myself about the extra shipping because it prevented me from having to run all over Bozeman trying to find a costume that Piper could even recognize and appreciate (hence the kitty choice), let alone fit her.

Later I notice that Ben & Jerry's Cake Batter Ice Cream from the freezer is resembling Cake Batter Soup (quite tasty, btw, ice cream that is) on Monday night during dessert-time munchies. Choose to ignore that tidbit of info because everything else is frozen. Note to self: Ice cream is to freezers as canaries are to coal mines.

Tuesday: Pretty sure I am getting sick. Mike leaves town for the real Big Sky part of the state (the one that the resort was named for) and 5 hours away. After a trip to the park, the thrift store (I am a proud thrift store shopper), and then Albertson's, I return home a little exhausted and achy. I take my temperature and the thermometer tells me 101 degrees. Really??? I don't think I feel that crappy.

The $9.95 digital thermometer purchased during the aforementioned trip to Albertson's is now telling me the fridge is 45 degrees. Turns out the fridge/freezer and I are not doing so well. At least Piper's not sick. Freezer items are moved to the basement chest freezer, fridge items get moved to coolers with frozen, pureed tomatoes and frozen split pea soup acting as ice. Some unfortunate items were sacrificed during the migration to cooler (my condiment collection seems to have a life of it's own and was in need of a good downsizing), but purging from time to time regardless of where it is in your house it is IS always a good thing. Did I mention that I have a temp of 101 and I am home alone with a toddler?

Wednesday: Repairman shows up shortly after noon. After a relatively quiet examination, he tells me to cross my fingers. This is really just code words for this is beyond hope, it's dead, it's gone, say your condolences now, m'am. He still tries to convince me that there is a sliver of hope and doesn't make me pay him for his service call immediately (bonus of small towns) and just tells me to call him to let him know if my fridge goes "back to normal" because he reset the thingamabob and sometimes you just never know.

One-hundred-one must be my lucky number because that was my winning body temperature once again after dinner. I still can't believe my temp is that high because I really think I should feel much worse than I do. Piper and I are now living out of a cooler. When you do this for camping it is an adventure. When you do this at home, with a toddler, while sick, and during record warm temperatures (73F on 10/30 in Montana???) that you can't even enjoy because you feel so crappy? NOT. FUN.

Thursday: Morning is rough. Being sick at home alone with a 19-month old isn't exactly recuperating. Kitty costume arrives on schedule. Piper lets me try it on her, but she is definitely not impressed. I wonder how I am going to get her to wear it for very long tomorrow. I am proud of how uncranky I have been with Piper despite our circumstances. Mike returns home. Too late to do anything about fridge, but relief has arrived!!!

Friday: (very early) Don't sleep well. Moved to the couch at 3:30am in hopes of at least Mike getting some sleep. Lay there for about an hour before Piper wakes. After the requisite time to allow her to fall back to sleep, I finally go to her. Seconds after picking her up, Piper pukes. Halloween is officially cancelled for Piper. Sickness ensues until about 6am, then she takes a short nap. She's feverish off and on the rest of the day, but no more vomiting. I was impressed with how it didn't totally gross me out. This was actually Pip's first incident since eating real food. What a lovely milestone. I am happy she is too young to be sad about missing out on Halloween fun.

I go used fridge shopping that day. We just spent $1000 on new truck tires and now our Outback has U-joint issues. With Christmas coming soon, a new fridge is just not in our immediate future, especially not like our dead one with water and ice on the door. We eventually wanted a garage fridge anyway so when we buy a new fridge in the spring, the "new" used fridge will relocate to the garage. My trip was a success and Mike and his friend go pick it up later that day. I even got rid of the dead fridge by advertising it on freecycle.

Later that night, Mike and I try to watch a scary movie. I LOVE scary movies. It's one of the few traditions we have. Last year was ruined because Mike's hunting buddy showed up FIVE days early and unannounced to just hang out before they left for their hunting trip (I was NOT impressed). This year there were no unexpected houseguests and I made sure that we 2 Netflix DVDs to choose from. We turned out the porch light to let the trick-or-treaters know we were closed for business. Piper went to bed early because she had been sick. We were all ready to watch a scary movie. Then the DVD player decided it was also it's time to go. Yes, my friends, my DVD player decided to go the way of the fridge. All I could do was burst out laughing - partially out of humor, partially out of madness. Scary movie night was foiled once again. We do have another DVD player, but by now we are just too tired to care enough to swap the dead one out for the functioning player.

Big sigh....

Saturday was a much better day. I sure hope next week is better. How can it be any worse? Mike does have to leave town again, but it's the last time for a long time. Piper is mostly better and so am I. And this week we won't be living out of coolers. Other than REALLY missing my ice dispenser (I drink 3L of ice water/day), I am actually liking the used fridge more. Just having a fridge is an amazingly wonderful thing, but this fridge is roomier and easier to find things in (not that that's a problem now because this house is in dire need of a trip to the grocery store). I really do like my "new" used fridge.

Off to change the clocks in the house. I remember the good old days when this time change was THE BEST. A whole extra hour of sleep. I laughed when the newsman said last night to enjoy your extra hour of sleep, unless you have kids. So true.