I could laugh, but I don't

I tried to write a couple of times this past week, but found the words just did not want to come.  Words are funny like that sometimes.

It was not my best week.  Eric was hunting, and my heart was a little broken.  And also: Single parenthood really, really sucks.  I feel like this whole week, we've been living by the seat of our pants.  Bedtimes are practically nonexistent, mealtimes are anarchy, routines are chaos.  I like to think of it as The Ordeal.  Fun times!

But Eric is home now, so all is right with the world again.

Not everything was a wash, though.  A couple of awesome things did happen.

Like!  The ring in the girls' toilet?  I named it Fred earlier this year, because as a houseguest, he would not go away, so I figured I may as well make him a member of the family.  Although deep in my heart, I did not move on.  But then, neither did Fred.  Then my friend Shannon (hi Shannon!) came to visit and got a firsthand look at Fred.  And she was all, what you need is a pumice stone.  And I was all, really?  Well, okay then.

The evening that Mom and the girls and I went to town to get Abby's new boots, we also hit Wal-Mart.  I did not see anything even remotely close to a pumice stone, but my mother found one betwixt all the detergents.  (Can I just say I love the word "betwixt"?)  Into the cart it went.  Two days later (I can't remember why I didn't tackle the job the next day; I can only assume I was doing something very important), I went for it.

PEOPLE.  The pumice stone is my new favorite thing.  It took a little elbow grease, because Fred was really in it for the long haul.  But I think his fatal mistake was feeling so cocky after the bleach failed to work that he didn't even see the pumice stone coming.  I scrubbed and I flushed, and I scrubbed and flushed again.  And again.  And a few more times.  And!

We went from this:

NOT AT ALL embarrassing.

To this:

Not at all embarrassing.

Truly, that toilet is a thing of beauty now.  I keep going in there just to stare into the bowl.  It's gorgeous. Thank you, Shannon!

The other awesome thing that happened: I treated myself to lunch one day, having gone on a bit of a shopping spree* and finding myself in need of sustenance.  I was sitting at a booth, writing an email to Shannon on my poser iPad between bites of cheeseburger--had to share the joy of my sparkling toilet with someone who would understand--when I see these two guys sitting at an outside table.  One had a lunchbox in front of him, and the other had a sack, which I later discovered contained a burger (I have the glasses now, so I can see things).  Both had milkshakes.  So the one takes a sip of his milkshake, and then a bite of his burger, and then I see a flash of a can... and it was a Bud Light.  Burger, shake, Bud.  Awesome.  I'm sure the workday went a little better after that.  Maybe I should have tried it myself...

In other recap news, I got an abstinence talk** from my old high school bus driver (and learned way too much about her grandson's sex life), went to dinner at my parents' house, had my favorite mother-in-law over for dinner, saw our nephew play in his last home football game (senior year of high school... we won't talk about how I remember when that kid was born), did a lot of typing, got rained on, got sunned on, made hummus and naan, helped in Johanna's classroom, complimented the girls on not fighting, asked the girls to PLEASE STOP FIGHTING, and listened to my iPod in an attempt to tune a lot of it out.

And that was my week.

I will end by saying, yay Eric!  He's leading the girls in a cleaning spree of the living room RIGHT NOW.  I gave up on order by day two of The Ordeal. 

I love when hunting season is over.

*New towels for the master bath.  Ours were generally horrible (ripped and stained and frayed and smelly), and one day I found myself in the mood to take a drive to the sort of big city next door and see what was going on in Penneys, the one major department store in town (which is why it's the sort of big city--we have nothing even remotely like that).  So I did.  They were on sale, so I could justify it.  Our new towels are wonderful--soft and gorgeous and smelling only of detergent.  But the color--Perfect Oregano--clashes a bit with our tile.  Perfect Oregano is more of a darker, grayish green, whereas the tile is more in the true green family.  Sort of.  Well, imperfection is more interesting anyway.

**I was pretty sure she was going to make me sign a pledge of some sort, but thankfully it did not come to that.  As Abby would say, AWKWARD.  I finally managed to make my escape by pretending I needed to help someone in the back.

Miracle Legion, "With a Wish."  I love the opening (I could repeat, but I won't.  That's just as causal as things can get), followed closely by the last verse (It's twelve o'clock and now I'm changing back, 'cause later looks promising, but I know better).  Oh, Miracle Legion.  I do love you so.  Totally reminds me of college and the mixed tapes Jeff used to make for me.