When Daddy's Away

Now that Jeremy is back from Vegas and not only do I feel like I can discuss his absence without inviting anonymous blog readers to go all Criminal Minds serial killer on the children and me, but I somehow am no longer concerned about the probability of said psychopaths reading the blog to begin with.

So, how did things go without Jeremy?  Well, I learned how hard it is to me a "mom" -- the person who keeps the household running smoothly.  I normally fill a more "dad" like role, playing with the kids, keeping Daddy happy ('cause it's true what they say, "when daddy's not happy, ain't nobody happy"), planning weekends, and just sort of catching as catch can the odds and ends that Jeremy leaves undone.

But all in all, it went just fine.  I got everyone to school on time.  I even made beds before we left in the morning.  (By "beds" I do mean the one bed that we all shared while Jeremy was gone.)

I did not, however, check the weather.  That's how I wound up at school in 40 degree weather with a thin shirt, a knee-length skirt and sandals on Thursday morning.  Happily, Mrs. Z took pity on me, let me borrow a jacket and let me know about the forecast for the next day.

I did get to the grocery store to buy diapers before Jack ran out.  I even remembered the size and brand.  It's not my fault that they make two different types of Pampers!

I got everyone fed each evening.  Nevermind that Kara was with us at Red Robin, that Sara the babysitter fixed dinner Thursday, that Helen got the pizza Friday night or that my principal got us dinner Saturday as a thanks for helping with the science lab.  Nevermind all of that.  Children were fed.  (And now Helen has a suspicion about where Sydney has learned some craftiness from.  I didn't ask her to get us dinner.  I just offered to take her son to play and then brought him back right at dinner time....)

I cleaned out my car.  Only I waited until Saturday and it turns out that Jeremy is right and cleaning it out daily is more efficient.

I made my coffee each morning as usual.  The coffee machine itself, though, seemed to have broken as its self-cleaning feature was off and I had to take care of yesterday's grounds each morning before making new coffee.  On a related note, the coffee cups did not march themselves in from the car, rinse themselves out, and present themselves ready on the counter for a new day's coffee.  Strange.

The main thing that came about with the absence of Jeremy (other than all of us missing him terribly) was that I had the opportunity to take care of a little project.

You see, I have been telling Jeremy for months that I want this nasty carpet gone from the playroom.  Ideally, I would like wood laminate in its place, but mostly, since I know the tile underneath it is just fine, if not what I really want, I just wanted the carpet to go away.  Jeremy either couldn't think of how to make that happen, or just didn't care enough about the project to put his time and effort into it.  And if I started something like this with him at home, he would have felt compelled to help and then resented having to help since he didn't want to do it in the first place, yada yada yada.

So I channeled the other women in Jeremy's family... Gram, Nana Nolen, Aunt Rachel and Grandma Nolen and did just what I'm sure they would have done in that situation.  (I tend to think that Nana Roberts either would have decided she didn't care that much or she would have made certain that Papa Roberts knew exactly how important the job was to her.  Sometimes I do things more like Nana Roberts myself, but this was a do-it-myselfer.)

I took the first opportunity Jeremy was out of the house.  I went to Wal-Mart and got a box cutter and a bunch of blades.  Read on the internet how to change the blades and then tried it out in a corner where I could hide the evidence if need be.

Not too bad.  From there, it seemed like being the mafia trying to hid a body... you cut it into small enough pieces and you can dispose of it anywhere.

I actually enjoyed the process a lot.  I hadn't been able to go work out while Jeremy was gone and between the arm work and the fact that I wound up squatting to do a lot of the work once the tile was exposed because being on my knees on the tile hurt, I got a great arm and leg work out.

In the end, I was happy with the room, although I still want wood laminate.  Maybe the next time Jeremy goes out of town...

And I would be remiss if I didn't at least mention that perhaps I learned a thing or two about box cutter safety.  Cut away from the body and wear gloves seem to be two very important rules.

Better luck next time, hands.

So glad Jeremy is home.He went to the grocery store and got me more bandaides.  We were out.