Not all sunshine

You have to take the good with the bad.  There is no other choice.

It's been a rough week.  Aaron's been sick, and working a lot (by a lot, I mean a lot of nights).  Bertie has been really bad about napping, which means no break for mama.  The house looks terrible most of the time.  We had some unexpected financial difficulties (that I won't go into).  My depression is creeping back.  I've got a lot of weird rashes, and have yet to call the dermatologist. Aaron and I spent most of the day bickering.  And, of course, there's Julius; the world's worst cat.

But within all of this crap, there have been a couple rays of sunshine.  Like Bertie and I going on a long walk yesterday and stopping to share a plain frozen yogurt (no toppings).  I wasn't sure he'd like it, since he's only so-so on normal plain yogurt; and because of this (and that it was close to dinner time) I didn't get too much.  He loved it, and probably would have eaten it all, if I'd let him.

We did quite a bit of walking this week.  I'm starting to jog a little too, since I've all but given up on the Bikini Body Mommy Challenge this time around.  (Maybe I'll pick it up again, who knows?)  There are 3 parks near the house (within 0-1.5 miles).  Lately, when we pass one, I'll stop.  Bertie will drink a little out of my water bottle, and we go on the swings.  Two of the three parks have swings like this:

Meant for disabled kids, I think.  But it works well putting him on my lap.  He likes that a lot better than the baby swings.  See?

That's about the happiest he's ever looked on a swing.  Usually he looks depressed.  Anyway, I keep trying, because someday (I assume) he'll love it.

Other goodness: my new fitbit arrived this week.  My old one (that I got for Christmas last year) just died one day.  It wouldn't reset or charge.  But since it was under a year old, Fitbit sent a new one for free.  I didn't even have to return the old one!

Today I had the brilliant idea of a family trip to the pumpkin patch.  Bertie hadn't really napped, and fell asleep on the way there.  But I really wanted to get a couple pictures and get a pumpkin.  So I got him out of the carseat, assuming he'd wake up, but he didn't. 

I took one, Aaron took the other, and we got none with him.

And we didn't get a pumpkin.  Maybe we'll try again next week.

This afternoon sucked balls.

What was supposed to happen:
Come home, finish the rest of the yard work, tidy up, walk dogs, lounge, Humira.

What actually happened:
I went out to finish clipping all the bushes in the back (which is a huge job, and really needs to be done); only to find that the electric hedge clippers that I'd borrowed from my FiL were busted.  As in, I broken them yesterday.  I thought they'd over heated, but nope, they're actually broken.  So I couldn't finish the yard work.
While in the garage (trying to fix that damn clipper), I noticed a bad, rotting kind of smell.  I started investigating.  I threw all the rags in the washing machine, since I thought they might be the source.  Nope.  I kept sniffing around.  I bent over to look at something and felt the carpet was wet.  (I know, carpet in a garage?  That was my FiL's doing.  He thinks carpeted garages are great.  No clue why, since stuff like this happens...)  I felt more, a large portion was wet.  Then I looked at our water storage shelf and saw that a 2.5 gallon bottle was 2/3 empty.
Of course this happens while Aaron is gone...
So I emptied the shelf, which was really full.  Moved the dog food tub, and dragged the shelf out of the way. That was difficult.  Also, it was super hot in the garage.
Once all the crap was moved out of the way, I went at the carpet with a utility knife.  More hard work.

Here's what it looked like after I got the shelf are carpet out of there.  See how wet it is?

 
Here is the disaster I made of the garage...

The carpet I tossed out.

While doing all this, I also came across a major ant invasion.  ...yay... 

Now for an aside.  Last time there was a major ant invasion in the garage, I grabbed the bug spray and the vacuum.  For some reason the ants where all in the dirty clothes pile.  While trying to vacuum around the clothes, I sucked up a pair of gym shorts... and broke the belt in the rug-beater (I have a Kenmore canister vac).  I found the manual online and tried to take it apart so I could potentially fix it.  But I couldn't get the thing to come apart, like it was supposed to.  Fortunately (I guess) the vacuum also came with a mini-rug beater (to use on stairs, or upholstery etc).

So then I was crawling across the floor (with a lantern) following the ants, using the little vacuum attachment to suck up the ants. Once I found where the trail was coming in, I sprayed the hell out of it.  

Then I realized I needed to drag the rest of the yard waste to the curb.  I dragged the really heavy, full can to the curb, flipped it over, and nothing.  I think 3 leaves fell out.  O_o  I turned it up right, then upside down again.  Nothing.  I left it upside down and slammed it on the ground a few times.  Still nothing.  Then I flipped it on it's side, and started pulling the stuff out by hand.  It was all pokey, and humid.  Ick.  Then I flipped it upside down again.  Still nothing.  Slammed it on the ground and it was still stuck.  At this point, I started to loose it.  I kicked it, and punched it.  That, of course, didn't help.  I put it back on its side and started pulling the leaves and sticks out again.  While doing this, I stabbed the broken blister that was on the side of my thumb.  That started bleeding.  I finally got the stupid can emptied and went back to the backyard.  On the way there, I started sobbing.  And didn't stop for about 10 minutes.

Also, Fiona has not stopped barking.  And Zelda has been whining a lot.  Good times.

In other news, I decided I'm going to do 30 random acts of kindness for my 30th year.  I've started on a few.  Today I paid for the car behind me at McDonalds.  I'll write more on this sometime in the future.  But I just wanted to throw that in.  Everything before I got home from work was fine.