Monday, August 27, 2012

My Daughter, the Sixth Grader

For the past several weeks I think I've been in denial. Denial that I have a sixth grader on my hands. It's not that I'm not old enough to have a sixth grader on my hands. Crap. I'm old enough to have a college kid on my hands when I look around at some of my friends kids. It's just that time has gotten away from me where my daughter is concerned. 

Time has truly passed by in the blink of an eye. Yes. Every time our mothers told us that as a kid, it turns out to be true! 

With sixth grade it's sort of bitter sweet. Do you remember sixth grade? I sure do. What an awkward time. I'm not even sure that I have many positive memories of middle school. I remember a few boys I had crushes on. I remember the friend that I survived middle school with. I remember some of the "mean girls". It's not like I dwell on it. But it shaped a part of me. 

 Middle school is almost like being thrown in the lion's den. Seven different classes. Six different teachers. Assigned seating for lunch(WTH?). Hormones. Band practice. New friends. 

It's enough to make her poor head spin. She seemed excited when I left her at her locker this morning. 

Dear God, I hope that excitement continues. I pray that she'll put her best foot forward and make good friends. I pray for her ability to make good choices. I know that nobody comes out of middle school unscathed. I pray that her scathing is minimally invasive. I pray for Your protective hand over her. Lord, I pray for the teachers. I pray that they have a positive contagious attitude towards the kids and teaching them new things. I pray that they have patience. I pray that everyone in the school have respect towards one another and school property. Dear God, how I love my daughter! How I want her to remember this time as a positive experience. I want her to flourish in her confidence in who she is and Whose she is. I pray that she'll be open enough with me to share her feelings about what she's going through. The good, bad and ugly. I lift her up, Dear God. I can only put my faith in Your hands and trust. 


Monday, August 6, 2012

It All Comes Out In The End

Now that we've been in the new house for about 3 months, we've been able to see what quirks we weren't able to notice when walking through during the open house.

Nothing major! Just silly things like a switch plate that is outside the bathroom, instead of inside. There are numerous staples in the wall along the ceiling in the game room upstairs. Eh. We can even live with (gladly) the bump in the driveway right before you pull into the garage. Yes, I understand it's supposed to keep the rain out of the garage. But I'm pretty sure the slope in the driveway going down does just that.

There is one thing that drives us absolutely batty about the new house. The somewhat new, "eco-friendly", "water conserving" toilets. I'm not sure we've had one week in this house where we haven't had to break out the plunger. Between two plungers we still don't have one that fits properly*. I bought a third plunger at a home improvement store. The guy in the blue vest said, "Oh ya, this will fit all the new fangled toilets". Um. NO! It didn't**. I even tried to put dish soap and hot water down the toilet***.

So just short of making one of my kids start pooping in the backyard, I also bought a toilet auger. I even "googled" a video on how to use one.  I thought I gave it a pretty good chance. I had to throw my hands in the air and wait until Hubby came home. I was done.

Hubby finally got home and we ate dinner. We went about our business and he gave  the toilet auger a good college try. At this point me and the girls are outside in the pool. If I could re-create the look on Hubby's face when he marched out of the bathroom in to the backyard with the auger in hand. He went over to the faucet to rinse off the auger.

HE FIXED IT! The offending toilet was unclogged. Did you know that a toilet auger pulls the clog out instead of pushing it through? OH!MY!GOSH!

Eco-friendly huh? Not so much. Water conserving? Ya, right! We've used so much more water in these toilets than the ones we've had in older homes. There's not enough pressure and water to push through the package that we waste so much more to get it to go down.

So yes, I've often joked that maybe we should make the kids start leaving their "packages" in the backyard. But, I've at times thought about it seriously.

One way or another, it all comes out in the end.


*The thought of toilet water splashing everywhere just makes me bat-sh*t crazy!
**If you think you can return a plunger, you can't. And I even sterilized it with bleach and scalding water. Non-fitting plunger count: 3
***I googled tips and tricks to un-stop a toilet. Dish soap is supposed to lubricate the porcelain to let the package slide down. The hot water is supposed to push it down.