If you're on facebook, then you've probably already seen/heard these stories. Unfortunately, sometimes I put things on facebook and then don't journal it--and I don't want the stories to get lost in cyberspace. So--I'm documenting.
Joe went to Chicago for a few days to take some classes to keep up his Texas and Ohio bars. I tend to be extra productive when he is gone--not so this time. I did manage to clean out the closet under the stairs (which used to have all the baby toys in it). It's a decent sized closet, and now there's a lot more space. He got home Wednesday night, and last night I had some meetings to go to, so I scarfed down my dinner and prepared to leave. As I was walking out the door, I heard Joe tell the kids that they could have a piece of Halloween candy for dessert.
In unison: "It's gone. Mom threw it all away."
I had to go back into the kitchen to explain that Grant and Ammon had found the empty closet and had spent close to an hour sitting in the dark back corner whispering and unwrapping candy. Yes, I knew what was going on. It was kind of cute, they were being quiet, and I decided to just let them finish the candy so that I could stop finding wrappers all over the house.
When they finally emerged (I think it was dinner time), there weren't that many pieces of candy left. Logan and Madison had also eaten most of their candy. So I just dumped the remaining sugar pieces into the trash and packed up the Halloween buckets for another year. Yay!
(By the way, I do not sneak my kids' candy anymore. They are too old and notice, plus I feel bad because I really am stealing candy from kids. They did promise me all the of the Almond Joys. . . but alas, there was not a single Almond Joy passed out this year. Boo.)
I've been refilling my pantry and freezers with the good holiday food sales. I don't know what went wrong, but Tuesday morning I opened up the van and thought it smelled old car-ish instead of the new-car smell we have been enjoying. I made a mental note to clean it out sometime during the week. That night we got in the van to take Logan to Webloes and the kids started saying, "What's that smell? Who farted? Gross!" I got in and WHOA! They were not exaggerating! We ended up with another boy, who held his nose the entire time in car. That night I bought some car air freshener and crawled through the van trying to find the smell. Lots of candy wrappers and socks.... but no obvious smell-maker.
Wednesday morning I got in the car to go to Target and buy Joe a belated birthday gift (he was in Chicago for his birthday, plus he bought himself this surprisingly expensive camp sleeping pad but I still needed something for him to open--Duck Dynesty--who's seen it?). Anyway, I got in the van and holy moley, the smell was worse. Like rotten milk or a dead animal. BAD!! I asked for advice on facebook, and the most promising was to use coffee beans. I decided that if it could clear our noses to sniff perfume, then maybe it would clear the rotten smell?
For the first time in my life, I checked out the coffee aisle at Target. It took a while to finally find some unground, whole coffee beans.
I got home and spread them all over the floor of the van. Ammon helped me by carrying the grocery bags, but I suppose he got impatient waiting for me coffeegate our van, so he started swinging the bags, and right about then I heard glass cracking and he started running towards me--his short little legs going so fast with spaghetti sauce trailing behind him--it was kind of funny. "Mom! It's bleeding!" It did indeed look like someone had bled out on our driveway. It had been raining for the past 3 days, and it was still overcast, but when I checked the forecast--only 20% chance of rain. I got a few pitchers of water and tried to wash the sauce down the driveway.
When the big kids got home from school they asked me about the blood in the driveway.
That evening Madison had Activity Day (sort of like cub scouts for girls). When we got in the van she asked about the rabbit droppings and coffee smell (admittedly better than rottenness, but still not what you want to see or smell when you get in the van).
Did it work, you ask? Well, the coffee beans are masking the smell--but it's still there. I'm going to have to go clean them up before I go to pick the kids up from school, though, because teachers stand at each pickup spot to help the kids get in the car, and I don't really want to have to explain the coffee seeds all over the van floor (or worse, not explain and just let them think we are slobs).
Hopefully time will cure the vile smell.
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