FF of the crazy week... late even!!

Welcome to my Friday Fragments post.  This is where I dump all the stuff in my brain.  Ok, not all of it, that could get quite messy ;-)  Mrs. 4444 allows us to drop the tidbits clogging our brain cells, come on over, give it a try... you'll be hooked!!

For those who missed it, I wrote a tribute to my Great Aunt Irene Monday.  I was supposed to remind some of you to hit that up, but this week went so wonky, I wasn't able to.

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It's been a roller coaster ride this week.  It was supposed to be my birthday week where everything is sunny, bright, and all about me.  Yes, I know, with a hubby, 5 kids, a needy dog, who was I kidding.  I actually made my mother laugh to the point of tears when I told her my birthday was relaxing during our early morning phone call.  We started our skype session with me hollering at some child, too.  It didn't help my case any (she started laughing AGAIN!!), but my birthday was quite relaxing... mom, you can stop laughing now!!

The week ended quite poorly, which is why this post is late by a whole day.  My toddler chose to stuff the toilet with TP, causing it to overflow.  Did you know that an overflowing toilet causes the water to back up into the tank.  It sure does!  That causes the float stopper to bounce around and NOT stop the water flowing from the pipes.  Did you also know that a toilet can pump gallons of water in just minutes, and did you further know that water loves gravity just like all things, and will find a way to pour down through the floor into the basement??  My teacher's desk bore the brunt of this waterfall, soaking my curriculum binder, my school computer, and the very expensive HD video camera :-(  It was not a good day here at the house, which is why I didn't get this posted yesterday.  Oh well, better late than never.

Word to the wise, if this happens to you, quickly turn the water valve behind the toilet off.  If your house is old and does not have this, hold the rubber stopper down till there is enough water weight to keep it down.  Stop the water flow first, quickly get the standing water sucked up before it begins to damage the framework of your house.  Water damage wants high powered fans and a dehumidifier for any wet electronics, trust me ;-)

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A recent interchange between my dear cousin about his work. My correspondence is in blue.

"It's early on a Friday, I really have no desire to deal with stupidity, yes I can email, but I need your written permission since you didn't send me your email address originally, no don't give it to me on the phone, I need it to written, no I only need you to send it once, I don't need it for each page of the report.......... Yes I would love a drink....."
"Hard and over rocks please?  Sorry, the stupidity will continue till we discover the means to fix it ;-)"
"We have an app or a pill for everything else."

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My hubby got a personal phone call Tuesday morning letting him know that we were getting moved this summer to Alaska. We were not expecting this. We are almost 2yrs into what was supposed to be a full four years, stationed in one place. It took some getting used to, you can read about that here.

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For my birthday week I asked family and friends to share a memory about me so I could blog them. They have been quite fun to read. The following is from my very good friend Andrea, who was crazy enough to keep my 4 small children so hubby and I could head to Asheville, NC for a weekend away.  Her memory is from that weekend:

To take care of our wonderful balls of energy, I NEEDED your prize possession, your Latte machine. You showed me how to use it before you left and I thought I knew the secret.

 The first morning I got up anxiously awaiting a latte. I made a couple cups, well…maybe more than a couple. For my own defense I had six kids all under the age of 10 and two dogs…by myself. 

  I drank so much coffee my teeth started to turn brown (I’m not lying). So, after all that coffee I thought the machine needed cleaned. It came apart beautifully I washed it and dried it and started putting it back together. Some of the pieces didn’t fit the way they should. One piece in particular kept falling off. I fought with this thing for about one hour. Knowing how much this machine meant to you because you told me on more than one occasion. After I was in tears because I thought I broke it. I walked away and came back a couple of times. All in all, it took me three hours and a couple tissue boxes to get it back together. Needless to say, I did not make coffee the rest of the weekend.

 There was also a guest post from my husband, Layni, my dad and baby sister, if you would like to read them.  There will be a few more tomorrow as well.