Not your typical Tuesday...

So the day started off pretty well. I pulled the sheets off my tulips for the second morning in a row and they looked perfectly fine. I was not going to lose them again like I did last year! Although it was a bit chilly, Emily & I took a walk up town to the post office and Kwik Star. I was too lazy to dig out her hat and mittens again, but I think she was fine. In addition to my walking cardio (because anyone who has walked the hilly streets of Denver with me knows it really is cardio) I was able to do a 40 min. toning workout video while Emily played around the house. I was feeling pretty good.

Things started going downhill when Emily decided to only take a one hour nap. This was in stark contrast to the four hour nap she took yesterday. Her whole sleeping schedule has been out of whack because she still has a lingering head cold, and I'm suspicious that her eye teeth may be starting to move up. Since we had a lot of extra play time, Emily decided today was a "dumping" day. That basically means that she systematically moves through the house and dumps out everything she can find on the floor. This included, but was not limited to, two different sets of alphabet toys, an entire bookshelf, all of her toy baskets and the 120 piece MegaBlocks set I picked up on clearance at Wal-mart yesterday to go with her new Lego table (although one leg is still broken b/c the glue I bought to fix it didn't work, but that's another story). In the midst of this chaos I attempted to clean the sliding glass door windows in the breezeway. Emily "helped" by unrolling half a roll of paper towels and crumpling them on a pile. Fortunately, I ended up using most of them. In the process of cleaning the windows I noticed that we have a psychotic robin that clings to the tree just outside one of the breezeway windows and tries to fly into the window every couple minutes. I noticed him doing it last night, too. The tree, sidewalk and outside of the window are a mess. Maybe one of these times he'll either give up or knock himself out trying.

After giving up on the window washing I decided to take Emily outside to play in the backyard. I was utterly dismayed when I opened the door to the studio house and discovered that it had flooded along with everything else last Friday. Unfortunately, it never crossed our minds to go check and this was the first time I went out there. The carpet was soggy wet and stench was almost unbearable. There is one small window that was open a crack, but other than that it has been wet and closed for almost 5 days. I could already see mold on the dry wall in one corner. I felt nauseous from it the rest of the evening. As luck would have it, Austin left for San Francisco today for a HUGE sales presentation and won't be home again until Thursday. I consulted with him on the phone after Emily went to bed and then headed out with a mask, gloves and a variety of tools out of the basement. I could do this. I watch people tear out worse stuff every Saturday night on the house flipping shows on TV.

All I can say is I definitely got a triple workout in today! I emptied everything we had been storing in there (Surprisingly, I don't think anything got ruined) and ripped up all the carpet. Then I pulled off the base boards, cut out some chunks of drywall to inspect the damage and pulled up a small piece of plywood from the floor (the carpet was glued down to plywood, but came up pretty easy). I even discovered an ant colony living in the wall. What a mess! I don't know what we're going to do with it now. I was hoping just to paint and redo the curtains sometime this summer to make a cute playhouse for Emily and to store larger toys. Not so much anymore. (Click on the pictures for an enlarged view)

To top everything off, somehow when I was freaking out about the studio house this afternoon Emily was running around outside and managed to get a huge scratch on one cheek. Normally this wouldn't really concern me that much, but I had just scheduled an appointment to get her 18-month portrait pictures taken at JCPenney on Thursday morning. The scratch is in addition to a small pimple on the other cheek and a banged up chin from slipping on a book yesterday. All in all, Emily's face looks about as bad as it ever has. I was amazed when she was a baby and scratches seemed to instantly heal in 24 hours, but I'm thinking that's not going to happen here. I was hoping to get the pictures back by Mother's Day, but we may have to nix that idea.

So here I sit. It's almost 10:00pm. I'm tired, sore and dirty. I haven't had a shower all day. And there's a whole sink full of dishes sitting in the kitchen. But look on the bright side--at least my potatoes turned out at supper. ;o) (Thanks, Courtney!)