I hate bunk beds. And it gets worse from there.

The day started off great. It really did. I got all 5 kids up, dressed, fed, and in the van. Dropped the older 3 off at school then came tearing back to town to drop Alex off, and then Daniel and I came home.

First mission accomplished. By 8:00am, I might add.

Then I decided that I was going to strip all of the beds and change all of the sheets. That's when it started to go downhill.

Yes, that is the pile of 5 sets of sheets after I got all of the beds stripped. Then the real fun began.

Enter the cordless drill/screwdriver, to replace the slat that somehow managed to get ripped out from under the top bunk in the boys' room.

Of course, having the top mattress pulled out made me notice that Alex (the bottom sleeper) has been once again ripping at the underside of the mattress - which I had already covered with fabric once. Enter the staple gun to repair the torn fabric.

Enter the packing tape to try to salvage the plastic sheet, which has also been shredded by Mr. I Can't Keep My Hands Off Of Anything.

Oh, did I mention that I practically knocked myself out by standing up too quickly while making Emily's bed and slamming my head into the bottom of Sarah's top bunk? No? Well, I did. And I have the lump to prove it.

So something as simple as changing the sheets has now needed a cordless drill/screwdriver, a staple gun, packing tape, and a near-concussion. I was not happy. But I got all of the beds done. As in stripped, washed, changed, clean sheets put away, everything.

Then there were some projects in the girls' room that I wanted to get taken care of - nothing major, but those nagging little things. Like finding a longer pull chain for their ceiling fan, figuring out how to replace the middle drawer in their desk, and putting the door back onto a cabinet. I found some scrap wood in the garage, broke out the circular saw, cut it to size, glued what needed to be glued and clamped it together on the kitchen table to let the glue dry before figuring out how to attach it to the desk. A quick jaunt to the hardware store and $10 later and I had everything else that I needed.

Of course, in between all of this, I had to pick the boys up from school. So I got Alex, came home and started working on putting new hinges on the cabinet.

Then we went to get Daniel. This is where the day went to hell.

Alex and I went into the school to get him. On the way back to the van, Alex was pitching a fit about something - I don't even remember what it was. He opened up the sliding door on his side - and when I say "opened" I really mean that he grabbed that door and slid it open as hard as he possibly could, slamming it back as far as it would go on the track. I was on the opposite side, getting Daniel in, and Alex sat down in his seat with his attitude. I went around to close the door.

It wouldn't close. Like, it really wouldn't close.

My nice, shiny, new-to-me van was broken.

I maintained a semblance of calm, but I was in a panic. Ex1 was heading back to my house with the older 3 kids, and I was sitting at Daniel's school with a door that wouldn't close. So I called him and told him what was going on and asked him to just meet me there. I messed around with the door and found that the wheels in the middle of the door were off the track. OK, that should be simple to fix, right?

No.

I lifted the door slightly to see if the wheels would slide back into the track, and the whole door almost fell off of the van. I got it back somewhat into place and thought. And thought. And thought. I sent out a panic message on facebook, hoping that someone local could come help me - no luck. Finally Ex1 got there with the other kids, and between the two of us we got the van door shut, and found out in the meantime that one of the wheels that's supposed to be in the little track was actually broken off of the assembly. My darling Alex slammed the door so hard that he broke the wheel. He broke my van.

We got home and I made supper and called around to get prices. The part appears to be fairly simple to replace - and we all know that I've done more than my share of car repairs - but the part is going to run $80 to get a new one. Yeah, right. NOT. I'll be calling junkyards tomorrow - it's been a long time since I've gone junking for car parts, so that will be fun. Sort of.

Supper was good. Emily had gone with Ex1 to a football game so that just left the other 4 kids and me. We decided on the spur-of-the-moment to eat outside, so that made for much less mess to clean.

But, I got the cabinet door put back on, got the longer chains put on the ceiling fans in both bedrooms, gave everyone baths, and everyone is still alive.










Tomorrow is another day. And I might be out of Diet Pepsi, but I have the next best thing.