The Search for Miss Direction: Fortune's Fool

Today has been... strange. I think that might be the best way to describe it. We've had a fun day filled with Grandma and Papa but there were plenty of ups and downs in the process.

To begin with, Mom and Dad were originally supposed to come up for the weekend to work on the bathroom. Or the half-bath as Noah will correct me. It has only been 'under construction' for a year and a half now... But due to the excessive heat and a conundrum concerning what exactly to do with Tipper, we decided to post-pone and major work on the bathroom and that they would just come up for the day. We'd see about maybe getting things started but definitely have time to enjoy each other's company and celebrate Dad's birthday. So strangeness #1...

Then, the thunderstorms that we were supposed to get last night apparently decided to reek havoc on Fremont. Overnight Fremont received over 4 INCHES of rain. I am beginning to suspect that God is trying to wipe Fremont off the map. According to Mom and Dad many of the streets were under 6-8 inches of water and causing many of the streets to be shut down. They apparently had quite the time even getting out of town which led to a later arrival than anticipated. Strangeness #2...

In the meantime, in Farmington Hills....

The original plan had been for Grant and the kiddos to head to the Founder's Day parade this morning and me to hang back to wait for Mom and Dad and then the three of us would head out to Home Depot to possibly get supplies and then everyone meet back here for lunch. So off the kids and Grant went but then see Strangeness #2... So I was at home by myself this morning when I noticed the display on the fridge said the freezer was currently registering -23 F and the fridge was at 65 F. Well that could be a problem. We have yet to figure out the fridge problem, though have tried a couple of different things. We are going to have to wait 'til Monday now to see about getting someone out here to look at it. Strangeness #3...

Grant and the kids got back from the parade and Mom and Dad showed up shortly thereafter. We celebrated with fortune cookies and ice cream sodas to check them off today and then decided to see what the situation with the bathroom was. While the boys decided exactly how many layers for the floor was going to have to come up before we laid new tile (Strangeness #4 that I am not going to even touch on...) Mom, the kids and I made lollipops. (Happy National Lollipop Day, National Ice Cream Soda Day and National Fortune Cookie Day, btw)

We decided to leave Grant here for awhile to try to figure out the situation with the fridge and the rest of us headed downtown for some exploring at the Founder's Day Festival. A story that is too long to type here caused us to run into a vendor from Peoria of all places, who's son went to Bradley and who knew of Ketra - who'd been advised by their financial advisor to call her for an appointment, actually! Strangeness #5... But cool. The festival was great, glad we decided to heat down there.

We came back so I could make dinner and the boys headed off to the hardware store to try to get a piece of sheet rock for the bathroom floor. Apparently what they needed they don't make anymore (Can you see what I mean about today just being strange?!?!?) so the boys have done a great job piecemealing together the floor so hopefully Mom and I can get the tile laid in the next few weeks. We also had the fantastic Cream Cheese Pineapple Upside Down Cake I made and celebrated Dad's birthday.

I don't want to call today a series of unfortunate events because for the most part it was a really great day (it'll be even better if we can figure out the issue with the fridge) and I was really glad to spend some time with my parents. Other than our brief stop in Fremont on the way to Maryland, we hadn't seen them since Scott's graduation party and I enjoyed catching up. But admittedly, rolling with the punches is not one of my strong suits, so I'm feeling a little unbalanced. So humor me while I say that I am extremely thankful for the following to help me put today in perspective ;-)

1) The rain did come last night and dropped the temperature about 5 degrees at least
2) My parents made a long trip just to see us for the day
3) The kiddos made it to the parade and had a great time
4) Progress was made on the bathroom, no one lost any blood in the process and there is a clear plan on what needs to be done next
5) All the food that I prepped up last night turned out great and my parents ended up taking tons of leftovers home and I was able to send quite a few perishables home with them as well so things didn't go to waste. This made me ridiculously happy as just last week due to the power outage they lost nearly the entire contents of their own fridge. Funny how things go sometimes, huh?
6) Even though the fridge is acting funky, the freezer did eventually right itself and is currently at its correct setting. I was able to put a lot of stuff from the fridge in the freezer
6) The Founder's Day Festival was lots of fun and I got a really cool scrubby for my dishes (Mom, it cleaned up the cookie sheet I made the french fries up like a breeze. Thanks again!)
7) Tomorrow is a new day

I have no idea what tomorrow looks like, other than it is Sundae Sunday and National Junk Food Day. Until then...