keep calm
Thanks to our little flood – and a host of other problems – this past week bordered on ridiculous.
And yet I must pat myself on the back because I actually managed to act like a functioning adult. Translation: I kept my whining to a minimum as I dealt with plumbers, contractors, insurance agents, and water restoration specialists.
I was even calm with Maya! With the exception of a drilling/screaming session during her Mad Minute practice. But it was worth it…she got 28/30!
I even remained calm:
- when our dishwasher broke on Monday morning,
- when our ice maker froze up (how ironic?),
- when, a few minutes later, our fridge light went out,
- when my husband informed me on Monday morning that he was going on a “business” trip and wouldn’t be back until Thursday,
- when my husband asked if I could pack his bag.
One packed suitcase, a visit from the dishwasher repairman / fridge guy / far too many contractors, and one eye infection later, however, I was about to lose my sh@#.
(As an aside, I realize now that I should have gone into the more lucrative field of plumbing and/or construction instead of finance. I’m an idiot.)
Dinner with my cousin at Nordstrom Cafe: Salmon Nicoise and Chocolate Toffee Cake
By some miracle, everyone wrapped up for the day on Thursday, at 1:35 pm. Which is when I sat down to enjoy a few minutes of peace and quiet. And exactly 7 minutes later? My husband waltzed through the door, back from his trip.
Can you guess what the first thing he asked me was?
Hint: his question wasn’t related to a kitchen appliance or the fact that my bathroom has no walls and only half of its ceiling.
A rare Sunday night dinner with friends (and no husband or child) at Monsieur Marcel: Beet Salad, Crispy Skin Salmon, Brussels Sprouts, and an Apple Tartin
No, his question was: “What’s cooking?”
And now my perpetual whining makes more sense….
While I'm not going to win Mother/Wife of the Year Award anytime soon, I haven't killed anyone yet or shot myself in the head. And that, my friends, is how I calculate success these days. 
FANCY THAT FANCY THIS 
My only respond would be resort to violence! Hats off to you for keeping calm – are you English??!!
I am not English. I wish I was though!
I LOVE London.
LOL!
I agree, I would have shoved him in the broken dishwasher! 🙂
That visual is making me laugh right now!
Maybe you can have it in your mind next time he drives you crazy! 🙂
After reading all this- I was impressed by 2 things 1. You keeping calm (I would’ve lost it when the dishwasher went down!) and 2: You husband’s impeccable timing! How does he do it?
He does have amazing timing…both in a good and bad sense!
Oh my goodness…. What a week! I am so happy for you that you got to enjoy some much needed time with friends and a good meal though. How did you answer Ali when he asked what was cooking?
I think my response involved a bad word and something along the lines of, “Are you kidding me?”
Considering your kitchen situation, his question should have been “Where am I taking you for dinner?” But of course, no…
That would be an appropriate response Fran! Which is why I’ll likely never hear such words come from Ali. 🙂
I would have lost it probably by the time the dinner order was placed. I had contractors here yesterday putting in 3 new windows and a new patio slider. They forgot their shopvac, garbage bags and philips screwdriver (3 guys nonetheless, I think their names were Moe, Larry and Curly) and were 1 1/2 hours late. I happily provided all items they forgot. It would have been nice if they actually used the shopvac. I couldn’t use my kitchen at the time and ran out to get us lunch and go to the market to pick up food for my mother who broke her hip 2 weeks ago. Of course, I remembered to get my husband his lunch and forgot to pick up something to eat for me. Then my husband left for golf (yeah, just go honey and leave me with all these people, I can handle it). Then the cabinet contractor came whom I’d forgotten about. What a day. Door/window people are coming back this afternoon to finish. In the interim, I get to start my day with a dr appt,, a 1/2 drive each way to bust my mother out of the hospital and take her home and figure out how to get her into her house with a walker.. My kids are on my S*** list to add to things. My son was kind enough to grace me with his presence Monday-he wanted me to order him new sneakers online. (Thanks for stopping by Jake, I miss you too). My daughter stopped by to let me know she was getting a C in accounting. First C of her college career.( thanks for the good news Rachel, glad you’re getting an A in sculpture too).
It’s nice to know I’m not alone with this chaos.
Does Maya still have her pop up therapy store? I may need to get her advice. I’ll pay double (it has to be cheaper than paying these people who keep prancing through my door wanting money-including my kids 🙂
Have a great day Ameena. (sorry my comments are always on the long side)
Wow Seana…sounds like I have NOTHING to complain about. My thoughts:
1. Jake needs to order his own shoes.
2. Your husband needs to stop playing golf and handle the contractors. This won’t happen but I thought it needed to be said/written.
3. Rachel needs to study harder. Accounting is not a difficult subject and it is VERY useful. And while sculpture must be difficult in it’s own right, I think it’s unlikely most people can use that talent to pay their bills. Accounting it is!
Love your comments. And I will relay your need for therapy to Maya: I’m sure she’ll be happy to neglect her homework to extend some advice. 🙂
Update:
1. I managed to not drop my mom upon picking her up from the hospital and getting her into her home. I am also taking a day off of visiting her today.
2. Rachel and I are having a discussion next week about the college she is transferring to next fall. A decision needs to be made. Now, not later.
3. Jake’s sneakers were the wrong size and I had to reorder. I lost it with him and yelled at him for talking with his mouth full of food and explained what appreciative means.
4. Golf will never go away but it was a nice suggestion. I am making the dear man pick me up take out for lunch as I type.
KY Derby day so my husband and I are going out tonight. It’s a beautiful day outside and I am back to enjoying life 🙂 Hope your week got better, Funny how things build up and then all is well again.
1. You are a good daughter. A very good daughter. 2. Any decisions made yet? 3. I yelled at Maya for talking with her mouth full. Grosses me out. 4. Was lunch good?
I hope your week got better too…sounds like it was a whole lot worse than mine!
Kudos for keeping calm. I hope you indulged in some retail therapy while you were dining out!
I did not. But I should have!
You put up with all that and still kept peace?!! Brings to mind just one word – Superwoman 🙂
I like to think I’m Superwoman but nobody else in my home agrees with me. 🙂
Lol great post…I love the food pics like always! atleast Ali and maya have someone to depend on when everything in the houy starts breaking haha. Go Ameena!
Without me I’m fairly sure they’d be hungry and living in a mess. 🙂
Good thing he’s cute!! No way he’d survive otherwise… 🙂
Ali will be thrilled to read you think he’s cute!
You must think he’s cute too, or that last comment of his would have been the end of him! 🙂
By the way, I just nominated you for a Liebster Award. Please take it as a compliment on your blog, not pressure to keep the ball going. 🙂
http://itttakeswisdomtoknowthedifference.blogspot.com/2013/05/lieb-and-let-lieb.html
You are way better then me! I’d have freaked out if all of those things happened when my husband was leaving. He’s the guy. I don’t handle those things! I don’t know what to do!
Hold on to me CeCe…guys who handle things are not so easy to find anymore!
Oh Ameena – this was one stressful week for ya but I hope delicious food away from home helped you a little bit. You are a superwoman I tell you.
The food – especially since I didn’t cook it and thus was good – made things so much better! Thanks for the comment Dixya!
When it rains it pours, seriously that is so many disasters all at once. Sometimes it just makes you laugh how absurd it all is, good thing you got away for some good food, it all looks divine.
You my dear are not a whiner, if I worked full time like you AND had to do everything else, I think I’d be a basket case.
I assure you I am a basket cast. And Ali and Maya would concur on this!
You handled all that like a pro! I would’ve lost it at the “can you pack my bag?” HA!
And if Ali was going to ask “what’s cooking,” he defintitely should’ve added “good lookin!” 🙂
He claims he was going to…but of course that was after the fact when I was relaying the story to my mom…
Ugh. What a nightmare of a week and hopefully the appliance/house problem gods are done raining disaster upon you. We are having a pergola built and when I got the first estimate for the job, and after I realized no, he wasn’t joking and no, it wasn’t being built out of gold, much like you with your plumber, I thought I should’ve scrapped that finance degree and gone into contracting instead.
I just had to Google “pergola” because I am ignorant.
And yes, we should have gone into contracting! It’s one of those fields where prices are so vague that you just have to close your eyes and pray you aren’t getting ripped off. I hate that feeling.
At least Ali’s consistent? No? Too early? 🙂
PS: I don’t know what Mad Minute is and I’m guessing we have a few years to go, but it’s already making me nervous.
Imagine 60 seconds and 30 math problems. Imagine having only 1 night to memorize these.
It’s pretty much a total nightmare. 😦
Ameena, I think you give yourself too little credit at times, you are a good wife. That’s so nice of you to pack his bag, I would never do it for mine, it’s a good thing he likes to pack his own bag. That is a LOT to deal with, give you so much credit. What’s cooking reminds me of my blog name. Lol! The food looks awesome…… everything, especially the crispy salmon. I didn’t know Nordstrom Cafe had such great lunches, they’ve come a long way. In the past I had coffee and dessert there. 🙂
I didn’t know Nordstrom had such good food either! I guess it varies by location. But I will definitely return b/c it was amazing!
Seriously, that contracting/plumbing work is good money! Sheesh. Wanna leave our jobs and go into business together?
I think that’s the best idea I’ve heard all day Megan!
What a week! I sure hope next week is much more calm and relaxing. Love all the photos, I need to head back to Nordstrom’s cafe soon for their tomato soup.
You are the second person who recommended Nordstrom’s tomato soup…now I will definitely have to go back and try it!
Oh man, one of those days when everything seems to be broken at the same time. You deserve a weekend-long ‘me’ time – no husband or kid – in NYC! Next time it happens (well, hopefully not), just report them to Ali, see if he can handle them 😉
Talk about a dream trip…no kid and no husband?
Maybe one of these weekends I’ll just get up and go. 🙂
Ok, please tell me he meant, ‘how’s it going, honey,’ not literally. Please?
Now, after reading this post, he claims he meant how’s it going. I don’t believe him! I think he’s just doing damage control…
oh dear. i am totally with you, i definitely had one of those weeks! ::hugs::
Sorry your week was crappy too! Hope things are on the upswing Melissa…
Oh God, since moving to our first house, I leave with a perpetual fear of something like this happening. On a side note, it’s funny you say that about pay in construction field vs. pay in finance. One of the girls I’m studying finance with says to her husband (a builder) that he will be the one staying at home with a baby because she will certainly earn more. 🙂
Please let your friend know it’s not too late to switch to construction instead! She’ll thank me later. 🙂
You should eat that chocolate cake in the picture 🙂 that always makes things better
Funny enough, I wasn’t the hugest fan of the cake. It looked much better than it tasted. Even Maya agreed! And usually she’ll eat anything with sugar.
I so admire your ability to be a functioning adult. There is not a touch of irony or sarcasm to that statement because I am not.
I am also jealous of your ability to have a Monsieur marcel meal and Nordstrom lunch amidst the madness…looks tasty!
I wouldn’t have blamed you if there was irony or sarcasm…I’m 37 and feel like I whine like a teen…
Did he mean it like, “What’s cookin, good lookin’?”
Or did he mean it like, “Whatever smells so wonderful that you were brave enough to conjure up without the help of ice or dishwashers or your bedroom wall, cuz you’s da bomb!”
Either the way, your restraint is admirable.
Thanks for admiring my restraint…it’s not often that happens.
The nerve, Ali 😀
Agreed!
OMG, it’s too much! You need a vacation (again)!
I’m counting down the days until my next trip. Can’t wait.
LOL Keep calm and blog. 😛
That’s all I can do!
Oh man, that’s a bummer. One time we came home from church, (we go to church for three hours) and we walked into our kitchen and there was a literal waterfall coming down the back of the stove from our Master Bath toilet running from upstairs. It was crazy. That took a few months to fix. Nuts.
Nordstrom Cafe, I have so many memories eating there. My grandmother lived in Canoga Park, now known as West Hills and she use to take me there to eat often. 🙂
Missed you Ameena!
Shauna xo
PS. I saw your response to Marie about commenting. Don’t ever feel like you have to leave a comment back to my comment! I love your blog, I”ll always read no matter. 🙂 xo
I can’t imagine a worse kind of leak than a toilet leak. So I guess I lucked out?
And thanks for the PS…I do love to read blogs and I read them all the time! There just isn’t enough time to comment as much as I want.
At least you had a few good meals out, the food looks so yummy! You and Maya both look cheeky in this photo, so sweet 🙂
Cheeky…such a cute word. Thanks Amelia!
yummy! yummy! huangry now! I hope I can cooking….
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Okay looks like you have a spammer above! I’m glad your week of dysfunctional appliances is over. I also hate getting repair work done in the house. When I was at boarding school and college, my folks used to save ALL the repair work for the summer because that was the only time someone would actually be in the house to get stuff done. And everyone wonders why I never did a ‘summer abroad’ program!!
A summer abroad? Talk about a dream. Sorry neither of us got to experience it! 😦
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