One of my favorite books growing up was Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day by Judith Viorst. I thought it was funny, but I also could relate to Alexander. Some days just don't seem to go the way you want them to, and they are like that for all of us even in Australia. Well the other day my day didn't start out this way, but one incident made it feel this way.
I had just gotten home from the temple, and I decided that I wanted to warm up a leftover Belgian Waffle for lunch that I had made the day before. I guess this was my first mistake because warmed up Belgian Waffles are not as tasty warmed up as they are the day you make them. However, this was not the problem. I was warming up my syrup in the microwave, which I always do. I kind of have it down to a system of how long to do it for without blowing up the container that I keep the syrup in. I had followed this system exactly so I had no fear of opening the container because I do this all the time. How wrong I was...I opened the container and super hot syrup splashed out all over my unsuspecting hand. I quickly went to the sink to rinse the syrup off since it was burning my skin. It was frustrating to have some burned fingers, but I wasn't overly concerned by it, and went back to fixing my waffle. That is when I realized that I had syrup on my dress, hadn't changed yet, and some stuck to my eyelash making it hard to open and close my eye. Again I thought oh well, I haven't washed this dress for awhile anyway, just trying to keep the positive attitude going. Then I looked at the counter and saw that there was fine beads of sticky maple syrup all over the counter top, about this same time I realized that my feet were sticking to the floor. I surveyed the kitchen and realized that there was syrup all over the kitchen floor. Now as a Mom I have been accused of exaggerating from time to time. I will say the house is a mess, when in reality there are 4 or 5 things out. Well when I say all over the kitchen floor I use no exaggeration whatsoever. There were fine little beads of syrup all the way around my island and clear over to my kitchen table. Now anyone who has ever cleaned up syrup before knows that it is not an easy thing to clean up. It requires some serious cleaning with more than just water and then wiping up afterward to get completely rid of the stick. So I went upstairs to change so I could get started on the task ahead of me. When I looked in the mirror, I realized I had syrup all over in my hair as well, which when it later dried (because I was not washing my hair again) left white hard spots. Anyway I got down on my hands and knees and washed up every inch of the floor and washed down all of the bottom cupboards, frig and dishwasher as well. I kept trying to tell myself that the floor needed cleaning anyway, but well I was having a hard time with the positive attitude at this point. Especially since the hot water I was using to clean the floor was aggravating the burns on my fingers. I finally got the kitchen wiped down, and counter tops cleaned, and the fresh scent of Mr. Clean permeated my kitchen. Awhile later I was opening a cupboard that clearly I had missed that now had dried syrup stuck to it. I cleaned it up too. Later that evening when Tony and I were sitting at dinner I felt something hard on my neck, yep it was a dried drop of my exploding syrup. Later I found one on my cheek. The next day my daughter wanted to know what was all over her mug-syrup. Must of missed that one. I am sure that one day I will laugh about this experience, just like I laugh about Jared painting our carpet, couch and chairs and his little sister with fingernail polish, but I think it might take awhile. In the mean time I think I need to get a bigger microwave or a shorter syrup container so I can leave the lid open while warming, or else I need to not like warm syrup (like that's going to happen).
