Mishkabable

I have had a CRAZY few weeks, in which whatever could have gone wrong, has. Nothing major, B"H, just... oh, life is nuts.
After you finish reading this post, you will see what I mean. And I just might want to add random photos to the confusion.

Just like that.

Last week our washing machine broke. It's a good thing I happened to be caught up on 90% of all laundry, or else I might have broken down along with the machine. The water was standing from Friday until Monday. I wasn't able to fish out the wet (and still dirty) clothes till Sunday. Boy, was it ever messy! And the water began to stink really well.
Well, the important part is that, $110 later, it's working again. And I'm making up for lost time.

Our glass whistling kettle met its end. Hillel turned it on and forgot about it. I came into the kitchen to discover fumes all over the place and the plastic lid of the kettle melting and dripping onto the bottom. Right now we are using a small pot to boil water while I wait patiently for Hillel to replace the kettle. I might have to do it myself.

We ordered a butterfly growing kit! We received the habitat and then sent out for the caterpillars. They arrived at the beginning of the week, and the boys are taken with them. They are eating like the hero of the book "The Very Hungry Caterpillar." They grow visibly each day. So cool. Zusha takes them out on walks, to the library, all over. LOL.

I'm finally changing speech therapists, but it's really stressing me out. She is NOT the right one for me and Adel. I might put up a post about that. I'll see. Scheduling is one of the major issues here. There are bigger issues, but in order to keep it from being personal and hurtful, we are focusing on the scheduling troubles. But she keeps insisting that she can work with the issues, be more flexible... She hasn't been until now, so what will change? She doesn't just accept what I and the service coordinator are saying. I don't understand why, because she seems to be as annoyed by me as I am by her. Two more weeks of torture, and then hopefully I'll be home free.

Our landlady decided to put some gutters on the roof. Which is nice. Except for the fact that I have workers hanging out on scaffolds right outside my windows. I never know which window they'll pop into next, and I refuse to have all the curtains closed during the day. The result is that I am not able to just nurse at the computer without conducting an investigation. I can't send one of the boys in middle of getting dressed to get something from the closet. Normally we are able to do that because there are lush trees right outside our windows, blocking our windows from the other second floor windows across the street. To add to the charm, cement is dripping on our windows, window sills and screens. Sweet. Three days, and going strong, judging by the hanging scaffold outside our windows. I just choose to spend our days outside for the most part.

Our phone has been in conspiracy with the washing machine and kettle. It conked out on Thursday. I called Verizon and spoke to the robot. She assured me that they sent a trouble report and will have it fixed within 48 hours. On Sunday morning, still no dial tone, I called them up again. This time I convinced the robot to allow me to talk to a human. She told me that someone would be there on Monday morning and asked me for a phone number I can get text messages on. I didn't want to give it, but she said it's more efficient than calling, and they will just send out a message when the worker starts and when he finishes. That sounded okay, so I gave her the number.
The next morning the text messages started pouring in:

06/14 9:00 AM
O hai! We told you yesterday that a tech will come before 2 PM, but no. He will arrive by 5 PM because default procedures always override personal arrangements.

06/14 9:00 AM
We decided to send you another text just for the sake of messing with you. And to deduct more minutes from your cell phone that you prepaid for. Well, we have nothing much to say, except that you can call us if you decide you don't want us to fix your phone line anymore.

06/14 10:26 AM
We know we told you you'd only receive two texts from us and we are overfilling that quota as we speak, but we'd like to let you know that the guy who rides around all day fixing phone lines in dozens of homes daily has just left for work. Of course, this has nothing to do with you or your phone problem, as we can't tell you when he'll be at your house or at any other house on his route, but we thought you'd like to know that he's left our office. Yeah!

After that I received two more messages from them that I didn't care to open. My land line works now, even without them.

On Monday we found a baby pigeon, not more than ten days old, sitting on the sidewalk. People were kicking him around so I picked him up. What else would I do? Yeah, we have a cat at home. But... well, I took him home. Bought formula on the way. I gave it to him at home and he lapped it up greedily. I contacted the people who helped me with my previous pigeon and they found someone who can take this one. But she wasn't able to pick him up. I had to get the birdie to her somehow. At first I decided to use a car service, but in the end we decided to take the 1/2 hour train trip ourselves. It was some adventure! I'll post in more detail when I put up the photos of the sweetie birdie.

So as you see, my life has been nutty. I need to find a good GI for two of my kids. I need to schedule a genetics appointment for Adi. I'm not scheduling it yet because I think I need to see what the GI finds before I go to the geneticist again. I'm confuzzled. I'm spent. I'm being pulled in fourteen million directions. I need a goooood nap.

Here's Adi, enjoying a bike ride.

She seems to have enjoyed it more this time than last June!

I placed an order at OshKosh- I had 20% off and found a bunch of cute stuff on sale. This shirt was one of my choices:

They had the same one in little kid sizes, but with a bulldozer instead of an excavator on it. I asked Gedalya which one he'd rather have, since he is a size 4 and can wear things from the little kids and big kids sections. He chose an excavator. So I got two excavator polo shirts.
When the box arrived, I dug in to see the cute stuff. Pulled out the excavator shirts. Ripped open the bags they were in. Straightened them out. And there were bulldozers on them. There wasn't even such on option in the store! There were no big kid shirts with bulldozers- only excavators.
Normally, the boys would love the bulldozer shirts just as much, but since I asked them before what they want and they chose excavators, they rejected these. Now I have another errand on my shoulders- sending back these lovelies.

Oh, how could I forget another update? Adel's PT wants to do kinesio-taping on Adel's feet and ankles. She stands on the insides of her feet, and the PT thinks she might be able to align the muscles and joints while she is still young so that we might avoid braces later on. I'm happy to give it a try. I'm just a little apprehensive because it needs to be left on for days at a time and can't get wet. Good-bye to sprinkler fun for the next few weeks. It will be a little painful and uncomfortable for Adi to get her feet aligned, and I'm afraid it will ruin her relationship with this therapist. They have had their ups and downs, including many sessions where Adel just screamed and did nothing. Right now Adel is doing well with physical therapy and I hope the taping won't ruin it.

And for the finale, here's a cute hedgehog and the artist who drew him!