Sunday Bloody Sunday

(For anyone that is not a U2 fan, my Post Title references a U2 Song Title. It has nothing to do with the song but the title seems so appropriate for what I feel)

This night will be remembered for a long time.
I should begin again.
I am writing to vent about my night. The night could be considered a “growing pain” of the Owen family and as such it would be posted on the Owen home blog. I am not writing to document the night—though I intend to share the gruesome details—I am writing to vent.
Where do I begin?? We decided to try a yummy recipe from the Southern Living magazine. We were also really behind on laundry so we were washing and drying clothes. Our house was buzzing with the sound of children fighting. Seth and I were getting bombarded with crying and tattle-telling. To set the mood even more, the living room and kitchen looked like victims of numerous minor explosions. The kitchen counters were not clean. The toys were everywhere. And, our ironing board was still up from where we ironed clothes for church this morning.
I was in the kitchen and I was suddenly unsure where Seth was. I look in the laundry room (expecting to see him pulling clothes out of the drying or something). As I peek around the corner, the first thing I see are Seth’s feet. He is laying on top of the dryer looking at the back of the dryer. Then he tells me our dryer just broke. He went in the laundry room and found the dryer not working. The breaker had been flipped. He reset it and restarted the dryer to find the sparks coming out of the back wires. (We just bought the dryer when we moved into our house 6 months ago.) We had one load in the dryer and one in the washer. I was planning on grocery shopping after the kids were in bed but we decided that Seth would have to run to the laundry mat and dry our clothes. We move back to the dinner and chaotic kids. As dinner is cooking we try to work on Jonathan’s project for cub scouts. He has the “Blue and Gold” dinner on Tuesday night and all of his pack is to bring in a project on poster board (without it, he will not get his award.) I had bought a new ink cartridge today because the printer was stuck on a “Check Ink Cartridge” error. Turns out the new cartridge didn’t help. The printer is not worker at all. We tried everything possible. And, when the printer tries to realign itself it makes this unusual noise. The printer is broken. Seth is scheduled to work from morning until the night shift – much later than Jonathan is to be up. So all we can figure is that he will have to print the pictures at work and then bring them home sometime during the day. Our dinner turned out delicious (but of course the kids don’t like it). Before, during and after dinner, Jonathan keeps complaining of being really cold. We are just frustrated because it seems like he won’t stop complaining. This is just one of the many, many complaints of the 3 boys. David's asthma has been acting up due to a cold. He tells me that the "wheezer" is here. We give him his breathing treatment. As Seth is getting Jonathan to brush his teeth he realizes that Jonathan might have a fever. Sure enough, Jonathan has a fever of 102.4. We gave him some tylenol. At this point, Seth and I are just looking at each other with these blank how-can-this-be-happening stares. We herd the boys (with the 2 non-feverish ones throwing fits and crying all the way) up to bed. Seth wonders aloud if they are all getting sick. As soon as the kids are in bed, Seth threw all of the wet clothes in a tub and went to the laundry mat. About 15 minutes after he left, he called to say that the laundry mat is closed (last load has to go in at 8 p.m.). He went from there to Walmart to buy a bunch of hangers to hang up all of our wet clothes. He just got home.
So... Seth is now beginning to hang up wet clothes. I just got Elisabeth in bed. Jonathan is asleep and sweating. David is sleeping restlessly. Thomas is awake (as of the last time I checked) and asking when we are going to go to church again and when are we going to the McCoy’s house. I am getting ready to get up off this couch and face the mountain of a mess in the kitchen. I feel like I am brain dead. I can't hardly talk and I feel just plain numb. What a night! Thomas’s ideas are pretty solid-- I think I need to go to church again (or at least spend some time in prayer) and an escape to the McCoys house doesn’t sound bad at all!