someday i will post a real post

So I haven't posted for awhile because we spent last week on vacation in the Smoky Mountains--YAY!  And whereas normally I would be so excited to blog about vacation, our camera--with literally hundreds of awesome vacation photos--disappeared while we were at an amusement park (I am about 85% sure it was stolen.  More than that, actually, but I feel like I should leave that 15% margin of doubt and some trust in human nature).  And honestly, I have been so bummed about that and I haven't really wanted to blog about it all.  At some point I'll download the photos my family took (the photo at the top of this post--which is the view from our cabin's back porch--is from my dad's phone) and get a real post up.

But I'm online tonight because I just ran for the first time in a week (technically I am not supposed to be running at all right now, but...it is seriously killing me to not have my daily shot of endorphins and my family would tell you that I am evil and cranky and horrible right now, and that is not an exaggeration at all).  So right now I'm feeling GREAT because I ran, and slightly guilty because I ran, and crossing-my-fingers that I didn't mess my knee up more (I'm driving out of state this weekend to meet with a specific personal trainer.  Getting desperate to fix this?  Absolutely.  Six months of this, my friends.  And running is like...my life that is me and only mine and doesn't belong to anyone else in my family.  I am kind of dying inside over this, and I wish that was an exaggeration.)

This post sounds like a total downer!  But really, I've been enjoying our little taste of summer so far.  We celebrated the last day of school with a festive trip to a heavenly local ice cream parlor (what?  you want to see pictures? OH WAIT MY CAMERA WAS STOLEN).  Then we spent a week in the Smoky Mountains with my parents and one of my sisters--a vacation which I booked in January and I was so excited to finally go!  We went hiking in the Smokies and visited Dollywood (which was a total blast, except for the camera part, and it was so fun to take Abigail on actual roller coasters (turns out that I am getting old and I can't keep up with a seven-year-old's desire to go upside down again and again and again)), and we went go-karting and made delicious food and hung out in the hot tub and got lost about five thousand times in those gorgeous misty mountains.  It was a lovely week.  And I promise...I will blog about it sometime.  Sometime soon.  One of these days.

And it went downhill from there

Usually I have saccharine-laden posts about our weekend on Monday morning.  But this weekend was a completely different story.  I'll spare you the blow-by-blow, but some of it was just so farcically awful that it has to be shared.

• Friday night: I baked the above cake to take to a party.  I couldn't remember how long to let a bundt cake cool, so I Googled it, and read "cool in pan until completely cool."  BAD ADVICE.  I called my mom frantically and she advised me to try gluing the pieces back together with glaze (which is what the gooey stuff all over in the picture is--the glue stage, before I actually glazed the cake).  Good advice, but the cake was too far gone.  So it arrived at the party sliced on a platter instead of atop the planned cake stand.  
• Friday night, part II:  when we got home from the party at 9:30, our kids were still awake.  First clue that Saturday was going to be Not Fun.
• Saturday:  Joseph Conrad said it best:  "The horror!  The horror!"  It was truly awful.  Instead of going to the ward party, all the kids were in bed by 6:30.  Typical instance of the day:  loading all the kids into the van to finish Christmas shopping, the van didn't start, switching everyone over to the Jeep (cue screaming, punching, hitting, and crying all around town due to the close proximity).  Starting the van now requires  permanent application of a rubber mallet to the ignition. 
• Sunday:  Isaac did his best impression of being possessed by demons all through church.  Neil spent most of the 3-hour block roaming the halls with Demon Baby.  Had to start the van after church using aforesaid rubber mallet.
• Sunday dinner:  we found a worm floating in the orange juice halfway through the pitcher.  Thoroughly grossed out, I got up to get something from the pantry and found another worm crawling over the lid of the jar.  Then nobody wanted to eat their spaghetti for some weird reason ("No Mommy!  Not eating the worms!").
• Sunday night:  drove around town in what turned into a  serious blizzard dropping off Christmas treats.  CRAZINESS.  
• Sunday night: kids in bed:  retreated to the shower needing some isolation from the world.  Lathered up, and the water inexplicably turned off.  Cue hysteria-induced laughter at the awfulness of the entire weekend.  (eventually the water did turn back on).

And guess what?  That was the detail-sparing version.

Have you ever just had a day--or sequence of days--so awful that you think "This can't get any worse" and then hah hah, IT DOES!!!!

I figure this week has to be great, because we can't go anywhere but up, right?  (Once we manage to shovel ourselves out of the house, that is.  Stupid snow, you are worthless without ski slopes or even a decent sledding hill.)

Bad, Worse, Worst

Bad: getting an email from the brand-new dept. head saying that course websites won't be available until August 1st.

Worse:  August 1st comes and goes; dept. head never responds to emails or phone calls, finally emails everyone to say they'll be ready by August 16th. 

Worst:  Frantically working every spare minute that children are asleep to finish course websites in five days before the semester begins.  Goal:  no working while kids are awake.  Goal is met.  I'm completely and utterly exhausted, but the courses are finished.  Students are emailed and begin registering.  THEN HE EMAILS AND SAYS THAT HE CRASHED THE SERVER AND THE COURSES ARE GONE.  At 2 pm on Saturday.  The semester starts Monday. 

I have gone through all the stages of grief in the last two hours.  Lots of denial, lots of tears.  And screaming.  And more sobbing (it is so. Much. Work.)

Now I'm frantically trying to cram in 30 hours of work into the next 7.  And rebuild two (very large) websites that I had lovingly perfected and tweaked, clicking on every link, checking every comma. 

In the words of Joseph Conrad:  "The horror!  The horror!"