Why do I smell smoke?

Monday morning (bright and early, now that she's on her "regular" 7am work schedule) Jen woke me up to tell me that the interior lights and the radio in her car didn't work. The car started OK, though, so we figured it wasn't worth worrying about. About 20 minutes later, Jen called me (just so everyone is aware, I'm *not* a morning person) to say that the keyless entry stopped working as well...she had to lock the doors the old fashion way.

She got home that night just fine, so I figured it was just a blown fuse. Of course, it's like 15 degrees outside and I'm trying to look in the fuse box under the dash. And the fuses are 3 inches inside the dash, so I'm scraping my frostbitten hands up trying to pull a fuse out. The fuse for the radio/clock was fine; there were about 3 fuses labeled "Lights" and I wasn't going to try to check each one.

Here's where the story gets a little strange. I Googled the issue, and after some search changes, I found a site dedicated to Subaru Foresters that mentioned the exact same issue. There's an unlabeled fuse in the engine compartment fuse box that actually controls every item we were having trouble with (interior lights, clock, radio, keyless entry). I find the fuse and pull it, sure enough, it's blown. And the fuse box has spare fuses already, so I replaced it quickly and easily.

One of the forums I'm on has a number of Subaru drivers, so I figured I'd share the story just in case anyone else runs into it. While writing up the post, I realize that I should include the actual number of the fuse. The owners manual was sitting in the passenger's seat (where I had left it while I was in the drivers seat going through the interior fuses). I went outside, opened the passenger door (happy that the dome light was working again) and opened up the manual.

Out of the corner of my eye, though, I see this lightshow on the snow under the car--under the open passenger door, to be specific. Then I start to smell smoke.

I stopped and looked under the door. Hanging from the door are two wires, on the end of which appears to be some sort of small wiring harness. Or at least that's what it used to be, because at that point it was actually a little ball of flame. There was enough wire for me to maneuver the harness away from the door so that nothing else got burned. After about 15 seconds, one of the wires finally melted out and the sparking stopped; the plastic burnt itself out shortly after. I ran around to the drivers side, popped the hood, and pulled the new fuse back out.

I finally had a chance to see what the issue was. Coming out from between the interior plastic door panel and the metal door frame were these wires and harness. The plastic panel is against the door frame *tight*. I put the quarter in the picture to give some reference--there's no way that this harness just fell out; it couldn't have possibly fit between the panel and the door frame.

After some more research (I didn't eat dinner until 10pm Monday night) I found that this is the harness for the light that is in the bottom corner of the door. The light comes on when the interior lights come on. When I opened the passenger door to read the owners manual, these wires powered up and either the damage from the harness being shut in the door or just the snow shorted it out. My best guess is that it's been like this for a while--at some point, the passenger door was probably frozen shut, and in a massive show of strength, someone opened it...separating out the interior panel from the door frame and popping the harness off the light. It fell through the gap, then the door was finally opened.

Most people know I'm not a big one for Providence...I don't think God cares what color shirt I wear or who wins the football game. But sometimes you're just being looked over, and there's no denying it. Had I not decided to post about the fuse--leading me to go back out to the car, open the passenger door, and have the harness burn itself out while hanging in mid-air, Jen might have wound up with the harness catching fire when she was heading to work or somewhere in town. It could have been close enough to the interior panel to start it burning, at which point we'd be talking about a real car fire.

I put the blown fuse back into the fusebox for right now, which means Jen doesn't have any tunes while driving. It's a small sacrifice until I can figure out a way to cap off the hot wire in that pair and tuck it back into the door panel.

One of those posts only a parent can appreciate...

Kaylee has not been pooping regularly lately. About two weeks ago she started holding it in, complaining that her "poopoo hurt". After a week we figured we should do something about it, and I went to the drug store to get some "medicine to put in her bottom" (as we described it to her). While I was gone, Jen convinced Kaylee that her belly was getting bigger and that it would explode if she didn't get the poo out. I guess Kaylee darted to the bathroom and, after much screaming, went.

We wound up back in the same situation about 5 days later, but had to use the suppositories. Kaylee's reaction after they kicked in was priceless (she almost blew herself off the toilet), and she was in much better spirits afterward. We had to do it all over again a few days later.

I did some reading and learned that it's not an uncommon problem--you have that one painful poop and the kid gets scared of it in the future. A lot of people suggested Miralax--a powdered laxative that helps soften everything up. We went with that. We hit the road to visit friends and family (maybe laxatives before road trips aren't a good idea, but it worked out in the end...ha, punny) and Kaylee started complaining about her poopoo hurting while we were at Aunt Lisa's house. Jen and I both sat with her, and finally she went...and went, and went. Jen had to clean their toilet afterward. And Kaylee pretty much has eaten non-stop ever since.

Aunt Pam helped her go a little on Tuesday morning, but she's still been noticeably scared. Today I got her up and on the potty, and she was happy to sit there because it postponed her nap. And she filled up the toilet again. But this time, she told me "I'm not scared of my poopoo anymore!" I was so proud I had to resist getting the camera to take pictures of her evacuation.

Maybe we're past this little phase finally...

Happy Birthday Tim!

I know we haven't updated in a while, but I just wanted to put a shout-out up to our dear Timothy! His birthday is today and though we aren't doing a lot for his birthday this year, I wanted to make sure he knew Kaylee and I were thinking about him. Also, I wanted to take time and remember some of the great "Tim" moments from this year (and perhaps a little earlier)!

• Kaylee and Tim "daddy-daughter" dates are always a great one. Earlier this year I took a belly dancing class at the YMCA and so on Saturdays, for about two months, there would be daddy-daughter dates. These dates started the new Laird tradition of our weekly Saturday trips to Cost Co. and the Grocery store. I love these trips and glad that the Daddy-Daughter dates were a start to them.
  
• Tim and Pebbles - Though, we had to put our dog Pebbles down this year, Pebbles always loved walks with Tim. He would take her around the block even when it was snowy (in past years...) These walks in the snow were funny because when Pebbles would get to the end of the block and stop to cross the street she would turn circles and spin. It was extremely funny to watch. Tim trained her to stop at the corners and the first time I went with them for one of their "ice" walks he was so proud to show her "spin" move off! It was great.
• Another Tim and Pebbles moment was our last day with Pebbles. It was hard, but it was good. I'll never forget it. Thanks Tim and Pebbles for that day!
• Vacation this year - It was our 10th anniversary and Tim and I went to a "secret" location after dropping Kaylee off to spend a few days with Mom and Dad Laird. We had a lot of fun while not doing much at all! Leave it to Tim to make going to get pizza, or sitting reading a book fun! I love our little "do nothing" vacations!
• Phineas and Ferb - Tim got the entire family interested in the Disney cartoon Phineas and Ferb. It's now one of our favorite things to do together. Watch Perry the platypus defeat Dr. Doofenshmirtz and then watch Candice try to bust Phineas and Ferb as they make some sort of wild contraption! Perry the Lawn Gnome forever!
• My last one is Pancake Saturdays... Each Saturday, Tim and Kaylee now make pancakes together. He's such a great Da and lets her help him in the kitchen. She pulls up her chair and stands next to him and they make Pancakes together for all of us. Its one of those things as a mom that makes you want to cry when you see it, especially on those days when you're feeling weepy anyway and you haven't had your tea yet:)

Well Happy Birthday Honey! You mean the world to us and I hope you have a great Day!

Love,
Kaylee Raquel, Jen, Tinkerbelle, and Drusifer (the naughty black cat)

A Pre-3 year old Post

For those of you that aren't following us on Facebook, just an update for how Kaylee is doing:

She's sleeping in a toddler bed now. After spending a few days at Grandma and Grandpa's house sleeping in (well, on) a sleeping bag with Katie and Bubbie, the transition was pretty simple. It's a good thing, too--Jen hurt her back, and probably wouldn't be able to get Kaylee out of the crib right now.

Bedtime is still a chore, but I've been very surprised that, no matter how resistant Kaylee is to going to bed, she whines and cries *while staying in bed*. My biggest fear was that she'd just get out of bed to defy us, but that hasn't happened.

We're *so* close on potty training. Kaylee is wearing underwear most of the time at home now, including during naps. It's almost time to start sending her to daycare in underwear, which should really help--I'm firmly of the opinion now that Pullups are nothing more than diapers that make parents feel like they're doing something.

Kaylee still won't poop on the potty, but we're working on it. Instead of telling us that she has to go, she tells us "I need a diaper!". We go sit on the potty, and if she pees she doesn't seem to want a diaper any more. She still wants to poop in one, though.

She still loves going for walks, going to the store, and wants to eat nothing but chicken nuggets, so nothing much has changed there. She loves to help around the house--I've just got to start finding ways that her helping can really help, instead of resulting in more work for us. But you've gotta nuture the attitude first.

Here's some pictures from the recent past; if you haven't been following Jen's progress, she's lost a LOT of weight this year (I won't say how much, because you never discuss specifics with your wife's weight), so the pictures of her below aren't doctored--she's really that skinny now.

Goodbye, Pebbles

Pebbles joined our family a little over 9 years ago. Jen suckered me into visiting the pound at my lunch hour (she had stopped by the night before). Even though Pebbles had been moved to a different area when I got there, I knew the exact dog I was supposed to be looking at.

We took her home that night. :)

At best guess, she was 3 years old. Being an adult dog at the pound, she wasn't what most people were looking for. Any other dog would have been put down by that point, but the staff at the pound were so enamored with her that they kept pushing off the inevitable. There were a few in tears when we took her home.

It's rough raising an adult dog; Pebbles was never completely housetrained; we wound up pulling every stitch of carpeting out of our house because she seemed less likely to pee on the hardwood than any carpet or rugs. We're thankful that we don't really know anything about her before we found her; having been found on the street with a collar so tight it had to be cut off, and a back leg that appeared to have been broken at some point, we focused on her new life, not her old.

She started really, really skitish, but got more comfortable over time. She even adjusted pretty well to Kaylee. But two years ago, arthritis started to kick in with that back leg. As it got worse, we started her on glucosamine and had pretty good results with it last year. This year, though, as the weather got warmer, the glucosamine wasn't helping much. Pebbles spent the past two months or so basically pulling her back end along with her; both legs seemed to be in quite a bit of pain.

We had her on a pain killer for a couple of weeks, but didn't really notice a difference. We even doubled the dosage last week. Last weekend, Jen and I both agreed that it wasn't right to keep Pebbles in that kind of pain. We took Pebbles to the vet on Tuesday, and the vet told us that it appeared that the cruciate ligaments in both back legs were torn--most likely, Pebbles tore the left one compensating for the arthritis in the right leg, and then tore the right compensating for loss of use of her left leg. The only real solution was surgery, and we weren't going to put her through that.

We did our best to explain to Kaylee what was going to happen, and I had Kaylee say goodbye to Pebbles on Wednesday morning. Jen and I both took the afternoon off and sat with Peb in the back yard. We couldn't have asked for a nicer day. We took Pebbles to the vet later in the afternoon and stayed with her while the vet gave her an injection and Pebbles left us.

We miss her greatly, and keep running into things in the house that get us crying a little. But we did the right thing, and we know that Pebbles isn't in pain any longer.

Get out the broom...

So, this post has two purposes. The first is to tell a new Kaylee story, for those of you who need a Kaylee fix. The second is to let those who have been following the Facebook saga, know the final decision of Jen's Hockey moral dilemma. I'll start with the Kaylee story.

Ok, about a year ago Nana got Kaylee a little cleaning set. It actually looks like a janitor's set up. It's got a broom, mop, cart, bucket, vacuum, tiny trash bag, etc. Well, it has been stowed away in the garage since then, because of the overwhelming toy situation in the house. About two weeks ago, we got the chance to purge some of Kay's toys while she wasn't home, pulled it out and stuck it in the house. She was thrilled.

Since then, it's been all about cleaning. She's been sweeping, mopping, vacuuming, picking up... you name it, she's been doing it. This means that we've been doing cleaning too. She even mops the cat, much to Dru's chagrin. Tink won't even go near her for fear of being vacuumed, like the big fluffy hairball that she is!

The other thing she likes to do is try to stand on the little broom and say, "I play on my pogo stick!" I don't really know where she has even seen a pogo stick, or where she learned what a pogo stick does, but she actually holds onto it like a pogo stick and jumps with it. It's quite funny! She even falls over like a little kid on a pogo stick would.

I don't mind the cleaning and I certainly don't mind her cleaning up her messes, but if I have to tell her to stop mopping/sweeping the cat one more time, I'm going to scream! Also, if I have to take her to the hospital for a broken leg, because of this impromptu pogo stick/broom, I'm going to be one unhappy mama and it is so going to be a broken pogo stick, in several pieces.

So that's the new Kaylee/Broom story I have.

Now to the Hockey decision....
As most of my friends and family know, I am a hockey nut. This has been going on for years. I grew up watching hockey with my Dad and I grew up ice skating, but over the years, hockey has become a big part of my life. I've watched the games on TV, my Dad has taken us to Griffin's games and we even went to see the Red and White game for the Red Wings at the Van Andel Arena. At Ferris State, I would go to the hockey games when I could and would cheer and get rowdy with the rest of the students. It went on and on.

The only thing that hasn't changed through the years is that we (the family) has always rooted for the Detroit Red Wings. It's a sin to go against the Red Wings. We hated the Blackhawks in the '80s. We despised the Avalanche in the '90s. We always root for the boys in Red and White and we always cheer the throwing of the Octopus!

Last year as I watched the Stanley Cup playoffs in the little sin bin I call a sitting room upstairs, (I always watch hockey upstairs so I don't wake up Kaylee and I don't bother Tim while he works... he doesn't like hockey, go figure.) I realized that I have always rooted for the same team. I have always had specific players that I have liked on the team. Something changed though, as I watched the series last year, I began to look at the skaters in a different way, all the skaters, including the other team. That's when trouble started.

I noticed the opposing team's goalie. Wow! Fleury was good. Not as good as Osgood, but he was good. Crosby was great, and so was Malkin, and Hossa. They were as good and sometimes better than Lidstrom, Hudler, and Zetterberg. Some of my favorites on the Wing's team that year. Perhaps next season I would try to catch some Penguin's games, too.

Well, as it turned out, my dear husband and daughter got me an early Christmas present this season. NHL Center Ice for the Dish! I could watch hockey games to my hearts content. I could catch games from all over the league. This meant I could watch all of the Red Wing's games AND all of the other games I wanted too, including the Penguin's games. Well, it turned out that I started watching the Penguins more than the Red Wings.

I found the players more interesting and, let's face it, more attractive. (Hey I'm a girl here, I notice these things!) I also found the Penguin's games more interesting. Maybe because it was something "forbidden." I was watching a team other than the Red Wings and I was cheering for them... Anyway, I found myself looking at skill in the players more than anything, even in other teams. There were players like Eric Stal, Khabbulin, Backstrom, Ovechkin (whom I despise, but he's great to watch!), and so many others.

Well, as we got closer and closer to the final prize, Lord Stanley's Cup, I started thinking, "What am I going to do if it gets down to the Penguins and the Wings again this year? I'm going to have to choose. Who am I going to root for?" I could just do what I do for the regular season and root for both, well at least until the final round, but what would I do then? So as it got closer and closer people who are close to me started asking. Now would be go time.

I started weighing my options. Rooting for the Red Wings would be the way to go, because it makes everyone happy... but what about my entire season worth of happiness for the Penguins... It would be like watching a documentary.

You watch the little penguin hatch. It grows up and it's ready to waddle away as it's ready to leave on it's own. You don't cheer it on and then you watch it get eaten by a shark or whale! But what if you cheered it on and it could live. It might be able to swim fast enough to get away. It might actually win this time!

Yeah, I know it sounds stupid, but that's the way my mind thinks sometimes. Plus, I've been following the Penguins closer than the Red Wings. Sure I've watching the Wing's games when I can, but I definitely watch all of the Penguin games!

So I guess you can see where my decision is headed. I'm not actually rooting against the Red Wings, because I'll be happy with whatever the outcome of the Finals. Either team is deserving and either team is great, but deep down I have to say I want the Penguins to win, I want Malkin or Crosby to get MVP, and I want Crosby to be hoisting the Cup when all is said and done. So you can see I've decided.

I'm hopeful that there will not be any lasting affect from this short term "turn-coating", as my sister terms it. I am hoping that there won't be shunning by family at gatherings, Godmother status being taken away, or excommunication by either the Church or "the Joe" (where all Michiganders go to "worship" during hockey season...).

Our house, however, is a house divided. Kaylee will be cheering for the Red Wings. She likes the little Red and White cheering flag I made for them. I think because it's red. She loves watching Hockey. When she knows there's a hockey game on she says, "Watch hockey with Mama!" Daddy just shakes his head and goes into the other room. She'll have her little red and white flag and I'll have my black and yellow one. So I guess it's GO WINGS and GO PENGUINS!

Perhaps there will also be another broom involved for the Cup, you never know!

Where are we?

In case anyone is wondering why the number of posts dropped off, Jen and I are on Facebook more than here. Feel free to friend us there, and I'll try to do better at posting (at least) pictures every once in a while here.