Nerves or Mind which goes first

My nerves are frazzled and I'm about out of my mind. Any bets on which goes first? It's been an interesting couple of days in my household. And right now is no exception. The "boys" are wrestling. Daredevil, Chowhound and Remington. I'm taking bets on the dog. He'll whoop both of them. Although, I am watching my Charlie Brown Christmas Tree wondering if it will survive another season.

I fried several nerves yesterday and think I popped a blood vessel or two. At work, we are making and collecting shoeboxes for seniors. One of the guys brought in an undecorated box. I volunteered to make it pretty. So, during lunch I zipped home to grab my wrapping paper. Wow, I probably have a shoebox here somewhere, I thought. So I'm doing a mad dash through the house checking closets for shoeboxes. I whipped open Chowhound's closet door. My heart stopped and I screamed. THERE WAS SOMEONE IN IT! It took me several hearts beats and gray hairs to realize it was Daredevil. He skipped school. I guess it seemed like a place I wouldn't look. Two lessons learned. First, you can't skip school without your mother finding out. Secondly and more importantly don't ever scare the crap out of your mother like that. I fumed! Talk about boiling mad. Not to mentioned scared to death. He abruptly checked into school. (I didn't realize it at the time, it was a half day and they only had 15 minutes left.) It was a good thing for him I had to get back to work right then and he had to work that night. That gave me 8 hours to try and simmer down.

So, I come home. Still smoldering. I walk into a nice clean house. Improviser is currently job hunting and in his spare time as been "spoiling" me. In addition to the housework, he is making pumpkin pie. As he is pouring the pumpkin mixture into the pieshell, the bowl slips and splashes into the pie. Splosh! Pumpkin pie mix everywhere. All over and in the electric stove. We cleaned it up pretty well, I thought. Then, as I'm frying cube steak and talking on the phone to my mother, sparks start shooting from the stove like "old sparky". The entire house dims and then comes back to life. I'm juggling the phone, screaming, running and wondering if I have any lives left. So, now all I want for Christmas is a brand new stove. I just flipped the breaker and figured I'd deal with it later. Improviser took it apart today and is going tomorrow to get the parts to fix it. He sure has been handy lately.

And the story continues....Part II tomorrow.