The Worst Part of Your Day

Dear Ashton Crawford,

You are a funny kid. Let me walk you through the last couple of days.

Yesterday was a pretty good day for you. You had to clean out your bedroom (because I was threatening to throw everything you own away), but you seemed to enjoy the work. You are like me in so many ways. You are a pack rat, but you love things to be neat and orderly. That juxtaposition caused great conflict in you (and me) over the last week or so, and it was time for us to do something about it. So we teamed up.

I wish I had gotten a "before picture," but we'll have to do with some "in-progress" photos instead.

Good heavens! You have a lot of junk. But like I said earlier, you were more than happy to part with it. (Perhaps that was because I was Lego-blackmailing you; either your crap went, or your Legos went. The choice was, of course, up to you.)

Here are two pictures that crack me up. This is going to make me seem like a bad mother. I promise I'm not. Really.

In this picture above, you were snuggling a small craft you made in the midst of the rubble. I called him "Fuzzie," but you said his name is "Furball." My bad. Anyway, you made this in Ms. Johnson's class, but I found him under a bunch of trash in one of your desk drawers. I told you to throw it away. You angrily informed me that Furball is a "he,"not an "it," and that HE has feelings and that HE cannot possibly be thrown away. Then you started to cry. So I compromised. I told you that we needed to get a picture of you with Furball, then you could throw him away. It seemed logical to me; you never played with him or even looked at him, but since you had a picture, you'd never forget him. Boy, was I ever wrong...

Here is a close-up of you snuggling Furball. Look at how upset you were! You cried your eyes out! It just broke my heart (I'm a real sucker sometimes), so you and I came to another agreement. He could live on top of your dresser for one more week, then you would have to throw him away. Yeah right. We'll see how that goes down in a week.

After all the Furball drama, we continued to work. You made me so proud! You were a very big boy about all the things you decided to throw away or donate. You organized, sorted, and cleaned. I was very impressed. Here's the final product:

The best part of this whole cleaning-out process for you, though, was the fact that Daddy put up two brand-new shelves on the wall for you so you could display your Bobblehead collection. You were THRILLED. Here is the piece de resistance!

Amazing how $20 in shelving from Target will make such a difference! You just sat and stared at it for a while. Later that night, while you and I picked up dinner, Daddy made another Target purchase that left you ecstatic - a clip-on lamp for your bed so you can read in the bed at night. I'll have to write more about that another day.

Today has been a pretty good day, too. Relatively speaking. We are currently dog-sitting Grammi's dog, Louisa May. She apparently pooped all over herself and dragged it all over our house. So we stayed home from church today to take her to Aunt Jane's vet clinic for a bath and a butt-shaving (you find that incredibly comical) and clean up all the crap. Literal crap.

We went to Target (I am starting to think I spend a lot of money there...) and bought a new mop. You were excited about the mop, too. (Have you been kidnapped by aliens?) We went home and spent the next two hours cleaning the house. You even helped! (Maybe you WERE kidnapped by aliens...)

After cleaning, we went to Burger King, where you ate a TON of food and played, then you came home and played video games. I asked you to go and put up your clean underwear and socks about three times, and then I discovered you didn't do it. (Now that is sounding more like you.) After making you stop playing until you put them up, you went in your bedroom to (loudly) put away your clean clothes.

You loudly proclaimed that you HATED laundry, and that it is the WORST part of your day. Honey, I totally agree.

Here is a picture of you playing the Wii after putting away your laundry. I love the fact that this picture is a common one, you snuggled up next to Peanut on the couch. It seems as though you've made it through the laundry incident unscathed. I love you.

Love,
Mom