The things these kids do!

I'm too flustered to take a picture from this morning, so a photo of another time when I just could NOT believe my kids will have to suffice. And this picture is hilarious, so there ya go! I'll describe the above photo first and then tell what happened this morning. I guess you could say I'm telling a story to tell a story! I was doing something in the kitchen and Annie and Carson were playing in the playroom. I rounded the corner and smelled baby powder. OH NO!! I thought to myself. (Annie had dumped baby powder on my bed a week or so earlier and although it was dumped on the bed, I had to clean it out of every nook and cranny in our room as well as the stereo, TV, alarm clock, etc.) So I had purchased a new container of baby powder. And, trying to be thrifty, it was the nice 15 oz. size. Wellllllll, imagine my shock when I saw the above ghostie child crawling toward me from the playroom with a baby powder wake behind him in the dark brown living room carpet. I took a deep breath, thought about all the reasons why I shouldn't scream every naughty word I know at the top of my lungs, and went into the playroom:


(Oh, and in case you were wondering, the 15 oz. baby powder canister was completely empty!)

note the white trail coming toward me? note Annie's head facing down? kinda like "I didn't do anything?" note the cool handprints one can make in the powder? note the nice film in the air? it's a RED BURN DAY within the Droubay home, folks!!!!!!!! With all the self-control I could muster, I thought, this will be hilarious someday, but NOT today! I called my mother-in-law who has enough self-control for the both of us and then some, and asked for her help (I'm sure she loved getting the 8:30 AM wake up call!) She had Annie bathe all her toys (every last one) and I vacuumed and revacuumed and wiped clean every surface in there. We got through it, but holy cow! I knew kids could be trouble, but I learned an important lesson that day: If you can imagine it (any sort of mischief), so can they. And if you can't imagine it, don't worry, THEY WILL!

So on to today. . . I was in the other room (notice a pattern here?) and I heard the rapid-fire beep beeping of the computer whose keys are being depressed continually. I raced into the dining room and Carson is sitting on the table with his little hands on the laptop keyboard. I gently and kindly (ha ha) escort him to the floor to direct his creative and playful tendencies elsewhere and then proceed to exit out of all the error messages and the like when I notice it: my computer screen, the entire thing (desktop icons and all) have been rotated counter-clockwise!!!!

I didn't even know that was possible.

Ha ha, funny, I know. But it gets better. I can't call anyone for help because my cell phone isn't charged (nothing new here) and our land line has been weird for two days due to the huge rainstorm we had on Sunday evening. Loved the rain, don't get me wrong. We really needed it and I'm grateful for it. But it saturated the phone lines (according to Qwest who said they'd fix it Thursday). So, when your phone rings and you answer it to hear not only crackling, a person talking . . . AND . . . the dialtone (all at the same time), that's kinda kooky! (not to mention we don't have caller ID, but we've had it yesterday and today--problem is, people we don't know are calling--perhaps the lines are crossed?) . . . Whatever. . .

Anyway, I finally call Kelli (my sis-in-law) at work and she starts laughing hysterically. Apparently Monique (who she works with) had a similar experience last week and she knew how to help me! So, the lengthy story finally has a conclusion here: I'm going to tell you what I did to fix the problem and then if some random soul finds themselves in a similar bind and chooses to "google" it, they'll find a solution! Brilliant, eh?

(Googling worked for me last summer when "someone" child-locked our dishwasher and I couldn't figure out how to undo it -- dishwasher was even locked shut! I couldn't get in! Previous homeowner didn't leave the owner manual, so we were up a creek. I had the thought to google it and sure enough, it brought up someone's blog and apparently for my make and model of dishwasher, you press the energy saver dry button for 17 seconds and you're good to go!)

Okay, back to the "HELP--my screen display is rotated counter-clockwise!" problem: Go to the start menu, click on help and support. Under pick a task, select "undo changes to your computer with System Restore." Follow the prompts and select a date from the calendar and voila! you're back in business. Hope this can help someone, and entertain in the process!

Here's an update: you can also press ctrl, alt, and the up arrow key you need at the same time and that works too! (my brother Abe just told me this). Also, he said to be careful with the system restore because it can lose unsaved changes and/or software you've installed since the date you choose.