Tackle it Tuesday

*UPDATED: Scroll down to the bottom if you have already read this post, and are interested in the finished product!*

I have decided to try to join in with the "Tackle it Tuesday" meme and see what all I can get accomplished! Now, today's mission was supposed to be either cleaning out my refrigerator--gross, or cleaning up my laundry room--possibly EVEN MORE gross! However, do you remember my mentioning a not so minor flood at our house this weekend? Well, there was one and now my "Tackle it Tuesday" project is the perfect project to further milk the gimmick of my blog title!
You see, there I was on Saturday morning, trying to be "Supermom" with the first of several sorted and ready loads of laundry in the dryer, the second load in the washer, and me calmly and carefully decorating a guitar cake for a friend's daughter's birthday. Then...water started running out from underneath the bathroom door...B runs in to shut off the water that is gushing out of the toilet (this was CLEAN water, people)...and I run to grab towels to try to stop the river before it gets too far into the hallway. Something has clogged the pipes and when the washing machine went into it's "drain and spin" phase, all that water had no where to go, so it came up into the bathtubs and out one of the toilets. So, B went to the garage to get the "Shop-Vac" to begin vacuuming up the water in the bathroom while I ran to get the carpet cleaner to suck up the water in the carpet. It turned out that even after all of our efforts, the hall carpet was just too soaked, and had to be pulled up, padding and all, and taken outside to dry on the driveway. The carpet had to be pulled back in the boys' room so that large fans could dry it as well as the sheetrock in the wall they share with the bathroom. Large fans were also aimed inside the bathroom cabinets, and on the carpet and sheetrock in the master bedroom which also shares a wall with the bathroom.

In the meantime, no more laundry could be washed, no dishes washed, no potties could be used, and no hands could be washed.

Now picture if you will, one cake decorator, who is now no longer calm or careful, and has been coloring fondant a nice black color, with her bare hands, and cannot wash said hands...not a pretty site! Not to mention, everything I touched turned black...it was a cruel twist on the whole "Midas Touch" story. So, I am wiping at my black hands with baby wipes with very little success, while still trying to get my cake finished on time without black fingerprints all over it, and B says to me, "Maddie needs to go to the bathroom, can you take her to a neighbor's house or something?" Why not??? I wasn't BUSY or anything! So I call my neighbor to give her three seconds notice that we will need to descend on her bathroom (which at my house, on any given day, would require at least 30 minutes notice to clear a path to the bathroom, and to make a quick swish and swipe in the bathroom to avoid spreading the plague!) She graciously, (though I think a bit reluctantly,) agrees and I show up looking as though I have a bad case of frostbite on my hands!! All the while I am thinking to myself, a month ago this would have all been a huge inconvenience and a big pain in the buhootie...but now...this is all "Blog-Fodder" my friend! Yes!!! I will not have to come up with anything interesting to write about the weekend...it's all been handed to me with a big red bloggy bow!!!

So, to get back to my "Tackle it Tuesday" project. I now have two days worth of dishes and laundry to catch up on now that B has given me the "all clear"! (See how nicely that fits in with my blog title??? Neat, huh?) I am posting the "before" pics below...I'll post the "afters" when I get it all done! If you want to join in with your own project, just click the button at the top of this post and get tackling!!!

(On a little side note: B told me he found the clog, but couldn't tell me what it was exactly...which I understood to mean that it was either something he flushed, or put down the drain, (which I must say is HIGHLY irregular as he is SO picky about what goes down the drain, he doesn't allow me to put any kind of food down the garbage disposal...only dishwater is allowed ---what's it supposed to dispose of for Pete's Sake?) OR he never found the clog at all, but everything seems to be working fine now...so he's not going to worry about it...)





Okay, the dishes and laundry have officially been tackled!! Here's a picture of my empty and shiny sink (Flylady would be so proud!)



And the counter...



And the nicely washed, dried and folded laundry...just waiting for the midnight elves to come in and put it all away!



And this not-so-little pile of socks...are the ones which have no matches. There are about 20+ in there, and not one match!