Death by Laundry Room??

Yesterday...like any other day...I was in the laundry room tackling the pile of clothes to wash.  I mean, laundry is my life.  There are 5 people in this house, so there is always SOMETHING that needs washed.

I'm minding my own business THEN.....my extra shelf with hanging space comes crashing down narrowly missing my head.  I was attacked by my own clothes!!!!!

Pulled the wall anchors out of the wall.

Completely. Out. Of. The. Wall.....screws, plastic anchor thingys, and the drywall it brought with it.

 The holes left in the wall...I know it doesn't look dramatic, but it was.

The offending shelf.  It is upside down, but imagine it with an empty bucket on top and it had clothes hanging from the hangy bar thing-a-ma-jig.

What I thought...and subsequently what I said was.....REALLY????!!!!!

You can tell that having kids has affected my ability to sufficiently cuss up a storm when something like this happens.

Now, let me be clear.  I hate my laundry room.  I know, you would think it would be my favorite place....but it's the size of a damn postage stamp!!!!  Smaller even.

 My laundry room. On the left you see the door jam and on the right...the door, which is up against the wall.

So, as you can see, it's REALLY small.  When we bought our house, I was so excited to have first floor laundry.  I didn't have to go up and down the stairs.  How awesomely convenient!

So.  Not.  Awesome.  Or convenient.  

I think it was really an afterthought when the house was built.  There is no proper drain if the washer leaks, unless of course leaking into the basement to ruin whatever is down there is proper drainage.

Oh...we figured that out the hard way.  The washer did leak one time.  It made a waterfall in the basement.  Through a light fixture.  Good times.

I loathe my laundry room.  If we could move it down to the basement, we would.  We would have to have it wired, and yada yada, blah, blah.  One day it will happen, but probably not soon.

There is no room to do anything.  There is only enough hanging space for roughly 2 loads of clothes.  I don't have enough shelves.  Or storage.  Or standing room.

Oh, and we don't have a utility sink either.  I miss having one of those.  We have to use the kitchen sink for all of that.  Filling buckets.  Rinsing gross stuff out of clothes.  So NOT how I would have done it, had I been a part of building the house.

Then again, when we bought it, I thought it was awesome until I actually started using it.  

Live and learn.  Back to laundry.  Hopefully it doesn't kill me.

C H E E R CHEER!!!!

I figured I would explain this one since I have been dealing with cheer stuff today.

When I was younger, I had NOTHING to do with cheer.  I didn't want to.  I was anti-cheer.  In my school all cheer was, was a popularity contest.  I mean I'm sure they practiced and whatnot, but I was not interested.

I danced for many years and was even in a ballet company for a short time.  Then once I got to high school, I was in band.  Yeah, yeah....band.  And colorguard.  And the rifle line.

Shut it.  No jokes.

So how did I manage to get myself into cheer up to my eyeballs?

The Munchkin.  She has wanted to be a cheerleader for as long as I can remember.  This year she was actually old enough to mascot for our youth football association.

And so it began.  The entrance into cheer.  We didn't have a coach for awhile, only a squad mom who then kind of fell into the coaching job.  Buuuutttt, people get sick and can't make it, so then I just jumped in and helped out a little here and a little there.  Next thing you know, one of the directors asked me if I would be her assistant for next year, and I said yes.

A few weeks after the season ended, we had a competition scheduled.  The director was so sick during practice time, I had to step in...immediately.  So, then it happened.  All sparkly and glitter and cheering with my cheer mom school spirit shirt on.

Oh yeah.

And THEN the Munchkin decided that she wanted to cheer over the winter as her activity.  So, I signed her up for Upward cheer. 

Upward is a national program that is church based (yes, I know, but it is a REALLY great program for the kids).  Soooo, when I signed her up, I decided to volunteer as an assistant coach to get some practice in and kind of figure out what I was doing before I started in on an entire football season of assistant directorship.

But wait.  There's more.

I am now the HEAD COACH for the squad.  They are sort of short handed and need some people in other locations for the organization.  They asked me to be the head coach, so I said, sure why not.

The hubby thinks I'm nuts.  However, he supports me ENTIRELY!!!  I think he knows how much fun it is for me to do this with the Munchkin, plus my love of glitter and everything sparkly.

Yes.  I am a head cheer coach.  For Upward.  In charge of 8 girls in kindergarten and 1st grade.  Yes I am crazy.  Yes it has been fun...so far.

Then again, we have only had one practice.  They are doing soooo good though.  Totally adorable.  And I've actually taught them how to cheer.  Totally amazing.

So next fall when football rolls around, hopefully I will be prepared.  But I'm not worried.  It's been fun, and I'm glad that I am taking the time to do it.

Go GLITTER!!!!!