Cleaning Party

I'm not really into baby showers, and I am a traditionalist - one shower for my firstborn was good for me. Everyone here is super into showers and wants to throw one for every child born - even if it's the fourth in a family.

I made it known (through Melanie Karner mainly) that I didn't want another shower. Susan Oddou gave me some pushback, but she's in Jamaica visiting her sister and is therefore harmless for the time being. Last Tuesday morning Jim said something about some girls coming over to visit me that night. He wasn't supposed to say anything, but I was grateful for the heads-up so I could make sure I was showered and dressed before they arrived. (I worked from home in a robe that day.) I didn't know exactly what was happening. Then about 6:00 P.M., I got a text from Kristi Rondo saying Ella had made some cookies she really wanted to share with Ever and would I be home in a half an hour? Kristi and two other friends showed up on my doorstep and said they were here to deep-clean my bathrooms (and really anything else they could). Other girls trickled in after that. They brought all their own supplies, including a vacuum. I think in the end we had Kristi, Amera Alo, Amber Sorenson, Melanie Karner, Deb Moffat, Amy Thompson, and Lauren Foulger. They know I'm always stressing about getting on top of my housework, so Kristi came up with this idea of cleaning my house and then going out for dessert.

They always give me a hard time about how my house is always clean, and I try to tell them it's totally not. The day they came, though, it was actually in unusually good shape. I had recently cleaned two of the three bathrooms and had dusted all the upstairs baseboards, which hadn't been done in a long time. The girls found some things to do, though. Mel and Lauren cleaned the downstairs bathroom. Amber mopped the floor. Amera did some windows. Kristi dusted. Deb cleaned the outsides of the appliances. After the cleaning festivities, they took me for out for niblets and dessert at Chili's (for lack of a better idea). It was awfully kind and thoughtful of them.

Deb and Amber:

Lauren and Mel:

P.S. Susan texted the next day from Jamaica saying she was sorry to miss it. Then she said she's planning on doing something after the baby comes. I'm afraid my efforts to evade a shower may not be over yet.