Mary Poppins Wasn't Perfect

I have a play list on my iPod titled "Saturday Morning Cleaning." When my sisters and I were growing up, Saturday morning was spent cleaning. No questions asked. Bottom line. Purple suit and all. Oh wait. You don't know about the purple suit. I'll explain further down. We'd get to sleep in until mom and dad deemed enough, at which point they would turn on the stereo system and play praise and worship music and come wake us up. Mom or dad would have cooked us a breakfast of either pancakes, eggs, waffles, bacon, or breakfast tacos (a treat, considering M-F was normally cereal, oatmeal, etc) and on the table would be "The List" Sometimes we'd get "The List" before breakfast and sometimes after. Because, really....who wants to ruin a perfectly good breakfast with "The List." (I have to interject, even as I'm writing this...I'm just remembering how incredible my childhood was. Seriously. I had the best childhood a ...

While at home this past week for Thanksgiving, Dad and I decided to put up all the outside Christmas lights together. He pulled everything out of the shed, we laid it all out, and began the process. Dad set the ladder against the roof and went up with the first strand of lights. Once up there, he asked me to go grab the leaf blower, an extension cord, and to climb on up to clear off the roof. I got all the necessary things and plugged in the leaf blower. As I climbed up the ladder, I might mention that my dad needs a new ladder. The ladder I crawled up is the most warped, bent, and scary ladder EVER. I climbed up and turned on the blower. Being careful with the cord I started in one corner. As I moved across the roof I saw something begin to happen that I could not stop. I started screaming and yelling in hopes that what I was witnessing would somehow not be true. But no. The screaming did not make it stop. The cord of my leaf blower had snagged around the ladder and when I moved...