I Can Do it Myself

I can do it myself.

That’s a favorite saying of a two year old.  And it is one of those milestones of growing up.

I haven’t stopped saying it. I guess I’m grown up.

But sometimes I wish I did not say it, or have to say it.

I can clean the kitchen myself, but I wish I did not have to.

I was the only homeowner mowing my own lawn.

I refinished my wood floor  (only to have the new owners rip it out and replace it).  We trimmed our own trees, painted our own house, did our own repairs.

If the toilet flushing thing does not work, I take it apart and buy the parts to fix it myself.

Hubby Dear has changed the oil, changed the brakes, replaced starters, and radiators, and all the manly stuff.

He has pulled up the toilet completely to find out what was stuck preventing it to flush.  Yes, he unbolted it, and picked up the entire toilet, and tee-tolling it dropped it in the bathtub, breaking it.

Oops.

But yes, we did find out what was blocking the clean flush action—one of our 5 kids had flushed that action figure called “Splinter”, the rat character from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles down the toilet (yes, this was back awhile.)

Seems one of the boys threw him down there, (an easy toss from the bathtub) and we could not even be mad, after all he had been watching cartoons that showed Splinter living in the sewer. He was helping him get home…what a smart boy.

Just last month, my son’s laptop screen got an impact, causing little vertical lines that obscured the screen.  I took it into the Mac Genius Bar, and sure enough, a new screen was needed.  I love those Mac guys, they are great, and he gave me a list of places to get it fixed at a lower cost–but it would still be about $400.

I got on the internet and found out I could buy the screen, and do it myself.

I read the directions on two sites, I watched a youtube and decided, “I can do it myself”

One saturday afternoon, I worked on it for about 4 hours.  I was beginning to wonder if maybe I was going to lose the $78 I spent on the new screen.  I stopped for the night, and completed the job the next day.  I had labeled all the tiny screws by step number, and taped them to a paper so as not to lose them, and I got it back together–with only two extra screws.

Phew, I started it up and it worked.  I wanted to stand up and shout “I did it!”  like my granddaughter.

I did it myself.  And I gave it to my daughter, (as my son had already moved into my current hand me-down.)

And I must say it was a lot more fun than cleaning the kitchen.