My life stinks!

Now before you refer me to your favorite therapist or sneak a sample from your cousin, Cynthia - the Pharmaceutical Rep., keep reading.

I smell dead things.

I also smell living things. I mostly smell stinky things. If there is a nasty odor, I usually know about it and am probably looking for the source if it's in my own house. (If it's in someone else's house, I suffer and feel slightly grossed out.) I've joked that it gets worse when I'm pregnant. I'm not sure about that. I think that I have been pregnant so much in the last 9 years that my nose no longer knows the difference.

The worst recurring smells in my house are the kitchen disposal (I try to peel all my oranges into the sink just to chop them up in the disposal. Did you know about the power of orange peels?), the garbage can -EWW!, and the diaper pail. Occasionally, I am assaulted by something yucky in the washer (a towel used to clean up milk spills or Rebekah's pants after she almost made it to the potty in time, etc).

I smell bad breath on others almost instantly. I've caught a hint of my own at times, but not too often. I don't know if that means that I don't have bad breath or if I just do recognize my own stink. I learned in High School to hold my breath when a person passed by my seat. That trick still comes in handy on airplanes.

So I've been enjoying a "new car" smell in our van since we got it about 6-7 weeks ago. And then about Monday I started smelling something bad. I thought it was a dirty diaper. I searched and searched, but couldn't find it. Every time I opened the doors, I'd smell it again and I was getting frustrated! Yesterday was do or die...I was going to find the source of the odor, even if I had to remove everything in the process. Luckily, I didn't have to go that far.

I had given all the kids an apple juice box after the fair on Saturday. We usually drink a third of Rebekah's drinks before we pass them to her. I should have given her even less. Rebekah had spilled?/poured? some apple juice into one of the cup holders by her seat. She may have poured some into the other one as well but I'm not sure. It had pretzel goldfish crackers in it and they were all puffed up and moist when I found them. They didn't smell like fermented apple juice, though. I think they were soaked in water. I also found both of Nathan's cup holders with about an inch water in them. So did a bit of cleaning and my new car smell is back. And so is my sanity!

Strange. I know.