Country living at its best - Happy 13th birthday Aidan!

So by now you may know I am officially the mom of a teenager! It stings a little. Truth be told I’ve been begging time to slow down, dragging my feet toward this birthday for the past 6 months or so. And as I look ahead and our son finishes grade 7 in a couple of weeks and moves into his last year of Middle School I feel myself pumping the brakes even more. This past week, little did I know there would be distractions to keep my focus elsewhere during his birthday preparations. The theme of the party was Toronto Raptors. But then an uninvited guest showed up- a great distraction..and it wasn’t Kevin Durant. Lol!! 

Last week I tried to busy myself making plans for the party. Figuring out a gift and cake and tidying up our rec room for the boys to stay over. In the middle of the week my Nanny (who some of you know has been battling cancer and dementia for almost 2 years now) was moved to palliative care after having been in the hospital for a fall a couple of weeks ago. Once that happened, the focus shifted from thinking of party plans to being with Nanny and the family.  

I spent Thursday afternoon and evening at the Villa and headed home that evening very tired and thinking of the kids party planned for the next day. The kids were to arrive on the bus after school, and I had picked up a few supplies that day when I was in town and knew there was just a few things left to do. I was so looking forward to getting home and unwinding after an emotional day. I called Aaron to tell him I was on my way. It was later in the evening and I hadn’t had supper so was going to ask him to turn on the oven so I could heat up some leftovers. When he answered his phone I could hear the stress. “Tenley MAY have gotten sprayed by a skunk..... I think I got most of it off of her, but she got into the house before I realized and ran down to the rec room...” 😖 Oh my Lord. I swear I didn’t over react but hoped for the best...a little Saje aromatherapy in the diffuser and we’d be good to go? 😂

You guys, when I pulled into the driveway it smelled like a skunk convention. The smell in the yard was SO strong and the porch door was wide open! Did you ever see the GIF of the little girl who just puts her head down on the table and cries? That was pretty much me getting out of the car. I can laugh now, but it was dreadful. Poor Aaron, he was doing his best, but the thing about skunk smell is that once you’re “in it” I think you become immune to it. So because he had been bathing Tenley outside with the hose he had no idea of how bad it really was! 

This was about 9 pm at night, so once I closed the door and all the windows (!!) and we contained Tenley in the garage, the Pinterest search was on. Our old cat Vodie had been sprayed by a skunk years ago, pre-Aidan and pre-Three Brooks. So it’s been a minute since I had experience getting rid of skunk smell! I remember buying “skunk off” from the vet back then, and even it took a while to work. But with the birthday party and no vets open at 9 pm, Pinterest it was. 

We found THIS simple concoction online, and after a quick run to Sobeys for peroxide, we sprayed it EVERYWHERE! Trust me, it really works! I hope you or your pets never have a run in with Peppi Le Pew, but if you do keep this in mind! Peroxide, baking soda and dish soap.  You have to use it right away in order for the chemical component of it to be effective. But it is a miracle worker. 

If you pet Tenley you still get a whiff of her friend 5 days later, but essentially 12 hours after she was sprayed the smell was gone from the house and the party was saved! We did have to throw out a rug she sat on downstairs and an old blanket she slept on in the garage for two nights (poor girlie). But other than that damage was minimal, the boys had fun and the Raps won!

Enjoy this one picture of Aidan with his birthday cake. Did you know teenagers don’t like having their picture taken? 😜 And heaven forbid I post any. My world is definitely changing. Good thing I can still take pics of the house.

TBC...