where the heck is it coming from?

Today I ended up spending my whole day on a search for a smell. Well, I should say the cause of the smell. My goal today when I got up was to get the house clean and our suite cases packed to head down to my parents house tomorrow right after the kids get out of school. The morning was somewhat productive with some mopping and cleaning up the messes that the kids left in their wake. And then it happened. I changed a dirty diaper (well one of many) and the smell didn't go away. I thought, "Wow! That was some potent poop!," but after a half an hour or so, the smell was still there. So there I was on my quest to find this smell. Now, if you don't already know me, I keep a pretty clean house and am a minimalist compared to most so there aren't many hiding places for random things to find themselves. I looked under the couches suspecting a hidden sippy cup that had something growing in that might come out and bite me but nothing. I looked behind cushions, under the entertainment center, behind the TV, in the toy box, in drawers and even between books. Still nothing! So my quest continued into the kitchen. I took out the trash - again and looked in the refrigerator or anything growing. Wow! I need to go shopping - nothing in there. By this point, all of the typical suspects had been checked and checked again. At this point I think the smell was haunting me because it was getting stronger by the minute. Now I know it sounds irrational but hey I was desperate so I went to the backyard and cleaned up anything that might make a smell. (I think the kids thought I was nuts today!) That didn't work so it was time to give up. So I threw open the windows for some very gusty cold air that might tone the smell down a bit and that worked and I decided to use a lot of spices making dinner so that smell might over power the retched one that was still growing. Mike came home for a little bit to help me put the kids to bed and I was greeted with, "It smells awful!" I sent him on a journey through the house to see what he could come up with - NOTHING! Well, I guess all I can say for now is thank goodness I am leaving tomorrow! Of anyone has any other ideas, PLEASE I will take them!

And what is a blog post without a picture so I figured I would throw one in of a sight that I see every night and just can't help but love.