Friday Free For All- Here in my car

• I didn’t get my driver’s license until I was 18. Not because I didn’t want it, but because I wasn’t allowed to. My parents used the excuse that it was because the car my dad was driving at the time was in my Gram’s name.
• To this day, I believe it was because my mother doesn’t drive, and even if she never said it, did not want me to drive either.
• I got my permit when I was 17 and my mother-in-law taught me how to drive.
• Somehow though, I took my road test in my father’s car. I passed, even though I backed in to a snow bank.
• I went for a drive to visit Hub at his job just after I passed my road test. When I got home, I undershot the turn in to my parent’s driveway, and ended up wedging my dad’s car on top of a huge landscaping rock on the front lawn. Yeah.
• I have a lot of misdirected resentment because my middle brother was given a car when he got his license.
• Up until this past December, I had never owned a used car. Coincidentally, the truck I drive now is probably my favorite vehicle EVER.
• I have only leased/owned Ford vehicles: 3 Ford Rangers, a Ford Escape, a Ford Freestar minivan (Hub’s car) and an F150 (my car)
• I was a horrible driver and did not care about it until I got pregnant the 1st time.
• In those 6 or so years of driving, I was in a lot of accidents, nearly totaling 2 of my trucks. My last Ranger spent so much time in the shop that we were able to drive it to New Hampshire and back on our honeymoon without even putting it close to going over on mileage.
• When Hub and I go places together, he usually drives.
• Not because I hate driving (which I do) but because he gets car sick really easily.
• I love rocking out while I’m driving.
• My kids do not love it as much.
• I always text while I am driving.
• I talk on the phone without a headset too; I like to live on the edge.
• True Story: once I was driving and talking on the phone to Hub. I drove right past a cop, and saw that he saw me. I started to put the phone down, but didn’t want to worry Hub so I told him why I was hanging up, and then put the phone down. The officer asked me why I had continued to talk, even after I saw him. I told him that I knew he’d seen me, so I figured I would finish what I had to say. He let me go with a warning because he appreciated my honesty.

Happy Thoughts

Well, here are a few happy things in spite of all the crapola going on lately—

• Hub was at Radio Shack last week looking for a new head set and came upon a TiVo marked down to $19.99. We’ve been wanting a new one because ours only records 1 thing at a time and you have to watch what is recording. Rather than buying a new $200 TiVo we were going to reluctantly succumb to DVR. Then this fell in his lap. YAY!
• He also came home yesterday with Seinfeld Scene It which we have been wanting for a while now. I hope we can play it this weekend.
• The baby is transitioning well to whole milk. We are at 2oz in every bottle right now with no issues. Moving to 3 tonight. We’ll need to buy a small can of formula, but that should be it FOREVER.
• I snipped some chives and oregano from my garden yesterday and made an impromptu tomato sauce and served it over whole wheat pasta. Man, I felt accomplished. And then when I posted about it on Facebook, someone said I was superwoman for managing 3 children a full time job AND a garden. Hardly true, but it made me feel pretty good.

Sickness

So. My mother-in law. She has the lung cancer. Yeah. Also some mysterious disease that is causing her to lose platelets. And some form of dementia. She has been in ICU since Friday, when she passed out while filing for aid at Social Services.

Things are not good.

When I met Hub, way back when I was 15, she was the coolest mom I knew. She cared not what he did, so long as he came home at night. She, unlike my own mother, was supportive and appreciative when she found out that I was on the pill. She taught me to drive.

Things have gone down hill for her over the years as her father and sister passed away. She has been a colossal pain in the ass.

She puts ketchup on everything I cook.

But I don’t wish her dead. Or sick. Or any of this.

I’d really like for her to be well.

If you are the praying type, could you say one for her? Her grandkids would like to see her again.

My three

I don’t usually read Whimsy, but her whole Blog Drought Thing has me intrigued.

Today, (well yesterday) the idea was to pick 3 of your posts for people to read. Without further ado, here are 3 of my favorites.

There was my tirade when SOMEONE STOLE OUR BABY’S NAME!! last March. Fun Fact—this has had little to no impact on my life. Pregnancy hormones are FUN!!

Here is one of a few “Open Letter” posts I wrote. I particularly like this one because it is a reminder of Lucy being completely inappropriate with Chapstick.

And here is one from my old blog which seems so long ago, when Bud was 2.5 and Lucy was 1.

Pointless

I’ve been having a good time reading my blog posts from last July. Fun times!! I can’t believe I looked like that!

Liv will be a year old 2 weeks from today? Where does the time go? I’m not going to speculate, but surely there must be some conspiracy. She still SLEEPS like a newborn, so she most definitely can’t be 1.

She took her 1st steps Saturday night, in front of Hub’s mom, brother and sister. She wanted BIL’s container of wipes. She has consistently taken between 2 and 6 steps when prompted since then—FOR US. Not at daycare or for my mother. She wants everyone to think we are liars, apparently.

This whole week feels like a time suck because I am working Saturday. Normally, Wednesday is like, WOOO! Halfway there!!! Not so much today though. I am off Monday though, and then have 3 days off the following week. And then some time in August……And then Summer will be over.

This post is going nowhere and I am off to a retirement lunch. (not mine, sadly)

Friday (un) Free-For-All

This whole week has been a free-for-all. And when the hell was the last time I posted 3 times in a week? WOW!

Last night turned out to be a great night, despite my misgivings on my SIL arriving so early. I really love my SIL. If I had a sister myself, I would want it to be her. She is a hippie, essentially, patchouli and all. She doesn’t care what other people think; she is free and loose and generally awesome. I wish she lived here instead of Florida.

Anyhoo, she got to our place around 6:30 and we all went to Friendly’s for dinner. The kids stayed up late showing off for somebody new, and then she, Hub and I stayed up talking until after midnight. I’m looking forward to more of the same this weekend.

In other news, we think we have found a place for MIL to live; less than 5 minutes down the road from us. This will mean a lot in that we’ll be able to check in on her on our way home, grocery shop for/with her and so on. I’m hoping that the security deposit is reasonable and that we can get her in there soon.

Does anyone have any experience with selling on Ebay? I want to start selling off our baby clothes etc and I wonder if Ebay is the way to go. Craig’s List freaks me out, the whole meeting up in a dark alley to exchange goods for cash aspect of it, but, is Ebay out? Do people go there anymore? I wonder.

Want to know something else I hate? When people brush their teeth in a public bathroom. I mean, sure I REALLY admire your hygiene, but I’m not interested in seeing you spit all over the sink. And also, the minty minty toothpaste smell, mixed with bathroom smells, totally makes me nauseous.

There, I feel better. Happy Weekend!

Pet(ty) Peeve(ish) Things

Because I’m still in a bad mood (MOSTLY because my SIL is getting in to town 5 hours sooner than scheduled):

• When I say “Hi, how are ya” to somebody and they only say “hi” back without asking how I am in return. I realize that neither of us cares how the other one is doing, but it’s rude not to ask.
• When people soap up their hands in the bathroom before they’ve gotten them wet. It totally just skeeves me out.
• The fact that someone invited me to order lunch with her today, but she is not going to get it until 1:15. For the love of GOD, that is practically dinner time.
• That no matter how often I sweep or vacuum, my entire floor is always covered in crumbs.
• When people say “If you have any questions, please see Sara or Myself.” Can I see yourself soon? GAH!
• I hate it when people try to tell me things about my kids. Not like “Bud did X at summer camp today……” but like when people act like they know MORE about them than I do. “Oh that Liv, she sure has a temper on her…Lucy loves to eat olives…” As if they are educating me or something. When all of my kids were babies, they were grunters and people constantly told me, “oooh, he/she is making a big mess in the diaper!!” and I’d be all like, “no, the grunting is just what they do…” and people would ARGUE with me. This is One of Those Things I Think About. Like all the time.
• When people spell out “OK.” OKAY!! This is perfectly acceptable…BUT NOT TO ME!!!
• People sending read receipts on their email. I always refuse to send the receipt. SCREW YOU and your attempt to create a paper trail!!

Ok(ay)! I am eating my arm because my lunch still isn’t here!!

In which I bitch and moan

Every day for the last 10 or so days has been “one of those days”. Hub is crazy, the kids are crazy. And I feel crazy.

It started a week ago Saturday, when Hub worked all morning/afternoon and I ran around alone with all three kids doing banking, shopping, and then a ridiculous and tiresome lunch in the park. I had no sooner got home, got all 3 kids sleeping and had just fallen asleep myself when Hub got the call that his mother was in heart failure and being rushed to the hospital. She is DNR, so OMG. Hub is the healthcare proxy as well, so he needed to be there, BUT he also needed to be home to take the big kids to see Walking with Dinosaurs by 6PM. It was a freaking roller coaster.

All of last week went along like that, Hub splitting his time between work and the hospital. I was alone with the kids every single night last week, working dinner, bed time, baths, prepping for the next day, everything. And while my children are (mostly) well behaved angels during the day, they turn in to hell beasts at night. I don’t know why they have such a hard time settling down in the evening, but they do. And usually Hub is there for at least part of the time to help corral them. By the time Wednesday came along though, I was contemplating driving off a cliff, or possibly locking them all in a closet while I went off on a drinking binge. Yes, it was that bad.

MIL is better though, had a nasty case of pneumonia that was exacerbated by a. smoking, b. living in a second floor apartment with no AC, and c. generally not taking care of herself. She’s been depressed for a long time now, and it has kind of come to a head. She is out of the hospital and staying with her mother. We are looking to get her in to assisted living; Hub is getting power of attorney and will be her legal guardian.

I feel like this shit shouldn’t be happening to us for another 20 years. We shouldn’t have to take care of his 55-year-old mother.

To top it off, my SIL is coming to town TOMORROW because she feels like she needs to see her mom. She hasn’t been home for over 3 years. Guess where she is sleeping? That would be my couch. I warned her that there are children up at all hours of the night. She doesn’t seem to mind. Ok then.

So, the ride has not yet ended and doesn’t appear to be stopping soon. Calgon! Take me away!