After a year filled with such drama and upheaval, almost literally from start to finish, I am SO BEYOND GLAD to be still sane enough to appreciate the fresh start that comes with The New Year!
Twenty Dozen is MY fresh start. It's goodbye to the old me and hello New Me. It's goodbye to the old pain and resentments. Goodbye to the old heartache. Goodbye to toxic people. Goodbye to holding grudges past their usefulness, to hating instead of pitying, to crying over good (if painful) choices.
I am emerging. FINALLY. If all this strife was prelude to something amazing, and it just has to be, then frankly it was all worth it.
Still, good riddance 2011.
Showing posts with label chaos. Show all posts
Showing posts with label chaos. Show all posts
Monday, January 02, 2012
Thursday, April 15, 2010
Life Changes TBD
There's a good chance that before the summer is over Bob and I will have moved again, taking the children with us of course.
This will mark the seventh time we have moved since 2002 when we first moved from one place in Vacaville to another place in Vacaville.
SEVEN moves in eight years, and two in less than a year?!? Yikes.
I think my record for most moves in a year is three which I believe I actually achieved in less than six months, and I was pregnant at the time. How we made it through that, I'll never know.
As this power plant job he's on starts to draw to a close (which should be in the next few weeks) he's already got another job lined up starting mid-May. But that job is ALSO not in Southern California, but rather based out of Vacaville. Seems like there's some unnatural force that really wants us to go back to NorCal.
Incidentally, I am totally fine with that. I love Northern California. You get all the great weather of SoCal (and a smidge more rain) and just a fraction of the plasticity. I can't imagine Heidi and Spencer packing it up and leaving L.A. for Sacramento. At least not until he runs for Governor. You laugh, it'll happen.
The list of pros is long indeed. I can get a job that will suit me and pay real money. Bob can be close to his family and beloved campgrounds and fishing holes. I can see my college friends more than once a year!
So, everyone keep your fingers crossed that we're able to work this out and hopefully by my next birthday I'll be writing this blog from a tiny apartment somewhere in NorCal. Or better yet, from my new fantastic job! On my break, of course.
This will mark the seventh time we have moved since 2002 when we first moved from one place in Vacaville to another place in Vacaville.
SEVEN moves in eight years, and two in less than a year?!? Yikes.
I think my record for most moves in a year is three which I believe I actually achieved in less than six months, and I was pregnant at the time. How we made it through that, I'll never know.
As this power plant job he's on starts to draw to a close (which should be in the next few weeks) he's already got another job lined up starting mid-May. But that job is ALSO not in Southern California, but rather based out of Vacaville. Seems like there's some unnatural force that really wants us to go back to NorCal.
Incidentally, I am totally fine with that. I love Northern California. You get all the great weather of SoCal (and a smidge more rain) and just a fraction of the plasticity. I can't imagine Heidi and Spencer packing it up and leaving L.A. for Sacramento. At least not until he runs for Governor. You laugh, it'll happen.
The list of pros is long indeed. I can get a job that will suit me and pay real money. Bob can be close to his family and beloved campgrounds and fishing holes. I can see my college friends more than once a year!
So, everyone keep your fingers crossed that we're able to work this out and hopefully by my next birthday I'll be writing this blog from a tiny apartment somewhere in NorCal. Or better yet, from my new fantastic job! On my break, of course.
Friday, March 05, 2010
Elizabeth's Accidental Birthday
My daughter will turn six next Tuesday.
Naturally we are in the midst of throwing together a princesses pizza party in the park to mark the occasion and scrambling around town to every toy retailer trying to find the very specific Polly Pocket set that she has so fervently and repeatedly requested.
Her birthday dinner menu has been firmed up. Chicken. Rice. And Broccoli. But not chicken with sauce, or onions, or crust. Ew.
In addition to the Polly Pocket stuff, I've pulled together a little "spa" basket for her with all the pink and purple pampering items I could find that were appropriate for a kindergartener. Including fuzzy purple spa socks.
I even bought her a special new outfit and a little ribbon to wear to school on her birthday that says "It's my 6th Birthday!"
In short, all of our attention in the last two weeks or so has been focused on the date of my little girl's birth. March 9th.
Imagine my surprise then when I picked Elizabeth up from school yesterday and she strolled out of her classroom wearing a giant birthday crown on her head.
"Why are you wearing a crown? It's not your birthday," I said.
She shrugged.
Her teacher said, "It's not her birthday? I must have written it down wrong!"
Whoops!
Apparently, 4s and 9s look more similar than any of us could have possibly anticipated.
"Did the kids sing Happy Birthday to you?" I asked Elizabeth as we walked back to the car.
"Uh huh! We did it at circle time," she said.
"Honey, why didn't you tell your teacher that it is NOT your birthday today?"
"I dunno," she said.
Sigh.
I guess we just call that one a practice run and go on with our celebration on her ACTUAL birthday.
I wonder if they'll sing to her again or if that's just too much. I feel bad for her! Now her real birthday is gonna be a real drag!
Friday, January 29, 2010
Scapegoat
Poor Benjamin.
He's unable to defend himself against all the scurrilous accusations.
Whenever a mess has been made, "It was Benny!"
Whenever the dog food gets into the water bowl, "Benny did that!"
Whenever we find a trail of ranch dressing leading from the kitchen table to the bathroom and back, "I told Benny not to dip his feet in the ranch!"
Today he's been charged and convicted of check theft. Just like that. Blam! Law and Order, judged and sentenced.
It didn't even take the full hour.
Apparently my mom ordered her new checks in December and they supposedly arrived in December and were put away in a drawer in the office/computer lab/playroom/cartoon viewing station.
That particular drawer is a treasure trove to my little toddler. He enjoys opening it up and pulling out all manner of delights like an old camera case, paper clips, blank thank you cards and pens from the hair salon my mom frequents.
These items are then rearranged all over the house in attractive piles. It's sort of like guerrilla public art.
Now, I don't recall the checks arriving in the mail, nor have I seen a giant envelope of checks in that particular drawer when I return Ben's "installations" to storage.
Nevertheless, the checks are nowhere to be found and the poor child is the most likely suspect. Since his current vocabulary is limited he can't offer up an alternative scenario to explain this terrible crime, and thus he is guilty! Guilty!
Poor kid's not even 2 and he already has a rap sheet.
Saturday, January 17, 2009
Gah! Enough already!
I've got a headache from all the bickering going on around here. The kids bickering, the hubs and I bickering....tension is running high in the house lately. I don't know WHAT is causing it, but I've had it.
It just seems like everyone is extra prickly this week, myself included. I wish we could all just simmer down.
On the up side, Bob took the big kids to the store to get cat food and Ben has laid down for a nap.
Ahhhhh, uninterrupted workout time! Yes, that's right, I'm going to channel my frustrations into a good workout instead of snuggling up with some comfort food. Yay me!
This morning I saw a commercial for Hidden Valley Ranch, the one where the ice cream trucks are converted to veggie trucks but everything is like dunked in ranch. At the end there is a shot of someone pouring like half a bottle of ranch over a salad and it actually made me sick. Progress.
Off to hit the workout now!
It just seems like everyone is extra prickly this week, myself included. I wish we could all just simmer down.
On the up side, Bob took the big kids to the store to get cat food and Ben has laid down for a nap.
Ahhhhh, uninterrupted workout time! Yes, that's right, I'm going to channel my frustrations into a good workout instead of snuggling up with some comfort food. Yay me!
This morning I saw a commercial for Hidden Valley Ranch, the one where the ice cream trucks are converted to veggie trucks but everything is like dunked in ranch. At the end there is a shot of someone pouring like half a bottle of ranch over a salad and it actually made me sick. Progress.
Off to hit the workout now!
Wednesday, November 26, 2008
Feast gone awry
Elizabeth's class had a Thanksgiving feast lunch yesterday. I brought the boys of course, and immediately knew there would be a problem.
As soon as we stepped into the class, Dylan refused to follow directions. He wouldn't join the children in the music and movement circle. He insisted on playing with loud toys while the kids did their activities and he was just generally a pain in the rump.
Finally, it was time to sit down to lunch and I was already frustrated and exhausted. Ben sat on my lap and kept grabbing my plate, threatening to spill it. Dylan sat next to me and shredded up two dinner rolls before announcing that he "can't like that" and jumping up from the table and running away.
Then he ran circles around the whole class while everyone else (even the bad kid) sat and ate their lunches.
After about two minutes of that I was done and I scooped up Dylan and we left the class and the feast behind.
I got him out to the car where he started crying hysterically. Sobbing and whining. He was doing that cry where you are crying so much you can't catch your breath and everything you say is one word at a time, all sloppy with crying.
I asked him "What is the matter? Why are you acting up?"
He said. "I. Want. To. Talk. To. Daaaaaadddddyyyyyyy!!!"
Ugh. I called Bob on the phone and Dylan either locked up completely or wailed in his ear. I hung up the phone. Dylan wailed again.
I had TONS of errands to run, so I called my sister in law and she offered to watch Dylan that afternoon. THANK GOD!
As I drove away from the school and toward my salvation, Dylan fell asleep. Of COURSE he was tired! He just burned up 3000 calories screaming and crying and running around sobbing.
Horrible.
When I went back to pick him up, about 2.5 hours later, he was naked from the waist down and wearing his cousins oversized T-shirt.
"What happened?" I asked without really being sure that I wanted to know the answer!
My sister in law told me this story...
"We went to the electric company to pay the bill and visit my dad," she said...meaning my father in law who works there, of course. "While we were there, Dylan peed on a chair."
"WHAT?!"
Apparently, he peed so much that he peed right through his pull up and his pants and all over a chair.
Nice.
Real nice.
Luckily I had just bought a package of pull ups to keep at my sister in laws house just in case of this sort of thing, so he was covered. Literally.
As soon as we stepped into the class, Dylan refused to follow directions. He wouldn't join the children in the music and movement circle. He insisted on playing with loud toys while the kids did their activities and he was just generally a pain in the rump.
Finally, it was time to sit down to lunch and I was already frustrated and exhausted. Ben sat on my lap and kept grabbing my plate, threatening to spill it. Dylan sat next to me and shredded up two dinner rolls before announcing that he "can't like that" and jumping up from the table and running away.
Then he ran circles around the whole class while everyone else (even the bad kid) sat and ate their lunches.
After about two minutes of that I was done and I scooped up Dylan and we left the class and the feast behind.
I got him out to the car where he started crying hysterically. Sobbing and whining. He was doing that cry where you are crying so much you can't catch your breath and everything you say is one word at a time, all sloppy with crying.
I asked him "What is the matter? Why are you acting up?"
He said. "I. Want. To. Talk. To. Daaaaaadddddyyyyyyy!!!"
Ugh. I called Bob on the phone and Dylan either locked up completely or wailed in his ear. I hung up the phone. Dylan wailed again.
I had TONS of errands to run, so I called my sister in law and she offered to watch Dylan that afternoon. THANK GOD!
As I drove away from the school and toward my salvation, Dylan fell asleep. Of COURSE he was tired! He just burned up 3000 calories screaming and crying and running around sobbing.
Horrible.
When I went back to pick him up, about 2.5 hours later, he was naked from the waist down and wearing his cousins oversized T-shirt.
"What happened?" I asked without really being sure that I wanted to know the answer!
My sister in law told me this story...
"We went to the electric company to pay the bill and visit my dad," she said...meaning my father in law who works there, of course. "While we were there, Dylan peed on a chair."
"WHAT?!"
Apparently, he peed so much that he peed right through his pull up and his pants and all over a chair.
Nice.
Real nice.
Luckily I had just bought a package of pull ups to keep at my sister in laws house just in case of this sort of thing, so he was covered. Literally.
Monday, November 24, 2008
Holidays make my emotions go haywire
We finally took down the Halloween decorations yesterday. Yay!
It was just four or five of those $1 flag/streamers that you hang from hooks and they have character faces at the top and streamers at the bottom and they're like barrel shaped....what are those things called??
Whoever knows what those things are called post the answer and if you are right I'll send you a prize.
Anyway. It was good timing since it's almost Thanksgiving! Yikes. This year is FLYING by right?
It seems like just yesterday I was still pregnant and now all of a sudden my little baby is about to sprout teeth and I'm not ready for all that.
Wow. Tangent.
This week officially kicks off the "Holiday Season" and with birthdays and all the other holidays our Holidaze begins around Thanksgiving and ends on July 4th. Whew. From now until then, it's going to be something every week pretty much.
Yeah, I just checked the calendar, it's a mess.
To prepare for all that chaos, I've been watching a lot of crap TV.
It relaxes me.
Today after a HORRIBLE day of errands (seriously, too horrible to recount) I plopped down and watched three hours of Wife Swap and then Engaged and Underage.
That's WAY more domestic issues than anyone could handle. I had to turn the show off halfway through the second Wife Swap and switch to Engaged and Underage because I couldn't take the hostility any more. Seriously.
It didn't relax me at all, so now I'm watching iCarly with the kids.
Very soothing.
Also I got the news that my new favorite show "My Own Worst Enemy" has been cancelled, so I'm totally bummed. I have to keep watching though, and try to convince everyone I know to watch so MAYBE they'll get awesome ratings and keep it on the air. So, if you love me, or you love Christian Slater, or if you love spies, or split personalities or guns, or puppies or Alfre Woodard...check out the show tonight or next week! I know, for some of you, I had you at "if you love Christian Slater" and for that, I am so thankful!
Of course, this being the week of thankfulness, I should also say that I'm thankful for my healthy happy kids, that we have a home to live in and food to eat and that Bob has stayed busy with work so we can have all those things. On those days, like today, where I'm following Murphy's Law exclusively, I am also thankful for chardonnay.
Yay.
I'm also thankful that we're NOT hosting the Thanksgiving dinner here this year. Sort of sad, sort of glad actually. I'm going to be making a dang turkey anyway because I LOOOOOVE Thanksgiving leftovers, so I won't be getting a break from cooking the meal so much but I won't have to scrub the bathrooms quite as harshly as I would if the whole family was coming over. Which is nice.
Unfortunately we're doing a potluck Thanksgiving, which is kind of weird to me but maybe I'm just a Turkey Martyr. I'm making my world famous Baked Artichoke Dip and a blueberry cheesecake. Yum.
Oh, by the way gas here is $1.87/gallon of regular and I paid $1.85 because I went to one of those stations where you get a discount if you pay cash. I almost cried.
Then I DID cry when Boyz II Men came on the radio...I know you're thinking it was "End of the Road" or some other sappy ballad. Nah.
I got all teary eyed listening to "Motownphilly"
Don't ask me why. Hormones, maybe? I just love the East Coast Swang.
"Then we started singing and they said it sounds smooooooth."
Whah!
It was just four or five of those $1 flag/streamers that you hang from hooks and they have character faces at the top and streamers at the bottom and they're like barrel shaped....what are those things called??
Whoever knows what those things are called post the answer and if you are right I'll send you a prize.
Anyway. It was good timing since it's almost Thanksgiving! Yikes. This year is FLYING by right?
It seems like just yesterday I was still pregnant and now all of a sudden my little baby is about to sprout teeth and I'm not ready for all that.
Wow. Tangent.
This week officially kicks off the "Holiday Season" and with birthdays and all the other holidays our Holidaze begins around Thanksgiving and ends on July 4th. Whew. From now until then, it's going to be something every week pretty much.
Yeah, I just checked the calendar, it's a mess.
To prepare for all that chaos, I've been watching a lot of crap TV.
It relaxes me.
Today after a HORRIBLE day of errands (seriously, too horrible to recount) I plopped down and watched three hours of Wife Swap and then Engaged and Underage.
That's WAY more domestic issues than anyone could handle. I had to turn the show off halfway through the second Wife Swap and switch to Engaged and Underage because I couldn't take the hostility any more. Seriously.
It didn't relax me at all, so now I'm watching iCarly with the kids.
Very soothing.
Also I got the news that my new favorite show "My Own Worst Enemy" has been cancelled, so I'm totally bummed. I have to keep watching though, and try to convince everyone I know to watch so MAYBE they'll get awesome ratings and keep it on the air. So, if you love me, or you love Christian Slater, or if you love spies, or split personalities or guns, or puppies or Alfre Woodard...check out the show tonight or next week! I know, for some of you, I had you at "if you love Christian Slater" and for that, I am so thankful!
Of course, this being the week of thankfulness, I should also say that I'm thankful for my healthy happy kids, that we have a home to live in and food to eat and that Bob has stayed busy with work so we can have all those things. On those days, like today, where I'm following Murphy's Law exclusively, I am also thankful for chardonnay.
Yay.
I'm also thankful that we're NOT hosting the Thanksgiving dinner here this year. Sort of sad, sort of glad actually. I'm going to be making a dang turkey anyway because I LOOOOOVE Thanksgiving leftovers, so I won't be getting a break from cooking the meal so much but I won't have to scrub the bathrooms quite as harshly as I would if the whole family was coming over. Which is nice.
Unfortunately we're doing a potluck Thanksgiving, which is kind of weird to me but maybe I'm just a Turkey Martyr. I'm making my world famous Baked Artichoke Dip and a blueberry cheesecake. Yum.
Oh, by the way gas here is $1.87/gallon of regular and I paid $1.85 because I went to one of those stations where you get a discount if you pay cash. I almost cried.
Then I DID cry when Boyz II Men came on the radio...I know you're thinking it was "End of the Road" or some other sappy ballad. Nah.
I got all teary eyed listening to "Motownphilly"
Don't ask me why. Hormones, maybe? I just love the East Coast Swang.
"Then we started singing and they said it sounds smooooooth."
Whah!
Friday, June 13, 2008
The Bright Side
Don't worry! It's not all poop and bloody owies here.
We have tons of fun too.
Dylan and Elizabeth are pretty typical siblings I'd say. They love each other so much they make each other crazy. Elizabeth says they are best friends. Sometimes that love tips over into the insane hatred zone, but that's usually only when limited quantities of awesome toys are involved.
They both are madly in love with Benjamin.
This morning I remarked on how big Ben is getting already. Elizabeth said...
"Yes. He's getting so big! He's our special little boy!"
I swear, I almost cried.
And unlike when Elizabeth was a baby, or even when Dylan was a baby...I've got two built-in helpers now!
Elizabeth loves to clean the kitchen. She wipes down counters, sweeps up crumbs and helps put away clean dishes. She also loves to help me make dinner, she calls it my "cooking show" and says that she is my helper girl.
Elizabeth is also in charge of putting her own dirty laundry in the hamper and she's more reliable at this than her dad. Lately she scolds Bob for leaving his shirts on the floor! This is quite funny to me. One less thing for me to do!
Daddy's dirty laundry relocation program is firmly assigned to Elizabeth.
She also helps pick up toys and clean Dylan's room since that is their main playroom also.
Dylan is not as GREAT of a helper yet...but he's a boy and more concerned with trucks, bugs and getting dirty than he is with cleaning up or cooking. Eating, yes...cooking, not so much.
Despite this he is a great trash picker upper and loves to put dirty dishes in the sink -- and sometimes the trash can when he gets twisted around. I have no idea how many spoons have been accidentally tossed out. I've caught three that were on their way into the trash bin...very disturbing.
His new favorite chore to complete is collecting all the shoes from around the house and putting them in line on the shoe rack by the front door. Then once or twice a week I'll relocate all the shoes from there back to their real spots. The kids each have a hanging shoe caddy on their bedroom doors and I have a shoe rack in my closet.
Sadly, I'm the worst offender with leaving my shoes all around. The kids do it too, but they are still kids and I'm almost 30 with no excuse.!
Both the biggers love to help water the garden and pick up the yard. Collecting pine cones is an excellent way to kill time on an otherwise boring day AND it tires them out. Our property is an acre, and about half that is rough terrain. The other half is pretty flat and we can hike around that half acre collecting pine cones for at least an hour...very tiring.
Both big kids are also FANTASTIC baby helpers. Dylan likes to "re-bink" the baby, aka replace his pacifier when it falls out.
Elizabeth loves to "babysit" so I can do laundry or wash dishes or start dinner. She also is familiar with my whole diapering system (we use cloth diapers) and gets diapers and wipes for Dylan AND Benjamin when I'm stuck changing one or the other of them on the wrong side of the house. Dylan's stuff is in his room, Ben's is in mine - opposite sides of the house. Inevitably I end up changing Dylan in my bedroom or Ben in the living room and I'm woefully underprepared.
The big kids also keep each other occupied a lot. They make a mess together, eat lunch together, watch movies together, take baths together, kill spiders together, play in the yard together...they hang out a lot. I pride myself on being able to understand Dylan's sort of pigeon English pretty well, but Elizabeth is the best translator of all. Though sometimes I think she is saying that he said things that he did not say like "Dylan said he wants us to have cookies. And he wants me to have three cookies. Yeah, that's what he said." Hmmmm.
I am a bit nervous about entertaining Dylan when Elizabeth starts preschool in August. She has the energy to keep up with him, whereas I do not. She will sit and blow bubbles with him for two hours, where I cannot spare quite so much time on fun.
I know once Dylan is less of a "flight risk" things will get better insanity-wise and we'll be able to leave the house more. Right now I'm always afraid that he is two seconds away from running into the road or through the parking lot or out of the store or through the store like a maniac, etc.
He spends a lot of time buckled up into something or holding hands because of that. Once he gets over this particular stage of development and has more self-control (he will right???) everything will be smooooooother. Then Ben will go insane and start walking. Grr.
It's always something right?
As long as I never ever run out of coffee, I'm good.
I even have an emergency $5 Starbucks gift card in my wallet just in case of extreme conditions. Seriously.
We have tons of fun too.
Dylan and Elizabeth are pretty typical siblings I'd say. They love each other so much they make each other crazy. Elizabeth says they are best friends. Sometimes that love tips over into the insane hatred zone, but that's usually only when limited quantities of awesome toys are involved.
They both are madly in love with Benjamin.
This morning I remarked on how big Ben is getting already. Elizabeth said...
"Yes. He's getting so big! He's our special little boy!"
I swear, I almost cried.
And unlike when Elizabeth was a baby, or even when Dylan was a baby...I've got two built-in helpers now!
Elizabeth loves to clean the kitchen. She wipes down counters, sweeps up crumbs and helps put away clean dishes. She also loves to help me make dinner, she calls it my "cooking show" and says that she is my helper girl.
Elizabeth is also in charge of putting her own dirty laundry in the hamper and she's more reliable at this than her dad. Lately she scolds Bob for leaving his shirts on the floor! This is quite funny to me. One less thing for me to do!
Daddy's dirty laundry relocation program is firmly assigned to Elizabeth.
She also helps pick up toys and clean Dylan's room since that is their main playroom also.
Dylan is not as GREAT of a helper yet...but he's a boy and more concerned with trucks, bugs and getting dirty than he is with cleaning up or cooking. Eating, yes...cooking, not so much.
Despite this he is a great trash picker upper and loves to put dirty dishes in the sink -- and sometimes the trash can when he gets twisted around. I have no idea how many spoons have been accidentally tossed out. I've caught three that were on their way into the trash bin...very disturbing.
His new favorite chore to complete is collecting all the shoes from around the house and putting them in line on the shoe rack by the front door. Then once or twice a week I'll relocate all the shoes from there back to their real spots. The kids each have a hanging shoe caddy on their bedroom doors and I have a shoe rack in my closet.
Sadly, I'm the worst offender with leaving my shoes all around. The kids do it too, but they are still kids and I'm almost 30 with no excuse.!
Both the biggers love to help water the garden and pick up the yard. Collecting pine cones is an excellent way to kill time on an otherwise boring day AND it tires them out. Our property is an acre, and about half that is rough terrain. The other half is pretty flat and we can hike around that half acre collecting pine cones for at least an hour...very tiring.
Both big kids are also FANTASTIC baby helpers. Dylan likes to "re-bink" the baby, aka replace his pacifier when it falls out.
Elizabeth loves to "babysit" so I can do laundry or wash dishes or start dinner. She also is familiar with my whole diapering system (we use cloth diapers) and gets diapers and wipes for Dylan AND Benjamin when I'm stuck changing one or the other of them on the wrong side of the house. Dylan's stuff is in his room, Ben's is in mine - opposite sides of the house. Inevitably I end up changing Dylan in my bedroom or Ben in the living room and I'm woefully underprepared.
The big kids also keep each other occupied a lot. They make a mess together, eat lunch together, watch movies together, take baths together, kill spiders together, play in the yard together...they hang out a lot. I pride myself on being able to understand Dylan's sort of pigeon English pretty well, but Elizabeth is the best translator of all. Though sometimes I think she is saying that he said things that he did not say like "Dylan said he wants us to have cookies. And he wants me to have three cookies. Yeah, that's what he said." Hmmmm.
I am a bit nervous about entertaining Dylan when Elizabeth starts preschool in August. She has the energy to keep up with him, whereas I do not. She will sit and blow bubbles with him for two hours, where I cannot spare quite so much time on fun.
I know once Dylan is less of a "flight risk" things will get better insanity-wise and we'll be able to leave the house more. Right now I'm always afraid that he is two seconds away from running into the road or through the parking lot or out of the store or through the store like a maniac, etc.
He spends a lot of time buckled up into something or holding hands because of that. Once he gets over this particular stage of development and has more self-control (he will right???) everything will be smooooooother. Then Ben will go insane and start walking. Grr.
It's always something right?
As long as I never ever run out of coffee, I'm good.
I even have an emergency $5 Starbucks gift card in my wallet just in case of extreme conditions. Seriously.
Sunday, June 01, 2008
Twas a bad day to be a couch
By posting this I know I set the Newman reproduction clock back by at least six months, but I cannot keep this to myself!
Yesterday was a particularly exhausting day for us. By us, I mean me, because NOTHING exhausts children!
The kids were especially rowdy and when they weren't out in the backyardfighting each other over stupid $2 sandbox toys enjoying each other's company and the lovely day, they were inside the house playing a game Elizabeth calls (appropriately) Run Around In Circles.
This game is great.
They run literally in a circle through my bedroom into the bathroom, then into the laundry room, through the kitchen, the living room and back into my bedroom. Over and over and over. Everytime they pass by me they yell "Hi Mommy!" and keep going. Sometimes Dylan runs over and will hug my leg in the middle of a lap.
I'm not sure what the goal of the game is, but it does burn off some of their ridiculous nuclear fueled energy, so I love it.
While they ran around in circles and Ben napped I worked out for about a half hour. It took me an hour to get in the half hour, but that's ok. I had to pause for diaper changes and laundry and other fun mommy stuff.
Today, incidentally, I'm going to fit in an hour of working out. Two days ago I did 45 minutes, so it will all even out in the end. Hopefully while it evens out MY end.
Har dee har.
Anyway, that was at about 10:30 in the morning.
Bob had taken a load of garbage and junk from the yard to the dump, which always takes FOREVER even though it's about 15 minutes away, go figure. I think he sneaks off the road into the cedar brush to shoot cottontails on the way home, but he'll never confess.
I made hot dogs for lunch but they burned, so I gave the kids the two good ones and ate egg salad instead. I had to use the heel of the bread! Horrible.
Then the kids stole one of my pickles. Thieves! It's just as well, I probably didn't need the sodium anyway.
After Bob got home, we sort of just all kicked it around the house a bit. Dylan is fostering a MAJOR new obsession with the live-action Alvin and the Chipmunks movie. It's a borderline serious problem at this point.
That movie is on constant repeat in his room. He'll come out and say "I want Chick-munks!" over and over until you go restart the movie for him.
I hate to say this, but I miss SpongeBob.
So, Dylan went to watch Chick-munks and Bob, bless his heart, came into the living room and told Elizabeth:
"Dylan is watching Chipmunks right now if you want to go watch it with him."
To which I said, "Yeah hurry, there's only going to be 10 more showings today!"
And we all laughed....
The baby started getting a smidge fussy during the afternoon and was wanting to nurse every HOUR. EVERY HOUR! Dude.
He'd fall asleep for 15 or 20 minutes afterward, then wake up howling. It was truly exhausting even though I was mostly just sitting there strapping a kid to my lady lumps.
I had already planned a dinner of spaghetti and sausage and in a brief moment of baby peace I went and got that started.
While I was putting away dishes, Dylan started yelling "It's poo! It's poo!!!"
Never a good sign.
I went into the living room and sure enough, there was a little poo on the couch. I said "Ok Dylan, it's poo. Get off the couch and don't touch!"
I wasn't sure WHERE the poo came from, and I didn't really care at this point. I got a paper towel from the kitchen and turned back to find that Dylan had SLID off of the couch leaving a lovely POO trail all over the couch cushion.
A ha! That's where the poo came from. He had pooed his underpants.
I didn't cry.
I called in reinforcements, aka Bob, and he took the rogue pooer into the bathroom and cleaned him up (via shower sprayer) while I unzipped the couch cushions and threw them into the washing machine. We were both gagging. Poo is sick.
Poo crisis handled, I returned to dishes and dinner (I washed my hands don't worry!) I had dinner all cooking when we realized that our phone had no dial tone. Again.
So WHILE I nursed the cranky-again baby I called the cable company to find out what was wrong with the dang phone. Long story short, we had to power cycle our phone modem, again.
What a pain.
During that phone call, the timer for dinner went off. After I hung up on the phone guy I told Bob that dinner was ready. I was still stuck on the couch nursing.
Bob made himself up a big plate of food and came back to sit down on the couch.
He set the plate on the arm of the couch.
I said:
"You didn't get the kids anything to eat?"
He said:
"Ah, screw those kids!"
And as he was getting up to fix them some bowls of noodles, he accidentally tipped the plate off the arm of the couch and ALL OVER HIMSELF.
HOT SPAGHETTI SAUCE! Molten hot lava!
There were some bad bad words said and he went into the bathroom saying them, leaving a pile of noodles and sauce all over the couch cushion.
Ugh.
About a minute later he came back out and we cleaned up the noodle mess together. Ugh, what a mess. I unzipped ANOTHER couch cushion and threw it into the washer.
Luckily, there was enough food for everyone to eat, even after the incident.
The rest of the evening went mostly without further insanity.
The kids and Bob went out to water the garden and enjoy the sunset turning the clouds pink. Then they sat in Bob's truck listening to the kid songs on Sirius radio. Eventually, the baby gave up on Boobie Quest 2008 and fell asleep in his bassinet. Bob put the kids to bed and we went to sleep not too long after that, exhausted and lightly scented with tomato sauce.
Yesterday was a particularly exhausting day for us. By us, I mean me, because NOTHING exhausts children!
The kids were especially rowdy and when they weren't out in the backyard
This game is great.
They run literally in a circle through my bedroom into the bathroom, then into the laundry room, through the kitchen, the living room and back into my bedroom. Over and over and over. Everytime they pass by me they yell "Hi Mommy!" and keep going. Sometimes Dylan runs over and will hug my leg in the middle of a lap.
I'm not sure what the goal of the game is, but it does burn off some of their ridiculous nuclear fueled energy, so I love it.
While they ran around in circles and Ben napped I worked out for about a half hour. It took me an hour to get in the half hour, but that's ok. I had to pause for diaper changes and laundry and other fun mommy stuff.
Today, incidentally, I'm going to fit in an hour of working out. Two days ago I did 45 minutes, so it will all even out in the end. Hopefully while it evens out MY end.
Har dee har.
Anyway, that was at about 10:30 in the morning.
Bob had taken a load of garbage and junk from the yard to the dump, which always takes FOREVER even though it's about 15 minutes away, go figure. I think he sneaks off the road into the cedar brush to shoot cottontails on the way home, but he'll never confess.
I made hot dogs for lunch but they burned, so I gave the kids the two good ones and ate egg salad instead. I had to use the heel of the bread! Horrible.
Then the kids stole one of my pickles. Thieves! It's just as well, I probably didn't need the sodium anyway.
After Bob got home, we sort of just all kicked it around the house a bit. Dylan is fostering a MAJOR new obsession with the live-action Alvin and the Chipmunks movie. It's a borderline serious problem at this point.
That movie is on constant repeat in his room. He'll come out and say "I want Chick-munks!" over and over until you go restart the movie for him.
I hate to say this, but I miss SpongeBob.
So, Dylan went to watch Chick-munks and Bob, bless his heart, came into the living room and told Elizabeth:
"Dylan is watching Chipmunks right now if you want to go watch it with him."
To which I said, "Yeah hurry, there's only going to be 10 more showings today!"
And we all laughed....
The baby started getting a smidge fussy during the afternoon and was wanting to nurse every HOUR. EVERY HOUR! Dude.
He'd fall asleep for 15 or 20 minutes afterward, then wake up howling. It was truly exhausting even though I was mostly just sitting there strapping a kid to my lady lumps.
I had already planned a dinner of spaghetti and sausage and in a brief moment of baby peace I went and got that started.
While I was putting away dishes, Dylan started yelling "It's poo! It's poo!!!"
Never a good sign.
I went into the living room and sure enough, there was a little poo on the couch. I said "Ok Dylan, it's poo. Get off the couch and don't touch!"
I wasn't sure WHERE the poo came from, and I didn't really care at this point. I got a paper towel from the kitchen and turned back to find that Dylan had SLID off of the couch leaving a lovely POO trail all over the couch cushion.
A ha! That's where the poo came from. He had pooed his underpants.
I didn't cry.
I called in reinforcements, aka Bob, and he took the rogue pooer into the bathroom and cleaned him up (via shower sprayer) while I unzipped the couch cushions and threw them into the washing machine. We were both gagging. Poo is sick.
Poo crisis handled, I returned to dishes and dinner (I washed my hands don't worry!) I had dinner all cooking when we realized that our phone had no dial tone. Again.
So WHILE I nursed the cranky-again baby I called the cable company to find out what was wrong with the dang phone. Long story short, we had to power cycle our phone modem, again.
What a pain.
During that phone call, the timer for dinner went off. After I hung up on the phone guy I told Bob that dinner was ready. I was still stuck on the couch nursing.
Bob made himself up a big plate of food and came back to sit down on the couch.
He set the plate on the arm of the couch.
I said:
"You didn't get the kids anything to eat?"
He said:
"Ah, screw those kids!"
And as he was getting up to fix them some bowls of noodles, he accidentally tipped the plate off the arm of the couch and ALL OVER HIMSELF.
HOT SPAGHETTI SAUCE! Molten hot lava!
There were some bad bad words said and he went into the bathroom saying them, leaving a pile of noodles and sauce all over the couch cushion.
Ugh.
About a minute later he came back out and we cleaned up the noodle mess together. Ugh, what a mess. I unzipped ANOTHER couch cushion and threw it into the washer.
Luckily, there was enough food for everyone to eat, even after the incident.
The rest of the evening went mostly without further insanity.
The kids and Bob went out to water the garden and enjoy the sunset turning the clouds pink. Then they sat in Bob's truck listening to the kid songs on Sirius radio. Eventually, the baby gave up on Boobie Quest 2008 and fell asleep in his bassinet. Bob put the kids to bed and we went to sleep not too long after that, exhausted and lightly scented with tomato sauce.
Thursday, March 27, 2008
Stresssssssssssssssssss
All this living is really taking its toll on me.
Stressing out babies, stressing out.
Last night I could NOT get to sleep at all. I tossed and turned for awhile in bed. Then got up and read Time Magazine. Then watched the Gauntlet III reunion show on MTV. Then watched "Jon and Kate Plus Eight" until almost 3 am on the couch. That show makes me feel simultaneously better about my life and totally inadequate and whiney.
Then I tossed and turned some more before I finally passed out in bed.
What was on my mind? Absolutely nothing. Just couldn't get to that tipping point of actually falling asleep.
I forgot the kids' TB test appointment at the county. Totally forgot.
Maybe I secretly don't want to know. Gotta reschedule that....
We've got a stack of bills sitting here, waiting to get paid...yeah...I'm slacking on that.
I haven't made dinner for these people who live with me since Easter Sunday when I made a ham and it was snubbed by the little people. I guess I felt subconciously (or conciously) offended and decided they could go fend for themselves.
Monday night we had a pizza. Tuesday I had a salad and the kids ate 50 yogurts all afternoon so they weren't hungry at all for dinner. Bob was though...he was mad.
Last night they all had a giant plate of chicken nuggets and I ate some of the leftover ham. It was good.
Tonight I am making a turkey. Maybe I can only pull off big giant meals lately? Who knows. I'm going crazy.
The baby is big enough now that EVERY move is rearranging my internal organs but still small enough that he's not cramped up in there yet. So he's swimming from stern to bow, so to speak, and making me queasy and uneasy. So sorry Chikezie.
On top of that I've got a raging sinus infection that migrated into my chest, giving me a lovely hacking cough that is OH SO PAINFUL.
Everytime I cough not only does it burn in my chest, but it also pulls every stretched out ligament surrounding my uterus which burns!!!!!!!!!! and SEARS!!!!!!!!!!!! and makes me want to cry. Sometimes I do.
Luckily I've taken a step back from my online custom item sales. Meaning, I'm not really selling to order anymore. You can't have it YOUR way at my BK Lounge anymore.
I'm only selling what I've already got made. So there. Take that.
I've only got one big order to finish and I have about three weeks to finish it up. I should be done by Sunday. Whoo! Nice and no pressure.
Then I have to make a charity raffle item and I'm done with my list of Things To Make for Store. Yay!
I actually just listed a bunch of new stuff, so if you're at all interested in anything cool you should at least go check it out. Preferably all at once, so I seem like a big deal. How about 1:37 pm exactly? Great! It's a date.
I still have to print out, sign and mail in our stupid federal tax form. Though, they already sent us our refund. How EXACTLY does that work? Where's my motivation?
I'll get to that. I just have to disconnect the internet from the computer that works, hook it up to the one that sort of works but has the printer software attached to it, then print out the form really fast before the computer that sort of works dies. Should take around 15 minutes. Just can't get myself to go there, yet.
Whatsoever I can safely pass off to Bob, I have done so. Bob = He who is in charge of driving around town and paying bills...All of our utilities are now local businesses so that's awesome...OH, except the aforementioned bullsh water bill...that's a horse of an entirely different color.
Bob is also in charge of turning in our health insurance paperwork and buying toilet paper. He is GREAT at that. I bought some milk at the Dollar General the other day and got a little rap on the knuckles for not checking the expiration date. March 22. On milk I bought on March 24. Eep.
So he can be in charge of milk purchases from now on as well.
At least I finally caught up on laundry yesterday! Whooo hooo! At least I don't have SIX Dylans trying to jump out windows and reverse climb trees (that means fall out of them) and rummaging through the fridge for the Sno-Cone juice which he would like to drink straight. Ew. And it's blue! Nice and tidy.
I think I'm done complaining now.
Yeah.
I'm done.
Stressing out babies, stressing out.
Last night I could NOT get to sleep at all. I tossed and turned for awhile in bed. Then got up and read Time Magazine. Then watched the Gauntlet III reunion show on MTV. Then watched "Jon and Kate Plus Eight" until almost 3 am on the couch. That show makes me feel simultaneously better about my life and totally inadequate and whiney.
Then I tossed and turned some more before I finally passed out in bed.
What was on my mind? Absolutely nothing. Just couldn't get to that tipping point of actually falling asleep.
I forgot the kids' TB test appointment at the county. Totally forgot.
Maybe I secretly don't want to know. Gotta reschedule that....
We've got a stack of bills sitting here, waiting to get paid...yeah...I'm slacking on that.
I haven't made dinner for these people who live with me since Easter Sunday when I made a ham and it was snubbed by the little people. I guess I felt subconciously (or conciously) offended and decided they could go fend for themselves.
Monday night we had a pizza. Tuesday I had a salad and the kids ate 50 yogurts all afternoon so they weren't hungry at all for dinner. Bob was though...he was mad.
Last night they all had a giant plate of chicken nuggets and I ate some of the leftover ham. It was good.
Tonight I am making a turkey. Maybe I can only pull off big giant meals lately? Who knows. I'm going crazy.
The baby is big enough now that EVERY move is rearranging my internal organs but still small enough that he's not cramped up in there yet. So he's swimming from stern to bow, so to speak, and making me queasy and uneasy. So sorry Chikezie.
On top of that I've got a raging sinus infection that migrated into my chest, giving me a lovely hacking cough that is OH SO PAINFUL.
Everytime I cough not only does it burn in my chest, but it also pulls every stretched out ligament surrounding my uterus which burns!!!!!!!!!! and SEARS!!!!!!!!!!!! and makes me want to cry. Sometimes I do.
Luckily I've taken a step back from my online custom item sales. Meaning, I'm not really selling to order anymore. You can't have it YOUR way at my BK Lounge anymore.
I'm only selling what I've already got made. So there. Take that.
I've only got one big order to finish and I have about three weeks to finish it up. I should be done by Sunday. Whoo! Nice and no pressure.
Then I have to make a charity raffle item and I'm done with my list of Things To Make for Store. Yay!
I actually just listed a bunch of new stuff, so if you're at all interested in anything cool you should at least go check it out. Preferably all at once, so I seem like a big deal. How about 1:37 pm exactly? Great! It's a date.
I still have to print out, sign and mail in our stupid federal tax form. Though, they already sent us our refund. How EXACTLY does that work? Where's my motivation?
I'll get to that. I just have to disconnect the internet from the computer that works, hook it up to the one that sort of works but has the printer software attached to it, then print out the form really fast before the computer that sort of works dies. Should take around 15 minutes. Just can't get myself to go there, yet.
Whatsoever I can safely pass off to Bob, I have done so. Bob = He who is in charge of driving around town and paying bills...All of our utilities are now local businesses so that's awesome...OH, except the aforementioned bullsh water bill...that's a horse of an entirely different color.
Bob is also in charge of turning in our health insurance paperwork and buying toilet paper. He is GREAT at that. I bought some milk at the Dollar General the other day and got a little rap on the knuckles for not checking the expiration date. March 22. On milk I bought on March 24. Eep.
So he can be in charge of milk purchases from now on as well.
At least I finally caught up on laundry yesterday! Whooo hooo! At least I don't have SIX Dylans trying to jump out windows and reverse climb trees (that means fall out of them) and rummaging through the fridge for the Sno-Cone juice which he would like to drink straight. Ew. And it's blue! Nice and tidy.
I think I'm done complaining now.
Yeah.
I'm done.
Sunday, December 30, 2007
Christmas Blur
This last week has been a total blur of presents, wrapping paper and cookies...my GOD THE COOKIES!!!
My mom came into town Saturday with her dog Maggie. The dog is at least 15 years old, so she's slow and low. That is her tempo. She mostly sleeps all day, but my kids adore her shaggy self, so that was an early Christmas present for them!
Sunday we spent ALL day making cookies. Sugar cookies, coconut macaroons, gingerbread cookies, cream cheese cookies...and on and on...it was a Cookie Party! Without that Silverman chick.
Monday was even more cookies to make, and it being Christmas Eve, Bob took the kids to his dad's rural homestead in BFE nowheresville for a lovely Christmas Eve lunch and present opening. They ended up arriving back at home after 6 (well after darkness fell) so Mom and I enjoyed seven fun-filled hours of present wrapping, cookie making, dish cleaning and watching HGTV. Fun fun fun!!
My brother arrived Christmas Eve around 10 pm. The boy runs on his own clock, what can I say. His big adventure was clipping an elk's antler on the way up from Phoenix. In his ex-girlfriend's car! Good times!
Soon after he arrived, everyone went to sleep dreaming of sugar plums and Santa and wrapping paper and cookies...dear Lord! The COOKIES!!
Christmas Day we opened a slew of presents. The most puzzling of which was an Easy-Bake Oven for Elizabeth (she's not yet 4, the E-B O is for age 8+) from my FIL and his wife. Strange. Can I closet it for four years without incident. Perhaps.
I put a turkey in the oven and we awaited the remainder of our company (my BIL and his wife and child). Nice and low-key. While the turkey roasted, Dylan took a nap and Bob and my brother went up to the ski resort to snowboard. Bob used to be an instructor, Greg had never been before. It was about 10 degrees up there. Needless to say, they weren't gone long and it's about an hour drive to get there.
They claimed to have had fun, but we'll never really know!
Everyone else arrived around 3 pm. We opened another round of presents and watched holiday shows while we snacked on hors d'oeuvres (that's OR DERVES).
Then we broke for the evening around 7 pm. My brother left to go back to Phoenix around 6, just after the turkey feast-o-rama.
Since then it has just been hanging out at home, playing with the new toys and going to the grocery store. We're chilling.
There is football to be watched today (damn Patriots!) and a Prime Rib to be made for New Years Eve. Last night we had a big ol brown sugar glazed ham. I think I've gained three pounds in two weeks. Ugh.
At least I can blame it on the blossoming child.
This week is even more fun in store with Dylan's second birthday on Wednesday and my ultrasound appointment on Thursday.
I've just been handed a poopy diapered child, so I guess that's all the update you get for now.
Peace out. Peace on Earth.
My mom came into town Saturday with her dog Maggie. The dog is at least 15 years old, so she's slow and low. That is her tempo. She mostly sleeps all day, but my kids adore her shaggy self, so that was an early Christmas present for them!
Sunday we spent ALL day making cookies. Sugar cookies, coconut macaroons, gingerbread cookies, cream cheese cookies...and on and on...it was a Cookie Party! Without that Silverman chick.
Monday was even more cookies to make, and it being Christmas Eve, Bob took the kids to his dad's rural homestead in BFE nowheresville for a lovely Christmas Eve lunch and present opening. They ended up arriving back at home after 6 (well after darkness fell) so Mom and I enjoyed seven fun-filled hours of present wrapping, cookie making, dish cleaning and watching HGTV. Fun fun fun!!
My brother arrived Christmas Eve around 10 pm. The boy runs on his own clock, what can I say. His big adventure was clipping an elk's antler on the way up from Phoenix. In his ex-girlfriend's car! Good times!
Soon after he arrived, everyone went to sleep dreaming of sugar plums and Santa and wrapping paper and cookies...dear Lord! The COOKIES!!
Christmas Day we opened a slew of presents. The most puzzling of which was an Easy-Bake Oven for Elizabeth (she's not yet 4, the E-B O is for age 8+) from my FIL and his wife. Strange. Can I closet it for four years without incident. Perhaps.
I put a turkey in the oven and we awaited the remainder of our company (my BIL and his wife and child). Nice and low-key. While the turkey roasted, Dylan took a nap and Bob and my brother went up to the ski resort to snowboard. Bob used to be an instructor, Greg had never been before. It was about 10 degrees up there. Needless to say, they weren't gone long and it's about an hour drive to get there.
They claimed to have had fun, but we'll never really know!
Everyone else arrived around 3 pm. We opened another round of presents and watched holiday shows while we snacked on hors d'oeuvres (that's OR DERVES).
Then we broke for the evening around 7 pm. My brother left to go back to Phoenix around 6, just after the turkey feast-o-rama.
Since then it has just been hanging out at home, playing with the new toys and going to the grocery store. We're chilling.
There is football to be watched today (damn Patriots!) and a Prime Rib to be made for New Years Eve. Last night we had a big ol brown sugar glazed ham. I think I've gained three pounds in two weeks. Ugh.
At least I can blame it on the blossoming child.
This week is even more fun in store with Dylan's second birthday on Wednesday and my ultrasound appointment on Thursday.
I've just been handed a poopy diapered child, so I guess that's all the update you get for now.
Peace out. Peace on Earth.
Saturday, January 27, 2007
This is just ONE day of my life...
Friday morning.
I woke up at 7am, for no particular reason. Friday is my day off.
Bang zip! In a flash, Elizabeth is awake, Dylan is awake!
Whooo hooo!
Cereal, milk and bananas are tossed at the wild monkey babies. I guzzle coffee, like it was air and I was Arnold on Mars in Total Recall when he got ejected from the bio dome and he couldn't breathe and his eyes popped out of his head. Like that.
I had to go into town to pick up my paycheck (paycheck! cha-ching!) and run some errands. I told Elizabeth that we would leave in a WHILE which she interpreted as "Get on your heaviest winter coat immediately, we are going to town to eat candy pizza and hang out with the Care Bears!" She was stoked.
She looked pretty much like this:
So now I have an eskimo two year old pushing me out the door when I'm not even out of my pajamas OR wearing shoes.
I reluctantly got dressed, dressed Dylan and got ready to go out to the car when Bob said:
"You can't take the car today! I'm fixing it!"
*exasperation*
I pile myself, Elizabeth and Dylan (in his HUGE car seat) into Bob's Toyota Tacoma, not the extra cab either, just the regular cab. The REGULAR!
The whole way into town Elizabeth is kicking the gear shift and wanting to change the radio station.
Dylan was pulling Elizabeth's hair.
I was losing my mind.
I stopped at the cash gas station (where you get a discount when you pay in cash) and I pulled up to the pump on the wrong side. Dammit!
So I turned the truck around to the RIGHT side.
Got out, put in my money and it got spit right back out to me. Damn machine! You don't take $50s! What the hell. I'm paying in pennies next time. I had no other denominations. I was screwed.
So, with a quarter tank of gas and a light prayer, we continued our adventure.
We got to my office, picked up my paycheck (cha-ching!) and spent some time with the sad sorry people who actually have to work on Fridays. Lame.
Then it's off to Wal-Mart!
We actually got in and out of there very quickly and I got a great new scent of body wash/lotion for a low low rollback price instead of paying Bath and Body Works' ridiculously high price for their delicious wares. Same scent half the price.
When we got back out to the car, some idiot had parked next to the truck and left his mean, mangy mutt in the car. That dog barked incessantly at us the whole time I was loading up the bags and the children. Elizabeth was screaming at the dog "SHUT UP! BE QUIET!!! CALM DOOOOOOOOWWWWWN!" But that didn't work.
So, I went to the gas station, again, this time with a $20...no they don't take pennies either. Damn discriminatory monetary policy!
Threw $20 aka 8.972 gallons of gas into the truck and it was on to the BANK!
(I love errand days)
After an uneventful stop at the drive thru ATM (which incidentally is MUCH MUCH easier in the high profile truck than the LOW LOW profile (so low we can't go through the automatic car wash) of the Mazda) we headed on to Dollar General!
I love Dollar General.
I got three movies, three wooden puzzles and some candy for like $25. That's ridiculous.
While we were on line, Dylan somehow twisted himself in the little cart seat so that he was turned around facing the wrong way and half his body was falling out of the cart. He freaked, I saved him.
I didn't notice that my son was about two seconds from tumbling to the concrete because I was asking the cashier if Elizabeth could run something across the scanner (we had JUST used the self checkout at Wal-Mart and Elizabeth LOVES to use the "booper" to "boop" things") The cashier declined, apparently, the task is too serious to be relegated to a two-year old...fair enough...
But it's not SO serious that the good managers of Dollar General put any thought into merchandise shrinkage aka shoplifting.
I learned on this trip to the DG that they only have ONE person working at Dollar General at a time and after she rings you up she leaves you on Scouts honor and goes back to restocking the shelves in the back of the store.
Seriously, I thought about shoplifting so much Dollar General crap. Like $7 worth.
But I didn't. Don't worry. I'm a community member and all that...
I guess that the mere thought of lifting some merchandise was enough to throw a karma boomerang at me though because once we got out the doors of the Dollar General, all hell broke loose. Well, not ALL hell, but some of it.
I parked the cart (wagon, buggy) in a little packed snow drift and went to open the truck doors. I got TWO steps away from the cart when I heard screaming and crying.
I turned around and saw that the cart had tipped over and Dylan was now face first into the snow, Elizabeth had been flung out of the cart and was laying in the parking lot.
Holy crap!
I scooped up the kids, brushed off the snow, grabbed my items and got the hell out of there! I left the cart laying in the snow. Defective!
No deers, elks, cows or anything ran in front of the car on the way home. When we finally did arrive home it was only around 12:30 pm. I had been awake for 5.5 hours and I had already almost killed my son twice, contemplated shoplifting, fought a child over proper gear shift etiquette and made an ass of myself at the gas station.
Lord have mercy.
The rest of the day was pretty quiet. No tumbling falls, no shark attacks, no felonies.
I was glad, and surprised!
I woke up at 7am, for no particular reason. Friday is my day off.
Bang zip! In a flash, Elizabeth is awake, Dylan is awake!
Whooo hooo!
Cereal, milk and bananas are tossed at the wild monkey babies. I guzzle coffee, like it was air and I was Arnold on Mars in Total Recall when he got ejected from the bio dome and he couldn't breathe and his eyes popped out of his head. Like that.
I had to go into town to pick up my paycheck (paycheck! cha-ching!) and run some errands. I told Elizabeth that we would leave in a WHILE which she interpreted as "Get on your heaviest winter coat immediately, we are going to town to eat candy pizza and hang out with the Care Bears!" She was stoked.
She looked pretty much like this:
So now I have an eskimo two year old pushing me out the door when I'm not even out of my pajamas OR wearing shoes.
I reluctantly got dressed, dressed Dylan and got ready to go out to the car when Bob said:
"You can't take the car today! I'm fixing it!"
*exasperation*
I pile myself, Elizabeth and Dylan (in his HUGE car seat) into Bob's Toyota Tacoma, not the extra cab either, just the regular cab. The REGULAR!
The whole way into town Elizabeth is kicking the gear shift and wanting to change the radio station.
Dylan was pulling Elizabeth's hair.
I was losing my mind.
I stopped at the cash gas station (where you get a discount when you pay in cash) and I pulled up to the pump on the wrong side. Dammit!
So I turned the truck around to the RIGHT side.
Got out, put in my money and it got spit right back out to me. Damn machine! You don't take $50s! What the hell. I'm paying in pennies next time. I had no other denominations. I was screwed.
So, with a quarter tank of gas and a light prayer, we continued our adventure.
We got to my office, picked up my paycheck (cha-ching!) and spent some time with the sad sorry people who actually have to work on Fridays. Lame.
Then it's off to Wal-Mart!
We actually got in and out of there very quickly and I got a great new scent of body wash/lotion for a low low rollback price instead of paying Bath and Body Works' ridiculously high price for their delicious wares. Same scent half the price.
When we got back out to the car, some idiot had parked next to the truck and left his mean, mangy mutt in the car. That dog barked incessantly at us the whole time I was loading up the bags and the children. Elizabeth was screaming at the dog "SHUT UP! BE QUIET!!! CALM DOOOOOOOOWWWWWN!" But that didn't work.
So, I went to the gas station, again, this time with a $20...no they don't take pennies either. Damn discriminatory monetary policy!
Threw $20 aka 8.972 gallons of gas into the truck and it was on to the BANK!
(I love errand days)
After an uneventful stop at the drive thru ATM (which incidentally is MUCH MUCH easier in the high profile truck than the LOW LOW profile (so low we can't go through the automatic car wash) of the Mazda) we headed on to Dollar General!
I love Dollar General.
I got three movies, three wooden puzzles and some candy for like $25. That's ridiculous.
While we were on line, Dylan somehow twisted himself in the little cart seat so that he was turned around facing the wrong way and half his body was falling out of the cart. He freaked, I saved him.
I didn't notice that my son was about two seconds from tumbling to the concrete because I was asking the cashier if Elizabeth could run something across the scanner (we had JUST used the self checkout at Wal-Mart and Elizabeth LOVES to use the "booper" to "boop" things") The cashier declined, apparently, the task is too serious to be relegated to a two-year old...fair enough...
But it's not SO serious that the good managers of Dollar General put any thought into merchandise shrinkage aka shoplifting.
I learned on this trip to the DG that they only have ONE person working at Dollar General at a time and after she rings you up she leaves you on Scouts honor and goes back to restocking the shelves in the back of the store.
Seriously, I thought about shoplifting so much Dollar General crap. Like $7 worth.
But I didn't. Don't worry. I'm a community member and all that...
I guess that the mere thought of lifting some merchandise was enough to throw a karma boomerang at me though because once we got out the doors of the Dollar General, all hell broke loose. Well, not ALL hell, but some of it.
I parked the cart (wagon, buggy) in a little packed snow drift and went to open the truck doors. I got TWO steps away from the cart when I heard screaming and crying.
I turned around and saw that the cart had tipped over and Dylan was now face first into the snow, Elizabeth had been flung out of the cart and was laying in the parking lot.
Holy crap!
I scooped up the kids, brushed off the snow, grabbed my items and got the hell out of there! I left the cart laying in the snow. Defective!
No deers, elks, cows or anything ran in front of the car on the way home. When we finally did arrive home it was only around 12:30 pm. I had been awake for 5.5 hours and I had already almost killed my son twice, contemplated shoplifting, fought a child over proper gear shift etiquette and made an ass of myself at the gas station.
Lord have mercy.
The rest of the day was pretty quiet. No tumbling falls, no shark attacks, no felonies.
I was glad, and surprised!
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