Domestic Disturbance

I am working every afternoon this week, which has its pros and cons.
Heavy on the list of pros is that it is a huge chunk of cash that I can use for a new fall wardrobe for me and the ladies or an iPhone for Tim. I also get a few minutes to myself in the stupid commute during the middle of the day (seriously, where in the fuck is everyone going? It is insane how much traffic I encounter at noon). And I guess maybe that is it for the pros, because, as my dad says "They don't call it work because you are going to vacation".
The cons are more numerous....
First I have had to find someone to watch the girls from noon until 4 each day. While my mom immediately volunteered she then provided me with this bizarre list of hours in which she couldn't be there. So how it has broken down is that my mom is doing 3 days, my mother in law is doing the other two. While I have my little teeny bopper who is also available, I am reluctant to use her after the most recent disasters when she has sat for us (did I tell you about what a deadbeat she is? I mean, sure, Abby is wandering around a balcony and riding elevators unsupervised, but this chick is worse). Anyway, would it kill either of the Grandmas to pick up a fucking toy. Sure, my mom always does the dishes when she comes over, but the rest of my house looks like a bomb went off. My MIL was here today and I swear she took out every toy she has ever bought them (that I didn't return back to Kohl's) and threw them around the house. I know that it is difficult to get Abby to clean up sometimes, but seriously, I can do it, why can't anyone else?
In the same vane, the dishes are making me crazy. Sunday night I asked Tim if he would please just unload the dishwasher (something he rarely does, if ever). He told me he would do it before he went to bed. We had been down the stairs watching the world's worst television show, ever, and he went upstairs while I finished printing something. I thought for sure he was going to be emptying the dishwasher when I came up, but instead he was passed out across our bed slack jawed and snoring in a way that I swear he hid from me so that I would marry him because if I had seen it before we got married I seriously would have thought twice. I'll try to get a picture for you....
So I emptied the dishwasher and seriously as I was closing the cabinet after putting the last thing away, Tim appeared and said, "I was gonna do that". Really? What about his passed out body language said "I'm gonna go empty the dishwasher now"? was it the deep throaty snores? Maybe the drool coming out of the side of his mouth? Hmm, maybe I missed something?
Last night we had a similar mishap when he just left his dishes form the microwaved crap he made himself for dinner on the counter for me to tend to. When I (calmly) asked him this evening if in the future he would please just rinse his stuff and put it in the dishwasher, I would really appreciate it. He was sheepish at first then got really mad and told me that he was so sorry that he did not meet my expectations, but there were plenty of times when I did not meet his.
And seriously I am debating surprising him with an iPhone? What the hell is wrong with me?
At any rate, since we had this conversation we have been passive aggressively parenting, and he is trying to be super dad when all the girls want is me. He is now gloating as he reads Abby her bedtime stories. Little does he know that if I have to read Priscilla: Superstar one more time I might scream.
I have to go get ready for belly dancing class anyway.

Alls Well That Ends Well

Abby spent Monday night at my mom's house, and I thought it went off without a hitch, but alas what happens at Grammy's stays at Grammy's.
From what I have been able to piece together, Abby didn't want to accompany my mom down to the parking lot to get her purse so my mom left her alone in her apartment while she ran downstairs. I guess Abby saw a spider on her balcony (yes, my daughter was playing completely unsupervised on my mom's BALCONY) and kind of freaked out so she walked out of my mom's apartment and hopped on the elevator to the basement parking garage. The problem was that my mom had gone to the outdoor lot, and Abby had gone to the garage which once you go to you can't get back on the elevator without the "magic key". So apparently some lady found Abby in the garage and took her to the doorman who knew her and took her to my mom who was talking to her neighbor in the hallway.
Now I am not sure what kind of time frame this all fit in, was it an hour? 20 minutes? 5 minutes? Who knows? I guess one of the bigger issues here (besides the obvious) is that Abby never mentioned this. Even after my mom told us about it (finally) and I asked Abby about it she really had nothing to say about it. IS that weird?

quirks

Have you ever seen this book? It is truly one of my favorite random books ever. It really is an encyclopedia of all kinds of different things, one of which is about sending a package to someone without a note enclosed. She finds it irritating when someone sends her something and doesn't at least enclose a scrap of paper with it to acknowledge the recipient. I have been thinking about this a lot lately as I have been on this eBay binge and everything that I have gotten just comes in an envelope with not so much as a post it saying "Thank you". Why does this bother me, and why have I spent the better part of my afternoon thinking about it?

I have been sewing a lot lately which leads me to a quandary. I have exhausted most of the local fabric stores, with the exception of Wal Mart, for my various sewing needs, but now I have hit a wall. Since I am not finding exactly what I need locally, and I need it faster than on line can get it to me, can I abandon my convictions and actually set foot in Wal Mart? I am so very against everything they as a corporation stand for, but as my sister once told me, "desperate times call for desperate measures". She told me this the last time I asked her to absolve me of my guilt about even thinking of setting foot in there, but I still couldn't bring myself to buy anything there. Why am I so weird about Wal Mart?

I have to go to work shortly, and I would be lying if I said I was not slightly nervous about my sitting situation. This spring a friend of mine asked me if I needed any babysitting this summer because her 15 year old daughter was looking for work. A sitter that I am not related to in any way who will not have an opinion about where I am going or what I am wearing, sign me up! So I have her set to watch the girls for the hour a week I work. I go and get her and she plays in the park at the rec center while I teach my class. This set up has totally worked for me in the past, and this summer should be no different, but this girls is kind of useless. I don't think she knows that I can see her from the window while I am teaching, and I can see how she sits on a swing playing with her cell phone while my kids run around the park barely supervised. I know I have to say something to her, but I hate being that mom. Why can't I deal with this head on and either "fire" her or talk to her about what she is doing wrong?

Nora is an only child today since my mom took Abby up to the children's museum in Milwaukee, and I am starting to feel guilty about the fact that as I sat down to write this she started making noise from her nap and I have completely ignored it. Now she is really awake, and while she does not sound unhappy, she is getting a little more vocal about her need for attention. Why am I not taking advantage of the few precious moments we have alone together? And why have I completely wasted my afternoon?

No Good Deed Goes Unpunished

My never ending quest for the betterment of myself and the desire to set a good example for my children has led me to this group of ladies who get together and plan events to raise money for a local community college. I kind of got pushed into it by Tony because his girlfriend is in charge of this program. He knows I like to volunteer and thought I might get along with his chick. And he is right, I do like her, I guess, I just don't know her all that well, and I think that it is assumed that we will be friends because we have Tony as our common denominator. It is always kind or precarious, becoming friends with someones significant other. I have a whole menagerie of Tim's friend's wives, girlfriends and exes who kind of make me crazy.
Anyway, I went to this thing yesterday where these ladies were putting together baskets for an auction. I was happy to help, but it was supposed to be an all day affair which is kind of difficult when you have two young children, and a car pool to run to camp. I was kind of in and out, but it is not like the time that I was there was spent being useless. I put baskets together, I cleaned up, I did what I was told.
Since I am kind of new to the group I keep a low profile and just kind of do my thing, but there was this one woman who would not get out of my grill. Everything I did she would come over to point out how it could have been done better, or differently. And everything I touched seemed to be her pet project that I was screwing up. This is what I hate about these groups- it is a volunteer thing and all these old ladies complain about there not being any new volunteers, but when new ones come they become all stodgy and unwelcoming.
The fun didn't stop there, she also took this basket that I had put together and took it apart to get the stuffing in the bottom. She left the contents strewn about the table and then walked around asking everyone when I was going to put it together. Also, I ran into a friend of mine from hockey while I was there. He and I took a minute to catch up about a mutual friend's battle with Cancer, and she kept walking by asking what he was doing there, and why I wasn't helping. I have never met such s sour woman. She was also not thrilled that I had to leave to go run the camp carpool, apparently she never had kids that she had to cart around.
This may have been my first and last deal with this group, not only because this woman was SO awful , but also because I am slightly uncomfortable working with Tony's girlfriend. More because this woman was so terrible.
Why is it so hard to give my time away?

Stats

Twice in one night! I haven't blogged this much in weeks!
So it is no secret that I have Sitemeter on here, and once upon a time I checked it regularly. Now I can't remember the password so I checking it is a process, and I just don't do it that often. I don't really care if 2 or 2million people visit me in a day, I am just intrigued by where they are from geographically, and how they go here.
So since I am using my old computer while Tim toils away on the Macbook I decided to see who has been visiting me. There were two things on there that made me laugh...

The first is that I think a boyfriend from college has found me here. Either he or his wife check up on me which is lovely. I have been curious about what he has been up to since his military stint. I am also interested to hear his take on the war is, seeing as he was convinced that he was never going to see anything like that when he enlisted several years ago. If you fit this description, and are either ex boyfriend, or wife, hi, how are you? I hope life is treating you well. Drop me an email if you want to chat. Seriously, it is not weird. The silence is weirder.

The second thing is that we had dinner with our famous friends Saturday night, and Charles checked my blog today to see if I have written about it yet. We went to this local place that is going to be on her show then came back to our house to visit. It is always weird when people come to our house after a babysitter has been here because nothing is ever where I remember putting it, and no one is there to wipe off the bathroom counter after Abby brushes her teeth before bed. While we were talking Alpana candidly spoke about how they don't go outside when it is hot out. This was refreshing to hear because all too often people are all about going and bike riding and frolicking in the park when it is pushing 97 degrees outside. Seriously, what is wrong with wanting to be airconditioned? The answer to that: nothing.
I also had to laugh the next day when they did not go to Cicero because it was too hot to drive (in the airconditioned Chach12) to an airconditioned restaurant. Which is exactly why I joined the exodus to the movie theater so that we could watch Ratatouille in the comfort of corporate A/C.
As always it was a lovely evening with them, and I enjoyed sharing photos of Charles during his teen angst years. I also loved getting the behind the scene scoop on the Food and Wine Festivals they go to. Who knew Morimoto was so popular....

The iPhone Affair

Tim is a big fan of having the latest and greatest in technology. For the most part this doesn't bug me unless he is frivilously spending money on crap we don't need. Awhile ag he started an iPhone Fund and was set to buy one when they came out a few weeks ago.
For whatever reason the topic of the iPhone came up at work and his father and his uncle both railed Tim for wanting one. His dad went on and on about how ridiculous it was to have a phone like that,and that all he needs is a plain phone that he can make calls on. He doesn't need one of those "over priced pieces of garbage". His dad drove this point home over the next few days, reminding Tim that it was a foolish purchase, and that he didn't need one. This pretty much ruined the iPhone for Tim, but not enough to not want one anymore. Life, being what it is sometimes, caused the iPhone Fund to get sucked up into the Medical Bills From Nora's Stint in the Hospital fund. That, paired with Tim's dad's vocal disapproval, put the iPhone off the table for a while.
Do you see where this is going?
So today Tim comes home from work and tells me that his dad is upset because he went to buy an iPhone today, but can't get one because of his calling plan. He is now thinking about eliminating his corporate account (that is not really for corporate use, it is just so that he can have 4 phones at once, as well as one for his estranged wife, and get a break on the costs) so that he can get an iPhone because "it is an amazing piece of technology" (and his friend has one).
Why is this man such an asshole?
And why does Tim chose to make him a role model? (Actually, I can kind of answer that: I have always said about Tim that his greatest strength and his greatest weakness is his loyalty. It is truly one of his most endearing qualities, as well as the one that causes him the most aggravation.)
Tim is fairly good natured about the whole situation, and really it is not THAT big of a deal, but for anyone who has had to experience first hand how these people roll, you know how obnoxious this is.
I just hope the old guy can work the damn thing and isn't calling Tim at all hours for tech support (like he usually does).

Desperate Housewife

I am having one of those days where I feel like Lynette in the first season of Desperate Housewives. You know when she is taking all the Ritalin and has a freakout because her husband is traveling and her kids are screaming, all to the tune of The 59th Street Bridge Song.
Abby was overtired, I was crabby, Nora needed her nap to happen an hour before it did, and last an hour longer than Abby wanted it to.
We have been busy little bees since returning from camping. We have been to the pool, the carnival, the 4th of July festivities, the library, the movies, and several parks along the way. While we are having fun, I crave the routine that we settle in during the fall and winter months. Abby starts camp tomorrow, and I think it will be good for her to be around someone other than me.
When I was on the phone with my sister this evening she asked me how my marriage was, seeing as that is a thermometer for how anything else in my life is going, and while it is good, I told her that she would be able to read about a conversation Tim and I had this evening...I mentioned to him that I made a call to get the ball rolling in the direction of me going back to school. While I am not looking at enrolling anywhere full time, I am looking at taking some classes to get the gen eds down so that I can eventually get to nursing school (before I am 35, hopefully). He got all weird, and when I asked him what the trouble was he told me that he found it hard to believe that me taking classes would not interfere in the other stuff in my life. I kind of wanted to poke his eyes out. But really if me going back to school means that he has to actually put his dishes in the dishwasher, I think he'll live. I'll still be home so he can go out and play XBox.
This conversation compiled with a long day has done me in. I think Nora is coming down with something. He nose was runny, she isn't eating, and we had an unfortunate incident in the grocery store today (Diarrhea is bad. It is worse in a swim diaper. And worse than that is when it happens in the grocery cart). All signs are pointing to teeth, but knowing her she really has contracted the Kukamunga flu.
I posted new pictures on flickr, and if you are interested in matching a name with a face, Abby got to ride the bumper cars with Mrs. Materialism(note her Versace sunglasses, but you can't see the Coach diaper bag), and her boys and my girls had fun at the carnival together.
As Scarlett O'Hara says..."Tomorrow is another day."

Reconnaissance Mission

The Ladies and I joined my sister and her posse on their annual camping trip this past weekend. My goal was to check things out and see if we could make this an annual family vacation as well. I was kind of glad not to take Tim with, seeing as he has never really camped before and despite that would still know everything about everything.
We had a great time as you can see , and will be doing it again next year, a little longer, a little less dependent on my sister, and with Tim. We can't wait.
I really do have every intention of blogging about what has been going on around here, but tonight we are going out for dinner to fix up the kid Tim works with and a random chickie that I know, tomorrow is belly dancing, Wednesday is obviously a holiday, so I am hoping for Thursday to get my blogging act together, but we'll see....