Thursday, May 29, 2008

Thursday bullet points

Blah, bleck, funk, moody, what ever you want to call it, I am just not a happy camper. So, my bullet points for the day are going to be whiney. I have warned you...

  • moving -- yeah, it sucks.
  • staging a house and then having your cat destroy your new bench seat -- annoying
  • your husband acting as if the destruction of said bench seat is your fault because you know, that was OBVIOUSLY going to happen since the cat hasn't ever put one little pinky claw into the couch ... even more annoying
  • trying to keep your kids entertained and the house clean - completely impossible
  • counting the minutes until your kids nap and then being annoyed because you are bored with work and just want them to wake up -- makes you wonder if Sybil has come a-calling.
  • Trying to draft a settlement agreement seconds before your job ends for a pro bono case that MUST be finished and other attorneys requesting changes -- after 2 months of work -- oh watch my head explode.
  • Getting a call while at Fed Ex trying to get out that settlement agreement that someone is going to come to see your house in 20 minutes and it is a wreck because for once you said screw it, I will just clean tonight. UUGHHH
  • That person -- you know the one that will be there in 20 minutes.... yeah, didn't show up for more than an hour.

I warned you. That was my last 24 hours. If you would like me to go back to Tues I could talk about what an embarassment my kids behavior was when we were in my office. Or I could talk about the fact that I found out someone put in an offer on the house that B and I have declare "THE house" and we can't or won't counter it. Or the fact that I got roped into one more week in the office and I don't have even one full day of work left.

The only positive side to this is there may be a day care the might be able to take both of my boys in the next 2 months so YEAH, the boys might be moving with me instead of staying behind with B!!!! I haven't even broached that subject with B though.

Tuesday, May 27, 2008

The long weekend

Our long, holiday weekend was marked with lots of nothingness. We had 2 showings of the house - which result in abut 30 minutes of franctic running around to make sure everything is perfect and then running out of the house with the dogs and kids in tow -- but for the most part we just spent quiet time alone as a family.

Well, let me rephrase that -- there is no such thing as quiet time in this house anymore because L is always, always, always running his mouth, but as quiet as things will get for us in the near future.

We spent time with friends that we will soon be saying goodbye too, had friends visit and went to a kids birthday party. All in all it was a busy weekend, but it wasn't busy working on the house and that made it very nice.

Of course today opened with lots of showers this morning and therefore I know we will have an abundence of unused energy with the boys and that means by nerves will be almost frazzled by the time B walks in the door this evening.

Add to that, I plan on driving into the city with the boys today and pushing off nap times in order to visit my office with the kids one more time. Sounds like I have lost my dang mind huh?

Hey -- at least it is sure to give me blogging material for tomorrow right? And it has to be better then attempting to keep 2 kids contained on the train?

Friday, May 23, 2008

Who took my hubby?

B has gone missing. There is someone here in his place. They look an awful lot alike, but they aren't alie.

This new version/person is a lot more helpful. Tells me he appreciates all the mindnumbing hardwork I have been doing (what with staging a house, taking care of two kids and having a full time job -- even if that job is being worked these days in the early morning hours).

Today that version called me at 845 and asked me to get L ready. Five minutes later, B 2.0 showed up, took L for the day and left with me just R -- who is much much easier on my sanity and who is capable of entertaining himself for more than 5 minutes at a time. In other words, he practically gave me the day of my day job. Maybe I will do my real job during some normal hours -- what a concept.

Maybe R and I can finally head to the library for story time!

Thursday, May 22, 2008

darkest before the dawn??

Seriously, that saying better be true, otherwise I am shit out of luck.

The house is perfect, cleaned, staged and wonderful. Then last night our jack russell decided to play chicken with a skunk.

She lost. BAD!

Of course she also let herself back in the house through the doggie door before Brett and I had a clue what was going on and OMG does my house REEK. Skunk is bad, direct hit by a skunk in a beautiful clean house that is scheduled for an open house is beyond bad.

Needless to say, we canceled the open house. Hey, maybe the house will sell in the week that it is listed without the brokers seeing it first.

And maybe rainbows and unicorns will come flying out of my ass too.

Wednesday, May 21, 2008

why oh why

Don't I write anything and then save it... for a time when I am going bat shit crazy trying to do more than is really humanly possible.

We found a house to live in in PA! YEAH for that. Booo for the fact that unless I want to play russian roullete with carrying two mortgages (which some dumbass just actually approved me for! WHAT??? I thought mortgages were supposed to be HARD to get. Of course there is a contingent for approval. Only about $75,000 in cash at closing. Trust me -- if we have that minue 2 zeros at closing, I will be thrilled right now!), I gotta sell this house first.

The listing goes up today and the broker's open house is tomorrow.

Yep TOMORROW. All those -- well this can wait until it is ready to be shown is now 24 hours away (actually, it is now like 17 hours away, but hey who is counting.)

If this doesn't end up driving me to drink -- heavily at that -- I don't know what would.

Monday, May 19, 2008

You're not listening

How many times have you said that to a friend or a spouse or a family member?

I was told it no less then 5 times this past weekend. Were they right? I honestly don't know. At some point I think you get so comfortable with people (this case being my mom and my sister -- seriously -- can you be uncomfortable with them? I know I can't.) and maybe you do stop listen. Or maybe you hear the same refrain 100 times, that it gets old and you assume you know what is coming next.

I have 3 nieces. The middle one is like me (this is not meant to be a brag). She is so smart that she is bored out of her mind at school. She is supposed to be a grade behind where she is now -- but before she started kindergarten, my sister had her tested by the school. I believe she tested on the 4th grade level for math and the 3rd grade level for reading, but this was many years ago and I may be wrong (did you get that -- a 5 year old testing at a 10 year old level! Freak genius I tell you).

B had a similar fate with school -- utter boredom because he was too smart. I think that is a reason B and I get along because not many people get it. They think bored at school means dumb. Fortunately for me, I was stimulated outside of the class room by books -- hi, read Roots in 1 afternoon when I was 13 -- but B wasn't. B was just bored and he became lazy. Why work at it when it comes so easy. This is a man who slept through AP calculus and passed with flying colors (got an A in the class too), but never even finished his associates degree because even college was boring to him.

Anyways, The Saint sometimes calls me to figure out how to deal with the middle one. Personality-wise she is a smart mouth little brat -- just like I was when I was that age, or maybe even to this day. I don't say that because I don't love her. If anything, I feel the closest to her because I GET her. I do not get her oldest sister or her baby sister. Both are good at their own things, but aren't freakish geniuses like the middle one is.

Needless to say, this history lesson is because The Saint is having some problems with the middle one. Spelling problems, not doing the homework and then the trigger ... "well the TEACHER..." I think I did stop listening there. Blame the teacher, blame the doctor, blame everyone else in the world rather then take responsibility for it yourself.

I am not saying that The Saint does that, I am just saying I feel like I hear that refrain so freaking often that I probably did stop listening to what she said. Between message boards, neighbors and friends, if it isn't one thing, it is another and of course it is NEVER EVER the parents fault. I have got to get over getting pissed about that.

I don't think she wanted advice, just wanted to vent, and after I walked away from the situation I was able to rationally look at it again and think "this is my NIECE, not my child. This is NOT my problem -- it is The Saints problem and SHE needs to deal with it and I need to just keep my mouth shut." My walking away this time, was the best thing I did. Normally I walk away and I am done and I continue to get worked up and pissed off. This time I realized that while I need the walk away part, I did so without continuing to get worked up. If I stayed I would have just argued for arguments sake. I don't mind a verbal battle and will do it everyday of the week, but that wasn't what was needed in this situation.

So, if I am over this, why am I writing... I don't know really. I got to thinking about it and wondering about different things -- is this a family order thing or just a case of me not listening or a case of me jumping to conclusions. Needless to say -- what would you do to an 8+ year old who lies to her parents about not having homework, doesn't have any consequences from her teacher and is so smart that she is bored in school? I don't know the naturally consequences in this situation.

Friday, May 16, 2008

Temper tantrums for 2

R -- my sweet, always happy boy -- has turned the corner. He is learning too much from his brother and now he throws temper tantrum.

Even just a stern No gets him started with the tears and screaming. And of course a normal no is greated with a big smile over his shoulder and a giggle. Even a light flick on his hands is greated with such horrid screams that the neighbors much think I am beating the child senseless (trust me -- the neighbors know he is my Mama's boy and therefore gets away with murder).

I knew that it wouldn't last forever, but this happened entirely too quickly. R is still a baby in my mind and I am not ready for him to mimic his brother with the kicking, screaming fits.

Luckily he has also learned the giggle from his brother too and hearing them laugh together makes all these temper tantrums melt away in my mind.

Well, until the next one.

Thursday, May 15, 2008

My buttons -- consider them pushed

Terrible twos... we have all heard that phrase. When L turned two I knew the worst was coming, but it is only a year, right? And we all knew that a lot of the temper tantrums were a result of his inability to communicate with us.



HA. As the days pass, L is getting smarter. He knows the buttons to push and when to push them. He knows when he has gone as far as we are going to allow and magically turns into an angel. Dinner last night was the perfect example of that.



We had couscous for dinner. It is a favorite here and the boys gobble it up. L however, decided to decorate our kitchen with it. Then he followed that with dumping his milk on the table and the floor. Considering this was the third meal with similar dumped drinks and scattered food, I was done with it and he was sent to his room without dinner.



B asked if I planned on giving him a second chance (we never haven't given him a second chance). He got a stern talking to by B and surprisingly it was the most enjoyable meal we have had in more than a week.



He then finished dinner by getting down and running full speed at me with his arms spread to give me hugs and kisses.



Where that sweet boys was most of the day is anyones guess. Amazing the patience I have devoloped in 3 short weeks.

Wednesday, May 14, 2008

Could it be

Could it be that I am actually getting the hang of this working and staying at home with the kids? I don't think I even had to put L in his room for my own sanity reasons yesterday. The whining has decreased and honestly his speech has made such significant leaps in the last 3 weeks that even his speech therapist commented on his inability to just SHUT UP.

Don't get me wrong, I actually kinda miss my job, but this time at home is giving me a new appreciation for both my job and my kids.

This may end up being a more long term thing -- someone SAH that is -- because we are right now attempting to find a daycare for the boys. Apparently where we are moving to has a major shortage of daycare spots -- it sucks.

We will see though. I never explored a small private daycare here in NY and that might be our only option in PA. How do I trust my kids with someone I don't know without much oversight though. At least with The Wife, I shadowed her for a long time and felt like I did know her because of her husband. With daycares, even though it is a germ factory, there is a supervisor there and multiple people.

Keep your fingers crossed that my new firm can pull the appropriate stings and my kids get into the nicest, cleanest, most coveted daycare center. They are a client, so lets all hope that they want to help me out -- especially since I will be representing them in less then a month!

Monday, May 12, 2008

Moving on up

Four days of just me and the boys.

On Thursday morning I took the boys to PA to start house hunting. Considering I have a list of more than 40 houses that I like (narrowed down from a list of almost 150 in our price range), I knew I needed to start to slash through them. B wasn't able to make the trip with us, so it was more of a "absolutely can't live here" slashing. And considering one of the houses had such a mold issue that my mom and I were coughing and sneezing for hours afterwards, it actually proved fruitful.

And I have 2 favorite houses. We will see what B thinks this coming weekend.

However, house hunting with my boys -- no fun. L doesn't get that it isn't his house to run though and touch everything and most of the houses we looked at in PA were still quite lived in. It is hard for a 2.5 year old to understand that the playdough table sitting there in the corner is off limits for him. Around noon both days, my parents took the boys back to their house for lunch and naps while I finished up.

Needless to say, the boys were still with me through the weekend while B finished the last of the major fixes in the house and we are now 4 days away from our list date. I keep reminding myself that this final push is IT. After that, we are DONE and just need to stay on top of the cleaning and staging.

Moving is no fun and selling a house is really no fun, but I know in a few months it will all be over and not for nothing in just over a month, it will all be over for me and I will be on my way to a new job.

Thursday, May 8, 2008

We Interrupt This Program...

I don't know about you, but I was tired of reading about Mama needing a break. I decided to do something about it. I hacked in (with some help of course) and decided to write myself. It pays to know people in high places.

Just teasing. MomSmoo asked if I (the friend, N, from Arizona) would be a guest blogger today. I thought she was kidding. She had to be kidding. What on earth could I write about that would be entertaining for anyone?

I asked for topic ideas, and she decided I needed to write about my upcoming trip. So here it goes.

Hubby (T) and I are leaving for Seattle tomorrow. We board a cruise ship on Sunday and are sailing to Alaska for seven days. And here's the best part...we're leaving the kids at home. Yahoo!

The last few days have been compiled of making lists for me, lists for T and lists for the kids. We're leaving the kids with my in-laws and to say Grandma wants some serious lists of information is an understatement! It's taken me more than a week just to gather all the necessary information. Then another four days to get that information "approved."

I left Medical information and medical consent forms, medical cards and immunization cards, directions to the grocery store, directions to the gas station (she passes both of these each week when she comes to our house!), my sisters name and numbers, my neighbors names and numbers, an additional emergency number in case my sister and neighbor aren't around, closest urgent care, closest hospital, directions to their pediatrician, daily schedules, lists of foods they will eat for breakfast, lunch and dinner, directions to make said foods, I wrote out their nightly prayer, directions on how to clean the basement and all their toys, how to brush their teeth, how to feed the dog, how to do laundry, our itinerary, my cell phone number, T's cell phone number and the cell phone numbers of the six other people we are traveling with.

Are you kidding me?

She needs to know how to brush the kids' teeth? Or how to feed the dog and do laundry? That's just so crazy. But, I did it. I wrote it all out and then some. I wrote 15 pages worth of typed information.

Did you read that? 15 pages! Fifteen pages for 9 days away. It went through several revisions but it's done. It got done at 7:30 this morning. I finally got my kids taken care of. The kids that are staying behind.

Since then I've gotten to go grocery shopping so the kids have food in the house, taken a pack n play to my sister because the kids are staying with her for two of the days, done more of the kids' laundry and still haven't packed.

So now I am sitting on my bed, writing a guest post for my best friends blog, amid a sea of clothes I can't possibly fit into the suitcase I'd like to take, avoiding the fact that we leave in 13 hours. I have to pack my clothes, pack all the other necessary items for taking a vacation, do two more loads of laundry so T can pack, clean two bathrooms and make dinner. No problem,

With that said, back to your regularly scheduled program!

Monday, May 5, 2008

Mama needs a break

This morning, I got up at my normal time and got ready for work. I put makeup on, did my hair and headed out the door to catch the train -- an HOUR early. It is truly amazing how excited one can be to go to work when the alternative is staying home with 2 kids who seem to hate the change in their lives.

Granted L is clingy and whiney and it is likely because there is so so so much going on around us. We have been changing around the clothing placement in his room, all of his books are gone, there is next to no furniture in the living room and all of his toys have been moved to the basement. I continue to take him and his brother to the new "play room" and they don't seem to like being locked into the one room. Luckily this coming week is supposed to be nice and not gross, rainy and cold, so we may be able to get out of the house.

Add to that, L is missing his favorite dog. Sonny finally was put down on Wednesday evening, 2 days after he snapped at one of the other dogs and the same day as he barked for 3 hours consecutively at nothing at all. To say all signs flashed neon that he had a brain tumor is the understatement, but it was still hard to make the final decision.

But the fact remains that I have been counting down to today since B told me he took Monday off and I was going to be able to come to work. Who knew that I would actually look forward to seeing the co-irker even.

Now, it is time for me to put in a nice long 14-16 hour day so I have some more wiggle room this week as far as when I have to bill time. At least I will be in bed before 2 am today though.