Oh blah!

It's been a very bad night and I'm exhausted.

Kris kicked his ear infection but has been complaining of stomach aches on and off for the past two weeks. He was fine on Thanksgiving. The day after T-day, I let him go to the movies with a friend. The day after, he was complaining that a hamburger he ate at the mall didn't agree with him but was in decent spirits. Sunday, he was on the couch with a low grade temp and he took many trips to the bathroom. Yesterday, he came home from school and said he felt tired. We took his temp and he had a low grade fever of about 99. He ate dinner and an hour after dinner, said it didn't agree with him and he threw up. From that point on, he was throwing up every 5-10 minutes. I sent him to bed. I went to bed and slept an hour. Around 1am, he woke me up and said he couldn't stop throwing up. It was awful. His stomach wouldn't handle water. It wouldn't even tolerate his own saliva. Around 2:30, I called the hospital and they recommended I page the Dr. on call at my Dr's office. I did that prepared to take Kris to the ER if need be. The Dr. never called back. Luckily, Kris stopped throwing up around 4am. At 6am he woke me up to say he was able to take a sip of water. HOORAY! He's resting now but has a temp of a 100. I'm allowing him only fluids right now which he's not griping about. His stomach still hurts from all the puking but he says, the nausea he's been feeling on and off since Saturday morning is gone. I hope this is a step in the right direction for him.

Em is out for the day so I have some peace and quiet.

My week ...

I hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving. Last week must have been the most chaotic week ever!

The weekend before Thanksgiving I had shopping to try and get to, carpet cleaning, kids, driving, housework, this and that.. I went into Wally World for a few hours Sat afternoon to do some of those online courses they wanted done. I had maybe 15 or 18 to do before they put me on the schedule and each one took about 20 minutes. If I didn't pass, I had to go through the whole damn thing over again without the option to skip ahead. BLAH! I did three hours worth and ran home. Of course the kids hadn't started on the house. The place was a disaster! My daughter may have picked up one piece of clothing from her floor. My son probably accomplished a few messages on Myspace and little else. Em was running around unclothed. Chaos, mass hysteria....Spent Saturday night cleaning and getting the wash started. Sunday, I decided I would clean the carpet just one more time before the holiday spills, ribbon filled cat yak, spilled beer, food, chocolate etc. etc. Moved all the furniture and got the LR ready for the tree which I hadn't bought yet. Got done at 7. My back hurt. My legs hurt. But the LR looked nice and everything was arranged for the tree. Monday, spent all day on the phone working an expedite for one of our holiday dependent customers. Couldn't get Em to daycare. She was a pain in the butt all day waiting until I was on the phone with my boss and others to raise a fuss and be difficult. Unfortunately, I couldn't take her to Grace's becasue I had conference calls every hour with the team to discuss the expedites. I grew hundreds of gray hairs that day but we got the equipment out despite the obstacles. Kris had a trumpet lesson. I needed to get dinner on the stove. Em was yanking my arm because she wanted to play her "pickle chips" game (pixelchicks.com) Cass was griping about her day. Had to go to the store after dinner to get dry goods. Did that. Forgot cat litter. Got home at 8:30. Gave Em a bath. Attempted to sit down and relax but that was futile. I cheered when all kids were in bed and I could enjoy some me time. "Me time." HA HA.. My me time consisted of me falling asleep. Tuesday, more of the same. Had siding replaced last week so there were workers here pounding on the walls for 4 days. Scads of old siding was all over the lawn and the mailman couldn't get to the front door. Received notice that they returned a registered letter to the Post Office for that reason. Great! Now I have to go get the letter AND the damn tree and shop for Thanksgiving. To top it all off, a couple carpet guys called to schedule estimates. Scheduled carpet guy one for Wed morning. Carpet guy two was scheduled for this past Monday. Grocery shopped. Forgot the cat litter AGAIN. Hauled $150 worth of groceries into the house. Went to the post office to pick up the registered letter. Was told that it wasn't back yet from the carrier. Told to come back Wed. Made dinner. Bath for Em. Study with Cassie for her Science test. Kicked Kristpher off Myspace. Cleaned kitchen. Studied a little for the GRE. Ran around until end of the day and collapsed with the kids. Wednesday, worked, left to run an errand at the courthouse. My morning carpet estimate didn't happen. I thought I'd pick up the registered mail, go into Walmart and do more courses, and when Joe came home, get the tree from Menards when Joe returned home that night and before Black Friday. As I was driving back from the Post Office, the carpet installer called and said he was 10 minutes from my house. UGH!! Ran home and abandoned Wal-mart since it was just courses. Figured I'd get the tree after dinner. When I got home, message from Joe that he wouldn't be in that night. UGH! Kris was whining he wanted to go to a movie. Cass was whining she wanted to go to a friends. I exploded! The kids eyes were like saucers. Kris called his friend and said mom is freaking out. I need to stay home and help. Cass pouted but went and started cleaning the LR for the next day. House is still a disaster. I don't have the damn tree. It's snowing and crappy outside. WAHHHH!! Got my estimate. Went out in the crap with Kris and picked out a tree and hauled that 100lb sucker home. Spent the evening cleaning, then lived in a state of vegetation for the next few days. We got the holiday decorations up and I finally remembered the cat litter. The poop that my cat took in one of the bedrooms was a good reminder. MOLLLY!!!

Over the weekend, my work laptop died. I modified my home PC to access some of my work apps but I've been bored and feeling guilty and totally useless just sitting here. Went into Wal-mart Monday night to finish more courses. Ran into one of the managers who needed to clock me in. When we tried, the badge didn't work. To make a long story short, they put me on the schedule for this past weekend and noone told me. As far as I knew, I wasn't done with my courses yet. Well, he said, Didn't you get a handwritten schedule? Umm.. no one handed me one or discussed one with me. Oh.. well, you better call HR in the morning and explain to her. Well that's a load of crap! I felt so stupid and so humiliated. Not only did I not receive any communication from the department supervisor that they put me on the schedule, no one called when I didn't show up. If they had, I would have scooted out the door and apologized profusely for my ignorance and they wouldn't have wasted all that money on training me. In addition, they would have someone now and not 3weeks from now but hey, I'm not a manager so what do I know. I guess it's better to assume the employee blew you off. So much for their "Respect for Individual" clause. I hadn't been trained on the position. Tossing a brand spanking new employee in a job without introducing them to their supervisor, discussing hours, and explaining the position when the busiest shopping weekend of the year is looming, is normal there? I dunno. I haven't been able to reach to the HR person yet. I can't wait to have that conversation. I do know that I have decided that I'm not pleading for that job back. I'll take the Christmas season, enjoy it and revisit part time employment after the holidays.

Oh, Cass had a bloody nose yesterday. She gets them often during the Winter because of the dry air. I toldher to look in the medicine cabinet for the Vaseline. A little later she came back and said, "Mom, we don't have any Vagisil." Uh Say what?? You know, Vagisil.. what you told me to find. Well LOL!! That cracked me up. No honey, I said VASELINE.

Have a better week than me.

The first thing at Christmas that's such a pain to me....

Finding a Christmas Tree..

It has been brought to my attention that my old fake tree is starting to go the way of the Charlie Brown tree. It all started with two kittens and has ended with a rambunctious, defiant, toddler. So the thing has a few gaps but whatever, if it's a new tree I need, what the heck. Most people really like the real tree thing. Not I. $20 bux, gotta haul the thing myself, deal with a fire hazzard, and pick needles out of the carpet until the following Thanksgiving. That is just NOT for me. I'm lazy. I want a fake tree and I want a fake tree that is NOT PRE-LIT. Some Christmas tree manufacturer was bloody brilliant!! The Pre-lit trees just scream, HEY! I'm LAZY but they also scream HEY! I really wanna go broke buying new Christmas Trees. My dad bought a nice, expensive Pre-lit that lasted about 3 Christmases. Then a light burned out and when one went out, THEY ALL WENT OUT thus totally erradicating the total coolness of not having to take 20 minutes and string their own lights but, did create the need for a new 400 dollar tree. The best laid plans, I tell ya.... So, I have searched Loews, Home Depot, Menard's and Sears and all they seem to be advertising are the Pre-lit online anyway. Like I said, I'm lazy. This now means I now have to actually go to the damn store..the second thing at Christmas that is such a pain to me! Unless it's a bookstore or liquor store, I never darken a store doorstep from the week before Christmas until the last holiday sale sometime in January. Hello online shopping delivered compliments of my brown shirted UPS Santa. Goodbye parking problems, crowds, pushing and shoving and having to actually leave the house, drive in the cold and walk from BFI to the front door of the shopping mall. The things I do for my kids. At least I don't have anymore kittens.

Cleanup in Aisle 7

In my efforts to reduce my debts, I started the process of applying for part time jobs a month ago. It's not something I really wanted to do. I mean, I work full time for Ma Bell, deal with my kids crap and work crap and life crap, why not a little crap from disgruntled and crabby holiday shoppers too? I started at .....Wal-Mart this past Saturday: the granddaddy of retail. The HR person called on Friday and told me I needed to be at an orientation on Saturday morning. Here I am thinking one or two hours of work and I leave. Eight hours later, I was walking out of there and of course the kids did basically very little around the house. Cass still hasn't finished her weekend chores. She swore she cleaned her room. But when looking for laundry, I saw crammed under her end table, a bowl, a spoon, two glasses of water and an empty carton of frosting. I guess under the bed and end table in the kid handbook is NOT part of the room. I reamed her out and had her wash those dishes and told her if there is a single crumb in her room from now on, her new bigger and better room is going to Emily and she can continue to trash the room she's got.

My sense of humor lately is very compromised. I know they say being a mom is the toughest job you'll ever love but I really really think that sometimes that is the biggest load of crapola ever spouted. Kristopher likes to make smoothies. He KNOWS he is not supposed to because he makes a mess and doesn't clean it up and it requires the use of an appliance that I'm not 100% sure I trust him with. Tonight, after giving Emster a bath and helping Cass study for her history test, I finished up washing some supper dishes and noticed a glass that smelled remarkably like Smoothie. GRRRRRRR! The blender was kinda washed, kinda..but he left drips of smoothie on the counter illustrating yet again why I generally don't allow to make himself anything in the kitchen. So, I asked him under whose permission he made himself that smoothie and HE LIED TO ME and told me he NEVER touched the strawberries or the blender. Really Kris, do I have STUPID branded in my forehead??? I said, evidence one, half rinsed out cup. Evidence 2, drips on the counter. Evidence 3, spoon that smells a whole heck of a lot like strawberry. "Ok but I only took a few strawberries." TO THE MOON, KRIS!

Cass, there are a bunch of dishes under your bed. Do you mind telling me how they got there? "I don't know." She says! ........OH PLEASE!!

We have strict rules about eating in the Living Room and the Basement. Yesterday, after Kristopher "cleaned", I went downstairs and inspected and found at least 10 empty juice box wrappers crammed behind the DVD player, in the toybox, in the video cabinet, under the couch, behind the couch, in my piano bench, under the sink in the bathroom and in various places in my sons room. Of course neither of the kids drank them. I keep forgetting we have those dish stealing, juice box drinking gnomes. Currently, 5 forks and 5 spoons are missing. I have no idea where they are. Found one under the sink in the downstairs bathroom. My guess is they are with Jimmy Hoffa.

Perhaps working at Wal-Mart with crabby disgruntled holiday shoppers will be easier than dealing with my children and I get paid for that.

Too many worries and just not enough humor

There just hasn't much good news lately so I've been lacking on really funny material because there just hasn't been much. Things are kind of UN-Fun at the moment.

Kristopher had a nasty cold. A trip to the Dr. 2 weeks ago revealed a nice double ear infection. Got him on the antibiotics. Then I got the nasty cold and spent 4 days with a 102 temp and a headache. Believe me, I was quite the crabass. To make matters worse, Emily was absolutely atrocious the few days I was laid up and I was ready to trade her in for a puppy. On the fifth day, the fever broke but I still had a cough which finally has gone away leaving me with the same crappy allergies I've had since May. Kris still has his ear infection even after his 10 days of antibiotics so we are trying a different antibiotic. While we're on the subject of Kristopher, an envelope from his school arrived last week. Inside was a lovely letter from the assistant principal informing me of a disciplinary action taken because my son stood up in the middle of his first period class and told a classmate to "fuck off." OY!!! I could only bang my head on a wall. To make matters worse for my son, he lied to me. He told me he stayed after school to practice for his Jazz band tryout. Actually, he was serving a detention. GROUNDED. When his mid semester grades arrived a few days later..... we'll just say he might be off grounding by the time he is 30. I would like the universe to explain to me how in the world my son, with a mom who majored in English, a grandma who was an English teacher, an Uncle who teaches English, an Aunt who majored in English and a Great Aunt who majored in English can get a C- in ENGLISH?????? Well mom, I boffed the test on "The Odyssey" Uh HUh! Next time number one son, try opening the book and reading it!!! His MYSPACE and Guitar Hero time is now severely limited.

Problem number two is Emily. Everyone that knows me and knows Em, also knows she has always been difficult. As a baby, she cried and cried constantly. I thought at the time it was Colic. I'm beginning to think Emily just has an inability to calm herself. As a toddler, she has issues with changes and transitions and not just the big changes, the little ones. Mr. Monk lives in my house. The past couple months, she has become increasingly more difficult to deal with. Every day is a battle. When the weather got colder, I had to dress her in long pants, socks and shoes and a jacket. She absolutely REFUSED to wear the jacket and kicked so I couldn't put on the shoes. She just couldn't understand that the weather wasn't warm anymore and flip flops and shorts can't be worn anymore. I put her in the jacket and attempted to haul her to the car. She plopped down on the ground screaming. I picked her screaming little self up and tried to put her in her car seat. She stiffened so I couldn't buckle it. After a 30 minute all out, drag out tantrum, she finally calmed down enough for me to get her buckled in. And so it goes, every day, to daycare, from daycare, at home...it's endless. Today, after it took Kris and me to get her dressed, me to hold her and him to put her shoes and socks on, I was in tears. She screamed all the way to Grace's house. True to form, she screamed all the way home as well and Grace's daughter had to help me get Em into the car. I feel like such a failure. I can't get this child to do anything. I can't take her anywhere because the minute I take her out in public, she acts up and I spend so much time shushing her, I don't enjoy myself and neither does anyone in the near vicinity. A couple weeks ago, I took the kids to a nice restaurant for dinner. Em was good for about 30 minutes but I could tell she was building up to a big finish. She had to go the bathroom. This restaurant was small and there was just one bathroom. Emily insisted on going herself but I wouldn't let her and went in the bathroom with her. She literally threw herself on the ground and started screaming. Then she refused to go the bathroom. I took her back to the table and went to the bathroom myself. While I was in there, I heard a scream and what sounded like glass breaking. Emily wanted to play with the salt shaker. She started tossing salt around, so Kris and Cass took it away from her. Emily kicked the table and all the glasses of water tumbled over and spilled on the floor. Emily dove under the table to hide from me. That was it. I had had it. Took her to the car and gave her an "attitude adjustment" I was so embarrassed! I apologized profusely to the staff. And this is what it is like all the time. I discussed this with my family Dr and she is referring me to a Child Development Specialist. I know toddlers have tantrums but I also can tell that my child's behavior is well outside the realm of normal. I just don't know what to do about it. I'm hoping that this person gives me some guidance before Emily grows up to be like the other half of her DNA. That leaves Cassie who is her little angsty self but the easiest of my kids to deal with at the moment. Her biggest concern is what is on sale at Kohl's. She's doing great in school and other than the fact that she doesn't do a great job on chores and we're still finding leftover kleenex, candy wrappers, and cookie crumbs in her room, there hasn't been a whole lot to be concerned about with her.....YET.

More gray hairs...plucking daily.