Enough Already!

Good God! How much longer to I have to hear/read things about the Jolie-Pitt baby!? So she had the baby - big deal! Probably a million other women had a baby the same day but I don't see any of them plastered all over the radio/news/internet.

First of all, I'm a huge Jennifer Anniston fan. I love her. Angelina - not so much. I don't see the "beauty" that the rest of the world sees I guess. I think she's some what of a freak, she married Billy Bob Thornton after all.

And I've never thought that Brad was all that and a bag of chips. He used to be ok looking. Lately the photos I've seen aren't doing him any favors.

Oh well. I guess I'll sit here and be one of the few people in the world who don't care about Shiloh Nouvel Jolie-Pitt, the "new messiah" as some have interpreted the name to mean.

Did she or didn't she?

I know you're just chomping at the bit to know if I gave in and camped out. Big shocker - NOT - I did not. I stayed at the pond with the rest of the happy campers until about 9pm and then headed home to the comfort of air conditioning and my nice plush king size bed. Turns out that it was all dad's with their daughters and only 2 dad's and 2 daughter's made it all through the night, the others checked out around 11:30 pm. Baby girl had a good time, and that is ultimately the only thing that matters.

That's about all we did over the long weekend. Sunday ended up being a supper hot day with temps in the high 90's so we spent a lot of time sucking in the a/c. We had family nap day too. We all fell asleep lounging around in the living room for about 2 1/2 hours. Soooo nice.

So now back to the grindstone today. This is a slow day for me at work, not a lot to pass my time. The boss man is in court all day with a messy divorce case so I'm here at the office working on loose ends with other cases and catching up on my filing. I hate filing. I screw myself though and you'd think I've figured that out by now. I hate filing so much that I just form a pile on the chair next to my desk. Then, once a week or less often, I file and it takes about an hour. If I would just do it once a day or as the day progresses it wouldn't consume so much of my time. But, why do now what I can put off until later? Especially when it's filing! I do the same thing with shredding but that's because it never fails that I have to change the bag on the damn machine. What a mess.

I am looking forward to this weekend, we have an adults only party to go to that we always have a great time at. The couple that puts it on hires a local young kid that plays guitar and sings current pop songs. He sounds a lot like John Mayer or Jack Jones but knows a little of everything. He's really good and he's a riot when we get him drunk - starts dropping the F bomb and pounding out really loud heavy metal type songs. Fun times.

NOT a Happy Camper - part 2

So, the saga continues with my daughter carrying on with the crocodile tears. She should know by now that her fake crying doesn't do anything to help her get her way, if anything it makes me mad.

I think I may have my "out". I have an appointment with the chiropractor tomorrow morning. I've scheduled it at a time I know my husband won't be around, so I'll have to take her with me. I know I'm going to get ripped on by the doc, it's been too long since you've been here, yada yada. Besides, my neck is so screwed up I wonder how I hold my head up somedays.

So, I stand firm on my previous post - come hell or high water I AM NOT CAMPING OUT!

NOT a Happy Camper

It happens every year at this time....discord in my family. Ahh, must be close to Memorial Day!

We have some friends with a private pond. There's a cabin there, but it's VERY rustic. By that I mean no running water, no flushing toilet. There is an outhouse but it's pretty much been taken over by all sorts of creepy crawlies over the course of the past few years.

This weekend there is a fishing tournament, cook-out and camping event planned. Happens every year. Every year my family thinks that by some strange twist of fate I've evolved into some sort of mountain woman up for the challenge. Really, what ARE they thinking?

My idea of camping out (fully loaded plush RV with all the comforts of home) and my families idea of camping out (air mattress in a tent, peeing in the woods) are SO far from common ground that it's ridiculous.

My daughter was actually in tears last night when we were talking about it and I told her I would be camping out at home in the big bed. Hubby told her that the two of them are going to camp out at the pond, mommy has to go home so she can take care of the dog (Yipee!) so we don't have to drive back and forth too many times.

Bottom line here is that I AM NOT sleeping on an air mattress on the ground!

I made it

Well, somehow I managed to get through my cram packed weekend alive. I'm extremely tired and every inch of my body hurts, but I made it.

Friday night my daughter and I didn't get home from all our travels until after 10pm. Never in my life have I been putting groceries away at that time of day. It's exhausting.

Saturday morning my husband was going to let us sleep in. Yeah right. Like a semi chugging outside your bedroom window at 6:45am is going to let you get much sleep. On a good note, the sod project was complete by 10am.

We managed to squeeze in a soccer game at noon, a quick last minute shopping trip for evening supplies, clean the house and make a special frozen desert for the kids before having people over Saturday night. Oh yeah, I had to be the assistant coach for soccer because the normal one couldn't make it. I guess when your husband is the head coach you are obligated to fill in when needed. Thank god soccer is officially O V E R!

Yesterday would have been perfect for a nap if not for the family picnic and the make up soccer game. Oh well. I lived to complain about it.

On a good note, I made $125 at a garage sale I had absolutely nothing to do with. How's that for a good deal?!? Four more tubs of baby clothes gone. Yeah! I swear, when my daughter was a baby she could have had 5 wardrobe changes a day and still never worn all her clothes.

Weekends - Yikes!

I am soooo not looking foward to this weekend. I have so much going on that I'd almost rather be, dare I say it...working.

Tonight when I get off work I have make a mad dash to get my daughter, get cleaned up and be at my in-laws to go for supper for my grandmother-in-laws 89th birthday dinner, sans husband as he has a softball game at the same time. Then off to mega-mart for grocery shopping after dinner.

Saturday is even more hectic. We've got sod being delivered at 7:30 am. A soccer game at Noon and a get together in the evening.

Just when I thought Sunday would be a lazy day, I find out that we have a family picnic at noon and a make-up soccer game at 3pm. YIKES!

On a good note...my cousin from Chicago is in town this weekend, haven't seen her since March when we stayed at her house before flying to AZ. And another, more distant cousin is in town from Lousiana with her new baby. So, lots of catching up to do.

I'm looking foward to Monday at 8am already!

Pomp and Circumstance

It's official - my daughter "graduated" from pre-school today. She was pretty sad on the drive to the sitters when I told her that she would never be going back to pre-school again. She's concerned that she won't see her friends never ever again. I tried to explain that when she starts kindergarten in the fall she's probably going to have at least one of her pre-school friends in her kindergarten class. I then told her that even if she doesn't have any of them in her kindergarten class, she'll see them at school.

Several years ago our elementary school district did grade siting. I didn't care, I didn't have a kid in school at that time. The only real problem I see is that if you live across the street from the school and your kid is too young/old for that school, they have to go across town. Big deal.

So, what does grade siting mean? Well, the school my daughter will be going to in the fall has 4 kindergarten classes, 2 junior first grade classes (for those not quite ready to go from kindergarten to 1st grade) and 4 1st grade classes. That's it. One school with nothing but kindergarten and 1st graders. As a parent, I think it's a great idea. It pretty much stays like that through all the elementary grades: another school has all 2nd and 3rd grade, another has all 4th and 5th and the junior high has 6th, 7th and 8th. They also make sure that at recess and lunch time you are only with your grade level, so all kindergarten classes eat lunch at the same time, have recess at the same time.

Do you remember when you were in kindergarten and had recess with 4th graders? Didn't really matter then because things were sooooo much different (damn society today). Now we've got grade schools with metal detectors and more kids in juvi than anyone wants to admit. They even made a school that has nothing but "trouble" kids, around here it's call the BD School - Behavioral Disabilities. Get a grip! A kid packing heat in grade school isn't a disability - it's a lack of parents that give a crap!

But, I digress.

So, my daughter has taken her first big step in the process of becoming an adult - she graduated pre-school. How cool is that?

Damn this weather!

I'm starting to think I woke up one morning and life had decided to play a not-so-funny trick on me in the middle of the night.

The weather here has been awful. It's almost as if every part of my normal everyday life has been mysteriously transported to someplace else, like Seattle. I've always heard that there are more days with rain than not in Seattle, that's why I think I now live there. I don't, but you get the drift.

So, May in Illinois has turned out to be pretty crappy. It's been cold again, and the rain of course, and the sun only shines for about an hour every day. YUCK! I can certainly understand the high suicide rate in climates such as this. My daughter wants to go outside and play all the time and we can't - which causes her to think she can play T-Ball in the livingroom. Not good. This weather has got to get better before I go postal.

I have to vent

Well, the good news (I guess) is that I didn't get grass for Mother's Day. I did get a rather large potted plant. It's nice and all, but I'm not really the potted planted type. I guess that note on the refrigerator with a list of "I want ...." isn't such a bad idea after all.

So, Friday night, before I know it, it's 10:45 and my 5 year old still isn't home, neither is the 37 year old but so what. Finally at 11pm they roll in. I've got my car parked in the garage, hubby pulls his truck into the drive, walks in, and leaves the garage door wide open. I get the kid to bed, get ready for bed myself (hubby is passed out on the sofa at this point) and remember that the garage door may be open, sure enough it was.

We don't live in a high crime area, for god's sake, the last thing the local cops were likely involved in was a speeding ticket or seat belt violation, but that isn't the point. We live in a small town, yes, but times have changed and no one leaves their doors unlocked or keys in their cars anymore. When I was a kid, our house was never locked, now it's like Fort Knox.

I just don't get it. It was almost midnight, we weren't going anywhere anytime soon and he was the last one in the house. Doesn't make sense that in that situation you would close the garage door? This happens ALL THE TIME. It pisses me off to no end, it's common sense and the fact that he lacks it drives me insane!

Nothing says "Happy Mother's Day" quite like it

Sod, that is. Lucky Lucky me - I get grass for Mother's Day. Why didn't I ever think of that?!

Well, not EXACTLY what I would have asked for, had I been asked, but it is something that we (gasp) need. The lack of rain last year coupled with the devilish heat and lack of trees in our yard really did a number on our front and side yard. We were going to just till up the worst areas and plant new seed, like most people, but luckily, I guess, Hubby has a friend whose family owns a nursery.

So, instead of digging up PART of the front and side yard, we're digging up the ENTIRE front and side yard and laying sod. Our neighbors are going to think we're loaded or something, which we aren't. We're getting a great deal on the sod, the only thing better than dealer cost is free, and since free ain't happening - I'm happy with dealer cost.

In the long run I'm sure I'll look back and think about how wonderful our new yard looks. But ultimately, it's my Mother's Day gift and I have to wonder ..... what did I do to deserve GRASS of all things!?!

Finally - Back to "Normal"

Well, good news. My life is finally back to what I would call normal. My idea of normal is likely no where near any other persons idea of normal, but whatever works right?

I just found out that one of my cousins got engaged recently. Evidently it's a hush-hush thing that only a few people know. Yeah right, in my family!? I guess his parents are gonna have to learn to like her now, an impending wedding has a tendency to do that. I'm happy for her, I just wonder if she isn't too young. I've been down this road myself - got married the first time way too young and it ended just as quickly as it began. I guess I try to shelter my family from that happening to them.

So, with that announcement, one of my other cousins (I'm the second of 13 granchildren, 7 girls and 6 boys. We range from 35(my sister) to 8(my youngest girl cousin) is wondering if she's going to have to "take out" the 8 year old to make sure she doesn't get beat to the alter by all the girl cousins. It's kind of funny when you think about it. Then again, I tell them all that they are following my lead. I was the first to get married (twice) and the first to have a baby. So far I do maintain the record for the number of marriages for the grandchildren, I got beat out for the number of kids a while back, one of my other girl cousins has three kids under the age of 5. Yikes! What was she thinking?

Anyway, that gets in to too much of the dysfunction of my family. It would take me an hour to go through all that crap just to make some sense out of things. Here's some basic genealogy to help:

My maternal grandmother had 6 girls, they are 54, 53, 52, 51, 46 and 42.
54 had 3 kids: Boy-29, Girl-26, Boy-23
53 (my mom) had 2 kids: Girl-35{had a girl-4}, Girl-34{had a girl-5}
52 had 1 kid: Boy-29
51 had 2 kids: Boy-24, Girl-22
46 had 2 kids: Girl-26{had a girl-4, girl-2, boy-3months}, Boy-19
42 had 3 kids: Boy-12, Boy-10, Girl-8

Now, add in the spouses and boy/girlfriends and imagine what family gatherings are like.

Somedays

You know how you have days where you wonder why in the hell you did something? That's been my day for about the past three days.

Over the weekend my husband got whacked in the mouth with a stray softball when he was practicing for the adult league he's on. His lip swelled up like you wouldn't believe. I wasn't even with him when this happened, but somehow it's my fault. Like I mentally willed the guy throwing the ball to whack my husband in the face from miles and miles away.

If I haven't already indicated, my husband is worse than the moodiest of all women. There are days where it's all I can do to be in the same house as him, believe me - these are the days when I wonder why no one warned me about him and his mood swings BEFORE we got married!

Then, as if dealing with that crap isn't enough - my boss snaps at me for something that is clearly not my problem. Part of the reason he hired me is because I'm assertive, I don't think he expected me to be assertive to HIM but when he gets in my face like that I dish it right back at him. You know, I can't do it all! My mind reading skills haven't quite developed yet and if I don't know of something I can't do it. It's about time I tell him he can make his own damn travel arrangements. I'm a legal secretary for god's sake, not a travel agent. If I wanted to spend half my day booking reservations I'd (a) work at a hotel, or (b) work at a travel agency.

AGHHHHHH! I need a drink of something a little stronger than my ice tea!

Wow!

This morning when I got into work I discovered that I have a brand spanking new computer monitor, it's awesome.

I went from one of the old timer 15" monitors to a 19" LCD flat panel. This thing rocks! It's so cool how big the letters are now on everything I do, I can actually see without straining my eyes.

I'm thinking I need one of these babies at home. Wonder what kind of "corporate" deal I can work myself into. Now if only I could work them in to buying me a flat panel TV that's as big as a house, wouldn't that be an awesome perk for putting up with all the crap.

Useless, absolutely useless

I've decided that Thursday should be outlawed. It's the most useless day of the week. Never once have I heard someone proclaim to be excited about Thursday.

Monday = everyone hates Monday. You have to go back to work, back to the alarm clock and you know that no matter what you do, the weekend is no where near close enough.

Tuesday = another non-descript day of sorts. Still the beginning of the week, nothing really to look forward to, you know that the weekend is a little closer, but still so far away.

Wednesday = now we're talking. Middle of the week, half way there. Weekend is just around the corner.

Thursday = I got nothing. Yeah, so Friday is tomorrow - that's all Thursday has going for it.

Friday = well, that goes without saying. It's the start of the weekend!

I don't know. Maybe I'm giving this thing too much thought. Maybe I'm not giving it enough thought. Either way, today is still Thursday and I still wish it were Friday at 4:59 pm so I could be going home instead of still sitting her in front of my computer chugging away with 4 hours of Thursday at work left.

Kinda always knew I'd end up his ex-girlfriend

The story of the ex-boyfriend that has resurfaced after 10 years. Complicated? Yes. A problem? No.

So, back in the mid 90's when I was much younger and much less wiser, I started a relationship with a guy who, like me, was in the process of a divorce. We were both too young to have been married back then. I kicked out the worthless man who claimed to have been my husband, and the boyfriend was put out by his wife. We worked together, actually I worked for his dad, so it just kind of happened that we got together. He needed a place to stay, and I needed a man.

We were together for less than a year. Everything fell apart shortly after both divorces were finalized. We should have known better than to jump right into another relationship but for a while it worked, really well. He fell off the face of the earth at some point in time and I hadn't seen and/or heard from him in about 10 years.

Fast forward to 2005. One day I'm going about my business for work and hear someone call out my name. Who should it be but Mr. Ex Boyfriend. So, we exchange email addresses and end up instant messengering each other back and forth. I live in Illinois, he doesn't, which is a good thing.

Nothing has happened. Nothing will happen. I love my husband and I'm not going to ruin what I've had for the past 10 years on a guy that is getting another divorce and has been in a relationship for 2 years. I'm glad I got to see him, if he's in town again I'll probably see him again IN A PUBLIC LOCATION.

You know how you have those certain relationships that you think, this could be "the one". Yeah, he was that. Seeing him and talking to him brings back all sorts of memories from the past - the good, the bad and the ugly. I've had some really strange dreams involving him lately and I always end up waking up right before we end up alone. I'm sure that means something, I just don't have a clue what. Anyway, I've determined that even if things were different, it wouldn't work. He's a player and I'm a one man kind of girl.

Party Like a Rock Star

This weekend I tried to party like a Rock Star.

I've made a determination that I'm too old or too tired to do that kind of crap! Draft beer is not good for me.

I did have fun though and showed a few of the guys that they shouldn't be so quick to decide that "dainty" young ladies can't hold their booze. I think I've still got the ability to drink with the best of them and could likely drink a couple under the table without much effort.

The best part of the entire thing - NO HANGOVER! Don't know how I managed that one.