The Other Woman Reunion..

When I was in first grade, my sisters, my brother and I attended a Catholic school. I hated it. It was about 30 minutes from our home, so our parents made the commute everyday to bring us. One day, my father picked us up. This was a rare treat. He then took us out to a restaurant for an ice cream. We could barely contain our excitement at getting to hang out with our dad, and get a frosty treat as well.
Coincidentally, we ran into a fellow co worker's of my dads. She was alone, and joined us in our booth.
Two weeks later, my dad left us.
A week after that, I met the reason he left us. Again. It was the woman from the restaurant. She was my dad's girlfriend.
I remember the devastation, and at 7, feeling like I had been duped into meeting the "other woman". They were together for a few years after my folks divorced, and we saw her every other weekend. She had 2 small children, who were 2 and 3. This only compounded the hurt, as these young kids got to live with my father, when I could not.
I don't know how old I was when they broke up, or even the circumstances, but in a weird twist of fate, my mother and her became friends. I think they bonded over their despise for my father. For years after they split up, my mother and her kept in touch. Like many relationships though, they lost touch, and it's been a long while since they've spoken.
I haven't seen this woman in years, I think I may have been a teenager the last time I saw her. Sadly, her only son died in his early 20's of cancer, I only remember him as someone I was jealous of.
My dad is bringing her over for a visit on Thursday. I have no mixed emotions about seeing her. I'm actually looking forward to it. I don't hold any resentments towards her. She was young, as was my dad, and that is just the way life unfolded for all of us.
It wouldn't be a full-on dysfunctional reunion if my mom wasn't here too, so of course she's coming on Thursday as well. It's a mother fucking crazy world we live in, eh?

Let's take a look back, shall we??

I was going through my blog the other day, something I don't normally have time for when I'm at home, but since I'm working 8 hours a day away from home, I have all sorts of time for rereading my blog entries. I thought I would republish a couple.. I'm getting some traffic from facebook, and I thought this would sum me up, in a post or two..

This is one back from when I was pregnant with my twins, and utterly exhausted, and dealing with my then 2 year old was something I wasn't very good at.. you'll see!

Another story about my twin pregnancy (not for people who don't want to read about me crapping!)

This one goes way back.. when I only had 2 children, and lord, if I had known what was coming, there would have been a couple of other "do-overs" as well..

Here's one that is about my sister, during her twin pregnancy.. another one about poop!

And one more.. about my dear husband, and the kitchen table he built for us.. my handy man

Hope all 3 of you enjoyed this.. ;) hehe

The check is in!

After much debate, my husband and I decided to keep any sort of check we got from the insurance company, after the slight damage done to his car last week.. The check came yesterday in the mail. It's amazing what $1200 can do to make you feel so much better.. We have already decided that we are just going to run his car into the ground (it's a '98 and has been payed off for some time now..) The cash comes in quite handy this time of year, and we can certainly live with the guilt of not getting it fixed.. We enjoyed dinner last night at Margarita's (and when I say "last night" I mean about 4:30, we owned that dining room!!) And now we have a cushion that will get us through until school starts, and my husband gets a pay check.. I'm so fine with this! No moral dilemma here.. I think that if I had to suffer through getting hit twice, all the while thinking this guy was trying to kill me, than this is money I'm owed.. right?

The Smell..

I forgot to mention one other thing about the fair.. the smell.. Christ, it was like walking through an immense pile of shit. All day. My kids kept asking me, until there was no longer any point. Yes boys, it's shit! Lots of it.

The Stratham Fair..

The Fair is a great way to blow a lot of money. If you have extra cash laying around and want to get rid of it in less than 30 minutes, then the fair is just what you're looking for. We lucked out on the way in as they only charged my husband and I the entrance fee ($7 each). But that was as lucky as we got. We were there less than an hour with $60 and soon had only 5 buck left! And all we did was go down the super slide once, got 3 fries, and 2 soda's, and each of the boys played a game, trying unsuccessfully to win a stuffed animal.
They sell tickets for the rides, and each ticket cost a dollar. Each ride cost as least 3! We couldn't even afford to go on the Ferris wheel.. it would have cost us $12 for one ride, with me and the two boys. As it was, it cost $7 for just one ride down the "super slide" for me and the boys! $7??? Insane.
I'm never going back there.. especially after I read this letter to the editor yesterday. (the second letter down). Ridiculous!

More Loser Parenting..

Mondays this summer we have had speech appointments for my 5 year old at 9:30. This past Monday at 9:40 I called the school in a panic because we had totally forgotten. Yesterday morning I called my son's dentist at 8:30 to confirm what time his appointment was (even though my husband had gotten the reminder call the night before and swore it was 10:30, but wasn't totally sure..) So, of course his appointment was at 8:30. Luckily we live about 5 minutes down the road and they said we could still come.
The funny thing about these parenting faux paus lately, is that we are only experiencing this while my husband has been off on summer vacation, helping out with our normal routine. I've decided if he just stayed out of it, and concentrated on things like fixing our dryer, or the nasty smell in the basement, or the broken door knob in our downstairs bathroom, then we would most likely all get to where we need to go. I'm just sayin.

Our dryer has sadly died.. or at least we can't seem to get it working despite my handyman husband's effort at installing a new heating element (kudos to him for at least trying..) We dropped a bunch of money to get another warranty, and someone is coming on Thursday to fix it. Meanwhile, having 4 kids and no dryer, along with the rain we've been having, has made mountains out of my already staggering laundry pile.. My husband is currently at his folks house drying some towels so that at least we can shower.. what a guy.
In other news.. my mom, mother in law, and 2 of my husband's siblings came by today with gifts for the girls birthday. At some point I'm going to get my shit together and throw them a party, maybe when they're 3!
I also wanted to shout out a big CONGRATS to my dear friend Jake, and his wife Britt on the news of their twin pregnancy! Couldn't have happened to a nicer couple! Best of luck to you both!! I always knew you would end up with more kids than me!! ;)

Happy Birthday!

My beautiful girls are two today.. It's so hard to believe that 2 years has already passed.. I look forward to the next 2 years.. I only hope it slows down a bit..

Don't worry, I'm fine!

This is what I told my husband today when I called him from work to tell him that his car (that I was driving) had been hit.

I went to the bank on my lunch break today. I pulled into the parking lot behind a mail truck. He parked outside of the bank, on the left side of the parking lot on the opposite side of the parking spaces, and ran inside. I could see beyond his truck that an elderly couple was exiting the bank, so I waited for them to cross the parking lot. As I'm waiting, I see out my passenger side window that there is a truck backing up, and he clearly doesn't see my husband's little honda civic sitting there directly behind him. Being that it was my husband's car, I could not react fast enough, and find his stupid horn (in my car the entire steering wheel is the horn, not so in this car) Despite my yelling for him to stop, and having absolutely no where to go thanks to the mail truck and the pedestrians, he plowed right into the passenger door. Bummer. The little old couple stopped dead in their tracks, and watched this unfold. The guy pulls his truck up, and seconds later, his reverse lights come on again, and he's heading for me and my car- AGAIN! wtf!! Still, no horn. wtf!! He hits me again. And for what seemed like an eternity, I'm thinking that this man is insane. Something terrible has happened to him in the bank, maybe he robbed it, and I'm in his way, and he's not stopping until he gets me out of the way. I was pretty much totally freaked out by this point. But then, finally, I find the horn.. just as the guy is getting out of his truck. Swearing. Nice, I think.. he's going to want to blame this on me. And still, I can't move, because that old couple is still frozen, watching. It only takes me seconds to realize that this guy is swearing at himself, and calling himself names. Clearly, he knows he fucked up. Thank god.

That did not however stop me from asking him "What the hell are you doing??"
"I'm such an idiot.. I didn't know I hit anything"
"You didn't feel that when you hit me the first time??"
"I thought it was the curb"
UGH!!!!!! The curb?? Ok, whatever. Finally, the old couple realize that they need to move out of my way, and I parked my car and exchanged info with the guy. He ended up being really nice, and felt really bad about ruining my day. It didn't really ruin my day, it wasn't the highlight, and I had a hard time writing down my name and number because I was shaking (I really did think for a second that he was trying to kill me, or at least run over my little car..) The guy was on his way to his insurance company and I asked him not to call my house for at least 20 minutes, so that I could call my husband and tell him what had happened first.
When I did call my husband, and give him the ridiculous story, he asked me if it was possible that I was parked where I shouldn't have been parked. Hello? Numb nuts? I wasn't parked! And clearly, yes, I was in fact somewhere I shouldn't have been, right behind some old guy with a really bad comb over, and a blind spot bigger than the dent in my husband's car. So, yea, I guess it kind of was my fault.. but don't worry... I'm fine!

What has happened to Andy Dick?

I could barely recognize him, with the exception of his ass chin. Here is his mug shot after he was arrested this morning for sexual battery. Allegedly he groped a 17 year old outside of a bar, pulling down her top. Nice.

Moral Dilemma (that is, if I had any..)

No, of course I have morals.. there's many things that I wouldn't do because of my morals. This is one I've been struggling with the past few days. Ctale's wedding is this weekend. I told my husband months ago that I was going to have to buy a new dress, and shoes. Of course he said I didn't need to buy any clothes and to just find something in my closet. This is truly sad, but the only dress I have in my closet, is my wedding dress.. I don't think ctale would be so cool with me showing up to her wedding in a white gown.
So, ignoring his ridiculous request that I not spend any of the money we don't already have, I went out Saturday dress shopping with the babies (who in fact were so well behaved, I couldn't believe it. Shopping with 2 almost 2 year olds does not sound fun, but it actually was!) Anyway, I found 2 dresses that I really liked. So, I bought them both. My husband was so psyched!!
Here is where my dilemma, of moral and other origins begin. I love both of the dresses. I'll obviously only wear one to the wedding. The one I'm leaning towards, is something that would be far too dressy to wear any other time, and the other one I could totally wear again.. My dilemma is that I've decided to wear the fancier dress to the wedding, hide the tags, and return it. I know how terrible that sounds, but I really like the other one. In fact, the tags are still on that as well, but I wore it to work yesterday. I guess I could still return them both.. I'm a shit. I'm going to wear the fancy one, get a stain on it, so that I'll have to keep it, and tear off the tags of the other one, so that will be mine as well. Wow, I guess I just solved my dilemma! Sort of.. blogging can be so therapeutic! hah!

All Choked Up..

My mom is in Canada this week, vacationing. She called me this morning and told me that I was going to have to thank her friend for saving her life yesterday. Apparently they were at Costco, having a hot dog, when all of a sudden she started choking. She said the experience was surreal. She was very calm, and felt like she was going to just go to sleep. When my nephew, who is up there with her, asked her if she was ok, she calming shook her head no, and was about to hit the floor. Her friend then got up and preformed the heimlick, and my mom coughed up a huge chunk of hot dog. This caused quite a commotion as you can imagine, but my mom was fine, and told the help at the counter that they didn't have to call anyone.
I can only say, that this is something that would indeed happen to my mom.. sure plenty of people choke, but the way it happened, and the fact that she stayed so calm is very much like my mother. She wouldn't want anyone to worry, and she certainly wouldn't want any attention. Luckily she's fine.. she's a cat with 9 lives, and I swear she's used them all!

It's not Water Country, but they don't seem to care!

At least there's less laundry for me to do!

My husband brought the kids to visit me at work last week. I guess it's typical for a guy not to worry about how the kids look, although my sister once said it was funny because most guys (or at least our husbands) wouldn't leave the house wearing anything they put our children into.

I know he's busy, and I know he's getting a slice of my life this summer, but when my girls showed up to visit me, and meet some of my co-workers for the first time, I was only slightly mortified with one of them still in her night gown (at 4:30 p.m.) with her diaper practically sagging to her knees, and the other one wearing one filthy outfit on top of another. My youngest son was wearing a shoe on one foot, and a sock on the other- with no shoe (because of the cut he had gotten from camping) and my oldest son was still wearing the same outfit from the day before, not that anyone else besides me would have known, but they looked like a bunch of homeless children, at least to me they did. It was the first time all summer that I felt guilty for working.

Such is life though.. It's not like they're unhappy.. they're probably happier that I'm not there nagging them to put clean clothes on! I have made sure since then to get them dressed before I leave.. live and learn I guess..

Super Pooper Sunday..

We spent our Sunday evening at my husbands soccer game. I was surprised when he suggested that we go with him, but I agreed to go, if we could go to dinner first. We made of the mistake (or I should say my husband made the mistake) of letting the boys choose where we would eat. We ate at Wendy's. Yum. But the cheapskate was more than happy not to shell out more for any ambiance, or wait staff.
The game was held at a field that had a huge playground. We watched the first half of the game, and spent the second half at the playground. The girls loved it. We have a slide here at the house, which they refuse to go down. I had looked away for a moment and turned around to see my daughter going down the biggest slide there, and it was one of those curvy ones. It wasn't as nerve wracking seeing her come down, as it was seeing her climb back up it.
Anyway, the highlight of the entire night had to be when my 5 year old had to poop. And when this kid has to poop, he HAS to poop. There was a port a potty about 100 yards away, but I had just seen one of the players going in, and hadn't seen him come out yet. I didn't want to go to it anyway, port a potty's are just gross, and I would have had to bring all my kids to it. Luckily, we were the only ones at the playground, so I grabbed an empty ziploc bag from my car, some napkins from Wendy's, and made him squat. I'm still amazed at the low lights of parenting that I encounter. The repulsive things I have done as a mother, because I've had no choice. His aim was incredible, and it all just went into the bag. And even more lucky for me was the fact that there was a garbage can near by. Thank god I didn't have to transport that home with us!
So, that was my Sunday, in a nut shell.. I'm looking forward to going back to work tomorrow. My girls are still adjusting to me leaving for more than my usual couple of hours. One of them especially. She's turned to screeching very loudly, and hitting, a lot! I have some sort of bruise on my eyelid (of all places) from where she slapped me earlier. I don't think hitting your kids is right, for any reason, but when she landed one perfectly on my face today, it was all I could not to give it right back to her.. More low lights.. but anyway, I'm off to bed as all the fresh air I got today is taking it's toll on me!

A Cheap Outting in NH

This afternoon, at roughly 3:30, I suggested to my husband that we take the kids to the beach. A place where we both pretty much hate. I hate the sand, the ocean water (salt in my hair does nothing for it!) and again, the SAND!

But surprisingly, he agreed. I was in shock! Really. It was when he asked me if this would be the girls first trip to the beach, and besides a trip we took there when they were 4 weeks old and I almost dropped one, that he was sold on the idea. Our babies going to the beach....

So, living only 10 minutes from the beach (I know, you people must think that because I live so close I would be there all the time. But we have a short coast here in NH. The water is frigid, and the people are, well, gross.)

Anyhoo, I couldn't believe how much fun the kids had, and the babies! It was like they had never seen sand before (and yes, we do have a sandbox) But they just dug.. and dug.. it was really cute. My boys, who just last year were cowering at the sea gulls, lay in the sand and let the water wash over them! It was, in this mother's opinion, a HUGE step.

So here are a few pics from the day..

Camping Highlights..

There's just too much to write about this weekend, so I thought I would give you all the condensed version of the family trip..

-The weather was beautiful.. not a drop of rain fell from the sky.. I couldn't help but be a little bitter about the crap weather we had just last weekend for the girls only camp out.

-My sister saw a bear, while pushing her babies in the stroller. Kind of creepy..

-My youngest son sliced the bottom of his pinkie toe wide open on our 2nd day there.. while sliding.. He's fine, but he did spend the majority of Saturday in a stroller, refusing to walk..

-Blogless and her family were with us, and she totally saved the day by using her newly registered nursing techniques to clean up my son's foot, and change the bandage regularly. He wouldn't let me near it.. I guess being a mom doesn't quite carry the same credentials as being an RN (at least that's what he learned!) :)

-My youngest daughter woke up Saturday morning with a fever. That could have been worse. She was still easily distracted by all the kids there to play with. She's got a ton of mosquito bites, so naturally my husband thinks it's EEE... and naturally, I don't.

-Speaking of kids, there were 13 in our group, to 11 adults. Not too bad a ratio!

-My husband is a sucky driver. And I'm an even worse passenger. Let's just say that I spent most of our ride home today looking back at the kids, choosing to talk to them rather than fight with him.

-It's not as awkward taking a crap in the morning with all your girlfriends, as it is with your sister in laws.. I'm not sure why..

Anyway, that pretty much wraps it up.. there was of course lots of eating, and drinking, and lots of packing and unpacking, but it was really fun, despite the horror of my son's bloody foot and the fever, and even the bear. I'm hoping to get back there at least once more before the summers done..

Today my husband burnt his fingers on the lawn mower. This made me 3 hours late for work.. a place I had desperately wanted to be, considering the fact we had 8 kids here today, most of whom were stuck to me like glue.. Oh, and where is my darling husband, the eve before we go away for the weekend? Why he's at soccer of course.. grrrrr...

40 Fingers and 40 Toes..

Add it up people. That's a lot of friggin digits to clip.. and I was embarrassed by how long those nails had gotten.. but ever since school got out the need to make sure my kids were "presentable" has wained.. sorry guys!

Congrats to my sister and her husband for the purchase of their very sweet new pop up camper.. that girl has always got to one up me!!

Memories.. and whatever else Bab's sang in this song..

We're heading out to go camping on Friday.. it's been insanely stressful, and chaotic for me with all the shit I have to do to get ready for it.. We all went out after work tonight to get groceries. This was probably not ideal, as my 5 year old was exhausted enough, and spent most of the time at the store whining about how he needed new shoes because the new ones he has were still giving him blisters.. but we moved forward and got most of everything we needed..
I keep thinking about how these memories are going to be with them forever. The ones where we go camping, and have family time together. This weekend is going to be so much different than my last weekend of camping. Obviously. There isn't going to be the luxury of getting to sleep in til 8 (yes, 8 was the latest I could sleep) and there won't be the luxury of going pee, alone, whenever I want. It's going to be a lot of work, but well worth it for what I hope my kids take with them into adulthood. The memories of hanging out with their cousins, making s'mores by the fire, running around with their glow bracelets (which I have to get more of because I decided last weekend would be a good time to break them out- yea, I was the only one having fun with those!) And just being a kid.. and loving every minute of it! Wish me luck.. I know I'm going to need it!