Well good morning to you too!

Maybe I have my facts wrong. Maybe the laws are different in the different towns, cities, and states on this one. But aren't bicyclists supposed to "share the road"? I had an interesting experience with a high school kid on a bike the other day while I was waiting for the bus. My bus stop is right on a sidewalk. So naturally, I stand on that sidewalk while I wait patiently for my bus. I always stand closer to the road than the yard because, well, that's where I'll need to get onto the bus. Seems quite logical to me (but then, who am I?). So, Monday, I'm standing there, in the same place I stand every day looking in the direction my bus will hopefully soon be coming. All of a sudden behind me I hear someone say something, but I can't quite hear what they said. So I turn toward the voice and see this kid on a bike coming right for me! Now, I haven't moved since I planted myself in that spot 5 minutes ago, but for some reason, this kid thinks I should move, I assume because I happen to be on the right side of the sidewalk. He has plenty of room to the left of the sidewalk, but he doesn't seem to think that makes sense. Instead, he heads right for me, without even slowing down, I might add. So my first instinct is to move more to the right (closer to the curb/street) into the grassy area between the sidewalk and the curb, which I guess was his first instinct too because he about brushed me with the bike as he passed me, screaming "Whoa!" like he was surprised that this happened. I apologized, even though I did nothing wrong (I do that all the time...one of my many flaws).

I couldn't believe this kid! He was going fast enough that he had to have been hauling down that sidewalk for some distance, which means he had to have seen me standing there, not moving and not looking in that direction. How could he not know this was going to happen? Maybe it's because he's a kid and was thinking about other things, like asking Lafonda to the Homecoming dance or how that big zit on his chin was going to ruin him, who knows! But for heaven's sake, pay attention! If he would have hit me, I would have been seriously injured because he was going so fast. And let's not forget the fact that I believe that bikers are supposed to ride in the street, I'll bet for this very reason!

At least no one was hurt, but damn. You know how you're supposed to do one thing a day that scares you? Well, that was mine on Monday.

So, it's been a while...

I know it's been a while since I've updated. I've been...well, I don't really have any excuse except that I've been tired. Yes, I said tired. Exhausted, really. I was recently diagnosed with Hypothyroidism in May (although I knew this had to be the case since January, it took the doctors a while longer to figure it out. Great health care system we have, huh?) and I've been sleeping through every spare minute of every day. So I'm finally on some medication and I've cut back on some other activities I normally do in my free time so that I can update my blog.

Not much is going on around here. The kids are more at each other's throats than ever. I'm really hoping that Charlie starting school again on Tuesday helps this issue. I think the problem is that Elizabeth has finally learned to fight back when she thinks she is being wronged, which is pretty much all the time. I'm sure this is just a phase, but it's tough. I know, I know, I have it easy because Doug stays home with the kids 40 hours a week, but I deal with it at night and on the weekends. But I have found that red wine in their sippy cups with dinner helps. Just kidding...but it does help when I drink a glass! I am more relaxed and I respond better. They like this and it seems to work for me. Not to mention all of the other health benefits of red wine.

We also found out that Doug has some nasty fungus on his feet. Gross. I think that's really all I have to say about that.

So we have preschool orientation tomorrow evening, so I'm excited that I get to be Crazy Psycho Mom for a night. It saddens me that I cannot do this on a daily basis like those Stay At Home Moms I deeply envy. But on this particular night every year, I am always there, asking all the questions I know will come up throughout the year that my husband will undoubtedly "forget" to ask (even though I will mention them 182 times, not in a nagging way, of course). I get to meet all of the other moms for the second time (I met them all last year at this time too) and they will all scowl at me because we're not a "normal" family with a father who works 80 hours a week so that his wife can stay at home with the kids and pop bon-bons all day, um, I mean tend to the kids and household. Nope, we're freaks because mom goes to work every day and dad does the bon-bon thing. Thank goodness I only have to survive 1 night of horrible mommy guilt from the "other" mothers (as if I don't have enough of this from my own self).

Stay tuned...I plan to start another blog of product reviews and great deals I stumble upon. I just have to think of a name for it...

Ciao!

The best sound in the world

The best sound that you will ever hear is that of your own children laughing. This occurred to me tonight as I was on my hands and knees cleaning up another massacre, ahem, I mean dinner mess. There I am, in my own world picking corn up off the floor and I realize that my kids are belly laughing at each other in the playroom. I almost cried, right there, with a hand full of corn. For me, it was like the whole world stopped and it was just me sitting there listening to them laugh in the next room. And they had no idea that I was listening so intently to them, which made it even better. This is one of the things that make me love being a mom. I know they will not always be each other's best friend and that right now it's only really out of necessity because they're too young to have any other friends, but I am going to enjoy it while I can. They just make it so darn easy!

Run Forest!

One of my goals for 2008 is to run a 5k. I don't know why I came up with this particular goal, but now I'm really serious about it. I even found this website that tells you how to go from the "couch to 5k". That sounded about right. I jogged last summer for exercise, but in November, it just got too dang cold for me to be out there. And I don't feel like I get a workout on a treadmill. It could be that our treadmill is about 30 years old, but that's all we have, so it's just not working for me. So I went all winter without even exercising at all. So I pretty much consider myself a beginner again. I was up to 3 miles last year and a 5k is only 3.1 miles, so I figure this isn't a huge stretch. I don't expect to do well; in fact, I expect to come in dead last, but I don't even care. At least I will have done it.

So I was finally able to get out yesterday morning and I was even able to wear a short sleeved shirt because it was so nice. Even at 6:30am, it was pretty warm for April. I jogged about .2 mile and walked the rest of the way. I felt like such a loser! Today I got out, though it was chilly and I had to wear a jacket, I managed. I probably jogged close to a mile and then walked the rest of the way. So I'm going in the right direction at least. According to the website, tomorrow is supposed to be my resting day, thank heavens! My legs hurt so bad (the good hurt, like when you have gotten a good workout). My muscles are probably in shock right now, wondering what the heck is going on. But that's OK. They'll get used to it soon. I predict by next weekend, they'll get over it. I just hope the weather stays nice enough to get out. I really can't go back to that treadmill. I've nearly fallen off of that thing numerous times. True story!

In-laws

Can you honestly say you like your in-laws? I can, but they are definitely frustrating sometimes. My husband and I grew up in very different ways. I grew up in a small town where nothing ever happened. I was very sheltered from the world in general. Kathie always portrayed the family as wealthy, however, I don't know if this was really just a front (they could have been in major debt for all I know). I went to Catholic school all my life and was pretty much just a status symbol to Kathie, as were my 2 brothers. Everything was a show for her. So we all had to be dressed to the nine, extremely clean, and well behaved 24/7. I wasn't allowed to get dirty or go into certain rooms in the house. As I watch my own kids grow from babies to independent kids, I am realizing that the way I grew up was very strange. How could any mother not let their kids play in the dirt? Or smash cake all over their face at their first birthday? But I digress...My husband grew up in a rough city without tons of money. He had to fight kids in order to play in his neighborhood. He went to city schools and the stories he tells me just astound me. I get sick and think I could never send my kids to a school like that (I don't care what I had to do to get the money to move out of a school district like that). So, like I said, very different childhoods.



So I can understand the way my in-laws are and I try very hard to be open to their opinions, beliefs, and actions. After all, life would be very boring if everyone was the same, right? But sometimes they make it very difficult. They live about 25 minutes away from us and about 10 minutes away from my husband's sister. His sister, as a bit of background, is pretty much a train wreck at this point. She has twin 3-year-old girls to her ex-husband (this would be ex-husband #2). The reason he's an ex is because she was seeing some other guy behind his back. So after they divorced, she got pregnant by this other guy (who, by the way, has a wife a child and his wife is pregnant). I'm convinced she tried to get pregnant, but I really have no proof...doesn't really matter anyway. So she thinks this new guy is going to leave his wife and marry her. But he didn't. No, instead, he started beating her up (in front of the children, no less). She stayed with him for a while, but finally left him. He's currently trying to get 50% custody of their child and doesn't pay child support. So now she's a single mother of 3 kids and makes probably $12/hour. She always complains about how she can't afford anything. However, she always gets a large tax return ($8000 last year) and ALWAYS does something stupid with it. Last year, she bought herself a diamond ring ($2000) and bought a pool that she is now trying to sell because of all of the work that is involved. This year she took her new boyfriend to Vegas. Hello? I'm thinking maybe you should buy food or pay your gas bill or something smart at least!



So I guess my in-laws feel sorry for her or something because they are ALWAYS saying how hard she has it and how tough it is for her. Um, excuse me? Did she not bring these things on herself? OK, she definitely didn't deserve to get hit, but everything else she pretty much could have predicted if she had just used her brain! My in-laws run over to her house every time she calls. Literally. Every time. They have given her tons of money and groceries. They babysit for her constantly. She only has them every other weekend, but she still seems to drop them off at my in-laws when she does have them. I just don't get it. They only come to see us about once a month (because it's just so far...yea, 25 minutes is crazy!) and they normally stay 2 hours max. They were here today and literally stayed for 2 hours. They made up some excuse as to why they had to leave, but we saw right through it. Doug's sister had called about 30 minutes before they "had to leave". We knew what was going on.

It saddens me. Not for me or even Doug, but for our kids. They don't understand why they hardly ever see their grandparents; they just know they don't see them that often. But they could see them so much more if the in-laws would just fix their priorities a little. If that were my daughter screwing up her life like that, I would cut her off, both financially and in the way of babysitting. If she were forced to go to the stinking grocery store by herself with her kids, she would do it. But she won't, and hasn't...ever. She has never gone ANYWHERE with those kids by herself. She calls my mother-in-law or my father-in-law. The one time they actually said no because they were out to dinner with friends, she had the audacity to be mad at them. What? They do have their own lives! But she has become so dependent on them (and they have been enabling her) that she literally thinks she's entitled. But they keep giving in to it. And none of them will listen to reason. It baffles me.