Not waiting, exactly...

Although, it's not been highly unusual that he doesn't call during the day. But, recently, he's had the courtesy of calling by now, if he's not going to be home soon. It's almost 7:30 p.m., and I've heard not a thing from him.

Somewhat disturbing, though, is that M seems to almost look forward to D not coming home. :o He's been speculating about it all day, with no encouragement from me. So, what does that say? :(

On the other hand, we had a nice, relaxing day at home. :) I got all the laundry done, including the quilt from my bed, the sheets, and the bathroom rugs. I washed both the kitchen and bathroom floors, watered the gardens (the grass is burnt to a crispy crunch), and M and I went for a bike ride, and drooled over some items at a couple of garage sales. :) Matthew helped with no complaints. It was peaceful. Or is it the eye of the storm??

My butterfly bush is in full bloom now. Apparently, it's aptly named. LOL All three of these butterflies were feasting on the nectar at the same time, this morning. :)



I understand that Gustav will be coming ashore by Monday. I only hope that it doesn't pack as big a punch as Katrina did. I'm also hoping he keeps coming north and we get some residual effects from it. As I noted before, the grass is crispy and the flowers are wilting, from the dryness. :( Although, it's nice that we get such beautiful weather--nothing too hot or humid--but we need rain, bad!

Well, I better go and be a super mom, and watch WWE with M. :p Good thing I have an interesting book to read. LOL

*#$#&(&#^@##%!!!

First, I'll get the good news out of the way. My sister got the 2nd check today, from Mom's landlord. It was larger than I expected, and ecstatic that we're finally finished with those dunderheads! :)

Now, the day didn't start out too bad...well, the earliest part of it, anyway. LOL But, shortly after nine (when a co worker showed up), is when it started to go downhill. :p I may have mentioned before that we're short of help for a few days. Therefore, the full-time techs--well, at least me and another one--have been volunteering extra hours to fill in the gaps. Not to make the 3rd one feel left out, I asked if she would be willing to cover one day this weekend. All week, she's been hemming and hawing over whether she would do it--a whole 4 hours worth on Saturday. Yesterday, my impression that she would cover 4 hours--more if she cared to--on Saturday. But, just to make sure, I confirmed it with her this morning. She kept running over the top of her tongue with excuses, and even after I reminded her that she originally said she'd do it, I finally said, "Fine. I'll work the hours." She replies with, "Well, if you're sure...." AAAAAARRRRRGGGGGGGHHHHH!!!! All I wanted was a simple yes or no at the beginning of the week, and she puts us through this song and dance every single time! Which is why I should know better than to even ask anymore. :( But, if I don't, then I get feedback, or later comments after the fact such as "gee, why didn't you ask me? I could've worked it". Again......AAARRRGGGHHH!

Then, this evening, Matthew has a meltdown at dinner, because I attempted to make him eat the crust of his grilled cheese sandwich. I know...I'm such a hardass. LOL The "threat" was, if you don't eat the rest of the sandwich, you don't get your bag of Doritos. Well, my goodness, you'd think we had asked him to eat his own fingers!! :o It didn't get too bad, until he threw the crust across the table! :o Then, he stormed off screaming "I'm so sick of this!" and slammed the door to his bedroom. Harumph! LOL

After he'd calmed down sufficiently, I suggested that since he didn't like the rules as we saw fit, that he should write up his own set of rules, and I would do the same. When we were done, we'd all read them together and come to a compromise. Note, that I said ALL--meaning the three of us (mom, dad, and son). Basically, it's just an expectation of duties and responsibilities in helping each other to keep the house orderly and what we expect in the area of meals and snacks, and the consequences thereof if things weren't done. (M's good for loading up on snacks and insisting that he hates pretty much hates everything I make, even though he's never eaten before).

Of course, M was done in a short order, while I took more time to word it properly and try to cover all the bases. ;) I was proud that he actually wrote down some of the same things that I did, but with a bit more of a 9 yr old's mind. LOL Naturally, my list of chores and consequences tended to be more geared toward M, but wanted to include all three of us, as to make it more equal and fair. But, of course, D decided I was taking too long and went to bed--even though I was printing mine out at the time he decides he can't wait any longer. :p

So, I sit M down at the table with my list (an agreement) to read, as I go back to the bedroom to try and roust D back out, so we can discuss this as a family. Mind you, I stayed quite calm and reasonable throughout this whole session. He doesn't see the need for him to go back out there "just because our son has an attitude problem, and is lazy". WTF?!!? So, I try to explain to him my point of view, that if EVERYONE helped around the house, it would lighten the load for all involved, everyone would know where each of us stands, and everyone (mainly me) would be happy campers. ;) So grumbling and whining all the way out, he's stuck on trying to explain one tiny issue I brought up, and making excuses why this particularly small thing hadn't been done previously. I'm trying to explain to him that that one tiny issue is just that--one small point in a much larger picture.

Oh, he doesn't have time for this crap, he's going to bed! :o Pardon me? So, he's dropping the ball on a unified family once again, because he thinks my idea is stupid, because he'd rather just complain about shit but not try to resolve the matter without verbal or physical abuse. :( It might have been petty, and in the heat of the moment, but I basically told him that if he wasn't willing, or didn't want, to be a part of this family, then he's welcome to leave at anytime. His response was, "Fine, I'll be gone in the morning." :(

Naturally, this made both M and I cry. It was said with such calm, that I'm not sure if he was being sarcastic or if he was serious. I apologized to M, and we dried our tears. He continued to read the agreement that I wrote up, and we talked about the one he wrote, and compromised on all of it. :) We both signed it, and left a space for Dad to sign it, too---just in case. I don't know if D will read it in the morning, nor whether or not he'll sign it--or if he really will leave and not come back. :(

M and I also talked about Dad some. He's a perceptive little thing and certainly not stupid as to what's going on around him. Of course, he's sad and hurt that Mom and Dad don't have the peachiest relationship. But, I think he's bright enough to roll with the punches if push comes to shove---bless his huge and sensitive little heart. :)

We also talked about why I would like and need some help around the house. Because we all work full-time jobs (M to school, and D & I to our respective careers), it's only fair that all three of us pitch in with the rest of the house and yard work, so that one person isn't responsible or overwhelmed with the whole job.

So, I ask you, is this too much to ask?! :(

And, you know what really bites? Is that the last couple of days, D and I have been having real conversations. Nothing earthshattering, but at least talking to each other more than we have been in months. And, now he pulls this crap--again. And, I don't even know what set him off. Just when I think we're on the same page, he flips to another chapter--or a whole different section of the library, for that matter. :( I'm pretty much done with trying to figure out what will make him happy and keep me sane at the same time. I don't know what he wants, and it's not for lack of asking. He either doesn't know himself, can't articulate it into words for whatever reason, or he's just afraid to tell me the truth.

I'm sure in his mind, it's all going to be my fault, one way or another. I've long ago accepted the fact that I'm not perfect, nor will I ever claim to be. Now, if he could do the same, we'd probably be much happier. :p

Woohoo!

I just got an email from my sister...they only charged us $15.00 for cleaning the apartment! That is MUCH more realistic than the $115.00 they estimated! :) Of course, they're still idiots, considering my last email indicated that future mailings should be addressed to me, as personal representative of the estate, and they still sent it to my sister. :p Either way, it'll get deposited into the estate account, but it's just the principal of the thing. :p

See? It's already starting

Almost a week without posting anything. :p But, I have to admit, that I've been pretty busy. Other than last Friday, I've been at work everyday!! :o I'm trying to catch up on all the days I've missed when my mom died. Not to mention, all the college kids went back to school, and there was no one to work the weekend shifts now. I'm working again this weekend, but not sure if it's just Sunday, or if I'm going to do Saturday afternoon, too. One of the ladies said she would do Saturday afternoon, but really doesn't want to...make up your mind, already, and just give me an answer!! Geez, I feel like I'm talking to my husband. :p

Other than that, there's nothing too exciting going on. The county fair starts tomorrow, and I have NO money to take M. :( Even if the neighbor lady takes him, I'd still have to come up with some cash to pay his admission fee and some rides. I still have to talk to her and see if she's even planning on taking him--he says she is...we'll see. LOL

AF is soon to arrive, too........yippee. :( And, I can sure feel it, too. Today, I'm tired and out of sorts, and have the starting of a headache. Sure signs that she's on her way. :p

I took a roast out of the freezer this morning, and it's still half frozen! :o I threw it in the oven right away, and I sure hope 3 and a half hours will be sufficient for it to get done.

We've been getting phone calls from our caretakers of the cabin. Seems there's a bear in the area that LOVES our lilac bush!! :o It was there a few days previous to when we were up there last, and damage about 3 branches. This past week, he broke off three more branches! Stupid bear. :p If he keeps it up, I won't have anything left! :(

Crap! I just got a phone call from the dentist's office. Seems I was supposed to be there this afternoon, and totally forgot! :o I'm re-scheduled for Sept 8th...they said they'd call me at work that morning to remind me. LOL I had totally intended to call them yesterday to reschedule anyway, since we're broke and wouldn't be able to pay them. :p I hate doing that--forgetting appointments. :(

Should be interesting to see what I get in the mail in the near future. We're still fighting with Mom's landlord corporation over the rent/security deposit refund. :p I had to send them another nasty email the other night, and got a rather terse reply. But, I think they're finally seeing it our way. ;) We'll see.

Ta Da!!

See? I told you I'd get it done tonight! :D

The new addition to our home

This is Layla, otherwise known as Goober, Nobhead, or Ninja--Pouncing Kitty. She's currently, approximately 14 weeks old, and the terror of the house. ;)



I know some people are against de-clawing, however, I'm not particularly fond of having my curtains look like cloth vertical blinds. It's not the "in" thing this year. :p My legs and my arms are starting to look the same way...like I've been in a fight with a.......well, a CAT! Johnson and Johnson is making a lot of money off of me, lately, with Band-aids. So, very soon (as soon as I scrape some money together), Miss Layla is going for a little visit to the vet.

I can't believe I'm actually putting this out for public viewing! Don't laugh, but I was damned if I was going to spend $100.00 on something we could build--and I use that term loosely LOL--ourselves. I should say, I could make myself, since it's very apparent that it's me who's constructed it thus far. DH just silently laughs to himself...I know this, because if he dared to laugh out loud, I'd smack him. LOL



This is the cat condo I've decided to build. It's not done yet, as you can see that the carpeting isn't quite right yet, and it hasn't been all attached together, either. I'm stuck on this point, because the circular shapes are cardboard, and it's difficult to get a staple in there to hold, without having it stick out the other side. :o And, this is where my dear DH, with all his carpentry skills come into play. I got it this far...he can attach it together! :D So, really, it is a "we" project. :)

Might I add, that Katrina, our 14 yr old "wide load" kitty, is NOT impressed with this new intrusion into her domain. After a month, she's still hissing and growling anytime Layla comes near. However, it IS getting better. Layla can get within about 6 inches of her, before the radar goes off in Katrina. At first, it was about 2 feet! LOL Poor Layla, all she wants to do is play with a new friend, and all Katrina wants, is to be left alone. :) Now, if Layla would just learn to respect the old bag of fur's wishes, everything would be hunky dory. LOL But then again, Katrina should know better than to dangle her twitchy long tail over the chair, right in paw's reach of Layla. ;)

Nothin' much going on

Pretty boring day at work today, but I only worked 4 hours. :)

Yesterday, the neighbor lady suggested going to the lake for swimming. So, today, I drove M, me, the neighbor lady, and her ten month old charge to the lake. It was nice out, but not screamingly hot, and with a rather cool and steady breeze. Neighbor and the baby sat at the edge of the water, so baby could play. And, M's the only one who actually got fully wet. LOL I only waded in up to my knees, because I knew that once I got my whole suit wet, it'd be darn cold coming back out of the water! LOL Big chicken, that I am. :)

I'm supposed to be baking cookies right now (and there's the "p" word coming again). Yesterday, we tried making them, and I used some of Mom's old shortening. BIG mistake! (enter hurling motion here). So, today, I should start over.

Good news, though...I've got two rows left of the trim on that stupid afghan. Nothing like running it down to the last minute. LOL

Oh, and I got an update from my sister, regarding the landlord situation. Apparently, what she got was an estimate of the work that needed to be done. Too bad they didn't specify that when they sent the letter. In any case, we'll be seeing what tomorrow brings, with the "exact" amount they said they would forward to us, after the cleaning and "maintenance" workers get done. :p Funny thing is, they said they need to make the place "spotless" for the new tenant. Hmmmm...it certainly wasn't that way when Mom moved in, as when we were cleaning out the cupboards, we found an envelope with stuff in it, from the previous owner. (rolling my eyes)

Have I ever mentioned how much I hate the ringing of a phone?

Well, not really, but other than the phone ringing and it being one of M's friends, it's been pretty quiet around here, lately. But, I swear, Dh has a phone homing device embedded under his skin! He calls me around 4:00, to say he's in the area. I bet I got 7 phone calls within the next two hours! Not necessarily for him--mostly telemarketers, and nuisance calls--but, sheesh!

The last phone call was from my irate sister (that makes two of us by that time, but for different reasons LOL). She got the final inspection notice from my mom's landlord and the deductions they made from her security deposit. By the time she got done reading the letter, I was pretty hot under the collar, myself! I personally called the people up there, after we'd vacated, to tell them that we cleaned everything on the list, except two of the items listed. They sent us a bill for about 5 hours worth of work, and listed each and every thing at $10.00/item! To tell you how ridiculous it was, they charged $10 each for wiping off the bathroom faucet, and dusting the cobwebs out of the patio door track. They listed things they did that had already been done! Not to mention, that one of the reps that were present during the week we were there, had told my sister not to worry about cleaning certain things (like wiping down the walls, because they had to paint anyway, etc.), and they still charged us for it! Dirty, rotten bastards! Nothing that they listed should've taken more than an hour and a half to do everything (and, that's being generous), at $20/hr.

My sister cc'd me the email that she sent to them tonight (we've got 10 days from the date of mailing to reply, supposedly in person), and told them that if she had to drive all the way over there (100 miles) to politely ream someone's ass, she was going to charge them mileage as well as her wages, for having to take off of work to do so. This should be interesting, considering I told them we vacated on August 2nd, and they still charged the full month's rent (9 days extra). I'm not so concerned about that, but we are pretty steamed about the cleaning bill! Wonder how many other senior citizens they've bilked out of their money. :(

Today's a new day

Sorry about being such a downer yesterday. It was rather cathartic to write that all out, though.

So, today I went to work...nothing too exciting happening there. Never really is, though. LOL It's that time in the month where business is steady, but not chaotic. Whereas, next week will be the start of the rush again. :p

DH finally got home this afternoon, after being gone for a week. He was up north, at the cabin, re-roofing that, as well as the neighbors' house. At least the $$ from the neighbor's work paid for our roof. ;) He took some pictures of his handiwork, but unless you know what it looked like before, it's not really that impressive. LOL Suffice it to say that the roof is now brown instead of black--or green--or whatever color it was before. ;) However, on one of his previous trips up there, he fixed up the front of the pole shed, and that looks pretty nice now (see above). :) For those that don't know, the pole shed used to be a grody, ugly yellow. The dark horizontal stripes are actually poly-d cedar. Really sets it off nicely, I think. :)

After work today, I went to school registration. I think M got a pretty good teacher, from what read in her bio. I have no personal connection with any of the 4th grade teachers, so it was a toss up. LOL After looking at the class list, I was (shhh, don't tell anyone) relieved to see that his neighbor buddy isn't in the same classroom this year. They're good friends, and all, and A is a sweet kid. However, the two of them together spells t-a-l-k-i-n-g and not paying attention in class. ;) There was only about 5 kids' names that I did recognize in his class. One, is another neighbor kid, and the other one, he was pretty chummy with in kindergarten. So, I'm hoping by mixing them up, he'll renew the friendships. :)

M's been bugging me to make cookies for over a week now, and I've been--yep, you guessed it--procrastinating!! So, this afternoon, I made a batch. However, I used some old shortening that I'd brought home from my mother's pantry. Suffice it to say, it was more than OLD! :o The batter didn't taste right, and the cookies tasted worse. :( So, one batch of baked and unbaked cookies went immediately in the trash! LOL I promised that we'd try again tomorrow--with butter. ;)

This evening, I managed to make progress on that afghan that I've been...um...er...procrastinating getting done. Long story short, I didn't want to make it in the first place, but someone's paying me to do it, so I accepted the "challenge". The baby shower is Saturday, and I don't work on Friday, so it HAS to be done by tomorrow night, to hand it off to the grandma. No problem, though...I've only got two more rounds to finish off the edging, and I can get that done in no time. :)

Am I stupid, or what?!

The other day, we (son and I) rented some movies. I've heard good things about the The Bucket List, so I thought I'd rent it, among others. Knowing full well what it was about, I hesitated, but I figured M wouldn't want to watch it, so I thought I'd watch it while he was doing other things. Well, it came time to watch, and M was all rarin' to go and watch it with me! I thought to myself, "egads, I hope most of this goes over his head". (that was the stupid part)

Everything was fine, until almost the very end, and I started tearing up. M asks, "Mom, are you crying?" "A little bit, yes", I replied. "So am I! I really miss Grandma!" Crap! :( All I could do was try to console him with the reminder that she was fortunate enough not to have to go through what these men portrayed in the movie went through.

She had the motto of "I'm gonna live till I die", and that's exactly what she did! She never had to lay there, in a bed, suffering in pain, or puking her guts out. In fact, she insisted that she never really had much pain--nothing a heating pad and some Tylenol didn't offset, anyway. Sure, she did one series of chemo, and had slight side effects from it, but nothing like some of the people I knew that had terminal cancer. The day before she died, she was ready to go to the casino to celebrate her birthday. She almost made it. :(

I knew, deep down, that it was close. I'd seen her a couple of weekends previous, and talked with her on the phone often. Little comments that she made clued me in. But, it was still a shock to get that phone call from my aunt, who found her...the one that was picking her up to go to celebrate her birthday that day. Especially, since I'd only talked with Mom the morning before, and she sounded good. Everyone that saw her that afternoon commented about how good she looked, and what a great attitude she had. I'm just sad that she died all alone. But, then again, she went the way she wanted to...she lived till she died. And, I have to accept that.

It's been a pretty crappy summer for me, all around. The first part of May, my best friend's husband called to tell me that his wife was just diagnosed with terminal Adrenal Cancer. We buried her July 5th. I was able to see her a few times, and I was able to say good-by to her. That helped, but it still didn't make it any easier to let her go. :(

My mom was diagnosed with metastasized Pancreatic Cancer, around June 1st. Three days after we heard the final prognosis on her (in mid-June), my Mom called to inform me that her baby sister had just been diagnosed with metastasized Lung Cancer. She's the one that's going through hell now. :( They're doing everything they can to slow down the progress, and she's hanging in there, but I don't think it will be long before I get THAT phone call, either. It's spread too far, and in too many places to be curable, anymore. I just hope and pray she can hang in there for as long as she can. That family needs a break. :(

A test post

So, here I am. Now, what do I do? LOL I'm not a really active blogger, so don't expect much from me. ;) But, once in awhile, I need to vent--or just ramble on--so I guess this is as good a place as any. Today, I'm just testing things out, and seeing if I can create a page as nice as those that I've seen recently.