Thursday, February 28, 2008

I need an extra weekend

I need an extra weekend.. to make up from last weekend. It was my Grandmother's 80th Birthday last weekend and the festivities began right after work at 5:30 on Friday night. An hour drive to my aunts house and dinner at the Country Club seemed harmless enough. But then there was the cake and ice cream afterwards and cards until 11:30 at night.

My brother and I spent the night at my cousin's house. It was my first night away from Sugarplum. I know I know.. she's almost 3 and I've never been away.. not because I worry about her, just because I don't like to be away from her. I had a surprisingly easy time of it.

Saturday I got up after 6 1/2 hours of sleep for a morning coffee and walk by the beach with three of my cousins and two of the teenagers. Followed by breakfast at a little diner that one of my out of town cousins adores. Then it was back to the aunt's house for more visiting, a big pasta dinner and more cards.

I got home at roughly 8:15 Saturday night only to promptly fall in bed just so I could get up at 8:30 the next morning and drive back. Sunday I took Sugarplum to visit and go to the aquarium with another cousin and her two little ones.

A good time was had by all, it was great to visit and it was a fantastic weekend, but here it is Thursday, and I still feel exhausted.

Tuesday, February 26, 2008

Callin' Mommy Out

Sugarplum is almost 3... and has no filter. When do they get a filter? This morning she felt like being sassy. When we went over to the daycare lady's house after saying good morning to Oma, she still felt sassy. She was being fussy and I tried to cheer her up giving her a big hug and jiggling her. She yelled "NooO!" Stopped for a second then looked at me and got upset yelling "It's stinky!! Mommy tooted!!"

Because she was being fussy, we were able to laugh it off, deny deny deny. I sat there.. if I sat still it wouldn't go anywhere right? The daycare lady wouldn't get too close right?

Most. Embarassing. Dropoff. Ever.

Tuesday, February 19, 2008

Stuck

Ugh. One of the worst things happened. This weekend is my grand-mother's 80th birthday celebration. My aunt's have organized a party at a country club. There is a dress code. No jeans allowed. Just about all I wear is jeans.... I have 2 skirts I can wear, 2 I can't and 1 dress. I thought it would be a good excuse to find a new outfit; so off to Kohl's I went.

Most of the dresses I thought were really ugly... but I did find 2 possibilities. So I trotted off to the dressing room with the sizes I hoped would fit. Then it happened. I got stuck in a dress. I got into it just fine - but sleeves had no elastic and were too tight. So I tried to lift my arms up to get the dress off. I started to panic... I thought I was going to have to buy a ripped dress - ripped because that would have been the only way I could get it off. Or I was going to have to go to the lady in the next dressing room to help. How embarassing would that have been?

Well I was able to get out of the dress and left totally deflated. Guess I'll make do with the dress I have or one of my skirts.

On an unrelated note, I've been having really weird dreams lately. I don't remember much about them... but I do remember that last night, I dreamt that Darth Vader was an accountant.

Sunday, February 17, 2008

How Far

How far does a stick have to be shoved up your rear end sideways in order to ignore and even give dirty looks over a 2 year old trying to talk to you?

Sugarplum and I went to the Garden Center this morning with my mom. It's my favorite garden store and in the outdoor area they have red Radio Flyer wagons that you can drag all your plants around in. Sugarplum of course wanted to pull it herself. She was doing a really good job too. Until she got tripped up on a corner, literally, and skinned her knee. She's ok but it was rather sensitive. As we were checking out she was trying to tell the lady about her boo boo. "Lady - I got a boo boo. Lady. Lady! Lady!!" The woman just ignored her and looked sour ringing up my mom's plants. I had to take Sugarplum outside and all I could think to tell her was the lady had to concentrate and that sometimes people don't like to talk.

My heart broke for her - she doesn't understand why the plant lady wouldn't talk to her. Everyone talks to her. She said "Nooo Mommy!!! People talk!!" It was so sad. I found myself being increasingly irritated over it all afternoon. All we could come up with was that she did not seem to be a very happy person at all. Now I'm sad for her.

Monday, February 11, 2008

Take THAT Nosy Neighbor!

Code enforcement came out tonight. Last week I think I posed about some nosy neighbor calling in a complaint about our pool. Well.. tonight was our "inspection"

The lady who came over was very nice. It was late dusk so she really couldn't see a whole lot.. but she could tell from the pump being on and the fact that she could see through the water that the pool was not green. And we fished out the chair in case you were wondering. She saw leaves on the bottom and could smell the chlorine so knew something was working the way it was supposed to.

I explained how we fight algae growth every winter as soon as it starts raining and the storms blow leaves and other yard debris into the water. She just said "ok, I'm going to close this out and sign it off"

So take THAT you complaining neighbor!

Friday, February 8, 2008

Haunted

All the parents were late to daycare that day. It was a beautiful late June afternoon when I headed out from work. I packed up my office with bright thoughts of the coming weekend and what fun Sugarplum and I would have hanging out at my best friends B's house. I tossed my backpack and purse in the trunk, plugged in my cell phone headset and dialed up B on my way out of work as I so often do.

The children didn't understand why I was upset when I arrived. I assured them all as best I could that I would be alright. They were skeptical. They knew someone was hurt.

On the freeway there had been an accident. It was in a common spot with a short space to change lanes for oncoming and exiting traffic. I got past it and we all cruised back up to normal speed. As I was reaching full free-way speed, I saw the smoke. Someone had just rear-ended someone else. I instinctively took my foot off the gas. Then I saw her.

"Oh my God. Oh my God. Oh my God. B I have to go" I heard my own voice telling her what I'd just seen still not completely believing it. I pulled over. I tried to call 911 but couldn't get through.

With traffic at a stand still behind me, I finally was able to get out of my car. I stood right next to my trunk and got through to 911. Emergency crews were already en route. Several people had stopped and were at the scene. A few crouched over her body searching for signs of life. Someone else was directing traffic off the freeway. The firetrucks arrived. The highway patrol arrived. I stood.. watching.. waiting.. unsure. There was no movement. I could see the red pool against the dark pavement. It was too big.

I saw the officer with the yellow tarp. Then gasps as she moved. She was waking up. I started to approach and was sent back to my car. The fire chief came to me. Was I witness? Kind of. The highway patrol officer came to speak to me. Did I know which car hit her? I stared back. Had I seen it happen? No. I honestly didn't know. I saw her fall and roll.. but I didn't see exactly where she came from. I was sent on my way.

For days I could not shake the image of the woman on the road. I drive the same route every day. Every day I think of her. Every day I pray for her.

Tuesday, February 5, 2008

I'm In My House, Spying on Your Backyard

I hate nosy neighbors. We have a neighbor next door who likes to police the neighborhood. Of course, none of her complaints are ever confirmed but because she has made noise about all the neighbors at one time or another, we all assume it's her. It might also be the people behind us because they can see directly into our backyard.

So we got a visit today - from the city code enforcement office. They inspector couldn't get into our backyard so we got a note on our gate to call her right away. Turns out, there has been a complaint filed about our pool. Which means someone is spying on our backyard. They complained that there is a chair in the pool and it's green.

Yes, there's a chair in the pool. It's a white plastic backyard chair that ends up in the pool every time the wind kicks up. Being winter time, there is a lot of wind around. Imagine that. There's also leaves blown in the pool. There's also algae in the pool. This happens every winter. The water itself is clear, not murky, but yes, there is some algae on the sides of the pool, which we clean, all the time. It's not standing water. It's not mosquito season, it's not like the West Nile virus is a risk right now. If it was, I could give a little leeway for the concern. But it's not. So I can't.

I hate it when people feel like they have the right to police everyone else instead of take care of their own crap and mind their own business. Like, oh I don't know, take care of the trees and plants that droop over the fence and are partly responsible for the leaves in the pool! GRRRR!

Monday, February 4, 2008

You're the BEST!

So this weekend, we had been invited to a stupor-bowl party but decided to chill at home instead. Good thing we did because I was sick. Don't know if it was food poisoning or a flu, but I was down for the count.

Hubby D was fantastic and ran interference with Sugarplum and kept her from climbing on me. She did want to come to take a nap with me and rubbed my cheek saying "sweet dreams, Mommy"

Later after my 18th nap, D went to the kitchen to cut some warm bread I made. It was brown -n- serve lest you think I was making bread while sick. (I'm no where close to achieving that level of domestic goddessness yet)

As he was walking into the kitchen, Sugarplum stood up and called after him "You're the BEST, DADDY! You're the BEST!"

On a side note, I received this blog bling from Amy over at Milkbreath and Margartia's - Thanks Amy!!! I'll pass it on as soon as my temperature is back to normal and I can think straight.