M+B=E2O2

Ben's Birthday Weekend

It's pretty cool when a single day can morph into a 4 day event.   His actual birthday was Saturday, but he got to start celebrating on Friday at work.  Nothing major, but a nice gesture.  Friday night we left the kids with my MIL and went to the yacht club.  Every Friday they have a Friday Night Dinner.  Once a month they celebrate all the birthdays of the month during  the dinner.  This was the October Birthday Dinner, so along with several other members we sang Happy Birthday and got a bottle of champagne.  We met several new couples at dinner and really had a nice time. 

Saturday marked the big day- 35.  He received several rounds of happy birthday from the kids, then he left for the off track betting place to go bet on the Breeders Cup with his brother.  He didn't end up winning, but had a great time.  While he was gone the kids and I went to Costco to get him his birthday present.  We got him Airhog helicopters.  I can't tell you how long he has wanted a remote control helicopter.  They also had the adjustable weights that we've been waiting and hoping for them to carry.  Each dumbbell can adjust from 5 lbs to 52 lbs.  So he got an unexpected present from me. Needless to say he was thrilled.   

Saturday night we had made plans with G & C.  we dropped Olivia off with the grandparents and the rest of us (G, C & their 2 kids) piled into The Beast (my suburban) and we dropped off all the kids at the Halloween party at the gymnastics studio and the 4 of us went out to dinner-completely free of children.  Now that was a treat! 

We went to a favorite tri-tip/bbq restaurant near gymnastics.  G & B had never been so we were excited to share it with them.  After a lovely meal, they pulled out their gift to Ben.  I had wondered why G had brought a sail bag into the restaurant.  The bag itself was part of the gift.  They put together a "Sailing Conversion Kit" for him.   Because of how clever and how much thought they put into this, I am going to share with you the directions for the kit, which were included.

• 1 retro Ullman Sails Sail Bag-  Container for sail, gear, cold beverages, etc.  Can also be placed over head to disguise oneself after bad performance.
• 1 North Sails One Design Mylar Enclosure- To house all impeortant sailboat documents, note it is waterproof.
• 1 Yacht Club Burgee-  To be flown proudly from any vessel you may be aboard, duplicates may be flown from backyard to show off to friends you have enough money to be a member of a yacht club.
• 1 Jimmy Buffet Novel-  Does anything really need to be said about how to use this?  If ou ever forget how to have a "laid back" time, this book wil remind you.
• $100 Dollar Bills-  Just a friendly reminder of the obscene amount of money it takes to participate in this adventure.
• 1 Personal Sized Tube of Sunscreen- to be aplied liberally to all exposed areas.  Warning, not for spousal consumption.
• 1 Package Crusing & racing Magazines - Because when your're not on the water, you need to act as if your preparing to be.  The 'Showboats' one is so once again, you can impress your friends.  Just tell them you interseted in a new "time-share" that's way cooler than a condo.
• 1 Mount Gay Rum Red Hat - You'll be shocked to learn this is the coolest, most coveted sailing item in the industry.  Can be found on EBAY for exorbitant amounts of money.  If you ever need extra funds for your boat and you put this online, we will no longer be your friends.
• 2 Ullman Sails Stickers - To be considered one of the chosen few, you must tattoo your car/window with a sailing sticker of some sort.  These have been treated with UV protection.
• 1 Sailing Related Invoice - To prepare you for the reality that you will be spending a lot of those $100 dollar bills. 
• 1 Roll of Duct Tape - Haven't you heard, it really does fix anything.  Can also be used to cover the mouths of obnoxious crew members.
• 1 Extremely Used and Loved Sailing Book - This has some really good information in it and can occupy the nex 3 years of your bathroom time.
• 1 Pair Size 10 Flip Flops - Because no matter how hard you try to resist, you always feel more relaxed with out shoes.  Be free our friend, don't fight it!
• 1 Harken Block Key Chain - quite possibly the most expensive key chain you'll ever own.    You already have a wallet that proves your true identity,now you have a key chain that proves you've been converted to a true sailor.  By the way if you ever get rid of this, we will disown you.  We weren't kidding, these suckers are expensive.
• 1 Bottle of Mount Gay Rum - You are a sailor now.  You need to ditch the Captian.  This is the true sailor's rum of choice.  Besides, if all esle fails with the above mentioned items, you can enjoy this item thoroughly.

Seriously-how cool was that!  Like my friend Jenny said recently- "But regardless of whether those friends are helpful, thoughtful, intoxicating, or sobering, I've found that friends are always worth the effort."

So true.  Our circle of friends has grown in the last year, and truly the effort is beyond worthwhile. 

On to more of Ben's birthday.  So let's see we left off at the restaurant.  After a very enjoyable opening  (and reading of) gifts, we went back and got our kids.  We came back to our house and got them all upstairs and in bed.  FIL brought a sleeping Olivia back and again we were 4 adults with out children.  Awesome!  We had a few drinks, talked then played the game Cranium.  It was really fun!  The boys won in the end but not with out a good fight from us girls.  We hit the sack much too late, but I'd say it was almost worth it (I'm still trying to catch up on sleep!!!)

Sunday G & C had a Gal Guy sailing event so I kept the kids while they sailed.  Ben went out to lunch with his good friend C (thus marking day 3 of the never ending birthday), then he helped Ben pick out a computer for work.  C is our computer guru.  I am now the happy owner of Ben's old laptop, and Ben's office is sporting a new desktop PC.

Late in the afternoon, the kids were getting edgy so I piled them all in The Beast and we went to the yacht club.  C & G were just taking the boat out of the water so it was great timing.  I sat and chatted a bit then piled my crowd back into The Beast and we headed to MIL's house for Ben's birthday dinner.  She makes an amazing lasagna.  We sang to Ben (again) and he got a whole set of tools and a tool box from them.  Our house was sadly lacking proper tools.  We have a mix match of random stuff, but now- we've got it all. 

Finally, we get to Monday. The last and final day of Ben's birthday.  On Monday Fed-Ex delivered the gift I had originally ordered for him.  I got him wireless headphones so he can get on the bike in the early morning and watch the Justice League or Lord of the Rings- two of his favorite things to workout to.

And so it ended.  The 4 day birthday. 

A Mother Knows

Last month was a tough one for me with Olivia.  Bad.  So I came to the conclusion that her behavior was due to a few things. 

• she had been in a cast for 3 weeks
• she spent an additional week in a splint that she could not walk on.
• we spent a week in Vegas- a new and strange setting
• we started piano lessons, leaving her behind with our first non family babysitter.
• she was getting close to the age of 2

For  the sake of my sanity, I made the only change I could.  Olivia now goes to piano with us. 

My first inclination was to just make her tough it out.  I thought that thousands of kids go to daycare everyday- she should just deal with it.  Then I thought about all the reasons that we homeschool.   One reason being that we don't have to put our children in the care of others. ***I  have never had to put our kids in daycare, and for that I feel blessed.  Not blessed that they didn't do daycare, but blessed that we didn't ever have to make a choice.  I  have always loved being with my children. I do admit to wishing at times that I could have the time to myself, but mostly I feel pretty lucky to get this opportunity to spend so much time with my kids.  I thought that if I could work out a way to take Olivia and have H (or sitter) come over on other days so that Olivia can get used to her it might help ease Olivia's anxiety.  So that is what I have done.   For the last 3 weeks I have taken Olivia to lessons. For one of the lessons she slept tough the whole thing. For two of them she woke up during the lessons.  Those were not so great, though we managed.  I explained to our teacher that it has to be this way for now.  I just can't take the repercussion of Olivia's separation anxiety.   

I have the satisfaction of finding out that I was right.  H came last week for a couple of hours.  when I opened the door  and Liv saw her she couldn't get into my arms fast enough.  I didn't push her.  H went ant hung out with the other kids upstairs.  I took Livi upstairs to my room so I could work on the computer and do the banking.  she stayed with m for about 5 minutes before the joyful sounds of play were too much for her.  She went and played with them.

When they were ready to transition to downstairs, she ran back to me and climbed in my lap.  She told me "downstairs Mommy downstairs".  I told her that she could go but that I had some work to do on the computer.  She thought about it for a minute or so and then hopped down and said "Bye Mommy".   I stayed upstairs for another 15 minutes cleaning my room and stuff before heading downstairs.  the kids then wanted to go in the front yard to ride bikes and such so again,with the transition she was climbing all over me.  I again told here I had work to do in the house and she eventually went outside and played. 

Another observation as proof that there was too much change in her life at once happened at park day a few weeks ago.  We were the first family there, we had a picnic lunch and sat together on the grass.  She was off and running and playing with her siblings after eating.  Two families showed up at the same time and set their stuff out. She was in my lap and practically on my face in less than a minute.  You see she not only wants me to hold her, she wants to be one with me.  It's like she can't get close enough.  Makes it very difficult to talk when you have a 2 year old literally sticking her cheeks to your own.  After a few minutes she would get up and go play again, but over the course of the next 30 minutes, as a new family would show up, she'd glue herself to me for 5 minutes or so. 

I do think I am making the kinder, gentler choice in dealing with this.  Though it is with out a doubt the longer route.  Since we've got the time and ability, I am happy to take it.  She is slowly separating herself from me.  I'm sure I'll miss it someday- but it sure is good birth control!!!

***I once said this to a family member who then got very defensive with me.  I just want to clarify that in no way do I think that there is anything wrong with daycare (or more traditional schooling for that matter).  I know that each family is very different and while this has been a blessing for us, it could be a nightmare for another family.  I know that cercumstacnes play a huge role in the decisions we make in life.  Which is why I use the word blessing in the first place,  I know not everyone who wants to make the choices we've been able to make can. 

Kinda Dorky

Me

Ben

Cook book giveaway

I don't often enter contests- but I'm a sucker for books and especially cookbooks. This one looks especially yummy.  I you are interested in making my chances to win more difficult trying to win too, go enter this week at molly-coddled.com

From the Publisher

Make room on your kitchen shelf-our biggest, most complete cookbook ever is here!

The Taste of Home Cookbook is jam-packed with over 1,200 family-favorite, classic recipes… plus all the cooking basics, practical tips and how-tos you’ll need to make every meal a guaranteed winner.

You’ll find over 300 main dishes alone, like succulent “Honey-Ginger Barbecued Ribs.” Hundreds of desserts are included, too, along with appetizers, sides, salads and more.

This sturdy hardcover, 5-ring binder book has 676 pages with more than 1,300 full-color photos! 9-1/8″ x 10″.

Halloween monster

I had the most frightening experience last night. 

I have this huge fear of spiders- I mean huge. Last year I tried to conquer them - totally unsuccessfully. 

Late last night I was trimming the stems off  a bouquet  of sunflowers so that they'd live another few days.  I gathered the bunch of stems and took them  outside so that I could add them to my compost pile  in the morning.  When I walked outside I could tell immediately that the winds had turned.  As you all know Southern California is on fire and the East winds (aka Santa Ana's) have been  horrific.

This time of the year we always get  Santa Ana's, it is as much a part of fall as red and orange leaves.  In the 30 or so years that I have lived in this state I have never seen them blow  like they have been blowing.   They are a weird experience to begin with.  You look outside and see the clear blue sky.  You know it is mid October.  You see the trees swaying.  In your mind you expect to walk outside and need a jacket.  It looks cold because it is autumn and by golly it is supposed to be cool- even in a southern California beach town.  However when you walk outside you are hit with a hot, dry wind.  It feels like summer, but windier.  I both love and hate the Santa Ana's.  They stir up all sorts of allergens so even if you don't have allergies - you get a runny nose, but they feel kinda nice too- sort of like a warm hug when you least expect it. 

This time there was no warm, gentle hug.  The winds were more like  a hot slap in the face.  The gusts were strong (gusts were clocked at over 100mph!!!!!). I didn't want to drive anywhere for fear of flying debris.  Whole tree limbs were bouncing down our street. 

Back to my story.

The winds turned late yesterday and  effect was immediate.  That cool ocean wind with speckles of moisture gripping your skin.  It was a welcome relief.  I put the flower stems in a pile of leaves that had gathered themselves on my back patio and walked out to the edge of the grass- just under our wood slat awning.  I breathed in deep and felt a web on my arm.  I tried to brush it off- but I couldn't seem to get it.  I glanced up and, I kid you not, less than 12 inches from my face was the biggest mother fricken spider in the whole world.  Huge.  I swallowed a scream and ran in the house doing that "get this GDMF thing off me" dance- you know the one-even if you don't have the mouth of a sailor I'm sure you've done the dance.  I was gulping screams all through the house brushing every inch of me off.  I looked back outside and saw the monster spinning a new web.  Ben, who had gone to be 5 minutes earlier came to the top of the stairs to see what was wrong.  I made him come down and look at the beast.  He is used to my arachnophobia , but even he was impressed and disgusted with the creature. 

Whenever he tries to mush a spider for me it inevitably gets away.  I reminded him of that as he went for shoes and something to beat it with.  It would likely take nothing less than a baseball bat  to knock that thing senseless.  The homeschooling mom in me wanted him to leave it there so we could go out and look at in in the morning and see what kind of beast it actually was.  But then I knew I'd have to make it go away some how or worse capture it for the boys to have play with study and Homie don't do that. 

He ended up capturing it in an old yogurt container ( a big one not the single serving kind) and then he taped it up - can't be too cautious here- and we put it in the trash which will get picked up today thank God.

I hate spiders. 

Fires...

Ugh- these fires here are awful.  My area is not on fire, however there are numerous fires north & east of us- and with the horrible Santa Ana winds the smoke and ash is everywhere.  The winds are supposed to start dying out by tomorrow I think-  pray they do.

  My good friend had to evacuate her home- they left as a wall of flames appeared behind them.  Their house was spared thank God, however the backyard was burned up- they had a gazebo and the girls had a trampoline.  The house is full of ashes and smoke damage- I am praying that this is the worst of it for them.  I just heard on the news that their street was  closed down.  I have another friend who is near another of the fires, but I have yet to hear how her family is doing.  Her boys have severe asthma though so I'm sure they are out of the area even if their house is not currently threatened. Please say a few prayers tonight for southern California. 

We are staying home-  I decided not to take the kids to their piano class today.  Between the smoky air and the 30-50 mph wind, I just didn't think it a great idea. 

Two other prayer requests while I am asking-  One for my dad- he has something going on with his eyes-  not sure what is going on I;m waiting to hear form my mom- but it is not good I'm fearing.  Also a long while back I mentioned that my Uncle needed some prayers.  He still does, though I'm not sure what is going on there.  He was dx'd with  mesothelioma not too long ago- he had an operation on Oct 10th to remove some lung- not really sure how much.  I know my aunt is struggling with this. 

I'm so full of cheer lately -  Yikes!  I will write a happy fun post sometime soon- really.  There are many a good things going on in our world and much I am thankful for.....

The Birthday Girl

Ok well her birthday was Wednesday- oops.  Olivia is officially 2.  And boy is she ever 2. Happy Birthday Little one!

At Least There's This

Saw this at I'm an Organizing Junkie.....

Take the 100 Acre Personality Quiz!

and Ben is...

Take the 100 Acre Personality Quiz!

It does get better- Right?????

Here is a letter I am dropping in the mail today to our local B&N and their corporate office in New York.

I am so tired of Olivia's screaming- I know what she sounds like, but should I stay home until she outgrows this?  Am I a bad parent?  Sheesh.  I did ask a employee on the way out -quite sarcastically though she didn't pick up on it till the end, then she started backing away form me, "Do you know where the manager is, you know the one with the parenting advise?" (insert bewildered look from employee) "You know, the one who yelled at my crying two year old.  I need some parenting advice from her as I must be a bad parent".  Totally sarcastic and non productive- but it sure felt good.  Once home I realized I needed a more productive way to handle the situation so I wrote a letter.

Oh and Thank you all for your kind words!!

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

To Whom It May Concern,

I would like to share, with deep regret, a disappointing experience I had at your XXXXXX (XXXXX Road) store on Tuesday, October 9th, 2007.

First let me say that I was once employed by B&N and I have nothing but wonderful memories of that experience.  I have stayed loyal to your company, often going out of my way to buy my books from you.  That will no longer be the case.

Tuesday morning I was at the XXXXXXX store with three other moms.  We went to the in-store Starbucks and each of us bought a drink.  I had my nearly 2 year old (DOB 10/17/05) and my 3 1/2 year old with me.  As we waited for our last drink order my son (3 1/2) was struggling to get his jacket unzipped and off.  My hands and arms were full of my 2 year old, large coffee and pastry (also bought from Starbucks).  I set down everything to help my son and my two year old daughter freaked out.  She screamed and cried as soon as her feet touched the floor.  I quickly helped my son while trying to verbally reassure my daughter that I would be picking her up momentarily.  It was at this point that I realized she was missing her coveted pacifier.  I finished with my son, scooped up my daughter and grabbed my purchases and told my friends we'd be right back.  I suspected that the pacifier had dropped in the shopping cart we had left outside the store.

As I was walking away, unheard by me due to my screaming and crying child, the manager Barbara said in a very loud voice from behind the espresso machine "NO SCREAMING!!!".  My friends were completely shocked that an employee (come to find out later a MANAGER) would verbally reprimand a paying customer with out assessing the situation first.   She apparently felt it was more appropriate to just yell at us in front of a room full of patrons.  One of my friends pointed this out to her to which she had no response but a sarcastic smirk.  By this time I was making my way back in with my now happily pacified children.  I was appalled and angry when I heard what took place.  I let Barbara know I was sorry for the disruption, and that I was trying my best to take care of my children.  She had no response back to me.  This should have been our cue to leave the store. Instead we  went upstairs to the children's area as we had promised the children we would.

We first went to the train table area.  As there is no place to sit there we each found a piece of floor to call our own, allowing us to supervise our children as they played.   After being there 10-15 minutes we were told that we couldn't sit in the aisles, that it was a fire hazard.  This was no problem, we apologized and happily made our way across the section to the stage area.  All but one of us that is.

One mom was looking at a book and was still standing near the two employees.  (One young red head and the other with dyed black hair).  The two girls proceeded to make derogatory remarks about our group referring to the scene that had taken place downstairs.  My friend was horrified and felt both unwelcome and unwanted in the store.  As soon as she shared what she had over heard we all decided we should leave.

After writing down the ISBN's and other needed information  from the items we had planned to buy we packed up and left.  Three of the four of us had planned to purchase items.  As stated at the start of this letter, you have lost my business as well as the business of my fiends and my family.

At minimum, I expect that your managers will be reminded to assess a situation VISUALLY prior to loudly and rudely reprimanding a paying customer in front of a room full of people. I was already embarrassed at the out bursts of my children- further humiliation was unnecessary. I also expect that you will remind employees to save their derogatory comments about customers for the break room or, even better, refrain from making them at all.

An apology would be nice as well.

Regretfully,

Michelle P
Avid reader, collector of books and Mom to four young children.

cc:
Barnes and Noble Inc. NY NY
Barnes and Noble XXXXXX Store
Starbucks
and my blog.

A Tale of Two Calls

Ok ok-  I know that was just not cool to end the last post like that- but (whine whine whine) I was tired.  So even though I am still (whine whine whine) tired, the house is quiet and I have a few moments to think. 

It all started on Wednesday, the day before Emma came back from Las Vegas.  Tuesday night the boys noticed that one of the fish- Emma's, was not right.  By morning it was dead.  Owen took it quite hard. We buried it out front under a palm tree and said the Our Father.  He then felt the need to discuss death in detail-  questions that I though Ben would be much better at dealing with since, well, he deals with death on a pretty regular basis.  (I could NEVER be a doctor).  However I did use it as an opportunity to share our Catholic beliefs with him and just some general  postmortem stuff.  He eventually came around- but not with out both of us in tears off and on. 

I sent Ben a text telling him of the woes of the house and he suggested we go look for the big fish tank that we've been talking about getting for the last oh 10 years. 

This is where it all goes bad (part 1).

I pile the 3 kids into the beast (suburban) and we head off to Petsmart.  We cruise around and see all sorts of cool stuff, but no fish tank that meets our specifications.  (size, color, etc).   So after visiting the kittens and saying hi to the rodents and birds we grab a 50 lb bag of dog food and head out to the truck.   

Olivia is in the basket- the boys are on either side of it.  I tend to park the beast out in the boonies- that way I 1) get in a few extra steps and 2) I don't have to worry so much about the kids flinging doors open and denting someones car.  So we head out to the middle of the parking lot.  Just as I am reaching for my keys-  which are clipped to my purse- out  but not in my hand, we hear the sound of screeching tires .  I look past Olivia back toward the front of the store and around the corner comes a car- just flying.  I figure it is idiotic lame asses going too fast just for the sake of it.  Wrong.  It is idiotic lame asses who are being chased by other idiotic lame asses.  When the second vehicle came screeching around the corner a red flag shot up real quick in my mind.  Just a week before- maybe 5 miles from where we were, a young boy was caught in the crossfire if idiotic lame asses.  (It was when we were out of town so I don't remember hearing if the boy died- but he was just having lunch at McD's and wham- shot.)

So the first car- a minivan- turns up our isle, the truck follows and they proceed to use our beast as their turning pin.  I grabbed the boys and Olivia and made them crouch down next to our truck and basket.  At this point they are driving circles around us- dropping the F bomb  and in general being very angry sounding.   Owen- oh ever inquisitive Owen- is asking me endless questions that I really don't want to answer but do.  I don't think I have ever, and I mean ever, been so scared for my and my children's lives, and I have been held at gun point before. ( That is a story for another time). 

I am frantically debating our options.  I am trying to get my keys in my hand- fumbling with them.  I don't know where we are safer-  I mean the beast is a big truck- it puts us up high in firing range should a firearm come into play.  Except that I know that lame ass gangsters (or wanna be ones) have no clue how to hold a gun properly to shoot.  So then I wonder if the ground is any better.  Plus I am afraid they are going to miss a turn and hit the car or us along side it.  This all takes place in about a 10 second span-  seems far longer, but I am fairly certain it couldn't have been more that 10 -15 seconds.  They seem to leave so I throw Olivia back in the basket the boys hop on and we start to make a run for the store- over 50 meters away (I think in term of pool lengths- so imagine an Olympic sized pool).  we get no more than 10 feet away when they come back.  By this time I had a grip on my keys so I turn us back  and open the truck.  I open the two passenger doors and the boys scramble in-  Evan is bawling at this point- Owen is still asking questions.  I get Olivia in, and strap her in as fast as I can.  Out Evans window the second vehicle pulls up about 2 spaces away.  two of the guys get out and run after the other car which had ended up out at the end of the lot and stopped for some reason.   They pull a guy out of that car and start beating the crap out of him.  I throw the 50# bag of food in the front seat, run around to my side and take off.  again  they are back in cat and mouse mode- driving  by, angry and yelling.  we make it to the exit just as they had looped back into the lot- and we turned and got the F out of there.  Ben had called us just as we had done the turn around from the attempt to get to the store-  I was just going to tell him what was going on when they had returned- so I hung up on him.  I called him back first.  I can not tell you how much I was shaking.  I called 911 once we were far- really far away.  Someone had already called- but I knew I needed to make sure that the police were notified. 

Good Times.

In my frantic state I let the boys know all sorts of truths about what was going on.  With a calmer head, I might have done differently.   It is amazing how hard it is to be calm when everything is so out of your control.  I am a very calm person.  I mean I am really mellow.  This just flipped me out.   The jackass  who held a gun to me when I was 19 had nothing on this situation- and I don't even know that there were even any guns around- but the potential was there.  6 young men, 2 vehicles, major anger, known gang area less than a mile away. I would be shocked if they didn't have any guns.  Nothing was mentioned in the paper in the following days- so I will assume that the boys were long gone by the time the 5.0 arrived. 

Yep- good times.

On to tale two......

*sigh*

We've been trying to wean Olivia off her pacifier.  some days are better than others.  4 days after our great experience in gansta paradise it wasn't going so well.  She was cranky to begin with and it was just a bad parenting decision to enforce the no ninny thing.  bad mom.  But , well I was feeling a bit run over-  and by golly I wanted someone to know that I was in charge- not Olivia.  So in exercising my power as Mom, Olivia cried.  we took her for a walk- that helped- until she woke up.  Then she cried some more.  She didn't want to be held, she didn't want down, she didn't want to eat, she didn't want to drink, she was even screaming "NO" to the offering of her damn ninny.  "no no no no no" was all she would say- except that she didn't say it she screamed it- amongst tears and wails of despair the kid would not stop.  She finally had just started to calm down- but was still doing th big sniffley breathing thing- ninny plugged in, when someone knocked on our door.  Generally speaking we do not open our door per our nifty little sign that says

"Kindly respect the wishes of this family by not disturbing us. We do not answer our door unless we know you or are expecting you. US Mail and UPS are welcome, as are friends. Others should make an appointment."

I guess I need to add in the police (and I'm thinking Girl Scouts too since I want cookies). 

I look through the peep hole- see an officer so I try to slip out the door-  Evan is trying desperately
to follow me as are 2 of the dogs.  Olivia also notices and starts to freak out- again.  I let Evan out- shove the dogs back in and ask if I can help him.  He says to me "The neighbor behind you called because they were concerned about a baby crying"  By now Olivia is at the door so I reach in stick her sobbing  self to my hip and say "yeah, that would be this one.  We've been trying to take away the pacifier (that she is by now sucking on hard) and it hasn't been going so well.  She's been crying a lot today.  She's almost 2 on top of it all."  He looks at us-  I think he feels sorry for me, and then says "well she looks alright to me".

*HUGE SIGH*

"yes, she's fine- just cranky."  He bid us good day and was off.  I didn't think to ask if he would be reporting back to our neighbor.  (Laurie- this is not the rock throwing folks form next door- they moved thank goodness!)

First I was sort of in shock- then I  felt  angry- I mean we don't know them- but our toys end up in their yard often- I've poked my head over the fence and they've always been quite pleasant.  Wouldn't  you think they might pop their head over if they were so concerned???? I mean have they been harboring thoughts for the last year and a half that we somehow  abuse our children!??  I mean really!  I know I am a darn good mom-  I have more patience than average and I use a variety of methods of discipline- but I do not and have never beat my kids.  I don't even cuss in front of them for gosh sakes.  I play with them- I hang out with them- grrrrrr it just really pisses me off.

I've been quite obnoxious this past week being sure to exclaim loudly in the direction of the back fence why I can't give Olivia a banana that we do not have or why I can't hold her due to the need to clean up some mess. 

I'm getting over it now though- really.

So there you go- I stayed her a full hour- yes it took me over an hour to write this- longer than I planned.  I have to go to bed now-  I didn't add Sunday to my walking week- so now it is down to tomorrow or Thursday...... 

Also my butt hurts from sitting in a little kid chair so long since I am on their computer.