In-Law-Confrontation

Well dinner last night went really well. I was very nervous all day. I had a pit in my stomach and my heart was racing just thinking about the fact that it was going to end up being an ugly confrontation. I was going over scenarios in my head, trying to convince myself how to stay calm and collected when that is not in my nature to do so.

It was all for naught. They were pleasant, we were pleasant (at least I hope we were). The talk turned to the wedding and I think when they realized that this isn't the most extravagant wedding there is and the only thing we expected of them were what was traditionally the grooms family responsibility and the rest was just participation, all was good. All in all it was a nice dinner.

I sincerely hope that is the last bit of wedding drama for this event. Roger is having surgery next week on his hip. He has been in a lot of pain since December and they have finally found the cause. A sports hernia. We are very relieved because he has a history of stress fractures in the same areas and we afraid that was what happened again. The hernia appears to be fixable and recovery is only supposed to be a week or so. It will be so nice to see him not in pain for a change and I am so looking forward to watching him dance with her little girl at her wedding.

Wedding Drama

I need advice. As you may have gathered, if you have read any of my past posts, our daughter Shauna is getting married in June. She is the first of our daughters to get married. She and Ryan have been together since her senior year in High School. First time I saw him I thought to myself “Oh my God! There is no way I want my daughter dating this guy with hair longer than mine, tattooed, eyebrow pierced and in a band no less!” But he was here to stay and we got to know him. He was/is awesome with the Terrible Trio. My dog, Abby loved him. And it wasn't long before we did too.

Two years they had Riley.  They did not want to get married at that time but always knew they would. They wanted to do it on their own time frame, not everyone else's. Now is their time frame. So we started making wedding plans. I wanted this be a wonderful time and a beautiful night and a very inclusive time for both of our families. It has not turned out that way.

I have asked his mother on several occasions if she would like to take part in different aspects of planning phases. There was always an excuse as to why she could not. Shauna's 3 sisters and his sister are the bridesmaids. We picked the dresses without his sister there because she couldn't be, but his mom tried to get out of buying a dress from the place we used. All of the dresses are the same color, but she wanted her friend to make her daughters? At the time I didn't understand it. The dresses were not that expensive, around $100. And they more than have the income to afford that. I would understand if they did not.

Well apparently his mother, reluctantly, told Shauna the other day that his dad said when they first decided to get married that he was not spending any money at all on this wedding! Well first of all, I haven't asked them to pay for anything, yet. But there are things that traditionally the grooms family do pay for. Rehearsal dinner, etc.. I just don't know what to think! This is their only son! They gave me a guest list with 60 to 65 people on it! I am supposed to feed these people, but they don't want to contribute? Oh, but they do want to use the flower girl dress that I paid $100 for, for Riley to wear at their daughter's wedding ceremony in the fall. A wedding that they are paying for!  The thing that bothers me is that these people are better of financially than we are.  So I am only left to assume that they have a problem with my daughter?  Hopefully this is not the case.

Anyway, we are going to dinner with them tonight. We are going out so it will be neutral territory. They know it is to discuss wedding stuff but I didn't say anything about knowing what he had said. Hopefully he will have changed his mind and all will be good. But if not my thoughts are...Well if I have to cover their part I will have to make cuts in the guest list and by rights it will be their guest. And since they are having no part in it, then their names should be left off of the announcements in the paper. I really hate it, but I just see any other way. Any other ideas?

Monday Morning

Woke up this morning and the sun is shining again, the sky is blue and the wind has stopped howling around the house like some spooky Halloween movie! Abby and Mylie were so excited to play outside this morning. Well mostly Mylie played, Abby just walked around the yard and enjoyed the sun. Roxie went out and did her patrol the yard thing and reported back that all was well and went back to bed.

Now I have a whole day with no kids today, but instead a husband. What am I going to do with him home all day? Actually he is home all week, and maybe next week too. His company is waiting on a contract to be signed by program manager. It's been sitting on his desk for over a month, but he hasn't signed yet. Husband still gets paid, but there is no work so he stays home. That's all well and good, but just what in the hell am I supposed to do with him all day? Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

I love my husband! He truly is my best friend! But, when he is bored he drives me crazy. And when he is home for any extended period he disrupts my routine and the kids routine.

Actually today I plan for him to help me move furniture from one room to another. I want to swap the kids rooms with each other. Tomorrow he has doctors appointments. So that takes care of that. Friday will Gabrielle's birthday and that day is full. So really, I just need suggests for Wednesday and Thursday of this week. Hopefully he will return to work next week and I won't have consider more drastic measures, such as rat poison in his food!

Another Yucky Saturday

Another Saturday Morning and more grey skies and rain is in the forcast for the day.  Actually, the entire weekend.  The kids will be this afternoon as well as Shauna and Riley.  We are going to try to invitations addressed today.  You noticed I said try because we will also be trying to keep Riley out of the guinea pigs cage, out of the dogs food and water and pretty much out of whatever it is that she knows she is not supposed to be in.  Doesn't matter that there is 1.3 million dollars worth of toys in their rooms just for them to play with.  They want my stuff.

And what is about the phone that makes kids think there is a cloak of invisibility or immunity around them that they can do whatever they want whenever you are on it.  They can be sitting there on the couch watching their favorite movie (at the moment it's The Chipmunks, The Squeaquel), oblivious to everything.  The house could burn down.  They wouldn"t know.  But OMG!  Let me try to talk on the phone and suddenly they are running through the house, climbing the furniture to jump off, playing in the water, fighting and screaming and calling each other "poopheads" and then running to tell me that so & so called me a "poop"!  At this point I am like "Yeah, well wait till you hear what I am fixing to call all of you!" 

I get off the phone and start yelling at them, mainly I can be heard over them, and obviously I am not happy.  They don't know why?  They just wanted to watch their movie?  Oh God help me, what time do their mothers get off?

Samantha Update

I got an email from Shauna this morning about her friend Samantha.  She was taken off her sedation medicine earlier this week in hopes of her waking up soon.  She has squeazed her mothers hand and moved her legs!  Please continue to keep her in your thoughts and prayers.  Below is Shauna's email.

Ok, got a text about 9:45 last night from Sam's mom saying that they put the chest tube back in yesterday afternoon, Sam is opening her right eye completely! Curling her upper lip (Elvis!), moving BOTH feet from side to side, moving right arm and posturing with her left!

Just a few minutes ago, she said that Sam is the same today, not much movement. Maybe put in a trach next week, maybe remove drain tube in a few days. Sam is not waking up as fast as they had hoped but just wait and see. Her brain still has a lot of healing to do!

Keep praying! He hears us all!!!

Ringing of the Bells!

I am laying, peacefully sleeping. Abby is lightly snoring at the foot of the bed. Roxie, the small tiger that we believe is masquerading as a cat, was in her usual spot. Mylie was as normal on my right side, under the covers, head on the pillow and as close to me as she could get. Roger had left for work. It was our favorite sleeping time. No fighting for covers or position on the bed.

All of a sudden this God awful ringing starts pealing through house! It sounded like the Bells of St. Mary were in my living room! Had I drunk a bottle of tequila last night I wondered as I am grabbing my head and falling out of bed and tripping over my feet and dogs and a cat and carpet? No! I swore of Tequila the last time Teresa and I drank two bottles while making margaritas. Hangover lasted a week and I decided I was way to old for that! Besides if it were in my head the dogs wouldn't be barking at it. It's the doorbell!

Okay, mystery solved! I managed to find the door and get it open and there is the little face beaming up at me “Hi Nan! We haven't had breakfast yet!” “Yeah, well I haven't had coffee yet!” Then coming up the walk there is another one who is crying she wanted to be the one to ring the doorbell! “Can I ring it anyway?” “Oh Dear God help me” You have to remember with every ring there are like 10 barks in stereo. And bringing up the rear and walking as slow as he can is the last one. And of course, more ringing of the bell!. I am not going to make it through the day! And of course Mylie manages to get out in the confusion. Luckily we have figured out that we can bribe her so Austin grabbed the snacks and she came back. All I needed was to have to chase her little butt around in my PJ's.'s before my coffee at 8:30 in the morning.

Cara left for work. I managed to pour the pink Mini Wheat Cereal in one bowl and the blue Mini Wheat cereal in two others, pour the milk and get it front of them, get my coffee (Again I cannot stress enough how much I LOVE my Keurig!! Cup of coffee in 2 minutes!) and settle into our day. Hopefully the rest of it will go much smoother!

One of Those Days!

Yesterday was just one of those days.  You know the ones where you are just so glad when it is over and you just want to crawl in bed and sleep?  That was my day!  The kids got here and couldn't play outside due to the weather so they kept wanting to run through the house.  Lately they keep wanting to play in the water.  And they just don't understand why that they keep getting in trouble for it because, they keep doing it over and over and over and over.  And the boys, being boys like pick on Gabbie to make her cry, so of course she does everytime.  They tell she isn't pretty or she has cooties or sothing like that and  her "heart is broken forever!"  Yes!  She is that much of a Drama Queen at 5 years old!  Then if they get bored with that they fight with each other.  Or they want to "play" with Mylie.  They play with until she  has had enough and starts snapping at them.  They think that's funny, until she she connects with skin.  They get no sympathy!  Shoulda left her alone when she told them too.

Finally it's nap time and Lili (Holly) comes over.  She has a new dog she is trying out.  My sister and brother-in-law seem to have a beacon on their house that sends out a signal that says "All strays come here! This is a safe place!"  As such, they already had 5 dogs last week when Nickey found this little Sheltie running down the middle of a busy road.  He is a sweetheart but a bit timid.  Since Holly and John already have a rambuncious Boxer (Cino) she is trying the sheltie out to make sure he adjusts before keeping him.  If it doesn't work out then he will go back to Amy and Nickey's.  Amy said Nickey is already missing him. 

Anyway the 3 of them came over yesterday for me to meet who might be my new granddog.  So of course any idea that the kids might take a nap was gone!  Four dogs in the house?  Not gonna happen.  And Mylie hates Cino so she barking her head off!  Cino is louping through the house trying to see everyone (he is like a small horse).  Abby is trying check everyone out.  The new dog doesn't no what to do or think.  And the kids are all right in the middle of trying to be heard over all the barking and growling and posturing for the alpha positioning.  We finally get thing settled down a bit.  Apparently Holly's new dog has named himself Buddy.  She said that was what re responded to, wasn't what she wanted to name him.  Bu tit must have already been his name.  He has a fetish about shadows.  He stared at my wall and kept trying to catch his shadow.  Over and over again.  Holly said he does that all day.  Cino would go over to him and look trying to see what he was going after and then look at him like "Dude! There's nothing there!"  Cino has a very expressive face.  And you have to remember while all of this is going on, everytime one of them move Mylie starts growling and barking at them, but from the back of the couch and right behind me.  And then Abby will come over and bark at her.

Finally everyone left.  My-my got up in lap and passed out.  Abby collasped on the floor and passed out.  Roger and I just sorta sat there in stunned silence until we summoned up the strength to get up and go to bed.