Politeness

Ok – I’m starting this blog post with this statement. This is not about anyone specific right now, or about anyone I know. Just general statements of my life recently.

I really wish it were “in” to be polite. I am really getting sick of being cut off as I drive. I’m really sick of customer service representatives who roll their eyes. I’m really sick of impolite people in general.

On Columbus Day, the kids had school off. I decided to do some shopping. Yep, I knew it was going to be crowded. The shopping experience wasn’t all that bad. However, my dining experience at Panda Express in Orland Park was an exhibit of the most appalling manners I have witnessed in a *LONG* time. I have two children with me. #1 – they ran out of trays. So, I carried three plates of food and three drinks to our table. But the thing that got me the most was #2 – it was a FULL HOUSE. No vacant tables but one. As I’m trying to coral my two kids and find the one table that is empty, I passed FIVE tables where there was one or two people sitting at a four-top. The ONLY table left was a two-top. A tall two-top. So, I had to stand while eating while I let my children eat sitting down. I was rather furious. I even looked each of these table occupants in the eye. Their eye to my very *evil* eye! No one budged. No one offered their table. The nerve!!! And one table occupant was a police officer!!!! WTF!!! Hmmm – nice community service, officer.

So that was my one experience the past week. But there have been so many others like it that I’m not being quiet anymore. Be polite people!!! Smile. Say Thank You. Say Please! Drive legally and safely! Stop texting while driving. Look people in the eyes when you speak to them. (and no, my boobs are not where my eyes are!) Keep in mind that opinions are opinions. Some things are personal. Keep them that way. Give a compliment. Give to your favorite charity. Help a family out. Help a child out. Recycle. Flush. Wash your hands. Say “excuse me” every once in a while. Be truthful, but not so truthful that you are mean. And if you can’t say anything nice, then don’t say anything at all. Discipline your kids. Praise your kids.  Hug a friend.

I think that’s about all I want to say.  Just remember – this is not jab to anyone specific and if anyone reading this blogs  this is a poke to them – it’s not.

 

Life Lesson

Ok, so we tried this waterpark thing. We thought that with my son being almost 5, he would enjoy it more. Did we learn any lessons from going to Key Lime Cove in February? Apparently NOT. LOL  This time we tried a waterpark in Iowa.  The name escapes me now.

When going to a waterpark with an almost 5 year old and a 2 year old, you have to expect that not many slides will be ridden. However, when your 5-year-old asks you if he can go and makes your butt climb all the freaking stairs only to chicken out at the top – well, lesson learned.

So, we go on the lazy river. May I say – not at all lazy, by the way! There are waterfalls to dump about 50 gallons a second on your head if you don’t miss them. A 5-year-old who can’t touch the ground to control where he goes was very disturbed when he got STUCK under the waterfall. There were lots of tears shed dripping off his face along with the other 100 gallons of water from the waterfall. OMG!!!

Then there were the multiple trips to the bathroom. And of course, eating. And then the darn people who designed the sidewalks there. Who the flip puts dark pavement all around where people need to walk barefoot. I think I burned the bottom of my feet. And back to the 5-year-old – he cried and complained, so then you have to carry him all over the place.

So, we left the place earlier than planned. We were tired of dealing with a whiny, bratty, over-tired 5 year old and a cold 2-year-old.

Lessons learned:
1. wear watershoes when at an outdoor waterpark.
2. bring snacks.
3. make sure they are rested and not over-tired from missing two days worth of naps.
4. Only go when and if your children don’t mind splashing and will put their face under water.
5. Only go when the air temp has been about 75 for the past week. (Forgot to mention that water was frigid!)
6. Lower expectations if all of the above are not true. And don’t be disappointed when you spent $67 to get in and you hardly used the facilities.

 

Mother Nature is cruel…

LOL I’ve just been thinking that it is a rather stupid idea to have a baby, who can not speak to go through teething. My 22-month old child (yes, he really doesn’t speak much) is breaking in his two-year molars and he is just miserable. He can’t tell me why he won’t nap. He can’t tell me why he’s waking at 7:30am crying. All he knows is that his mouth hurts, but he’s not telling me.

AND – how weird is it that in “Chicago” it was 60 degrees yesterday and this morning it is 24!!!! We enjoyed some nice warm weather, although rainy. We actually went outside and tried out the new helmet and horn Santa left AJ. He loved them.

That’s it. Short one today.

 

I am feeling very un-Christmas-y…

I really don’t know what the problem is. However, I have a few “reasons” why I feel this way.

First, we switch years for visiting for Christmas. One year, we go to my family for Christmas and then New Year’s at the in-laws. The next year, it’s the opposite. This year was supposed to be Christmas at the in-laws. But it has officially been cancelled because of Mother Nature. She is a cruel beast that is getting in between a peaceful, relaxing Christmas get-away and my family. It sucks. I was really looking forward to it.

Secondly, I’m now not looking forward to going to celebrate Christmas where we are now (thanks to the cancellation above). I am a little tired of a certain person who will be there and don’t really feeling like putting on my “happy face”. But I love Christmas and I will go celebrate. I know my mom loves it, too. She will spoil my kids rotten and we will have tons to bring home.

Thirdly, I have just been worn down. Three weeks of preparation to put into Christmas. It’s a lot of work. I’m exhausted.

Fourthly, my husband blurted out my Christmas gift. I am excited to find out what it is. It’s the Cricut. For scrapbooking. Secretly, I’ve been wanting one since they came out. They came out with a more portable, affordable die-cut machine named Slice. I talked myself into wanting that one instead. But I really do want the Cricut. LOL But I love surprises. I love Christmas gifts. I love to see what other people would like to get me. While I do spit out a list every year, I secretly hope that someone will buy off the list. Buy something that they think I would like. And hopefully, I would.

Fifthly, (is that a word??) I just sort of glanced over a lot of Christmas traditions this year. I didn’t make cookies. I’m not really listening to a lot of Christmas music. Plus I had a lot of added “chores”. AJ has pre-school and he had a party the parents had to plan and attend. I wanted to get family pictures done for the Christmas card and that didn’t happen.

So, I just needed to write that down. I’m hoping that by purging all these negative thoughts, postive ones can flow in and help get me through these next couple days with the holiday spirit I so overwhelmingly desire.

 

Catching up…

Ok – so I’m not the best at keeping my blog updating.  Mostly because life is trivial and speaking about life every day is boring. LOL

Our built-in microwave died.  I have a couple of issues with this.  #1 – our house is only 3 years old.  And thusly the microwave is only 3 years old.  Pathetic life time.  There should be some kind of law stating that appliances and such need to last longer than that.  If there was an option to purchase an appliance with a longer life time, I would.  Even by purchasing the extended warranty, you are not guaranteed a longer-lasting product – you just pay money get hassled by the company that wants to do everything in order to NOT replace your product.  The other issue I have is the landfill factor.  I am always trying to recycle and avoid throwing things in the garbage and early-failing appliances seem to be more of the norm than the exception.

Other catching up – the lexapro is on it’s way out.  I forgot if I mentioned I was also put on Wellbutrin.  If was basically supposed to be peppier and make me want to move and then I would sleep better at night.  Yeah, that didn’t work.  It basically put me to sleep more.  It made me very druggy and draggy.

So, then I decided that I am not liking the side effects of the Lexapro and I would rather deal with my slight depression.  So, I’m about 1 week away from being Lexapro free. I’ve been luck in that I have been able to half my doses and not suffer withdrawal.  I wanted to be able to doge that bullet – as nausea, vomiting, headaches and brain zaps didn’t sound very pleasant. LOL

Zach is speaking more.  AJ is acting more like a 4-year-old than a 3-month old.  And Dan is working.  LOL  I’m fine.  I’m getting this feeling that the winter is going to be a long, cold winter.  Batten down the hatches.  The kids are going to need an outlet.  Thank heavens we have a DuPage Children’s Museum.

Wish me luck.

 

Gotta love the good days…

The good days, when they come, are always fabulous and fly by way too quickly.  Zach and AJ are actually playing nicely with each other more often than they fight.  So, the good days are now outweighing the bad.  Whew!

And the only thing thast sucks about really good days – like today is that a bad day is sure to follow.  BUT – I am going to think positively in the morning and try to make it a good day.

 

Man – what am I?

I’m having real issues with what my husband thinks I am.  He says he knows it’s tough work to take care of two kids at home while trying to work.  But I don’t really think he really knows.  I swear, he thinks all I do is play or sit and watch TV all day.

The DSL modem died about two weeks ago and we had to have a guy come and troubleshoot and replace our modem.  Well, the kids were with me.  He wanted to know how to set up his laptop to get the wireless connection and I told him what I knew and he asked why we paid $179 for a tech to come out and I didn’t know how to connect to the wireless connection.  I mean – come on.  AJ and Zach were beyond their nap times at this point and were yelling and screaming at each other.  Am I really supposed to know all these details?? 

All I freaking do all day every day is clean after him and my sons – doing laundry, dishes, laundry, cleaning messes, laundry, cleaning toys and oh yeah, did I mention laundry??  And then there’s the feeding of everyone.  Yeah, sometimes I don’t make dinner – well, most times.  But I’m getting that done more and more often.  But there is breakfast and lunch and all the snacks the boys need during the day.  And the multiple drink refills.  And the queueing of movies and the going outside to the park, to the backyard.  I hardly get to get my at-home work done, let alone have some me time.  If I do have some me-time, it’s typically me telling AJ to go watch a movie while Zach is napping so I can catch my sanity back.  And then I clean the kitchen and do the laundry before I sit to relax and then Zach wakes up about two minutes later. 

Perfect example was an experience we had while camping this weekend.  I appreciated that my husband took Zach at 6:00am out of the trailer since I was up all night with him and he had been up since 4:30am.  So, finally, Zach and he went in to take a nap.  That was fine.  AJ and I hung out.  I loved it – we rarely get to spend alone time together anymore.  I go to put AJ into a nap and I go out with my book and my iPod and literally sat in the chair and heard Zach on the monitor.  Are you kidding me???? 

Anyway – I guess I’m just feeling unappreciated once again.  I NEVER get thank-yous.  It really sucks.  And then when I complain about it, I get a thank-you right then and there and never again until I complain again.  And then I’m feeling something – not sure – I have to take medication everyday of my life to feel “normal” and I really don’t.  I know medication is not the end-all, be-all answer.  I just thought it would help more.  I also feel like if I didn’t have kids, I probably wouldn’t be on medication – they are the ones testing my patience and making me irritable.  I can handle not sleeping.  I’ve done it for years.

Ok – enough of the negative.  And I’m sorry – I have nothing really positive to add in there right now.  I’ve just had a rough couple of weeks and feel like no one (my husband) appreciates how much effort goes into all the mini-vacation planning and packing and then keeping the house clean and stocked.  And I never get time off.  I need a break.

 

The visit went well…

The visit with the sister-in-law and my parents-in-law went really well.  The boys didn’t sleep well again, but I think that is the norm if we’re going to be out and doing something exciting.

I’m feeling much better, depression-wise.  I’m feeling pretty good and getting some pretty good sleep.  I can actually sit and relax without feeling like I have a billion things to do.  I do have things to do, but they are optional, hobby-type things.  Not cleaning tasks, or things like that.  And I’m actually wanting to clean, to make dinner and to go grocery-shopping.

So, things are going well.

 

I made banana bread tonight.

YUM!

All else is quiet.  I am looking forward to talking with the doctor tomorrow.  I had another rough day today.  But it might be multiplied by my tired boys.  We go to dinner most Sundays to my Mother’s house.  Last night she had grilled chicken, mashed potatoes, veggies and rolls.  It was really yummy.  Didn’t get home until 10:15pm and the boys refuse to nap in the car these days…

Stay tuned for my results tomorrow.  I’m sure she’ll want bloodwork, as I haven’t done that in a couple years. 

 

Day 4 of a racing mind…

I won’t even begin to write stuff, because it will all be a blurry mess.  I have a doctor’s appointment set for Tuesday.  I’m thinking anxiety or depression.  Who knows.  Or maybe I’m just a normal stressed-out mom.  We’ll see.

I couldn’t sleep again last night.  10:30 – went up to bed.  I don’t think I fell asleep until 2:30 or 3:00.  What’s funny is that this morning, I didn’t feel tired. Hmph.