Going batty

So I've been home with the kids for a week and a half now.  Ay ay ay.  I just don't know if I'm cut out for this kind of lifestyle.  I mean entertaining these kids for 12 or 13 hours a day is just not something I am used to doing.  And the bickering.  The constant bickering is enough to drive anyone mad.  Last Monday, all I did was yell at them all day.  Over everything.  Then of course the guilt kicks in.  I don't like to yell at them all day, they are just so dang annoying sometimes.  I mean trying to sit down and write a blog first thing in the morning is like the most impossible task.  I've already been up 5 times just writing this one paragraph.  I've already threatened Jill about 3 times.  And there are 2 full moons running around my living room right now as I type this.  If you know what I mean.

Advantages of staying home with your kids all day:
Hmmm,,, still thinking about this one.

Disadvantages of staying home with your kids all day:
I find myself not managing my time very well.  On one hand it's nice to get out of bed at 8 or 830 but the time seriously gets away from me for the rest of the day.  And even though I am home with them, by the end of the day I don't feel like I've actually spent any time with them.  But I guess that's to be expected with older kids.  They're pretty independent.

I just want to go shopping everyday.  Part of this is that I'm trying to find good after Christmas sales.  So, literally, I am waiting for 75% off at Target.  Shopping = spending money.

There is no reason ever to look nice.  I haven't done my hair in over a week.  Haven't worn perfume.  And just putting on some powder and mascara is sporadic.

I won't bore you with the rest of my list.  There are quite a few more things I could add.

Being a working Mom my schedule is usually VERY structured.  My "on vacation" mentality when I'm not at work means time is just in freefall.  I'm sure if I didn't work I would have a better handle on this stay at home thing.  And for two weeks out of the whole year I feel like it's OK that I'm not very good at this.  My kids are extremely busy at school and with sports so I think they like the break from our normal schedule as well.

And I'm just joking about the not knowing the advantages of being home with them all day.  I know it's to have some help scrubbing toilets and mopping floors.

Props to all the SAHM's that actually make it work!  There's a special place in heaven for you.

Has anyone ever volunteered for the PTA?

I like to volunteer for my son's school when I can.  Last night I volunteered at the "holiday family party".  I feel like every time I show up to an event and say I'm here to volunteer they all look at me like I have two heads.  It's like they're confused and no one knows what to do.  Nobody gives any direction on what I can be doing to help and I have to constantly ask someone, anyone "is there anything I can be doing to help right now?".

So this one woman hands me two tubs of sprinkles and asks me to pour them into some bowls.  OK.  10 secs later I'm done.  What can I do now?  She hands me tablecloths and asks me to put them on the tables.  OK.  5 min later I'm done.  What can I do now?  No one knows.  I'm not the only one standing around looking like a dumb ass.  There is NOBODY that knows what is going on or what each individual should be doing.  At one point when I was standing around doing nothing looking like a dumb ass someone asked me "Now Debbie, what are you going to be doing?"  REALLY?  I had made the decision myself that I was going to volunteer in the Holiday shop.  It is really annoying.  It kind of makes me dread volunteering.

There is always the one lady that has her one little job and that's all she'll do.  One Mom announced "I'm ready at my station".  Standing in front of the chips and candy bars.  Not helping do anything else.  Why are you here?

Now you have to understand that most of these volunteer Moms have been volunteering together for years.  They all know each other and I don't know any of them.  There is one Mom that is there for every single thing the school does.  Daytime events, she's there.  Nighttime events, she's there.  And all these ladies like to stand around and bitch about the teachers and the principal and about how much "work" they do for the PTA.  Could you imagine bitching about something that you VOLUNTEER for?  Nobody forced you to be part of the PTA.

I mean is it really too much of me to expect that when I show up to an event that someone should know what I should be doing?  YOU - you're doing the ice cream station.  YOU - you're selling sweatshirts/tshirts.  YOU - you're cleaning bathrooms.  OK, I don't want that job.  Take your task and run with it and help out others as needed.  It doesn't seem that hard to me.  The PTA has been around for many years you would think they would have their shit together by now.  Come on people!  Ugh, the things I do for my kids, I tell ya...

Now I ask you again, could you imagine bitching about something that you volunteer for??

McDonalds

I only eat out for lunch 1 or 2 times a week.  The other days I bring my lunch to work.  Off all the places I have to choose from to eat at it's not uncommon of me to actually choose to eat at Mickey D's.  And to get away from my desk and to do some people watching I usually eat there by myself.  And everytime I go there I always wonder how all these other people made the decision to eat at Mickey D's that day.  I see a little old couple eating their hamburgers and fries and think to myself "how cute.  it's probably their little tradition to come to McD's once or twice a week for lunch."  Today, a group of 4 businessmen walk in, in suits and ties.  And I wonder how they ALL came to the decision to eat at McD's.  Perhaps they are in town on biz and McD's was the closest to the building they are working in?  Maybe they were just simultaneously having a Big Mac attack?  Why do I find it so hard to believe that there are other people in the world that would actually choose to eat at McD's for lunch?  I don't know, it's just weird to me.

I have a coworker that likes McD's more than I do.  I love me some Big Macs!  I remember being on a business trip with her in San Fran.  The street that our building was on, literally, had about 30 restaurants on it.  Every kind of food you could ever crave was on this one street.  I ate at a different place every day.  But she would actually walk past every one of these restaurants to the very end of the long strip of road to the only McD's in the area.  This was probably a good 1/4 mile walk.  FOR MCDONALDS.  I just found this crazy hysterical.  I have this mentality that when I travel, (for the most part) I don't want to eat at restaurants that I could eat at at home.

As for the people watching, I listened to two people next to me complaining about a certain coworker.  Taking breaks to check their smart phones every few minutes.  Obviously, something REALLY important was going on somewhere in the world that they just had to be in the loop on.

A grey haired, long grey-bearded older man walked in wearing a mickey mouse eared Santa hat.  For reals.

A single woman next to me was completely glued to whatever boring news program was reporting boring ass news on the TV.  Probably something about WikiLeaks.  Which, I'm kind of embarassed to say I have no idea what that is about.  Or that I don't even care what it's about.

All these totally weird and random thoughts going through my mind about all these people.

Then, of course, I wondered, "what is someone thinking about me right now?"  This lady sitting there, not glued to a smart phone or pretending to watch boring news.  Just sitting there eating her food, all alone.  Taking a break from her so called life.  In total peace.  Watching the world go on around her.

What I was really thinking to myself was "I REEEEAAAALLLLYYYYY don't want to go back to that place (work)."  ~~SIGH~~

What it's like watching TV with my husband when he has the remote

Any show that contains a Kardashian is always a must watch for him.  So we'll watch the opening segment of this or some other ridiculously heinous show like this one.  As soon as commercial break comes he immediately switches to another channel.  God forbid we watch even 1 second of a commercial!  This channel must always consist of some sporting event that is 20+ years old or some kind of documentary show about some super fabulous athlete that is the greatest thing known to man or some horrible movie that is 20+ years old (I swear, Conan the Barbarian and/or Predator is on every.single.night on some channel) or something on MTV.  Like Cribs.  Yes, Cribs.  He doesn't even know who half the people are on Cribs.  But he has to know what their house looks like.  He'll usually change the channel if I say something like "didn't we just watch Conan last night for like the one billionth time?"  This usually starts the endless 20-second-of-viewing-something kind of surfing.  We spend so much time watching TV in the "guide" mode that I have to squint to watch what's going on in Conan as if I haven't seen it a billion times already.  Then I get fed up and announce "I'm going to bed".

His latest thing is now putting on long running shows that we have never even seen one episode of.  The other night it was Two and a Half Men.  I said, "why are we watching this?".  He said, "because it's funny!"  Really?  Is it really so funny that we have to start watching it in syndication when we've never even seen a single episode?  No, it is not.  Do you know what syndication is for?  To watch shows that you used to watch and relive the glory of how fabulous they were.  Like Friends and Seinfeld.  Not catch up on new shows that you've never seen before in absolutely no kind of order at all.

The other night he tried to put on Rock Wives.  I was having no part of that.

I am so cheap

I am always trying to get something for free or at least for cheap.  I remember years back when I wanted to purchase a good flat iron.  Pay $80-$100 for a nice Chi w/ ceramic plates?  No way.  That's definitely not worth it in my mind.  The one they sell at Walgreens with the super cheap looking metal plates that sells for $15 has got to be just as good.  "You're just paying for the designer label" I tell myself.  But guess what, it's not anywhere near as good.  So now, not only did I invest in a nice flat iron, I also wasted money on other models thinking I was getting a good deal.

I've owned one designer purse in my whole life.  And I only bought it to support my sister-in-laws business.  Because do I really want to spend $100+ on a purse barely big enough to fit my cell phone and that gets used about twice a year?  Just to look all cool and fancy that I have a designer purse?  No, I do not.  Because I'm cheap.

Most recently, I was looking at Pandora bracelets and charms online.  Then I start thinking to myself "do i really want to spend close to $100 on a bracelet and some charms?"  I will let you guess the answer to that one.  So I go over to Amazon and start finding similar bracelets and charms for WAY less.  I got a bracelet and 2 bags of 50 piece (yes, bags of 50 charms) charms for LESS than what just the Pandora bracelet costs.  I am ecstatic!  Until they arrive.  First of all, I ordered the wrong size bracelet.  It was too small.  Second, it looked WAY cheap and snagged my arm hairs.  The charms are OK I guess.  The little center circles on most of them are all loose and fall off but as far as the look, they're not too bad.

So, I let Jill pick out some charms and I gave her the bracelet.  LOL.  Meanwhile, I've told my husband all about this because I think I'm so smart and I'm finally going to get away with being so cheap.  Then when I told him how cheap looking everything was he says "Why do you do this?  Just order the real thing."  "Because I always think I'm going to get away with it!" I say.

So, once again, I've had to invest in the real thing AND I've wasted my money on the cheap stuff.  I'm starting to convince myself that I am actually "investing" in nice things so that way it doesn't hurt so bad spending the big bucks.

When will I learn?  So much for saving myself some money.

Who does that?

I was reading this blog yesterday and this woman had an incredibly moving story to tell.  I will condense it for you.

Here she is, single, pregnant and in her early 20's.  She was living in a house rented with several friends.  She had a decent job.  Her immediate situation wasn't ideal but at least she had it under control.  But her future was a little uncertain.  So a few months into her pregnancy, one of her brothers calls her to say that him and Dad have discussed it and they decided that she is going to move into an extra room in their Dad's house.  And her sis-in-law was going to get her a job at the bank she worked at.  She felt like she had no choice but to accept this scenario for the long term.  So she would move into said brothers house while this room in the dad's house was getting "fixed up" for her.  2 mos later she is still at the brothers house.  She is suspecting something is wrong.  Turns out, the Dad never actually discussed this plan w/ his live in girlfriend and she is def NOT down with it.  At the same time, said brothers wife is starting to get major attitude w/ her living there.  So in the end, the brothers wife kicks her out and she can't stay w/ the Dad.  She ends up bouncing from couch to couch for the remainder of her pregnancy.  Eventually wearing out her stay everywhere she goes.  Because really, who wants a single mom w/ a newborn living in their living room?  One of those couches was her own mothers.  So now it's time to have the baby, her mother drives her to the hospital.  Well, she described it as her mother "dropped her off" at the hospital and took off.  The Mom comes to visit them later on and says to the daughter "You know you can't stay at my house, right?"  So here is this woman, homeless and in the hospital with a newborn.  She literally has nowhere to bring this newborn to when she gets discharged.  She is terrified.  And eventually, it came down to the kindness of a stranger that changed her life.  She was taken in by a local church family for a year.

The original story was posted in two, VERY LONG, posts and all I can think to myself the whole time is "who does this?" "who are these people?"  I don't think I've ever even known people like this.  My family was certainly not like this.

Now, I realize this is only her side of the story and I have no details on what lead up to all these people showing absolutely no support for her.  But man, my heart was breaking for her.  I even teared up a couple of times.

In her story she expressed how disappointed she was in two of her brothers who wouldn't take her in b/c their wives were not willing to help her out.  I do not agree with this.  When you're married, that person is your family now.  It causes major problems in a relationship when someone puts parent/sibling family over spouse/children family.  Really, she can't blame the brothers.  I mean, it would've been nice if the brothers were in a situation where they could have helped out but really it wasn't their responsibility.  However, as far as the brothers go, I hope they reflected on what type of women they married.  How could you respect your partner knowing that they would let your sister be homeless with a newborn rather than put their own selfishness/pettiness aside to help her out?  I don't think I could.  Let me tell you, I haven't spoken to my sister in 10 years but if she ever showed up on my doorstep with a newborn in hand and nowhere else to go, she would most definitely have a bed to sleep in!  Because you just don't do that.

As far as the mother goes, HOLY FUCK!!  Excuse my language.  Here is your pregnant daughter that is living on your couch.  You see what she is going through.  Terrified, alone.  You can't even give the girl a break?  Like I said, I don't know what happened in that relationship in the past, but, wow, I don't think I could ever do that either.  Be so callous and uncaring for my own child.  Even if you think she royally fucked up, GET OVER IT!  She needs your help now.  Wow, how different my life would be if I had a mother like that.

Now I am NOT one for being or supporting moochers.  And I think it can be a FINE LINE between helping someone get back on their feet and letting them mooch off you.  But if you read the story, the girl just needed a break.  She wasn't trying to mooch off anyone, she just needed some help.  I moved out of my parents house when I was 20 years old.  I never went back and I never asked them for money.  Not that I can recall at least :)  I just don't believe in not making your own way in life.

Well, anyway, this story just really touched me and I wanted to give my opinion about it.  I feel so thankful for my semi-normal family and I know that not a one of them would ever leave me out in the cold.

RIGHT??