There is something in the air, or something. Here is the countdown for today, at my house:
1 dead microwave. No idea what happened, but we have a spare from daughter's second-to-last apartment, so no problem!
1 dead garage door opener. I got the door shut, and pushed my car up against it so the dogs won't get out. Let's call that a victory. ETA: it works again.
1 flaky roommate of son, who apparently is not going to pay rent or utilities this month. Note that son is not able to work since he just had surgery. Flaky roommate may have quit his job. Not happy times. ETA: son has called 3 times to apologize for certain outbursts.
2 computer crashes. My virus etc. protection says I'm fine. Some call center that mentioned the word "M1cr0s0ft" but was not that company called about blah blah malware, and I was perhaps curt about being on the do not call list, and so the guy called back to admonish me about hanging up on him, and I didn't pick up the third time. I hope I was only rude, and not stupid.
1 Amaz0n misdelivery (for daughter's class; delivered to dog alone knows where) was fixed. Victory to daughter! ETA: it actually got delivered. Here!
Unknown number of cats with worms. Due to a certain amount of ambient angst, the cats I can sometimes catch went into hiding. But I caught the most likely culprit and dosed her. Victory! This is senior cat, so she'll plot revenge immediately after the next nap.
On the up side, no sewer problems!
Passing the whines, the wine, and a nice crockpot stew. Some days stink; tomorrow will be better.
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37 comments:
I need to get my act together.
Ouch kathy!!! Those are some seriously apocalyptic whines! Each alone is whine-worthy, but all of them together are unimaginable. I recommend chocolate.
W: Kitteh started limping very badly Sunday night. First thing Monday, we're at the vet. They had to sedate her (kitty down the K hole...) to examine it.
AW: Nothing broken, just swollen and likely a sprain.
W: While she was STILL SEDATED, kitteh jumped off the exam table, on the wounded leg and ran the entire length of the treatment room. She scratched the vet in the process.
W: She already had a "red dot" (literally) on her file for being fractious following dental surgery. She earned another red dot.
AW: She was very happy and calm last night and rested her leg. She always likes us more after she's been around other people.
Oh Kathy! wow. That's just miserable.
Liz - good luck
Sue - that's an amazing kitteh! And how many red dots will result in banning? Or is it just cat owner shame?
Whines the usual with transitioning to sharing placement and who has the kids and all that.
Whine: my oldest started middle school this year. She seemed to be cruising along. And then last night, total meltdown. She's gotten 3 Fs on assignments. She's missing assignments. She isn't following what's happening in math. There were a lot of tears. I emailed her main teacher to check in - holding my breath because in the past some teachers have reacted with pure defensiveness and not about how to fix things. The teacher is saying the right things. And now I hope she'll get on track with some assistance.
Whine: ragweed season sucks!
we're all in trouble if liz, ms. organized, needs to get her act together. can we help?
uh, oh, sue. glad kitteh will be OK. kittehs really really hate going to the vet. (dogs are all like, "yay, ride in the car! people and other dogs! yay!")
sarah -- i'm so sorry about the rough transition for your oldest! middle school is a big jump. but glad the tough part is now, at the beginning of the year, and super glad the teacher is being helpful!
heh! "cat owner shame."
AW: daughter spontaneously decided to clean the bathroom. she's also doing laundry. if she starts on the dishes, it will ba a trifecta!
KathyA - yay! for a cleaning daughter.
Whine: dating inevitably means you sometimes stop dating, right? Darn that hurts. (not in so deep, blah, blah, but certainly a whine today.)
Sue, while Sweet was in the hospital for surgery, she was...ah, shall we say, uncooperative. The nurse said, "Do you want me to write in your chart that you didn't cooperate?" That threat went over about like a red dot with your kitteh.
kathy a, you need a break. Though a cleaning daughter is a fine, fine thing.
Sarah, sorry about your daughter. Middle School is so rough. I'm glad you're finding some cooperative grownups.
W: too much to do, too little time. Spent 12 hours on my butt in the car last week. This week looks much the same.
AW: one of the things on the list was take Sweet horseback riding again, for the first time since the giant cast arrived. Enormous smiles made that little trip worthwhile.
Sarah, it never occurred to me that she could be banned! Oh the cat-owner shame of it all!
I hope things pick up for your daughter. That's so tough.
esperanza - that's a lot of car time.
W: Echo of esperanza - tomorrow my colleagues and I drive to Small Town for our Fall Meeting During Which One Sticks Pins in the Eye to Stay Awake. Travel time one way is 5.5 hours of vigilant moose-watching.
Sunday afternoon return. Same conditions with added exhaustion.
AW: The leaves are pretty!
Huge AW: ebook!!!! Small enough to tuck under the edge of the table during the boring reports.
Sue for Mullet! Sue for Mullet!
Sue, you know what saves me in those meetings? Sending and receiving snarky text message commentary with my friends. It's the new version of writing notes.
W, really big W: Our niece is in a psychiatric hospital. Details are unbloggable, but suffice it to say that she has had more to bear than anyone should, especially an 11 year old someone. Feeling some guilt myself for not saying something when I could have, though I am unsure it would have been heard.
AW: Other niece just got into college of her choice! Now to pay for it...
So sorry about your niece who is in hospital esperanza. It's good she is in a place to be helped.
Yay for other niece and college! Yes, the paying part is a challenge. One of our sons is back at university this fall for another degree program. I love that he is a perpetual learner, but we inevitably top up his bank account for books and such.
AW: Texting during dull meetings! Brilliant! Feel free to email me with telephone numbers pixies - you too can cyber-attend the World's Most Dull Meeting Ever!!!
*crickets*
Sue, I am at seven zero three two one six two five zero two.
((( esperanza ))) i am so very sorry about your young niece in the hospital. agree with sue: she is in a place where she can get help, and that is good.
two thoughts: [1] this is scary, and she needs to know people love her. every.day. maybe a postcard, drawings or sticker-art from the cousins, pictures, small gifts? something. a kid needs love every day.
[2] there are strict privacy laws, but they go one way -- the facility cannot release much information except to legally authorized people. but there is nothing saying that you can't give them information, if it might be helpful. just letting staff know you care is helpful, in my opinion.
congratulations to your other neice! woo-hoooo! college financial aid offices are very helpful, in my experience -- they know all the programs, and they exist to help kids go to college despite financial challenges. a personal meeting might be best, if possible.
xoxox
y'all are cheaters, texting during meetings. do you think nobody will notice? or maybe i'm a dino; i try to sit next to somebody i know, then write notes on my legal pad or pass a post-it. ok, that is noticeable if someone is paying attention; but at least we look engaged, instead of possibly checking out LOL cats or something. ;)
Oh Esperanza - wow, that's so tough. Best wishes for your niece. And congrats to your other niece.
And IM during meetings where you can legitimately use a laptop and call it "notes" is my preferred method.
Good luck, Sue, with the boring meeting.
Anti-whine: 3 social events this Saturday and I think I can go to them all. And I don't have to take kids. (the kids would enjoy 2 of the events, but I would enjoy the events less. And the kids are with their dad.)
I didn't voice it in the last post, but I am so amazingly whiny today. Nothing is right! I am so melodramatic in my own head it makes me laugh.
I don't know about Sue's meeting, but mine usually has 350-400 people in it. Pretty easy to fade into the woodwork. Choose your seat, and seatmates, carefully, and you're golden.
sarah! the whining, it is OK!
esperanza -- i've been thinking about the part where you worry over the woulda/coulda/shoulda's. and you can't do that. the only way is to look forward, and focus on that little part that you can do.
believe it or not, i just had a conversation this afternoon along the same lines. my friend was recalling a mutual friend saying, "never look back." this was a different context, but it is funny how good advice carries over. xoxo
the "never look back" comment was meant as -- we can't change what we've done, we can only plough ahead; it was not meant to suggest that the past has no significance.
There are 60 days in September, right? Honestly, that is the only way I can account for my not realizing the date. Sorry all! Back to my corner!
I wondered...
Miranda--PLEASE do not steal this week from me! I need it!
You're making me giggle.
Kathy, please don't tell me this is going to make you change your FB handled to "KathyWithWorms". Also, I'd like to nominate you for our first "EHRMAGERD, WERMS!" award. ::shudder:: Passing you the virtual Kevlar to wear in order to safely medicate your felines!
Sue, maybe you could just threaten your Recalcitrant Kitteh with meds, next time? I'm glad that the vet visit gave her an attitude adjustment ;)
Sarah, want to trade for a first-grader with the attention span of a fle- oh look, something shiny!! Seriously, middle school is kind of like the middle child. Awkward getting squished in there, sometimes. I'm glad your daughter is getting back on track right away.
Esperanza, I'm so sorry to hear about Niece #1. At least she's where she needs to be right now, and she's still young enough to maybe bounce back more quickly from whatever life's unfairly thrown at her. Great news about your college-bound niece, though..no easy feat these days!
Oh, and for you and Sue, if you want me to make you laugh/snort inappropriately during meetings, I'm at seven two oh, four four eight-four four seven five. And I have unlimited texts ;)
Miranda, go ahead and steal September! It fees like it's been 60 days long, because:
1)W: Da Moose is still in Canada. The girls and I really, really miss him terribly.
2) Antiwhine: got our wedding photos developed/up on FB, for anyone who wants to friend me or already has. I normally don't like myself in pictures, but I think we look pretty cute!
3) W: ShowerSack Ex still hasn't gotten back to me re: the parenting plan, and has also made his teenage daughter uncomfortable enough with the situation again that she unfriended me on FB. He of course blamed it on me "traumatizing her". His older daughter and I have always been super-close (she calls me "M'other"), and we'd just healed our relationship from him pulling this crap last year. I'm heartbroken, and my family and friends are literally starting to argue over who gets to tell him off first.
4) AW: have contacted an attorney, who assures me the child support is going up and not down (not really want I'm aiming for- I just want him to man up and stop being an abusive turd), says SS doesn't have anything to hold over me in court since I have witnesses as to how much time I have with our daughter, and says he'll get back to me again this week after he reads my plan currently on file with the court.
5) Minor whine: he still hasn't gotten back to me, but then this is the low-cost legal, and in this economy, I imagine they're pretty busy.
Anyone remember my "Elevated Risk of Mallet" award from a few years back? I'd like to reinstate it, and nominate He Would Should Be Ashamed Of Himself.
But, the Pixies make it all better :) Passing the Ghirardelli chocolate chips around..just leave me a few leftover in the bag, I need 'em for potty training ;)
esperanza is right - there are so many people in the room, no one but my table-mates are likely to notice anything. If the phone is on vibrate, when I look down at my hands I will look bored.
As a rule, the only person in the room who is NOT bored is the person who is speaking.
Yep, it's that much fun!!
Anywho, I'm on the road in half an hour.
Happy whining Pixies!
Sue, be thankful for your table. We are seated in pews. I am thankful they usually have cushions. Have fun! We need a moose count when you get back.
Happy meeting Sue. And happy texting.
DebAngel - oy! That's a lot of mess with the ex. Yay for cute wedding photos. And I hope your former stepdaughter comes around to good sense.
I second Ghirardelli chocolate chips. They do a body good!
miranda! come back! you are right about this month seeming endless...
oy, debangel. glad you have some legal help -- what ex is trying to do doesn't pass the smell test. hopefully, things will heal with stepdaughter, in time. yes, i anticipate the cluestick posse will be paying a visit to mr. class act. but yay, wedding photos!
sue -- the vision of a large gathering of pastors at a serious church meeting, texting snarkily away -- that cracks me up!
extremely petty, petty, and ungracious whine: one of my sisters believes she has the answer to everything, and that answer involves buying stuff. she still thinks of my son as a kid -- although he is 25, and has lived on his own for 6 years. so when she heard about him needing surgery and being off work for several weeks, she sent a big box of "general household items," delivered to my house. (my guess is cleaning supplies and maybe some snacks.)
i know she means well, but a card or a phone call to him would go farther than sending a bunch of stuff she thinks he needs.
(a couple of years ago, this sister gave me a pedometer, with the expectation i would exchange daily "step counts" with her and be shamed into exercise; then she started polling family members on which sneakers to buy me so i would have "proper walking shoes." ahem. i am a grownup.)
kathy, thanks for the award and the kind words last week!
while it is a good thing, imo, to let tater have control over the pottying/diapering, i don't think it's working. i wish i could use peer pressure more, but preschool won't let him come in a pull up and we haven't been able to go to our other daycare (a home daycare), due to scheduling conflicts. so, most days, he is with me and he wears a pull up until he leaks. only then will he let me help him change. no, he won't wear underwear. no, he doesn't care about sitting in it all day. he doesn't even want a change him when he's poopy, but i force that because c'mon, man -- the stench is killing everyone.
stretching to find an a-w: it is saving me money in pull ups because he only uses about 2-3 per day. depressing and disgusting.
brainstorming time -- for amy! everybody chime in!
* what about fun playdates with kids who have gotten past pullups?
* maybe a campaign to talk up the preschool? can tater visit and see how absolutely wonderful it is -- and a place he can go play just as soon as he is out of pullups? does he know kids there?
* can you set up some kind of reward that he really wants if he uses the potty -- even if he is still using pullups?
* star charts might help -- if he gets X stars, some reward. (this is also useful for the idea of building toward any accomplishment.)
* my uncle the dentist BRIBED his youngest with M&M's every time he used the potty. we went with effusive praise. i don't hold with punishment; but quiet disapproval vs. YAY can be powerful.
* are you sure he can tell when he needs to go? that's the first step.
also -- tater's at a wonderful age, where kids are learning greater skills and independence, are curious about things, and usually they like learning new skills and "helping." so -- maybe potty training can be just one category of achievement -- on par with putting toys away, practicing counting/numbers/letters, helping mom cook, whatever. (star charts!)
this is of course something you want done, like yesterday -- but perhaps you can avoid the worst of the power-struggles by making this of a piece with the other things he is learning and achieving?
Amy, I have no advice except to say it will happen when it happens. And here's proof.
<a href="http://mysterymommy.blogspot.com/search?q=potty>More proof</a>.
Liz, I think you shared that link with me four years ago when I was going through this with the tot, lol.
kathy, those are all awesome ideas. :D Here's what we've tried:
* Cookie and candy bribes -- worked for one week and failed
* School Excitement -- he went there as a 3 year old and he is 'meh' on the place. I will try to stir up more positivity, though. Really, he wants to go on the big yellow bus with his sister, but that's not for a year.
*Reward -- my husband offers to let him watch a short video on the eye-pad after he pees, but it hasn't worked yet (after offering this consistently for a year).
He holds it for so long at a time and he gets very antsy, so I think he can kind of tell. I'm trying to play that up. Who the hay knows. I think we'll try the star chart next. There is a part of me that thinks I need to just go cold turkey and 'run out of pull ups'. I hate that idea for our family though I know it has worked for other people.
awards friday.
amy -- i think the incentives need to be ones that the kid wants; and something not really available otherwise. so, maybe the ipad is just not as exciting to tater as it is to dad? but maybe that special video or whatever is? rewarding with the beloved things is not cruelty.
so -- school bus = K, and in K they all wear big boy underpants. something to work with.
i'm sure you are working with "use your words" -- that works here, too. it is progress if he can tell you when he needs to pee. (then he is also telling himself.) he might also be able to say why he doesn't like the potty; then you're getting somewhere.
rome wasn't built in a day. xoxo
AW: I have no contribution to the Potty Training Whines this week.
LOL, esperanza!
The kids aren't allowed to play with the iPad, so it's not a readily available thing. Husband offers videos that are tempting to Tater, but he just doesn't want to sit on the potty in order to get them. I agree -- Rome wasn't built in a day, but I think two years of this, and we ought to see some progress, ya know? *sigh* He'll get there. Some day.
He and I are working on something important. The other day, after my original whine, we were getting ready to leave the house, and I smelled a stinkiness. I asked him if he had t00ted or if he needed a change before we left. It turned into a big stand off because he wouldn't answer me. He just shrank into a reticent, speechless boy. Eventually he yelled "You don't trust me!" and he started crying. This is an unusual sentence for him to say, so I took him very seriously. Since then, I've been pointing out when I am trusting him with the answers he gives me. I don't know if trust is an issue with sitting on the potty (I think it's just with whether he needs a change or not), but it can't hurt to work on that.
Okay, so here's a stupid question...but I'm asking it because he's also resistant to diaper changes. Does he have sensitive skin? Could he be unhappy with the wipes?
Or putting it another way, could you talk with him at a time when a change is not imminent and have him talk about what it is about diaper changes and/or sitting on the potty he's not liking? Since he's verbal enough to say "you don't trust me", he's gotta be verbal enough to say which step(s) he's having trouble with.
Last-minute piddly whine..my husband had better get home from his business trip soon, because he needs to program the coffeemaker and crack my back. ;-)
Big AW! Pixies entertaining me during the boring intro to our afternoon session. Yaaaay pixies!! Thanks Liz and debangel.
Moose Count: Zero. (Hunting season starts next weekend, so they've gone to their safe houses)
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