The Best – Ly
Only a grandma can know what I mean when I say ‘this is the best there is.’ I babysit for this little woman every day and love it. I appreciate every minute I get to spend with her. And yes I do spoil her a bit.
She was born on September 27, 2005 after 20 hours of labor. Mommy finally had to have a c-section and had to have general anesthesia. I’d never heard of such a thing and was really worried for both of them. I guess the spinal didn’t work, they tried it twice. But no need to worry, they both came out of it fine. And daddy really stepped up to take care of everything while mommy recovered. I don’t think she had to change a diaper for two weeks. I don’t think my husband ‘ever’ changed a diaper.
The Daughters – Bd
Bd is my second and my baby. She’s married to Ad and they are the proud parents of Ly. I was very lucky that both my girls decided to follow us from ND to Virginia. I’d die without them near me. Bd and Ad both work for the same company, they just moved into a new house and are doing really well.
The Daughters – JM
Jm is my first born. Recently broke up with her boyfriend of six years. Once she got rid of that negative baggage things began to happen. She’s dabbled in real estate for a while, but it wasn’t for her. She currently is managing a bank in the DC area. She loves cars and loves to cook.
The Sister – KN
KN is four years younger than I. She waited a long time to marry, but as soon as she did she was gone. Now she and her husband (Rk) both work the for same company; he’s the District Manager and she runs the office.
I often wonder how they could spend so much time together. They are not very social with family at all. They live 20 minutes from me and the last time we got an invitation to their house was for Christmas 2006. The first and only time they hosted Christmas. They like the world they’ve created and they don’t like intruders to enter that world.
My husband works for this same company with Rk as his boss. So Poor Scotty gets the shit end of the deal all the time. Everything is his fault. But now Rk’s brother started working for the company and that has taken some pressure off of Poor Scotty. The brother is being blamed for everything.
Rk’s not a good manager and in the real world would have been fired a long time ago. There’s a little note about him at the bottom of this post.
Why does it smell like a giant fart in here?
Oh, don’t worry, that’s just my lunch. At least twice a week I roast cauliflower for myself. It’s tasty, but makes the entire house smell like a fart. It’s not bad if you are in here, but if you come in from outside it slaps you in the face and then punches you in the gut.
I love to drizzle olive oil on it then salt, pepper, and garlic powder and bake it in my toaster oven until its golden brown. Mmmm…has a real nutty flavor. And since cauliflower is a core food, I’ve not had to stop enjoying this smelly-fart delight.
That and a diet pepsi.
We all need someone to talk to
Well, I’ve calmed down. I’m not all twisted up about the extra work around here. I was able to vent to my youngest daughter Bd, and feel so much better. She made me promise to call her before I get myself into a tizzy.
Thank you Bd. Now I can look forward to the dinner theater we are attending tomorrow night. It’s my first and I’ll let you know how it was.
The countdown begins
Before I go into my rant, I’ll give you a little background. My sister moved in with me on January 1, she relocated from ND and has a great job. Her 14 year old daughter didn’t want to move here and is now living with her dad back in ND. She has two friends (twins) that she doesn’t want to leave.
I work from home, running two businesses and I babysit for my granddaughter. My husband, Poor Scotty, works in NC all week and is only home on the weekends.
You should also know that I get really pissed if something you do creates more work for me. Remember those hand-wash only glasses? If you use one and don’t wash it…more work for me. Got rid of them at the garage sale. Not sure if they sold or went to goodwill.
So, you can imagine the extra work (not to mention the higher utility bills) for me when my sister is here. Now add her daughter for two months (this is the countdown) and I’m ready to go off the deep end. When I first learned that Kd was coming for two months I was excited. I imagined her playing with Ly (granddaughter) during the day, going for walks around the block, being in the backyard, you know, normal stuff. My thoughts were ‘wow am I going to be able to get a lot done in those two months.’ What a fool I was.
This girl has no social skills that I’m aware of other than following her mom around like a puppy. When her mom isn’t here she is in her room with the door closed. She spends all her time on her laptop. I’ve told her to not be a stranger, bring your stuff out. But no, she’d prefer to be a hermit.
She appears when her mom gets home and acts as though she’s been out and about all day. Oh, and she’s always there when it comes to shopping or eating. When she first got here I asked her if she was hoping to make a friend…NO. She was almost appalled at the idea.
I find out yesterday that before Kd goes home, my sister is planning on flying her son, daughter-in-law, and grandson out here so Kd can fly back with them. Oh joy. Where are you going to put them all? I have a small three bedroom house. My room, Kd’s room (I could use the space), and my office. Sister is currently living in my unfinished basement. It’s probably about 500 square feet and is packed with all the furniture from her house. Ugh… don’t get me started on the mess she has down there. So again, I ask you where are you going to put the extra family.
She thinks nothing of ‘oh they can sleep on your couch.’ Really? What about during the day? Will you take those days off and get them out of here? Or will I have to put up with them on top of babysitting and trying to run my businesses?
The extra work created for me from just two other people living there 1) twice as much garbage I have to take out every day, 2) I swear I run the dishwasher twice a day 3) I’m spending more time trying to explain to Ly ‘where’s Kd?’ 4) they let the dog out then forget, so I’m jumping up from working to let him in when he’s barking at the back door 5) they let the dog upstairs and then forget about it, so I’m putting him back down stairs because he’s in the safe place I’ve created for Ly 6) the baby gate isn’t always closed, so instead of being confident that she’s safe when she goes into the living room, I go make sure its closed 7) and it’s costing me more money to have you here.
I feel that if you are living here for any extended period of time, you are not a guest. You live here, therefore you help clean, you pay attention to what is going on in or around the house. If something needs to be done…DO IT!
What I’d love to say is "Get your selfish ass out of that bedroom and get a life." "Just cleaning your room and your bathroom doesn’t help, you do ‘live’ in the whole house." "The little bit of rent you pay doesn’t cover it." But I keep my mouth shut.
And I’m The Bitch?
I’m a little worried
While I’m going to change everything, which includes my marital situation, I bear no ill will towards Poor Scotty. And I’m not ready to make my move. Financially it doesn’t work yet. I need to pick up at least two more clients before I can do anything.
So yesterday he emails me and asks that I send him his resume, "I think its time to start looking." Poor Scotty works for my sister’s husband. They are a cable contractor and typically make amazing money. That is, when there is work. While here in Virginia, Poor Scotty was a manager and got paid really well. We’ve become accustom to that lifestyle and are currently maxed out. So, they piss off the cable company here and quit working for them. I guess they figure they are so great that anyone would hire them. Wrong, my brother-in-law, in my opinion has made some mistakes and I believe it has caused them to get a bad reputation.
So, the company is not making the millions it was two years ago and they want to cut Poor Scotty’s wages by half. HALF! If this happens, we will certainly have to *try* to sell the house and get a car that isn’t a payment of $800/month (which is fine with me, I hate to drive that big gas hog).
When Poor Scotty gets home, and if he decides to share what exactly prompted him to "start looking" I will have to remind him he is being paid a manager’s salary but he doesn’t look nor act like one. If he’s as motivated at work as he is at home, they see a slug who makes too much money. Hell, he can’t even manage to get a hair cut, how impressive must he be?
Anyway, I like to make a plan before I act when it comes to big life changes. I’m afraid we will have to have "the talk" sooner than later. Ugh!
Oh…oh, I forgot to tell you that this is the brother-in-law who had a dream about me the night before a big gala that he wasn’t going to be at. Calls me on my cell and asks if he’s on speaker. I tell him no and this is what he says "I had a dream about you. Don’t dance on the tables tonight." At this point I’m like "you called me to tell me not to dance on the tables?" I’m not a dance on the tables kinda gal and I’m really confused at his weirdness, then it gets better "I don’t want the guys to see you naked before I do." WTF??? What kind of stupid fucking moron are you? This is totally inappropriate. You are married to my sister, you are my husband’s boss, and I’m on the payroll too, genius.
I’m sit’n on hold
So I get an email in my junk folder that says "Below please find the e-mail sent to you referencing a critical security update that is required for your credit card processing account with Practice Pay Solutions. We have additionally attempted to contact you by phone using 540-834-4185. Despite these attempts – your account has not yet been updated.
Please note that due to security precautions your credit card processing account will be deactivated tomorrow unless this upgrade is completed.
Once your account is deactivated you will be unable to accept credit card payments through your website or manually using your virtual terminal.
Please call our offices today so that we can ensure that you maintain your ability to process payments normally."
I don’t remember getting this previous email, but I may have ignored it because it too arrived in my junk folder. So I get on the horn and call Practice Pay Solutions 15:41 minutes ago. I wish I could share the hold music with you. It’s like one song, but it’s not a song its just background music with weird sounds. OK, I just got off the phone with PP and they had me update by account. I still didn’t trust the email, but had no problem with customer support helping me out. And he spoke English…yeah!
Why do you even come home?
Poor Scotty works about four hours from here and insists on coming home each weekend. I really have no idea why he does this. He could just as easily play solitaire on his computer from there. It would save him eight hours on the road each week.. He could also skip giving me dirty looks all weekend.
For example, he had a phone to his ear and was on his way out the patio door at the same time I was on my way in to grab a bag of bird food from the pantry right beside the patio door. He’s out and starts closing the door, I go to stop him and he looks at me like I’m in his way. Excuse me, it shouldn’t be so hard for you to come out and me to go in. Then I’m in quickly and grab the bird food, I’m on my way back out and he reaches back to close the door. So I’m holding it open and the dork is looking at the top of the door to find out why it won’t close. So I say ‘I’m holding it’ and he give me a dirty look. Why was this a such negative exchange? If this was anyone else, he could have just laughed and walked away.
He’s responsible for only one thing around the house, mowing the lawn. Did he do it? If he did I wouldn’t be bitching about it. And you need to know that he actually does do nothing but play solitaire on this laptop all day and all night while hogging the remote control and watching either sports or old shows. He’s done this solitaire thing for years, even the old fashioned way, with a real deck of cards. This certainly says a lot. He will even take his plate in the living room to eat while the entire family eats in the dining room. He goes out of his way to distance himself from the family and then has the nerve to say I don’t keep him in the loop. Have you noticed that I don’t even talk to you? When was the last time we had sex?
Here’s another good one, he’s got two cell phones, they are setting side by side and one of them is ringing and blinking. Yes, you guessed it, he looks at the other one. I told him it was his nextel, he said no it wasn’t it was this one. Then looked at the nextel and said oh, it was.
We probably said seven things to each other the entire weekend. Really the only time we talk is when we are talking about the little woman. He’s a completely different person when he talks about her or is with her.
