Really?!

I feel like I'm always doing laundry-I do several loads a week.  But, I always have a serious back log of excess laundry.  This past weekend, I was determined to get it ALL done.  Really.  I started on Friday afternoon, and washed, washed, washed.  When my husband got home from work on Saturday, I asked him to please get his laundry from the floor of the bedroom his "special" laundry hamper and sort it into piles by color with the rest of the laundry, because I wasn't sure what needed to be washed.  He replied that all of it needed to be washed, and promptly fell asleep on the couch.  Mmmmmkay.  Guess I'll do that for ya there, honey.  Anyhow, not one, but TWO loads of laundry came out of the washer with packs of gum in them.  We like our laundry with a clean, minty fresh scent.  I found most of it before it hit the dryer, but not all of it.  Thankfully, the clothes were somehow unscathed, but Saturday evening found me peeling tiny bits of gum out of the inside of the dryer, and I ended up with gum on the bottoms of my socks and on the knees of my jeans. I know you envy the endless glamour that is my life.  After lots of complaining, and many dramatic sighs, I announced to my groggy husband that he was in trouble for leaving gum in his pockets.  Again.  (Yes, this has happened before.)  His response? I should have checked his pockets first.  Really?! I just washed 100's of articles of clothing, and I'm supposed to make sure everyone's only his pockets are empty after I pick them up off the bedroom floor myself? REALLY?!  His next response was that he didn't ask me to do his laundry.  Well, guess who will be doing his own laundry from now on?
Disclaimer-He's a pretty good guy, so I feel sort of guilty for posting this, but really?! C'mom! Be a grownup and pull the gum out of your pockets before you throw your clothes on the floor before you put your clothes in the hamper!

I got the kids haircuts last Thursday after school, and then Friday afternoon, I got them all dressed up, curled my daughter's hair, and took loads and loads of festive potential Christmas card pictures in front of the Christmas trees.  This is pretty much an annual tradition, and one that I generally stress over-usually needlessly.  The kids looked cute, behaved well, and didn't give me any "weird" smiles, like they do sometimes.  Pleased with our efforts, I let them change their clothes and play, as I downloaded the pictures.  Every. Single. Picture.  turned out grainy and sort of blurry. Really?!  I couldn't use a single one.  We repeated the process on Sunday with a different camera, which worked better, but the kids were sort of over it, and the pictures didn't come out as cute as the others would have been.  Bah Humbug.

I've had lots of little "really?!" moments lately.  I'm trying not to get bogged down with the frustration of it all, but it's difficult to "rise above".  I've risen as far as I can go! (And now I see that I need to knock the cobwebs out of those high corners again...)  Sometimes it's good to vent.  Speaking of "vents"...I hope there isn't any gum stuck to the dryer vent...

Gone Missing

Image via Wikipedia

I have officially lost my sense of humor for the time being.  Our air conditioner went out Friday night.  We're having a repairman come on Tuesday (that's payday, because we anticipate $$$ in repairs this time), but in the meantime, it's hot in here.  Yesterday was the hottest day of the year, so yeah, that was fun.  Our upstairs is approximately 900 degrees, so we've all been camping out downstairs with the fan on and windows open.  Which basically means that the kids are thrilled at the "adventure" and my husband who's former Army training allows him to sleep anywhere and through anything, barely notices anything is different.  Me, on the other hand? I'm lying awake, listening to the maddening screeching of 459 billion cicadas, 330 million crickets, and a couple of confused birds, as I try to find a comfortable and cool spot on the couch.  Every noise out of the ordinary has me sitting up, wide eyed, wondering if I should wake my husband up get up and inspect.  I slept better when I had infants.  If it weren't for our financial situation at the moment, I'd totally be at a hotel.  Yes, I guess I am a bit of a prima donna.  I'll own it.

You know how the media are always saying that crime rises as the temperatures rise?  I totally understand that now.  My nerves are shot, we've all been grouchy and argumentative.  If I were a perfect mom, I would turn this into some fun adventure, but bleh, I don't have the energy for that.  Besides, I'd have to move out from in front of the fan. (Yes, I know I just used too many prepositions.  It's what all the cool kids do.)

I know, I know.  You're probably thinking to yourself, "The world's tiniest violin is playing just for you" or, my personal childhood favorite, "My heart bleeds purple Kool Aid just for you."  But really, it's not just the broken AC, it's a combination of factors, kind of all piling up at once, as rotten things tend to do.  Anyhow, once my sense of humor come back (I think it automatically shuts off once the indoor air temperature surpasses 79), I'll be back to my usual snarky self, but hopefully, much cooler.

Crabby

I'm crabby today.  I don't know why, maybe it's PMS but it's SO not PMS.  I have legitimate reasons to be grouchy, like.....um......erm....well, I've got my reasons! I just can't think of any of them right now, that's all.  Maybe it's the fact that the laundry that I sorted, washed and folded this weekend is still sitting on the coffee table waiting for certain other people to put it away.  I don't think I should have to, so I'm leaving it sit there, as...well, you know, an experiment of sorts.  Yeah, that's it, it's an experiment! I want to see how long it takes before someone (hubby, kids, the imaginary maid, Santa Claus, June Cleaver, the cat, anyone, anyone, Bueller?) puts it away.  I'm getting sick of looking at it, though, so I think I'll be nagging at the kids to get their stuff, and hauling the rest upstairs myself.  I could certainly use the exercise.

Or maybe it's because after cooking soup for dinner tonight, I looked in the cabinet and had no clean bowls.  So, I reached in the dishwasher for bowls and spoons (none of those in the drawer), and discovered that it had never been ran.  Great.  Even better, I had already used one of the dirty spoons from the dishwasher while cooking the soup, thinking it was clean.  I'll bet Martha Stewart's never done that before.  SO not a "good thing". We did eat the contaminated soup and we are just fine.  So far. Fingers crossed.   Obviously, my experiment with the dirty dishes has not had a successful outcome.

                                                           "You did what?! That's horrifying!"
Add to that some work issues, family issues, broken air conditioning, and feeling like I can't keep up with anything despite my best intentions, and you've got one, irritable, imperfect mom.  Anywho....I've got lots to be thankful for, great family, food to eat, clean clothes to wear, yada, yada, yada.  I'll be fine by next week.  It's not PMS!