Sunday, July 26, 2009

What's New?

Okay, I know. I haven't blogged in FOREVER. Sorry. Unfortunately, it isn't because much has changed. Well . . . at least nothing drastic, or even too exciting. I'm still bored, except now, I'm becoming lazy too. Oh, well, what are summers for? Let's see here . . . there have been a few things.



Hmmmm . . . Well first of all, my son, Nicko, has been off work this week. They finished the job they were working on and might not have anything new for him until Monday. (He's keeping his fingers crossed) So he's been home all week distracting me from my chores. Not really, I just haven't felt very motivated lately. Actually, he's managed to get a few things done around the house and take care of some Doctor appointments. Recently, he's found out that he has carpal Tunnel in his arms from the work that he does. (It's been really painful for him at night and in the mornings) Also, he got some much needed (and somewhat traumatic) dental work done. He just had a tooth pulled, but it was in the exact spot where his jaw was broke less than a year ago. It had both him, and the dentist, sweating for a while. They got it out, but afterwards, it was pretty painful.



Jen had her baby shower last Sunday, and got lots of lovely things for the baby. She had it at her mother's house and I was a little concerned how that might go, because her parents are just a bit . . . over protective? No . . . more like ANGRY with a touch of crazy thrown in for good measure. I was most worried about her mother making some kind of snide and offensive remarks to me, or someone in my family; but as it turned out, it was her husband that ended up ruining the day, and setting off an ugly exchange of words (via text messages and face book comments) that has lasted all week long. He waited until after everyone had left, and then berated Jen for having "abandoned her family." Just the sort of thing an 8 month pregnant girl needs to hear from her father at her baby shower! Since then, they have shown just how ugly and judgemental they really are. Basically, they have never approved of her relationship with Nick, and have always done everything in their power to break the two of them up. Now that they realise that they really have no control over the situation, they have become desperate enough to try anything - including verbal attacks on our entire family. They just don't seem to realise that they are only pushing Jen farther away. I can understand why they feel as they do (to an extent) but they have an all or nothing attitude about everything. Jen's mother is famous for cutting people (even family members) out of her life when she can't control their behavior. It's very sad.



Again this week, my husband has been so busy at work, I only get to see him about 10 minutes a day - at least while he's still awake. In fact, I had a few appointments this week that I had to have the car for, so rather than give Roy the time off so I could use the car, his boss has decided to loan me one of his cars to take care of my business until they can find a truck for Roy to work out of. So, I still don't have MY car, but I have A car, which is better than nothing.



Jake has spent most of this week helping dad to do some side work to earn some money. His girlfriend's birthday was today and he wanted to give her something nice. I'm starting to worry about this relationship. The two of them have been together almost 9 months now. For teenagers their age, that's an ETERNITY ! I have to watch the two of them all the time. It's a good thing that her parents have made a rule about her only being able to spend every other day with Jake. On their days apart, they have to hang out with other friends. (even though they text each other 24/7.) Still, she's enough of a regular around here, that Heather and I made her dinner and baked her a birthday cake Friday night to celebrate. She is a really sweet girl, I just worry about how Jake will take it if they ever break up.



Speaking of break ups, Heather's "boy friend" broke up with her last night. He's the first boy that she has ever really liked. Heather used to be a very emotional, drama queen, kind of girl. (especially when she was younger) So I was really worried how she would handle it. At first, she was upset, but she didn't go overboard as I was concerned about her doing; She was pretty much over all the drama by this evening. That seems to be a fairly age appropriate response, so I was actually a little surprised. I think it really helped her to know that her big brothers were there for her. They both love her very much and made a special point of telling her today. They even offered to beat up - or publicly humiliate - her ex-boyfriend for her. That made her smile and giggle a bit. I know that it still stings a bit, (she and I are pretty close and we've talked about it a couple of times today) but over all, I think she's okay with it. She has really matured so much over the past couple of years. I'm very proud of her. I think that the next big hurdle with her is going to be her weight. It's something that she has always been sensitive about and I just have to make sure she deals with it in a realistic and sensible way. She has a tendency to want quick fixes for everything - she has already started looking at diet pills and miracle drugs on the Internet. It's always something.



As far as the other, four legged, members of my family go . . . Well, I'm back down to just five, instead of six. Roy found a nice home for Princess over the fourth of July weekend. I think she'll do much better there. She'll get plenty of attention, all to herself, and (hopefully) lose weight and become healthier. However, over the past few weeks, we have been having some issues with Pete, the daddy of the pack. Lately, he's become very impatient waiting for his walks. If I don't get him out first thing in the morning, he jumps the fence and takes himself for a walk. He always comes home, but there are just too many things that could happen to him while he's gone. (and I have enough gray hairs without worrying about him) We tried several tricks to keep him in the yard. Finally, Nick thought the solution would be to buy an electric fence kit - against my strong warning NOT to. (I hate those things!) Well, the first zap confused him enough to stop him; the second time, he figured if he was going to get zapped anyway, he'd be on the other side of the fence when it was said and done. So no, it didn't work. Turns out, that sitting on Nick's lap, when Jen drives Nick to work in the early morning, seems to keep him contented enough to wait, until I can get him out for a walk in the afternoon or evening. I don't really understand the dog logic there, but . . . whatever works.



Well, like I said, nothing really exciting, just regular mom stuff, but I guess it has been a busier week than I realised. No wonder I'm so tired!



Good night all,

Love,

Susan

2 howled back:

Anonymous said...

It's always nice catching up with you and hearing what your family is up too! I love your long chatty posts...families are families the world over aren't they? we all have our 'issues' :)
It's good for me to know that things usually do find a way to work themselves out.

Hey, you finally got rid of Princess!? Are you missing her much?!

Auburn~haired~artist said...

I can't say that I really "miss" her; she had gotten to the point where she was so fat, that she had lost most of her energy. She just laid at the front window, and barked if anything moved, or if anyone showed up at the door. (Which of course sent the other dogs into hysterics.) Unless she was in heat, she really didn't interact or play with the other dogs much. I do think about her and worry if she is happy and doing well at her new home, and if she is sad, or misses us. But I don't really miss her, I have too many other dogs to keep me busy.