Help Me Choose

Ugh, why do I have to make the decisions?

Here is the deal. Hubbs is an Elks Club member. The Elks picnic is this weekend and the big Chili Cookoff is next weekend.


Do we:
A. Go to the picnic on Saturday
B. Go camping for the weekend just the family
C. Stay home to do some much needed housework

Personally, I don't care where we go, as long as we go SOMEWHERE this weekend. Out of town is out of town. I don't think Hubbs wants to go to the picnic since he left the decision up to me. If he wanted to go, he would have decided that all on his own. And, the boys don't even know that it is an option, so if we do decide to go, it would be a surprise. And on top of it, we would have to leave the dogs home if we go to the picnic. If they see us loading up to go to the woods without them they are going to be so pissed.

BUT, the picnic is geared towards the kids with the games and contests and such. Plus they need interaction with other kids and out there, I have no choice but to let them run free with the other kids. It is only fair to let them go to the picnic since Hubbs and I have the Chili Cookoff.

BUT, the house is out of control. The floors need to be mopped, the carpets vacuumed, everything dusted, the office/toy room needs to be picked up and mopped, the grass needs to be mowed, the weeds needs to be pulled, the patio hosed off, a shed needs to be built, the garden needs some attention. I could go on but I am getting depressed by how much crap needs to be done.

Ugh, and then next weekend I get to do this all over again. Chili Cookoff, family camping or housework. I am not even sure I want to go to the Chili Cookoff this year either. I much prefer being with a small group rather than a huge group.

This Is Neat

It's another one of those days.

But it's okay. I think I have figured out why things have been sooooo screwed up. It's my biorhythm. Or at least that sounds like a good excuse, if you believe in that kind of stuff.

What the hell is a biorhythm? This is what Wikipedia says:
A biorhythm (from Greek βιορυθμός - biorhuthmos) is a hypothetical cycle in physiological, emotional, or intellectual well-being or prowess. "Bio" pertains to life and "rhythm" pertains to the flow with regular movement. Biorhythms theory has no more predictive power than chance and has been labeled a pseudoscience by skeptics.

Just for shits and giggles, check out yours here: http://bio-chart.com/ So far, it has been pretty accurate for me. If your lines cross high, that's good. If they cross low, that's bad.

Or I could just be losing my mind and things really aren't as bad as I think they are.

Either way, they are both believable excuses.

If You Wear Crocs

Step 1. Go to http://www.crocs.com

Step 2. Search BOGO or click on the big BOGO flashing screen thing on the home page.

Step 3. Pick out 2 (or 4 or 6 or 8) pairs of crocs from the list. Add to your shopping cart.

Step 4. Go to your shopping cart.

Step 5. Enter Code slx8797 for 20% off.

Step 6. Get free ground shipping automatically.

Step 7. Checkout and wait for UPS to arrive in 7-14 business days.

Thanks go to Fannie from the Coupon Board!

Things That Suck

Today's post is about things that have sucked for me in the last few days.

1. Swine Flu Sucks
A customer came in Monday morning with her teenage daughter. We got a call Tuesday afternoon, right before we closed, that that teenage daughter got a positive on her Swine flu test. Gee. Thanks. At least she did manage to call and let us know that she exposed us, so that was nice, right?

2. Pink Eye Sucks
Yes, I think I am getting pink eye. Again. Yay. It feels like I have dirt up under my eyelid but I have flushed it out over and over. And it is already starting to swell up. The pink eye ointment that I have makes me see all blurry so once I put it in, I am useless. Can't drive, can't watch t.v., can't play on the internet.

3. Camping and My Period Sucks
We went camping last weekend and guess who showed up? Thankfully I brought supplies, just in case, even though Hubbs laughed and teased me about it. I managed to have a good time, even with my bathroom being a shrub. And it saved me from having to put out.

What the hell else can go wrong? Nevermind. Scratch that. My karma has been pretty bad so I won't even tempt it.

It is finally closing time, and that does not suck. Off to the gas station to buy beer for the lazy ass Hubbs.

I may have another post tomorrow, if I can see well enough to get to work. :)

Burts Bees Acne BzzAgent Campaign

Whoohoo! I got in on another campaign from BzzAgent.

Sunday, when we got home from camping, the Bzz Box was in the mailbox. There were 2 full sized bottles for me and a bunch of samples to pass around.

Instead of just giving a review of the product, like I normally do, I decided to keep a journal on how my skin reacts to the Burts Bees cleansers.

I have never used Burts Bees stuff, not even the chapstick, so I am really interested in how well it works.

My skin is crazy. Sometimes, things that I have used for years will give me a bad reaction and I will break out. I switch to a different soap and after a few days I am able to go back to using the stuff I am used to.

Aaaaaand I'm Back

Well, here I am. Still alive and still have plenty to bitch about.

We ended up not going to the funeral and I think it was for the best. My MIL said some things to Hubbs before we left the driveway that were pretty shitty and I am still pissed off at her.

I used to get along with my MIL really well. Even better than I got along with my own mother, but she is nuts so I have a good excuse. But in the past 2 years or so, my MIL has become down right mean. Sometimes I wonder if she even cares if what comes out of her mouth might hurt feelings. Mean, condescending, hateful, cranky, hypocritical, close minded, I could go on and on.

I dread having to spend my hard earned vacation time up there. I would rather go camping. Hell, I would rather stay home than make that long ass drive and be stuck there with her for a week.

On a better note, I think I have finally decided what I want to do when I grow up. For years, I have dreamed about owning my own business. I get those "wake me up in the middle of the night brilliant ideas" that turn out not to be quite so brilliant after the sleepy fog wears off. But I have thought about this one for a while and it seems like something I could pull off. And there aren't any other business of that type in town. In fact, I can't find that type of business within a 200 mile radius of here. But, I need to do a little more research before I tell anyone what it is that I have decided to do, just in case I chicken out.

What A Day

Oh man, it has been one hell of a day. This is just a small portion of the shit that has made up my day.

~~First, my mom called me at work at 9:30 this morning to ask if I could bring her an Icee.

Sure mom, let me down to the gas station right this minute. It will be so super awesome trying to explain to the bosses what I was thinking.

She has been a housewife for forever and cant seem to wrap her head around working and the responsibilities that go with it. It is her dream for me to be a stay at home mom again. I couldn't handle it the first time with only 1 kid. I was too lazy and spent too much money.

To be honest, I think it would be awesome to be able to not have to work but as long as we are still living in this town, that won't ever happen. Hubbs and I do have a deal though. If we end up having to move out of town, I have already told him that I refuse to get a job. There really wouldn't be any alternative. I can't leave the boys with someone I don't know in a town that I don't know. Just can't do it. So the only other option is to be a stay at home mom.

~~After I got my mom handled, I got to deal with Hubbs. He is packing (his stuff, no one else) for our Colorado trip in the morning. Lets face it. Men are helpless. I have gotten text after text of "Where is my blue dress shirt" and "I can't find my dress shoes" and "What did you do with my khaki shorts with the belt", all damn day.

Uhhhh, I don't know where any of your crap is. I don't use any of it. I am lucky to keep track of my own and the kids' shit. If it was that important, you would know where it was.

~~I had a not so nice surprise when I checked our online banking stuff. Hubbs got the not so nice text of "WTF is this withdrawal of $400 from the savings?" Apparently, FIL is going to Alaska this morning and needed some money. WTF is right. FIL has known about his trip for MONTHS! I don't get it. What is so hard about setting aside $100 a month, especially when you make $100k a year being retired? Plus, how do you afford a trip to Alaska and have to BORROW money to eat on.

I probably wouldn't be so pissed about it if Hubbs had been working at his real job, at any time, in the past 9 or so months. I probably wouldn't be so pissed if I wasn't working my ass off at my job and then having to come home and work my ass off there too. Utter bullshit.

Hubbs is in for a surprise when I make him sit down and we have a "Come To Jesus" talk tonight about being a grown up. I am going to start introducing him as My First Husband to make my point crystal clear.

Well, At Least We Expected It

Hubbs got the call that his grandma died this morning.

He was in Colorado all last week visiting with her and we didn't expect her to last this long.

She has been ill for a long time. A few months ago she ended up in the hospital and they couldn't figure out what was wrong. They ran tests and did exams and finally decided that she was losing blood but didn't know where or why.

She had been receiving blood transfusions for the past couple of months but sometime around the end of July, the doctors said that they weren't going to give her any more transfusions and that she needed to get her affairs in order.

So we are going up to Colorado Wednesday morning. The viewing is Wednesday night, the funeral is Thursday and there is some family thing on Friday.

I have a feeling that things are going to get ugly. I was already told that kids will not be allowed at the funeral or the viewing. So that means I get to sit around MIL's house for hours with the boys. I am not too happy about not being allowed to be there to support Hubbs but I can see the point, to an extent. I wouldn't want to sit in a church filled with unhappy little kids. Not even my own, so it is better that they don't go.

The problem that I have is that no one even asked me if I wanted to be there. Nobody took MY feelings into consideration. I get that she wasn't MY grandma but I married her grandson almost 7 years ago and that is plenty of time for her to become like one of my grandmas. Somebody find me a damn babysitter because I want to be there. I know, it is such a bullshit thing to be pissed about and I feel like such an ass for even being pissed about it in the first place.

But I feel like I get left out of everything anymore. I am the one who always stays home with the kids. I really don't have any choice in the matter. Any matter. Everybody has just been expecting me to not argue or not question it. Hubbs never says he will stay home while I go out and do something. If I go do something, the whole damn family goes.

I am so sick of not having any say anymore. I get to decide what pan I want to use to make dinner in or what clothes I want to dress the kids in. That is the extent of my decision making anymore. I hate it.

Ugh. I really hope this is just my crazy ass hormones and I don't keep feeling like this.

Out of the Mouths of Babes

We were driving to daycare the other morning and listening to the radio. We had regular, boring, local radio since Hubbs had to make an emergency trip in the HHR to Colorado on Tuesday. More on that later.

Anyway, the HHR is where the XM/Sirius (aka good) radio is. So we were listening to the local pop station and all of a sudden, Monk Man leans forward and shuts it off.

Me: Dude, how come you turned it off?
Monk Man: Momma, dis music sucks!
Me: Your dad is going to have a heart attack if he hears you say that. He wants you to like the music he likes.
Monk Man: But I don't wike it. It is horribubble. Yours is better.
Me: Shhhh. Just don't tell your daddy that. It will hurt his feelings. Here, I will turn it to Classic Rock and it will be fine.

Ha ha ha ha ha! Hubbs is a fan of pop and country music and I like metal/hard rock. Pop music (with a few exceptions) has the same effect on me as Kid Rock does, just pisses me off and I won't even get started on country. (No offence to anyone who does like that stuff) And Hubbs would rather listen to the kids screaming than sit through one Nine Inch Nails or Aerosmith or Queens of the Stone Age or pretty much any song even resembling something I would like.

But to have the kids on MY side of the music battle, that is the biggest victory I could ever have. That is 100% win. Yay!

And Lastly

Some camping pictures!

It took me all day to get this posted. Photobucket is being a bitch!



That is me and Monk Man. It originally was in color but we were all so dirty that I changed it to black and white to hide it. It is a rare opportunity to get a picture with me in it, since I am always the one taking the pictures.


Here is Monk Man and Bobblehead at dinner time.


Here they are, chillin by the fire.


This is Molly, my blue heeler/terrier mix. Monk Man calls her his sister.


And here she is, on what we called "High Alert".


And this is Duke, doing what he does best. Nothing.


And these are the dirtiest little piggies ever! Please ignore the dirty kitchen floor.

The Rest of the Trip

The rest of the trip was pretty boring.

We came back into town Saturday morning to pick up the rest of our stuff. I made the mistake of sending Hubbs to buy food and a couple of camp chairs while I loaded up the truck and the car again. He came home with a TON of extra stuff (including a new $45 ice chest and a $75 table to set the camp stove on) but we ended up using it all and could have used more.

We went for a drive down the canyon when we got back to camp because it was hot as hell. Hubbs put Monk Man on his lap and let him steer the truck. That was a little nerve wracking. So was when Hubbs let both the boys ride in the back of the truck with the dogs. Don't anyone worry, we were on a dirt road and never drove faster than 15 mph.

When we got back to camp, Hubbs managed to start a fire by himself and I got to cook hot dogs. Now I usually don't eat hot dogs. The only way I can manage to eat them is if they are burnt on the grill or in a fire. I don't eat them boiled or even pan fried. Barf. The kids got normal unburned hot dogs, Hubbs got some kind of fancy steak wrapped in bacon and I got my burned up hot dogs.

The boys got Smores for desert and they weren't as big of a hit as I expected. Well, Monk Man liked them but Bobblehead couldn't figure out how to eat them and got pissed off because he couldn't separate the chocolate from the marshmallow. Oh well. Maybe next time.

After dinner Bobblehead and I were left to clean up (he is such a good helper) while Hubbs and Monk Man went for a walk. The dogs hung around by the fire for a while but eventually took off down the trail to investigate a little.

After the sun went down, the kids started begging to go to bed. They were exhausted! They didn't mess around getting their pajamas on and Monk Man (my sleep fighter) even yelled at Bobblehead (loves to sleep) to let him go to sleep. The dogs even laid down in front of the tent door and didn't move for hours. Hubbs put wayyy too much wood in the fire and couldn't keep from putting in more wood so we sat up and drank. By the time the fire finally burned out, I was DRUNK. I know I went to bed, I just don't remember doing it. LoL That doesn't happen very often.

Ooooh and I felt it in the morning. Cowboy coffee just won't cut it when a hangover is involved. I couldn't wait to get home. I was going to start a pot of real coffee, put the boys in the bath, sit in front of the nice cool swamper and relax. Then maybe take a nap. Nope! Didn't happen that way. Hubbs' dad showed up at the camp site about an hour after we got up so we ended up not getting home until about 3. By then it was too late to take a nap so I just drank a Red Bull and chased it with a pot of coffee.

All of our camping shit is still sitting in my living room. I have no initiative to unpack it, just to re-pack it all up again in another few weekends to go again. So there it sits until I get sick of looking at it or the kids empty it and scatter it all over the house again.

Where Did I Leave Off

Oh yeah. We get to our camp site and it is darker than dark.


We opened up the doors and before WE could even get out, the dogs are climbing over each other and the seats to get the hell out of the car. Hubbs wanted to let the kids out to run around while we set up but I wanted to leave them in their car seats, out of harms way.


Unfortunately, Hubbs won the argument. And guess who got to chase after them? Bingo! Me. But it turned out to be in my favor. Hubbs had to set up the tent and I convinced the boys to help me unload all the boxes and bags from the HHR.


I would love to have been someone watching us set up camp. It must have been a hell of a show. The dogs were chasing each other, the kids were chasing the dogs, I was chasing the kids and trying to find kicked off shoes at the same time as I was trying to make camp comfortable and keep Duke from peeing on everybody and everything that wasn't nature.


Oh, and Hubbs got lucky enough to be the one to set up the tent. Alone. In the dark. With only the HHR's headlights to help him see. Ha! Next time he will let me leave the kids buckled in their car seats so I can help.


So everything gets unloaded and set up without too much drama. The boys decide they want marshmallows RIGHT THIS MINUTE! Hubbs took Monk Man to gather fire wood and Bobblehead stayed with me to find those damn marshmallows. The marshmallows are found and we have a pretty good sized stack of wood. Hubbs loads the fire pit full off wood and cardboard. He couldn't get anything to stay lit. I bet he went through 10 matches before he finally asked for some help. I sent him off to get some more wood and I get to work finding all the newspapers I had bought that morning and stashed under the seat so the coupons wouldn't get stomped on before I got them home. I am embarrassed to admit how many newspapers I found. It was like 10.


I grabbed the papers over to the fire pit where Bobblehead was sitting with his thumb in his mouth. Apparently he found a little plant that we used to call Boy Scout Toilet Paper, tore off a leaf and really liked the texture of it. Ok, so he is occupied. I yell for Monk Man to get his ass over to me so I could teach him and his daddy how to light a fire.


Hubbs walks up with an attitude like, how are YOU going to start a fire when I couldn't. Silly men. I got them started ripping up the paper and scrunching them into balls about the size of a grapefruit. I started making a tepee out of the sticks. When the paper was balled up and the tepee was up, I made them stuff the paper inside the tepee while I held it steady. When it was full of paper, I lit the paper on the bottom.


It worked like a charm. Minutes later we had a fire bright enough to be able to turn off the headlights. The boys got their marshmallows and I got to gloat a little.


Speaking of marshmallows....I found the greatest cooking sticks! 2 different kinds, single prongs and double prongs. The double ones extend and are great for cooking hot dogs on and the single ones are great for marshmallows.


After the boys are full of sugar, we turn them loose to run around. They had 1 stipulation, to stay within the light. If the campfire didn't reach it, they didn't get to go to it until the morning. They actually obeyed! While they were running around, Hubbs and I sat on an ice chest and snuggled. Snuggling is a very rare thing. Always has been. I have issues with being touched (long story) and he has issues with PDA.

The kids finally get tired and actually start begging to go to bed. They are SO excited to get to sleep somewhere new. They have a case of the giggles for about half an hour but eventually pass out. Hubbs and I stayed up way too long poking the fire, talking and stuffing ourselves silly with junk food that we had hid from the boys.

Sometime in the middle of the night, the dogs woke me up. They were growling at a forest creature and I could hear that forest creature munching away at the bag of dog food I must have forgotten to put away. I have no idea what that forest creature was because I was too scared to look out of the tent.

When the boys woke me up at the ass crack of dawn, we went on a little walk I wanted to see if I could find tracks or something and the boys just wanted to run around. Well, while we were walking around I found a trail of Reese's peanut butter cups leading away from our camp. Hubbs must have left his candy bag out and the forest creature found it after it found the dog food. I took one of the candies back to camp to show Hubbs because it had an enormous tooth print in it. He said he thought it had to have been a raccoon. I was convinced that it was a Yeti. LoL Yes, a Yeti in Arizona. I always have had an overactive imagination.

Well, whatever it was, it scared the shit out of me. And I learned my lesson about making sure EVERYTHING was put away. The last thing I need is to lay awake at night worrying that something is going to eat the dogs. The kids, not so worried about. They would just annoy the hell out of the forest creature until it brought them back.

This is turning in to a painfully long post so I will pick up where I left off sometime tomorrow.

Finally

We finally got to go on our weekend camping trip.

It was so much fun. The kids were great, the dogs were great, everything was great.

But I have to tell you, camping is NOT a bargain. Well, for normal people, it probably is. For us, not so much.

As I posted before, this camping in a tent shit is totally new to me. Years ago we had a little trailer that we could hitch up to our little V-2 truck (seriously, the HHR has more balls) and we were set. I think if we would have kept the trailer instead of selling it, we would have actually ended up with more money.

We had to basically start from scratch. When we sold the trailer, I either gave away or threw away everything camping related. I kept a few things but over the years they ended up getting put in with our regular household stuff.

Friday, Hubbs called me at work and told me that he wanted to go to the bar that night and have some drinks with a few friends. I was pissed since there was NO way I was going to get the rest of the stuff packed and try to keep the kids under control, PLUS do the grocery shopping and pick up the last minute things. So I told him he was being an asshole and just to forget the whole camping idea. Then I guilt tripped him, telling him that we have been promising this to the boys for weeks now and he has managed to screw it up for them, again.

I know, it was a shitty thing to tell him. I have to be a bitch sometimes. But in my defence, I was PMSing and can't be held responsible for my actions.

He found a baby sitter for the boys (all by himself) and convinced me to go to the steak fry at the Elks Club. After we ate and he had a couple of drinks(and I was calmed down enough to listen to him), we decided to just throw what we needed for the night into the HHR and come back in the morning to pick up the truck and the rest of our crap.

We get home, pay the baby sitter and start rushing around like nobodies business. By this time it is already 7 p.m. We throw what I already had packed up into the HHR, throw in the kids and the dogs and head off to the grocery store to pick up dinner and breakfast stuff.

And alcohol of course. Lots and lots of alcohol.

We have to go back to the house and re-stuff the car. Eventually we had to put one of the back seats down, put both car seats next to each other (usually a bad idea since then the boys can actually reach one another and normally results in a bite mark or a bruise by the end of the car ride) and stuck the dogs on Hubb's lap.

When we finally get on the road, it is already around 9:15, 9:30ish. I wanted to forget about it but we were so far into it, it would not be worth it to wait. It is an hour drive during the day but since it was dark (and I was driving) it took closer to an hour and a half.

Hubbs talked the ENTIRE drive. I finally had to direct his conversation towards Monk Man since I was having a hard time focusing on the road. I try not to drive at night because I can't see that well in the dark anymore, plus there were all these shadows jumping around by the side of the road. I know it was the headlights and trees but I was so sure an elk or something was going to run out in front of us.

This post is getting crazy long so I will make you wait until tomorrow (or knowing me, the next day) for the rest of the story.