Pride before spiders...

I was minding my own business cleaning up the kitchen yesterday afternoon, singing my heart out to the counter top along with my Pandora. (I turn this app on and let it play most the day, really like music in the background.)  My son had left a bag of tortilla chips that was all but gone, so I went to pick it up and a HUGE  (I am talking army boot wearing, hair raising and ugly jumping) spider jumps up and out at me!!!  It seriously jumped straight up and then flew right at me and I was just able to well of course let out a very loud girlie scream as I jumped back away to safety.  The spider lands right at my feet and then I run screaming with dish towel in hand for the closest furniture to climb up.     Kaylee came running downstairs at the sound of my screams and sees the spider jumping around the floor and she in turn screams and jumps up on the kitchen chair next to me.   Now we are both watching this big spider (seriously, it was huge!!) jump and then turn and run straight for the kitchen cabinets and disappears.  We both just gasped as it happened and just stand there watching the empty space like it will return any moment...

So after a few minutes I couldn't help it, I just started laughing... I am talking stomach deep chuckles and can't believe I am up on a chair with my teenage daughter right next to me.  She started to laugh too and it took us forever to stop, it just seemed super funny.  Eventually we got down and put the chairs back up to the table and Kaylee said we should NEVER tell anyone (Oh I am sorry this is sooooo going on my blog) as we would never live it down.  I am not big on bugs... AT ALL!!   When we moved I had to get comfortable with the idea that more bugs would be involved in our day to day as we are now out in the desert that hasn't been developed at all.   (We have had two rattle snakes removed from our backyard so far, which Kaylee enjoys since our local firemen do that for us...)  Last week Alex killed two scorpions inside the house, so we are actually thinking a cat would be nice.  But not nice enough to sway Alex to let another four legged critter into the house... Sigh..

The next question was how to finish cleaning my kitchen with this crazy huge combat boot wearing spider in my cabinets just waiting to eat me...  (See, don't do bugs!!)   Kaylee has decided we are in this together and suggests that we get the broom and poke at the under part of the cabinets to spook it out.  That is a great idea honey, but what exactly would you like us to do once said spider is spooked and runs at us????   Will you be killing it then? Hmmmmm? Yeah, she didn't really think that through very much..   So in the end we decided the kitchen looked pretty darn good and Alex could do the protector thing of hunting the spider and removing it when he got home.  With that decided we went to the game closet and brought enough board games to entertain us while we watched the kitchen for huge angry spiders until Alex came home.  So we sat at the kitchen table with our feet up on chairs for the next two hours until Alex came home and found us.  We explained the entire situation to him in great fashion with screams and all and he rolled his eyes and said and I quote ladies around the world.... "Females!" and went upstairs to change.   (Oh don't worry, either the spider was a female and decided revenge was in order or maybe even karma kicked him in the butt later)

Alex came back down about ten minutes later and starts to poke around the cabinets we pointed at and we watched from the safety of the kitchen table.   NOTHING!!!  He even opened the cabinet and took all the pans out and went to the next cabinet and took all my tupperware out... NOTHING!!!  So then he decides we have lost our minds and is telling us so as he puts each and every item back and closes the cabinet doors... He turns around to make further fun of us and BOOM the darn thing comes out from the cabinet he had just gone through and he seriously jumps right at Alex!!  I have never seen Alex move so fast... He literally juggled the spider because it flew up at him and he pretty much caught the thing only to throw it at the wall and he ran and jumped .... Yes my fellow females, he is now on top of the kitchen table... Not in a chair with us, but the man has jumped on top of my table!  He didn't stay long, he jumped down and grabbed the broom and killed the spider.  But I would have loved to have a picture of the manly man on top of  my kitchen table, especially after he delivered his eye rolling female statement earlier.  

Yeah, we ordered pizza and Alex decided that Kyle doesn't need to know about the spider encounter.  Kaylee very sweetly asked if that was because he didn't want Kyle to know he can jump on top of the kitchen table in two seconds flat when a huge spider jumps his way.   (I lover her!!)  She got slid a twenty and will be going to the mall today I am sure!   What Kyle doesn't know can't hurt anyone else's pride!!   But my blog land friends can sure have a great chuckle...

Forget Private... HELLO PUBLIC!

I am VERY happy to say....

After much debate (You don't even want to know how much talking this took!! Ugh..) it was decided that with added caution I can stay public.   

Basically it came down to not letting one bad apple spoil the entire apple cart experience!  

It also didn't hurt that everyone in this amazing community pulled together and put some VERY heart felt comments on each others blogs.  That went a VERY long way in helping me talk Alex around and in the end Jay actually helped me too.. I know shocking right?  He got a huge bear hug from me and his favorite brownies (I don't bake unless forced, so he knows how much this meant to me...) for his efforts.  

So what has been happening the last couple of weeks (other than all our debating that is)...  My son just started his Senior year in High School this morning.  I took a billion pictures to document it!  He did actually look at me for one or two...  :0)   My daughter has decided to try online school and doesn't start until next week, so she had to make faces at him this morning while laying around in her PJs.  That was also well documented with pictures... (He didn't find any of it amusing!)   Once he was out the door she went right back up to bed and has yet to surface and it's after 11am here.. Sigh.   Teenagers!    

We are down two puppies... They now live next door, so we see them all the time.  It was super hard to watch them go and we miss them, but not the mess they kept creating daily (hourly).  Plus we were having (sorry this might be TMI) doggie duty issues... Like the little guys kept eating the older dogs droppings.  Ick!  The vet said it was normal and they would out grow it and gave us some thoughts on helping the situation along... But then they started rolling in each others duty and that was my limit!!  I still buy them toys and take them over to play and see them and we have new friends that are super nice.  Jack was happy to see the puppies come and he was happy to see them go as well.  He has totally adapted back to being the one and only four legged critter in the house.  He does slip through the gate to the neighbors to play but he always has the option to come home and leave them behind.  

Our lives have always been pretty crazy busy so we never really made friends with our neighbors and now we feel super bad about that...  They reached out to us and opened that door to start the communication (after our kids kept them up all night too... plus our monster dog had eaten all her roses and they still liked us!!) and we are so VERY grateful.  

Let's see what else... 

I am still messing around with new recipes and cooking tools.. I just got a Wok last week for my birthday, so am trying to figure out what I am going to make in it first.  I was told to use peanut oil, but am trying to decide if another oil would be healthier...  My kids are scared, but they eat out more now then ever before since they are working.  So Alex is the only one that will need to suffer through my experiments.  :0)  I will more than likely cook two meals so he has a back up while we find out what works or doesn't.  He is a big guy after all and his go to solution for hunger is a frozen pizza, so I have to have healthy back up or the man will literally turn into a pizza.   

For the most part I have been able to avoid any real trouble the last few weeks... We did have a key situation last week that didn't end very well, but we have figured it out now.  The opposites attract thing doesn't always help when two people are so VERY different in keeping track of objects... My every place has its thing and every thing has its place just doesn't work for him.  But I have hung decorative key racks by EVERY door on the inside now, so no more problem... Until he loses all the keys hanging from said key racks anyway...  (Love you babe!!)  Other than that and the blogging topic we have had a really quiet few weeks here, which is very unusual...BUT SUPER NICE!!!

Anyway, so happy to be back! 

Going Private..

I finally told Alex what was going down here in blog land and after much debate on the subject this blog will go private.  I don't think very many people come by here anyway, but Alex would feel better about my blogging this way.

To be completely honest it has been a war zone over here and down the street.. Sigh.  Our men (Alex & Jay) seem to be in the all out protect your women at all costs mode now.  Ugh.  I thought it was sweet for about 15 seconds... Then I just got plain annoyed.  

So my hope is that I go private (that way I can keep blogging at least) for now and hope that he might feel differently in time.  Crossing my fingers and my toes on this one...  (Stubborn man that he is and that I love! :0) )

The settings on blogger let me paste in whomever wants to read my blog, so if you are interested please do let me know...

Irishlucky07@gmail.com

Will be leaving my blog up for a week, but can't post anything else until it goes private...  I guess this gives me time to figure out how to make a section for fictional stories so they are not lumped into my crazy life ramblings.  :0)

It's very sad what has happen and I feel for all those impacted..  I am also angry at the ripple effect that her actions have set off across this wonderful community and now my own blogging experience.

Irish Lucky
xoxo

Beware Of Zombies...

I hope everyone had a WONDERFUL 4th of July!!!!   We went to Jay and Lori's for a swim party and  BBQ and had just about the entire family in attendance.  It has been a LONG time since everyone got together for fun without any sadness or drama, so it was very much needed.   The kids all had a blast (at least those that were not working) and a few actually made it to the fireworks, while the other half fell asleep and missed them.  Too much fun and sun did in most of the little people by dusk, so the adults enjoyed the show with some wine and peace.  It's hard getting use to the idea that most of our older kids have actual jobs now and had to work the holiday.  I get this is a really important part of them maturing and getting out in the world, but I miss them at dinner and special days like the 4th.  Sigh.  Change is never easy for me, I wish I was more flexible sometimes so I could just go with the flow and chill....

I miss my son, he got a job the day school let out and he is working as much as he can to save up for a new truck.  He is doing amazing and trying to keep up with our family times and keep his friends happy.  Alex let him do the stock shift twice already, as he gets more money an hour but it's in the middle of the night.  So we are pushing for him to work day hours and leave the night shift to older workers that don't have parents home freaking out. (Ok, fine have mothers at home freaking out that their baby is not home in bed!!!)  You can tell I am going to be a mess next year when he goes off to college right?  Ugh, not even going to think about that now.  I am sure he will stay home and pick a college within driving distance.. Yes, that is my mommy hope!

Kaylee well she is new to this and will get it with time but we are now helping her prioritize her time better.  We were only seeing her for minutes a day and that is just NOT going to happen, as least not at 15!  She and another friend are watching kids at the church Monday-Friday from 7am to 6pm and then she cleans two houses every weekend for some elderly folks for extra money too.  So she is busy, busy, busy....  But out of trouble and I know where she is, so that is VERY helpful.

I tried something new over the weekend.... Kaylee and I went into the game room and decided we wanted to see what these video games were all about.  The boys practically live on these things...or they did until they got old enough to work!  HA!  Amazing how that happens.. . So we got the xbox going and about twenty minutes later Kaylee called Kyle and after promising we wouldn't touch his account he got us setup and going.  I tell ya at this point I was thinking forget it.... Nothing can be worth all that confusion.  Sigh..  So he gets us going and says if I am play that Call Of Duty is a must, as he is thinking I would blow off major steam blowing things up.   Well sure, let's blow some stuff up... Or get killed about a thousand times trying to figure out how to shoot one thing!!

What I learned....

1. Don't mess with the teenagers!!

2. All teenagers playing xbox have friends... LOTS of friends!! You manage to take one out and they ALL come after you for revenge.

3. Technology is getting WAY too good.. The sound effects and visuals are all together WAY too real for me and ended up grossing me out.  I DON'T DO BLOOD & GUTS!!

4. ALL THESE GAMES HAVE BLOOD AND GUTS!!

5.  Zombies are dumb in general, but in numbers they will end your video gaming journey in a heart beat.  Which is sad, since they don't have an actual working heart at that point... But just saying....

Alex walked into the game room just in time to see me on top of the table yelling at the dead zombies on the screen that they would NEVER take me alive... After he got done laughing he had a go at it and decided that none of us should really be spending our time playing these games, they are super violent and gross..  I think he was just bothered because my score was just MUCH, MUCH higher than his when it was all said and done.  HA!

Over all I am happy to report that I have gone several days without getting myself into ANY (little things don't count!!) trouble so am thinking I am getting this retired thing down!  YES!!!   Oh and have I mentioned how much I enjoy my grocery shopping once again... All by myself, at my own pace and without any HELP.  It's fantastic!!!  

Sorry babe, I had to put that last part in here...  (Love you!!!)

Color me surprised!!

In my third week of retirement and have found a goal to work towards... Decorating the new house!

I have not had a moment to settle into this house and make it a home, it has been nonstop since we moved in with weddings and funerals.  Since my first retired project was to fix the mess I had made in the laundry room it started to wet my appetite for color...  All of our walls were painted a wheat color, so we haven't been subjected to white walls but just one basic color.  So when I went to fix the laundry room I decided to add some color and add some cheer, since laundry is one of my least favorite things to accomplish.  I went with a sky blue and got a border of clothes hanging on a outdoor line blowing in the breeze that matches perfectly.  Wow, what a difference walking into that room is from the rest of the house, it actually has some personality now.   It only took me three trips to Lowes to get the right amount of paint (I am not the best at painting but getting there...) and then the border was an after thought so back I went.  Now I decided to expand room by room so off to Lowes I went to get paint samples to decide what each room needed.

I should stop and explain a bit about myself so that you all see what my thought process on this is.. You can't appreciate crazy unless you get it completely detailed out the right way.  :0)  You see when I get my nails done, I usually just go with pink and white because any color by the three week time I return to have them done again will be driving me insane.  I can pick a color for my toes, as they are further away and I can cover them with shoes or socks if they bug me.  (See, I am a special kind of crazy right?)  So now I am thinking in my retired state, I will be spending large amounts of time in these rooms so they need to not drive me crazy with the wrong color.  With all this in mind I decided color samples should probably hang on the walls for a short period of time to test the color for bad reactions.  I had to go back and forth to Lowes a few times to get all the combinations I wanted to hang on my walls and then the borders needed to change depending on the colors being hung... It took a few days and several trips but by the weekend I had it all up and started my testing period.

In comes Alex...

He was a bit annoyed to come home and find bits of colored paper on every wall in the house and that I was on a first name basis with the paint counter guy at Lowes.  Well Alex baby I am a nice social person that likes to be friendly with people, especially when I see them so often. It had taken me several days of asking said counter guy (Barry :0)) for help and his advice as a paint expert. I was super tired on Friday night from finishing the border in the laundry room and my couple trips back and forth to Lowes.  I had several paint samples in bed with me and pictures of all the samples hung on the walls on my cell phone that I was comparing before I zonked out.  Alex found me that way and declared as he was trying to remove all the samples and tuck me in that Saturday was going to be a paint free day.  Which was super funny since he woke up with a paint sample stuck to the side of his face, as he had missed a few the night before in his clean up effort.  It was a really nice emerald color that did great things for his eyes, I told him that I would get him a shirt that color.  I thought it was a good idea, but all I got was the "you are pushing it" look as he removed and threw away my paint sample.  I did wait for him to be all the way in the bathroom before I went to save my paint sample only to hear him yell down the hall to leave it in the garbage.  Grrrrrrr.   The poor paint sample didn't mean to end up on his face, I am sure of it!  Sigh.  Good thing I had another sample in my bag, so not a total waste.  :0)

We were out to lunch on Saturday afternoon when my cell phone went off and it was Barry from the paint counter at Lowes.  He was calling to let me know new samples were delivered and did I want him to pull some off to the side for me.  Yes, that should have clued me in that maybe I was going a bit over board... But I was just excited to have more samples to work with and told him I would be by to pick them up later that afternoon.  I hung up and was locked into the eyes of one very ticked off husband, who cleared his throat and asked what part of a paint free day did I not understand.  "Oh no worries honey, I can call him back and let him know I will be by tomorrow or Monday. " I was picking up my phone to do just that when it was removed from my hands and put on his side of the table.  I then got a lecture on how retirement was to help me relax and focus on the kids and spoiling him.  See now we had been discussing my retirement for over a year now and never once did he mention that one of the outcomes of this would be me spoiling him.  I don't mind spoiling my husband at all, in fact I love taking care of him.  But now that he full out said as much and he was taking away my color joy I was a bit miffed myself.  Did I not just offer to by him a new shirt just this morning that would do great things for his eyes? Hmmmmm?   For some reason he didn't find that a very good retort and we ate the rest of our lunch in silence.  Grumpy man, totally killing my relaxed retirement mood.  (You all are still on my side right?  Yeah, me either now that I am thinking back on it and shaking my head.)

Sunday afternoon I had Lori come down after church and look at the color samples hanging and the boarders.  We had a glass of wine (I even pulled out my special stash) and were having a great time until the men came looking for us.  We had left them down the street with all the kids swimming and watching the BBQ and we might have lost track of time.  Lori had seen some really cute puppy print keep sakes and even another where you put the puppy prints next to their adult prints later with a photo between. Really fun idea and the chances of getting Alex to ever allow another puppy into our home is VERY slim.  So I was thinking we should take advantage of this time and see what my little puppy paws looked like.  It was all very controlled and not messy until the bigger dog wanted to see what was happening.  I had left him out to keep things controlled and he found another way back to us through the maze of the house.  So in he came and bounced himself right into the middle of things and knocked over the box of wallpaper samples and got himself tangled up.  That was just about the time the men left the older kids in charge and came down to retrieve us for lunch only to walk in to two giggling females, two puppies covered in paint and one large unhappy dog wrapped in wall paper.  It was funny how it all happened and we had it under control until the front door opened and the puppies decided to greet the new comers.  Ugh.   The paint all came off, it was wet and we got it fast so no long term issues or clean up efforts there.  My wallpaper that got mangled was not fit for anything but garbage, so was not happy about that at all.   But the kicker here is that Alex decided to blow this all out of proportion and got upset that we were messing around with paint when he had declared a order of a paint free weekend.   Excuse me???   "Um... Yeah, you declared Saturday paint free not the entire weekend!"   This I stated very matter of fact like while standing on the opposite side of the living room far, far, far away from mad and overly grumpy Alex.  That was the point that Alex asked Jay if he would mind taking Lori back down and we would join them in a bit, we need to have a discussion.

"What???   Come on really, this was all harmless and everything got cleaned up and we had a laugh. Get over it already and have a glass of wine grumpy."

Lori cleared her throat and give me a very clear (dang girl just say you are sorry and stop the madness look) and headed for the front door.  Thanks pal...  Jay looked around laughed and said the hazel nut was too dark for the kitchen and left.  (I tend to agree and have decided to go with cream brûlée instead)  So now Alex and I are alone and engage in a rather heated stare off, the dogs all feeling the tension had decided to head upstairs far, far away from us.  

Alex:  "You don't know how to do it do you?"

Me: "Do what?"

Alex: "Relax!"

Me: "I do too!!  I am the picture of relaxed until you come and take my fun away and get me all upset and NOT relaxed."

Alex: "You are so relaxed that every room of this house has bits of paper and paint hanging on them.  Every night the last two weeks you have made a new recipe that non of us have even heard of or can identify with the naked eye.  You have even gone to the trouble of making second meals in the case one of us doesn't liking the first meal and you even made the dogs meals instead of regular dog food!!  You have fallen asleep before I even make it to the bedroom because you are exhausted and now you are going toe to toe with me when I tell you enough is enough.  I thought given some time you would settle down and start to relax, but that isn't happening and I am done cutting you slack. It is VERY clear to me that you don't know how to relax and I am going to step in and help you along with it!"

He started his advance towards me right around the toe to toe bit and I started to back step towards the stairs.  I went to run around the sofa, but he is so darn big and fast I didn't make it past the arm of the sofa and was up and over his shoulder and on my way upstairs before I could start a full on panic.  Once we made it upstairs he went straight to the bed and down I went over his lap and down my shorts went and well... Let the discussion begin!  It was not a fun discussion and it took a while for me to submit and just let go, I surprised myself with the fuss I put up during the first part of the spanking.  Maybe I did have a bit of stress going on and maybe I had gone a bit over board on new recipes and getting the paint right.  When I finally let go I started to cry and told him I wasn't good at being retired and I was just completely messing it all up.  He stopped and cuddled me and rocked with me and whispered in my ear that being retired is not something I need to excel at but enjoy.  His goal was to see me happy and relaxed and not strained and barely hanging on anymore.  This was a gift he wanted me to enjoy and could I please start enjoying it for him.  Ugh... Talk about seeing the light!!  I didn't see the big picture here..Alex was giving me a huge gift and I didn't recognize it as being a gift but as yet another challenge.  He was 100% right, I don't know how to relax and I totally sucked at trying to figure it out on my own.

I have taken down all my paint samples and picked colors for all the rooms and each one will get done in time... But one room a month and if the color bugs me, I can pick another color and pick another month and tackle it then.  New recipes are nice, but in moderation and with some discussion with the family to ensure only one meal needs making.  The dogs like there dog food just fine and shouldn't be eating people food anyway so that insanity is also done.  I spent the entire day yesterday watching movies with my daughter, eating rice chips and laughing more than I can remember in a very LONG time.  Today I am writing and tonight is dinner out with my son and his new girlfriend.  (She actually is growing on me, much better than the last one did anyway.)  I did run out and get Alex a new shirt the color of emerald and I just know it will make his eyes pop!!  One day at a time... I am going to take this as the gift that was intended and try to not do CRAZY anymore...  Or maybe not as much.  :0)

Whew... What a month!

Hello out there...  I am finally grabbing a few minutes to say howdy and I am still here!

Lots of change in the last few weeks, some for the good and some sad but we are dealing.


Marie was smart as a whip and what she lacked in size she gained in personality! She could back any of her over six foot tall boys up with a look and have a room enchanted and taken over with her laugh and charm!  She will be missed and loved always....

On the evening of May 17th Marie kissed us all goodnight and took the puppies with her to bed with a smile.  We found her in bed with puppies playing around her, but she had already gone the following morning.  She went peacefully in her sleep, the doctors said her heart wasn't strong and it finally gave out.  We had been trying to prepare ourselves for what this cancer was going to do by the end, so this was far better for everyone.  So we have been back to the mid west for another life celebration and goodbye for now send off.  Alex is coming to terms with losing his parents so quickly and is continuing his role of "ROCK" for his family.

Alex did ask me to quit my job and stay home, he felt like we only have a few years left with these kids and my presence at home was needed more now than ever.  Plus he wants less stress in our lives and having two sources of income really isn't a need as he can support us just fine on his income.

Sooooooooo.. I am now retired!!

My last day at work was super emotional and I still have mixed emotions about not working outside the home.  But being on my second week of my new stay home life, I am seeing some of those mixed emotions float right out the door.   I am now grocery shopping during the week, so it is less busy and Alex doesn't have to come with me.  (I tried to tell him that for months, but now it's more practical!! HA! Score one for me.)

My food hiding strategy (my teenage son has made this a real challenge) has taken on an entirely new level being here more and seeing his blind spots more easily.  So we have food the entire week and if he does catch on to my hiding space I have plenty of time to run out and restock my stash.  My daughter has also asked to try online school this next year and now that I am home we can give it a go.  So she has been enrolled and I can help her along in the fall as she needs me.  I cancelled my cleaning service and can now keep my house as clean as I want without driving anyone crazy... Or at least as crazy as before.  (Always going to be a type A personality, retired or not..)

I spent my first week of retirement painting and finishing up the clean up effort on the laundry room I killed hanging the chore white board up.  Sigh.  But it is all finished and I like the new color and am thinking of adding a border too.  HA!

Now that things are settling back down and I am finding a new normal, my blogging will start back up.  I also have written a few short stories and am very serious about putting some time aside to write a book.  Not sure what yet, but I have added writing a book to my bucket list!  I don't even know if I will pursue publishing it, but I would love to at least say that I wrote a book and share it with those that would be interested in reading what ever it was.

So that has been the last month in a nut shell.. Lots of change, but Marie is now home with her Lord and reunited with her husband.  My life is a new adventure everyday and these puppies keep me on my toes too.  Can't wait to see what the rest of 2014 has in store for this family, as we have had a boat load of change so far and we are only half way in...  :0)

Puppies and White Boards

This is going to be one hum dinger of a rant and ramble post.. So if you are faint of heart or just have enough to grumble without adding my grumbles to your list... RUN FOR IT NOW!  Otherwise, pull up a chair and get comfy.. This might take a while.  Grrrrr...

Let me state the fact that I love my family beyond belief and I know in a few years I will look back and miss all this noise and confusion... I hope.  :0)

Everyone deals with change in their own way, some embrace it and others tolerate and finally adapt. Then there is me... I don't do change well.  Oh I might put on a show that all is well and that nothing ruffles my feathers and it may appear to the untrained eye that I have embraced it and moved on.  But  my poor husband, he sees through all that and knows that I just REALLY don't handle it very well at all.  Knowing this he gave me plenty of "Let's talk this through" moments and he even made it a priority to check in with me to see how I was handling things.  So I take on some of the responsibility for killing our laundry room two nights ago.  Sigh...   But the fact that we now own three puppies, well I call that just plain FUNNY!!  Have I ever mentioned that Alex doesn't like pets?  The kids got a gold fish from the school carnival when Kyle was 6 and after much begging and pleading we got to keep it, only it died two week later.. Alex all but celebrated and said no more pets.  But the door had been opened to the fact we had gotten a gold fish through Alex, so we worked that opening until Jack found us in the parking lot of the grocery store all dirty and sad almost a year ago now.  But I am getting way off track here, so back to the point...

So I am a neat freak..  Yes, I am.  Every place has its thing and every thing has its own place.  I clean for the cleaning lady, that is how I roll.  (I am getting better at not cleaning for the cleaning lady, but Alex has yet to conclude as much.  Poor guy, he will catch up sooner or later.)  I know with the amount of people living under our roof and two of them being teenagers increases the possibility for messes to occur.  I don't believe our home should be of model quality at all times, but I do expect those that live within the home to respect it enough to clean up said messes as they are made.  Oh and my favorite thing that I love to hear... "It's not my mess to clean up".  So if everyone in the house decides they didn't create the mess and so logically conclude they don't need to clean it.. Who gets left to clean then???  You got in one... ME!   If I don't see it in time my MIL will now jump in and try to clean it up to lighten my load.  (Bless her heart she is the sweetest woman and she always has a ready smile no matter the amount of mess she is dragged into.) But I am not good with that as she doesn't have the energy to be doing such things nor should she be put into that position.  She is a Mom and we go into clean and help mode without thought, it's just auto pilot...  So asking her to ignore the mess and wait for me to deal with it or pick a victim I feel closest to the mess is just going to bug her and me.. As the mess will still be there longer and she likes things neat too.  This has been a on going issue since we moved and in the last couple of week of having Marie move in with us.  Now we have Scott, Alex's youngest brother freshly graduated from college and moving here to be closer and find work.  He will only be with us a matter of weeks, but another young male creates more mess.  (I won't even tell you about the grocery consumption rate in this house now either, since my mess rant is just front and center right now.)  :0)

I decide everyone just needed to be refreshed on zones and who is responsible for each zone and that will help the situation... Yeah, the troops just needed to remember! (We have always had zones that each person is assigned to keep clean, they sort of went to the way side during the move and never got implemented in the new house.) So off to the store I went and found the perfect white board that hangs really well in the laundry room right next to the water dispenser that is frequented often.  I bought the brightest markers I could find for said white board so that it would be very hard to miss the importance of the writing on this white board for anyone passing by to get some water.   I then came home and looked for one of the three capable males in the house to help me hang my new lovely white board only to come up empty handed.  So after a momentary pause,  I decided I am a capable woman and could manage to hang this board myself.. Can't be hard right?  Just find a nail or two since it's a pretty good size board and bang, bang we are good!  (I still can't say that I understand completely what a stud is, but Alex sure did try to give me the tutorial while I was over his knee.  But I was sorta busy at the time trying to .. I don't know survive the spanking, to really take notes. But I thought I would throw out that they sound important when hanging large heavy objects on walls.)

A few messed up nails (they didn't want to pound straight into the wall, they kept bending.. Or maybe I don't hit straight, either way I am not a natural at hammering nails.) and one hole that wasn't noticeable once I got the board hung and I was ready to draw my zones and assign names.  Only the pressure of my pushing or maybe the weight I was putting on the side while drawing on the board up on a ladder (it's a big house so I needed a really big board and it needed to hang high on the wall) was a bit much for it and down it crashed and it sorta threw me off balance and ....boom I went down too. Now all the men and everyone else within hearing distance all came to inspect the big boom and my yelp as I went down.  Figures they are all home now... Ugh.  I am fine, the wall is now patched and a smaller board is now hung up very nicely with pretty zones and names.  Alex took me to urgent care to be looked over as I got a few nasty looking bruises, but I didn't hit my head or anything.  Just more embarrassed and shocked more than anything and really NOT looking forward to explaining the situation to Alex.  I will never forget the look on his face when he came to the doorway and saw me on the floor under the ladder and the mess around me.  The board cracked into two and messed up a few tiles and the grout and the ladder messed up the boarder on the wall.  Plus the board left a huge mess on the wall where I had tried to hang it so it looked like a war zone.  He says I scared a good ten years off his life and it took him a few hours to let me out of his sight again.

After I had been checked out and Alex was waiting for the nurse to get the prescription (which I told them was not necessary thank you very much, my pain was manageable and I hate pills...I didn't think that one through very well, as those pain meds would have been great following the spanking I got for my adventure. But I believe that is what they call hind sight.)   I told him it was freezing in there and I was going to wait for him out front.  So out I go and decided to sit myself down on one of the front steps and wait.  I was only sitting there for a few seconds when I heard the little whine coming from the bushes next to me and so I turned to see two sets of the cutest little eyes looking back up at me.  Seriously, they are the cutest darn little puppies and the vet is guessing them to only be eight week old and they were dehydrated and hungry.  How anyone could be so cruel as to ditch these sweet babies in any situation but let alone our heat (it was 97 degrees out that day) is beyond me.  There was just no question about it we had to help them, so by the time Alex came out I had one in my lap and was trying to talk the other one into coming out from under the bush.  I had tears in my eyes they were so dirty and the one in my arms was shaking... Alex stepped right in and got them both up in his arms and we went right to the vet to have them looked over.  They gave us a list of no kill shelters in the area and apologized they didn't have room or the staff to take them from us.   Alex said that was fine we would care for them until we thought they were well enough and then look for a place for them.

That is how we got Lucky and Bow.   Lucky is very sweet and has the prettiest chocolate eyes where as her brother...well Bow is so ugly he is cute.  Jack our resident monster puppy took one look at the new comers and decided he was adopting them straight away.  We sat them down in front of him and he did a sniffy type circle around them and then picked Bow up and took him to his dog bed and came back and did the same to Lucky.  He then went and got them a toy and watched to see what they would do.. Poor guy is going to have to wait for them to start feeling better and get older to play... But I have a feeling it won't be long and he will have a pack worthy of marathon play sessions.

Alex and I discussed my mini adventure in detail last night and now I am sitting on a very sore and sorry bottom.  Ugh.  But I feel like I was driven to it!  I had been mentioning my unhappiness of the mess situation to Alex and he was handling the situation, but in an effort to lighten my load he did it behind the scenes if you will with the kids directly.  I know everyone is trying to make things easy for me right now and we are all trying to look after Marie with out her knowing we are looking out for her.  She only promised to move in with us if we did so for her company and not for us to worry about her and feel it necessary to watch over her.  So we crossed our fingers and said of course you should come stay to keep us company and have another set of eyes on the teenagers, but we have all been watching and trying to help where we can.  But if everyone is tip toeing around each other and not talking about the horse in the room...Well hello, I am a action kind of gal.  I am going to drive some action to solve issues...  But that is not how things work around here and so that gets me into trouble.  I had taken the right action of talking to Alex and asking for his help, but then not seeing action taking place right away or even seeing him take any action off I went...  After all was said and done I had broken 3 rules and so I paid the price.  But I am not settled about it at all, in fact I am mad today.  It was an accident that scared me and him, totally get that.  I wasn't trying to bring the house down or anything and my intentions were good.. Organized and helpful and it just went really wrong.  If everyone had been up front with everyone else this wouldn't have happen, so I guess I feel like in the end only I paid the price for the many.  But Alex doesn't agree, he thinks I did the majority of this myself and everyone else was just trying to be helpful.. So I thought using his favorite catch phrase might help him get my point of view.  "Well, maybe everyone should try to be less helpful and more harmless."   Um... Yeah, that didn't go over very well and that landed me over his lap a second time.  I was truly sorry by the time he let me up the second time, but this morning I am having a hard time being sorry and not mad.

Normally I feel good about the rules and this way we handle things but right now I am not happy about it much and I think we have too many rules.  So there, I am done with my little (ok long winded) rant and maybe.. Just maybe feel a bit better now that I have it all out.  But grrrrr and double grrrrr.   Now I must end this and go let the floor guys in, they are replacing the tiles and grout in the laundry room..  Sigh.