Warning: This Post is Materialistic

But I don't care. I feel I deserve a materialistic post. I've been griping about my horrible work environment so today, I get a completely skin deep post. I'm playing the "pity me I have horrible co-workers" card. So there. I've been accused of playing the "kid" card by one of those horrible co-workers as a matter of fact. I would equate that to "feel sorry for me I have to raise four kids". I don't play that card. No one should pity me, they should be jealous because, while it's not my full time gig, it has some pretty great perks. No pity needed in that area.


So here it goes. I was called out by Brian on my trying to keep up with the Jones' remarks. I just mentioned that other people, whoever these "other" people may be, spend a ton more money on back to school than we do. He asked who these "other" people are and I just said you know other people. And he said that a lot of other people have mounds of credit card debt, they have sleepless nights wondering how they're going to pay their bills, they're on the verge of losing their house, or they make a lot more money than we do. You have to make sacrifices. (I don't think the making more money thing fits into the sacrifice comment, it was mainly the losing the house and sleep part.)

My point is or was or whatever that sometimes I just want to buy them their clothes all at once like other people do. I have a monthly budget to buy them clothes, but it's just not the same as going into Limited Too with Darby and stocking up. Like the other little girls are. We're standing in line with her $7.99 clearance t-shirt while the other moms have piles and piles of clothes and aren't even thinking twice about sliding that credit or debit card through. It makes me feel sad.

But, I don't have sleepless nights about money. I don't really worry about money. I'm not really responsible for any money except my spending money so I suppose it could be worse, but splurging is a nice treat. And sometimes I just want to splurge. Which is the exact reason I get none of the household money responsibility.

Along these same lines, I may have a problem with the 2 1/2 year old. She loves money. She finds money in our room or on the counter and it brightens her whole day. And last night she was at the store and started pushing buttons on the ATM machine. I told we had to leave and she told me "I was just trying to get my $100". I have no idea where she gets this but it was so weird.

The other girl told me that she was going to sell the tattoos I gave her for $.25 at school. We'll see if she makes any money. Those boys do not care a thing about money. They care more about the stuff money will buy them. The actually aren't to be trusted with money. I know how they feel...

First Days

Okay, I feel there is hope in sight. We now have a manager in our department for the time being. I feel a bit of relief because he has set up camp right smack dab in the middle of all of us. His office is right across from my cube. And it's not exactly perfect for me because I have to be on my best behavior but it will stop others from talking rudely to me.

In other news Riley and Darby started school. Riley is in middle school. It's crazy. He's having issues with his locker. He isn't able to open it. Which means he packs everything with him back and forth to school and he takes everything to class with him. He's been threatened to learn how to open his locker. I told him I would call the school and have someone hunt him down and help him. Brian saw him and told him if he didn't get into his locker he would go to school with him and they would get it open. No one wants that! He would be so embarrassed. Poor guy. I have my fingers crossed I don't come home to his backpack full of binders and books.

Darby of course had a wonderful day. She likes her teacher, she likes her class, she's in 3rd grade. We left late for work so that we could drop her off at the bus stop. When the time came to leave she decided she would just walk. I was a little nervous about her walking because she has to cross a pretty busy road so I made Brian drive by. We saw her running down the street but she hadn't crossed the busy road yet. Brian pulled over to wait so we could see her cross. All of her friends were on the other side waving to her. She didn't cross. Cars had come and gone and still she was just waiting. Brian decides to pull out into the road and he yells out to Darby, "hey Darby! Are you going to cross?" She shrugged her shoulders and started to cross the street. Once she was at her bus stop amongst all of her friends I yelled out the window, "bye Darby!" and waved furiously. She was so embarrassed. It was awesome.

In other news Riley discovered the girl across the street is a 6th grader. I am so afraid!

5 Steps To Prepare Your Child For The 15th day of Daycare

1. Wake her up early. This may seem like an awful step to take but when you wake her up right before you leave and all she does is cry and cry and cry and tell you that she can't go to school you try doing the opposite.

2. Tell her "time to get up and get ready" and when she tells you that "it's too soon to go to school" even though she hasn't been there for a week, tell her you woke her up early so she could sit on your lap and talk for a minute.

3. Tell her that she is going to school, but she's going to have a very good day. First, we're going to drop Jordan off at the rec center (she knows the rec center is where the other kids go all day), then Mommy and Daddy will take you to school. Today is music day and you will have lots of fun and in a few days you get to move to the big girl class.

4. Take her down to breakfast after letting her wake up her brother. Let her pour her own milk, make sure she has a blanket because it's a little chilly downstairs and be sure she has cereal she likes so that's it's not dumped onto the floor. Luckily her dad helped her before the cereal was actually dumped, but there was a threat to dump the cereal.

5. Explain to her while she's eating the "good" cereal, that Mommy and Daddy will be at school to pick her later in the afternoon. Explain all the steps. You will take a nap, you will wake up from your nap, you will have a snack. You might go outside and play and then some of the other kids might be picked up by their Mommy or Daddy. We will be there in a few minutes. Don't get upset if some of the other kids leave before you. She says okay.

After all of the proper steps are taken, you will be able to drop off your unusually cautious almost three year old without any crying. It's a wonderful thing.

I don't know why she doesn't like school but she's gone several times and every time she doesn't want to go. They take good care of her, she has never come home scarred. We spy on her before we pick her up and they aren't mean to her. They even do her hair up and paint her nails. She sings the songs they teach to her, she counts to ten in Spanish, she says bad words...oh wait, we think that's from us. Anyway, she is so funny about it.

The other morning I was getting my coffee about 5:45 am and I turn around. There she is standing in the kitchen with her blankie and she looks up at me and asks "where am I going today?"

I feel a little guilty that my baby girl wakes up early in the morning and her first thoughts are about where she's going and what day it is. She's just strange. She can't help it. We'll have to keep working with her I suppose.

I Love My Birthday, Even Though I'm Getting Old

I had a great birthday. I love birthdays! Brian and I took the day off and went shopping. We had coffee at Borders book store. I picked out a new bra, which Jillian likes to refer to as boo boos. So, when she saw I had a new bra she exclaimed, "you got new boo boos?". I laughed and told her I wish. I also bought some matching panties to go with the bra. Brian said he wants me to start wearing matching bras and panties. I said that's not doable really. I will have to continue to try and coordinate. Matching is too difficult for me.

Next I went to Express and bought some shirts and jeans. Then we walked around and looked at different stores and soon realized we needed to go have lunch if we were going to catch a movie on time.

We ate the Cheesecake Factory. Very good. I had a cosmo martini because I love cosmo martinis. Love them!

I decided I wanted to go and see the Mummy 3. I know, lame. But I love the Mummy movies and I thought I needed to see this one in theatre. And I was a tad bit dispointed, but I'm still glad we went. I had issues with them replacing the wife. I mean, they could have replaced her with a different wife and had some story about how the original wife died or something but they just used a new actress. I wasn't buying it. It was disappointing.

But it was such a nice day! No work, no worries. Shopping. Eating. Movie watching. It was so fun. I wish everyday was like that. Heaven!

Water Bugs and Roaches

I'm back from my little trip to McCall. The condo was fun. And pretty nice. They're a lot like apartments, except when you walk down the hall from the front door you have this amazing view of the lake. It's pretty awesome.

I rode a jet ski for the first time. It was scary. I was so scared I barely even used the throttle. I just idled around like a scaredy cat. I think I made a mistake taking Jillian and Darby out on my first ride. I should have practiced by myself and then taken them out. I kept saying, "we need to go back. I'm scared." And Jillian would say "no, don't go back. I not scared." But I had to. I had horrible visions of Jillian falling into the deep, deep, dark lake and me not being able to get her. She was wearing a life jacket, but I was panicking. She's so little. I know Darby would survive, but Jillian is-so little.

Anyway, we went back and played on the beach and Darby's friend's parents took them out a few more times and everyone was happy.

The condo was nice, but I'm definitely a cabin girl. I think it has to do with the fact I'm not a water bug. I went 4 wheeling for the first time this summer and I was only scared for the first couple of minutes. The rest of the trip I had a blast. There is something about big bodies of water that scares me. Probably the fact that I can't see the bottom creeps me out a bit. I don't know. I'll stick to cabin life and visit the condos whenever invited.

Anyway, I only worked a half day on Friday and it turns out that during those few hours I wasn't there hell seemed to be breaking loose again! I read an email that a co-worker sent me and Brian told me some things and putting the two together really, really makes me mad. That woman was in a manager's office once again complaining and my name was heard. And I'm so annoyed. I just want to do my work. I want to take a half day and not have someone complain about me. I want to come back from vacations and not have to have meetings with HR. Is there a place out there that can offer me these benefits? Is there?

Monday is my birthday. I took Monday off as well. I'm sure I'll go back to work to brownies and a pink slip. Or something equally annoying.

Finally Friday

Jillian and I are driving up to the mountains this afternoon. I'm so excited. She's so excited. I told her it would just be us girls, no boys allowed and for some reason that made her really happy. She sang a song about it. She sings songs about everything. It's cute.

I heard Darby stubbed her toe at camp. Bad. The toe nail is going to come off. That's so gross. I also hear she's been wearing flip flops the entire time, so kind of her fault. But I still feel bad for her.

I'm nervous driving up there by myself with all of those winding, narrow roads near the river. I hate being the passenger, let alone driving, but I think I'll be okay. I hope. Thinking about it makes my stomach turn a little, but I'll be okay. I will.

Hope you all have a good weekend.