p.s. I Love You

I may be funny to my friends but my family just thinks I'm strange.

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Location: French Guiana

Tuesday, June 14, 2005

Empty nests

I’ve been watching a nest of Yellow-breasted Warblers at the office. The mother sat on the nest and sang for a couple of weeks. They have quite a sweet song. Then I saw the little heads bobbing up and down and the mother flying back and forth bringing food.

Well, I had a three day weekend and now I notice the nest is empty. I wonder what happened. Did they mature and fly away or did the nest not hold them long enough and they went splat on the side walk.

Little Princess is at summer camp for the week and our house seems frozen in time. Big Princess is working and Big Daddy is sleeping so no one expects me to cook or entertain. I don’t have to rush home after work since no one is waiting for me. When I get home I’m greeted by silence. Even the dog is freaking out, yesterday he tried to get in the car and go to work with me. I had to drag him back to the house. He seemed to beg, “Don’t leave me here alone.”

I guess this is what it could be like when little princess grows up and leaves the nest. Thank goodness for me and the dog that we still have 7 years.

Sunday, June 12, 2005

Gotta love kids, right?

We had the youth from church over for dinner and a movie. Its one of their favorite activities. I preview a movie and every time food is eaten in the movie, I serve it to the kids at the exact moment. They keep asking for Willy Wonka but I don’t think I could afford all that candy.

Big Princess did as she was supposed to and called each and every person so I’d have an accurate head count. Then one girl shows up with an extra boy that none of us know and the kids’ teacher brings his toddler and baby.
A. She should have called and asked me if it was ok to bring a friend.
B. He should have asked if it was ok to bring to extra small people.

Our house is rather small with seating for 5 in the living room. With our kids all grown up for the most part, we don’t worry about “baby proofing” and we have many animals that aren’t used to little ones. Add to it 2 small people that aren’t amused by the movie and require someone to chase them most of the time.

One person put their feet (with their shoes on) up on my coffee table and seemed annoyed when asked not to, two others didn’t watch the movie and were loud and distracting. If I was at an actual movie theatre, I’d have complained to the manager.

Crap, why does all this stuff bother me so much? Again, by the end of the function I was annoyed and couldn’t wait to get away from everyone. Too bad I can’t afford therapy. I could probably gain some insight as to why I always end up getting pissed that people don’t perform in the way I expect them. And maybe there’s treatment or a pill to help me go with the flow.

Well, at least I liked the extra boy. He was respectful and polite and even thanked me for having him over. I imagine he learned that at home.

Saturday, June 11, 2005

How to ruin a great time

I was really looking forward to tubing down the river with the kids. Some how it all got turned around and I ended up resenting everyone on the trip.

It started with the planning meeting four days prior to the trip. The guy that’s supposed to take over the adult leadership forgot we had a meeting. He then started in on joining another club instead of leading ours but they would be there to enjoy our year end party (after all they had attended one meeting all year and certainly were entitled to help spend the money in the bank). The night before he calls to tell me he has to work and he’s taking his kids with him so they won’t be tubing or bringing the charcoal or the grill.

Ok, I can cover that. Small pain in the butt. I’m still looking forward to the trip.

Thirty minutes prior to departure for the meeting point, the phone rings. Two girls call to tell me that their parents can’t bring them but could I pick them up. Well, its out of the way by about 20 minutes each way but we need the buns and the chips right? Oh wait, I forgot to mention their house is almost next to a MAJOR traffic incident with evacuations due to explosives and major road closures.

Now I’m annoyed (actually I’m pissed at the parents for the last minute change of plans) but at least I’m on the road and the party can’t start without me right?

I call the other group to let them know we are running 10 minutes late. No problem they are running slightly behind as well. Big Princess, where’s the coupon? At home on the table, great. We fly by the house and then pick up the last kid. We arrive at the meeting point only 15 minutes late. Not bad. But where is the rest of the group?

They finally show up 1 HOUR after the original meeting time and they haven’t bought the hotdogs yet. We finally get to the river and everyone decides they want to do the 4 hour float trip and eat afterwards. Great, I’ve already missed breakfast because I had to pick up someone else’s kids, now I’m gonna miss lunch too. Oh, and one kid has lost their money and I now have to cover her for the day.

The tubing was pretty great. We saw a baby deer grazing by the river, plenty of awesome birds, a huge dead snake in the river, and turtles everywhere. There was a strong breeze, sometimes blowing so hard we were pushed upstream. I had remembered everything I needed, hat, sunscreen, sun glasses, water. It was great except for Big Princess’ bitching. She kept trying to nap every time we stopped and didn’t even remove her pants!

Well, we got back and were amazed to learn that the 4 hour float trip took 5 and a half hours. Big Princess has to be at work in 30 minutes. Now we’re all being screwed out of dinner and we’re starving. We eat the chips and cookies we brought for the picnic like “Survivors” winning reward. I know we are all gonna have belly aches by night fall. My head is killing me from stress, no food, and a day of sun.

I have all the kids call for rides home from my house and as soon as we get home Big Princess takes the car and heads to work. The first 2 kids aren’t picked up for more than an hour and half and the last one can’t get a ride at all and she owes me $20. I end up waking big Daddy to take her home.

I have to say, only little princess didn’t get on my last nerve. The rest of ‘em, ya'll pissed me off!

Sunday, June 05, 2005

Folding my Blessings

I’m folding laundry right out of the dryer and for some reason I’m smelling each item. The towels are the best, fluffy and fresh smelling. I start thinking about how grateful I am that I have big, fluffy, sweet smelling towels. I ponder if it’s a silly thought and realize I don’t care if it is, I’m saying a prayer of thanksgiving. Thanking the Lord that I have a washer and dryer, electricity, running water, towels to wash, and dryer sheets too.

Wow, if you hate doing laundry, this changes everything. Not every time mind you, but more often I’m going to think “yea! I’m going to put my blessings into action and fold laundry”.

I have to think that my daughter’s mission trip this Summer to work at an orphanage in the former Soviet Union has already changed the way I look at things and she hasn’t even left yet. I hear that she will never look at toilet paper the same way again. Maybe I won’t either.