I must remember this

mine is not a better way, mine is merely another way

-Neale Donald Walsh

The never ending battle

Around here we have a constant struggle for TV rights; who gets to watch TV on the flat screen in the living room. Some where along the lines the kids came up with the rule that if they all 3 cannot agree on a program that the TV must go off. I have no idea where they came up with that rule (certainly not from me yelling in sheer frustration "If you don't stop arguing the stupid thing is going OFF!!) We have 4 televisions in this house, and yet they still feel the need to argue!

But when Palmer comes home? All that stops! Why? Because dad is the king of the remote. Dad doesn't give a flying leap if you are desperate to find out if Hannah Montana will make it through her latest escapade, that remote, and thus Ultimate Power, belong to him.

All electronics fall under his jurisdiction.

Including headphones and ear buds. Palmer goes through them at an amazing rate, so he is always claiming other peoples. Last night he even claimed the last pair I had in the car dvd case! He goes thorough roughly a pair a month, because he tends to leave them laying around where Izzy can find them. And once Izzy gets a hold of a pair of headphones , they are done for! He pulls ear pieces off like other kids pull off wings on bugs. The rest of us have learned to hide our headphones from both Palmer and Izzy.

I've just learned to DVR what I want to watch then watch it later when they are all gone to school and work.

I think that makes me the winner in this battle!

Reunion shmounion

Our 20th class reunion is coming up this weekend. Actually it our 19th year, but they are combining 1990 and 1991. We are not going, because I am just to spending that much money to fly six of us back to the other side of the country to see people that I haven't seen in 19 years, and frankly didn't like that much back then anyway!

Palmer was all for us attending the reunion, even to the point of making it a cross country family trip in the car. Um... NO. Those people that matter to me, I am in touch with all the time and miles apart don't factor in. The other people whom I haven't seen since the 10 year reunion aren't all that important in the scheme of my life, and if I really wanted to see them, I'd just Facebook them. And honestly, I don't remember much about my 10 year reunion anyway because I was on deaths door step at the time anyway. (Seriously, I nearly died and ended up in the hospital for a long time - but that is another story for another day)

Palmer has always been the type of person that remembers people. He'll say to me "remember that guy that we met 18 years ago at the party hosted by some other guy, and you only met them for maybe 3 minutes and have never seen them since, and why don't you remember them, how could you forget?" Or maybe I'm paraphrasing. Anyway, the point is Palmer remembers people who never even made a blip on my radar. He can meet a person and is instantly friends with them and thus has great legions of friends spread out all over the world. I, on the other hand, have a handful of friends and take a long time to let anyone into my "inner circle", but once you are there - you pretty much are never gonna get out unless you turn out to be some huge douchepickle.

But all this reunion talk has got me thinking about how long ago it was that I was in high school. I remember when MY parents went to their 20th reunion, and they were OLD people at the time. I am certainly not OLD and therefore cannot possibly be having my 10th class reunion. Wow! Did you catch the slip? I am in such denial that I typed 10th class reunion. See - There is no possible way I could be ready for my 20th!

Just pick one, already!

My Dearest Mother Nature,

I thank you so much for giving me a wonderful world to live in. I am a huge fan of your fall collections! The colors, the cool air, the crisp evenings. I just love it all. It is very hard for me to criticize you. After all, you have been doing this job for many, many years. You know your stuff.

However.... (you just knew that was coming, didn't you?)

I am not a huge fan of the gray hair that I constantly need to cover up, when it is combined with a pimply breakout so massive, so huge, of such epic proportions, that even scrawny A/V club teenagers are shirking away from me in horror. I feel that I have indeed put in my "dues" and I can live with the gray hair, but I cannot tolerate the nasty pustule filled sores. I am no longer a teenager; I am in fact a decade or so past teenybopper, and there for demand that you take back the teen skin that you have cursed me with this past week.

Gary hair or pimples. You can have one. Not both.

Sincerely,

Dayle

Who vastly prefers gray over a pimply forehead.

blah

I'm very beat down and tired this week. Rationally, I know that a large part of it is female issues, but that doesn't make it any easier. I've had some pretty messed up pipes the last several years, which made the conception of Izzy such a shock. For ten or eleven months after his birth I was regular as could be, but then the old "everything is messed up" crept back in, and I just had my 1st period in 3 months. That emotional roller coaster is a lot to take, never mind the shit your body puts you through. Palmer has been having some pretty severe allergic reactions to something - we don't know what yet - and because he is a man and doesn't do well with any form of illness or infirmary, he has been Crabby McCrabberson. Really? I don't want to be dealing with my own shit right now, I don't want to have to shoulder his too.

We are preparing to go on a little mini vacation. Five days at the beach. It should be fun, but the preparation is, of course, all on my shoulders. A family of six does not just up and leave. I have to plan 5 days worth of meals (we'll have a kitchenette, so we will be eating mostly at the resort), pack beach gear, pack groceries, pack clothes, get the dogs scheduled for boarding, AND still do my little part time work at home job, parent, clean, and all the zillion other things I do.

Frankly, I'm exhausted. And I just want to be left alone for a few hours.

(oh don't worry - I'm just having a poor me party - I'll be back to my Pollyanna self in a day or two. )

Crabby is as Crabby Does

Yesterday was a very bad day for me. I was having a day where I was sick of staying at home, practically no contact with the outside world, since I had no internet. No one to call. I love my family, and I love being with them... but sometimes they are just to much, and I need to get out and not be "mom" all the time. Having gone through several years of pretty bad depression, I dread those days more than I can express. So when I have a bad day - I warn everyone off.

Hey, I'm crabby today so just stay out of my way and get along!

But the kids didn't want to listen. I told them when they got home from school it didn't seem to matter to them. Rather than jumping up and offering to help or taking my advise and getting out of my way, they just continued to cling on to me, or bicker with each other.

And it wasn't helped by Mr. Its-ok-for-me-to-be-a-crabby-dickhead-but-how-dare-you-be-anything-less-than-pleasant who asked me "Have I done something to piss you off? No? Then what the hell is your problem? If you are in such a bad mood, why don't you just go away."

Yes, that just sent me over the edge. He gets to go to work everyday. He gets to get out and talk to people, and see more than just this house. For pity sake - he can't stand to stay home one full day on his days off, yet he expects me to do it full time and never get bored of it.

I do love staying home, but some days I just need to see further than my mailbox.

oh, I have issues

Something happened this past weekend that has gotten me so livid, it has taken me this long to cool off to be able to write about it.

Some back ground 1st. When Palmer took the promotion that moved us to Orlando, he also got a raise. Just out of habit, we do not discuss financial issues with family. Especially things like salary. The moment he told his mother about the move, she began hinting around about how much he was making. Snide little comments like "You will have so much money now, that you won't know what to do with it all". Yes, Palmer makes good money. It allows us to live in a nice house (but not a grand house), it allows us to drive a nice car (but we only have one), and it allows me to stay at home with the kids (but I did work for years - and me staying home took us over a year of financial planning and cutting back - hence the one car!), and, lets not forget that we are raising 4 kids - which is not cheep! Oh yeah, and we do plan to actually retire someday! But as soon as we announced our move, she started planning her move in with us. NOT that she was invited. But all of a sudden she is now "going blind" (yet she continues to drive? I thought that for sure you couldn't drive if you were going blind) and she on the verge of dying of a heart murmur, (one that she has had all her life) and she outright TOLD us that we need to buy her a condo in Florida so she can be with us. All the while, she was bad mouthing us to her best friend, who happens to know my mother, and the best friend then proceeded to lecture MY mother on all the evils that Palmer and I do to MIL.

Oh yes, I have issues with MIL. They are many, and they are deep.

So anyway....

My MIL called Palmer on Sunday and told him "remember that TEN GRAND I loaned you - I need it back." Palmer and I were just floored. WHAT 10 grand? She said that she had 3 10K savings bonds from her mother, Palmer’s grandma. I know that was true. But she says that she cashed one and gave Palmer 5k and gave her sister, Palmers Aunt, 5k. Then a few years later, cashed one again - gave Palmer 5k, and gave Palmers Aunt the other 5. But I remember when she cashed one. She did give Palmers Aunt half, but she used the other half. Palmer and I never saw any of it, nor did we expect to. Get this... the 1st time she said she cashed one and gave Palmer the money... TWENTY FIVE years ago.

Yes, that's right.

25.

Years.

Ago.

That would make Palmer 12 when she supposedly gave him 5 grand. The second time was supposedly around 14 years ago. That would be right when Tyler was born. Well, we had just sold a car right before he was born for 20k. Why would we need to have borrowed money from her? We never have borrowed money from her. NEVER. And get this - the reason we borrowed money from her? "Dayle had gotten you into a financial hole, AGAIN".

Excuse me BITCH, you call and want money, make up some cock and bull story to get it (or maybe in her mind she really thinks we did - that is always a possibility with her) and then slander my name? All this days before she is being flown out here on OUR DIME to come visit her grand kids???

Hot mess

Perhaps I should tell you, I am a naturally curly mop head.

When I was little, I had stunningly beautiful long blond ringlets. The kind that are glossy and bouncy, and complete strangers would come up just to touch my head, and spring my curls.

But somewhere along the way, my hair changed. It darkened to a blah brown, and my perfect ringlets became unruly, frizzy, and as I like to call it, Brillo pad head.

Add in gray hair, which we don't talk about and cover with hair dye the second they show their nasty gray heads... well - it is not pretty, let me tell you.

So now that I have added a climate with near constant humidity issues, I'm even frizzier.

Any brave hairdressers out there willing to take on a hot mess?

Chapter one, I am born

Ok, so that may be a bit of an obscure literary reference to start a blog with, but I just couldn't come up with anything else!

This isn't my 1st foray into the blogging world. It isn't even my second! But I just can't find myself staying away from writing the little things that float around in my head so I'm back!

Let me introduce myself and the cast of characters around here.

I'm Dayle. Wife, mom, daughter, sister, aunt, avid reader, dog owner, and yet none of those things define who I am. Hell, I'm still learning who I am - so how can I tell you?

Palmer - he's my husband. My main squeeze. My best friend. The person who can annoy me the most. I love him dearly, but expect a lot of me making fun of him. Because he just provides so darn much blog fodder, how can I help it?

Tyler - My oldest son. We've been through a lot with him; he has had 6 surgeries and I'm always worried about him.

Kaitlyn - my daughter. The only girl. She's going to be the death of me.

Bryce - My next son. For the longest time he was the baby. He is the sweet one of the bunch. Always willing to help and keep the peace.

Izzy - my surprise baby! Eight years after my Bryce, he showed up and shocked us all. He's a joy and a delight.

As for my blog title. Well I'm a Las Vegas mom who just picked up her family and moved across country to Orlando. Talk about a culture shock.