Back to Monday

[mae0111]

How was the weekend?  What's happening this week?  How is the holiday prep going?

[rere]

Great weekend. I got my day of old Christmas movies, no makeup and sweats. I got to go see the beautiful old house decorated for Christmas.

I'm working from home today to hopefully finish a report. I'm still waiting on information from my old supervisor. I've asked for it for 4 months now.

Dd will be home today!!!!! I've got a pot of chili that she requested going. She wants some home cooking for a few days.

[librarychica]

Awesome weekend here. I took my mom to see Funny Girl, the musical, which is showing here atm. She loved it! It’s one of her favorite movies and the cast really did an amazing job. I could not believe the way the lead was singing. It was nice spending time with just mom. Usually we have a kid or two with us.

I wish I could find something similar to do with dad. He’s not really the theater type.

Sunday I cleaned and yet the house is not clean. This week I am determined to finish some specific projects in anticipation of the holidays — but I said that last week. Wish me luck!

I think DD2 has an external ear infection. She’s prone to them. They don’t hurt as bad as an internal ear infection but still aren't pleasant so I’m taking her the doctor today. I wish I could figure out what causes them. I half suspect her eczema because she only seems to get them when having an eczema flare up. Like maybe she is scratching the skin inside her ear and it’s getting infected? The doctor looked at me weird when I suggested it last time but the timing seems to consistent to be coincidental.

[mae0111]

We had an up and down weekend. Friday DD1 went to a friend's house after school for a Secret Santa party, so DD2 and I went shopping for her angel tree gifts. Then DH and I had a meeting with our CPA about taxes. DD1 spent much of her school day emailing me trying to get me to tell her that it was OK to skip basketball tryouts because she didn't feel like going - 12 emails in total. I... did not give her that advice. I told her that it was her decision, but it was a terrible idea to skip Day 2 of tryouts. I know the coach (I played for her in HS), and she would not have been impressed with someone choosing to bail on a tryout. Her reason was that her friends would be in study hall and it would be more fun.

Saturday morning both kids woke up and I told them what time we needed to leave for their rec basketball games (back to back in the same gym). DD2 nodded and went along with everything. DD1 declared that she was not going. We took her at her word, told her we were leaving, and... left for DD2's game. And she flipped out - she changed her mind (OK), I didn't tell her we were leaving (DD2 did, 3 times, and I witnessed it), I should have reminded her of the plan (I did - 3 times). And then things got worse as the day went on. DD2 was gone for the whole afternoon at a birthday party, which was a blessing.

Yesterday was just a lot of work around the house. The dog got sick in my car so DH and I cleaned it out and steam cleaned the rug. I did a full fridge cleanout - took out all shelves and drawers and scrubbed. Tons of laundry. DD1 was angry that I wouldn't take her shopping (I had too much to do) so she was going to walk to local stores in this storm of the century that is rolling through. DD2 tried to tell her that she watched the weather and that she would get stuck in the rain, DD1 shoved her out of her room and accidentally slammed DD2's fingers in her door. So DD2 is screaming holding a bloody mangled hand and DD1 is also screaming at DD2 to stay out of her room.

It was just a crazy, draining weekend. I feel like I have a lot to do this week to wrap up Christmas stuff. I have to finish a comprehensive 2024 plan for work. I just had another client ask me to do a not-insignificant project at like 5pm on Friday with a fast turnaround, so I have to turn that around. Plus all of the regular kid things. Just the year-end push - will all be fine!! Hoping to get most of my wrapping done as well... fingers crossed!

[supertrooper1]

Question for WPs that doesn't DDOT:
DS still believes in Santa. We get home early on the 24th from our trip and he goes to his dad's on the evening of the 24th. He doesn't come back to our house until January. When do I give him his Santa gift? Should I put it under the tree before we leave so it's there when we get back? We plan on opening gifts during the day of the 24th.

[supertrooper1]

We had an uneventful good weekend. We were going to run errands and see Santa on Saturday but ended up staying home and lounging around all day. Sunday, we ran some errands, took DS to get pics with Santa, and took pizza to Beau's son's house to see his grandkids.

This is going to be the mental workload week for me. I have a hair appointment in the middle of the day today, wax appointment tomorrow evening, in office day on Wednesday, covering for my coworker all week during her chemo recovery week, spirit week for DS, Polar pals store that I almost forgot to give him money for this morning, late arrival one day, and early release another, art night at school, plus the gym and getting ready for our trip. I also need to wrap everything this week, stop by the bank, and meet with the neighbor kid to show him what to do while he cat sits for us.

ETA: plus I forgot we have to bake cookies Thursday too because DS is insistent on taking cookies to a "trade fair" they have at school to learn about trading.  

[mae0111]

supertrooper1, I think on the 24th with maybe a short note of explanation from Santa?

[dglvrk2]

mae0111, I really commend you for sticking to plans and leaving DD1 home when she refuses to go with you to games etc. I can only imagine what a mental load this must be and I hope she can see, when she's in a calm state, how her refusals impact her. Big hugs!!

My weekend was surprisingly good! I was able to finish Christmas shopping for my parents, sister and her family. Most of this involved tapping my phone as I generally dislike shopping in stores and live in a rural community where gift pickings are slim. I also ordered the D's big gifts and a few smaller ones. (H and I give the girls each one big gift at Christmas. "Santa" gives them 4-5 smaller ones.)

Saturday, DD2 had a 4+ hour martial arts test. We went to lunch with another family afterwards. It was good to have some time with a fellow mom with whom a I really connect.

Saturday night, DD2 went to a friends house to make gingerbread houses. DD1, H and I went to a new restaurant for dinner. Since our town is small, a lot of the town was there, which made for a fun night.

Sunday, the Ds and I made Christmas cookies and I went running with a friend. I had to do the typical adulting too - laundry, meal planning and coordinating carpools.

This week will be full. H is out of town. Moments can be easier when he's not here, but I really rely on him for kid transports, so this makes for more coordination for me.

[waverly]

Dec 11, 2023 11:04:45 GMT -5 supertrooper1 said:

Question for WPs that doesn't DDOT:
DS still believes in Santa. We get home early on the 24th from our trip and he goes to his dad's on the evening of the 24th. He doesn't come back to our house until January. When do I give him his Santa gift? Should I put it under the tree before we leave so it's there when we get back? We plan on opening gifts during the day of the 24th.

Yes.  I think we opened family gifts the 23rd and then Santa came to our house when we were on vacation.  So then when we got back from vacation we opened Santa gifts, and we put them under the tree when the kids were in the car waiting to leave for the airport.

Or, you could say we talked to Santa and he came the 24th because he knew you were going to your dad's so we made a special arrangement for it.  But either way I would put them under the tree before you leave.

[k3am]

supertrooper1, we used to always be gone for Christmas. Santa delivered according to his normal schedule. We left Santa packets of cocoa, instructions on how to make it, etc. We'd pack of the car to leave, one of us would need to run back in for something we "forgot" and put all the presents out and open them when we got back from our trip.

[waverly]

Saturday DD has Girl Scouts and then a soccer game. I needed to take DS shopping, but he decided he would rather do the soccer game. We did a date night out with our friends. She is really nice, and we like talking to her. But when she texts me it can be a bit overbearing and oversharing, but I think it's still better then no one texting me. And she is teaching me about some texting skills. I never was very good at it for no reason, maybe because it is so short. I'm much better at email.  I think the overbearing is more the frequency and the oversharing is more that I don't need to know in detail about the 6 friends she is getting together with, but more power to her for having a good social life.

So then it ended up that I took DS out shopping on Sunday which was fine. We had some downtime to watch movies and more.

This week DH is traveling and it is DD's band concert so we will see how crazy it gets because we do have something every single night of course.

[186momx]

supertrooper1, DDOT department of transportation for a city? I have a client that fills out and ODOT report for Oregon each month on how many files he drives as a truck driver

mae0111, your clients lack of planning doesn't equal and emergency on your part!

[mommyatty]

I had a good talk with my boss this morning. I told him what my frustrations are, and he was really great. Plus (why does this always take me by surprise?) He told me I got a raise that was a little above the average and a big honking bonus. Like way bigger than I anticipated. So that was a great way to start the week.

Weekend was okay. DS had a bad cold all weekend and is still dragging. DD did her first field hockey practice. She did great.

This week DS has a field trip tomorrow, a regular day Wednesday, early out Thursday, and no school Friday. DD has finals all week so is out before noon every day. No school Friday for her either. Then we are all out for Christmas! Yay!

[supertrooper1]

Dec 11, 2023 12:44:50 GMT -5 186momx said:

supertrooper1 , DDOT department of transportation for a city? I have a client that fills out and ODOT report for Oregon each month on how many files he drives as a truck driver

Haha!  No, wasn't that what we were using for Doesn't Deserve it's Own Thread?  

[186momx]

DD had fun at her holiday gym party Saturday night. She came home with a fuzzy blanket, bath and body works candle and a mini stuff ornament/toy. The elephant gifts were supposed to be between $8-$12 so she came home with a higher end gift.

Sunday we cleaned house and it doesn't look like it now as I dug out all the wrapping paper stuff. So I cleaned to make a mess. Oh well I'm hoping to wrap a little each night and just live with the chaos.

[sdlaura]

Congrats mommyatty ! A nice belated birthday gift I did not get a lot more money in my annual review this year. But luckily I'm compensated well enough that increases of 3.5% on my base and 10% on my bonus are not nothing, even if the base increase doesn't keep up with inflation. Oh well.

Friday night, DD and her friend went to the flag football playoff game for friend's boyfriend (these kids are in 6th grade so sure exactly what boyfriend means). But DD was excited to go, and the boyfriend's mom texted me to tell me how much her son loved having the girls come to support him.

Our friends' holiday party for 200 people on Saturday night was as incredible as usual. We ran into lots of people we know from various parts of life and it was fun to catch up, and ran into people we didn't expect to see there - like the parents of DS3's preschool BFF were there randomly, because apparently the mom plays pickleball with my friend who was hosting.

This was DD's last weekend with her travel softball team, and they had a tournament. 3 games Saturday and 1 yesterday (during which they almost beat the top seed in the tournament, and it had to go to international tiebreaker rules, so it was a pretty exciting last game). Luckily it was all at a park that's only 20 minutes away and has an awesome playground, and our weather was gorgeous. So it could have been worse. Both older kids also had basketball games yesterday. And we got haircuts for the 3 boys, which always makes me happy to have them looking clean-cut.

DH was pissy last night. I know he was tired and hungover from the Saturday night party, but I was annoyed because he had to do almost nothing yesterday, and had like 3 hours to himself on Saturday while I was with kids all weekend. Yesterday I took DD to her 9 am basketball game and all 3 boys just let him sleep the whole time I was gone. So DH got up at like 10:30 am and that's when I was taking the little boys with me to DD's softball game. So he had to do almost no childcare yesterday - he only took DS1 to his basketball game and that was it. I think he was just looking ahead to this week when I'll be out with friends Wednesday and then on a work trip Thursday night. But that's really not that much solo time in the scheme of things. He really doesn't realize how lucky he is that I do almost all kid stuff when I am home. OK, vent over

[erbear]

Weekend was fun. We did a holiday hour tour on Saturday (got to go inside the giant fancy houses in our neighborhood, which was fun), DD2 had a bar mitzvah and DH and I went to a friend's podcast launch party, which was fun. We were supposed to go to MIL's yesterday to help her put her tree up but the weather was crappy so we stayed home. I wrote my comments (barf) and did some errands. The mom of the bar mitzvah is my colleague and she came to my room today to tell me how kind and polite DD2 was at the event <3

I wish this was the last week until winter break. I need a break, so do the kids. My students are bonkers...

[waverly]

Dec 11, 2023 12:44:50 GMT -5 186momx said:

supertrooper1 , DDOT department of transportation for a city? I have a client that fills out and ODOT report for Oregon each month on how many files he drives as a truck driver

mae0111 , your clients lack of planning doesn't equal and emergency on your part!

This made me laugh.  

[waverly]

sdlaura, he is lucky because you have a lot of kids. Plus, I usually make DH do more driving and late night stuff because he works from home and doesn't commute he likes to drive. He is more on the coaches side of doing the extra league, and I may just tell him then OK, you drive.

[sdlaura]

waverly that's how I'm approaching getting a puppy soon. DH is the one who really wanted the kids to have "the puppy experience" once as kids - I would have adopted an older dog. So he can be the one to get up with the puppy in the middle of the night. He also works from home 4 days a week, so hopefully he will do most puppy care when the rest of us are out at school and work.

[waverly]

sdlaura, this didn't work for me. DH and kids primarily wanted a dog, and I still did the majority of the dog work and training. Then the dog herded the neighbor dog (i.e. bit on leg but caused no damage), and I threw a huge fit. This was 3 years later. Now DH is finally doing dog walks and hiring a new trainer after I yelled at him. He was the one that let the dog out of the fence.

So stay strong and don't give in like I did. I probably should have yelled way earlier instead I signed up for training and then DH mysteriously wiggled out of it.

[sdlaura]

waverly Hmmm, so you're saying the fact that the dog will be with DH much more than me won't mean he takes more responsibility for it? Rats

I'm glad your DH is more on top of it now, even if it took some issues and you really putting your foot down!

[waverly]

sdlaura, he's on calls most of the day. Gets about a 15 minute lunch some days and has to sneak out of calls to do it. But he still could have let the dog out at the time, but instead waited for DS to get home from middle school.

[sdlaura]

waverly my DH has like 2 scheduled meetings a week and works from an office in our backyard that he keeps the door open to most of the day. So at least the dog should have plenty of opportunities to be out during the day!

[dglvrk2]

sdlaura, H WFH. When our current dog (Charlie, now 6 years old) was a puppy, H's home office opened to our back yard and we lived in a very mild climate. We crate trained Charlie and H kept his crate under his standing desk. Charlie was in his crate or outside with H most of the day. Charlie was really easy to train and has always been a pretty mild dog....until a bear is in the area...but we have a very unique situation! I very much attribute the crate training and the time H could spend with him in his early years to this.

[k3am]

Despite how freaking adorable they are, I don't think I ever want to go through the puppy stage again. Remind me again of that when this one is a few years older.

[mae0111]

DDOT: If you have any interest in true crime, check out #freekarenread on Facebook and Youtube.

Karen Read has been accused of killing her boyfriend, former Boston Police officer John O'Keefe. On the surface, it looks straightforward - she was drunk, backed into him in a blizzard, didn't know it, and drove home drunk. He was found the next morning, dead in the snow.

Digging just a bit below the surface, you'll find police corruption, blunders, a close personal relationship between the investigators and the owners of the home where John was found, questionable "evidence" that surfaced weeks after the incident. They police gathered blood evidence in RED SOLO CUPS. It's a complete mess, and now the investigators are being investigated by the FBI. This case involves local and state police, the DA, the ATF, the DOJ...

A local blogger/reporter that has been like a dog with a bone with this case has been charged with witness intimidation for talking to the people that likely killed him. TALKING TO THEM. Other people that were demonstrating the injustice around this case are also being charged... for standing on a public street and peacefully demonstrating against the people that are likely responsible.

CNN has finally stared covering this story. Their article was incomplete at best, but it's starting to get national attention. So if you are interested in this sort of thing, join me down this particular rabbit hole. After watching Trial 4 on Netflix and now watching the Max documentary on the Charles Stuart case from the 90s, I have no faith that the Massachusetts judicial system will work the way it's supposed to without national scrutiny.