Friday!

[mae0111]

It's finally Friday! How was the week? What's up this weekend?

[mae0111]

The week was fine. Our dog needed surgery on Tuesday for what I thought would be a very small, straightforward thing, and he's just been extremely agitated ever since. DH and I are kind of tag teaming during the work day to watch him. So I haven't been into the office at all.

We have to add in PT for DD1 to our already insane schedule, and I can't believe how many places told me that they were booking into mid-March. Not helpful! But I found a place nearby that was able to get her in next week... and then they called me with a cancellation for yesterday! So that led to lots of running around, but we made it happen.

DD2 and I are going to pick up fun superbowl snacks after school today, and then I'll take DD1 shopping a bit later for a present for a birthday party tomorrow. Tomorrow DD2 has a basketball game, and then DD1 has to be at a pizza place 30 mins away. Then DD2 has an indoor soccer game and I'll probably leave early to drive to pick her up at the party.

Sunday DD2 has soccer mid-afternoon. I'll try to carve out time to see my parents at some point. Then we will settle in and DH and I will watch part of the superbowl. The kids don't care, but maybe they'll hang out too?

[rere]

I'm only working half day today. We are taking a coworker out for lunch for her birthday, then I'm off.

Dh and I are going about 2.5 hrs away tonight with some friends to see their son play at a local bar. Then we are staying the night. This is in the town he goes to college, so she asked if we wanted to stay with him and his roommates or hotel. Ummm....hotel, please and thank you. Last time I stayed in an apartment occupied by college guys, I was in college and my standards for cleanliness were much lower.

Dh declares he's not going anywhere on Sunday for the Super Bowl. If he sticks with that, I'm leaving him home. One of our friends is having a party and I am going to go socialize and eat good food and probably be home by halftime.

[librarychica]

It’s been a busy but fine week. Nothing out of the ordinary. Tonight I’m taking the DDs and a couple friends to the ice rink for open skate. Normally I’d skate too but I am still have a bit of a cough and I’m not sure about exertion in the cold so I may just bring a book and chill while they careen around. I am not the steadiest skater anyway.

Saturday there’s a school event we will probably drop by for a bit and I have a craft class. DD1’s piano lesson was pushed back to Sunday morning so we are otherwise unoccupied. Probably do some work around the house. The girls and I did a lot of cleaning last night but H was working so now he has to fold all the laundry, lol. Public laundry folding so they don’t think any future men in their lives don’t have to clean! Sunday we are visiting some of H’s family down from up north. I am hoping that his desire to see the Super Bowl will get us home relatively early.

[twinmomma]

My eyes are finally almost back to normal! Just dealing with some lingering dryness, so that's good! I've never known anyone to get such terrible pink eye, it was totally insane.

The girls are having their two BFFs sleep over tonight, so we will have 4 11 year old girls taking over the basement. DH and DS are already plotting how they can escape the house for the night.

Tomorrow is Lunar New Year. I'm not sure if DH wants us to do anything special to celebrate. We usually only do something if his mom is around but she's out of town and we're not really motivated to drive into Chinatown for the celebrations. Maybe we'll order Chinese food for dinner so the kids can at least have long noodles and fortune cookies.

Sunday will be a low key Superbowl for us. The kids love watching the puppy bowl during the day and then we're going to try to watch the Nickelodeon version with the kids, so that will be fun!

In between all that I have a paper to write.

[waverly]

So, things between my sister and aunt have deterioated very rapidly following my uncle's passing. Aunt very dramatically accused her of witholding documents (birth certificates) and photos saying that my sister has deprived her of photos in what little life she has left to live. Then sister, who as you all know has been caring for my dad since I brought him back from South America in 2021, lashed out with the list of the things we had done for this uncle, our grandma and my dad as well as all the times she invited Aunt to her house and aunt refused to come.  Aunt had over 40 years to look at pictures with her mother, so yeah sorry you didn't know your mom had them, but you never visited and never asked.  When other stuff was found of my Grandma's, aunt was asked if she wanted it. 

Aunt lived across the country for 35 years and visited maybe twice during that time. So yeah, it's a LOT really that we had done but sister did more because she was 4 hours closer than me. I actually visited with Uncle more often but sister was the social worker point person. Before this sister had mentioned no funeral, and maybe a memorial lunch with just a few people. My guess is that nothing will happen now which is kind of sad for the uncle. At the most it would be me and sister getting together maybe with dad at his home. That escalated quickly.

I would also like to post on social media, but since the next of kin hasn't then I feel like I can't even though I could hide them so they don't see it. But the fact that my aunt didn't even announce it yet.... And my dad is not capable of using a computer. So much UGH to all of this drama.  I was told that my aunt and dad are technically the next of kin which means my aunt and sister because sister is the Conservator of dad.  Both aunt and sister made comments about uncle's livings situation in a group home/ AFC type home, and I was like well if you had an issue with this then why didn't you say something 20 years ago?  Kind of weird to make noises about it now that you don't have to do anything. 

Oh and we were just in the process of drawing up a document for dad to pay for part of the cremation.  Hadn't told aunt about it yet becuase it would go directly to the funeral home, and well now sister is not very inclined to do that, so sorry aunt but your crappy comments just cost you 1K.  

What else... we have 2 basketball games, a birthday party, super bowl party, and the boys are going to a college BB game. I signed up for a wellness event, that I may or may not go to, maybe leaning towards going because gong therapy and yoga. I need something to take the drama out of my life.

[sdlaura]

Oh my goodness, waverly. Good luck with the family drama.

I was glad to wake up in my own bed after a few days in Texas this week. I got back yesterday afternoon and took the puppy for her 12-week vet appt (she went from 5 to 7 pounds in 2 weeks!) and then picked up all the kids and took them to the surf/ski shop to get measured for their snowboard rentals so we could reserve them for our trip next weekend.

Then I swung by a kindergarten moms night out in the neighborhood. I really like the kindergarten moms. I never felt like I quite fit in with the 6th grade moms clique when DD started - one of my theories is that it was because I was one of the few FT working moms of DD's friends at the time - with house prices like a third of what they are now, it was easier to have a one income family. Now that house prices are so high, most of the kindergarten families have two working parents and I feel like we fit in more.

Anyway, our rain seems to be over but the sports fields are all still super wet. So we'll see what kids sports actually happen this weekend. DS2 will definitely have arena soccer (outdoors, but on turf) and DS1 will have his last basketball game. And DS1 will also probably have golf. We'll see if things dry out in time for DD's Sunday morning softball games. My parents will probably come over to watch the Super Bowl on Sunday. Next week I have more travel - to Santa Fe, NM - and I'm also on the interview panel for my firm's new director of HR and have lots of very early (my time, since most interviewees are in Boston) interviews next week that I'm not looking forward to!

[waverly]

sdlaura, thanks. It's a lot, but my plan is to stay as far away from it all as possible. I never talked to Aunt much at all, maybe a Christmas card here or there, and I last saw her in maybe 2015. So hopefully, I guess it just stays that way because aunt is major drama. My sisters response to aunt was very extra, but I guess she is just done.

[186momx]

This week has been a lot better than last week. I haven't yelled at the computer yet and clients all seem to be happy. We still have so many that can't understand why we want them to schedule appointments for meeting with us to both drop off or pick up taxes. We have a drop off slot if you don't want to see us that can be done at anytime but everyone wants to just pop in the front door and chat while they hand me papers.

DD decided that we aren't attending the OSU vs UCLA gymnastics meet at 8pm tonight. We are going to the HPU vs OR acro tumbling match Saturday night to watch one of the graduated gymnast perform for HPU. Tickets were $2.50 per person so I told DD we would go have dinner down by campus beforehand but I got to pick.

I need to work both days. I'm hoping to work 9-2 and feel more caught up for next week.

waverly, I'm sorry about all the extra drama.

[supertrooper1]

It was a fairly calm week at work and I needed that. We had a Valentine's dinner with DS a week early since he won't be with us on Valentine's Day. I took our kitten to the vet for his first check up and shots. Since Thanksgiving, we had a lot of missed gym days due to illness, vacation, and holidays, and this week I finally felt like I was back in the grove that we were in before Thanksgiving.

Tonight I have a grocery order to pick up, but we'll probably end up going out to eat instead of cooking. Most of the grocery pick up is for the Superbowl and next week. I have some TikTok recipes I want to try for our game food. I have floated several ideas to Beau about things to do tomorrow since I don't want to just sit around. We may go riding to a spot that is almost 2 hours away since it's not supposed to be raining. We've talked about trying this spot for a year or more, but Beau wasn't sure since it's mostly beginner trails. Our normal riding spots are either super muddy or covered in snow right now, so this may be a good time to knock the dust off our bikes and start getting ready for our big "race" in April. I also suggested going to a Brazilian steakhouse closer to Seattle, but it didn't sound like he wanted to make that drive.

We had talked about finding a bar to watch the game at on Sunday, but ultimately decided to stay at home and watch. I'm excited to try out some recipes I've had saved for a while.

[dglvrk2]

sdlaura,I hear you about connecting more easily with other working moms than with SAHMs.

In the two -very separate - towns we have lived in since having kids, the SAHMs developed tight relationships before the kids even started school, while I was working FT. So....

This weekend H is ski patrolling both days. They're mandatory so I can't fault him.

I'm taking the Ds skiing this morning. This afternoon, DD1 and I will drive 4 hours to the city where my sister had surgery and will begin cancer treatment in the upcoming weeks. We will be with her and my parents the rest of the weekend. My mom is a basket case. I didn't want to take a kid, but leaving both on their own all weekend would be harsh too. DD2 will snowboard tomorrow while H patrols. DD1 is lower maintenance when traveling, so we are dividing and conquering as best we can.

I'm going to throw myself a quick pity party. I really wish my girls got more invites to do things with friends on the weekends. They both have two good friends, but these kids can be homebodies. I see other kids going every which way on the weekends while I'm the primary source of planning and entertainment for my girls. Part of it is they're not very socially gregarious, but I still wish social stuff came more easily to them.

[waverly]

dglvrk2,

I hear you in the social stuff. Honestly both of my kids are introverts and have told me that they don’t want to have friends over the house that much. 6-7th grade time frame was kind of a hard stop for me in terms of planning for DS. He needs to be planning with his friends but due to his lower executive function he doesn’t initiate much at all. This is not just social, for example, he also doesn’t initiate during science labs. Taking a step back though has helped my mental health in terms of not putting so much effort into people who don’t put effort into me. And as I posted here a lot, my house for a while was the neighborhood play area so I definitely did way more than my share. DS is starting to get a few more invites now because his rec BB team always does something. He made a new friend that issues more party invites. Some of DS’s friends have never ever invited him over, and in fact just did after like 4 years of us inviting only to rescind it because the kid got in trouble. It’s the troublemaker of the group.

DD gets more invites but I think she just lucked out because the soccer team does a lot of parties and everyone invites everyone from the soccer team. Interesting how this looks in middle school when parties get smaller. And she was close friends with a neighbor but that is the one that has social skills/ dynamics problems so they aren’t friends anymore.

But yeah if you are feeling burnt out on coordinating social stuff I recommend taking a step back and evaluating where your energy is going. I feel a bit more balanced now no longer hosting the entire neighborhood all the time, I’m coaching DS on initiating and texting in general and focusing on inviting people that also invite us. Sometimes DH wants to host so I wait for him to do that so hosting is easier on me.

[mae0111]

Well our day shifted gears when DD2 woke up with a fever. So no basketball. As much as she is pushing, I’m saying no soccer too.

It’s nearly 60° today so I walked to the pharmacy and back to pick up COVID tests just in case. 4.5 miles 👍. It will be warm again tomorrow and I’m meeting my neighbor for an early walk. Tuesday we are expecting 10 inches of snow. Yay New England!