Open Letters

[mae0111]

Anyone?

[mae0111]

Dear DH -

You wanted the landscapers to dig a trench for a drain to alleviate some of the flooding we've had since our stupid neighbor illegally changed the grade of his yard and sloped it to drain into ours.

Did they know about the propane line leading from the tanks to our house? No? Cool... so they hit it? Yes? Neat... So now we have no hot water, heat, or ability to cook on a stovetop? Excellent...

Signed -
At least there's electric heat in my office and an electric oven in the kitchen.

Dear DD1 -

Sorry I ruined your life by telling you that we need to go to the beach house this weekend, where the weather will be beautiful and spring-like, to get it ready for some construction and for the summer. I get it - it's a huge bummer. No, you can't stay home alone. No, you can't go to your friends' house for the entire weekend, because you were not invited to spend the entire weekend there. I hope you can forgive me one day.

Love,
Horrible mom

Dear DD2's soccer teams -

Get your collective acts together. In the past 2 days, you have implemented 5 schedule changes for this week/weekend alone. None of these changes had to do with weather. So let's get a plan together and stick to it, mmmkay?

Also, to the parents, am I literally the only person with a car and valid license? Because it seems like I'm the only person able to drive any of the kids anywhere this week. You all are going to owe me when DD1's rec softball season starts.

Signed,
My head is spinning.

[rere]

Dear dd.

You are in college and technically an adult. Why does it take 12 texts to me and 2 screen shots to reply to an email about an internship. Are you going to be texting me pictures of open wounds to confirm how many stitches when you're a nurse.

Signed. You can do this by yourself

[186momx]

Dear City construction guys
Why do you need to fix the sink hole today? Why couldn't you do this next week when I could go home due to noise?
signed having to scream at the clients so they can hear me

Dear Mom
Please stop bothering me with stupid text messages. I get you are bored and lonely but for the love of everything just stop. I had to give dad my phone because you were making my head explode with stupid texts yesterday
Daughter that does taxes
PS thank you for driving DD but unless I say something her schedule is the same every freaking week

Dear Me
You need to turn your brain off and sleep tonight
Signed Exhausted
PS schedule that facial!

[twinmomma]

Dear sdlaura
You live in a magical place! My kids are obsessed and ready to go back tomorrow. I think DD1 would live there if she could. We're already talking about planning a real vacation to explore instead of just a quick weekend for family obligations.
Signed,
Twinmomma

Dear work wife,
I crack up at the situations we get ourselves into when planning company events. Today's challenge? Cooking 200+ hot dogs in an office without a kitchen because the steamer broke. There's never a dull moment when we team up! And thankfully our CEO just lets it happen and gives us free reign to do our craziness. We are a great team!
Grateful for you,
Your partner in crime

[sdlaura]

twinmomma I'm so glad you guys enjoyed your time out here! Did you make it to some tourist attractions? What area did you say in?

You should totally move out here - we moved from New Hampshire And you even have family here, right?

[k3am]

Dear WPs,

Polling for your hive mind. We have rats. We’ve honestly always had rats and always will have rats. But for the first time since we lived here, the rats are in the garage and eating our food. (And yes, we keep food in the garage. We always have and likely always will need to… as do almost all of our neighbors.)

We set traps and caught 3 while we were gone. I asked DH if I should reach out and find a company to find and seal off entry points. We have many identified. He says unnecessary.. just keep setting traps.

I should call and have someone seal of entry points, right? Like when I bypassed him and hired a gardener and it took him 3 months to notice I wasn’t nagging him to mow anymore…

Signed,
Grossed out.

[rere]

k3am you can hire someone to do all the things or burn it down. Those are the only 2 options.

[sandandsea]

We hired someone when we had one and closed all potential openings and haven’t had any issues since.

[k3am]

Like something is very weird in our neighborhood. I’ve been seeing a cat on our camera pretty regularly. A CAT. We do not have outdoor neighborhood cats because they get eaten. And somehow this one has survived for at least a month. And everyone is complaining about the more active rodents. If the cat is going to survive the other predators, the least it can do is rodent patrol.

[librarychica]

Apr 10, 2024 17:14:32 GMT -5 rere said:

k3am you can hire someone to do all the things or burn it down. Those are the only 2 options.

If your H and you are handy you can also fill in the holes/access points yourselves… but yeah, must be done.

Can you put any good in large tupperware or something else with a tight seal? Assuming you haven’t already.

[sdlaura]

k3am we had the exact situation with mice and DH claimed an exterminator wouldn’t do more than he could. He was wrong. I after over a month of DH trying to fix it, exterminator fixed it immediately. They cut off all possible tiny entry points.

[mae0111]

I agree - a good exterminator will seal up the entry points. Definitely do that. Or, as rere suggested, burn it down.

When we moved into our house, it had been vacant for 6 months. We not only had mice, we had chipmunks. One visit from the exterminator and we never had a problem again.

[k3am]

Exterminator will come inspect and quote Friday. I assume we’ll be throwing out many rats until they actually are able to do the work. Thankfully the kids are less freaked out about them than I am!

[twinmomma]

sdlaura, We were pretty busy with wedding events, but we made it to La Jolla beach and Belmont Park. It was chilly at the beach on Saturday but our hearty New England kids were in the water and loving it!

[mommyatty]

k3am- good call. We had what in Texas are called “roof rats” in our attic. Along with a freaking raccoon, which is how we discovered the roof rats. We had the people come and seal up our house and we have been good ever since. They told us the rats can compress their skeleton and wriggle into any hole bigger than a nickel! Our service came with a lifetime guarantee that we won’t have creatures in our attic again.

[macmars45]

Dear WP,

I'm so annoyed by the crack/hole in my 3.5 year old bathtub. The handyman said he can't fix it because caulking over it won't work long term. He was the only handyman I even got a response from. I've tried 4 so far! H is refusing to consider a brand new tub (which is ridiculous for such a new tub anyways). I just want DS' tub to be usable so he can stop using our deeper bigger one that uses so.much.more.water. No DS won't shower in our shower stall. Autistic sensory challenges are fun, said no one ever.

We're in a new construction house so I have no idea where the tub was purchased or anything. There is no recourse there.

signed,
frustrated homeowner

[mommyatty]

Dear Mail Carrier,

You get paid a good salary to ride around in a jeep and put stuff in mailboxes. Your route doesn’t have anywhere you have to get off your ass and deliver mail outside your jeep. So if on occasion, someone gets a box, there is no excuse for you to cram the box in a mailbox so tightly that said box has to be cut out of the mailbox with box cutters. I’m especially annoyed because the box you’re cramming into the mailbox is liquid medication for my son. So as I’m cutting the box into pieces, I am risking puncturing a bottle of medication that literally keeps my kid alive and healthy.

I hope you’re embarrassed by the sign I taped to the mailbox telling you to stop cramming boxes into the mailbox. Now, since we are expecting another box of meds this week or next, heed the warning. In other words, get off your big ass and walk the box to our porch. Or I will be sending photos to the IG and your management.

Signed,
Pissed Off Mail Customer

[mae0111]

Apr 11, 2024 8:57:09 GMT -5 macmars45 said:

Dear WP,

I'm so annoyed by the crack/hole in my 3.5 year old bathtub. The handyman said he can't fix it because caulking over it won't work long term. He was the only handyman I even got a response from. I've tried 4 so far! H is refusing to consider a brand new tub (which is ridiculous for such a new tub anyways). I just want DS' tub to be usable so he can stop using our deeper bigger one that uses so.much.more.water. No DS won't shower in our shower stall. Autistic sensory challenges are fun, said no one ever.

We're in a new construction house so I have no idea where the tub was purchased or anything. There is no recourse there.

signed,
frustrated homeowner

What about one of those Bathfitter companies that comes and covers up your existing tub? Would that be any cheaper than a new tub + installation?

[dglvrk2]

Apr 10, 2024 17:19:32 GMT -5 sandandsea said:

We hired someone when we had one and closed all potential openings and haven’t had any issues since.

This. In each home (3 of them) that I've lived in during my adult life!

[186momx]

mommyatty , put in an online complaint to the post office. That works 100 times better than dealing with the local managers.
k3am , our rat issues got better once we sealed off entry points. It also helped when the neighbors who had the trash house/yard finally sold and moved out. We have a few not bordering neighbors that are the whole backyard farmers who let everything be wild and have chickens and that is probably where they hang out too.

DH is live trapping squirrels and re-homing them since they are a protected animal. He has gotten 11 since last fall all from our front yard. The only reason he is on this little mission is they were starting to nest on our roof and were destroying our yard. He is taking them out to the wildlife preserve by the reservoir 15 minutes from our house.

My massage gun won't work so my world is falling apart. I have no idea why and I was in tears last night because I really needed it.

[waverly]

186momx, my mom did that with chipmunks. I swear she was up to the 40's in the number of chipmunks. Trapping and releasing was fine, but apparently not the area (state land) so she would sneak around with her little chipmunk traps to different state land areas to release them lol.

[mommyatty]

186momx, we don’t use our massage guns all that often, and we are on #3. They do not last long! I think for ours it’s the charging cord or battery that goes kaput.

[186momx]

mommyatty, well crap; it is 3 years-old and DD and I have been using it like crazy the last 6 months. I went an ordered a new one from Amazon and my prime shipping will get it to me by 4/16.
DD has what her coaches call long haul shin splints from vaulting. She has found using the massage gun, arthritis cream, and icy/hot helps with the flare ups. The thing is they only bug her vaulting not when she walks/runs/etc.

[dglvrk2]

Dear DD1,
I'm impressed with your grace and perspective lately. Your two former best friends have been awful. One has gone as far as texting you to say you cannot sit with them and their "new friends" when you return to school (today). I get they want to move away from you and you have wanted to branch out as well, but they're not making this easy.
I really hope today goes okay...and the days ahead. I hope in time you can really find your people. Having been a middle schooler once myself, I feel it often takes a lot of time and willingness to break away from the old to get to the better.
I'm talking with a few of your teachers and VP tomorrow. I'm hoping they can help me help you through this.
I do wish friendships were not so hard for you.
I love you so much!!!
Mom

[mommyatty]

dglvrk2- how did today go? Thinking about your DD and hoping she’s okay. Also hoping the school takes the bullying seriously.

[dglvrk2]

Thank you, mommyatty!

Yesterday was awkward but okay. The other girls did not talk to dd1 and she made no effort to talk to them, wanting to keep her distance. M
She has a lot of make-up work to do as she missed the first 3 days of school after our spring break because we were still traveling. Hence, she spent lunch in one of the teachers' classrooms. I don't want her to start spending lunches alone alone in classrooms though out of fear.

I listened to an "Ask Lisa" podcast about this very topic last night. DD1 is what they call a "free atom " Right now, she's not part of any tight group at school. However, she really wants to get in with the popular kids. Unfortunately, while they're nice to her one-on-one and they seem to have a lot in common, they already have their "molecule" formed and are not looking for another atom, as the podcast analogy goes.

When I speak with her assistant principal, I'm going to ask about any possible looser groups of kids with whom she may try to initiate conversations etc.

I was a painfully shy and awkward preteen. I see a little of this in her, yet. I also see way more astuteness than I had at her age. I am curious if her assistant principal, teachers or counselors cee any ways she might be putting off other kids though.

Ugh....

[waverly]

dglvrk2 , it's so hard. DS is also painfully shy. He does have a friend group, and except 1 kid who left their lunch table so is half in their group half out, they have all been nice to him. But he doesn't get a lot of invites. His EF in initiating plans and even texting is behind, but I see it sort of catching up (might be a boy/ girl comparison also).

I feel like your DD could be missing social cues about the popular group already having their molecule formed basically. But I am glad that she is handing this with grace and astitutness.

At this age, I think it is less about "putting off other kids" and more about those molecules. They might like her just fine, but she just might not be the person that they think of when inviting their friends because they aren't that close.

I've been following Shasta Nelson (just recently learned her backstory which struck me as ironic religious crap), but anyway, her views on Friendship are helpful. She basically says positivity, consistancey and vulnerability are the 3 pillars. Well if you are just trying to get in a group or with a person you probably won't be that vulnerable, but she may be lacking consistently seeing the people she wants to see to make that connection, and that doesn't necessarily mean try harder. It means that she isn't in class with them or sits next to them, she isn't on the team with them, so she isn't getting enough hours in there to convert "friendly" to a friend. So she may want to concentrate on people that she sees a lot more often like person she sits with on the bus, neighbor, person she is doing X with already.  She can identify one of them and work on moving them from person she is friendly with to person she invites to do something. 

[k3am]

Rodent proofing, trapping, and sanitation quote for $5500. 😭😭😭

I’m calling a few other places and hoping for better.

Meanwhile I bought a bunch of bins at Costco to store the food in and hoping to at least not have to keep replacing food while we work on the rodent issue.

[sdlaura]

That’s nuts k3am. I paid the exterminator $350 to get rid of our mice. I turned down the long term guarantee that had a monthly fee.