It's Monday again...

[mae0111]

It's a rainy Monday here after a beautiful weekend.  How was your weekend? What's up this week?

[mae0111]

It was a really rough weekend here. We are away at our beach house. The kids were at each other all weekend, and DD1 fought with everyone constantly. I ended up having to leave the house on my own on Thursday in an attempt to diffuse the situation, and walked right back into the thick of it when I came home an hour later. Slightly better on Friday, and Dh and I went out for a nice dinner together. Saturday we all went to the beach. Tons of fighting so DH and I went on a long walk. Then I left shortly thereafter to bike home and pick up our car since the lot was full when we arrived, and we lugged all of the stuff home where fighting continued. Sunday things totally blew up and I'm at a loss.

We are at the beach until tomorrow evening. The weather is crummy today and Dh and I are working. We are considering going home tonight but I'm on the fence. I like to do a full clean, laundry, etc. before we go, so I don't like to make a last-minute decision to pack up and leave. So we'll see...

[twinmomma]

We had a busy weekend. Sometimes I think when we have the kids, DH feels the need to jam pack the weekend with fun, to an extent that it becomes not fun, everyone just gets fried. He needs to learn "less is more" with fun activities. Saturday we had a birthday party to attend for the kids and then we went to MIL's house for dinner. She insisted on making lobsters to celebrate my birthday. She lives in an apartment in the city. Her porch was so small we sat in a line at a folding table so that we didn't make the house smell too much. And she could only cook one lobster at a time in the size pot that she had. It was... something. I appreciate the thought and effort but it was definitely more work for DH and I than either of us wanted out of dinner.

Sunday was my birthday and I wanted to get outside and do something different since the weather was great. We spent the day wandering Salem, Mass and doing a tour about all the witch trial history. We've never done that, even though we live close by. The girls and I loved it, DH thought some of it was interesting, and DS whined literally the entire time. I think DH would have liked it more if he didn't have to keep telling DS to suck it up and get over himself. I tried to tell DS that if he stood up front near the tour guide and actually paid attention instead of whining, he would probably have a better time. Instead he chose to mope at the absolute back of the group and tell us how he couldn't hear anything. Every once in a while DS's "I'm an only child at my mom's house, why isn't this all about what I want" attitude pops up and this was definitely one of those times. I ended up just ignoring him and letting DH handle it so that I could enjoy the day with the girls.

The girls and I did a little back to school clothes shopping too. It really cracks me up how different they are now. DD1 chose all florals, colors, dresses, and she's started wearing a little bit of blush each day. DD2 wants neutral colors, leggings and t-shirts, and is constantly battling me on wearing a bra. Apparently her 24 year old "step mom" at dad's house told her that women don't have to wear bras if they don't want to and she doesn't wear one every day. So I'm annoyed that I'm getting competing parenting from a child bride.

[waverly]

Honestly our weekend was sort of a downer after hearing how DD's friend, I guess ex friend treated her so poorly at sleepaway camp.

DD never wants me to talk to the parents, as a parent I would want to know so that I know my child is doing mean girl stuff and address it, but I will respect DD's wishes.

FIL and MIL visited on Saturday. It was mostly fine, but DH and I did clock a snarky question. He brought it up to me later, and I was like yeah I did notice that.

We spent a lot of time watching the Olympics because it was raining on Sunday. Saturday, we were all recuperating from having to get up at 5 am and a 5 hour round trip drive for camp pick up.

Kids are home alone for the next 2.5 weeks. Lets see how that goes.

[campermom]

My summer has officially begun. All done work until we return in 4 weeks. Catching up on orthodontist appointments, therapy appointments, sports clearance, and my little one will finally get his tongue tie taken care of. It’s a longer story than needs to be gone into detail but ExH never wanted it done. I don’t care anymore, I’d rather deal w his protests than keep my son from getting what he needs to make speech therapy productive.

PDQ
DD (13) had a bit of a falling out w ExH and her stepmom, about getting her ears pierced. I gave permission but told her I didn’t have time to actually take her between work, vacation before she would go to dads. She called them to ask if she could get it done while she was there and that I was fine w it and they said yes. Then when she got there, they said they no longer thought it was a good idea.

She told me she asked him “is this bc you don’t want to pay for it?” And she said he gave a bunch of non-reasons why, but later let it slip that he’d have to pay for it. She confronted him and he went on to tell her how much he pays for child support and what it is to be used for.
OH and she said step mom later said “I’m sorry your mom got your hopes up and then let you down” and she was about to go off but chose not to.

She is getting PISSSSSED with every interaction that happens. Oldest son didn’t even go for his week of visitation last week. (Dad didn’t want to transport him to and from work so he gave the blessing to stay w me).

I can feel the teenage rage building and he has no idea how she feels. She is literally crying to me about how they have so much money and she knows they won’t help w college or a car, but brag about giving so much to donations and going on their 2 week European vacation. She texted me when he took her to the beach for a day (3 hours of driving each way, he won’t get a hotel for a night) and when she wanted to buy a $20 sweatshirt she had to use the emergency money she keeps in her phone case.

[rere]

Happy birthday twinmomma .

Good weekend. The lake day was fun, dd went with me for a while and I got home in time to get to bed at a decent time.

Sunday, dd and I went to a parade of homes. I need ideas to for our hopefully soon kitchen remodel. Apparently the new trend is white oak. Dh doesn't like painted cabinets, I do, but also like wood. I want to do something not too trendy, because I'm not doing it again. I really just want high quality cabinets. I was young and dumb when we built and I just picked out something at Lowe's that didn't hold up well.

I also took Dd shopping for shoes and she came home with no shoes, but a sweatshirt and shorts.

[supertrooper1]

Happy birthday twinmomma!

The weekend was ok. I figured we would do more, but it ended up being a very low key weekend. We had discussed going to an arcade fun park type place in Canada, but Beau had left his Nexus card at work, so that would have added an hour round trip to go get it on an already hour drive there. I suggested several other activities, but we ended up having lunch at the mall and then stopping by his work so he could pack up his gear for riding the next day. Sunday, Beau left early to go riding, so DS and I hung out at home and then went to a mini golf pub that has good pizza.

Beau has Monday and Tuesday off this week and next since his company is slow right now. He thought he would get up early with me when I started work and start getting our trailer ready for this weekend, but he's sleeping in. It's raining for the first time in several weeks and it feels very calming to me. DS is home this week and then will be with his dad for the next two weeks. It should be a pretty normal week for us.

[mommyatty]

It was a good weekend. Saturday DS went to his ninja class and did a great job trying new skills and paying attention.

Sunday I took DD to a KPop concert. One of her friends’ mom had a suite through her job, so we went for free. You guys. It was insane. Imagine if a BDSM show, Rock Opera, and pop variety show had a baby. Then that baby grew up and bred with the longest Korean So You Think You Can Dance routine ever. That’s what it was like. I mean, they had about 15-20 minutes where they all just called on each other to do their best dance moves, all of which involved grabbing their crotch and we got an extreme closeup of said crotches each time on the massive video screens. DD and I are now referring to it as “the Korean crotch show.” Lol. DD isn’t even all that into KPop, but we were both glad we went, even if it was crazy.

[waverly]

mommyatty, that is hilarious!

[sdlaura]

Happy birthday twinmomma! At my house I’m the one trying to convince DD she doesn’t need a bra everyday I mean, if she’s playing sports or running around, yes, but if she forgot to pack one in her change of clothes or the sports bra she brought looks weird with her dress, I totally don’t think she needs one at her age (turning 12 in a couple weeks).

I may have had one of the more productive days of my life yesterday. We got back Saturday night from Boston. Then all the kids were up at 5 am while it was still dark because they were on east coast time. We unpacked from last week’s trip, did laundry, packed the two older kids for sleepaway camp, took them to sleepaway camp 1.5 hours away, picked up the dog from where she was boarding half an hour away, put away laundry, got house ready for one twice a month cleaners today and the babysitter who will stay with our younger two for the next 3 nights, got groceries, packed lunches, DH and I repacked to go away again today, etc etc. Oh and I also worked out and did work for my day job.

Today I head to Monterey for a professional conference for the board I’m on. They pay for DH to go, too. Since the big kids are at sleepaway camp our babysitter will stay 3 nights with the littles (they’re in camp/preschool 8:30-5). It’s going to be crazy for me trying to juggle the conference and my day job responsibilities but DH gets to relax/do some work remotely from there. My good friend is who recommended me for the role and she will be at the conference too - and so her kids are also at sleepaway camp (she only has to two kids), and our husbands are friends, so we get to do some fun evening dinners with them.

This is our last trip before the holidays. Besides some camping for DH and the boys during their fall break in late October. All the travel lately has been super fun but I’m ready to be in my own bed more. My work travel does pick up next week, but is mostly day trips at least!

[186momx]

Long weekend for me and I was a slug both Thursday and Friday. Chilled at home, read a book, watched a bunch of TV, and just had some amazing R&R. Saturday we did a deep clean of our kitchen/dinning room and I washed/cleaned area rugs plus the normal laundry. Tie dyed with DD in the evening. Sunday was the big BBQ at the park that DD's gymnastic team does the food for so all afternoon/evening was busy. DD put 13K steps in between 1:30-7:30 running food from the kitchen area to the serving area in the park. She is pooped today. I've washed enough dishes to last me a few weeks.

Tomorrow is busy. DD got the cancellation appointment at the allergist so sees them at 8am, dog has vet tech shot at 3:30, and DD has practice at 3:30 so lots of running around for me.

[dglvrk2]

mommyatty... wow! That's quite an experience. Good thing your DD could have a good sense of humor about it!

twinmomma, happy birthday!!

mae0111, I'm sorry it's been so rough lately. How did today go?

Our weekend was good. I ran 7 miles with a friend Saturday morning before departing for a 12 hour road trip to Oregon. We are here for a week. Yesterday was chill. Today DD2 started a windsurfing camp and DD1 had her first day of volleyball camp. Windsurfing camp was fun. DD1 has complained about the girls in the volleyball camp being cliquey. Most of the girls attend the local middle and high schools. She's too shy to insert herself in a group, do it could be a socially challenging week. Fingers crossed.

I'm in a virtual seminar all week. It's 8-4 central time, 6 am to 2 pm my time, so I'll have some time in the afternoon with the family.

[erbear]

My kids are at grandma's for the week. This used to be such a big deal when they were little (a whole week with no kids!!) but now that they are teenagers, we can do all the things anyway because we don't need babysitters. At any rate, it's nice to not have to deal with cooking, waking them up, harassing them about reading or screen time, etc. Thanks, Grandma.

I am half-assed working this week but it's all computer stuff (I'm writing IEPs). I am not made for a sit-down job.

We are going to the Liverpool - Arsenal game tomorrow night and everyone is excited.

I can't believe it's already August. I need another month of summer.

[186momx]

DD had her allergy consultation this morning. Staff/nurse were really nice but we didn't like the doctor we were assigned to. It is the only allergy place in our area and has 4 doctors so if we are going to be going for more than a few visits I will see if we can see someone else. She goes in for testing on 8/20. At this point he thinks she has Food-Dependent exercise-induced anaphylaxis to either dairy or wheat. 6 hours before she has practice she is supposed to cut eating any dairy or wheat. WPs she needs those carbs to make it through practice. Also why isn't she having a reaction multiple times a week as she eats a whole meal an hour before practice? She has had 3 in the last year. We left puzzled and DD has been googling since we got to work in-between gymnastics score updates. We also left with an EPI pen prescription but the nurse said to call back if it came in super expensive because there were alternative ways to get EPI pens.

[supertrooper1]

186momx , after hearing horror stories of how expensive Epi-Pens were, I thought I'd be paying a ton when I was prescribed one a couple of months ago. But a generic 2 pack with BCBS insurance through Rite Aid was only $5. Hopefully yours isn't expensive.

Hopefully they can figure out your DD's issue soon!

[186momx]

supertrooper1, DD's pediatrician sent in a prescription for us in June got to the counter and it was $286 for 1 pen. I asked to talk to the pharmacist first and he suggested we wait until we saw the allergy doctor since it was for a mystery reaction and Benadryl was working to cut symptoms when we did have a reaction. This is one of the times it sucks to have an HSA health plan with a deductible of $7K.

[supertrooper1]

186momx , ouch!  Is Costco any cheaper?

[186momx]

supertrooper1, that was at Costco 😢

[twinmomma]

186momx, The epi pen companies have coupons that can get you free ones, or super discounted. Check out the brand's website and see what they have. That's how I used to get DD2's back when she had one.

[librarychica]

It’s Tuesday!

It’s been a busy week already. Work is working, middle school device pickup was today, H sprung not one but two unplanned visiting friends for later this week, etc and so on. We also took Friday off to take the kids to snorkel in a spring Friday and I am really looking forward to that.

The weekend with the cousins was chaos. Joyful chaos, but chaos. It really was a lot of fun. The house has just about been put back in order. I am not sure how my sister in law does it with 5 kids.

[k3am]

DD had middle school orientation this week. Found her frenemy there. And in a moment of weakness, I agreed to unblock her so they can text. They have 4 classes together, I can't keep them apart and I know it. They also both got the lecture that I don't like the way either of them texted each other, DD's phone is monitored, and there will be no warnings, at the first alert that they are not treating each other well, they are done.

So far so good. They're currently at the beach together, and it's only the second time this summer she's seen a friend outside of skating. I am hoping for the best with this friendship.

[mommyatty]

k3am- I am totally picturing you doing the V-fingers at your eyes then at each of them in the universal sign for “I’m got my eyes on you.” High five, mom! Well done!