oh, it's starting...

I get home from Wal-Mart last night, check my Facebook and this is the message waiting for me:

"Mrs. Daly, I asked Alex to be my girlfriend, and I wanted to make sure it was ok with you."

Too cute :) Alex has been friends with this boy for years, since about kindergarten. They email, chat, hang out... So my question to you is, how young is too young to "date?" That's what she told me, that her & Kevin were "dating."

I have no problem dropping her off at the skating rink to meet him there, or going to a movie. What do you think? Am I being too lenient? She's liked other boys before, but this is the "first" boyfriend. You know, now they're in Middle School... they're so "grown up" (or so they think).

Update: as of 6:30 tonight, she's already broken up with this poor boy. Yesterday they were in love, today it's no more. I don't know if I can handle the pre-teen hormone roller coaster, what will I do in the teenage years?!

startling confession

I'm sitting here in my pj's, curled up on the couch watching Jay Leno. Marc is working late, kids are in bed, one dog is sleeping on the recliner and the other is laying on the floor curled up on a blanket. I'm watching them sleep, in all of their cute furriness, and have finally come to the realization that I've been trying to bury deep down within...

I don't like my dog.

I know. I'm a horrible person. I love the other one - more than anything. He's my big, cuddly, lovable, dumb, lug of a baby. The other one - not so much.

Now anyone who knows anything about me knows that I LOVE animals. All kinds. And I've always had dogs, forever. Our last dogs were 11 and 12 when they died. They were a huge part of our life, as are these 2. But I just don't like one of them. She's bitchy, always causing us headaches, and I just have no tolerance for her. I've tried to get past this feeling for a while, but it just keeps festering and I'm not quite sure how to change it. And the more dominance and bitchiness she shows towards the other dog, the more and more I dislike her.

So, am I a horrible person? What do I do to change this feeling? I feel like I've turned on one of my own children!!!

the start of a wonderful week (?)

We had a really good weekend. Flag football started and, with the exception of a few stressful situations, turned out pretty good. 110 kids and only a few minor mishaps. Not bad.
My mom and dad came down on Saturday to watch Sam play. Later that day I had a cake to deliver, Marc had a wedding to DJ and my dad checked off a few things on our "to-do" list - namely the ice maker and garbage disposal I've gone 2 years without.

Saturday night after my parents left, the kids and I went to see "Cloudy with a chance of meatballs" while Marc was at his wedding. Sunday we got up and went to church, went to the local orchard afterwards for the corn maze, came home and relaxed. Sounds like a nice, relaxing weekend, huh?

Now let me fill in the blanks.

* At football I had 16 irate parents whose kids didn't bring home the information because their teachers didn't give it to them.

* The cake I had to deliver went off without a hitch. Even though the lady wasn't home and she told me she'd leave the door unlocked, and not to mind her dog, she wouldn't hurt the cake. Well she didn't... until about 11:30 that night. The poor lady FB'd me about 10 times asking if I could "fix" the cake her dog ate half of. Sorry...

* Marc came home from his wedding and gave me the check the next morning, which was considerably less than I had budgeted for. For some reason he charged this wedding less than normal and I had no idea.

* Being thrilled about having a garbage disposal and an ice maker again after 2 years was nothing compared to the mess I found when I got home from school today to see something in the water connection had caused my dishwasher to empty out 2 cycles onto my kitchen floor, thus seeping down into the basement by the bucketload!

Happy Monday!

New Year

It's a new school year! We've ventured into middle school territory now... whoa! But it's also a time for new schedules, new habits, new beginnings. I just hope we can keep it all up. I'm starting it all with a positive attitude!!!

summer's almost over...

I can't believe how fast it's gone by. When I took my job at school, I was in complete amazement that I would get 3 full months off work - while still collecting a paycheck! Oh the perks of that! No more outrageous summertime daycare payments, and TIME - time to organize, time to clean, time to visit family & friends, time for EVERYTHING.

Well, we go back to school in 3 weeks and I can't even grasp that the time has gone already. What did I get done? I'm tempted to say "nothing". But then I think back and I guess I did get quite a bit accomplished, but of course nothing that I had planned to!

I didn't really even get to start my summer until 4th of July weekend because for the first 4 weeks after school got out I was so busy baking cakes every single day and night. I am thankful for that business, but I'll never overbook like that again.

I did some babysitting for a friend 2 days a week. We usually spent those 2 days finding something fun to do outside, which meant I spent some time at the local swimming hole.

I took on an extra job painting that took about a week. Not bad. Got a little extra money for that. But all in all, my expectations were high for my first summer off. I didn't organize my closets or my basement, I didn't get my house clean, I didn't get my books read. I did get to sleep in until about 8:30 on a regular basis though.

One of my principals told me this just before school got out: She said one summer she made a list of everything she wanted to accomplish then she spent the whole summer making sure she got everything crossed off that list. She said it was the most miserable summer she'd had. So I guess I have to learn not to have any expectations, to enjoy it day by day. And there's only about 22 more of those left.

Surprise, surprise...

No email with a Western Union confirmation today. I registered online and of course there isn't any record of a transaction pending either. I just don't understand how someone can think they can have someone else do something for them and then NOT PAY FOR IT?!

how to get revenge???

I like to think of myself as somewhat savvy when it comes to dealing with people. I don't normally let people railroad me, and I'm not a sucker. But I do like to believe the best in people most of the time.

I made a cake for a lady about a month ago. Dealing with her was really a pleasure, she was very nice, polite, easy to please. She was going to pick up the cake 4th of July weekend. Circumstances on my end changed and I decided to go out of town a day earlier, so I asked her if I could drop the cake off to her destination early (she was coming into town to stay at a hotel for the holiday). I called the hotel, arranged the dropoff and told her to just drop the check in the mail to me. After all, I was the one who changed the plans.

Well... 4 weeks later... still no check.

I emailed her a couple times with no luck. So I called her. She swears up and down she gave the money to her MIL to send to me, and didn't know why I wouldn't have gotten it. But that she'd go right out to the post office and send it again. That was 2 weeks ago.

Then 3 weeks went by and I called her again. At least she still answers the phone. She again swears up and down she sent it to me TWICE and that she is so upset, and appreciates the time I took with her cake, she apologized up and down, but if I don't get it in the next day or 2, she'd Western Union me the money.

That's supposed to take place tomorrow. How much of a fool am I to actually think I'm going to get the confirmation number emailed from her tomorrow so I can go to Meijer to pick up the money she owes me?

I've made my opinion clear to her. I am no fool to think that it takes 4 weeks to get something mailed to me. And I am no fool to think 2 different items got lost in the mail, coming from 2 different locations. I told her I expect to get the confirmation number and money from Western Union tomorrow. But in the meantime, I've been trying to come up with some ways to make my frustrations known about her. I could call her answering machine daily to remind her that she has still not paid for a cake I made and delivered for her. I thought about contacting all of her friends on FaceBook and letting them know that their friend stiffed me (that's a bit stalkerish, I thought - but deserving). Then I thought I could just drop the whole thing - chalk it up as a lesson learned. Any ideas?