A crystal ball into their future

The house across the street and down one sold recently and soon thereafter a "For Rent" sign went up. Thankfully two young girls moved in. For the first couple of weeks we did not formally meet but I could tell they were nice girls who would be good neighbors.

I finally had the opportunity to speak to one of the girls. She was walking her dog and we were just getting home from running errands. I took my crazy children over there to say hello and introduce myself.

It was really fun talking her because it turns out we have quite a bit in common:

1) She and her roommate went to the same college that I did and were in the same sorority I was - a million years later of course

2) I'm from Oklahoma and went to a small private high school
- the roommate (whom I have not yet met) is from Oklahoma and went to a rival small private high school
- there were several girls from my high school that were in their sorority pledge class
- I know older siblings of several of their friends

3) The father of the roommate I was speaking with is a Ford dealer
- my father is a Ford dealer

4) The roommate just moved back to KC from a major metropolitan city. I moved to a major metropolitan city right after college and then moved back to KC.

I came home and reported back to my husband all about our cute new neighbors and how we have so much in common and how they totally remind me of myself right out of college.

His response?

"Did you tell her to be careful or your life is what hers will be in 10 years?"

He is sleeping on the couch.

Karma hit me again

I don't get it. Is my blog possessed or something? Every time I write something semi-negative, it comes back to bite me. Or maybe my husband has something to do with it because the two times I have done these semi-negative blogs they have been about him. Interesting...

Let me explain:

I sat down yesterday and wrote a snarky blog entry about how funny it was how my children act around their father but not around me. I hadn't posted it yet because it needed some editing but it went something like this:

So I had to go out of town again for work. Sadly I had to leave on my little guy's 2nd birthday. We had a small celebration (will celebrate big next weekend) and being so young he barely noticed I was leaving on his big day. It killed me to have to leave on his birthday but apparently not as much as it killed my husband. HeHe.

I think the rest of Sunday went just fine, it was apparently Monday morning when all hell broke loose. Monday was the first day of our daughter's week long day-camp. Having dealt with situations like this a million times, I know how to handle these things. You must begin to talk up the new adventure the evening before and discuss all the friends she will make and how she will do all sorts of arts and crafts projects and how she will get to run around a park, blah, blah, blah. The more you talk about it, the more she gets used to the idea of doing something new. I'm guessing dad didn't do those things or the "episode" she had at camp would not have occurred.

From the account I heard from my husband, they got to the park and didn't know where to go. After 4 attempts of trying to dump her off with the wrong camp counselors, she was in tears. Finally he found the correct place but there was no way she was going at this point. She screamed and cried and refused to go. The camp is from 9:00 AM to 12:00 PM and apparently the first half hour of her time was spent red faced and chasing dad back to his car just to be promptly returned to the counselors and so on and so forth. Finally he was able to free her death grip from his legs and left to a meeting at the zoo for which he was now thirty minutes late.

My mother-in-law had thrown her back out and so last minute there was no one to watch our son for the day therefore my husband had to take our bonkers 2 year old with him to film some stuff at the zoo. Apparently the little guy had lots of fun for the first twenty minutes but then he saw the carousel and it was all over. He wanted to ride that thing more than anything in his 2 year old little world. Unfortunately it just wasn't something my husband had time for since he was there working and so a fit of colossal proportions ensued. Complete with kicking, hitting and screaming on the ground, face in dirt. I find this really amusing because I was just telling my mother the other day that neither of my children had ever done that. Well I guess I can still say that they have never done that to me. Hehe. I'm horrible.

Again, easy solution to that problem. Take snacks with you. It is a joke in our family that Z-man can be talked out of anything for "a food" -that is what he calls all food. It could be the biggest fit you've ever seen with blood curdling screams and all and you just say "Z do you want a food?" Next silence, a smile, "yes, yes" - tantrum over.

I get back in town that evening and took my daughter to camp the next morning. We talked about all the fun things she would do when she got there and upon arrival she jumped out of the car and ran to hug her counselors. She couldn't have been more excited to be at camp and barely acknowledged me as I waved goodbye.

A couple of hours later I returned to pick up a smiling child with art projects galore in hand. When I asked her how her day was she told me it was "top notch." See, that is how you drop a child off at camp. Not rocket science. Seriously - Men!

I didn't even post that blog, so I'm not sure how karma figured it out but once again, just like with the LandCruiser, I'm being punished for saying not so nice things that involve my husband.

So here we are a day later. Drop off at camp didn't start out all that great. My daughter took a major spill running up the steps, there was some blood and serious rage that the camp's band aids do not have Scooby Doo on them. After searching every square inch of the park for a water fountain to refill the water bottle that she dumped out on her fall, I was out the door leaving my sobbing child with her counselors. Okay not quite as successful as the day before's drop off but I was still out of there in 15 minutes - a full 15 minutes quicker than my husband got out.

I did a couple of errands and walked back into my house to the phone ringing.

"Hello?"

"Hi, this is Angela from camp. E broke her butterfly hair clip about 35 minutes ago and has not stopped crying since. She wants you to come get her."

I asked to talk to E and in between sobs I heard something about a windy dentist, blue butterfly clip and mean tennis shoes. Later I found out that she was upset because the wind blew the butterfly clip the dentist had given her out of her hair and a child stepped on it in with his tennis shoes but he didn't mean to.

My child was inconsolable. No matter how many times I told her I could buy her a new blue butterfly clip and that it was okay, she was not going to budge. This child of ours is a sweetheart but boy is she stubborn. I had no choice but to go and get her. I know how she gets and I could not let her ruin everyone else's fun at camp. So long to my couple of hours of getting things done around the house.

So you see, there seems to be a pattern here as each time I say bad things about something related to my husband on this blog, karma kicks me in the tush for it. Maybe I will learn a lesson from this, but really what in the world would I write about if I couldn't make fun of him?

You won Land Cruiser

I'm sorry Land Cruiser. You won. I will not speak ill of you anymore. I see the magic powers you clearly have and now understand why Dan's family won't get rid of you. They are afraid of what you might do...

One silly light hearted blog about your not so quiet noises and exterior imperfections and you retaliate. Very creative how you acted just fine like nothing was bothering you while we headed to the airport bound for my 36 hour whirlwind work trip to Puerto Rico. So sneaky you are. I guess you needed those 36 hours to plot your revenge.

I know you just giggled about the fact that my first flight heading back was late leaving me 7 minutes to run through the world's busiest airport to get to my connecting flight. Very clever how you let me make that flight by a millisecond and then settle in comfortably and land safely in KC about 10:15 PM. Looking back now, I think I heard your snickers as I strode through the brisk night air of the airport parking lot so excited to get back home to my family. I bet you could barely contain yourself as I hopped confidently into you turned you on and NOTHING. Dead. Not a light, sound or anything.

I admit defeat. Message received. The $70 taxi cab ride home was a great incentive for me to shut my mouth. I take it all back. Dan and I will head back to the airport parking lot this morning to do whatever it is that we need to do to make you feel better and have you work for us again. I'm sorry that I hurt your feelings.