I made my Mom's gift this year. I wanted to make a shawl for her and tried out a few patterns I found online. All I got for my efforts was the realization that most people have NO IDEA how to write a pattern. I finally gave up trying to figure out the "easy" pattern I'd found (so easy, in fact, that the pattern writer had to explain the pattern in the comments section because so many people were having issues with what was supposed to be a beginner level pattern) and decided to just make one up as I went with a crochet stitch I don't use often. I made a V-stitch pattern shawl and I even wrote down what I did as I went to see if my pattern writing made sense to others. (The people who looked it over said it did, so maybe I have a career in crochet pattern writing.) The pattern was really simple and I managed to get the shawl finished in about a week. I mailed it early because Monday was a holiday and I wanted to make sure the gift got there before my Mom's birthday. I sent a card and some photos of the girls, too.
My Mom got her gift on Valentine's Day and opted to wait until her birthday to open it. My sister and her boys were there along with my brother. My sister took photos with her phone and sent them to me. My Mom texted me right after she opened her gift, so it was *almost* like being there. My Mom told me later that the color I used to make her shawl was my great-grandmother's (her father's mother) favorite color and her birthday was February 9th. My Mom said it was almost like my great-grandmother was there, too.
I got to Skype with my Mom and my little brother on Friday and after we get back from bowling this afternoon, I'll get to Skype with my little sister because she'll be at my Mom's house. My brother bought a new computer but doesn't have a webcam yet. My laptop came with a webcam and I finally got around to setting up Skype. My desktop came with Skype preloaded, but I never bothered to set up an account. My brother and my Mom were so excited to see Akasha and me. It was actually really fun and I'm glad I bugged my brother to set up an account. :D
The Post Office really loved me this week. I sent off four care packages and spent almost $30 in shipping. I have a friend who is exploring cloth diapers, so I sent her ten of my clean, no longer in use pre-folds along with four diaper covers. I have another friend who had a daughter a few months ago. I made a cute baby afghan in forest green with purple trim for her. I sent an afghan I've been working on, and finally finished, to another friend of mine for her now two year old. I started the damn thing before the kid was born! I also sent belated birthday and holiday gifts to BF's middle daughter. I chose the cheapest shipping option because I knew I had a lot of stuff going out. I paid less than I expected and all the care packages should get to where they're going tomorrow. I thought about taking a photo of the packages all piled up on the table but I decided not to. I sent out three shipping envelopes and one box. I'm looking forward to hearing what everyone thinks. I found it pretty hilarious that all of my care packages were being sent to either California or Oregon. I'm an ocean girl trapped in the middle of the continent!
There aren't many young kids in our building. Big A rides the bus with the kid upstairs and two kids from across the street. While I was making dinner earlier this week and attempting to line dry some diapers inside, there was a knock on the door. The upstairs neighbor handed me a ring and asked if it looked familiar. Apparently, Big A had gone into my jewelry box, helped herself to a ring she liked, stuck it in her pocket so I wouldn't see it, put the ring on after getting on the school bus, and then gave it to the kid upstairs when he said he wanted it after seeing Big A wearing it.
Big A stealing has been an ongoing issue. She was caught taking things that belonged to me that she thought I didn't use anymore. She's taken little gumball machine toys I decorated my work desk with (they're in a box now because I'm a SAHM), she's taken makeup, she's taken candy treats I picked up for myself, and I'm sure a few other things of mine I just haven't found in her hiding spots yet. She's also taken food and toys from Little A and food from BF's lunchbox. This, though, is the worst by far. She said she took it because she wanted it, because it was mine, because she wanted to make me angry, and because BF doesn't get mad when she takes his stuff.
Our backroom usually has a baby gate so Little A doesn't get into the books and other random stuff back there. That room was supposed to be a place for me to read and relax, but ended up just being a place BF dumped all the stuff he didn't want in the garage. I had taken the baby gate down so I could hang up diapers and hadn't put it back up. I was doing a quick pick up of the kitchen before getting Little A settled into bed. Apparently, that's when Big A decided to raid my jewelry box and help herself to my ring. The ring itself isn't important. I doubt the stones in it are even real, but that's not really the point, is it? The baby gate was down and Big A was mad that she was getting sent to bed early. She saw me go into the kitchen while she was getting ready for bed and knew I wouldn't be able to see her. So, instead of getting ready for bed, she stole from me. Later, while talking to her, she said she thought I wouldn't notice that the ring was missing. That kind of backfired on her because the kid she gave the ring to lives right upstairs. His grandma found the ring in his pants pocket and asked the kid where he got it from.
I woke BF up early before he had to leave for work and explained the situation. Big A has consequence chores assigned when she chooses to be disobedient. At nine years old, it's definitely a choice! They range from green for mild disobedience (easy to complete), to yellow (moderate amount of time/effort), to red (time consuming and somewhat difficult) for completely unacceptable behavior. I explained to BF that I didn't have a consequence chore equal to this type of behavior and asked him to decide on a consequence. I suggested spanking (don't go flipping out) and he actually said he'd consider it. In the end, though, he decided that wasn't the consequence he wanted to go with. Big A is pretty much grounded until further notice, has extra chores each day in addition to her daily chores, and won't be participating in bowling later today. She won't be participating in anything fun for a while, for that matter.
I get that she doesn't like me. It used to bother me, but I really don't care at this point. I'm here to be a parent to her, not a friend. Being friends is for when your kids are older, and even then, sometimes, you still have to be a parent and you don't ever get to be friends. Big A has made it VERY clear that I will never be a mom to her despite the fact that I've been taking care of her since just before she turned four and despite not having any contact with her "real" mom. That used to bother me, too. A lot. Now that I think about it, it's entirely possible this is just another one of her little games to get at me and upset me. She mentioned earlier this week, during one of our many discussions about stealing my ring, she wants to make me so angry that I ship her back to her "real" mom. I'm not even sure where to go with that little gem. Big A has this fairy tail idea of what things will be like if she lives with her mom. You know, no "bad" chores, getting to do whatever she wants, eating candy all the time (oddly enough, we don't have a "no candy" rule), and basically just no supervision whatsoever. All of her anger is aimed at me because BF works nights and I'm the one handing out the consequence chores. BF and I have both explained to Big A that the consequence chores are from both of us, but, of course, she doesn't see it that way. I'm the Evil Step Mom/Queen because I make her do chores and she's Poor Cinderella. Ugh! It irritates me SO MUCH!! There are times I wish for the ability to read minds just so that I can see what's going on inside of her head when she pulls shit like this.
The same night all this ring stealing drama happened, I was attempting to make chicken for dinner. I started with thawed chicken and cooked it in a pan on the stove. I had chicken of different sizes because that's how they come in the freezer bag, but I thought I had cooked everything through. I set all the chicken together on a plate to cool while the noodles finished cooking. I checked the pieces I cut up for the girls and for me, just in case, and they seemed fine. The chicken was white all the way through. BF texted me from work that one of the pieces he got was pink in the middle so he didn't eat it. Then, at 2:00 the next morning, Little A puked all over me. That was the start of an awesome few days of everyone EXCEPT BF getting sick. Little A didn't actually eat any of the chicken I cut up for her, but I'm thinking some of the juice from the raw chicken must have ended up on her plate and she got just enough to be sick. Thankfully, she only threw up the one time, but her diapers were gross for a few days. I ate a small piece of chicken that was cooked all the way through, but ended up puking twice the next morning and spent most of the next few days in the bathroom on the toilet or on the couch attempting to sleep.
Big A had the school call me just before the end of the school day on Thursday to see if I could pick her up because she wasn't feeling well and didn't want to ride the bus home. I was so weak and sick and Little A was actually napping instead of crying because she didn't feel well. There was no way I felt safe operating a vehicle. I explained what was going on at home to Big A's teacher and I heard Big A ask about BF coming to get her. I attempted to explain to Big A that her Dad had just gone to bed about an hour or so earlier after staying up to take care of Little A and me and that I wasn't going to wake him up just to drive her home. We are the first stop on the bus route, so she was only on the bus about 10 minutes. I ended up talking to the teacher again and repeating what I'd said to Big A so the teacher understood the situation. Big A was NOT happy. When Big A got home, I had her use the bathroom and then just sent her to bed. She hadn't been sick at school, so I didn't think to give her a bucket. I checked on her a few hours later because her light was on and found puke all down the side of her bed and in a huge puddle on the floor. She seemed to feel better because she was up coloring and playing in her room, so I had her clean up the puke mess she made. BF ended up having to re-clean it later because Big A's idea of cleaning it up was just to throw the wet towel I gave her over the mess and then pout at being sent back to bed.
My laptop was purchased on Tuesday and BF has tied playing a few games on it. He downloaded Tera to my desktop computer and it ran a little laggy, but was playable. He put in on the laptop so we could play together and the game had no lag at all. He looked up the specs on my laptop and was amazed to find the video card in the laptop was slightly less powerful than the video card he purchased for his gaming desktop (which is currently not working). That made him joke about wanting to get another laptop instead of trying to fix his computer. I know when he's joking, though, and while he may have said he wanted a laptop in a joking manner, I knew we would probably end up getting another one. :p BF got paid Friday and I did a quick calculation of the money in the account along with what had to be paid. I told he we could get a laptop for him if he wanted to spend the money on the laptop instead of fixing his desktop. (Office Max is having a killer sale on the Toshiba laptop I bought.) The store didn't actually have the laptop in stock, but another of their stores in Elk River had one, so it's being shipped here and we should be able to pick it up on Monday or Tuesday. BF has been hogging my laptop to play Mass Effect because the graphics are better on the laptop than the desktop. Maybe now that we EACH have a laptop, I can actually use mine. Funny thing is, I bought the damn laptop because he was using my computer all the time. Now that we each have a laptop, my poor computer won't be used for much at all. I guess Big A can use it for school stuff if we put it in the living room. The desktop was purchased last year for about $50 *more* than the laptop price. Go figure. At least BF can play his games now. Maybe I'll actually see more of him, since his desk is still set up in the living room. :)
With being sick this week and dealing with Big A drama, I *still* haven't had a chance to cut up and sew together all the cloth I bought last week for toilet paper, tissues, baby wipes, and paper towels. Yesterday was the first day I felt well enough to actually get up and *do* anything. Today we are going bowling. Saint Cloud State hosts a Bowl-A-Thon every year at the end of February to help the Make A Wish Foundation. Bowling and shoe rental is free and you can donate at the door. Food and drink items still have to be purchased and I'm not sure if any of those sales go to Make A Wish, but the bowling alley is usually pretty packed. The event runs from 11:00 AM until 2:00 PM. This will be the third year we've gone and I'm really looking forward to it. BF found a bowling ball and a bowling ball bag for me on two different thrift store trips. I took the ball last year to try it out and it's the perfect weight for me. This year I get to bring the ball in my nifty bowling ball bag! :D I'm not really good with large crowds so I'm hoping we get the lane we've ended up with the last two years. It's right next to a huge divider for the lanes that's perfect for sitting on and also acts as a bit of a buffer. Big A will be sitting this family even out as part of her consequence for stealing. I wonder if Little A will want to bowl.
If I want to actually be able to get everyone ready in a few hours, I should probably go back to bed!
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