Because the Catholic Guilt is Weighing Heavily

I really don't have all that much time to enter a long, raucous, amusing post today, but since I know that a lot of you look to us and our trials to help make you feel better about your own mundane lives (super-just-kidding, please-don't-yell-it-was-a-joke), I will do what I can.

Let me see... We have had tons of family in town this past week, which though fun, is always messy, and now we're left with a pile of crap masquerading as a house, so that's cool.

Ry's 17 birthday parties went off without a hitch, full of bouncing, sweets, presents, farm animals, more sweets, carnival rides, more presents, swanky dinners out, more presents and sweets, etc... You'd think she'd be satisfied, but now all she can ask is, "When will I be 5?"

Oy vey. In another example of how the world revolves around Ryan (or so she believes), when we pulled up to the Rodeo/Carnival on Tuesday for her birthday, she loudly demanded, "Who invited all these people to my party???" It was truly a shining moment for me.

Then yesterday came and we went to the doc for her 4yr checkup where she aced the vision test by showing the doc that if she walked up closer to the eye chart, she could "see every letter perfectly!" Duh.

Then came the shots and I've never felt so guilty in my life. I hadn't actually mentioned them to her beforehand, other than to excitedly inform her that she would be getting some really cool vaccines, so when the needle hit, she tried to kill me. And the nurse. And Jax. Just about anyone in the vicinity, actually.

While we were there, the doc noticed Jax's wretched cough (one which all 3 of us have been afflicted with this week), checked his ears and declared that he had a raging ear infection and some bronchial spasms, aka "wheezing". That's always fun to hear.

So when that hour and a half was over, we spent another 90 minutes going to the store, dropping/picking up prescriptions, yelling at each other, etc...

Made it into the house at 6:25pm, just 2 minutes before Shawn barely made his curfew (I had a Habitat Workshop to be at at 6:45), we ran past each other, blowing kisses, questions, and instructions, and then I was off to, you know, help people and stuff.

I was so thrilled that he didn't complain once, and it would have been a splendid evening had I not had a pile of clothing to hang and tag for this weekend's charity consignment sale. Luckily, we had yet to put up the sleep-away couch from our house guests, so he was able to catch some zzz's while I worked upstairs.

Okay, I'm feeling stress just writing about all the shit that went on yesterday. Not to induce pity, because I am sooo above sneaky tactics such as those*ahem*, but I am so tense that I actually had my jaws clinched ala Steel Vice last night, and now all my teeth and every bone in my facial region is aching. ACHING!!!!!! (cue violins)

So now I'm frantically cleaning (umm, I mean, I'm going to start right now) so that Lea Ann, who is in town until tonight, and her friends can come and babysit my kids while I volunteer at the consignment sale in an effort to get more $$ back from my sales as well as first pick at the best stuff. It's not selfishness, it's just plain smart. Plus, Lea Ann gets a huge dose of baby love before she has to leave us again for who-knows-how-long, so I'm actually doing her a huge favor. At least, that's what I'll be telling her as I race out the door.

So there ya go, that's it in a nutshell; you may/may not hear back from me in the next few days, because along with all the crap I mentioned above, I also temporarily (I hope) lost my mind and volunteered to organize the groundbreaking on our next Habitat house, and need to have oh, you know, like 50 invites in the mail by tomorrow. Those invites that I've yet to be able to type up and print. hahahahahahahahahhaahahahahahaaaaaaaa *sound of my brains spilling out of my ears*