Family and More

Holy smokes have we been busy! First, we had some family over. While, yes, we always have family visiting, these particular guests are special. These were the family members from Aaron’s Dad’s side of the family. They came in from around the country and although we actually gathered for a bit of a somber reason, Aunt Nedda’s stone unveiling, we were happy. It was actually the first time in about 14 years that Aaron got to see one of his half-brothers from Texas, and it was the first time a lot of them got to actually meet Baby Girl. As expected. The little one charmed the pants off of everyone she met and she even “asked” her uncle Azzy to hold her hand. I was so proud. It almost made me tear up. :) Of course the weeks leading up to the big family visit was chaotic. Aaron and I did our best to get things in order around the house. We burned through boxes from the move, stained the deck, brought over deck furniture, and gave the entire house a second thorough spring cleaning. We would have liked to have the back yard projects finished but the lawn guy blew us off a few times. But alas the family visit was entirely too short. The good thing is; we made a verbal agreement to try to get together on a yearly basis. I think prior to this visit, some people in the family were kind of hesitant to communicate, let alone get together. But if held to it, I think there’s hope for an honest-to-goodness close family tie. I know Aaron hopes that’s the case anyway. Since the baby was born making sure she knows where she comes from, and making sure she knows who her family is, has become important. Oh and while there are other big and exciting things I will eventually write about, there is one thing I am very happy to share now. Aaron and I have decided it’s time to get another pup. We’ve been looking around—wait, let me rephrase that, Aaron has been looking around at puppies. At first he said he’s just looking to see what’s out there… yadda, yadda, yadda... Next thing I know we’re driving around looking at dogs and yesterday we found an adorable little Pug that we just had to get. He’s a wee little thing but so darn cute! Aaron worked out the details today with the breeder, so in two weeks I will have a photo of the four legged little one.

A little Green in the Gills.

Oh what a wonderful thing it is to wake up to a puking child, especially when it's three in the morning and she is right next to you, on your bed! Yep, this was the scene on Tuesday morning. The little one wasn't in the mood to eat the previous evening and was feeling a little cranky so I wasn't surprised to get a 3:00 wake-up call from the monitor. Luckily, Aaron is wonderful and answered the call. After unsuccessfully trying to get her to fall back asleep he brought her over to me. She fell asleep within a few minutes. I drifted off too because the next thing I know Aaron is waking me up in a panic. The baby puked. Awesome! We finished cleaning her, the bed, the mattress and ourselves, just in time for my alarm to go off. Sweet! The rest of the day wasn't much better. Baby Girl had exploding diapie issues and more puking! She even managed to get vomit in the vent on the oven door, so that Aaron had to open the thing up and clean inside it. I didn't even know those opened like that. Last night she slept most of the night. I got a 4:00 wake up call. But she seemed okay. I brought her over to our bed (so should have listened to the voice in my head that said, 'don't do it.') and about ten minutes later, ta-dah! The difference was that at least this time around, I was awake. She looked at me, gave me a sad face and blech... I ended up wearing most of it. And the bit that did land on the bed, I scooped up before it got to do any damage. So there I was, child on one arm, a vomit laden hand stretched out, reeking of sour milk (or good cheese), all the while trying to wake Aaron up. Of course the part that made it funnier is that during the cleaning process, she had an explosion in the diapie. Ahhh... fun.

Keep Things Tidy And We Wont Have Issues

I swear it always seems like my two children (Aaron and Evan) are always the messiest on the days I clean. I'm talking about, minutes after I clean.

On Saturday I spent some time vaccuming and sweeping. I didn't want to spend my entire day cleaning so I saved the bathroom and steaming the floors for yesterday. I ran some errands and low and behold, I get back home and find dirt paths leading from the door to Evans room and to mine. Now, I made it a rule that if you enter the house, you take off your shoes. It's an old habit from my Mom's family, I can't help it, I'm Asian. Aaron wanted this rule enforced because we had the floors redone. Why then were there two sets of muddyish footprints? I screamed. Evan took it upon himself to clean since Aaron was asleep. I later almost flipped my lid again when the livingroom looked like a videogame store blew up. I began to clean but made it obvious that I was not going to finish by myself (I kept moving in the way of the TV and asking questions about where covers were, etc). They took over the cleaning.

Then yesterday comes along. First thing I did was clean the hell out of the bathroom--it wasn't dirty or anything, I just like to keep bathrooms and kitchens as immaculate as humanly possible-- and finish the floors. Minutes after I finish, Aaron comes home, takes off his shoes this time (the staredown could have had something to do with it) then heads into the bathroom. I walk in there to get something after he finished and immediately got really pissed off. He spilled mouthwash around the floor and just left it. I screamed. I understand that spills happen. Hell, they happen every day, but why leave them?!

So yeah. He cleaned up after himself, but I stil got the swiffer out and gave it a once over. Sigh... It's always worst on cleaning days, I swear.

Going to Extreme Measures

I'm not the world's biggest neat freak, but I am up there. I can't help it, I like it when things are where they're supposed to be but if that can't be managed, at least I like to have things clean and I mean not dirty, sticky, gross in general or stinking.

So lately I've been having a losing battle over the dish sponge. I can NOT stand it, I repeat, CAN NOT stand it when the thing is left of the little dish wet so that the next time you use it, it's all stinky. Gross! That's when I take the damn thing and nuke it or chuck it. I normally replace the sponges fairly often anyway but what really cheeses me off is when this happens to a new sponge. Blech!

Now most of you know that in order to save up for a home in the very near future, Aaron and I have been living in the apartment with his brother. So I have had the daunting task of training the both of them out of the bachelor lifestyle. The sad passive aggressive fight over the sponge has been between Aaron's brother and myself. But after telling him outright to squeeze the damn thing out after using it last night, and him telling me, "you got it." He went and did it anyway. There it was this morning in it's soggy, stinky glory. I chucked it.

The crazy thing is, this has been going on since I moved in. At first it was impossible to pick out the culprit. We all did the dishes and I was never home to catch the person in the act. But since I haven't been working, Aaron hasn't washed so much as a butter knife, leaving one other person. Ta-dah! I've asked several times but he must think I only meant for him to squeeze the damn thing out on those occasions. So I made myself clearer. I explained why I get annoyed adn he seemed to understand the reasoning, but the problem persists. So this morning, I decided to take it a step further.

I thought, perhaps it's not a matter of not wanting to do it. Perhaps it's a matter of being too F***ING forgetful. So I put up a hot pink sticky note at the sink with the words, "SQUEEZE OUT THE SPONGE! Or I WILL Squeeze it out on your head!" I mean it too. That thing will get wrung out on his head. The note is right at eye level so unless he's also blind, he shouldn't miss it.

So... who's willing to place a bet?

Ah Yes... It's the Return of The Crazy

Aaron had to call me out last night. As most of you know, when I get stressed I clean obsessively. So yesterday as I was letting things I learned (points to hit during my interview on Monday, etc) run over in my head, I began cleaning. Aaron made the booboo of getting in my way a few times and insist I let him help. This just throws off my rhythm. BAD.

So I kinda started getting progressively snippy with him, till it got to the point where I just told him to "get the fuck out of my way." He let me go about my business and after a few hours I was back to normal and the place was friggin' spotless (even the linen closet got the full work over, refolded, resorted and looking like it's ready for display in Martha Stewart Living). I tried talking to him and he was snippy as hell. I then made the booboo of asking him why he was so friggin' snippy with me. Yeah it wasn't pretty. He went off for quite a while.

The problem was that the previous day I asked that he and his brother help keep the place tidy during the week. I don't like having to come home and find dishes all over the house and having the bathroom look like a can of shaving cream exploded. What he didn't understand was that this kind of cleaning has nothing to do with my crazy, big cleanings. When this happens, I will not speak, much less ask for help, unless of course I'm trying to move the book shelf to dust behind it or something equally nutty. I've told him before that when I get into that zone, for his own good, don't bother me. His brother did the smart thing, he hid in his room. But yes, poor Aaron was confused and was trying to help and didn't recognize what was happening. I felt bad.

I apologized and all was good again, but still, bad things happen when Ms. Crazy comes along. Poor guy... perhaps I'll making him a nice steak dinner, or take him out tonight.

Super Toilet!

I've just spent the last few minute laughing my head off in the bathroom.

Okay, so most people know that I am not exactly in my right mind and occasionally things creep in there from out of no where. So as I mentioned earlier, I live with my husband and his brother until we have enough money set aside to purchase a mortgage on what will hopefully be our home before we die. This being the case, I have been fighting the good fight to break their bad habits and turn them from bachelors into humans :). So far, I'm winning, they are too afraid I will leave things like tampon boxes out or start screaming/ crying.

So yeah, in this seemingly impossible quest, I not only cleaned the bathroom to a state I can only call, immaculate, I went out and got one of those Lysol toilent, hangy thingies. The ones you hook onto the side of the bowl so that it can clean every time you flush. Yeah, those. I put the thingy in there and give it a test flush, then notice the main jet of water is right smack in front of the toilet. So I moved it over and gave it another test flush. The test went horribly wrong. The water didn't like the obstruction so it splashed all over the place. This is when I thought "Super Toilet! So. Much. Water.... Geh!"

This is a quote from one of my favorite contemporary cartoons, "The Fairly Odd Parents." There was an episode where the main character, Timmy, wishes for a spiffy new bike. Wanda and Cosmo, the fairy godparents, warn him against making any wishes for "super" anything and remind him of what happened when he wished for Super Toilet. At which point Cosmo yelps, and goes into the fetal position sucking his thumb and says, "So. Much. Water." So yes, all of these things combined made me crack up even though I was mopping up the water the toilet spit out all over the place. Thank goodness the bathroom was already super clean. :)

I moved the thingy over to the side.

Oh yes, and the non sequitur thought of the day: I just remembered how much I love the Pet Shop Boys version of "Always On My Mind." Just heard it on Yahoo Music.