Let the cleaning commence!!!

The countdown is on... we have five days until the UK cousins arrive, and one floor of the house is almost ready! It sounds like we own a mansion, but really, the upstairs is DONE. Well, except the bathroom, and steam cleaning the carpets, and making sure ALL of the stuffed animals get put back in the closet, and clean sheets are put on the bed, and the kids laundry is done, folded and put away. Okay, a few things left upstairs. I am super happy with it so far, and I don't think it has been that clean EVER. Tomorrow I will tackle the kitchen (including mopping the floor). Whew. Today, Thomas and Glee almost fought over who got to help with the cleaning. It's great having an almost 7 year old and an almost 5 year old. Glee called out "I get the kitchen!" and Thomas shouted "I get downstairs bathroom! In the bathroom you get to use a special brush in the toilet!" A family member suggested recording them for posterity and future blackmail. All that's left is downstairs and the yards (yep, that's a good months worth of cleaning in 5 short days!). I am amazed daily at how much dust accumulates in our house. It's probably my biggest nemesis. I guess if I didn't have so many books and things I like to collect it would be easier.

Last night we had another successful Fairy and Mermaid tea party with delicious sunflower soup. The fairies even danced in a fairy ring on the grass and left dust everywhere. I love this stuff. I pulled my sunflowers out, they were done, and I think I may try planting corn over where they were. I heard it's good to plant corn and beans together, the beans will use the corn stalks to grow upwards. The soil in the one bed where the sunflowers were isn't great soil, and the sunflowers didn't do as nicely as last year. Still, we got four big flowerheads drying in the backyard, so we should have some good seeds. Cucumbers are going nuts, and tomatoes are starting to pick up a little. I might pick up a few plants from farmers market on Tuesday, since the guy there has great seedlings, and for only a dollar.

Well, now that we are all healthy and in prep for family, summer feels like it is finally here. We have plans for the visit, including Disneyland, Universal Studios, Griffith Observatory and Graumann's Chinese Theatre. Arizona, Grand Canyon, Hoover Dam, Vegas, it should be a nice trip for them, and I know we will be thrilled. We have been talking about this since, well, about forever!!!

Circus and other stuff!

No, really, this is going to be about the circus. Yes, Ringling Bros. Circus. We took the kids last night as a surprise, they didn't know they were going. X has had a fear of the circus his whole life, it's the clown thing, but even he had a good time! There were some amazing acts, like the seven motocross motorcycles inside the giant metal hamster ball cage thingy... and lots of people hanging on ropes and twisting around. Both kids really liked it but Thomas was done about 15 minutes before the end of the show and just wanted to go. I think it may have been overload. It was a full circus experience with snow cones eaten out of souvenir cups (Glee and Thomas got white tigers and X and I got clowns), just under $40 for a couple of nacho trays, a couple of hot dogs, a pretzel and four drinks (thank you Staple Center), and an experience to remember. I remember going to the circus with my grandparents when I was little (with my older brother), and I distinctly remember the cotton candy (no different now I tell you) and a little toy gun that sparked when you pulled the trigger (it must have been pointed at me a lot). Today we are going to draw pictures and write a letter to Grandma and Grandpa about the circus. They paid us a surprise visit this week, arriving on Monday and leaving yesterday. They came to collect some furniture from storage. We were really really happy to see them, and X and I got to take a dance lesson without kids for the first time in AGES. It was good. We actually learned something, and I think I will actually remember how to do it!

Today and tomorrow are the end of swimming lessons for the summer. Next week is prep week for the arrival of the European cousins! Yayay!!! I am making a list today of what needs to be done so we are prepared. I have been looking forward to this since, well, forever. I can't wait for them to get here. We are planning a three day trip to Arizona to see relatives (including my mom and dad who will be ending an entire month of travel I think), and show them a little of America (helllllooooo Grand Canyon!). Now it is time to go do some dishes. One of Glee's school friends may be coming over today and it wouldn't do to have a sink full of dirty dishes! Then it's off to swimming for an hour... more updates to come soon! Oh, I think we are all almost healthy again. I am coming off of a sinus infection, and even X got one this time (and man, he was not happy, let me tell you!). So, hopefully, the house of sick is almost closed!

Sick sick sick sick man I hate being sick

Today we were supposed to start phase 2 of summer swimming. Not going to happen today. Last night Thomas woke up at about midnight saying he had a headache and crying. He didn't eat his dinner, and he told us he had a headache because he didn't eat his dinner. He was SOBBING... and trying to get his pajamas on (because he fell asleep in my lap on the couch). So I helped him with that, gave him some Tylenol and settled him back down. 15 minutes later (just long enough for me to get back to sleep) he is crying again. X jumps up to go upstairs and I gather my pillows to sleep up there with him. He still has a headache, but he feels a little better when he realizes I am going to "sleepover" with him. So, we settle in... and at 3am he wakes up crying again, another headache. More Tylenol (to be given as directed every four hours... ha!), and back to sleep. I wake up all through the night to check on him. He kicks me... a lot... all night. So we get up this morning and Glee comes downstairs to tell me her ear REALLY hurts (great, ear infection). I can't seem to wake up (maybe because I never really went to sleep all the way) and it takes a WHOLE pot of coffee to get me moving. We all sound like we are heavy smokers (the cough, the grumbly voices), and I really feel like I need SLEEEEEEEP.

Okay, so we went to the doc for pink eye two weeks ago and waited an hour. We went for Thomas' cough last Monday, and waited 50 minutes. At that appointment the doc said to call if it got worse and they phone in a prescription. So today, I call at 9:25 and leave a message (because the doctors office isn't open? What?), and wait for a call back. No call, at 12:25 I call again and get a person, give her all the details, tell her I need a prescription phoned in to the pharmacy and she asks me for the pharmacy's number. I don't have it, but I figure her 411 works the same as mine, right? No. She tells me to get the number for the pharmacy and she will call back to get it of the doc okays the prescription. It's now 2:10pm. What the heck? Whatever happened to any sort of customer service? I am not asking for them to move a mountain. The bad thing is, I really like the doc, but this office situation IS NOT WORKING. What would you do? Who can I complain to about this? Just thought I would throw it out there. Time to try to get the office back on the phone.

What ever happened to respect?

Wow, so I have a rant to go on today. Yesterday was 4th of July, and we spent a mostly lovely day, first at our neighbor's house, they have a pool, and they are so generous! Delicious food, swimming for a couple of hours, and just generally being neighborly. It was really wonderful. Then we went to a fireworks show and family style picnic at the beach with another friend and her two children. We left about 4:30pm, fireworks were scheduled for 9:30pm... the event had two giant jumper slide things for kids, it was held at a lagoon (but the water was off limits [?!]) and there were crafts, Mad Science shows, a kids parade, live music, just a nicely planned event. Here's where the rant starts...

Why do people think they are entitled? I was standing near one of the giant inflatable slide things (a pirate ship being mauled by a giant squid nonetheless) and I had three kids with me... 4 1/2, 5 and 6 1/2. I saw more parents there cutting in the line with their kids (often the kids were 9-12), shoving other people, their kids would run over other kids, I even had to tell a couple of kids "hey, no cutting the line, all of these people are waiting their turns." Upon that I was often given dirty looks, sometimes ignored, and once in a while looked at like I had horns growing out of my head, but the kid would go to the back of the line so hey, my job was done. Then there were these two girls. I had to walk behind one of them to go around the inflatable and I said "excuse me." She looked right at me and didn't move. I was going behind her, not trying to cut the line! So I bumped her, because I was moving... she gave me a snotty look, then tugged on her friend's arm and said "she just HIT me!" and pointed at me. I looked at her and said "you should have moved when I said excuse me." So she is making faces at me and then she says "I'm going to go tell my mom!" I told her "sure, bring your mom over, I'd like to have a talk with her about YOUR attitude." She was flabbergasted and her friend said "come on, let's get your mom..." I was done, so I was standing in the other line with my three and she walks up with her friend and her mom and points at me and says "she HIT me!" I look at her mom who was looking for someone to blame for all this and I explained I walked BEHIND her daughter who didn't move when I said excuse me and I bumped her, and her daughter really needs to look out for the smaller kids in this area since she is too old to be over there anyway, and her daughter said "you didn't say anything to me, you just hit me, mom she's LYING." So her mom says "just forget it, just forget it" and they start to walk away and I hear the mom say "stay away from them, she's just MEAN." Oh man, I was mad. Later that SAME girl came running through the playground area and knocked my friend's three year old down (in the kiddie play area, where there were a bunch of pre-teens playing on the play equipment, playing tag). She barely stopped, and said "oh, he's okay..." and kept running.

Okay, you all know me. You know I am not the curmudgeonly type (normally!), but I want to know why kids in more affluent areas have this sense of entitlement. Like that pre-teen girl who thought she was on the same level as me, and her mom didn't change that. If I heard one of my kids talking to a grown-up (any grown-up) that way there would be big trouble for my kids! HOW DARE that girl think she can tattle on me, and then her mom let her believe she was right about it. What happened to respect? Not only was she disrespectful to me, so was her mother. I think we are doing a terrible disservice to our kids by believing that disresepect equals self confidence in our kids. It's one thing to stand up for what you think, it's a whole other thing to perpetuate the lie your kid is telling you. And that mom should have had some control. The problem is there is very little by way of control in the more affluent areas. Parents don't control their kids, the nannies don't control the kids, the rules don't exist. This girl wasn't the only example of this I encountered. There was a boy who kept pushing the smaller kids who was totally out of control at the slides. He ignored every adult there, and there was no adult there responsible for him. I was the only one who confronted him, and I had to warn the three with me to beware of him, he was out of control. There was a dad with two boys, probably about Thomas' age, who kept cutting the line with his boys. How do you tell an adult over and over that he's cutting the line. I said something to him once, and he said "my boy will throw a tantrum if he has to wait this long [?!... and your point?]." Hmm, yep, nice environment...

I have to say the fireworks were pretty, and the rain of fire that came with them was, well, nothing I had ever seen before... scary to me, but no one else seemed bothered. Kids were asleep in the car within minutes, and we are all wiped out today.

OH, last thing about respect... so we get home about 11, everyone goes to bed by midnight. About that time, this HUGE jerk who lives behind us decides it is a good time to launch his super loud, illegal skyrockets OVER OUR HOUSE. Okay, I'll give you one, but two more after that and I went to the backyard and screamed "stop it! Next one I am calling the cops!" So, two more later... I call the cops, and I go out back and turn my hose on full blast over the fence. Not sure if the message got through, but I didn't hear any after that. Man, that guy drives me nuts. Fireworks are completely illegal in the city we live in. Seriously, what are you teaching your kids with your flagrant and drunken abuse of the law.

...end of rant, thanks for listening.