Allow me to introduce myself...

I think the name Scatterbrain Mommy fits me to a T. That is me in a nutshell. I will start one thing, change gears to another and then go off onto another project. Sometimes my head is just all over the place.
I have a beautiful little boy who keeps me on my toes 24/7. He truly is a joy to be with (99% of the time). I have the pleasure of staying home with him and love every minute of it.
I will say this a million times, I love my family and don't know what I would do without them. But, man they can make my blood boil. Not just my in-laws but my regular family too.
This blog will be a great outlet for me. When I have things on my mind, I like to get them out in the open, but don't have an avenue to do so.
Enjoy this bumpy road we will all take together!

phone call fun.... NOT

So R called his parents last night. They informed us that they are planning on coming down next weekend... they thought about coming this weekend, but figured we may have plans. They told us they really wanted to come for our anniversary, but didn't want to "impose".... yeah well since we aren't going to be here for that Friday that won't quite work anyway.

Then my mother-in-law (m-i-l) says... so are you going to find time to come down here this summer. R very coolly said... nope we aren't visiting ever. We have told them many times that we are working on trying to find a time that we could visit over the summer. Why is it that they can tell us with a week's notice and we have to make our plans a month or more ahead of time? When we told them the dates we are planning on going down, my m-i-l said "you made my month". They then proceeded to tell us again that they plan to teach the boys to swim that weekend... yeah it really ends up being one day that we are there because it's a 3.5 hr drive so Fri and Sun are spent in the car... hellooooo you can't teach someone to swim in a day.

They then told us that they are coming up early on Friday. If R isn't home when they get here, they think they are going to send me out for the afternoon... yeah ... ummmm NOOOO! Even R says no way! So I looked at him and said... so you are taking a half day on that Friday right??

I am so not looking forward to their visit, but I'm dreading the visit down there even more... so much for a fun and relaxing summer!

Not Me Monday

I figure Not Me! Monday, a blog carnival created by McMomma, is perfect for this blog. What is better than complaining about your family in the format of saying it would never happen? Be sure to pop over to My Charming Kids and check out McMomma and all the other great Not Me! Monday posts.

1. I did NOT avoid cleaning my house even though I was having out of town relatives over for a visit on Friday.

2. I would NEVER wish that said out of town relatives were not coming over because well I could care less if I saw them

3. I DIDN'T botch the brownies I was making to serve them because I was leaving to go out to lunch with my hubby.

4. I would NEVER salvage said brownies by making them into a trifle.

5. I did NOT eat the rest of said trifle today after eating salad for lunch

6. I would NEVER get ticked off at my grandmother for feeding C (my 1 year old) some of the chocolate pudding from the trifle AFTER I had given him some and he spit it out

7. I would NOT also give it to my son B (2.5 yrs) and watch him spit it out in his hand too

8. I did NOT feed my family leftover pizza for dinner on Sunday after just having pizza on Friday (yep with the relatives... I would never be so lazy as to serve guests pizza)

9. I did NOT create this blog as a place for me to complain about my relatives without them reading about it

10. I did NOT create the OMG stories as a place for the rest of you to complain about yours too (read the side bar if you're interested)

11. I am NOT hoping that posting on NMM will bring more traffic to my little blog here

12. I'm NOT glad that things are going a bit smoother in McMomma's life so she can have NMM again.

13. I'm NOT going to go visit some of the other NMM blogs to see whatelse everyone is not doing.

She did what?

Gosh, what does one do when a friend/family member is walking into a reeeealy bad decision? I guess nothing huh? Worst part is she knows its bad but is doing it anyways and when it all falls apart, she'll expect to be rescused, like some deliberate damsel in distress. You see, one of my SILs is going to be marry the father of her baby. The same worthless guy who has cheated on her CONSISTANTLY, who put her out on the side of a TX highway at midnight WHILE she was pregnant cuz he got mad at her for telling him to slow down (oh he was driving drunk too), who has never bought the child anything, same guy who gave her a dreadful disease-the kind that never goes away, who has disrespected everyone in her family, who joined the military and refused to claim his daughter so she could get medical benefits, who she has tried to move in with before and it lasted a whole 3 days before he kicked her and his kid out....shall I go on? I could. And after all the abuse and neglect shes actually going to marry him and move to TN. Seems just like a few weeks ago she was calling me all upset cuz he got caught cheating again. How am I supposed to react? Its a joke. If I congratulate it, its like I am condoning it. If I say nothing or how I feel, then I am a "hater". I just don't get it....

Aloha Friday (week 2)

Thanks to Kailani at An Island Life for starting this fun for Friday. Please be sure to head over to her blog to say hello and sign the Mr. Linky there if you are participating.

In Hawaii, Aloha Friday is the day that we take it easy and look forward to the weekend. So I thought that on Fridays I would take it easy on posting, too. Therefore, I’ll ask a simple question for you to answer. Nothing that requires a lengthy response.

If you’d like to participate, just post your own question on your blog and leave your link below. Don’t forget to visit the other participants! It’s a great way to make new bloggy friends!

the question is.... Do you trust all of your relatives to watch your children?

I personally do not. My parents watch my children when we are away. R's sister has watched them too from time to time. I do not trust R's parents to watch them. And at this point, R agrees with me which helps a bit.

Motivation

I am trying to find motivation today. My cousins are coming over tomorrow. They are down from NY and CT to visit my grandfather. While growing up I had little to nothing to do with them, and now have even less. I know that is sad, but it is very true. Growing up my brother and both cousins were cared about a lot more than me. My cousins thought they were better than me and to tell you the truth I could care less what they thought.

I know I should clean the house and get things ready for the visit, but I just don't feel like it. I don't feel like I care enough to do anything. I wish they weren't coming over, but at the same time I'd rather them come her instead of me packing the boys into the car and driving out there to see them.

Do you ever find that you can't get motivated to get ready when you don't want to do something? Do you have family members who you just could careless if you saw again?

Sleep Overs

My kids have never slept anywhere but at home. (not counting family vacations when we all sleep in a hotel) On the off chance that my hubby or I are not home at bed time, my mom watches them at our house, puts them to bed, and waits for us to get home. On the even more rare chance that we are away over night, my mom watches them at our house so they can sleep in their own beds and she sleeps in our guest room. (Do you notice a trend here that my mom always watches the kids and not the MIL?? She never watches our kids for us- but that is another post for another time). So, my kids have never had a sleep over- they have never slept anywhere but home. My theory was that it was always easier for them to be in their familiar environment, in their familiar bed, etc - keep as much normal for them. I'm not against sleep overs, I just thought my kids were too little and would freak out or something. They are only 5 and 2. So my question is -- have your kids had sleep overs? I don't mean school kid fun sleep overs - but when you are not at home at night, what do you do with your kids? Someone come to your house or your kids go to someone else's house? What are your thoughts on the whole thing?

Your OMG stories

Ok... here's my thought. I know that a lot of you have stories to share. My guess is you'd love an outlet for them.... so here you go!

Want to share your OMG stories? All you have to do is send Mommy Vent an e-mail with your story and she will post it on the blog. Think of it as a Dear Abby type thing (without the advice doled out by Mommy Vent). All you have to do is write a "Dear Mommy Vent here is my OMG story" and sign it how you want it posted on our blog. You pick the name... if you want it linked to your other blog... let me know. If you don't it won't be.

Think of this as your place to gripe about your in-laws, out-laws and well all the rest of your family crap, without them knowing what you have to say.

So what do you think?? Like it, love it, or hate it??

I'd like to post them on Thursdays for now... if I get a lot I'll do it more than one day a week.

Send your OMG story to mommyvent@gmail.com

Father's Day

So... who has a story to share about the drama of Father's Day?

Not me, we stayed home. My parents came over to pick up some stuff they needed. They didn't give us much notice, but they only stayed about an hour, and since they live 45 min away they actually spent more time on the road then here so at least it wasn't us doing the driving I guess.

R called his parents, but we called while the boys were awake... so they were more interested in talking to B than us. Or should I say mimicking B. B has some major articulation issues and most people can't/won't/don't understand what he is saying. They think it is ok to just copy what he is saying and go on from there... yeah NOOOO!

So did anything interesting happen with your family for father's day? Here's your chance to vent and get it off your chest... type as much as you need. Our blog is your blog... post away!

Aloha Friday

I thought this would be a fun way for you to find our new-ish blog!

Thanks to Kailani at An Island Life for starting this fun for Friday. Please be sure to head over to her blog to say hello and sign the Mr. Linky there if you are participating.

In Hawaii, Aloha Friday is the day that we take it easy and look forward to the weekend. So I thought that on Fridays I would take it easy on posting, too. Therefore, I’ll ask a simple question for you to answer. Nothing that requires a lengthy response.

If you’d like to participate, just post your own question on your blog and leave your link below. Don’t forget to visit the other participants! It’s a great way to make new bloggy friends!

And the question is... Do you vent about your family on your blog??

As you can see by my reasoning for creating this blog, I don't post my vents on my original blog as too many family members read that one!

Thanks for playing along... stop by and visit again.... you never know when someone will have a great vent.

When are you coming down?

R called his parents last night to tell his dad about something he read in a magazine... typical reason for him to call kind of thing. They were asking about his job, which had been CRAZY busy for April and May. And, other typical parent type phone conversation things. I was only privy to one side of the conversation which is fine with me (o:

R. casually mentioned that we'd booked our hotel for our anniversary trip... one night away for the two of us. Then yet again, his mother put the guilt on about us going down there this summer. We have straight up told her that we are planning to visit over the summer, but we haven't figure out when yet. R again told her... yes we will visit this summer, but we haven't figured this out yet. I muttered under my breath... and if you keep pushing it the answer will change to no we aren't coming down!

The thing that drives me crazy about this is when they come up here we are lucky to get a week's notice and they don't ask if they can come up... they just tell us they are coming. Why do we have to give them notice if they don't have to give it to us? My guess is they are hoping that we come early and then they can try to guilt us into coming down again... yeah NOOOOO!

Another Crazy Mommy Here

Hi All! Mommy Vent invited me to join this blog and I jumped right on the chance! I love my hubby - but I don't always love the way his family acts. So....this seemed like a good way to vent those frustrations. For now I'm just stopping by to say hi- but this weekend I have to see most of hubby's fam and then at the end of the month we go stay with them for a week. Don't worry- I will have some good stories to tell you! We never make it through these events without a few meltdowns (and that's just me!). Stayed tuned for some fun times with all of us and thanks again for letting me join the blog!

Typical

So I get a 2 line email from the MIL asking if we plan to come to the family get together this Sunday to celebrate Father's Day.
Sure, we'll go....not like I can really say no anyway. So I reply back to count us in and ask what we should bring to the festiviites. She replies back that SHE would really like some homemade pasta salad and specifies not the box kind.
Sure ok. I can try to do that I guess. I usually start with the box kind as my base and then morph into something my own...but whatever.
What irks me is that I will spend the extra time and extra money and you wanna know what she'll bring? Her appetite.
Sigh. I am sure I sound petty, but it pesters me. If this didn't all the time it might not, but it does. Anyone else feel my pain? LOL

DH Momma Drama

Howdy Folks! I'm honored to be invited by Miss Mommy Vent to share here as well. I hope we can keep you entertained...oh where do I begin?

So had myself a little MIL drama over the past couple days. I will first say I've been lucky. I don't have an MIL from hell or anything, but there's no mistaking, there are IssueS...with a capital I and S. Most recently yesterday. Appears I was hateful and completely self absorbed for not calling her and basically asking permission for my, MY, son to have a very simple, routine ear tube removal. I swear to you, we talked about this with her a few weeks ago at my neice's birthday party and umm...I even mentioned it on my usual blog, which she reads. But since she was "denied" the right to be there with him, at 6:15am for the whole 15minute-long procedure, I've been accused of keeping it a "secret" from her. Her words, not mine. Get over yourself woman. I am perfectly capable of handling such a situation. There was only one parent allowed back in the induction room before he went in to the OR anyway, so what the heck did she miss besides an early wakeup call and some stale waiting room coffee. Psshhhh. Whateva. I get that she is a nurse and is more familiar with things than we are, but really, it wasn't a big deal and he did just fine. To try to further make us feel bad, she calls up my SIL bawling over this silly crap. Then she asks my SIL if she will come get W and bring him over to visit her today. Sure...sounds good to me. J and I get a few free hours and W gets a field trip. It's all good.....just could use a little less crazy next time.

UPDATE: She called me about 30mins ago to apologize. Admitted she was really hurt and po'd about it. I tried my best to assure her there was no malice and had to promise to be more considerate next time (big fat eye roll).

Phone guilt

I got a phone call last night from my mother-in-law. She was calling to ask me something related to her job.. yeah like I care?? Anyway... She ended the conversation by putting on this fake sappy voice and telling me how much she would appreciate it if I would find some time this summer to bring the boys down for a visit. I told her it was in the works, but that didn't seem to be good enough for her. She continued to go on and tell me how she would teach my boys to swim and other stuff.

Yes, I know they would like us to visit, but their house is not kid friendly nor is there really any place for the 4 of us to stay. The last time we went there, for Thanksgiving, my husband and I slept on couches so that B and C could each have a room to themselves since they've never slept together and C wasn't sleeping through that night at the time. The room that C slept in, we could NOT let B sleep in because it is so messy there is no way they could clean it up enough for their to be a place for B to sleep and not get in trouble for touching everything. Even if hubby and I didn't sleep on the couches there is only a futon in his room and it is soooo uncomfortable to sleep on... or we could sleep on an air mattress... yeah still not comfortable. So neither of us gets a decent night sleep when we are there. Oh and a 3 hour car drive with a 1 year old and a 2 year old... yeah do you see why we don't go there often??

Don't you just hate guilt trips??

Favorites

As a child, I realized at an early age that my brother was favored over me by my grandparents. I tried to get their attention by going out of my way to do things to impress them, but yeah it never worked. As I grew older I realized it was so not worth my effort or the frustration... so I just grew away from them. To this day I do not really get along with my grandparents. I felt very little when my grandmother passed away a few years ago and still don't look back on this with regret.

I am now a mother of two little boys B who is 2.5 yrs and C who is 1. My in-laws were up this weekend to celebrate C's birthday. This visit solidified a feeling I've had since he was born... in they favor my older son. I have seen them one more than one occasion walk away from C to play with B. They have left C in a room alone because B has walked out to go do something else. They choose to play with B and C gets left out quite often.

This kills me. My husband sees it too, but we aren't sure what to say to his parents about it. I know that in time I will say something because I know what it feels like to be the child who is left out. I know how hard it is to see your sibling get all the attention and love.

I am not analyzing each moment spent. I'm not comparing time together... I'm looking at quality. I'm looking at the love displayed and the respect given. I just want C to be treated fairly. I just want him to feel loved.

My two sons are very different... but they are BOTH loving and caring children who deserve to be loved and respected by their family.