ROSES!!!

Red ones!!

In the previous post, I wrote about the contractor and finally beginning work on my bedroom. By noon, the ceilings were scraped, and the rest of the house was a mess (more messy than usual even). I had to get my BD1 to swim lessons, pick up my father for his haircut, go back and pick up BD1, go home, pick up BD2, who played with Little Eric all afternoon and get lunch for all of us and high step it to the hair cut, a 1/2 h our drive away.

By the time I finished talking with the painters, the contractor came by and talked some more. Now it was 12:30, we'd had no lunch and we needed to get back on the road. My poor dad agreed to take-out food, and got into the car.

For the next fifteen minutes, my eldest daughter and I "discussed" whether or not she would travel with us. After hearing her scream and whine and cry at me, and then screaming back at her, which I do not like to do at all, she still would not get in the car. She wanted to play with friends, none of whom were available nor close enough to not put us even further behind in our schedule. She knew this and continued to throw a huge tantrum. I finally got her in the car by threatening her with all kinds of punishments, er, consequences, including spanking and grounding; then I began to count. "1........2........3!" and she got herself moving toward the car.

Just as she got in the car, and I noticed I had nearly completely lost my voice over the verbal altercation, the phone rang.
"grrr," I thought. It was an odd area code on the caller ID, so I nearly did not answer it at all, but it was my Nordic Goddess calling to assure me she was all right even though we had not seen any blog updates or emails from her for a couple of days. Poor thing--I had not had time to calm myself before I answered the ring, and I must have sounded like a complete raving maniac when I said "hullo." I promised to phone her back when I was more calm and back from the errands, and am so relieved that she is ok.

I get in the car, and now it is ten minutes to 1:00 pm, the appointment is at 1:00 pm, and we are still a half-hour away. "Grrr" I thought. Our hair cutter friend is not too happy when you call and say you are late, no matter what the reason. I call, still angry at BD1, feeling so bad for my father, since he really needed this haircut, found out she would not be able to do his hair today if we were to be that late, and rescheduled the appointment for next Wednesday at the same time.

When I ended the phone conversation, I said sternly to my daughter that she had now ruined the schedules of 6 people that day, and was she happy now, for this as well as getting her way and not having to go with us.

Fuming inside, I calmly said she was grounded for 4 days not including today, which totals 4-1/2 days. That means no friends, no visits, no television, no video games, no PC games, no outings. She is going to be one bored puppy, since she was the cause of all the frustration of the day. Plus, I said, I would happily let her know during these 4 days how she inconvenienced me, since she seems oblivious to how much she actually does do this. Of course for this I am to blame, since I accommodate most of those inconveniences. However, I think I was trying to say, "No more Ms. Nice Mom."

Phoned DH, told him of the grounding. Was shaking inside, and beginning to feel exhaustion overtake my bones. Stood in a long line at the sandwich shop, took the drapes to the cleaners, got in the car, went home, set up lunch and sat down.

Several other little things happened to exacerbate my bad mood, including my father asking me where a lingerie shop might be located nearby, and I asked why after saying there isn't one nearby. He said he wants to get the Russian Beauty some lingerie as a gift. Now this woman is very kind and caring, besides attractive, and happily MARRIED. I the daughter had to explain to the father that this was entirely completely inappropriate behavior, and that a nice thank you card would be enough. I think the TIAs are still happening and affecting his inhibitions even more than before. Poor Poppy.

We get him back home in time for dinner, where I find myself overwhelmed by a bulging at the seams home from relocating everything in my bedroom to other rooms, plus laundry to fold and finish, plus dinner for the girls to think about. I get nearly everything taken care of, and am sitting at the counter, when in comes my Dearest Husband, my wonderful hero, with a dozen long-stemmed red roses.

That made the whole day worthwhile. I do love him.