Just When You Think You've Seen It All...

Thanks to the end of Daylight Savings Time today my kids woke up at 6:30 instead of 7:30 so we were able to get out the door to enjoy the morning. I decided to take them to a local park where there are hiking trails and a playground. We took our hike first and that was a lot of fun. Although it was cold outside (mid forties), the sun was shining and we were moving around a lot so it was pleasant. We didn't see any wildlife but my son had fun pointing out the trail blazes on the trees for me and we got to say "hi" to a few other people out for a hike. One of those folks was a woman hiking with her yellow lab. She didn't say "hi" back but I figured maybe she was one of those folks that aren't too keen on kids or something. I forgot about her and we finished our hike.

The kids were thrilled to have the whole playground to themselves. I guess other people's kids observed the time change and obliged their parents by sleeping in. Anyway, we were having a blast and then, out of the corner of my eye, I saw the antisocial woman and her dog emerging from one of the trails. To my surprise she headed right for the playground. I was a little ticked that she was walking her dog across a playground (people aren't supposed to do that in case the dog poops or pees on the play area). However, I was in for an even bigger surprise when I heard her talking to her dog and saying something about slides. Yup, you guessed it. She had her dog walk up the stairs and pulled the dog's lead until it went down a slide. WTF? The dog had no desire to go down the itty bitty slide and she really had to baby talk to it and pull its lead to get it down. She did this several times until she'd had her fill.

How bizarre is that? Don't get me wrong, I love my pets and I've done some things that my neighbors must have thought odd like putting a harness on the cat and walking it around the backyard. However, this seemed a little more on the weird side than I felt comfortable with, ya know? Oh well, I guess people really do march to the beat of a different drummer.

On another note, I just wanted to say I had a blast on Halloween. My kids and I got dressed up and went trick or treating with my husband. The kids happily traded their candy in for new toys and now my husband and I are flying on sugar highs. Lovely. Anyway, here's pic of me in my pirate costume. It was nice having long hair again. LOL.

Getting Started

My first day as a blogger... yay! I should probably write something profound and catchy so that I can develop a group of followers who will hang on my every word, eagerly awaiting my next post. However, as usual, I'm too sleepy to think of anything like that. And, let's be honest, what percentage of blogs out there meet that criteria? I'm guessing not that many.

So, this is day five of my week from hell. My husband left us on Sunday afternoon for some work-related conference in Phoenix. Until he gets back on Saturday night, I'm here with my two kids (one is 3 1/2 and the other is 17 months old), four cats, a dog, two tanks of freshwater fish and not a shred of sanity left. I haven't really slept at all this week. My amazing, vibrating dog had a seizure early Monday morning and the rest of the nights I've had to cater to my son's night time needs - sitting potty, drinks of water and soothing night terrors. I battle insomnia as it is. Getting up in the middle of the night means I fall asleep again a couple of hours later after whatever crisis has been dealt with. It didn't help that last night my son was screaming at me that my breath was stinky. Gee, I should've thought to pop a breath mint during my sprint down the hall. Silly me.

Anyway, due to this lack of sleep I've been on the verge of tears at any given moment and my patience is nonexistent. The kids wonder where the nice mommy went to and when she'll be coming back. Coffee is my only friend. The cats are contributing to the madness by not using the litterbox and the dog is dog is redecorating the kitchen with goodies she finds in the garbage can. Yet, I love these animals and won't give them up even though my son and I are allergic to them. I must be crazy.

So, my big question for today is where did the strong, independent woman of my twenties go to? When did I become so needy and dependent on my husband? It seemed like once upon a time I could handle just about any crisis. I was going to take on the world. I was the one friends and family turned to for support. Now I'm the one who needs the help and feel like I can't function without my husband here to help out. I know that a large part of this is due to my having chronic fatigue syndrome, leaving me with an extremely low supply of energy but it's still hard to accept that. This is not where I expected to find myself at 36.