Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Gotta get a new cleaning lady

This has been on my mind for, oh say, about 10 months (if not more). Our cleaning lady is also an employee at dog school and that makes the "firing" of her a little trickier than letting a stranger go. Here's the point and let me know if you agree. We have asked her to come at 12pm every other Wednesday. This has been the schedule for at the least the 2 and half years that we've lived in our home. Each time she shows up, it's at a different time. Sometimes as late as 2pm!!! That is impossible to deal with. I have 2 kids that definitely need naps and so I had asked her to come at 12pm because I thought she could clean before they needed to sleep. Well, since she comes late, more often than not, one kid is sleeping in the basement and one is sleeping in her room. This means that the entire basement, a bedroom, and one full bathroom doesn't get cleaned... and I still pay the same amount of money! That seems like a rip off. Can I get an Amen? So, the plan that we sort of forged today is to have Gabe tell her tomorrow at dog school that we are tight on money (isn't everyone?) and that I'll just do the cleaning for now. And, it's partially true. I do A LOT of cleaning on a normal basis (OCD anyone?) and for what we pay her we could probably get a whole crew of cleaners to do it in half the time and on time-which would seem like a luxury! So, that's the plan. It's hard to cut ties like this, but it's been irking me for so long and today I'm definitely at my rope's end. That's what happens when you're up with your chronic coughing daughter til 10pm at night all the while debating if going to California next month will even be doable? If she isn't better, then the trip seems too hard from the get. For example, how are we supposed to fly on a plane for 6 hours if she needs a neb treatment every 4 hours? Confusion and anxiety do not make for restful sleep. Sorry for the complaining- really trying to work on that!

Saturday, February 14, 2009

Happy Love Day

Valentines Day is upon us and ours is pretty much like most days. Although, my husband did come home from his meeting this morning to bring me a dozen dark pink roses and Maddie a little stuffed puppy. He said he was trying to think of what to get Grace, but we both sort of laughed. Clearly she won't remember today and not only that, what says "I love you" to a 5 month old? Oh yeah, a bottle and a hug :) So, today is good. Tomorrow Gabe and I are taking Maddie to see Disney on Ice. We are pretty excited to see the look on her face when she sees Bickey and Mimi in real life (translation Mickey and Minnie). Grace will stay with her grandparents and Maddie will have us all to herself. Sounds like true love to me.

Friday, February 6, 2009

Been a while

I've been a slacker blogger lately and for that I apologize. But, since this has been the home of all sicknesses (cold/cough, pink eye, and one bout of 24 hour throwing up bug) I've been a bit busy. We are doing better and since one of my resolutions is to complain less, I'll leave it at that. Last night Gabe and I had our weekly date night and the plan was for us each to go to our prospective meetings and then out to dinner. Well, as we left the house we came to a stop light and I noticed a man at a bus stop who had just pushed (possible punched) a woman in the face. At first I wasn't sure about what I'd seen, but as the light continued to be red, he continued to yell, scream and invade the woman's personal space. We called 911. The officer promised to send someone ASAP but I told Gabe we should park and watch because if they left or something worse happened I wanted to be able to tell the police. They left the bus stop and started walking towards a shopping center where we followed them and watched as the man attacked her from behind. He hit her in the head and Gabe got out of the car and yelled for me to call the police again. I did and they were there in a few minutes. I was yelling for Gabe to get back in the car (this man he wanted to approach was obviously a maniac). I had seen on TV that instead of getting into an altercation with the aggressor, you should simply offer the victim a ride or a way to get out of the situation. As I was preparing to do that, the cops got there. We drove away, too late for our meetings to go and headed to dinner. The cops called me and said that the couple was saying that nothing happened and that they are totally fine and in love. I have to say that I'm not surprised that happened. I've heard/learned/read about the fact that often if the man is in trouble for domestic violence the woman won't testify/agree about the violence because once he gets out of jail the abuse she'll suffer will be 100 x's worse. What an awful way to live. It hurt me to watch someone being so abused-right on a public street no less. It's hard for me to understand that kind of relationship and also for me to understand why people can be so harmful to one another. I told Gabe that this is too urban of an environment for me. I'm not naive; I know that crime, domestic disputes, etc. happen in every community, but it was a lot to take in. I still believe it was the right thing to do to call the police. I don't think anyone should ever stand by and think that it's not their business, etc. It's left me with a sour taste in my mouth, but at the same time I think we did the right thing. Opinions?