Update

Aaaahhhhh.....that would be my big sigh of relief.

We have been really busy lately. We are finishing up our yard before the weather completely turns, the inside still has to be done often, we are watching Bella 5 days a week and life is moving at a fast pace.

On a good note, I am done Christmas shopping. Three of the things I ordered are not in yet, but what I have is wrapped too. My goal this year is not to be rushed in any way shape or form and to actually enjoy the holiday season.

Every year something is being done at the last second. I am either still trying to find that perfect gift on Christmas eve, sending out Christmas cards on the 20th & hoping they make it on time or I am up wrapping until 2 a.m. on Christmas eve. Not the case this year. I am waiting on three things so I can wrap them, all others are done, my Christmas cards are ordered, in and addressed. They need stamps and dropped in the mail box only.

And, this is crazy to me, but Mike and the girls put up our Christmas tree this weekend! I have never done it this early and never wanted to do it this early, but when he said he wanted to, I ran with it, so now our tree is up too.

Things around our house are a lot better, but they got a lot worse first, unfortunately. And really unfortunate is the fact that it was my fault! Long story short I am going next month for a blood test to check my hormone levels.

There is the quick synopsis of what is going on in the house of the Stevenses.

WW - Trick or Treat!

A very busy weekend and hopefully a lesson learned!

So this weekend wasn't supposed to be busy, but it was a crazy one anyways.

Friday Mike cleaned all day so I could just relax and hang out with my girls. The quality time with them is definitely lacking unfortunately. So Friday night after dinner I took Taylor and Bella to the mall with me. Then Taylor and I took Bella home and we headed to Wal-Mart (I can't stand this store and avoid it at all costs.) It wasn't too bad and when we got home Callee had cuddled up to Mike and fell asleep. We moved her to her bed and got Taylor ready for bed too.

Saturday I took Callee with me to K-Mart and grocery shopping. We ate a little lunch while we were out too and the plan was to watch a movie with the girls when we got home. Well, Callee lost a necklace she got in Disney World and asked me to help her find it. I did except her helping was sitting on the couch and every time she saw me she asked, did you find it yet? When I'd say no and continue looking she'd get mad I hadn't found it....did she help at all? NO!!!!!!

While I was looking for the necklace I noticed they weren't really appreciating or taking care of their toys. I went to talk to them about their responsibilities and losing things and taking care of their stuff. They seemed to care about nothing at this point. I told them I was telling Santa and everyone else no toys for Christmas and they still didn't care. I told them I was throwing out all their current toys and no reaction! Then I told them they couldn't go to the movies with my dad, that started the water works!

After talking to them and Mike, we decided to let them go with my dad and it would be the last for a very long time. We told them when they got back they would have no toys and they didn't seem to care. As soon as they left I got busy sorting and storing and disposing of toys! I kept 3 bins of toys that are sorted into babies, dollies (includes barbies, princesses and Tinkerbell) and Build a Bear dolls and outfits. They have to earn their toys back one bin at a time and on Wednesday if all goes well they can pick one. They are not allowed to know what is in each one, they get what they get. They can pick another one next week and then if they are still being good they can get the last one two weeks from Wednesday.

Here is what they were allowed to keep (I didn't want them having nothing and driving me absolutely insane): they still have their art center (art easel, coloring books, crayons, markers and paint), their puzzles and their books. They have all their CD's and their CD player. We threw away four bags of toys (McDonald's happy meal toys or they were broken or ruined) and we donated five garbage bags of toys to the Family Missions. Hopefully kids who have nothing will benefit from my children's ungratefulness and selfishness. So I told you how much they were allowed to keep and how much was tossed or donated and I wonder why they acted selfish and ungrateful? Because they are spoiled beyond belief. It stops now though, every Christmas and birthday they will help me go through the toys and make room for the new. No more McDonald's and Burger King junk cluttering up everything either.

I'll let you all know eventually if they learned their lessons, but so far they seem to be playing better together and handling it a lot better than I thought they would. Hopefully this will continue; we have had a couple of meltdowns when they realize their favorite toy is no longer right there, but rather packed away until they earn them back. Even then, they are not guaranteed to get their favorite back right away. I am hoping they will take better care of their toys through this and not lose so many or ruin them. Maybe they'll appreciate all they have and if they don't, my next step is ebay because really they do have some cool toys!

Sunday was pictures for all 5 of my parents grandchildren. Quite the adventure, but it's over and they came out cute. We went to Dairy Queen after and I don't know when the last time I laughed that hard was. After we got home Mike and I took the girls for a walk since it was 60 degrees (heat wave around here.) After our walk the girls rode bikes in the driveway and Mike and I dug up the flower beds in the front and side of the house; hoping to get to the back soon. We had some weeds and bushes that decided to plant themselves and some were deep and could have been expensive to fix had we waited much longer (one plant was starting to root into the wall of the basement.) It's done now and I'm glad; hopefully it'll make spring planting a little easier too.

So that was our weekend. I'm glad Mike cleaned Friday so I didn't have to, but apparently I will always find something that needs done!

The bad!

The bad - there has been some turmoil in Mike's family. Let me give you a little background information first to help you better understand. Mike's family is so not like mine. My family (aunts, uncles, cousins, etc.) is full of petty turmoil and jealousy. Mike's family has never in the 7 years we've been together even had a little spat of any sort. They accept anyone, they don't care if you're rich, poor, beautiful, ugly, etc. What you don't want to do is make them mad because once you're out and you offended someone, you are out for life. They do forgive people, but there are certain lines you can never cross and expect to get back in.

With that out of the way, Mike's cousin dated this girl for a while and was going to propose (bought the ring and all.) A week before he planned on proposing she brought up in a conversation how she wasn't ready to get married and even though they didn't break up at that time things were strained (she didn't know he was going to propose or that he bought a ring.) In this time she gives Mike's sister this sob story of how she's going to lose this and that if she doesn't come up with $600 & Mike's sister being the kind, naive person she is lends it to her. She still hasn't seen the $600 & to say she is a little pissed off is an understatement. 3 weeks after that conversation they had broken up and she got a little psycho. She started dating someone else, but would drive by his house to see if anyone was there. When she found out he was dating someone else she called me and asked if this certain car was the new gf's cuz she was going to key it (it was actually Mike's sisters new car!) She followed him different places and pretty much stalked him for about 6 more months.His new gf got pregnant, the family seemed to like her, but things were always rocky between them. He wanted her to quit smoking and she needed to find a job asap. They bought a house, he helped raise her child and the one they had together and at family things they seemed happy, but he complained about her and she complained how he treated her at home.

One day she decides to move to FL. They sign a joint custody agreement for BOTH the girls and she moves and leaves them here until July. In the meantime Mike's cousin starts dating the psycho again who now has a 10 month old little girl with someone else (Mike's cousin's daughter is now 2 1/2.)The family is in an outrage about it because this girl is literally insane. Nobody wants her around, he's defensive if you ask him one little thing and everyone's fighting. One sister (Mike's cousins mom) won't talk to the other 2 because they feel like they are ganging up on her son. 2 weeks ago this is the same woman who wouldn't talk to her own son because she was upset with his decision. Also the new gf is telling his mom not to talk to his ex who is the mother of her granddaughter! She is a grown woman being told who she can and can't talk to. Needless to say, it's just not a great situation. During all of this B, Mike's cousin, stopped talking to me all together because I was "disrespectful" to his gf. Rude, yes; disrespectful, absolutely not!

So on Sweetest day he proposed to her. For the sake of the family and family gatherings I figured it was time to try to make amends. I don't have to be friends with her and chat on the phone, but I can be cordial and polite to her at family gatherings. I texted him "congrats" on Monday. An hour later Mike's sister calls me and says, get on Mike's fb page and look at B's wall (I'm not friends with him on there anymore because she got on there and deleted me!) I do and she wrote on his wall, "Listen up ladies, fake congrats are not needed or wanted for that matter! You know who you are so just shut up!" I couldn't leave a comment under Mike's name so Mike's sister said she was going to. She simply said, "Ok this is getting ridiculous. The person you are talking about probably will never see this so does it just give you satisfaction to talk behind her back? Are we 5 and have to post stuff on fb or can we just say it directly to them? She was genuine in her congrats, trying to be the bigger person and make amends so until you talk to her don't jump to conclusions." She commented back, "There you go starting stuff and assuming you know who I'm talking about. It's not about her or anyone in B's family for that matter! By the way, did you even congratulate B?"

In the meantime (the next morning) B sends me a text that says, "Thanks for the congrats." I texted back, "Your welcome. Just figured if you were going to marry her it was time to make amends for the sake of family functions. I don't want anyone to be uncomfortable and I don't think it's right to shut one person out of a family and I am definitely not asking Mike to turn his back on his family." He texted back, "I agree 100% thanks for taking the initiative." So a couple hours later I said, "Since we're on the same page again, what she said to Tina (Mike's sister) was rude and uncalled for. If she wants people to like her and give her a second chance, maybe she shouldn't be such a bitch." He said he didn't know what was said, but he'd look and then talk to her. Tina went to respond to her later and the whole post was deleted, not just the comments. If it wasn't about me then why'd she assume that's who Tina was talking about and why'd they take down the whole post, not just the rude comments? Kind of makes me wonder.

My next step after talking to Mike is going to be to write a letter to them with everything I feel and want to say in it. I said in the letter, I welcome civil responses! Hopefully this will be resolved by Thanksgiving, because I can be really mean and vengeful and I will make her as uncomfortable as possible at Thanksgiving if I need to. The moral of all of this is she can say what she wants, but when confronted it's suddenly "not about who you think." Yes it was and you had the courage to say it thinking it wouldn't get back to me and I wouldn't see it, but since you got caught you have to lie and cower. Maybe you shouldn't have said it at all then!

So now that my rant is over, can you tell I'm just a wee bit upset and frustrated by immature, psychotic people? By the way she is 29 and he is 32 so we're not talking about a 19 or 20 year old just being ridiculously stupid!