Scheduling Conflict

Busy moms know that you need some way to keep it all together. And I don’t mean Xanax and vodka. I mean a way to coordinate playdates, birthday parties and school functions. Most people use a calendar to schedule things. I think I may have gone a bit overboard.
I have not one, but four calendars. Why four?? I’ll tell you.

1 monthly school calendar hanging by my phone at work. This shows all the kid’s days off from school, early dismissals and school events. I use it to plan out my own days off work, as well as anything I need to do or any place I need to be. When I’m not sure about something, I write it in pencil, so I can erase it easily. When it’s a firm commitment, I write it in pen. Only one of my dear friends knows this, and makes sure to tell me to write my plans with her IN INK. Yes, sometimes I need that reminder! This month, I have about 3 days not filled in. No wonder I feel a nervous breakdown coming on.

My Outlook calendar is used to remind me when to make phone calls, or when I have appointments during the day, Monday-Friday. Like say, an appointment with my retinal specialist on Wednesday, my dentist appointment on Tuesday, and drinks with a former co-worker on Thursday. Okay, so that one was at the END of the day, but still. Without that pop up, she may have waited at the bar for a week or so before I remembered, vaguely, that I was supposed to see her.

Both of those are condensed into a small checkbook style calendar that I keep in my purse. Prior to that little thing, if anyone called me after office hours to make plans, I had to get back to them the next day, since everything was written on my WORK calendar (see item 1) How awful am I at actually calling people back? Pretty damn awful. Usually when I say, “I’ll call you back in five minutes,” it turns out to be more like five days.

Lastly, we have a “family” calendar on the fridge at home. It’s one of those nifty dry erase things. That one shows very important things, like birthdays and Girl’s Nights. My husband can never say he didn’t know about an upcoming Girl’s Night – because it’s RIGHT THERE on the calendar! Honestly, this one is mostly for my husband’s sake. It has things HE needs to remember, like kid’s dentist appointments, our anniversary, and our few and far between date nights.

And still, with all these calendars and pop up reminders, last year on April 16th, one of my friends called and said, “Happy Anniversary!” to which I replied, “Thanks! What the hell are you talking about?” Turns out that both my husband and I forgot our wedding anniversary. Good job!

A Tale of Two Dogs

Eva is my dog. I love her, she's a darling little thing. She's three years old, and has just gotten past all the awful puppy stage things. We've finally learned to live together happily as a family. The kids love her. Even my husband, who once hated her with every fiber of his being, now loves her.
So what do we do with all this love?
Yesterday when my husband picked me up at work, he asked if we could visit the Anti-Cruelty Society because he wanted to see their dogs.
*insert big sigh here*
It's not that I'm against having another dog. No, not at all. It's just that there are already plenty of people and animals living in my house for which I'm already the primary caretaker. So for me, the bottom line is that it's just more shit for me to clean up. Will he be cleaning up dog shit? Cutting dog nails? Giving dog baths? No. It'll fall to me.
We left Anti-Cruelty yesterday without a dog.
Then this morning, my uncle calls me and asks if I like his little beagle, Scotty. Yes, I reply, I like him. He's cute. Why?
(You see where this is going, don't you?)
We now have plans to go visit my uncle and Scotty on Sunday, to see if my husband would like Scotty to be his very own dog. As much as I like Scotty, I know my husband's looking for a bigger, manly type of dog. German shephard, labrador, husky. So I have a feeling that we're dodging the second dog question for right now, but the minute someone calls him with a dog that weighs more than 50 lbs, I'm sure we'll have a new family member.

Wordless Wednesday

Bowl or Die!

Yes, we did indeed go bowling on Friday when the kids were off school. It was a lot of fun, until Golden Boy started complaining that he was losing to a 4 year old. Here he is complaining that the last pin just wouldn't fall down. After that, we went to lunch at McDonald's (the same one where I met my husband 15 years ago) and here is his shining endorsement of chicken McNuggets. My uncle Sol always called them beaks n' feet. Ew.