Boy is that a mouthful.

Thursday, I went and picked up my brand new GE Cooktop Range. I never thought I’d fall in love with an appliance, but I am. I’m in love. With a stove! I never realized how unefficent my old jalopy was. Okay, so I knew. But I didn’t know.

My youngest son had a birthday on Friday. He turned 11 and with the new addition of the of the furnace and range, we decided to just have a simple party with his grandparents.

On Thursday though, like the majority of the world, I was watching the saga unfold on television of the Balloon Boy. I never prayed so hard in my life for a child that wasn’t my own. I may’ve, but this was unique and unfolding right before my eyes and the experts were painting grim pictures as this balloon hurled through the sky. I imagined distraught parents and wishing there was something–anything I could do. I felt for this family, I shed tears and much like the first man who got to the balloon that landed like a parachute,  who held out his arms and probably wondered what the hell, I was feeling that too. My emotions were thrown into a tailspin when we were told there was something missing from the balloon and a search began to find a boy that probably didn’t survive. My heart was in my throat and again, I prayed that he’d be found alive.

When the initial report came of him hiding in the attic, I was relieved. I have three children and they’ve given me quite a scare by hiding or running off in a store, so I wasn’t surprised he was hiding…but something in the back of my head said something sounded fishy.

Now the authorities are seeking to press charges. Child services is involved. Which is all fine and good. I hope they remove the children from their parents if this was indeed a scam. I’m a firm believer in karma and what he did, NO parent should do. I don’t even use the made-up excuses about someone being sick or dying as a little white lie for fear that it comes true. To use your child like this as a stunt is hideous and unforgivable. Richard Heene is a disgrace to fatherhood and a waste of space.

Today is my baby boy’s 11th birthday and my first eight-hour day of two that I’ll be taking care of my neighbor in the place of my friend, Becky who is going to Florida for her sister’s 30th birthday tomorrow. I already told her to her face how much I despise her for getting to go someplace warm, especially since we’re to get snow this weekend. But in all reality I love her and I know she needs a much-needed break. My turn will come someday. ;)

I’ll be off soon to pick up the neighbor from the bank, take her to a hair appointment, lunch and then last minute shopping for the boy since he wants a hard-to-find item. Then, we’re taking him to dinner.

This morning, I sang every version of Happy Birthday that I could think of and he looked at me shyly and asked me not to sing like that once he got out of the car. ;) Tonight when they bring him dessert with a song should be great fun. Torture for him, but isn’t that my job as his mom to embarrass him as much as humanly possible?

I’m so excited. Even for this time in the morning. Our new furnace is up and running. It took my guy a few days to get it done, but he did it! It’s going to help tremendously with the gas bills. If all goes well, my new stove should be delivered this week–I’ve been without since right before summer and it didn’t bother me because we had the grill, but now, it’s bugging me. I long to cook meals in the oven as opposed to the crock pot. Nothing like a pot roast cooking in the oven on a cool fall day.

Anyhow, my guy looked at me last night, looked at my piles of things for the new story I’m about to embark upon–and said we need to fix the bathroom so you can have your office back. I contained my excitement because I’ve heard this spiel before. We just haven’t had the time or the money. I don’t want anything fancy, really. Just a place to call my own that I can little by little fill it up and make it mine. The problem was, the back part of our house was an addition to the main house and whoever designed it…sucked. The angles and stuff just don’t mesh and hard as we tried, we just couldn’t come up with a layout that’d work without ripping every wall out. My guy finally got it! If that’s all I get for Christmas, I’ll be happy. Instead of piles and files, I can have my story boards on the wall for me to look at. I can even get a new desktop once tax returns come through. I’m excited. Can you tell?

I’m also excited because I’m starting a new story. A new story that’s pretty much been fleshed out, it’s just up to me to fill in the blanks and torture these two characters then bring them back from their brink and make them fall in love. *rubs hands together* I think I’m finally getting the hang of plotting before writing. I’m still a die hard pantster, but I leave myself enough room to play and my brain doesn’t look at it as if I wrote the entire book.

Anything you’re excited about this week?

I suffered a migraine for almost three days. I think it’s finally gone *knock on wood*. I’m not sure how my liver held up though as I mixed pain relievers and sinus medications and benadryl to knock it out. It didn’t help that my poor guy was in the basement trying to install a new furnace.

Ours was very, very old and inefficient and it worried us running it one more year. My guy is a ‘Jack of all Trades’ and he figured he could save us a ton of money doing it by himself. He’d watched others and got advice from one of the guys at work…there was a lot of swearing coming from the basement–Think A Christmas Story.  A lot of pounding and an apology later to me.

I’m not mechanically inclined and I don’t pretend to me. I’m not strong either–and again, I don’t pretend to be. I admire my friend Becky because when it comes to moving stuff, dayum, that woman has muscle. Me? Haha. Not so much. So, I should’ve known–they should’ve known better than to ask me to come help. My job? Push the bricks underneath the furnace while they were lifting. Not hard, right? The first one slid right under. The second one, wouldn’t budge. I was lifting and then tugged a wee bit. Bad idea, the tugging. I screwed up everything they’d done by tugging to get the brick to go under. Tail between my legs, I came back upstairs and never went back down there.

The furnace still isn’t running. The man has to bring home a few more supplies from work and then with any luck, we’ll have an energy efficent furnace running to keep the house warm. We’ve been using a ceramic heater which is the bomb, but as my almost-eleven-year-old said to me yesterday. “Mom, it smells like winter.”

I was pretty hard on a crit last night and my friend said she thought her story was the reason why I was ‘gnashing my teeth’. It wasn’t. But I should’ve practiced what I preach to my kids about thinking before they speak. Less feelings are hurt that way. So, yeah, I feel like a cad. But at the same time, I want to ask her how proud she is that she taught me those things I caught her on–or if she’s regretting teaching me to look for those things, now.

So, I thought this was a perfect topic, really. What makes my teeth gnash this week? I should’ve saved this for a Thursday 13, but I haven’t done one of those in so long and I’m not really sure if I can come up with 13. I tend to run full-throttle the majority of the time. But there are some days when my body and brain say enough, already! I’m balancing jobs, kids, a house, external family and a whole lot of other things. My brain doesn’t stop when I lay down to go to sleep, it’s still trying to catch up from the days filled with chaos. And lately, I’ve been feeling bitter because there’s no room left for what I want.

So what’s been making me gnash my teeth?

• When someone renigs on something they talked about the week before because it doesn’t benefit them any longer. It’s almost like they’re saying to me, “You’re not important. You don’t matter. Who cares what you think or how you feel.”
• Lack of sleep.
• Feeling brain fried.
• Teenagers, er a specific one, who is throwing her life away because of a boy. I wish there was a way for everyone to have a visit from the ghosts of past, present and future. To show her the future of the path she’s headed down. To make her understand that we’re not her enemy, we’re her supporters, that we do know what it feels like to be in love or think you’re in love and that we’ve been there, done that, bought the t-shirt and sent postcards. Oh and that sometimes being a grown-up is highly overrated. I understand that we all need to chose our paths and learn life lessons, but it’s a very high place from which this girl is going to fall and unfortunately, there’s going to be no one around holding the safety net. It’s going to be like a modern day Humpty Dumpty.
• Lack of hygiene. Trivial really. There’s a visitor this week who needs some tough love or a reality check. If you do not wash correctly or at all, you are going to stink and the rest of us shouldn’t have to smell you. I know your parents taught you better and you were once a school teacher for God’s sake. Why can’t you practice what you preach?
• That I just got a text message that’s going to complicate the hell out of my life.

What’s the saying? There’s no rest for the wicked?

What makes you gnash your teeth?