three day blog

I have to say that I was impressed how mature you guys were about my last post. I know some of you personally (and the rest internetally) so I know that you all run the gamut, politically speaking, and that all of you believe in the power of voting. Yet not one of you stooped to any low blows. I am proud of you guys seriously. A little update on the guy that sent me those emails... I wrote him the following email: Hi Xxxx, I hope everything is going well with you. I was wondering if you might remove me from getting the forwarded emails? Thanks so much and a pleasant rest of the week to you. Rachel Xxxxxx This was his response: Wow. I am sorry. I have a friend named Rachel Xxxxxxxx that asked me to forward some of these emails. I hope they did not offend you. I don’t even remember who you are. I am sure that was supposed to make me feel better. ha.... ha.... ha.... I just have to say shame on you Rachel Xxxxxxxx, whoever you are, for requesting those emails... you give the rest of us R...

So I have really been thinking a lot about the whole working mother/stay at home mother "feud." Just lately I have taken a part time job as an administrative assistant. It is a two days a week job that is supposed to last through the summer. My mother babysits half the time and the teenage sister of my boss babysits the other. What has gotten me aggravated though, are all the well-intentioned people that are saying "oh, it is so good for you to get away from your children." I probably wouldn't get quite as annoyed if they were saying that it is good for me to get out into adult interaction... this is very true... ....but they always, without fail, say: "away from my children." I know I am a bit biased, but my kids are really great and I don't have any desire to get away from them . Whenever I need a break, my husband will stay with them or even takes them out so I can have the house to myself (where I usually indulge in wild house cle...

Selling your house sucks. I realize that this is all too obvious and that I am saying this before I have even put the signs up, but I am literally in the middle of a long to-do list of things I need to fix before we put it on the market and am feeling the strain. It is sad really. I won't even fix these things for myself. We will finally have the house just the way we want it---in time to sell it to somebody else. We did that with our last house. We'll probably do that next time, too. Sad. Pathetic. The good thing is that if we don't sell it, then at least we get to enjoy our labor. The other feeling of dread is showing it to people. We are selling it ourselves---no Realtor---translation: no buffer. Last time that we showed our previous house, some jackass, who didn't, of course, didn't end up buying it, had the gall to tell us that our paint scheme was "odd." He also asked if we would repaint it. We told him to go suck eggs. Well not reall...

We are getting ready to sell our home. Stress abounds.

While everyone else is more likely to be writing warm and fuzzy posts about Valentine's day, I decided to write something on a more practical side of love,from a woman's perspective. I will leave the warm and fuzzies to the people more suited to it. This is my advice, to men, when you are...gasp...arguing with your woman. She doesn't necessarily want to be agreed with, but rather, simply, to be understood. Especially refrain from acquiescing if you are doing it to bring about an end to the argument. If there is any way possible, though you may not agree with what she is saying, to put yourself in her place, and try to understand what she is feeling in that moment. It could be better for both of you. And then, do your level best to show her that it has made an impact in your brain. If you find that she is repeating something over and over again---then she does not feel either heard or understood. And please, especially, don't say: whatever you are craz...

Last night I watched the movie The Invasion . It is a good remake of Invasion of the Body Snatchers , if you have a strong stomach. What is with all of the projectile vomiting in movies these days? So as I watched the movie, I was dismayed to realize that Nicole Kidman has obviously succumbed to the Hollywood myth of youth being the only form of beauty. It was obvious even through the digital editing they did to make her look young and glowing....she has had procedures. It is so sad that even the uber-beautiful feel compelled to do this to themselves. What does it mean for the rest of us ordinary folk? Are we just too hideous to live? I am just scared for when these people truly get old. I hate to see what their face will look like after not allowing them to go through the natural aging process. Scary. The other thing that I have noticed and I really truly can't believe that I am the only one, all of these, plastic obsessed, celebrities are starting, in on way or ...

Is it just me or is it really annoying to read about some poor slob in Better Homes and Gardens who has painstakingly remodeled his or her "tiny" home...only to turn the page to find that their postage stamp of a house is actually upwards of 2000 square feet? This is my open statement to all those people who think they are living in a small house. 3800 Square feet is not a cottage. 2000 square feet is not space challenged. And, yes, if you are one or two people complaining about living in a house that is 1800 square feet...you are indeed, a whiner! Am I crazy or does anyone else find this absurd? Come on...weigh in. Let us know what you think---good or bad---in the comments. Does this bother you as well? What size of a house do you live in? Do you feel your house is too large, too small, or just right? ---And just for the record...the four of us share a measly 865 square feet. That is roughly 215 a piece. And we are living to tell the tale---without complaining....

So I wanted to show you my new-ish coffee cup...well normally a coffee cup. Today it has tea in it. Tea from Connecticut , in a tin made in china, bought from a Starbucks in Oregon , brewed in a mug from Starbucks in Mexico City . Ain't I cosmopolitan? My kids are watching Meet the Robinsons I highly recommend it if you don't mind a little chaos. This is a rare children's movie because there is nothing crude in it. I didn't think they made those anymore. So back to the original story: I was noticing that Anthony was warming Irene's hands for her--since it is flipping cold in Oregon, right now--and I told him I thought that it was nice of him to do that. He replied that he was doing it because Irene was warming his hands, for him, the other day. Isn't that sweet? The other day I was cleaning my table and I broke the pottery urn that I have in the middle. The urn holds the corks from special occasions. I loved this particular piece of potter...

I'm feeling a bit down right now so I am going to keep this short. Can you tell me why the world's most bubbly person (me) is so angry. I have been snapping at my husband and my best friend lately. I feel it. They also have mentioned it. I think that I have gotten better with my best friend but that still leaves it for my husband. What is wrong with me!!! Where is this edge coming from. I am taking everything ultra personal. This is not a one time isolated incident, either. I have been snappish for over a month. I can't even chalk it up to a recent problematic situation, though this situation ended up maximizing my personal feeling of anger about ten times, so what is this? Most importantly how do I get rid of it?

So I will set the scene. 12:30 am Wednesday morning--my bedroom. I am sitting in my closet on the computer (yes, I said the closet...what can I say, we have a tiny house) It was a dreadfully hot day and I finally was enjoying the house at a nice reasonable temperature when I realized that the party that the neighbors were having was still going strong. Nothing wild. They usually just sit down in their backyard talking and laughing. That is fine. I don't mind that. I do think it is odd that this is happening on a Tuesday night (Wednesday morning). They usually do this regularly every Friday night during the summer. Now as I stated before: I am the grumpy neighbor,but, I can usually hold my grumpiness in and reserve it to a few ugly grimaces at the windows (blinds closed of course) in the general direction of whatever disturbance might be invading my sanctuary of the weird. After all I was young once too, I think it was last april. Now I am a stately (really stately) and ...