This week

So far this week I have:

Done a zillion loads of laundry

Yelled way too much

Turned the air conditioners on and off and wished I'd had my father-in-law install the central air when we built this house

Cleaned crayon off every reachable spot in Annie's and Izzie's room

Forced the kids to box up their toys that they refuse to put away

Been unable to grocery shop because my kids fight too damn much

Let my kids watch 30 minutes of tv and then dealt with the aftermath for 25 minutes

Ate Cocoa Puffs for dinner at 10pm Tuesday night when Doug finally got home

Put first aid ointment on scratches on Annie's faces inflicted by Izzie (again)

Haven't taken a single photo

Haven't downloaded the photos I took over the long weekend

Haven't put fresh water in the kids' pool or let them go outside (much too hot)

Wished I was anywhere but here

Really hoping next week is better

On Strike (Edited)

This school vacation has been far from a vacation and we're barely two weeks in. The kids have done nothing but bicker most days. They've been demanding and incredibly rude, both to me and each other. Their once-clean rooms and playroom are so trashed they can barely get into them, let alone actually play in them. The weather has been pretty uncooperative as well, which hasn't helped the situation.

Tuesday was my birthday and I asked the kids to help me tidy up the downstairs as our friends were coming for lunch. Their response was a resounding NO and they went off to play, leaving me frustrated and sad, and having a house to tidy myself. It got done, but it left a very sour taste in my mouth that my kids are so self centered that they couldn't even help me out for a bit.

So last night after I made them a quick dinner because Doug was running late, I announced that I was on strike. I told them that I do everything around here, from all the laundry to taking out the trash, making them meals and snacks and since they are not nice to me, I was done. I am exhausted at the end of the day from breaking up constant fights, unlocking their locked doors when they lock each other out, listening to them demand things from me without a simple thank you, and that I wasn't doing it anymore.  I know Annie and Izzie don't truly understand why I'm upset, but Meg and Drew are quite old enough to understand that we're a family and that families need to work together. Since my words don't mean anything to them, I'm hoping that this action does. They cleaned up the table last night and Meg vacuumed the floor, so that's a start.

But this isn't just about them cleaning (although truth be told, they really need to work on that). It's about their lack of respect for me, Doug, and for each other. In the last two weeks I've had things thrown at me in anger, been hit, kicked, screamed at and I have had enough. I refuse to take them to the grocery store after the rotten way they acted Monday, causing me to have to reprimand them at the deli and not hear the person asking me if I had been helped yet (which then caused said deli worker to COME AROUND THE DELI COUNTER to ask what I'd like to order, leaving me mortified). The kicker is that when they go places with Doug, they use their manners and behave like normal kids, but when they're with me, it's mayhem.

I don't know how successful this little experiment will be. The kids woke me before 7 this morning (again) banging and being much too loud, and then Meg was vacuuming the kitchen at 7:04. But Doug is on board and reminded the kids that they are on their own today. Meg got everyone breakfast and is, at this moment, cleaning up the living room. I'm sure their "enthusiasm" will wane soon. I'm not asking for them to make every meal and do all the chores. I'm asking for their respect. I'm asking for them to help when I ask them to help, for them to be polite to me and to each other, and for them to realize that this will be a much happier household if they do that. I'm tired of being the Mama who yells all the time, since yelling causes them to ignore me and do whatever they want anyway.  The kids have almost no special privileges, so there isn't anything we can take away from them. So we're taking me away from them. I'm not going anywhere of course, and I'll be here to keep them safe, but it's high time that they realize that a little respect goes a long way. A happy Mama makes for a much happier house.

Edit. I want to be clear that the goal of this is NOT because I need a break (which, of course I do. I am home, alone, with four kids for 12 hours or more a day). The goal is for them to realize that I am NOT a doormat and that I am tired of them thinking that they can walk all over me all the time and expect me to do everything. I love doing things for my kids when they are being nice and respectful, but I do not want to do things for people who whine, cry, fight and tell me that they hate me all the time.

Letters

It's been awhile since I've done some Open Letters. This should be fun.

Dear Annie:

I love your hugs. They are truly the loveliest hugs in the world. What I do not love though, is your insistence that you are the boss of this house. It's dinnertime when I tell you to get in your seat, not when you feel like it.  When I tell you to put on your shoes so that we can get Meg to the bus on time, it's not a negotiation. As you've seen, Mama will just throw you in your seat shoeless and go about her business. Let's get on the same page here and make everyone happy, ok?

Love, your tired, overworked and very underpaid Mama

Dear Izzie:

You are a great snuggler. I love it when you curl up in my arms and coo. What I do not love is your insistence on breaking things~your bed, toys, books, crayons. You will end up with nowhere to sleep, nothing to play with and nothing to read or color. Do you really want to challenge me on that? Where are your blocks? Oh yes, in the garage, taken away due to your inability to treat them nicely. Let's get on the same page here and make everyone happy, ok?

Love, your tired, overworked and very underpaid Mama

Dear Drew:

You can be the sweetest, most loving little boy a Mama has ever known. I love that Drew with all my heart. What I do not love is the Drew who throws toys at me and his sisters, who hits, who screams "I hate you Mama" at the drop of a hat and who is generally irritable from sun up until sundown. That Drew can find a short pier and take a long walk. Bring back the good boy that I love, ok?

Love, your tired, overworked and very underpaid Mama

Dear Meg:

You will always be my little girl even if you are getting closer every day to being as tall as me. I love you to the moon and back. But for the love of coffee (and Mama loves her coffee), could you please please please stop acting like a baby every time I ask you to do something or you don't get exactly what you want the veryminuteyouaskforit? Your crying and carrying on is enough to make me go postal and quite honestly, that takes too much energy. You are such a smart kid, so let's get on the same page and make everyone happy, ok?

Love, your tired, overworked and very underpaid Mama

Dear Sheldon:

No more nights away from the house ok? Your big kids were so worried about you and I can't deal with all the crying and carrying on because you've disappeared into the woods where the coyotes live. So remember not to piss off the hands that feed you and come in at night.

Love, yo Mama

Always doing

I just lamented on Twitter that I hadn't done anything productive today other than assemble dinner in the crock pot. It's not totally true~I've gotten 4 kids dressed, one out the door for school, squelched 3 tantrums, made a lunch and got a backpack organized, checked the balance of my bank account, cleaned up the kitchen table, fed kids snack, sent a couple of emails.

Yet I feel like I should be "doing" something all the time and I don't know why I feel this way. Right now the kids are watching a Dora video which allows me time to compose this blog post, but in my mind I can hear the following: more laundry to wash, the cat boxes are overflowing (again), the dishwasher that was run this morning needs to be emptied and refilled, the kitchen island is lost among a sea of papers and needs to be found, the living room floor needs to be vacuumed. I'm not sure why I feel like I can't enjoy a bit of time to relax, a bit of time when the kids aren't screeching at each other, hitting each other with crayons/toys/books or climbing up on me yelling that "they're being MEAN to me AGAIN Mommy".

I feel like I should have a sparkling clean house AND personality when Doug comes home from work, when quite frankly I don't always want to. And honestly, most days I am not all sunshine and smiles when he gets home. He's well aware of what goes on here during the course of the day. He got to witness the tri-tantrum tournament here yesterday afternoon while I was gone for 45 minutes to get Meg from the bus and run to the grocery store. Some days just attempting to smile is all I can do, when I'd rather curl up in a corner and cry while my children beat on each other.

My 20 minutes of "not doing" are up. Back to doing.

Open Letters

Here is my latest installment of open letters to my children. These will not make you all warm and fuzzy, but you may nod in agreement at times.

Dear Darling Eldest Daughter:

School starts soon. Please get a grip on your emotions. I cannot guarantee that you will like every child in your class. I know it's a new school with new kids. That is why we're going on the school tour and dragging the whole family to the insane event called the "ice cream social" next week. If you keep up with your crappy attitude toward me we'll never get your school supplies and you can damn well be sure that I'll not be getting you a Hannah Montana folder. You'll get boring old pink.

Love, your tired Mama

Dear Darling Son:

School starts soon, but not soon enough. You have to stop your 4 year old bullshit act of crying at EVERY.THING.I.SAY.TO.YOU. You cry if we ask your name, if we ask you to move, if we tell you to go eat. Cut the crap. It's annoying and doesn't get you very far now does it? Oh, and please stop telling me to "sshhh" with your finger up by your mouth. I am your Mama and you don't do that to me. You're lucky I haven't locked you in a trunk and sent you to Kazakhstan.

Love, your tired Mama

Dear Darling Twins:

Stop hitting/pinching/screaming/fighting over every single toy we own. Because there are two of you, we have two of just about every toy for you. Figure that out please. Izzie, that high pitched scream that you start with the minute you wake up annoys the ever loving crap out of me and it must be stopped. Otherwise you're ending up with your brother in the trunk. Annie, please stop with the gigantic crocodile tears every time someone looks at you/breathes near you/says hi to you. It's just plain tiring.

Love, your tired Mama

BONUS LETTER

Dear Kristin:

Your body is crap right now. You are tired. You are irritable. Try so very hard not to yell at your children. You know that the medicine is making you irritable so try, try, try to keep it together. The children are worried about your health. Yes, you look smokin' hot in your hot pink Kiniseo tape on your neck and you know it. Don't flaunt it too much. Take deep breaths. School starts soon. The temps will drop below 90 here in a day or so. Life will get back into balance soon. Things will work themselves out.

Love, me

I just want the MRI dammit! (now updated with more rant!)

I am fond of health insurance. It's covered the birth of my kids, their visits for broken bones, well-child check-ups and the like. Usually, it works in my favor. Right now though, my health insurance company is on my shit list and I'm going to vent about it.

I'm still on Percocet every three hours and a muscle relaxant four times a day for the pain in my neck and arm. I am still in pain. My doctor (who is a DO and can do all that fun stuff a chiropractor does) cannot get my back or neck to snap-crackle-pop into place. He fears hurting me even more by trying and wants the MRI to confirm his thoughts that I have a herniated disc. Last week he approached Harvard Pilgrim, my then-health insurance company, who denied the coverage essentially because we were changing insurance companies on Friday. Ok, I get that denial. Granted, it sucked, but I figured that once I got my new health insurance in place we'd be set. I couldn't be more wrong.

My new insurer (that would be Anthem Blue Cross Blue shield folks) has denied the MRI as well. Apparently they would rather I stay hopped up on drugs all day, not fully able to care for my kids, until maybe the pain just disappears, intead of finding out what is truly wrong with my body. I can't drive, as each of the drugs alone make me dizzy and tired and when taken together make me a woozy mess, so I haven't been out of the house unless accompanied by another adult, for over a week. My doctor isn't 100% certain that I have a herniated disc; it's just a suspicion that he needs the MRI to CONFIRM. I don't want to stay hopped up on drugs. I want to feel better. I want to do what needs to be done to feel better, but if we aren't exactly sure what is wrong, I can't do that. I want to sleep through the night without being awakened by pain and the need for more drugs. I want to be able to put my twins into their cribs without shooting pains in my shoulder. I just want to be whole again.

I know that my situation isn't different from many other people in the US who are continually denied coverage by their insurance companies. It just makes absolutely no sense to me why this needs to happen, why doctors aren't able to get requested services for their patients. Insurance companies need to rely on the expertise of the doctors, not on their bottom line. We pay for this insurance every month out of our paycheck and we deserve the coverage we're entitled to. Get it together insurance companies (that means YOU Anthem) and get people the care they need. I just want the MRI dammit!

Update: Not long after I hit "publish" my doctor himself called me to say that I got the approval from Anthem. He said that they told him that of course they couldn't deny the request (so WTF why did they?) and then proceeded to give him the runaround about giving him the authorization number. The MRI got scheduled for tomorrow night. The MRI place called me to ask a zillion questions and confirm my insurance, whereupon we determined that my doctor somehow got the approval from Harvard Pilgrim, not Anthem. I called the doctor's office back to say um, WTF I don't have Harvard Pilgrim anymore, that was the whole problem last week, how is it possible that they would approve a cervical spine MRI if I don't have COVERAGE with them anymore? So here is what it boils down to: Harvard Pilgrim DENIED me coverage last week because my insurance was going to expire with them, then APPROVED me coverage after I was with another company. My head is spinning, and not from the drugs. Holy crap what a country.

Etiquette Lesson

As a mom of four, there are some things that are necessary for us to do to get by and not go broke. Using hand-me-down clothes for the kids is one of those things. The twins wear Meg's old clothes, Meg wore a friend's daughter's clothes until she got taller than the child, and Drew sometimes gets some from other friends. I gave my neighbor all of the twins 0-6 month clothes when she had boy-girl twins and I'm pretty sure she never needed to WASH a single onesie, ever. I am not too picky with hand-me-downs; I appreciate them and if it saves me money, my kids tend to wear them. Well, I appreciate them to a point.

On Friday one of Doug's coworkers dropped off a giant bag of clothes for Drew. We were thrilled, because the poor boy is currently wearing high-water pants since he grew over the winter and all his pants are too short. I'm not about to spend money on pants since he'll grow over the summer, again. I'll just wait until fall. I digress. In going through the bag though, we were disappointed. The clothes were either MUCH too small (size 6-9 months doesn't fit ANY child in this house thanks) or three sizes too big. Argh.

I can understand if you want to share clothes and I appreciate the thoughtfulness. But don't just dump stuff on me that I have to go through and then get rid of MYSELF. That's disrespectful. Ask me what size my child is wearing before you load up a bag of junk for me that I can't use. Now we have to find a home for almost an entire bag of clothes that we can't use. Like I don't have enough to do with my time.

Do I sound whiny and ungrateful? Maybe so, but I don't care. I have four kids, one income and lots to do. Be respectful of that.

It's enough to drive a bird batty

(If you knew that my title was Big Bird talking to Count from the Sesame Street 25th Anniversary DVD, kudos to you)

Thank you to all of you who had suggestions for me regarding the chores with the kids. I can tell you that Megan is no longer earning money for doing any chores. Last week I told her that I had washed, dried and folded all of her clothes and they were on my bed for her to gather and put away. Her response was "but you don't pay me to do that, so why should I?" Yes folks, this is what we're dealing with. So, no more money for her.

And it's not just the chores that are an issue for us. It's the general ATTITUDE of the kids around here these days. The bickering, the toy throwing, the hitting. The fighting generally starts with Meg and Drew before I'm even out of bed in the morning. Do you know what it's like to be awakened by screaming and/or slamming doors at 6:30? It's not pleasant, and it's a consistent theme in this house. It sets a tone for the day that is not easily overcome. The worst part is that whatever attitude Meg has starting the day hangs over the other three kids all day long too. I see Drew treating Annie and Izzie the way Meg treats him and I feel powerless to stop it. He actually just looks through me when I am talking to him about his behavior. I spend lots of my day reminding the kids that I am the mother, that I make the rules, and that they need to listen to me. It does no good though.

I used to think of myself as a generally happy person, but lately I feel like the Wicked Witch of the West. Or East. Who wants to be the parent that generally can't stand the sight of their kids because they're always fighting? Who actually wants to admit that they don't like their kids the majority of the time? Oh, we have the rare moment around here where the kids are playing nicely. Or sleeping. Or being helpful. But it seems that on the whole, things are just plain awful. I'm tired of yelling at the kids. I'm tired of being talked back to. I just want to be a happy Mama.

The post where I vent

I figured I'd get that out right away so if you don't want to read, you can just go on your merry way. I'm going to vent about my children. Ready. Ok.

The twins will be 2 on Friday. They are in the full throes of being toddlers. They are downright defiant 99% of the time. They throw their cups, forks, spoons, bowls and food from their high chairs. They throw every.single.toy they touch. They launch every blanket and stuffed friends out of their bed every.single.day at naptime. Diaper changes are such a struggle that there are days when I'd rather leave them in soggy pants than attempt one more diaper change. Bathtime takes two people and while in the tub they're great, they fight hair drying and teeth brushing with such passion it's amazing. They hit each other, their older siblings and me. If they figure out biting we're screwed. (OMG. While I was writing this Annie started screaming in her crib. I went upstairs, and there she was NAKED except for her shirt and onesie around her neck, and pee all over the crib. Arghhhhhh.)

Drew is 4 now, and has become this mouthy little brat. He sticks out his tongue, throws toys, wrestles toys out of his sisters' hands. He throws himself on the floor in huge crying fits over the littlest thing. He refuses to pick up toys after he's done playing with them. He constantly tells me and the girls what to do. His behavior is maddening.

Megan. Well, let's see. Megan refuses to do ANYTHING. She won't pick up her bedroom. She won't help clean up the living room. She fights every attempt at rules we have. If we say we're going to take away hockey practice, she just yells that she hates hockey and doesn't want to go anyway. She says we do nothing for her, yet everything we do revolves around her. She throws herself on the floor and cries every time we ask her to do something helpful. And she's going to be 8 in two weeks. Acts more like the 2 year olds most of the time.

All of this behavior happens on a daily basis. It's not an every-once-in-awhile event. It's constant. I'm exhausted and exasperated. I don't get vacations from them, and rarely any break. Oh, I love them more than anything, but these days, I just want to get away from them in the worst way possible.

And now I must remind the twins for the zillionth time that it's NAPTIME dammit and to please for the love of cookies GO TO SLEEP.

Pfffffftttt

That is the sound of me, feeling deflated. The last couple of days have been, well, sucky. My three younger children do not listen to me. EVER. I have to say, nay yell, Drew's name a gazillion times before he even turns his head to pay any attention to me. When I tell one of the twins to get down from the couch, I get a "no" and they continue on doing whatever it was they were doing. If I remove them from the couch, they climb right back on and keep playing. I am totally spinning my wheels and I am getting more frustrated and deflated by the minute. If I ignore the bad behavior, they don't get bored at all. If I call them on it, they just ignore me. What is a mama to do? I try time-outs with Drew, but he continues the bad behavior. The kids don't watch much, if any tv (that is a whole other post about what tv does to my kids), so taking it away doesn't matter to them. I am not saying that Meg is perfect. She is far from it, and I know that is why the other kids act so badly all the time. As the oldest, we put a lot of pressure on her to be a good example for her younger siblings. We have a House Rules list so that she knows what is expected of her. She has a Daily Chores chart. Yet she pays attention to NONE of it, so the others don't feel they need to pay attention to it, and then me, either. I know the twins are only 20 months old (!) and trying to figure out what they can and can't do. But somewhere along the way, I've turned into a raging lunatic who is always yelling and fighting with my kids. I just want some respect. Why is that too much to ask?

Well bitching isn't helpful

Well, that last post was a tad bitchy, now wasn't it? I sound like a pretty horrible person. I really don't hate my children. I just don't enjoy them when they're fighting/hitting/yelling/barfing. I mean, really, who enjoys their kids when they're doing all that, all the time?

And that is what is going on here in my house. My two older kids fight all the time. I know, kids fight, yadda, yadda, yadda. I know I fought with my brother. But I feel like the fighting periods are seriously outweighing the non-fighting periods and my psyche cannot handle that. I made THE LIST and am constantly referring to it to get my point across to the kids. "Number 5 says be helpful. Throwing your toys on the floor when I ask you to clean them up is NOT helpful. Number one says no hitting or pushing. You must sit in timeout if you push me or your brother/sisters." Since THE LIST is in writing, posted on the basement door, with the punishment of a TIMEOUT listed on THE LIST, why for the love of all that is good in the world, will they fight me on a timeout? It's black and white (really, white paper with black writing!), we've gone over it all, and yet we're in a constant battle. Sigh. I just want to have more happy moments than pissy moments every day. Is that really too much to ask?

Barforama is still raging here. I have so had enough of it all. I can't do anything for the girls except the BRAT diet, and it is working a bit. Annie looked horrible all day today. Those big brown eyes were just so sad. Izzie seemed to have come around a bit tonight before bed (am knocking on wood now). I can only hope that there is no barfing in the night tonight and that tomorrow is a better day for them.

Did I mention that my kids have all but driven away my babysitter? Oh yes, that all happened last week, but I was so caught up with the barfing and fighting that I neglected to mention it. I have help in the form of the lovely Erika on Tuesdays and Wednesdays (hence the lack of blogging on those days, since I feel totally guilty for blogging when I should be PRODUCTIVE), which is a new thing for me. Even when the twins were born and I had a 2 year old (Meg was in kindergarten, full time), I was flying solo. My mother-in-law came on Tuesdays for awhile, weather dependent and that did help a bit, but for the most part, I did it all, all the time (ooh, except for my dad picking Meg up at the bus twice a week, which was awesome!). So it's been an adjustment for me having someone here that can help me do the things that don't get done on the days she isn't here (laundry, dishes, vacuuming!). However, the behavior of my big kids has been hellish when she's here, and last week they completely went all psycho on her while I was out for a whole 45 minutes. I am pretty sure there was head spinning and talking backwards. Needless to say I wouldn't blame her if she didn't want to come anymore, because why should she be treated that way. We'll see what Tuesday brings.

I am going to go into tomorrow with a clean slate and hope that I can make it thru the day without wanting to run. And of course there are only 5 more weeks until school starts again. At least I have that to look forward to.

The post where I bitch

I am going to say this out loud, right now: I do not like my kids very much today. There. Love them to pieces, but could SERIOUSLY do without them for say, a few days. And that means ALL of them, not just the older ones. Does this make me a bad mama? Nope. Just a tired/overworked/underpaid/notfeelingverylovedtoday mama. Today I am tired of giving, giving, giving and getting screamed at, or smacked, or have things thrown at me. I am tired of arranging playdates only to have the kids fall apart when they're over. I am tired of Barforama. I am tired of the messy house, the list of rules that my kids refuse to follow, the laundry. I am tired of questioning whether I made a big mistake a) having kids and b) having so many kids. I am tired of just about everything today. I am tired of the days being the same all the time. I am tired of being too tired to enjoy any free time at night that I have. I am tired of repeating myself all day long and never getting ahead. I am tired of summer and humidity and not wanting to go outside.

So tonight I'm going to visit with a friend, do a little scrapbooking, and try to regroup for the weekend.

That clunk was me hitting the proverbial wall

Thank you to my new internet friends for making me feel a whole lot better about myself the other day. As my friend Auntie Nettie knows, I don't make friends easily. She has been my friend/put up with me since our first day of college almost 18 years ago. She has been there through just about everything important that has happened to me in those years, including being my maid of honor (horror, as she called it) at my wedding. So to Auntie Nettie and all my new internet friends, thank you for cheering me up when I was so very much down.

I think I've hit a wall. Annie and Izzie are fighting me hard on naps the past couple of days. When the girls don't nap, I don't get anything done. Drew doesn't nap anymore anyway unless we're in the car. And while I LOVE my boy, he's turned into a little whiney man these days and it's making me crazy. I'm tired of waking the girls up to go to the bus to get Meg. I think I'm just plain tired. We race around from the bus stop to quick dinners to softball or chorus concert. There are 4 huge loads of laundry waiting to be folded in my bedroom which I can't stand looking at, but have no desire to fold. I need a haircut, but to get one requires a)that my hairdresser work today and she doesn't or b)taking the kids with me tomorrow which is totally stressful. Wow, I can't even read what I wrote without thinking that I sound like a complete whiney brat. Sigh.

On a good note, Megan had her first grade choral concert last night. We bought a sweet outfit at The Children's Place for a mere $12 that she wore and she looked beautiful, and sang so sweetly. Last year at the kindergarten concert, we arrived late and coming in late was so stressful that she didn't sing a word. Last night we arrived 30 minutes early (which as you know, I am all for!) and good thing we did. The middle school gym was PACKED. It was so nice to see her singing and having fun. I took pictures but they're grayish. Here's one anyway (she's in the pink and her friend Samantha is in the yellowish-green). And yes, she really is super tall for a 7 year old.

I'm looking for ways to cheer myself up today. My darn good cup of coffee isn't helping. Any suggestions oh wise internets?

Would you like some cheese with your whine ma'am?

I am in a whiny mood, so please pardon my rantings and ravings today.

Would you like to know how many times I have had to wipe a snotty nose today? What do you mean no? Come on, join in the fun. I have three children with runny, snotty noses. I have spent the majority of my day trying to wipe up the snot. Annie runs from me as soon as she sees the tissue. Izzie actually tries to blow her nose, but not into the tissue. Drew just fusses at me about not wanting to blow his nose. And when he does, we go thru 5 tissues. It's all truly disgusting. I have been wiping snotty noses for what seems like five months now. Every time they get better, it starts all over again.

The decibel level is my house at this very moment is much too high. I have had to remind Megan from the moment she got up this morning that we "don't yell in the house". Bet you can't guess what she's doing now? Come, guess. Yes, yelling. She has NO concept of a quiet inside voice, unless she is at school. I can verify that, as I volunteer in her classroom every other week. When she is there, she is polite, quiet, pays attention, respectful even. She is NOT that child at home. (Sidebar~I put the kids to work setting the table, and then banished them upstairs to play in their playroom. It's now eerily quiet up there. Wonder what they're plotting).

Oh, did I mention that it SNOWED AGAIN today? For crying out loud, I've had enough. I know I live in Maine, but the calendar reads Spring, and I am ready for Spring, damn it.

Ok, I've ranted enough. Thanks for reading. Send me love, will you?