This and That

Monday, Monday, Monday, how I look forward to thee! Sounds crazy I know but I really do look forward to Monday. It's the day where I can hang out with A2 and clean my house up from the weekend tornado that rolls through starting every Friday night. I don't know how we manage to do it. I'm blaming the majority of it on A1 and the husband but my house is so funky by the time Sunday night rolls around. I don't have a problem keeping the house clean during the day when it's just me and A2 or even when A1 gets home from school. Hmmm, maybe I shouldn't blame him so much as just blame the husband! We watched the Super Bowl last night along with just about every other red blooded American and the hot wing bones, cheese dip bowls, chili spoons and 50 cups were still sitting waiting on me this morning. I don't understand how four people with one having his own cups can mess up so many friggin' cups...in one day! It's almost as if we took just one swig out of each one and then got another.

We got to play in some snow, if you want to call it that, yesterday. It was more like fine powder (no pack to it at all) but nonetheless a welcome site to A1. We had no idea it was supposed to snow the night before so when we woke up to see the ground covered it was a big ol yippee around here. Especially since poor A1 got the shaft on the last snow they supposedly predicted last week (we got none). This was the kind of snow that even though it was freezing ass cold outside it was still melting fast. It was probably less than an inch on the ground but we suited up and went outside. A2 loved walking around in it. A1 likes to eat it. Hubby just wanted an excuse to get his tractor/mower out. And I was left to watch the goings on. The guys hooked up a disk type sled to the tractor and hubby pulled A1 and A2 around. Too cute. Then out came the go-cart. A2 and I went in while hubby and A1 rode all over the yard and field behind the house on that. Too cold for me to do that. By the time they were finished riding, all the snow in our yard was pretty much gone. But A1 had a blast and that's what counts!

Back to Monday, it is also the day I can catch up on any Days of our Lives that I didn't get to see from last week or at least Friday's show. I have to tape it every single day even though I'm home because I fast forward through most of it. I've watched that show since I was about 12 and seriously couldn't tell you why. It was actually good back in the day but now it's borderline stupid on most days and some of the characters make my skin crawl. But I will say, they are kinda like a second family and my real family can be borderline stupid and there are a few of them that make my skin crawl! (I have a whole side of my family that fits that description perfectly except for about one and she knows who she is) Guess that's why I keep hanging on. Plus the gratuitous cute hunky guy with no shirt on shots aren't too hard on the eyes.

Somehow the cat got trapped in the basement this morning and it scared the crap out of A2 when she started howling and rattling the door to come back in. He was in the dining room and when he heard it he made a beeline to the kitchen where I was washing dishes. I let her in and he acted like he hadn't seen her in a month. He loves that cat so much it's funny. He wants to pick her up so bad but she just isn't having it. I can't say that I blame her. Half the time he's following her around trying to grab a hold of her tail or he's going up to her when she is laying down, sits down beside her, and tries to give her some love by rubbing his head on her like she does him on rare occasions. He hasn't quite grasped the concept though because he puts all his weight on her with his big ol melon head and it crushes her til she has to run away. The funniest thing he does to her is he will catch her with her back turned and run up to her as fast as he can and yell "dat, dat, dat" that scares the begeezus out of her. She's gotten pretty good at dodging him when he's on his tricycle and when she's napping in the front room in the sunlight she no longer just lays there when she sees him coming. She made that mistake once and I think she learned pretty quick it wasn't a good idea. He came up to her grabbed her by the tail and swished her around. All I heard was loud giggles and feet scrambling on the hardwood. I have seriously considered calling the vet to see if I could get her some Valium. She does get rewarded by hanging around with him though. He won't eat much solid food other than chicken nuggets and corn on the cob. She loves corn and will wait for him to set it down and pounce on it. And we can't forget the times where he lays his cups down on the floor and milk puddles out of them. YUCK! If she's around she will lap it up.

Oooh, I found out something creepy and sad about our old house in the old state I use to live in before I moved here to my new state. I use to live in a state south of here. We moved there back around 2003. I never really loved the house that much until closer til the end and then it sort of grew on me. We had a kick ass master bedroom with two closets so that part I liked. It was probably my favorite room of the whole house. Spent a lot of time in there. We moved away from there a year ago in January and sold our house to this super nice couple a year ago on the 2nd of February. Well, A1 was talking to one of his friends from down there yesterday and she told him that there was a murder in our old house. OH MY GOSH!! I thought at first she was pulling his leg because he ran into the kitchen while still talking to her to tell us that and didn't give details, arrrgh. So hubby and I both grabbed a computer and started doing a search. I figured it was a shooting and started searching for a shooting in that city. Nothing. I finally had hubby look for their name in the checkbook. We had to write them a check for something or other at closing. Found it. Looked it up. And sure enough there it was. This couple's 33 year old son had stabbed his father (the super super nice guy I met at closing) to death and then tried to OD and cut his own wrist.

Good grief! After A1 got off the phone he gave us the scoop from his friend. She said that they (the kids he use to hang out with) were all swimming in the neighbor's pool where he use to hang out and noticed news choppers flying around the area. This was back in July of this past year. This is a pretty nosey group so they got out of the pool and noticed EMS, Police, and a whole lot of other people near the house. This is a one street subdivision with not a lot of room in it. I'm sure the whole street was freaking out. She proceeded to tell him that the son and the dad didn't see eye to eye all the time and use to argue all the time when the son came in to visit. She said that prior to this blow up the son had killed the dad's dog for shits and giggles to piss the dad off. This man loved that dog because we can remember him talking about it during the closing. Well apparently the son snapped and while the mother was at work he stabbed his father about four times in the chest. They didn't discover the bodies until the wife came home from work. Could you imagine? That must have been a horrific site for her to come home to see. My heart broke for her as soon as I learned that.

What's so creepy about it all is that that use to be MY house! I saw a picture on one of the news magazine websites and it was MY old side yard. It had a bunch of ivy growing in it and my husband brutalized it with his lawn mower. It had the yellow police tape wrapped around the trees and there were two police officers standing at the end of the driveway. That's the house where A1 said he like to live because of the school system. That's the house where we brought A2 home from the hospital after he was born. My baby's first house is now the site of a brutal murder. **shudder** We were talking about it yesterday and more than likely if the father was sleeping when he was stabbed then he was in the master bedroom that I loved so much. Ugh.

A1's friend said that the lady still lives in the house with her daughter who is apparently close in age to the deranged son. The son was taken to the hospital and then locked away in the mental ward. She didn't know much more than that. It's a sad sad thing that only five and a half months after moving in they endure such tragedy. This couple said they were moving from up north to get away from all the hustle and bustle to live a quiet life in their new (to them) house. They were going to remodel the kitchen and just enjoy the neighborhood. They were excited that we had fenced the back yard in because it would give a safe place for their dog to play outside. It was a very peaceful place and in fact this was the first murder that area had seen in two years.

You just never know what life is going to throw at you. I've thought about this a lot since hearing about it yesterday. I am certainly grateful for all that I have and the friends and family that are in my life. Bad things happen without prejudice and often without warning, hug your family, tell your friends you appreciate them. Let go of past issues and live for the moment.

I'm off to watch the Backyardigans with A2 again and love it even though I've seen this one about six times already!