Mary Must Be Scary!

I am a lot older than my brothers and so is Pat. We had Connor while our siblings were still in High School. Unfortunately, our kids won't have any cousins their age to grow up with. That's too bad since our whole family lives close together. Now that our brothers and sisters are older, they are starting families but their kids are much younger than our kids. Surprisingly our kids really like the little ones. They are always very patient with their little cousins and their little cousins really like their big cousins a lot.

That is not the case when it comes to their Aunt Mary. It has taken me twice as long to connect with my neices and nephews. I must look like Medusa to little kids or something. I know I can act like Medusa and stare you down like Medusa, but I don't do that to my neices and nephew, just my own kids. For a long time I blamed the kids freaking out on me on my visor. I usually always have a visor on. Sometimes when I took the visor off, the kids didn't react so badly. So, of course it had to be the visors fault. I still have no clue to this day what it is. My friends tell me that I have a look that just doesn't look approachable. WHAT THE HELL IS THAT SUPPOSE TO MEAN?!!! Maybe that is why I got stuck with Pat. He was probably so tanked up with the Captain, he was to oblivious to see that I was unaproachable.

When Hannah(my youngest brothers daughter) was born, I really didn't get to see her that much. I think because we had just moved into our new house and I was really busy getting the house in shape. When I would actually get to see Hannah, she wouldn't even look at me. She would cling to either my mom or dad not giving me a wreck. It took a lot of effort on my part to bond with Hannah. The only time she would let me hold her is when she was Baptized. I was chosen to be her God-Mother. So as an infant you don't have much choice and you really can't put up a fight. But as soon as she was old enough, she gave me the cold sholder. I didn't have it nearly as bad as Pat though. As soon as he would even walk in room, she would scream bloody murder. We couldn't go anywhere if Hannah was going to be there, especially if Pat was going. He blamed her not liking him on his voice being deep. I'm thinking, "No, she's just smart." Plain and simple, she just didn't like us. Who the hell knows to this day why. Today, Hannah is 5 and she thinks I'm the bomb. Of course she should think that. I try to make her feel special when I am around her. Spoiling her with cotton candy doesn't hurt either.
Olivia, Hannahs baby sister, doesn't like me right now. She is not even two yet. She actually gives me dirty looks. Olivia will actually warm up to me if I am around her for a while though. It will still take some more time with Olivia. Olivia is really funny. I can't wait to see how her sense of humor develops.

Aidan, Pat's brothers son, is my only nephew. He is quite a character. I told myself before he was born "He will know his Aunt Mary". It was easy to get to know Aidan because he went to the childcare right down the road. I would stop in at least once a week to go visit Aidan. I can just stop in because I happen to know the owners. The owners happen to be my in-laws. I think Aidan just tolerated me. He probably wondered "Who is this girl who always stops in and bugs me? Doesn't she know I really don't give a rat's ass. I just want to play with my truck in peace." Aidan is Pat's godson. So I think it's important that he know us. Last time I was at Aidan's house, I was teasing him a little bit as I always do and he called me the "annoying one". That was so hillarious! I will say that it reminded me on a time when Connor was really little,he was maybe 4. He was laying in bed with me and it was really late. I was watching T.V. and I was flipping through channels. I must have passed by a channel he wanted to watch and when I told him "No, you are suppose to be going to sleep.", I heard Connor mumble "biiitch" under his breath. I immediately flipped on the light and grabbed his little shoulders and said "who told you that, where did you hear that?" I'm thinking he always hangs out in the garage with Pat and I constantly open the door to the garage and bark out orders to Pat. Was Pat calling me a bitch when I shut the door and Connor picked up on it? Totally waiting for Connor to rat out his dad. I waited as Connor trying to catch his breath from crying said "Cheheheheheyanne". Cheyanne was a little trailer park trash girl in his cub class at daycare. I guess Pat was off the hook, this time. So, with Aidan I was thinking the same thing. Maybe he heard his mom and dad talking about me. I can't start thinking of another conspiricy against me. That little twit of a nephew. I will just tease him more. I will really show him annoying. And, I did. Last weekend he came over my house. V-day fell on a Sunday this year so we had a nice breakfast instead of dinner. Since Aidan and Clare(aidan's younger sister) were there, we had farm animal waffles, sausage, fresh fruit, and juice. Regan and I had also made up candy goody bags for the kids as well. I figured this could score me some points. So after breakfast everyone got their goody bags and as I handed Aidan his bag, I said "Do I get a kiss for the candy Aidan?" He looked at me and sort of shrugged. I know he really wanted the candy but it looked like he was almost willing to give it up if he had to kiss the Medusa Head. He then thought for a second and said "Can we just hug or something?" Of course we all went into hysterics. Kudos to Aidan for coming up with a compromise.

Clare is a whole other demon. I did the same thing with her but she was getting brainwashed. I stopped by to see clare way more than Aidan because she was stubborn. The more I stopped by, the more she cozied up to her Aunt Patra, Pat and Sean's sister. Patra was the teacher in Clare's infant room at the daycare. I bet Patra was telling her that I was Medusa. As soon as Clare saw me walking toward her classroom, she would quickly look around to find a teacher she could run to. I use to love it when I would catch her off guard. She would really freak out then. Now Clare is in a different class and not under the influence of her god- mother, Patra. Things are a little better. But, I had a break through. When we were over Erin and Seans house, I hung out with Clare in her room and talked about her toys. Ever since I did that, our relationship is 180 out. I walked into her class last week and she actually yelled MAAAARY, like she was actually excited that I was there. That was a first. Persistance may have paid off.

My brothers both have babies on the way within the next few months. I guess I will have to start all over again to create a bond. Medusa will be rearing her ugly head again.

SNOW over it!

I am so over all this snow. We have had enough family bonding to last us through the next decade. Ok, well not bonding really. We all hid in our little corners in the house. But, when we did have to hang together, it could get really ugly. I swear the kids minds were turning into jello. Having over a week off from school was making them stupid.
Connor slept in until 12 noon pretty much everyday. I'm not even sure he bothered to take a shower that often. HELLO!!!!!!! "It's just a little snow.....Ok a lot of snow, but it will go away, your B.O. won't!" Connor would come down just about everyday after he woke up wondering why he didn't get any breakfast. Again....HELLO!!!!!! It's lunch time you dork! Since when am I his personal servant? He has lived with me for 14 years. You think he would know by now that he is on his own. Furthermore, when I make breakfast, lunch, or dinner, you need to come down and eat it when its there. You will get no other meal 3 hours later when the kitchen has been cleaned up.
I have a routine. Don't screw with it because it's not going to change. It's just like when I do the laundry, have it in the laundry room on Wednesday. If it's not there, it doesn't get washed. I hate doing laundry. Don't come and ask me to wash something when it's all done, unless you want a serious tongue lashing. I might even make you fold all the laundry if you ask me to wash something for you when I just spent 3 hours cleaning the crap off all your clothes. In short, the kids don't ask me anymore because they know better now. When I say get your stuff together, they get it together. When I say it's breakfast, you come and eat. Connor seems to think I am going to turn into this mother of the year and make him a hot breakfast 3 hours later. NOT!!!!!
Regan, bless her little heart, is not going to miss any meal. She knows the consequences. She likes to be waited on. If I am going to make a meal, she is going to take advantage of it. She's smart. She knows that while I am cooking she may get me to make something a little different for her. She actually stayed the most busy during this whole snow break. She would go over friends houses to go sledding and not come back for a few days. Smart girl. Who would want to be cooped up with me and Pat? That has "Lets do some work around the house written all over it".
I barely even saw Ian. He only came down to eat when I called him down. He is addicted to X-Box live. I had to go see him to make sure he was showering and brushing his teeth. I still ask myself "Why do I have to tell these kids to brush their teeth?"
Toward the end of the snow break. Pat and his brother decided they were going to get together. We were all getting a little cabin fever. Sean and Erin and their two kids were going to come and stay the night. This is always a fun time. Although Pat and Sean can get loud and crazy, not to mention annoying. They also tend to do some stupid things. Make no mistake, they are very smart boys, but alcohol does crazy things to those two and turns them into a couple of dumb-asses. This weekend was no exception. It started out as it normally does. We had a long cocktail hour, followed by a nice dinner. After dinner, we continued to drink and hang out. Around 11:30 p.m. I started to fade, as well as the kids and Erin. We all decided we were going to bed. Pat and Sean were not to happy about that idea at all. They were getting there second wind. Pat decided it would be a great idea if he and Sean went to the local dive down the road to finish off the evening with drinks there. NOT!!! I told Pat that he better not drive. "And under no circumstance was he to drive the suburban. It is the only car I have." Not to mention, that car will kill someone. He said he wouldn't drive the suburban, so I went to sleep.
When I woke up the next morning, it was early. I went to look out the window and noticed that Erin's new SUV was in the middle of our driveway. NOT GOOD! We weren't even using our driveway during the Blizzard because the snow drift was about 4 feet high. We were using our neighbors driveway because the trees blocked the snow drifts from covering their driveway. Just as I was discovering the car stuck, Pat was getting up. I went to ask him about the car and he said Sean wanted to show him how good his 4 wheel drive was last night. He was laughing pretty good while he told me the story. I guess even 4 wheel drives have their limits. The limit must be 4 feet of snow and ice. Then he proceeded to tell me the suburban was stuck too. WHAT!!!!!!!! Pat said after Sean got stuck he was going to give him a little nudge to get him out. NUDGE!!????? I'm thinking " What are you thinking you dumb-ass?" The suburban is not the type of car you want to nudge another car with. The Hoopty is a tank! It would go right through the back end of Sean's car. Luckily he did get it stuck.
After we got through with breakfast, our neighbor and good friend Tom came over with his toys to get the cars out. Ours shouldn't be a problem, because it didn't even make it into the driveway. That got me thinking. How did Sean make it in so far. His SUV is much smaller than the surburban. Come to find out he hit the beginning of the driveway in his drunken stupor at about 35-40 miles an hour. He basically launched himself 1/4 of the way down the driveway. You may be thinking "Launch?" Well, a few days before they came over we had to reshovel the neighbors drive at the end because of the snow drifts by the wind. I told Pat we should probably shovel the end of our driveway so the plows know its a driveway and not a place to pile the snow. Well, he didn't want to do it and guess what? You got it. The plows piled the snow at the end of our driveway. I say the pile was about 15ft high. I really thought I was going to kill Pat when I saw that. Luckily that night we caught the snow plow on our street and told him and he cleared it out pretty good because this shit wouldn't have melted until June! So this is where the launch thing comes into play. Even though he cleared the end of the driveway, there was still about a foot and a half of built up snow and ice at the bottom that the plow didn't get up. Sean must have hit that little ice ramp and he and Pat(now known as the Duke boys) flew half was down the drive. What a couple of idiots. The real Duke boys never got stuck. But Pat and Sean being only and imitation of the real thing, got stuck pretty good. So now Posey was here to pull them out. They were out there for a while. When they made there way in, I grabbed my camera to take those two knuckle-heads picture with their snow shovels. They were both acting pretty weird. I started to walk back in when Pat said he need to tell me something. Well, actually he need to show me something. He walked me to the back of the suburban and pointed to the back door. "What in the hell did you do?!!!!!!!" My back window was gone. The chain Tom was using snapped and flew through the window. "Thanks a lot Pat! You better warm your right hand up, because you are going to be writing a really big check!" I only have one car and it's in a fragile state. It is 12 years old and probably hanging on for dear life. This is precisely why Pat was forbidden to drive it last night. He doesn't have very good judgement when he consumes the captain. It could have been much worse. He could have driven through the back of Erins new truck with his, "We will just give it a little nudge", idea.

The only bonus to the whole situation was that Tom had to plow out part of our driveway to get to Seans car. Too bad he didn't launch in deeper. Oh, and I most likely will get a brand new car out of it. Sometimes you have to just love it when Pat gets together with the Captain and does his stupid little tricks. Doesn't he know by now that the captain is a bad influence and makes him do things he wouldn't do otherwise. Wait, let me think about that again. Ok, I will give him a break here. He probably wouldn't do stupid things to the degree the captain would make him do it. Maybe I should sign Pat and Sean up for Letterman's Stupid pet tricks segment. I'm sure those two have many more dumb-ass tricks up their sleeves.

13th win brings bad luck anyway

It was a very interesting weekend to say the least. The energy started to build on Thursday when the threat of a blizzard Friday evening was eminent. I was due in for a hockey game. My Dad must have called me a million times to change the time we were going to leave on Friday to head into the game. The game was going to happen and we had to make sure we would be there in time.
The first call "Hey Mary is your hoopty working? Because we may need it." Oh, now all of a sudden you need the hoopty. Isn't that special. "We are going to play it by ear. When the snow starts coming we will make the call as to what time we will leave for the game. Be ready somewhere close to noon." NOON? That sucks because usually we leave for the game around 3:30 for a 7:08 puck drop. That really messes me up because that is when I usually try to get a power nap in before the game. Normally I start to fade around 8:30p.m. So to stay alert for a game, I NEED a nap. I guess it wasn't going to happen today. The NHL told us Thursday they would put the officials up in the Marriott in town if we wanted to stay. Their reasoning for this is because we had a big NBC game against the Penquins on Sunday. They wanted the NHL staff to be there and not trapped at home. I didn't have to work Sunday but my dad did and he was riding in with me. I know he really didn't want to stay and I definately didn't, but I packed a full bag anyway. The Hoopty has 4 wheel drive but she is all I got. If it was bad by the end of the game on Friday, I didn't want to take any chances.
On my way to pick up dad, all I could think about was stocking up the Hoopty with some goodies. I know my dad doesn't want to stay over in D.C. He is going to want to try to make a run for it home. If he does, and we get stuck, I want to be prepared. I am going to eat all that stuff right in front of him. He would deserve it for being selfish and putting our lives in danger. Ok, I may give him a water if I'm not to mad at him for putting us in a bad situation. I stopped at WaWa and got a huge sub, bags of chips, and plenty of water and drinks. Even if we ended up staying in D.C., I would have some snacks for my room.
During the game, the officials kept getting reports of all the accidents and all the roads that were shut down. It wasn't looking good for going home. Although, dad was still debating. Missing my nap was not a good idea. I was yawning through the whole game. One time the official saw me and banged on the glass. That woke me up for a while. The next time, I was staring across at the players bench and started to yawn and whoever I was looking towards, they must have been looking at me because they started to yawn. I woke myself up right away. I saw the player grab a smelling salt and wake his ass up. You can't be half asleep during this game. It moves to fast. Now I certainly didn't want to drive home. I don't think I could have stayed alert.
Dad made the right decision at the end of the game. We were staying. Fine with me. I was packed for the weekend. (to be Cont.........)

So Much To Do In So Little Time

I really thought Pat was joking when he came home and said Thursday was the day. At least I think it was Thursday. It may have been Friday. Who knows. Anyway, I remember laughing like "Yeah, right." He wasn't joking. I started to figure this out after I said, "Fine, I will call your mom and my mom and let them know. I am sure they want to be there." Pat said, "I already called my mom, but go ahead and call yours." Oh Shit! He really did plan it. I guess I have to get on the ball. It was crazy! You think he could have asked me if Thursday was cool? What if I had a test or something.
We had actually been engaged for a while. I guess the wedding was well overdue. I will never forget when Pat asked me to marry him. I'm sure he hasn't forgotten either. Actually I know he hasn't forgotten because he still brings up how mean he thought I was. I really don't think I was mean at all. I will tell you I was embarrassed and annoyed at how it all happened. Every girl envisions how she will get proposed to. What great things will her guy say to her? What will her ring look like? How will she react? What happened to me was completely 180 out from what I expected.
We were at the wedding reception of a couple we would always hang out with. We were having a great time. Pat and I went outside to get a breather. He lured me down to this little place in front of the chapel where Tommy and Michelle had just gotten married. The water from the river filled up this area in front of the Chapel creating like this little pond atmosphere. There were a few picnic tables by this little pond where we went to go sit. I went to sit down and Pat ended up kneeling in front of me. At that moment you feel your face getting flush at what is about to happen as well as your heart starts to race a little. I remember Pat looked so excited as he was proposing. Then he opened up the ring box for me to see the ring. After he got done proposing I saw him glance up to the top of the hill where the reception hall was. Naturally I looked up too. Well, there were a zillion people standing there watching. He was still on his knee with the ring box open. It would serve him right, If I said no. I was thinking, "Why couldn't this be in private? This was suppose to be my moment! Not everyone at this weddings moment." Not to mention we were at someone else's wedding. This is their day. Now it's our day because everyone that should be in celebrating their wedding is outside watching me get proposed to. So yes, I said something to Pat that I maybe shouldn't have said. It probably was hurtful. But hey, we all know that I can be a bea-atch sometimes and this was one of those moments. Pat was kneeling and smiling. I took the ring box. I looked at the ring, which by the way wasn't anywhere close to the ring I had asked for. I looked at Pat and said "I guess you want a hug now?" I really am surprised he still wanted to marry me after saying that. I totally took all the happiness away from him when I said that. I was definitely being selfish about it because I felt he was doing it for show and not for me or him. The embarrassment didn't stop there. We walked into the reception and I think they announced our engagement. Then, they played a song for us. ENOUGH ALREADY! I AM PISSED OFF RIGHT NOW. I DON'T WANT TO PUT ON THIS HAPPY FACE AND HAVE THE SPOTLIGHT! This went on all night. Thank God Tommy and Michelle were the ones putting the DJ up to doing these things or this would have probably ruined their wedding reception and their day all together.
Nine months later, here I was with the marriage ultimatum. I had three days to get a dress. That's about it. My mom and Pat's mom were very excited. They came with me to get my dress. It was a very simple dress, long, white, and fitted. It worked in a pinch. The only regret I have is not really taking very many pictures of me and Pat the day of the wedding. My second regret is not doing something better with my hair. "What was I thinking?" After our 3 minute wedding at the courthouse, we had a small, small, small, reception at this cute little restaurant down the road from us. It was an old house, so the room we were in was very cozy. My mom even got a small wedding cake. How could she get a wedding cake done in two days? Well, she begged the lady at Safeway to give her the top part of someone else's cake for my wedding reception. I think she even shed a few tears to get it because this girls wedding was the day after mine. It was a stressful 3 days. I am glad its over.
It's been 15 years that Pat and I have been together. We have had some very rough times. However, the good times have always outweighed the bad times. I have enjoyed being married for the most part. It's been fun watching Pat lose his hair over the years.