Tag: Kids

Kids Weekend

Jen and the kids are texting back and forth about this weekend. They are coming home for a quick visit! I love it. I don’t have any details yet so I don’t know when or where or how or what, I just know it’s in the works.

It’s like flashing back to 2007 when we were splitting custody with the kids’ father and we had them half of the time and he had them half of the time. Literally. We alternated days. I think… and I am straining my tiny little brain to bring up these memories… we had the kids on Sundays and half of the day on Saturday… or did we have them on Fridays and then the first half of Saturday… I’m pretty sure we had them for half of every Saturday. The other six days of the week alternated between houses.

That was the schedule when I first came into the picture. The kids were age six and four at that time. I was still in my 30’s (which seems laughable for some reason… youngin’). Eventually we changed the schedule to one where they were at one house for two days, then the other for two days, and then the remaining three days would alternate. That way on any given week they would have five straight days in the same house, and each week those five days would be in a different house. It worked.

Sometimes when I think back over the years I feel sad about the time I missed. Six whole years… why couldn’t I have met Jen earlier and been around to know the kids when they were babies? Then I stop feeling like that and just feel overwhelmingly thankful for the time I have had. What a gift that time has been. What a perfect, magical, brilliant gift that Jen and Bellana and Harry have given me. They’ve let me be a small piece of their lives. I am eternally grateful for that gift. I will never be able to express how thankful I am, how honored I am, how touched I am. Really… being in their lives has been better than anything I could have ever hoped that anything could ever be. Put simply, I am just a dumb ass red head. What did I do to deserve a blessing like this? What did I do to deserve the love of three such exceptional people? I don’t know. If I did I would bottle it and sell it and be a gazillionaire. Seriously.

I guess what I am trying to say here is that I am going to see the kids this weekend and I am really happy about it.

Weird Week Coming Up

Happy Monday, everyone. Mondays suck, but what can you do?

This week is gonna be a weird one for us here at the Inside the Red Head’s Head family. Yup.

First off, contractors. Yet another contractor is coming to the house today. Just routine maintenance. It’s not even 8:00am and by all rights I should be in the shower right now but I am not because the contractor just told us he’s on his way. He may even be done before I start the work day. How crazy is that?

There are two contractors on the books for tomorrow. One is coming to fix a leak in our dishwasher. I am so mad about that leak that I cannot even think straight, but fingers crossed it will be back to normal tomorrow. The question of whether I will ever trust it again is still outstanding. The other contractor scheduled for tomorrow was for the same issue. I have to cancel it, but it’s the same service that is coming today and I had this nasty feeling that if I cancelled Tuesday’s appointment they would accidentally cancel Monday’s and hijinx would ensue.

Contractor visits are just one of the weird things going on this week. The other has to do with a hotel. Jen’s company is running a conference this week in Boston. They booked rooms for their staff and that includes my beloved bride. I took a half day off of work today so that I could bring her to the hotel in time for whatever they have planned this afternoon. I am hoping that I will be able to squat at the hotel with her at night, though I have to work from home tomorrow (see above) and I have to work in the office for the rest of the week. The end result is, I am going to be doing a lot of Boston driving this week. I am okay with that… I just need to know where to go, you know? Jen has the details so it will be fine.

Other than that… my step son was here yesterday but he’s already left to go back to Vermont. He is on spring break this week but he is scheduled to work a ton. No extended visit this time but I am very happy to have seen him yesterday. I do love it when my step kids are here.

It’s now 8:00am. The contractor called about 25 minutes ago saying he was on his way. Here’s hoping he gets here soon and can wrap up the job quickly. Fingers eternally crossed.

Still On… So Far

First, allow me to say thank you to Lily the cat for sitting still this morning so that I could take a picture of her in the mostly dark room without the iPhone’s low light functionality turning her into a blurry mess. Thanks, Lily Pad!

Next, all of my Sunday plans are still on. Fingers crossed it stays that way. No word about canceling band practice. No one has backed out, and our meet time is less than two hours away. It’s never going to be back to normal if we can’t get at least two weeks in a row in, know what I mean?

Fingers crossed.

My step son is coming over today. He’s not here yet. I hope he gets here before I leave for practice, but if he doesn’t that’s fine too. I’ll have the whole day post-practice to hang around with him.

Good Day on Tap

There’s a good chance that tomorrow, Sunday, is going to be a good day. My step son is coming home tomorrow morning. We’ll spend nearly the whole day with him. I have a band practice that I am looking forward to but trying not to be overly excited about. See my post on the subject from earlier.

I just had one of my sugar free bakery cookies and it was goooood.

Yeah, Saturday was super busy and stressful. Sunday, I hope, should be a little more relaxing. Fingers crossed at least.

For now though, I’m going to bed. G’Night, Moon.

Saturday Plans?

Normally, one of the first things I do when I get up on a Saturday morning is start to make a list of things that need to be accomplished over the course of the day. Well, it’s Saturday now and it’s about quarter past seven in the morning. Time to make that list….

You heard me, red head… time to make that list…

Whenever you’re ready…

Yeah, I have nothing. Nothing on the agenda today at all.

The good news is, tomorrow we’re going to have a visit from Harry. I guess the agenda today is to just get ready for his visit. I can do that.

RPM Challenge Day 4/28

Nothing.

I had a really bad day and went to bed early, thinking I would get a good night’s sleep, but then I woke up super early and spoiled the whole plan. Shit.

I did get to wish my step son a Happy Birthday. I think I wished my nephew a Happy Birthday too. I sent him a text, discovered he has a new phone number, got his new phone number, sent another text, he didn’t respond. We called my sister’s phone to wish him a happy but he wasn’t home so we called his phone because my sister said his voicemail was setup but his voicemail wasn’t set up. I speak now directly to my nephew… I really hope you got that text. If not, Happy Birthday!!

That’s my whole day in a nutshell. Birthdays, back pain, stomach pain, first day back to work. Yippee. Today is an in the office day so it’s going to suck on so many levels.

Happy Merry and shit, everyone! WOOHOO!

He’ll be Proud

My step son, Harry, will be proud of me. I just finished watching Better Call Saul. He really wanted me to watch it. He was raving about it all the time. Now I’ve watched the whole series and he can finally talk to me about it without worrying about spoilers.

FYI, it’s as good as everyone says it is. Go watch it.

Subject change. I mentioned that I bought a few new guitar pedals over the last week. I haven’t had a chance to try them out yet. I’m debating whether I want to integrate them into the board I use at home, or should I make a brand new pedal board instead. I’m leaning toward a new board. Just for a while at least. Just for schnitzengiggles.

Subject change. We have a couch delivery scheduled for this morning. The delivery window they gave me is pretty long. It extends into my work day and it overlaps two scheduled meetings. Here’s hoping we get lucky and the truck gets here early enough to not mess anything up.

Subject change. Our mouse hunting cats had a target last night. We woke up in the middle of the night to see them chasing a gross little teeny tiny rodent around. At the time, the little bastard got away. We don’t see any signs of the prick this morning, but the cats are clearly still on high alert. We live in the woods. One of the biggest rivers in New England runs smack through our town. Mice are a part of life. Still… go get the little home invading asshole, cats. Do your job. Protect your house.

Okay. Time to go start the day. That delivery truck is going to be here… eventually.

The Day So Far

The car has new breaks and new tires.

A couch has been purchased and a delivery has been scheduled.

My step son is home safe and sound even though I’d much rather he were still here with us. The nest is empty once again. Boo.

All that remains is to go grocery shopping and to cook dinner. I think I’ll get started on that now.

Good Morning

My step son is going to be leaving us pretty soon. I’m sad. The potential for a bummer mix of a day is pretty high. I’ll try to make the most of it. We’ll see.

We had plans for today but I think we’re going to scrap them, or completely alter them, or flat our replace them. I don’t know. Maybe I should just go back to sleep. That would be fun, eh? It’s almost 8:00am. Time for a nap! WOOHOO!

Missed Opportunity

Today is our last full day with my step son Harry in the house. He’s heading back to Vermont in the morning so he can go to work in the afternoon.

I’m sad that he’s leaving. I’m even sadder that today is an in the office day and I’m going to be away from home until dinner time.

Crud.