Maybe not for you, but it was for me; LF was out of school both Friday and Monday.

Friday, I decided I would do all of the errands I haven't done and that had to be done, no matter what it was. Normally, living here in Nashville, I can buy groceries for all three of us for one week at about $90-$120. I spent $200 and it was only for the boys' birthdays. LF and I each bought Ed a present, dropped off prescriptions, bought car stuff (wiper blades, fluid, and keys made), took Ed to lunch since it was his birthday, stopped by a chain store where I could buy cheapy-cheap goody bag stuff for the kiddies, bought photographic paper, white hair paint... it was 3PM when LF and I got home and we'd been gone since 7:30AM or so, ugh! It had been my intention to clean the house and be able to hit the hay with no worries since the party was at 11 the next day. Exhausted, I gave up at that point and went to goof off for the rest of the evening. Put up our feet and watched the sun set sitting on Logan's patio. Unbeknownst to LF, I put together the costume I'd picked out for him. I picked something I knew he'd love, but would never think about doing. Then hit the hay.

Saturday was party day, so we had to get up early and clean. Why hadn't I done it the day before?! It was now LF's birthday, so I was careful to let him know he came first instead of party guests, so every once a while, I'd just sing "happy birthday" from the other room. He's old enough he got it. He finally said, thank you so much for making my day special. I appreciate it. It was nice to hear and feel. Nice kid. I made Ed a lemon cake and LF a pineapple upside down bundt cake, still going for something he'd never think of on his own. Some day, I'll run out of surprises ;) The party went off without a hitch and no one asked me about Keegan. I hear little PW was asking, but her mom stopped her from asking me. Actually, I would've been glad to have someone interested. All of the kids know both Ed and me, so they felt comfortable asking for whatever they needed, but never really knew what to call us. I was "UM, LF's mom" and he, at one point, got called Mr. Ed. I really had to guffaw that one. It's been an ongoing joke that I introduce myself as Mrs. Ed; most adults get that. I just knew Ed was thinking of answering in a whinny, but resisted the temptation. She was cute. I take it back, I didn't know K's younger siblings were so much younger. I'd bought H and S some under age 2 stuff for their bags, and they didn't make it to the party, so I gave them to the itty-bitty twins. Looking back, mom seem surprised I "remembered", but I would've set her straight had I known what she was thinking. LF set her straight for me, blurting out, "Oh, Mom bought those for H and S!" and I jokingly covered his mouth and K's mom, giggled. So much for looking thoughtful. But I'll know next time.

Sunday we worked on the house. Ed got up and said, "I'm finishing the bathroom", and I knew he was biting off more than he could chew since A) he'd quit the tiling which needed at least another 1 1/2 hours of work, B) there was now a big hole in the wall thanks to plumbing leaks, long since fixed, but the gapping drywall hole was staring back at us, and C) there was only one day, with 2 days left to do it. When I asked him what he'd do, he said, "Fix the bathtub leak and install the toilet". I said, "No door, no toilet. I don't people coming over and not being able to go to the bathroom! It's one thing if we don't close the door, it's another if they can't. Right?" To which he said, ok... then proceeded to sit right in the middle of the floor and work on the drywall. He sat right in the middle of the floor I'd decided to grout since he'd be in the bathtub. Frustrated, I picked the part of the floor which had to be done for a toilet to get installed, still assuming I'd need to get this done so he could do what he'd said he'd do. I grouted it and began cleaning the remaining floor in order to grout it when he finished the drywall. I finished cleaning right about the time he finished the drywall and turned around to pick up my grout. He starting putting in the tiles, and ask me to run his errands to finish the tile. Mind you, I can work alongside the best of them. But I can do the best work too, and I was also frustrated he wasn't doing what he said he'd do, then took MY cement (which if you don't know, it's a freakin' pain to mix just right and is killer on the knuckles). I was fit to be tied at this point, so I walked away. I came back and he proceeded to tell me to go get him more stuff with which to tile. I got one more pile of stuff and said, this is the last thing I'm getting; I'm going to work on something else now. I don't know if I was more p.o.-ed at being gofer or at the fact he was being completely disrespectful. But I was livid. We argued a bit and worked some. He tried to walk out, but that didn't make me mad, I just sat down and started doing what he left undone. Since his ploy didn't work, he took it over and got back into it. In the meantime, I worked on the old bathroom demo, measured and cut drywall to repair the hole, and cooled off. He finished the step and I grouted the floor. He had to fix the toilet plumbing before we could move on and so we went to lunch/to get hardware. As we drove along, the 2 lanes narrow down to one. The car beside us decided he needed to be in front of us and Ed would have nothing to do with it. It hit me! He needed his meds and since he quit taking them, he was being ultraaggressive and territorial. It helped me deal with him the rest of the day, but I sure spent the next part of the day and the entire next day thinking, I may have to leave all of this for him to do and tell him to give me 1/2 the money later. Much later. We got the toilet taken apart, cleaned, bolts cleaned and set in the new bathroom. We met A, V, H and S for dinner. Then we worked on getting the door up. It's half done, but can close. Ed and I fought again when I asked him to if he would please take the laundry that had been sitting the washer/dryer out for a week (and was probably mildew filled now!) and he replied, if it's so dang important to you, you do it. That was it. I went to bed determined I'd figure out how best to avoid him for awhile. His lack of goodwill will is very detrimental at this point.

Monday. I woke up still boiling over how obnoxious he is and worried over how much worse he'll get. Trying to calm down, I got ready to dig into a project or two to try to finish the stuff so we can sell the house and be done with it. I sanded the ceiling and added more mud to the drywall patches now up. Disgusted with spending my only day off working, I told LF to get dressed and we'd go out. I also suddenly realized it was parent-teacher conference day. When we got there, I instructed LF to follow the rules. If it went well, i.e. he followed the rules, we could go out to lunch. It did and her biggest complaint was that LF doesn't sharpen his pencil. "Um, Ok. I'm really glad you like him, but I'll work on pencil sharpening?." Somehow my car steered itself to Joe's crabshack where we ended up on the deck. LF declared it just like New Orleans, and actually, I agreed. It's a balcony overlooking people milling around and busy city streets. Very much like it. Much more relaxed. We goofed off some more then went home where I stained the pergola. It's too dark, but such is life. It'll have to do. And I stained my hands, I have nice dark smiley faces on every finger.

As I slid in bed to mend my sweater and drift off to sleep, I realized there was no cat litter on the sheets. Normally, I mean, it used to be, I had to give it an extra swipe since Keegan would insinuate his fluffy paws into the bed and since there was fluff in his paws, a few granules would end up on the sheets. I cried and cried since there was no kitty litter. I longed for it and for some furball to be sitting on my lap while I darned. Such an emptiness. I have been looking at a kitty, but I dunno. Maybe.

Here is a link that might be useful: Isn't a carbon copy Keegan? They even have Irish names!