Productive
I don’t know how long it will last, but I decided to turn over a new leaf today. I decided to make more of an effort to keep the house in order. I had a great excuse for letting things go when Elsa was younger, but at this point she can play independently so I just need to suck it up and work on my house keeping skills.
She still has a runny nose, so I couldn’t go to the gym today. I was going to go to Costco since it is always an ordeal and I rarely have enough free time to make the trip. I didn’t really need to stock up on anything, but I hated to let the opportunity slip by. Then I realized the key to my “buy nothing new month”: DON’T GO SHOPPING. Doh! Big money saving tip up for grabs. I could write the next “Simple Saving Tips” book and be rich. Rich, I tell you!
Instead, I scrubbed out the toilets and did a bunch of laundry. Elsa got into my make-up and spread it all over the master bathroom, so that added some fun to the clean up. Hmmmmm. Maybe she’s not quite ready to let me become a housekeeper extraordinaire.
Later she grabbed the very wet toilet brush and started dragging it around. I shouted “ELSA, NO!” and she immediately dropped it and ran away.
I need to remember that she is way more sensitive than Erik.
She completely disappeared, but I eventually found her in her closet, crying softly. My heart was breaking for my poor, sweet girl. I have been looking up parenting classes tonight. I need to learn to stop yelling.
New topic!
I spent some time with my young Pakistani neighbor this afternoon. My lord, that woman’s life is a hot mess. She’s not sure how old he husband is, but knows he’s in his late 40s. She’s in her early 20s. I was surprised a man would go that long without marrying, so I asked her if she was his first wife. Cue the drama.
Apparently she kept asking him if he had a wife in America and he kept saying “no, no of course not. No wife in America.” They went to the embassy to finish the paperwork for her visa and it was denied because he had a wife in America!
He claims it was a paper marriage and that my neighbor is the first woman he’s had sexual relations with, but she doesn’t believe it because what 40 year old man can be pure? Apparently he was married to a really old (she said 60 or 70) Chinese woman for six years.
He obviously divorced this woman, but it took awhile for the paperwork to go through. In the meantime his new wife was pregnant and gave birth to her first daughter in Pakistan while her pseudo-husband was in the US. He would just visit her once in a while. I’m really surprised her parents allowed this. You’d think they’d be outraged he had lied, but I guess it would be worse for her to be a single pregnant woman? I don’t know.
These days the old wife (officially divorced) comes to visit them on occasion and wants their children. She also demands that the man take her to a fertility clinic and give her his sperm so they can have a baby together. I guess they’ll have to go to Italy for that to happen! No American fertility clinic is going to work with an old woman.
My head was spinning.
To finish off the story, my neighbor tried to make some friendly conversation. . . “So, how many women has your husband slept with?”
I think my jaw about hit the floor. I told her that was Mike’s private business and that I had to get home to cook dinner. That is just not a topic I’m going to touch with a ten foot pole, esp with someone I barely know.
In better news!
I have been super productive on the MOMS Club front. I hate hate hate hate hate asking things of people, but we need guest speakers for our meetings and as president I kinda need to supply them. That’s the one part of the job that I hate the most. Today, however, I got a bug up my butt and decided it wasn’t hard to send an e-mail and to just get over myself and do it. The worst thing that could happen would be receiving a “no.” Honestly, the only “no” we’ve gotten is from the local coupon fraud queen. She would only do it for money. She doesn’t seem to understand the value of publicity and public goodwill. Obviously I didn’t know she was using fraudulent practices when one of our members contacted her about speaking to us. The funniest thing is that this member only knew her because she spoke to her Christian moms group. Guess they didn’t know she was a complete fraud either.
I’ve already heard back from both places I e-mailed and they are really excited to come speak to us! I guess I need to get over my childhood nonsense of being worthless and a bother and that no one would ever do anything for free.
In May we are going to have someone from a private swim school come and talk about water safety. In March we are going to have a presentation from the area poison control center. Both sound really fancy-schmancy for our little club.
Mike suggested I e-mail Michelle Obama and see if she’ll come speak about her healthy kids stuff since I”m on such a positive roll. I have a sneaking suspicion she might be a lot harder to book, even if we are within her geographic area.
I’m done with my presidency in June, so I think I really only need to find one more speaker to feel like my duties have been carried out sufficiently. I am so happy that someone else is eager to take on the prez role. I said I’d do the membership VP role. I enjoy recruiting new members and making sure they are comfortable in our group, so it’s the perfect job for me.
Guess I better get to bed. I have a feeling it is going to be a long day tomorrow. Mike scared the heck out of me by coming home early today (5:30, so not super early) because he is sick. Erik has bright red cheeks and feverish looking eyes, though he doesn’t feel hot. I don’t know if either of them will be leaving the house tomorrow.