Family night FAIL

It's Saturday night and we're all back together after being scattered across 3 cities last night. Mike and I had talked about going out for a date, but I thought it would be nice to all cocoon in the house together for family night. Good idea gone bad.

First, we couldn't agree on dinner. Mike wanted to go out. Charlie and I wanted to stay in. Annie wanted to order in something. Great. Except we couldn't decide what to order in. She wanted 5 Guys. Mike wanted Chinese. I just wanted a bowl of cereal. So we declared it "whatever you want for dinner night" and left it at that.

Next was the movie selection. Charlie wanted to watch professional wrestling on TV. Mike wanted Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Robbie did not want to watch a "real people movie." I just wanted to come to a decision. We decided on Harry Potter, figuring Robbie would fall asleep shortly after the movie started.

We sat down (me, not on the couch, just to add to the frustration of the evening), pressed play for Harry Potter and the movie came on sans sound. I thought maybe that's the way it was supposed to be, for dramatic effect. But when the audio kept fading in and out and the video began stuttering, the only drama going on were the protests coming from the family room.`

I called AT&T Uverse customer support to try to a.) get the video on demand working and b.) get our account credited for the rental. The nice woman on the other end of the phone was about the only bright spot in the evening. As she worked to test the lines and re-set the system (yes, Mike, I said go downstairs and check that TV. Really. Now. Just do it.), Annie made herself some shrimp stir-fry and Robbie went to his room to draw pictures.

Twenty minutes later, the account was credited, but the movie wasn't fixed. Charlie was arguing with me about still wanting to watch WWE. When he figured that was a lost cause, he went in the kitchen where he and Annie started to pick at each other.

And that was the end of family night. I'd had enough, so I sent everyone to bed. Mike and I would just have our date night at home, I thought. Until he kept trying to find another movie to rent and I snapped that it would be a waste of another 20 minutes on the phone to get the money back when it didn't work and he snottily meowed at me like a pissy cat, so I stomped off and said, "I'm going to bed."

As I said, family night FAIL.

We'll try again tomorrow.

Crab salad

I just posted this status update on my Facebook page:

"Warning: I am crabby today. Like I could eat small children for breakfast. That is all."

For the record, I already had breakfast (that did not include any human ingredients), so I am not crabby because I'm hungry. And I feel a little guilty spewing my crabbiness online on a Sunday, but I'm hoping that getting it off my chest makes me feel better.

So here is a list of ingredients for today's Crab Salad:

1. My children keep reading over my shoulder. "Mom, what did you just type? Why are you looking up that?" Next time they do it, maybe I'll Google "How to give your kids up for adoption" or "3 ways to pay for military school."
   
2. Mike is trying to plan a 40th birthday party for me, which is very nice. What is not nice is that he is not listening to my pleas for something simple. So when I logged into Facebook to see that he is looking for a freaking BAND to perform at the party, I went from content to crab in about 1.4 seconds.
3. I'm anxious about money. Who isn't? But this time of year -- back to school -- seems to suck it out of my bank account faster than it goes in.
4. Charlie's birthday party is today (only 4 weeks after his actual birthday) and he's not being very humble about it. I know he's excited and he's 11 and it's my job to teach him to be humble and gracious, but why does he have to be so thick-skulled about it?
5. Robbie did not go to bed until after 11pm last night because I was not home. And the effects of the late bedtime are already showing. This must-be-within-3-feet-of-mom-at-all-times phase is really starting to wear on me.
6. I have to go back to work tomorrow and I'm regretting not getting more done around home during my week off.

I guess the good news is that I didn't even make it to 10 things that are making me crabby. Only 6, which is likely manageable. So maybe later today I'll be able to come back here and post something that is more wit than whine. Thanks for letting me vent.

Crabby appleton

When we were little and in a bad mood, my mom would call us a "crabby appleton." She actually had a little song she would sing --

"Crabby appleton, go to bed,
Close your eyes, lay down your head..."

The song would either make us laugh or make us crabbier. I think I need my mom to sing to me because today I am crabby.

I think it started when I realized that I fell asleep during the Colts game. I tried to watch the highlights, but that wasn't enough to fill the football craving I had. Then Mike wasn't moving as fast as I wanted him to this morning, which made me mad. I told him so, which made him mad. And it's just gone on from there.

Charlie couldn't find his basketball shorts, which caused the whole house and everyone in it to be turned upside down. Mike snapped at me. I skipped Charlie's basketball game to get the house in some semblance of order (my decision), then I was P.O.'d when Mike called to say what a great game Charlie was having.

I sat down to watch the Colts game on DVR as I folded laundry, only to find that we hadn't recorded it. What I planned to make for dinner turned out to take way longer than I'd anticipated so it will have to wait until tomorrow (unless we want to eat at 10pm tonight).

My garbage disposal is broken. My laundry is out of control. My normal response to stress and a bad day would be to eat something awful for me (but delicious), but I can't do that because a.) this Better U challenge and b.) I don't have anything awful in the house (see a.). I could really use a margarita or a Mike's hard lemonade or a Blue Moon ale, but we don't have any of that in the house either.

I've tried to tell myself that the people in Haiti would be happy to have these problems, but that only irritates me more.

It's just one of those days. Ever have one?