Aggressive-Passivity -ARRGH!

Ever have one of those days when all you can think of to say about things is ARRGH and even that isn't really descriptive enough or providing enough by way of the emotional release you are looking to get?

Sure you have. Come on now and admit it! We ALL do, don't we?

Well, I know I sure as Hell do have days like that and today was most definitely one of 'em!

But, before I tackle the events of today, let me back track, just a smidgen here, to explain my frustration in dealing with certain people who have this aggressive passivity thing going on within 'em! In particular, a certain male who resides here and just so happens is married to my daughter! Yeah, him!

Remember yesterday I busted my fat hump baking not one, but two batches of the Swedish Limpa Rye bread to donate to the Youth Ministry for their bake sale/car wash today. Well, the first time I made this Rye bread was in December of 2003 -when Maya was just a tiny baby and for some reason, on a Sunday evening about 9 p.m., I got the urge to bake bread and tried this particular recipe. The bread didn't get put into the oven till after 11:30 p.m. so when it was baking and the aroma of the fresh-baked bread started to spread throughout the house, Mandy and Bill had already gone to bed but the smell -that wonderfully delicious scent -awakened them and they had to come down and investigate what was creating that aroma. They stayed up for a bit and the three of us polished off one of the loaves of bread at that late night sitting with my son-in-law raving, over and over, about how wonderful this bread was! And since, then, he has always indulged in eating this bread whether it be fresh from the over or over a couple of meals for days after I've made a batch. And, he's always said he really likes this bread too.

Ok -ground work laid there. Got all that?

So last night when he came home from work, I had all these loaves of bread all bagged up and ready to go to the bake sale and he spied them. He asked what kind of bread this was and I told him as well as informing him that they were for the bake sale today. I wanted to make sure he didn't get a knife and dig into one of them, ya know.

Well, upon hearing it was the Swedish Limpa Rye I'd made, he shocked the heck out of me by saying, OH, that bread. I don't really like THAT bread."

Hmmm. Oh really? Could have fooled me as I've seen him gobble it up when it is warm as well as when it is a day or a couple of days old and he will eat it with a meal and without any trim on it either. He eats it bald, naked -no butter, no jelly, no nothing, just the dry, rye bread. (That always amazes me because I love it slathered in REAL butter. None of the imitation stuff will do when I am eating rye bread, homemade, fresh from the oven especially!

So that kind of ticked me off to hear him say that and I called him out on that. Why, if you don't really like it, after all this many years, have you always sucked up to me, telling me how good it was then?

And, he had no answer for me -no explanation whatsoever! (Which kind of ticked me off just a tad more then too.)

Now, moving forward in time here, last night, Mandy was talking about the big -actually monstrous -yardsale type event that was going to be held this morning over at Penn State. The students leaving the university donate any thing and everything you can think of that they don't like anymore or just don't want to be bothered to pack up and take with them to their homes or on to their new homes as they begin their careers and some organization takes the stuff, gets it all organized, priced, etc., and they open the doors then early, early on the day of what has been designated as the 'Trash to Treasure Sale." Proceeds go to some charitable organization. A friend of Mandy's had posted on her Facebook that she was going to bed early because she had to be up and out of the house by 5:30 a.m. in order to get to State College and stand in line to get admitted to this humungous yardsale and Mandy quipped that she wasn't about to get up that early and go over there and stand in line. Nope, not her!

Hearing that and getting really engrossed in my current embroidery project, I kept working at it then, later and later into the night when, before I knew it, the sun was up and it was 6 a.m. And then, there was Katie awake and making coffee and she was followed closely then too by Mandy.

What the heck? Why are the both up this early? Well, Kate it seems was up that early to do a load of laundry so she had clothes she wanted to wear over the weekend all clean and ready but when I asked Mandy why she was up, I got a really surprise answer.

"Because I am going to State College to the Trash to Treasure sale today!"

What? I thought y ou said last night you weren't going over there cause you weren't about to go stand in a big old long line, just to get in to the darned thing.

And she told me then -or tried to anyway -that she had told me last night that she was going to this sale and that I should get the damned peanut butter out of my ears and pay more attention to what she tells me too. Yeah, right! Yadda, Yadda!

If I had heard her say that last night, you can bet your bottom dollar I would have put the embroidery down around oh, at least 4 a.m. and gone to bed so I would have had a chance to catch at least 10-15 winks before I would have to face the day coping with Maya and Kurtis all by myself ya know! I may be a bit crazy here and there but I am not quite THAT crazy!

Sometimes, I think my kids like to tell me that they told me something just to confuse me and make me believe I am really much more senile than I really am!

Well, anyway, Mandy left about 7-7:30 this a.m. to head to State College. Kate left around 8:30 a.m. to go help get things set up for the Youth Ministry Bake Sale/Car Wash and Bill -well, after he let his alarm blast for close to an hour solid -annoying habit, VERY annoying habit he has of doing that -he finally shut it off and got up, had a cup of tea and by 9:30 a.m., he left to go to his garage saying he would be back home early in the afternoon but he had just a couple little things in the work line that he needed to do first.

And that left me then alone with these two little heathens here too! Alone and starting then to get really tired too. Wondering how long I would have to drink more and more coffee to keep awake until Mandy -or Bill -would finally return home. (I'd had a nap Friday afternoon but had been awake then since about 2 or 2:30 yesterday afternoon so it was now up to about 20 hours since I'd slept.

Finally around noonish, Mandy got home. Among the "treasures" she found there was this nice computer chair that had very little marks on it of wear and tear and something much needed as the other computer chair we have/had here has gouges of stuffing missing from it and is looking very worn and bedraggled these days. (It will get moved to my room now to be the chair for me to use when I sew out there!)

After Mandy showed me the bargains she had found, we took a run up to the bake sale/car wash, got a few goodies there and picked up some food at the deli in the store next door for lunch. After which I finally was able to hit my bed and take a much needed nap after having been awake then for a little over 24 hours solid!

Tonight, we had decided not to cook because the local Methodist Church near here was having a big roast beef dinner this evening -yes, yet another fund raiser you know, so we were going to get three dinners to go from there for supper for us. By the way -remember earlier I said the SIL had told me when he left that he would be home "early in the afternoon?" Well, by 5:30 when Mandy left to go get our roast beef dinners, Bill still wasn't home yet. Typical! And yet, he will rant, bitch and complain up the old yazoo about my older daughter who is constantly late, late, late for everything! But he is too!

While Mandy was up getting our food, I started to finish washing up the glass baking dishes I use to bake the bread laoves in. (Yes, those pans had been sitting, soaking, since late last night. I know, I know. Me bad!) I had my back turned to Maya and Kurtis for no more than 5 minutes -10 at the maximum -and got a phone call from my son's girlfriend. I was talking to her and realized the kids were no where in sight and also -very, very bad sign here -were really quiet too, wherever they were. (Any parent of young children knows that kind of quiet means trouble with a capital T, don't 'cha?)

So I start lookinjg for them and I see the bathroom door is closed. As soon as I opened it, I got that really sick feeling telling me I should have left that damned door closed because I most certainly didn't want to see what was before me.

Two very wet children for starters and the entire floor in the bathroom where the vanity is was completely drenched with water as well as some other substance too. The other substance I think was either hair spray or the detangler stuff and apparently Maya had the idea of styling Kurt's hair by slopping water and this spray stuff -which, on the tile of the floor also becomes extremely sticky too on bare feet!

And the neighbors probably heard me screaming ARRRGGGGHHHHHH! Poor Betty's eardrums may still be ringing too from my voice yelling at the two little ones to "Get the heck out of the bathroom and DO IT NOW!"

Of course, you know too by now the response my yelling at them from Maya was one question.

"Why?"

Which was also what -along with the ARRRGGGGGHHHH was also running through my mind!

WHy, why, why, indeed!

Isn't life in the fast lane with preschool kids just soooooo much fun though?