Where do I begin?!?
Let’s just say it ended much better than it began.
For the last four days Em has been up multiple times a night. I am kicking myself for saying that she was such a good sleeper… seriously. Four days ago I excitedly proclaimed she was sleeping through the night-er- 8PM-4/5AM. Which was a small win in my book. Helped me feel more normal and up for daily adventures with The Toddler to the park, rec center for bubble blast, puddle jumping… being a mom.
AND NOW?
I am on 3 hours of sleep. I look good. I won’t spare you with picture proof-just take my word for it.
Stress has been eating at my sleep, the little that I get, and I roll restlessly around the bed. Thankful that my husband is such a hard sleeper.
The Beast(it’s purple-I kid you not)- my old ’01 Nissan Altima has run into some troubles-namely with an auto-repair shop. I took auto shop in high school because I believed(as I do now) that-that knowledge would come in hand. And it has. I get taken advantage of all the time by mechanics until I challenge what they are saying with what I know something actually costs to fix-how long it takes-what’s really necessary. We got taken advantage of by a company-they said they fixed our car. They are a family run business, one we have gone to for years-yet will never again frequent. They up-charged us for parts and labor and before I could say anything-BOOM-it was done and we were supposed to pay $450 for something that should have cost $75. I blame myself.
They sent our car back to us-good as new supposedly. Except it’s not. It still actively leaks. Enter stomach knot. We just spent money we don’t have to fix a car from a company we trusted(my mistake) and now the car isn’t even fixed? Same leak. $450 later. Now we took it back to them two separate times to check on the leak. They say it doesn’t leak. We affirm it does. They relent and “find” the leak. Saying now that it is the water pump. Nothing was wrong with the water pump when we took the car in. I just had a new water pump put in 20,000 miles ago-they easily last 60,000 with scheduled maintenance and making sure all the fluids are topped off.
They now want us to pay $500 for a new water pump. I paid hundreds less and know that it was fine when we took the car in to begin with. If I had a lawyer in the family we would be talking about a case right now. I feel like I was totally taken advantage of. An invasion of trust. I spoke to the manager and told her everything-and how disappointed I was-to which she started yelling at me. I told her thank you, we would get back to her and hung up. We will get back to her. We will pick up our broken car tomorrow and they will never see a dime from us, ever again.
Enter tile fiasco. If you read about my one hour excursion to a DIY workshop at Home Depot last week-it was glorious-until it was clearly not(cryptic? read the post). I talked to a lovely tile expert as I was sawing out my initial. We discussed the tile that we had put in upstairs after the Mold Disaster of 2011. Five days after we brought home The Toddler from the hospital the ceiling in our kitchen(directly below our master bathroom) fell through with black mold. After eradicating the mold, I shopped around for a tile company. There were many different times where I should have voiced my concern over the project. The project was supposed to take four days-it took 2.5 weeks because the workers arrived late and left early- they left the doors open in the house letting in the 30-40 degree air- I had a newborn to keep warm- I sat in a corner with a space heater, seriously. They left the toilets outside overnight. Brought them back in with not so pleasant friends-enter the scorpian on the wall above our newborns crib-two feet away from our precious little child. Two of the worker’s wore the exact same clothes every day they arrived at our house-these were nice men-but it reminded me of teaching in a way that I didn’t want to be reminded. It took days to remove that smell. I look back and think of how young and naive I was to home-ownership.
They put the tile in wrong.
Thank you to Home Depot for letting me know why all of the grout was breaking and peeling off the walls. We now have the manager from the company coming out to view the tile because we are still under warranty. Although, with two little one’s I can not imagine not being able to give them baths for a couple of weeks… small price to pay though for not having enough courage to speak up in the first place when I could tell that they were not doing the job we paid for. Lesson learned. The hard way.
It should be noted that I take on little “side projects” with companies on this little piece of internet with great discern. I am proud of this blog. Not because it is perfect(nowhere near, nor ever will be) but because it is a place I can write-write about whatever is going on in our lives-the victories-defeats-and on-going battles.
These side projects help our little family. I feel very proud that I can give our little one’s “extras” that they wouldn’t normally be able to have because of partnerships I have created on As Cute as a Bug’s Ear. I am rather picky with who I work with-and am grateful of the opportunities I have been given.
I love this community. I love blogging.
I wrote about The Toddler’s food allergies and how I desperately needed help-boy did I need help-and there was an outpouring of support and information. I am so lucky that I have a place to turn to in the wee hours of the night-for help, comfort, and cathartic writing.
After picking up the Husband from work I decided that we were in need of a distraction. Then he got an idea, an awful idea. The Grinch got a wonderful, awful idea.
Santa? You bet. The best kind of distraction is watching your little one run around in pure amazement at Santa’s Workshop. Marveling at the reindeer, waving at the elves, and nervously walking up to Santa to say hi and get a great big ole hug.
We made ornaments, went on the carousal, toured the large expanse of Bass Pro Shops and relished in the bliss of the holidays. The holidays as a family of four.
I am thankful for those moments that bring it all back together. Make me snap out of thinking about all of the stressful decisions I have to make. Make me be present in my children’s lives.
I love how today ended.
