Please control your child lady!

I don't know if it is because I am about to be a parent or if I am just less tolerant than I used to be, but I am noticing how some parents just let their kids do whatever. I was in the doctors office earlier this week. I had a fever, a runny nose, and a terrible cough (turns out I had the flu). Anyway, this women came in with her little daughter. She was probably 3 or 4 years old. The little girl started talking to me. I was trying to be polite, but I felt awful. I just wanted to be left alone. She came and sat by me. She took over the magazine I was looking at. She started digging in my purse. The whole time I was hoping the mom would say something to her, but she didn't. When I moved my purse to the other side of me, the little girl started crawling on me. No joke, right on top of me. Here I am, 7 and a half months pregnant, sick as a dog, in the doctor's office, and this little girl is using me as a jungle gym. Her mother never said a word to her. I would have thought that a mother would not want her kid that close to a stranger, much less a sick stranger. I was ready to yell at the mom. I was so relieved when the nurse called my name. I would have hated to be rude, but the situation was sending me to my boiling point. So to all you moms out there, don't let your kids bug sick strangers.

My Baby Shower (if you can call it that)

Well, my baby shower is next weekend, and it is turning into quite a spectacle. First of all, my mom is coming, of course. So is my step mom. They get along really well. The problem is that my step dad and my Dad don't really like each other, so I had to ban them both from coming. My boyfriend's Mom is also going to be there. So is his step mom, and they despise each other. The hard part for me is going to be giving them equal attention. They get really jealous of each other. Maybe I can avoid them both. Too bad I can't ban them too. If that's not complicated enough, my boyfriend also has 2 aunts that are twins. They have been in a feud for over a year over some dead relatives jewelry. I have seen them at family functions. It is not pretty. Not to mention, a few of his cousins are coming. I am pretty sure they didn't like me until I got pregnant. All this drama and I just found out my best girlfriend can't get off work, so she won't be there. This shower is turning into an episode of Jerry Springer. I just hope everyone can put their differences aside for the day, and focus on what is really important. Presents!!! On a positive note, I talked Tab (the girl throwing the shower for me) out of playing smell the diaper. That is where diapers are filled with gross stuff, and you have to identify the smell. Who thought that would be fun? Not me. At least by the end, I will have a lot of cool stuff for my baby. That makes it all worth it.

My Mom

I was going to blog about what I would do if I won the lottery, but I changed my mind. So that will be next week's topic. Instead I thought I would take this opportunity to tell everyone how great my Mom is. I see some of my friend's with their moms and am so grateful for my Mom. I know this sounds sappy, but she really is my best friend. We talk about everything. She is not judgemental at all, even when I say something crazy. She always has input, but she never tries to force her opinions on me. Recently, I have been doing a lot of things I have never really done before like cooking, making appointments, and assembling baby things. She has been so helpful. She knows all these cool things that make life easier. She is also very organized and clean. I admire that a lot. Another thing I admire about her is that she is self sufficient. She has a husband, but she doesn't wait for him to do stuff like fix the sink. She does it herself. She knows some about cars too. Enough to at least be able to identify where the problem is. I hope that my daughter turns out to be like her. Heck, I hope I turn out to be like her. Sweet, strong, smart, and loving. She really is awesome.

Car Problems Are A BIG Problem For Me

This week, my brakes on my car messed up. It was a real pain too. My boyfriend went out of town on Sunday, so of course he wasn't around when it happened. Monday morning, I had a doctor's appointment and on the way I noticed that my brakes weren't working properly. I was having to hold them all the way to the floor and it would still take about a hundred or so feet to stop. I know, scary right? It was getting worse and worse, but I had to keep driving my car. I had classes I just could not miss. Talk about stressful. I told my boyfriend on the phone and he said "Why don't you take it to a break place?" I got to thinking about all the times in the past that I have tried to deal with car problems on my own.

A few years back, I had this cute, little, 2 door Saturn. I got into a wreck and decided it was worth fixing. Among other things, I needed a new radiator. The man fixing it charged me $300 plus labor for the new radiator. I paid it and got my car back in the next few weeks. It was still acting funny so a friend's grandpa took a look at it for me. He discovered that the man had just put the wrecked radiator back in after trying to straighten it up. The worst part was that he used zip ties!!! Also, there was duct tape under my hood. I know duct tape is supposed to fix everything, but come on. It took more work and another $600 to get my car back to running right. I only kept the car for about 6 more months before buying another one. Wish I would have just bought another car from the start.

The next April, I was driving downtown to the bus station to pick up a friend. All of the sudden, my power steering went out! After messing around with the car a little, I discovered that when I turned the air conditioner off, the power steering would come back. I took the car to a shop to have it looked at. The man explained that the compressor had went out on my air conditioner, and for $800 he could have it running like new. He acted like he was doing me a favor because compressors were usually much more. I didn't have that kind of money or any way to get it, so I committed myself to a southern summer with no AC. It was miserable. What made it worse was that I had leather seats, so it was gross too, because my legs would sweat to the seat. The following September, the guy I was dating borrowed my car. When he got back he was running the air. I was like "Noooooo! That will mess up my car!" I explained about the power steering and the compressor. He looked skeptical and decided to have a look under the hood. He discovered that my problem was a $20 serpentine belt that took all of 20 minutes to change. At least, I didn't shell out the $800 but I was still upset.

Many times I have taken my car to get an oil change and the places have tried to convince me that I needed a $200 part, or I have taken a tire in to have it plugged and ended up leaving with a $60 bill. So, my boyfriend wanted me to take it in myself, I don't think so. He got back in town late Wednesday night and took my car in on Thursday. It is still costing me $300, (Ouch! That hurt!) but imagine if I would have taken it myself. I would probably be car shopping right now.