It's Only Up From Here...

I am SUPER CRABBY and probably should not be updating the blog right now in my craptacular mood BUT two people have emailed saying I haven't updated the blog in a while...who knew people really cared right??? =) Unfortunately girls, I won't have anything witty or clever to say today. I think I'm just going to complain.

I'll start with the fact that our cat has been missing since sometime on Saturday...yesterday, myself and the kids spent a good chunk of time making signs and running to my mom's work to pick up paper protectors to cover them since it had been raining...we then posted them on all the neighborhood mailboxes yesterday. As I was leaving for my doctor's appointment this morning, Ayris asked why we didn't put a sign on our mailbox...well I knew we did but sure enough, it wasn't on there...neither were any of the other signs we had put up. What kind of mean idiot removes signs from mailboxes???

K, so I'll back up for a second. I had my doctor's appointment...which for everyone who likes the baby updates, it went fine...heartbeat was 150...I was measuring 30 weeks (which is what I am...so apparently I didn't grow at all since at 28 weeks I was measuring 30 weeks)...I did manage to put on 2 pounds which puts me at 169...1 pound away from my 170 goal. We'll see if I can only gain a pound in 10 weeks. Surprisingly I only gained 3 pounds in my last 12 weeks of pregnancy with Asher BUT I was also working when I was pregnant with him versus sitting at home on the couch...and the fact that my McDonald's breakfast alone this morning was 970 calories with 35 fat grams...that may not be boding well for only gaining 1 more pound through the course of the next 10 weeks. My doctor seems to think I should just be happy at the fact I've only gained 14 pounds in 30 weeks...which, whatever, I guess I am. I'm going to appointments every 2 weeks now and will have another ultrasound at 36 weeks. We still haven't agreed on a name yet so please feel free to submit your suggestions...unless your name is Tammy Steffen...as I know she needs no invitation at this point! =) I think she has my email on speed dial...or send...or whatever!

K, so anyway, back to my day...the little money saver that I am...I called USAA today to get my new car refinanced through them because I could get 4% versus the 5 that I had...I got that started but they needed some payoff information, and payoff address, etc...so I was going to have to call Harris Bank. Well, I then decided to check into Chris' car...turns out we could get his lowered another 2% so I went ahead and refinanced his...got a lower rate, lower payment and less months on his loan to pay it off...go me...THEN, I got transferred to the homeowners insurance department to see if we could get a better deal through usaa...turns out, I could save another 5 bucks a month switching over to that...after 2 hours of being on the phone, I was done. But then it was time to call Integrity to cancel my homeowners through them...and then Harris Bank to get the payoff info so I could call USAA back. Unfortunately, the lady, as nice as she was...was obviously slow...and was very confused about the title and how we should go about it...after another hour and a half of being on the phone, I finally did half of her job for her and got everything resolved. During all of this, Ayris has gotten lipstick all over the bathroom floor, Asher has gotten out the cheetos and spray butter...dumped the spray butter all over the table and then proceeded to pee "like a rainbow" (in Ayris' words) all over the table, seat cushions and cheetos bag while I was on the phone. I had also noticed earlier on the phone that there were poop skidmarks on Asher's duvet cover...couple that with the butter cushions, Ayris' jacket THAT I HAD JUST TAKEN OUT OF THE DRYER and sat on the table that now contained piss and butter...AND all of the bathroom rugs to clean (because yesterday, the awesome, on top of things mom that I am, decided to empty Asher's peter potty that had overflowed from my lack of attention...in the process I ended up dumping 25% of it on the floor...do you know how bad old pee smells? It just hangs around)...I had a crapload of laundry to do...so I'm kind of at the end of my rope at this point...Chris has been gone for the past two days so it's just been me and I'm tired...THEN Sabine flashes through my mind again and all the work that got put into those signs that some dumbass just decided to take down. So I began to wonder...I bet it was a homeowners association member who took them down...because what person in their right mind would spend their free time doing that? My mind then flashed to all of the super huge dogpoop piles that we currently have in our yard which I KNOW is against the association rules...so in my annoyed state, I sent this email:

To Whom It May Concern:

Is it against the homeowners rules to post missing pet signs on the mailbox? I will admit that I do not read 100% of all material that is sent out each month/year, etc... but I just taped them to the mailbox yesterday as I have two very distraught children and was unsure of any other way to get the word out about a missing cat around the neighborhood...and as of this morning, all of them had been removed. I only had intentions of leaving them up for a few days before taking them down myself. If it is against the rules, please let me know. I can only assume that it is and that a community board member took them all down as I don't foresee any willing homeowner walking to all 9 mailboxes to remove them...if my assumption is correct and it was a community board member who removed the signs, could you please inquire from them if they could help me out by removing all of the dog crap that is currently in my yard from other neighbors who are obviously breaking community rules and allowing their pets to crap on my lawn without picking it up? I am aware of THAT community rule as I have had my small children run through dog crap numerous times in the summer and seemingly, we have no dogs...just a missing cat...so it's not coming from us. I just thought since that member was willing to spend his/her time removing my signs, they might also have some free time to scoop poop.

Thanks in advance for your help.

Sincerely,
Michelle Collins

So yeah, that was it...I'm still super annoyed about it. And I'm the type of homeowner that doesn't even complain about stuff...we've had poop in our yard for as long as there have been dogs in this neighborhood and never once have I complained. Well that's a changing...starting now...mess with my missing cat signs, and you're going to have monthly...maybe weekly...make that DAILY emails about all the dog crap that is in my yard until it has either been picked up or the homeowners are being fined (like it stated in their community letter that they would be...UM HELLOO...how are they going to know who to fine when there's 10 ginormous dogs that live in this neighborhood?), which, I highly doubt either will happen...so we might be corresponding quite regularly.

I have some pictures to post but I'm lazy and not in the mood so I'll try to get some of those up tomorrow...when I'm a happy girl again.